The New American Dream

In his most recent book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? published by Portfolio/The Penguin Group, Seth Godin discusses a number of important topics, including “The New American Dream.” Here is an excerpt from the book:

Do you remember the Old American Dream? It struck a chord with millions of people (in the United States and in the rest of the world too). Here’s how it goes:

Keep your head down
Follow instructions
Show up on time
Work hard
Suck it up
…and you will be rewarded.

As we’ve seen, that dream is over.

The New American Dream, though, the one that markets around the world are embracing as fast as they can, is this:

Be remarkable
Be generous
Create art
Make judgment calls
Connect people and ideas
…and we have no choice but to reward you.

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As I read this passage in Linchpin, I was reminded of a book Alan Watts published in 1989, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, in which he observes, “We need a new experience — a new feeling of what it is to be ‘I.’ The lowdown (which is, of course, the secret and profound view) on life is that our normal sensation of self is a hoax, or, at best, a temporary role that we are playing, or have been conned into playing — with our own tacit consent, just as every hypnotized person is basically willing to be hypnotized. The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated ego.”

Godin and Watts urge all of us to believe in and then pursue The New American Dream so that we can be not only ourselves but our best selves. Why be satisfied with anything less?

Critical Success Factors for Developing Exceptional Leaders

James F. Bolt

All organizations need (but few have) exceptional leaders at all levels and in all areas of their operations. What does it take to develop such leaders? James F. Bolt has identified 12 key characteristics of great executive/leadership development programs. These programs are or have:

1. Linked to strategy
2. Thorough front-end analysis
3. Custom designed
4. Custom leadership profile, feedback, and development planning

[Note: It is imperative that any program be fully appropriate to the given organization’s specific values, needs, interests, goals, objectives, and resources.

5. Action-oriented learning methods
6. A learning strategy and system
7. Top-down implementation

[Note: At GE, the CEO spends at least 20% of his time helping to develop leaders from among the company’s middle managers.]

8. High-potential identification and development
9. Succession management [i.e. “cloning”]
10. Integrated talent-management system
11. Measurement
12. Driven by top management

From The AMA Handbook of Leadership co-edited by Marshall Goldsmith, John Baldoni, and Sarah McArthur and published by AMACOM in 2010.

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Bolt is the founder and CEO of Bolt Consulting and author of several books that include Executive Development, The Future of Executive Development, and Strategic Executive Development.

Have You Already Killed Your Next Big Thing?

Mark W. Johnson

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Mark W. Johnson for the Harvard Business blog. To read the complete article, check out other articles and resources, and/or sign up for a free subscription to Harvard Business Daily Alerts, please visit dailyalert@email.harvardbusiness.org.

Have You Already Killed Your Next Big Thing?
Mark W. Johnson

As we close the books on 2009 and, with the Federal Reserve, look to 2010 with “guarded optimism,” I’ll bet no one is adding to their New Year’s list the resolution: “Ignore growth opportunities.” And yet, odds are that someone in your company has already thought up its next great growth opportunity. And suggested it at some point. And gotten no response.

If I’ve learned anything from my years helping companies come up with breakthrough innovations, I’ve learned that. Remarkably often, the high-growth potential innovations our teams help our clients identify were there all along.

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There’s no good reason why incumbents can’t devote a similarly minuscule amount of energy doing so as well. Because the question is not whether to stick with your current offerings or bet on a new, high-risk one. The question is how much time will you have before someone else comes up with the same innovations your bright, clever staffers have thought of — and what will happen to your customer base when they do?

To its credit, Kodak recognized that it couldn’t ignore filmless photography forever and in the 1990s invested substantial sums and eventually successfully brought out the carefully differentiated EasyShare camera and printer combination. Kodak may have had the luxury of sitting on its revolutionary idea for decades, but how many companies today are willing to take that risk? Is yours?

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Mark W. Johnson is chairman of Innosight, a strategic innovation consulting and investing company with offices in Massachusetts, Singapore, and India, which he co-founded with Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen. Mark’s forthcoming book is Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal.

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To read the complete article, check out other articles and resources, and/or sign up for a free subscription to Harvard Business Daily Alerts, please visit dailyalert@email.harvardbusiness.org.

Now, this is an endorsement of a book! — Levitt loves Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto, as does Dubner

The Freakonomics/Superfreakonomics guys really like Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto.  (I will be presenting a synopsis of this at the April First Friday Book Synopsis).

Here’s Levitt…

If there is one topic that I have no natural affinity for, it is checklists. I don’t use checklists. I’m not interested in checklists.

Yet, against all odds, I read Atul Gawande’s new book about checklists, The Checklist Manifesto in one sitting yesterday, which is an amazing tribute to the book that Gawande has crafted. Not only is the book loaded with fascinating stories, but it honestly changed the way I think about the world. It is the best book I’ve read in ages.

But Dubner is not too confident that the checklist will be adequately adopted and implemented, because there is no money to be made on such a “free” solution to a very real problem.

What a sad and discouraging dilemma…