Keith Sawyer: An interview by Bob Morris

Keith Sawyer is one of the world’s leading scientific experts on creativity and innovation. In his first job after graduating from MIT, he designed videogames for Atari. He then worked for six years as a management consultant in Boston and New York, advising large corporations on the strategic use of information technology. He’s been a jazz pianist for over 30 years, and performed with several improv theater groups in Chicago, as part of his research into jazz and improvisational theater.

Previous to Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity, his books include Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration and Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, and he has published over 80 scientific articles. Sawyer is a professor of education, psychology, and business at Washington University in St. Louis.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

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Morris: Who has had the greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Sawyer: I had so many wonderful mentors and advisors that introduced me to creativity research. When I arrived at the University of Chicago as a doctoral student, I had long been interested in musical and artistic creativity, but I had no idea this was a field of scientific research. When I applied to grad school, I wanted to study conversational dynamics, and I went to University of Chicago to work with the famous linguistic anthropologist, Michael Silverstein. Just by coincidence, my first Fall term on campus, Mike Csikszentmihalyi was teaching a class called “Psychology of Creativity,” and I signed up for it, basically as an elective.

Mike was the one who introduced me to the field and showed me that it was possible to do rigorous empirical study of the creative process. His own dissertation, also at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s, was a study of the creative process of MFA students at the Art Institute of Chicago. For the term project in his class, I interviewed several jazz musicians about their own creative process. Mike liked the paper, and suggested that I revise it and submit it to the Creativity Research Journal. After revision it was accepted, and became my first published journal article, in 1992.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Sawyer: I didn’t start graduate school until I was 30. My undergrad degree was in computer science at MIT, and I worked eight years after college in information technology and software development. My first job, I designed videogames for a small company in Cambridge, MA that did many of Atari’s hit videogames, under contract. Then, I worked six years doing management consulting for big money-center banks. At the age of 29, I was really ready for a change; I had always wanted to return to grad school and become a professor, and the time was right. But I didn’t know what I wanted to study or even what departments to apply to. I knew I wanted to study how people communicate through language; I discovered that scholars study this in linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and psychology.

And as a matter of fact, throughout my career since then, I’ve continued to be very interdisciplinary and this is my own approach to creativity research.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Sawyer: I am not one of those people who thinks that schools kill creativity. Teachers and schools taught me so much that I needed to know to do the work I’ve done. My two degrees are from two extremely rigorous environments, MIT and the University of Chicago. What both of these places share is a deep commitment to ideas and inquiry. People really care about getting it right, about what is the truth about a phenomenon. Sometimes people argue, and I mean shouting…just because they really really care about ideas.

Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you knew when you when to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Sawyer: I knew nothing! I was just a nerdy computer science graduate. And the videogame design company was not corporate at all; it was a small startup company that had all of the features we now associate with Internet startups. In 1982, we had a gourmet chef, we had company-paid vacations to Disneyworld…I got my real education about the business world when I started consulting for big companies like Citicorp and AT&T and US West. My mentor was the company founder, Kenan Sahin, who had been a professor in business at MIT. Thanks to him, I essentially received an MBA education on the job.

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To read the complete interview, please click here.

Keith cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

His home page

His blog

Keith’s Amazon page

The Zig Zag page

Huffington Post link

Everything Is Obvious: A book review by Bob Morris

Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us
Douglas J. Watts
Crown Business ((2011)

“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.” Voltaire

I chose the observation by Voltaire for the title of this review because I agree with him as well as with an observation made by Douglas Watts when suggesting in the Preface to this book, “the fallacies embedded in our everyday thinking and explanations, which I will be discussing in more detail later, must apply to many of our own, possibly deeply held, beliefs. None of this is to say that we should abandon all our beliefs and start over from scratch – only that we should hold them up to a spotlight and regard them with suspicion.”

For example, Watts examines what he refers to as “errors of reasoning that are every bit as systematic [key word] and pervasive as the errors of commonsense physics. They fall into three broad categories: (1) when thinking about why people do what they do, “we invariably focus on factors like incentives, motivations, and beliefs…we are likely to make serious mistakes when predicting how they’ll behave anywhere outside of the immediate here and now”; (2) “If the first type of commonsense error is that our mental model of individual behavior is systematically flawed, the second type is that our mental model of collective behavior is even worse.” How so? Deference to “they say,” for example, and invoking fictitious “representative individuals” like “the crowd,” “the market,” or “the electorate”: and (3) We learn less from history than we think wee do, “and that this misperception in turn skews our perception of the future.” This commonsense error is precisely what Nassim Nicholas Taleb also discusses in Fooled by Randomness (2001), The Black Swan (2007), and Antifragile (2013).

If I understand Watts’ intentions in this book (and I may not), his primary objective is to convince his reader of the importance of challenging premises and assumptions about human nature (especially those that are cherished) rather than base opinions and decisions on one’s limited experience, on the limited (and perhaps) irrelevant experience of fictitious “representative individuals,” or on what is generally referred to as “common sense.” Recent and extensive research in neuroscience leaves little doubt that we tend to see and hear what we expect to see and hear, frequently fall victim to what I characterize as “the invisibility of the obvious,” and too often fall victim to what Phil Rosenzweig calls “the halo effect”: we trust and defer to those whose reputation exceeds their substance.

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to indicate the scope of the material that Watts examines:

o The Misuse of Common Sense (Pages 17-23)
o Thinking Is About More Than Thought (37-42)
o We Don’t Think the Way We Think We Think (46-53)
o Circular Reasoning (59-61)
o Cumulative Advantage 72-75)
o The Influencers (91-94)
o History Is Only Run Once (110-113)
o Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins (131-134)
o Predicting What to Predict, and Black Swans and Other “Events” (148-156)
o Trust No One, Especially Yourself (171-174)
o Don’t Just Measure Experiment (196-200)
o Talent Versus Luck (222-227)
o The Individual and Society (235-238)
o Bearing Each Other’s Burdens (241-245)
o Measuring the Unmeasurable (253-261)

As I read this book, I recall an item I encountered in a magazine or newspaper many years ago. The author discusses the tribal wisdom of the Lakota Indians. When someone is astride a dead horse, the Lakota strategy is to dismount. If a major consulting firm were retained to conduct a comprehensive study of the situation, for a substantial fee, what would its recommendations be? Twenty were suggested. Here are the first five: Buy a stronger whip, Change riders, Threaten the horse with termination, Appoint a committee to study the horse, and Arrange to visit other locations to benchmark how they ride dead horses. The Lakota were renowned for having common sense. Watts has no quarrel with common sense but vigorously and eloquently challenges imposters.

As is so often the case in the best business books such as this one, several of the most valuable insights appear in the Preface or Introduction. Here is an excellent case in point, as Duncan Watts observes that “when we challenge our assumptions about the world — or even more important, when we realize that we’re making an assumption that we didn’t even know we were making — we may or may not change our views. But even if we don’t, the exercise of challenging them should at least force us to notice our own stubbornness, which in turn should give us pause…So if reading this book only confirms what you already thought you knew about the world, then I apologize. As a sociologist, I will not have done my job.”

Karen Wright: An interview by Bob Morris

Karen Wright is an executive coach, author, speaker and consultant. She has an MBA in Marketing from the Ivey Business School and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Western University. She graduated from the world’s leading coach training organization, was one of the inaugural students in its affiliated Corporate Coaching program, is a teacher for both schools and mentors new coaches around the world. Karen is trained in numerous assessment instruments and processes and worked with Dr. Martin Seligman in the first cohort of coaches trained in his positive psychology-based coaching program. She is a recent graduate of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, which has provided the foundation for her new executive peak performance and top talent development program for organizations. The first Professional Certified Coach (PCC) in Canada and now one of an elite group of Master Certified Coaches, a past International Coach Federation Board member, and founder of the Toronto Chapter, Karen is a leader in the field of corporate coaching. 

A nationally published columnist and sought-after speaker, Karen has been featured many times in the media and is a trusted resource for inquiries on leadership and career-related topics. The Complete Executive: The 10-Step System for Great Leadership Performance is her latest book, published by Bibliomotion (2012).

Here is an excerpt from my interview of her. To read the complete interview, please click here.

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Morris: Before discussing The Complete Executive, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Wright: So many! My grandmother, I suppose, if I have to name just one. She was strong and resourceful and creative and always maintained her sense of humor even in the most challenging of times.

Morris: The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Wright: Every client I’ve ever worked with has challenged me and helped me grow on some level – my work as a coach is a constant exercise in personal and professional growth. My mastermind group members, who won’t allow me to take the easy way if it won’t be my best work. And I’ve had a couple of mentors over the years who have helped me hugely. I’m lucky – there have been many I’ve been able to learn from.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Wright: Yes, definitely. I had a career in consumer packaged goods marketing that led me to accept a move to the U.S. (from my home in Canada) with Frito-Lay. There were a number of organizational changes that resulted in my having several different bosses in a very short period of time which meant I had no clear mandate and no clear career direction. As I recognized the problem I also recognized that it was time for me to choose a different path, so I resigned and began the process of intentionally designing my next step. That process ultimately led to coaching.



Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Wright: Hugely, but not in the sense of the academic learning being critical. It was useful, to be sure, but I don’t think that’s where I derived the greatest benefit. I learned how to work in a team, how to manage time, how to juggle priorities (I supported myself financially while I was in school). I also learned critical thinking and problem solving – the business school I attended teaches with the case method, which I still believe is incredibly powerful.

Morris: What do you know now about business that you wish you knew when you went to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Wright: I wish I’d known how important it is to understand the dynamics of the people in any given situation. I think I went into my first job thinking my success would be all about the quality of my work. Not an uncommon assumption, particularly at an early career stage, but I believe I had co-workers at the time who had greater interpersonal intelligence in spite of their youth and they did very well.

Morris: From which non-business book have you learned the most valuable lessons about business? Please explain.

Wright: One of my favorites is Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You’ll Go! I believe in abundance and possibility and the power of personal choice and initiative and our ability to get through tough times and succeed against the odds and that’s what that great book is all about.

Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to respond. First, from Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching:

“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”

Wright: I truly believe that the great leaders are “ego-less.” Confident, but ego-less. For me that means that if you learn from everyone around you and bring out the best in others and ensure they feel a sense of pride and ownership, and if the right things are done for the right reasons, that is success, and it doesn’t matter who actually gets the “credit.”

Morris: From Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”

Wright: I’ll see you Oscar Wilde and raise you Lily Tomlin: “I always wanted to be somebody but now I see I should have been more specific.” I think that the incredibly self-aware individual is rare, and to have great self-awareness combined with the courage to fully express your individuality is uncommon indeed. And it’s true – each of us is unique and I don’t think the world, particularly the world of work, easily accepts that which is different. Sad, really.

Morris: From Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Wright: I use Einstein’s definition of insanity frequently. I think we all get stuck using our favorite tools and approaches. Creativity is hard, especially under pressure or in difficult circumstances – but that’s when it’s needed most.

Morris: Finally, from Peter Drucker: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Wright: I like to ask clients to ask themselves two questions when deciding how to manage their time. First, ask “Must this be done?” I know for sure that we all do things that would not be missed if we stopped. And that’s particularly true in organizations where oftentimes an individual’s entire reason for being is to create reports or analyses that are not used or useful. Second question – “Must I be the one to do it?” If the thing truly MUST be done, then it’s critical that it be done by whoever has the unique skills and experiences required – and that’s not usually the person charged with doing the thing. So yes, I agree with Mr. Drucker wholeheartedly.


Morris: Here’s a brief excerpt from Paul Schoemaker’s latest book, Brilliant Mistakes: “The key question companies need to address is not ‘[begin italics] Should [end italics] we make mistakes?’ but rather ‘[begin italics] Which [end italics] mistakes should we make in order to test our deeply held assumptions?’” Your response?

Wright: I’m not sure any of us can decide in advance what mistakes to make. We can only decide whether or not to take a risk – whether to venture into uncharted territory.


Morris: In your opinion, why do so many C-level executives seem to have such a difficult time delegating work to others?



Wright: Work is measurable, satisfying, comfortable. When we’re under stress we default to what we know and are sure of, so that’s sometimes why delegation is tough for some. In other cases there might be an issue of trust – do I have the right people in the right jobs? But better to solve for the talent issue than to cover it up by doing their work for them. That said, one of the toughest challenges for anyone to do is to hire people who are better than they are, but it’s what must be done for the success of the entire enterprise.

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To read the complete interview, please click here.

Karen cordially invite(s) you to check out the resources at these websites:

Her home page

Parachute Executive Coaching home page

Karen’s Amazon page

Lawrence Cunningham: Part 1 of an interview by Bob Morris

Lawrence Cunningham is the Henry St. George Tucker III Research Professor at George Washington University Law School and Director of GW’s Center for Law, Economics and Finance (C-LEAF) in New York. He is the author of numerous books including three editions of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America (Third Edition, March 8, 2013), The AIG Story (written with Hank Greenberg) and Contracts in the Real World: Stories of Popular Contracts and Why They Matter. His research appears in leading university journals, including those published by Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Michigan, Vanderbilt and Virginia; his Op-Eds have run in the Baltimore Sun, the Financial Times, the National Law Journal, the New York Daily News and the New York Times. On Amazon, Cunningham has been ranked one of the top 100 authors in the category of business and investing.

Here is an excerpt from Part 1 of my interview of him. To read all of it, please click here.

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Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Cunningham: As a university professor, it would be blasphemous but to declare my formal education invaluable and there’s also a lot of truth in it. I learned some of the most important things I know from classroom work in economics in college and in law and business in law school. I’ve learned a great many things in the decades since, of course, but those days trained me to think, encouraged me to be curious, taught me how to interact with others, and nurtured countless other traits.

Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you knew when you went to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Cunningham: The importance of relationships to opening doors and keeping them open. Merit seemed as important as anything else when I began my career as a corporate lawyer in 1988. And while merit matters, what’s more important over the longer term is the quality of the network of friends, colleagues, mentors, and fans that you develop and maintain at each phase of your life and career. There is a lot of truth in the old saying: “It’s not what you know but who you know.”

Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion – best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.

Cunningham: Other People’s Money. Hollywood has always had a bit of a hate affair with American business in portraying corporations and capitalists in negative lights. The exception is Other People’s Money, as it presents both sides of the story in a difficult circumstance of a company in decline: whether to stick it out or close it down. (Incidentally, it is akin to the angst portrayed in The Essays of Warren Buffett concerning a struggling New England textile company that Buffett eventually shut down.)

* * *

Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to respond. First from Voltaire: “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”

Cunningham: Truth is elusive. Searching for it is indeed noble. But be skeptical of anyone who claims to have found it.

Morris: From Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Cunningham: Reminds of a quip, attributed to Will Rogers, quoted in The Essays of Warren Buffett: “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” It also reminds me of another Einstein quip: “Everything should be as simple as possible, but not more so.”

Morris: Finally, from Peter Drucker: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Cunningham: I wish such wisdom had been taken to heart by the financial engineers whose derivative products fueled the mortgages behind the housing boom that collapsed so catastrophically in 2008.

* * *

Morris: In Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, he and co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance”: organizational judgment. That is, “the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s direct control.” What do you think?

Cunningham: The wisdom of crowds and the power of markets are real. But within an organization it can be difficult to maintain a “collective capacity” for decision making, which would resemble a democratic vote. Shareholders do a little of that when electing directors and voting in annual meetings when no single person is entitled to make such extraordinary decisions. But with such choices made, directors and the senior executives they appoint cannot discharge their duties by referendum.

True, within boards of directors, corporations have always drawn on a fundamental notion of organizational judgment. A team rather than an individual speaks for and binds the corporation. Law even gives such board decisions reverence, under the “business judgment rule,” which keeps judges out of second-guessing.

The danger to watch for in any move to such organizational judgment is the risk of authority without accountability, which I know we will discuss a bit more later.

Morris: Here’s a brief excerpt from Paul Schoemaker’s latest book, Brilliant Mistakes: “The key question companies need to address is not ‘Should we make mistakes?’ but rather ‘which mistakes should we make in order to test our deeply held assumptions?’” Your response?

Cunningham: I am not sure about the notion of having an appetite for mistakes, even as a way to test assumptions. There are other less costly ways to test assumptions, such as by logical critique, contained experiments and consulting analogical experience. The wisdom I see in this quotation might be flipped around, to say there are a class of mistakes we should avoid absolutely. Foremost among these would be any decisions that impair a company’s reputation, for instance, another point I know we’ll discuss more later.

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To read all of Part 1, please click here.

Larry cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

The publisher’s page for The Essays

Amazon’s page for The Essays

Mark Goulston and John Ullmen: An interview by Bob Morris

Mark Goulston, M.D., is a prominent psychiatrist, business advisor, and executive coach. He is co-founder of Heartfelt Leadership whose mission is: “Daring to Care.” He is the author of the bestselling Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (AMACOM, 2009) and subject of the PBS special “Just Listen with Dr. Goulston.” Featured in major media from Harvard Business Review to Oprah Radio, he also writes a Tribune syndicated career column and blogs for Fast Company, Huffington Post, and Psychology Today. Goulston’s education includes a B.A. from UC Berkeley, an M.D. from Boston University, and residency in psychiatry at UCLA. He went on to be a professor at UCLA for more than twenty years.

John Ullmen, Ph.D., is an internationally acclaimed executive coach who is on faculty at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He oversees MotivationRules.com and conducts popular feedback-based seminars on influence in organizations. Ullmen began his career as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a lead systems engineer for a top-secret Joint Chiefs of Staff intelligence program. He holds a B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

They are the co-authors of Real Influence: Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In, published by AMACOM (January 2013), and both live in Los Angeles, California.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of them. To read the complete interview, please click here.

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Morris: Before discussing Real Influence, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Goulston: The Dean of Students at my medical school who, when I hit a wall, or rather a wall fell on me, stood up for me when I couldn’t, believed in me what I didn’t, saw a future for me that I couldn’t see, and refused to let me fail.

Ullmen: My parents, though it took me a long time to realize it. They had very difficult childhoods, hard working lives and a challenging marriage. When I finally gained a long-overdue perspective on the sacrifices they made for me and my sister, I changed.

Morris: The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Ullmen: My mentor, colleague, dear friend and fellow erratic golfer Professor Sam Culbert. He gives me unconditional love and support, but also kicks in the caboose when I need do more or better.

Goulston: I am blessed to have leadership guru Warren Bennis as a mentor. I love Warren and he has told me that he loves me. Every day that gives me something to live up to.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Goulston: Actually it was in the past couple years when I realized I couldn’t work with people that I didn’t like, trust or respect and that I didn’t think I could come to like, trust or respect. Essentially I can’t and don’t want to work with people I can’t root for. I have made some exceptions with people who do great things for the world or others.

Ullmen: I was stressed for many years by my lack of career clarity, until a chance meeting and conversation w/the Chairman of a large organization that turned into an impromptu coaching session helped me discover it was there all along.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Ullmen: Earlier I mentioned my parents, who worked so hard to afford to live in a neighborhood with a good school so my sister and I could have a quality education. That had a ripple effect that led to opportunities at amazing institutions for my undergrad, masters and PhD. I’ll never repay enough what those teachers, coaches and mentors gave me.

Goulston: I don’t know if it is so much what I learned, but how I learned and I have used my education to be a life long learner and to do learn from many angles. That has enabled me to more easily go to the other person’s “there.”

Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you knew when you when to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Goulston: To listen “into” people sooner and hear what they were not saying that was critical to understanding them.

Ullmen: Organizational politics and invisible lines of influence that are “off the org chart.” Learning to see those dynamics is like in the movies when they use smoke to show where the laser beams are that trip the alarms. It’s sometimes frustrating, but helps you get safely from here to there.

Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion – best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.

Ullmen: You’ll think I’m joking, but I’m not, mostly. I love how Meet the Parents highlights the compounding problems of being inauthentic—in this case it’s about family systems but there are parallels to organization systems. Ben Stiller’s character contorts himself hilariously in ill-fated attempts to impress his girlfriend’s father, a tough guy ex-CIA agent played by Robert DeNiro. Through this lens, the family dinner scene is a must-see.

Goulston: I don’t know if it’s because it is recent, but Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg has to be near the top. In the movie Lincoln seemed so principle and duty bound, that it gave him the perseverance he needed to make it through the Civil War and to not compromise on passing the 13th Amendment in order to end it sooner.

Morris: From which non-business book have you learned the most valuable lessons about business? Please explain.

Goulston: Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls by Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis is a wonderful explanation about the importance of judgment to leadership. Power Questions: Build Relationships, Win New Business and Influence Others by Andrew Sobel and Jerold Panas which shows the power of asking great questions to get people to open up and to connect with them.

Ullmen: Frank McCourt’s amazing Angela’s Ashes reminds me how there is so much more to the people around us at work than we realize. We bring our whole selves and whole lives to work with us, and show a portion. The un-shown parts matter too.

Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to respond. First, from Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching:

“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”

Ullmen: What a coincidence. I use the last four lines in my MBA leadership class as the finale in a series of over a dozen quotes on leadership. (The first one is Machiavelli on how it’s “better to be feared than loved.”) Great leaders eventually work themselves out of a job, and take pride in it, because they develop the confidence and capabilities of people around them.

Goulston: When you enable your people to self-discover what’s important to their organization and themselves they take ownership of their lives instead of feeling that it belongs to others. This adds a wonderful sense of vitality to their lives.

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To read the complete interview, please click here.

Mark and John cordially invite you to check out the bonus resources by clicking here.

Josh Lerner: An interview by Bob Morris

Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Finance and the Entrepreneurial Management Units. He graduated from Yale College and Harvard’s Economics Department.

Much of his research focuses on the structure and role of venture capital and private equity organizations. He also examines policies towards innovation, and how they impact firm strategies. He co-directs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program and serves as co-editor of their publication, Innovation Policy and the Economy. He founded and runs the Private Capital Research Institute, a non-profit devoted to encouraging data access to and research about venture capital and private equity.

In the 1993-94 academic year, he introduced an elective course for second-year MBAs on private equity finance. In recent years, “Venture Capital and Private Equity” has consistently been one of the largest elective courses at Harvard Business School. He is the winner of the Swedish government’s 2010 Global Entrepreneurship Research Award and has recently been named one of the 100 most influential people in private equity over the past decade by Private Equity International magazine.

His latest book is The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations, published by Harvard Business Review Press (September 4, 2012).

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

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Morris: Before discussing The Architecture of Innovation, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your professional development? How so?

Lerner: One of the great privileges over the last 20+ has been to be part of a community of scholars interested in innovation and entrepreneurship, who assemble regularly at the National Bureau of Economic Research. This group has been an invaluable source of ideas, not only about how to undertaking cutting edge studies, but what kind of big questions are the most critical.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Lerner: I had worked for a few years in Washington between college and graduate school, mostly related to questions of how policies could most effectively boost U.S. competitiveness and innovation. At a certain point, I realized that not only did we not have a very good idea as to how innovation policy should be designed, but that even the basic mechanisms of how new ideas are developed and how innovative new firms are formed was incredibly poorly understood. I headed off to Harvard eager to understand these issues, questions that I have been working on ever since!

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Lerner: Academic research is a bit of a closed shop—one needs to have a set of tools that are almost impossible to learn except through a doctoral program. The great thing about Harvard Business School is that it allows one to combine those academic skills with frequent “real world” exposure—the combination is really very powerful.

Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion – best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.

Lerner: Great question! Whatever it’s factual limitations, it’s hard not to like The Social Network for its depiction how ephemeral entrepreneurial success is—and how seemingly irrational decisions can create tremendous amounts of value. There are a lot of insights about the entrepreneurial process more generally there. More generally, we could make a long list, but it would be hard not to include The Godfather and Trading Places!

Morris: From which non-business book have you learned the most valuable lessons about business? Please explain.

Lerner: Another interesting issue… lots of relevant fiction for business —for instance, much of Balzac and Dickens have a lot to say about many crucial business dynamics today. Hard to pinpoint one book, though!

Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to respond. First, from Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching:

“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”

Lerner: Certainly, this captures the spirit of academic research in business. A lot of what we are trying to do is “obvious” in the sense that we are trying to document and deconstruct real-world phenomena. But to make reality clearer—and hopefully, to discover some real surprises along the way—can be a major accomplishment in its own right.

Morris: Next, from Voltaire: “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”

Lerner: Again, a lot of what we do as researchers in tough areas such as innovation is an ongoing conversation. There are no final answers. Rather, each analysis builds on the ones that have come before. We like to say that we are “standing on the shoulders of giants.” And if our work is successful, it will inspire others to do follow on work as well.

Morris: And then, from Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”

Lerner: Certainly, there is a lot of temptation to do what is the most profitable or acclaimed route. I am always much more of a fan if “pursuing your dream”—however, eclectic, to pursue what interests you the most.

Morris: From Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Lerner: Again, this very much captures the spirit of research. The work that simply takes the same frameworks and applies them into different settings may be publishable, but the most exciting work is always that which takes a fresh perspective on issues.

Morris: In Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, he and co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance”: organizational judgment. That is, “the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s direct control.” What do you think?

Lerner: An alternative view of where innovations come from can be termed the “great man” theory. Breakthroughs, it is claimed, are all about visionaries, who are periodically visited by flashes of genius. Such a view has a long pedigree—think of Archimedes running naked through the streets of Syracuse after solving in the bathtub the problem of determining gold’s purity—and certainly has some truth. Indeed, many of the biographers of technology industry leaders such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Larry Ellison attribute their success to a super-human ability to spot innovations. But this view, too, is very incomplete. Correctly predicting the future is just the beginning, not the end of the innovation process. The annals of technology are rife with individuals and firms that had a clear vision of where the future was going, yet some somehow failed to cash in on these insights. Much of the problem seems to lie in the way that the organizations were organized, that prevented them from taking advantage of these insights.

* * *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

Josh cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Harvard Business School page

Amazon page

Lina Echeverría: An interview by Bob Morris

Lina Echeverría spent twenty-five years inspiring creativity and accelerating innovation at Corning Incorporated, one of America’s leading technology companies, that provided the world with everything from the optical fiber that enabled the Internet to the tough glass used for iPhones. Echeverría led teams of scientists and researchers that developed everything from ceramic filters for car exhausts, glasses for TV screens, optical glasses, and dinnerware.

At Corning, Echeverría created an environment where scientists were creative and productive; and teams balanced the ability to explore the edges of possibility, while delivering critical new technology on time and on budget. Echeverría was known not just for her ability to effectively lead and manage (and keep happy) creative scientists, but also for her ability to teach those skills to others. During her career, she led teams and organizations in the US and in France.


A native of Colombia, Echeverría was the first woman to seek admission and graduate in engineering geology from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Medellín, inspiring a generation of women who followed. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in geology at Stanford.

Echeverría stepped aside from the corporate world to help create cultures of innovation inside companies and organizations. The mother of two children, she is fluent in English, Spanish and French, and lives in upstate New York with her husband, a research scientist. Her last book, Idea Agent: Leadership that Liberates Creativity and Accelerates Innovation, was published by AMACOM (November 2012).

Here is an excerpt from my interview of her. To read the complete interview, please click here.

* * *

Morris: Before discussing Idea Agent, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Echeverría: With a start point of learning about providing constructive feedback, the guidance and dialogues with Dasarath Davidson opened the door to rich concepts on the spirit of leadership, empowerment and, mostly self-awareness. He understood my approach to leading groups and growing people and gave me the tools so the experience would be fulfilling, not frustrating, enriching, not draining. He was deep, demanding, and relentless and taught me much about commitment and courage and, importantly, the practice of balancing passion and detachment, the only way to face tough situations.

Morris: The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Echeverría: My advisor at Stanford, Bob Coleman, had a great impact in giving me wings, while raising the bar for every thing I did. He would put me on center stage of interesting challenges and opportunities, new to me and significant to him, and never failed to trust in me. He gave me a sense of empowerment that is still priceless—and terrific approaches, like his demand for “three options” for every challenge one faces.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Echeverría: I believe the greatest value of a formal education is that it surrounds you with people who are sharper than yourself, forcing you to bring out the best in you; it opens doors to fields and people and ways of doing things that enlarge your own. One has no idea if the field that you train for is going to be applicable to future activities. For many that is indeed the case: they keep and going deeper and deeper to become the world’s experts in one fields. But not for all. I went into geology because I fell in love with rocks, in the field and under the microscope with the puzzle of mountain building. I had no idea that it would lead me to glass chemistry and on the corporate world.

Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to respond. First, from Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching:

“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”

Echeverría: Funny you should start with one of my very favorite quotations, from the sixth century BC Lao Tzu—though I have known it in a different form:

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists,
not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
worst when they despise him.

“Fail to honor people,
they fail to honor you.”
But of a good leader, who talks little,
when his work is done, his aim fulfilled
the people will say, ‘We did this ourselves’ “

It is a timeless and compelling description of authentic leadership. It talks about things that are essential to authentic leadership such as empowerment and leadership as service (as opposed to self-aggrandizement).

Morris: Next, from Voltaire: “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”

Echeverría: This one takes us back to the previous one, as often those who “have found the truth” believe themselves to be superior, hence the fallacy of their own position.

Morris: And then, from Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”

Echeverría: The genius of Oscar Wilde is hard to match. So is his sarcastic humor. And in this one, he pairs them both.

Morris: From Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Echeverría: An earlier version of the need for “out of the box” thinking. Or “paradigm shift”. Too bad the concepts have become clichés, rather than understood and truly used, as Einstein extols us. Perhaps this is simply proof of how hard it is to break old habits.

Morris: Finally, from Peter Drucker: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Echeverría: Efficiency is often the great enemy of significance. But it has a lot of clout, and often takes first place in initiatives.

Morris: In Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, he and co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance”: organizational judgment. That is, “the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s direct control.” What do you think?

Echeverría: I read this as a call for empowerment, a concept that I resonate with, that I have relied on, and that I have seen produce amazing results. Empowerment is about distributing authority in a group, it is about encouraging accountability to release the full power of its members, and about delivering BIG. Rather than weakening and debilitating the influence of a leader, as may be feared, in reality this commitment between organization and leader has compelling sway in unleashing and driving high performance.

Morris: Here’s a brief excerpt from Paul Schoemaker’s latest book, Brilliant Mistakes: “The key question companies need to address is not ‘ Should we make mistakes?’ but rather ‘Which mistakes should we make in order to test our deeply held assumptions?’” Your response?

Echeverría: I would have a hard time predicting which mistakes one should aim for. It is just as hard as predicting which ideas will succeed and which will fail. They are both exercises in futility. What I would advocate is that space for mistakes be made, the safety nets below the tall branches where the daring need to climb. If one needs to test the organization’s and leader’s deeply held assumptions, just give space to the members of the organization to define best practices; to think the un-thought of, to come up with ideas and push them through. As they do so, give them space to question. Their questioning will uncover those deeply-held beliefs and assumptions that, as your Peter Drucker quotation suggests, often point in directions better left untouched.

Morris: In your opinion, why do so many C-level executives seem to have such a difficult time delegating work to others?

Echeverría: Delegation is an important component of empowering others. The empowering stand of leading to bring out the best in others is about believing in people and being committed to their success and well-being. It is about seeing their potential—even before they do—and developing it, creating opportunities for them to walk into and grow, raising the bar and challenging people to stretch and expand. But it is also about raising the performance of an organization to achieve unprecedented results. Unfortunately, empowering is often interpreted as lack of authority and inability to control.

As to their reasons for not delegating, leaders are often beleaguered by desires identified with leadership—success, acclaim, influence, authority, control, fame, fortune, relationships, status—and their leadership experience becomes one of repeating actions that result in the pleasing reaction. Furthermore, at other side of the coin of desire appears the fear of not having what we desire. The mirror image of what we desire is what we often fear. If we desire authority and control, we dread delegation and empowerment. Leaders who desire control and authority are seldom those who are willing to delegate and empower.

* * *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

Lina cordially invites you to check out the resources at her homepage.

Achim Nowak : An interview by Bob Morris

Achim Nowak is an internationally recognized authority on executive presence and interpersonal connections. His just-published book Infectious: How to Connect Deeply and Unleash the Energetic Leader Within (Allworth Press) has already received acclaim in Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Leadership Excellence, and Forbes. His first book Power Speaking: The Art of the Exceptional Public Speaker has becomes an essential leadership development tool with Fortune 500 companies around the world.

Influens, the international training and coaching firm Achim founded in 2004, is based in South Florida. It has guided thousands of leaders from organizations such as Sanofi, Dover Corporation, HSBC Bank, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield to better connect and be more influential.

Achim holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology and International Relations from New York University. He served for over a decade on the faculty of New York University and has been a frequent guest speaker at other universities and industry events. Achim and his work have also been featured on 60 Minutes, The Today Show, NPR, and CNN.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

* * *

Morris: Before discussing Infectious, a few general questions and then a few others about high-impact communication. First, who has had the greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Nowak: In 1992 I was trained at the Brooklyn Courts to become a mediator. Mediators are highly skilled at shaping the flow of a conversation and using language with strategic precision. The skill sets – validating, paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, identifying underlying issues, speaking in neutral – are priceless. These skills instantly elevated the quality of the conversations I was having, anywhere. They should be required study for any business leader!

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Nowak: I spent six weeks in the late 1980s at a retreat in the Arizona desert. I had never done anything like this before. I had never just stopped to take a look at myself – I was your classic results-driven alpha male. The retreat center sat atop an old Anasazi burial mound. The Anasazi spirit energy was electric. I soon had daily visits from power animals. In one very long night I had repeated visions of a white house on an island, overlooking a sparkling dark blue ocean. I knew instantly that this house was not a metaphor, it was a real place. Six months later I had left my life as a theatre director in New York City and was living in a small white house on the island of Tobago, overlooking the Atlantic. This was the first time in my life that I listened to deep inner guidance and followed suit – even though at no time prior had I ever had a yearning for island life. This was the start of my journey into a life and career that looks different from anything I might have envisioned for myself.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Nowak: My formal education has been marginally valuable, at best. There are great minds whose work I cherish – Peter Drucker, Daniel Goleman – and I greatly believe in continuous learning, but my most meaningful lessons happened while working in the trenches: Doing transformational work in North-American AIDS communities, facilitating co-existence dialogues in countries that are at war – and in every one-on-one coaching conversation I have with a C-level leader!

Morris: From which business book have you learned the most valuable lessons about business? Please explain.

Nowak: FLOW by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi is my favorite book about business – and life. Distinctions between business and non-business are often artificial since we tend to spend more time at work than we do in our non-business life. The common denominator between both is that we are in constant relationship with others. Csikszentmihalyi’s insights about how we attain peak performance, and how our engagement in peak performance leads to a state of flow, are instantly relevant, in all parts of life. I recommend to everyone.

Morris: Here’s one of my favorite quotations from Oscar Wilde to which I ask you to respond: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”

Nowak: There are tantalizing questions behind this clever quip. Do I know who I am? Is this knowledge of who I am growing and changing over time? (Yes – I hope!) And most importantly – which parts of myself do I choose to reveal in public? The ability to be myself at all times and make enlightened choices about how I show up – that’s the mark of a mature leader.

Morris: Here’s a brief excerpt from Paul Schoemaker’s latest book, Brilliant Mistakes: “The key question companies need to address is not ‘Should we make mistakes?’ but rather ‘Which [end mistakes should we make in order to test our deeply held assumptions?’” Your response?

Nowak: I love the title of this book – Brilliant Mistakes. I tend to be a risk-taker, and the moment we take risks we will make mistakes. Only when we test deeply-held assumptions do we get to the unknown – which is a world that we, by definition, do not know before we know it. How many mistakes we can tolerate, well, that’s the personal frontier everyone one of us needs to explore. I’m thinking of a few situations in my life just recently where I feel like I pressed for results a little too hard. My job is to learn from that experience. Were my actions mistakes? It’s up to me to decide how I frame it up for myself, isn’t it? It always boils down to assuming responsibility for my actions without beating myself up for having taken a risk. That’s my personal bottom-line.:

Morris: In your opinion, why do so many C-level executives seem to have such a difficult time delegating work to others?

Nowak: My experience doesn’t entirely match your statement. I know quite a few C-level executives who do know how to delegate. The key, of course, for all C-Level executives is to be secure enough to surround themselves with amazing talent – and to let this talent shine. Part of letting the talent shine is having real, tough, challenging conversations when everyone meets in person, without ever denigrating the brilliance of others. And, of course, there has to be the willingness to let go of those who do not wish to play your game or support your vision.

Morris: The greatest leaders throughout history (with rare exception) were great storytellers. What do you make of that?

Nowak: They’re smart. Well-told stories tap into our deepest yearnings and desires. They stir us. Leaders who are unable to stir folks, especially in a democracy, simply will not get elected. Because we know that stories work, every modern politician these days has been coached on telling stories. The key now is to move from the easy and predictable stories – rags-to-riches, immigrant-to-success – and tell stories that involve taking a true personal risk in the telling. Stories that are mere marketing clichés come across as mere marketing clichés. They fail to stir!

* * *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

Achim cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

www.influens.com

www.theenergyproject.com

www.jaynewarrilow.com

www.melanieroche.com

Simon Pont: An interview by Bob Morris

Simon Pont is a writer, commentator and brand-builder. Hollywood movie studios, Icelandic investment banks, British chocolate bars and Middle Eastern airlines figure amongst his time on the inside of Adland.

He is the author of The Better Mousetrap: Brand Invention in a Media Democracy, and a novel, Remember to Breathe.

His next project, Digital State: How the Internet is Changing Everything, is scheduled for worldwide release (June 2013) through Kogan Page.

Simon is also Chief Strategy Officer at agency network Vizeum, though when asked, he has always wanted to say he is a spy.

He has never been a spy.

He is however married and has three children.

Here is a brief excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

* * *

Morris: Before discussing The Better Mousetrap, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Pont: It has to be family. Family: in the true multi-generational sense of the word. My parents set the moral compass, and I’ve always felt myself hugely fortunate to have been brought up with an emotional safety net that was unconditional, that was always there. I’m now a parent, and parenthood is the most incredible, off-the-chart seismic shift, as far as life-stages go. At least, it has been for me. My future personal growth will inevitably be defined by my children and the positive role I want to try and play in their lives.

Morris: The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Pont: You know, there’s never been one stand-out Mr. Miyagi type figure in my career, radiating warmth and charisma and setting the standard. There have been a couple of Buddy Ackerman types – and there’s no need to name real names – but what I am very conscious of is that overall, I’ve actually been very fortunate. There’s been a sizeable cast of characters, mostly very good and only a few questionable, who I’ve learned from. And that’s been hugely instructive in helping me decide what kind of professional I want to be, and the kind that I don’t. But to name a few names for all the right reasons, I’d happily cite Moray MacLennan, Hans Andersson, Jon Wilkins, Greg Grimmer, and Hamish Davies. In each case, and each in their own way, we’re talking about hugely impressive, inspiring, and fundamentally very decent human beings.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Pont: I don’t think there’s ever been just one! I think careers are twisty-turny things full of great highlights, 50-50 judgements calls, and a few near-disasters. Along that road, with hope, you bump into a fair few moments of revelation.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Pont: For me, a formal education’s been very important. It’s a good, solid grounding, but it’s also been the necessary series of experiences – from which I now understand how I work, think about things, explore ideas, investigate themes, and then, put those thoughts together. Quite simply, you have to read a lot of words, and put a lot of words down, before you get to a place where you find your own process and writing approach.

Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you knew when you started working full-time? Why?

Pont: Stop playing at being a grown-up and just be a grown-up. I think that’s fair advice to anyone in the early days of their career. By definition, when you start out in business, you’re naive, because your only former points of reference are academia and being a student; in most respects, being a “kid”. And it’s only experience that takes the edge off that immaturity. But there is a ‘but’. Once you’ve entered the business world, you’ve entered it, so you might as well stop “pretending”, stop play-acting, drop the pretence, and go at it full-tilt. I think real credibility and success comes from believing in yourself and what you’re capable of, even if you don’t have so much “experience” to draw upon. It’s not an easy message, of course, but self-doubt only gets in your way. So don’t have any. Or at least, work on editing it.

Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion – best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.

Pont: That’s a terrific question. I’m a big film fan. Swimming with Sharks and Wall Street are brilliant yesteryear windows on the working world. Margin Call, from 2011, is another great snapshot on a particular moment in time – but that’s not what you’re asking. Citing movies about the work-place isn’t the same as a movie that necessarily dramatizes business principles.

* * *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

Simon cordially invite(s) you to check out the resources at this website:

www.simonpont.com

Rich Horwath: A second interview by Bob Morris

Rich Horwath helps people live strategically–to get more out of their business and more out of their life. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best selling author on strategy. As the CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, he leads executive teams through the strategy process and has helped more than 50,000 managers around the world develop their strategic thinking skills. As a former chief strategy officer and professor of strategy, he brings both real-world experience and practical expertise to help groups build their strategy skills. Rich’s work has been profiled on ABC, CBS, CNBC, NBC, CNN and FOX TV. His most recent books include Deep Dive: The Proven Method for Building Strategy and Strategy for You: Building a Bridge to the Life You Want.

This is an excerpt from my second intervew of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

* * *

Morris: Before discussing Strategy for You, a few general questions. First, years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Horwath: About 15 years ago I created a process called Purpose Channeling to help me identify my true purpose in life. After working through the process, the theme that came through was “competition.” Competition is from the Latin competere which means, “to strive together.” For me, life is about striving with others to reach our full potential. I included the Purpose Channeling process in this book because I believe one must understand their purpose before they can channel their talents and energy into productive outlets.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Horwath: Formal education pointed me in the direction of my current vocation, but informal education has played an equally, if not more important role. Once I honed in on strategy as my channel for competition during my graduate work, I read hundreds of articles and nearly a hundred books on the subject to build a foundation of expertise. It was years of this informal education, which created my heightened interest in the field of strategic thinking.

Morris: What do you know now about business world that you wish you knew when you when to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Horwath: Make no assumptions. Don’t assume the person above you has the answers. Don’t assume the customer who said “no” last time will say “no” this time. Don’t assume the competition will match what you do. Still today, not assuming is an ongoing challenge.

Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion – best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.

Horwath: I view movies through a strategy lens. The movie “Walk the Line” about the life of Johnny Cash provides a good example of a key strategy principle: It’s not about being better; it’s about being different in ways that people value. Johnny Cash didn’t have the best singing voice, but he was successful because he was different than all of the other recording artists of his day. He also took great risks in singing about killing people back in the 1950s, but his stories resonated with a large number of people. Strategy involves differentiation and risk and Johnny Cash exemplified both.

Morris: From which non-business book have you learned the most valuable lessons about business? Please explain.

Horwath: Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich emphasizes the importance of having a purpose and then following that purpose with dogged determination. Too many people make excuses and rationalize away their interests and talents because they don’t have the guts to follow their purpose. It’s sad and true.

Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to respond. First, from Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching:

“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”

Horwath: Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so man sharpens his fellow man.” I believe we all have talents that can help others. The question is: Do we know what those talents are and are we willing to help others?

Morris: Next, from Voltaire: “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”

Horwath: The truth can be wonderful, painful, revealing and necessary for progress.

Morris: And then, from Oscar Wilde: “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”

Horwath: Step 2 in building a Strategy for You is Differentiation. If you haven’t identified what is unique about you that brings value to others, it will be difficult to reach your potential.

Morris: From Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Horwath: New growth comes from new thinking. Without new thinking, one cannot reasonably expect substantial growth in achievement, happiness or any other undertakings.

Morris: Finally, from Peter Drucker: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Horwath: Great strategy is as much about what we choose [begin] not to do as it is about what we choose to do.

Morris: Here’s a brief excerpt from Paul Schoemaker’s latest book, Brilliant Mistakes: “The key question companies need to address is not ‘Shouldwe make mistakes?’ but rather ‘Which mistakes should we make in order to test our deeply held assumptions?’” Your response?

Horwath: Recently, it’s a popular notion to “fail fast and make as many mistakes as you can early on,” and I’ve seen a number of leaders espouse it. I think it’s one of those cool things to say which is ridiculously dumb in practice. While it’s important to take calculated risks in developing strategy, some of which may result in mistakes, continually making mistakes shows a lack of thinking more than anything else.

* * *

To read the complete second interview, please click here.

To read my first interview of him, please click here.

Rich cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Strategic Skills Institute homepage

His Greenleaf Book Group page

His Amazon page

Deep Dive page

Strategy for You page