EX Leadership Newsletter - January 2024
Ripple effect - Transparency - Design thinking - Radical tradition - Trust
So, 2024 is up & running. I hope it’s already going well for you.
In this edition, I’m returning to the newsletter’s mission of providing a short list of the key articles that got me thinking about EX over the last months.
Everyone’s busy, so what do I recommend looking at?
First up is this article by Michael Arena on the importance of understanding ”ripple effects” so you can leverage positive behaviours, identify key influencers, and nurture strong connections. Simple but powerful.
I found this article by Melissa Swift useful. She provides some practical strategies for leaders for communicating in a “hyper-transparent world.” (If you’ve seen the viral video of Brittany Pietsch, an employee at Cloudflare being fired, you will know what Melissa is talking about!)
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/leading-in-the-age-of-exploding-transparency/
Ketut Sulistyawati asks a brilliant question: How can we combine systems thinking and design thinking in a coherent way? I really like her framework.
I know it’s unfashionable, but I still enjoy books like “Built to Last” and “Good to Great.” So I enjoyed this piece by Alex Hill on “The 12 Habits of Great, Enduring Organisations.” He argues that these great companies pull off the trick of “maintaining a stable core” whilst also keeping a “disruptive edge.” They are “radically traditional.”
https://www.dukece.com/insights/built-to-last/
The Edelman Trust Barometer is always one of my favourite reads of the year. (I used lots of their data in my book.) The 2024 report zooms in on trust and innovation.
“The world is attempting to navigate a period of rapid and often turbulent change at a time when the public’s trust in leaders and societal institutions is unusually low.”
You can download the report here:
https://www.edelman.com/trust/2024/trust-barometer
I hope you enjoy these and find them useful.
Do let me know!
Best wishes,
Nick