Over the years I’ve made notes in my journal with the shorthand label “RTS” – “Reminder to self.”  Here’s a collection of them, in no particular order:

Reminder to self: Money solves money problems.   

Reminder to self:  Everyone you meet today is waging an inner battle you can’t see.  Be gentle.

Reminder to self: Rationality is not about knowing facts, but about recognizing which facts are relevant.

Reminder to self:  Opportunities are obligations with a pretty face.  Everything worthwhile still has costs, even if the net positive benefit is worth the cost. 

Reminder to self:  What I really need is more focus because I have all the time I need.

Reminder to self: Always play the long game (health, relationships, finances)

Reminder to self:  It’s bad when our teams get into rework, and disastrous when we get stuck in rehashing.

Reminder to self:  Competitive advantage is found in uneven distributions. 

Reminder to self: Solitude is not loneliness. 

Reminder to self:  There is more to reality than can fit in a spreadsheet.  “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Einstein)

Reminder to self:  Other people are thinking about you far less than you think they’re thinking about you. 

Reminder to self:  Ingenuity is the most limiting resource. 

Reminder to self:  Calendars are more useful than to-do lists for allocating time and energy to the most valuable work.

Reminder to self:  It’s not “Pay me or pay me later,” but “Pay me now or pay me more later.”  It’s not a can that you kick down the road.  It’s a grizzly bear cub and grows up meaner.  (There are exceptions to this but they’re relatively rare.)

Reminder to self: We become what we do.

Reminder to self:  Overcome excuses by asking “Do I have a knowing problem or a doing problem?”

Reminder to self: It’s not about you.

Reminder to self: The well-trained apprentice is a world-changer.

Reminder to self:  You have the foremost power of deciding where to put your attention, and energy. 

Reminder to self:  The world is more improved by your example than your opinion.

Reminder to self:  There are learning opportunities every day, but we need to pay attention and create time to reflect on events

Reminder to self:  A good education is expensive.  Second-rate education is far more expensive, because you learn the wrong things and waste years doing the wrong things.

Reminder to self:  Every path has a puddle.

Reminder to self: Momentum is built by accumulating small successes.

Reminder to self:  If you really want to do something, do it while you can. Someday may arrive too late.

Reminder to self:  Big opportunities arise from big problems

Reminder to self: You’ll have to climb a mountain to get to simplicity on the far side of complexity.

Reminder to self: Don’t put your faith in the common culture most everyone swims in

Reminder to self:  Even in fearful situations you still have the power of choice

Reminder to self:  Of course your first effort will be meh.  The power is in getting started and then improving.

Reminder to self: Excuses are incompatible with excellence.

Reminder to self: if something can’t go on forever, it will stop.

Reminder to self: Growth begins at the edge of comfortable.

Reminder to self: Never become content with mediocrity.

Reminder to self: Time is the most valuable currency in the workplace.

Reminder to self: Meetings are tools (means to an end) not an event. 

Reminder to self:  Time is not in short supply — but attention and focus are.

Reminder to self: Boldness brings its own kind of genius.

Reminder to self: Hope without action is not a strategy.

Reminder to self: Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

Reminder to self: Individuals play the game, and teams win the championship.

Reminder to self: Any time you see complexity you can look for opportunities. 

Reminder to self: Instead of looking for hundreds of reasons to quit, see the thousands of reasons not to give up.

Reminder to self: You maximize the rate of learning by tightening the feedback loops. 

Reminder to self: Even pigs fly when the tornado comes. Don’t translate occasional incidents into normal expectations.

Reminder to self: Gratitude energizes us forward; resentments and bitterness shackle us to the past.  

Reminder to self:  Maintain a sea-anchor of skepticism and realism to prevent your optimism from foundering in rough seas.

Reminder to self: Uncertainty is why we need leadership – and all leadership begins with self-leadership.

Reminder to self:  There is a big difference between wanting something, and purposefully deciding to get it.

Reminder to self: Busy is a dangerous word.

Reminder to self: Complexity naturally happens. Simplicity requires intelligence and action.

Reminder to self: Yesterday is yesterday.  I get to start again today. 

Reminder to self: We all make mistakes.  What defines us is how we respond to failure.

Reminder to self: You can’t delegate culture.

Reminder to self: Delegate does not mean abdicate.

Reminder to self:  The stupidity of the past need not be the future; the foolishness of others need not be contagious.

Reminder to self: You are always being evaluated.

Reminder to self: If all we needed was more information, we’d all be multimillionaires with 6-pack abs.

People commonly cite “Inequality” as justification for all kinds of governing decisions (political governments at multiple levels, and private corporate governance). 

Inequality exists, and no governing body can completely “solve” this.  Let’s strive to think clearly and carefully about inequality – its sources, its effects, and what can be done.

Note: I’m going to stick with the word ‘inequality’ because it’s measurable, whereas the popular word ‘equity’ is highly subjective when used to describe socioeconomic conditions. As for the “It’s not fair, and that’s wrong” response… yes, much in life is unfair.  That’s reality.  That’s the opportunity to work hard to make things better.

Inequality comes from multiple sources:

There are inequalities originating in natural/genetic capabilities.  Men and women have different muscular structures, and different reproductive capabilities.  Some people have superior hearing and vision compared to others.  Mental acuity varies. 

Some inequalities exist because of where and when you were born, and what your family is like.  The poor in the US have a higher standard of living than the poor in many other countries, and indeed, what the poor experienced in the 1800’s in the US.  Everyone reading this was born after medical advances like antibiotics were widely available.  Not everyone had supportive and loving family.  Individuals have little and mostly no control over these inequalities.

Many inequalities are earned through hard work!   I can’t play a Chopin concerto from memory, but my daughter could because she studied and practiced piano at a high level. We saved money and invested, so after 30 years we have more financial reserves than some others.  I am fluent only in English, but I have European colleagues who are fluent in five languages.  Don’t we celebrate the inequality of the Olympic athletes who devoted years striving to improve on their natural talents to perform at the top level?

People are justly concerned about inequality that originates from human greed and power structures.  At least a portion of this kind of inequality should be “solvable,” but our experience is mixed – partial

successes and many unintended consequences.  Specifically:

• We commonly create new inequalities when we try to fix one. 
• Using government power to suppress inequality often reduces competition and excellence.  It generates entitlement thinking and behavior in some people, which does not bring out our best.
• Socialism consistently thins out the middle class because of the way wealth transfers and suppressing “the rich” destroys opportunities.  [A question I ask my friends who think socialism would be better: “Where does money come from?”  And if they say, “the government prints it” I ask, “Why then does the government bother to collect taxes?”]

I’m not against all efforts to address inequality.  I’m calling us to be intelligent and thoughtful about consequences.  What can we and should we pursue? 

• Equality before the law. 
• Respect for all fellow humans. 
• Equality of opportunity. 

Straightforward,  hard, worthwhile. When we perfectly achieve these kinds of equality there will remain other kinds. 

…

An acquaintance suggests Christianity argues for complete equality.  “Your Bible says all people are children of God and loved.”  Yes.  Yet God gave people different gifts and assigned different roles to His children.  He selected Abraham’s descendants to be His covenant people.  God selected one of the twelve tribes of these descendants to be priests, and one family in that tribe (Aaron) to serve in the inner sanctuary.  The New Testament letters speak about the different spiritual gifts and roles apportioned to people in the Church, even as the individuals are all equally adopted children into the family of God.  The Bible speaks of both equality and inequality. 

…

Our inner whiners say, “That’s not fair!”  We’re deeply sensitive to perceived unfairness.  The challenge with a standard of fair is use it consistently and unselfishly – especially given our flawed perceptions.  You may have been raised with the “You cut, I choose” method of dividing the last slice of cake between siblings.  That’s a helpful strategy because it leverages the power of our mutual relationships, and certainly better than “Heads I win, Tails you lose.” 

What lies deeper than our sense of fairness is a desire for justice.  This, too, can be deeply problematic.  Justice is about wholeness, completeness.  It’s dangerous to put adjectives like social, economic, political, and racial in front of the word justice.  The sincere desire to optimize on one dimension makes us likely to create injustice (which is a form of inequality) in our wake. 

…

Yes, we should work to reduce systemic inequality.  Treating it as an abstract “it” or “them” isn’t effective – systems of behaviors are changed by individuals who commit to a better way.  The world is more improved by your example than your opinion.  Work within your sphere of influence, person to person.  Collective transformed behavior of individuals will lead to changed systems (for better and for worse). 

Wise people take their calling seriously, themselves not so much.

Elias Beadle observed “Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not.” This is partly because we’re just foolish and silly at heart.  We know it, and so we try hard to look better than we really are.  (It’s partly because we desperately want to be known and we’re terrified to be known, too — a topic for another time.)

I’m convinced C.S. Lewis didn’t work hard to invent his Dufflepuds characters in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” — he was just a good observer of people.  The Dufflepuds consistently misinterpreted Coriakin (the magician leader of the island) as a tyrant when he was simply trying to educate and protect them from their foolishness.  Their self-identity as “uglified” shapes their behavior.  They all instantly agree with their Chief without considering what he says.  They have infallible logic such as “Water is powerful wet stuff.”  They have goofy ideas about saving time such as cooking potatoes before they plant them.  The Dufflepuds are us.

How many times have we gone through something unpleasant, or that didn’t turn out well, and confidently said “Next time / Next year it will be better” and do nothing.  Then, when the outcome is the same we confidently say “Next time / Next year it will be better.”  It’s useful, I supposed, but still silly.

We love magic tricks and illusions.  We like to be fooled if it’s entertaining and no one suffers any real loss.  Brunello Cucinelli observed that there are three things you cannot buy: Fitness, Diet, and Looking after your soul.  These you must do yourself. Yet we will impulse buy “instant” solutions for fitness, weight loss, better skin, getting paid without work, and BOGO (‘buy one, get one’) deals for things we never knew we needed.  Being a silly species has made some people rich.

Entire college educations in grand subjects are available online for free, but consumption is minimal. Have you noticed that bathroom humor, videos of people getting smacked in their groin or head, and dogs and cats being, well, dogs and cats, never run out of audiences?  We all chuckle at these.  How many collective lifespans have been spent watching LOL cat videos, and how many months of power plant activity were required?  

Every parent has watched a toddler trying to sneak around, thinking no one would notice their exaggerated walk or crawl.  Perhaps you used the strategy of “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me.”  We are amused at babies looking in mirrors, not recognizing themselves.  I can only imagine the magnitude of God’s love for us when adults behave the same way.  

Take a moment (or a few microseconds) to recall a time when you confidently, proudly, boldly believed and acted on a “truth” that you now realize was completely wrong.  Even a few of these instances should forever puncture our pride.  But it doesn’t.  We’re a silly species.

A cursory review of the history of medicine, machines, exploration, and means of government should likewise be sobering.  We look back, scoff, and say “What foolishness!”  I agree with George Orwell’s observation that some ideas are so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.  We’re currently practicing all the foolish ideas that people 50 or 100 years from now will disdain.  We’re a silly species.

Laughter – especially laughter at ourselves – is a gift we should enjoy.  Laughing at our silliness is the healthy transition point to deciding to be less silly going forward.  Because we do have a serious calling, with genuine joy.

C.S. Lewis provided some useful advice for those seeking to avoid God:

“Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully. But you’d be safer to stick to the papers. You’ll find the advertisements helpful; especially those with a sexy or a snobbish appeal.”

This is from his 1967 essay, “The Seeing Eye,” and would be easy to update for an internet-obsessed age.

You could follow the same advice if you

• Never want to maximize your potential to ‘dent the universe,’ a la Steve Jobs’ recommendation
• Want to avoid meaningful relationships in every context
• Insist on avoiding your responsibility to use your gifts and experiences to help others
• Prefer misery

Loud voices accuse the social media giants’ algorithms for driving division, creating echo chambers, and making it more difficult to consider other perspectives.  “Something must be done!” they demand.

Our clicks and attention span are translated into “what interests us.” The algorithms feed individuals with more of what interests them, so they stay on the platform longer, which generates more revenue. 

Bottom line: Our default behaviors lead to division and echo chambers, not unity.  The algorithms only amplify our default behaviors. 

Choosing unity over division requires mature, disciplined, sustained efforts.  It’s a choice. 

I am overweight and less fit than I should be. I don’t need to read more of my doctor’s brochures on how to lose weight. I can articulate the role of insulin and glucagon hormones in regulating blood sugar, and the metabolic pathways that manage fat storage and release.  I know what to do to lose weight but am not doing it consistently.

As for social unity, we are not doing the necessary work, and I’m not sure we collectively know what to do.  An old illustration:  One hundred pianos tuned to the same tuning fork will all be in tune with each other.  Social cohesion and unity likewise require a common tuning fork.

Americans experienced a decade plus of very low inflation, low unemployment, cheap energy, abundant cheap food, and cheap products largely manufactured overseas.  Covid was a jolt, but even before the pandemic economists could tell you that the 2000’s were quite different than the 50-70 years before it.

Structurally, the forces which made the low inflation/cheap stuff world possible are all changing now:

• Policy decisions and reactions to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will keep energy costs high for years to come for the western world.  
• Labor costs continue to climb.  Generally, they don’t go down again. 
• Higher energy prices make everything more difficult and expensive.  Especially food production.  Transportation is a significant fraction of your food costs. Many people don’t realize the synthetic fertilizer is derived from fossil fuel sources.  Same for plastics.  
• Over and above geopolitical power concerns, China has structural demographic and economic problems which mean it can’t ‘forever be’ the low-cost manufacturing center of the world.  Other countries will pick up part of this load.

Governments printing money are adding to inflationary pressures (more money chasing fewer goods) but politicians are pressured to live up to promises made and ‘solve’ problems with money so they aren’t voted out of office.  This has been going on a long time; it’s not the realm of any one party or political leaning.  I’m hopeful that more people will realize modern monetary theory is a crock.  There is no “happy story” in history of countries paying off greater-than-GDP debt levels. The US federal debt-to-GDP ratio was 137% in December 2021.  The total debt picture with unfunded obligations is much higher.

It’s likely that we’ll return to thinking 4-5% inflation is a good number, 5% unemployment will be considered low, and many goods and services will be expensive enough that we have think hard before buying them.  That’s not all bad.  My concerns lie with anticipating a fearful route to getting there! 

Given these macro factors, coupled with unease, uncertainty, and lack of unity on much of anything, we’re going to have a rough adjustment to new realities.  The sense of “going backwards” will be palpable.  I have access to information about agriculture and food situations globally.  It’s a mixed story.  There will be more hungry people in the next few years than the past decade.  There is high correlation between a hungry population and uprisings against the standing government. Political leaders will be hard-pressed for ‘solutions.’  One of the lessons of system dynamics is that what looks like the easy way out always reinforces the status quo. 

We’re back to long-asked questions: “How should we then live?”  “What are we willing to sacrifice?”  “What should we do differently in the future?” “How do we raise children and future leaders and workers?” “What must the Church be and do?”

Critically important: We must succeed through inspiration and imagination coupled with grit, not anger, nor making others feel insecure.  

I woke up the other morning with this question in my mind: “What must you do now to become better prepared to lead in your sphere of influence going forward?”

I continue to ponder this intriguing description of men who came out to follow King David: “Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command.”  (1 Chronicles 12:32)

Intuitively we think that we’ll be smarter and understand more with more data.  We’re awash in data and generating more every minute.  I love data.  The plural of anecdote is not data. There was a sign in the building where I did my Ph.D. work which said “In God we trust. All others need data.”

The challenge is interpreting data, understanding signal from noise.  Statistically, the bigger the pile of data you have, the more likely you’ll mistake noise for signal.  There are enough bits of data in the big pile that you can selectively pull some and create a story.  (Our species is tremendously good at creating complex stories from little threads of data.)  And others will generate a completely different story by extracting different bits from the same pile.  This is the modern version of the blind men touching the elephant story. 

Remember this when you hear anyone say, “The data clearly shows…” or “No one can disagree with this.”  An attribute of boldness and gentleness (strength under control) is treading cautiously and humbly. 

It’s also important to remember that information alone is not enough.  If all we needed was more information, every guy would be a multimillionaire with six-pack abs. 

I made some additions to my recommended book list based on reading in the past 3 years.

Reading good books and great books is an essential part of your learning plan. You’ll be strengthened through reading books which are a little difficult for you, just as pushing yourself past comfort in physical exercise builds muscle and endurance. You’ll find a handful of books which are truly significant for you. Study those repeatedly, make them your own.

I’ve grouped some books, but there is no particular order or weighting. Read for breadth and depth. Stretch yourself.

I have a Western/English bias. There are undoubtedly many great books in Eastern tradition and other languages that are less accessible to me.

There are few books here about technical subjects. You need to find and study these over time, as you have interests, but they tend to become outdated quickly. I know several good books on AI, for example, but by the time you read this they could be less helpful.

My biography list probably has too much weight on Americans and men.

I’ve listed a diverse set of religious texts not because I think they are all equally valid, but because I believe wise people must be aware of different religious ideas.

A key criteria: all these can be read, and re-read, and still yield insights and ideas. An excellent book continues to speak to a person at different stages of their life. The best book is the one that teaches you something important you either didn’t know, or something worth remembering again.

Modern Works with recognized value for many people:

The Great Ideas — Mortimer Adler

Principles – Ray Dalio

The E-Myth – Michael Gerber

Zero to One – Peter Thiel

The Lean Startup – Eric Ries

Tools of Titans – Tim Ferriss

Good to Great – Jim Collins

Built to Last — Jim Collins

Tribes – Seth Godin

This is Marketing — Seth Godin

Atomic Habits — James Clear

Mindset – Carol Dweck

Grit – Angel Duckworth

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – Robert Cialdini

How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie

Bold – Peter Diamandis

The Fifth Discipline – Peter Senge

A Rulebook for Arguments – Anthony Weston

The Black Swan – Nicola Taleb

What Technology Wants – Kevin Kelly

On Writing Well – Zinnser

Evolution 2.0 – Perry Marshall

True Professionalism – David Maister

A History of Knowledge – Charles Van Doren

Basic Economics – Thomas Sowell

Switch — Chip and Dan Heath

Extreme Ownership and The Dichotomy of Leadership – Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

How to Read a Book – Mortimer Adler

Godel, Escher, Bach – Douglas Hofstadter

The Lessons of History – Will and Ariel Durant

The 48 Laws of Power and Mastery – Robert Greene

The Laws of Human Nature – Robert Greene

The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holliday

The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker

The Effective Manager – Mark Horstman

The Portable MBA – Josh Kaufmann

12 Rules – Jordan Peterson

The 80/20 Principle — Richard Koch

80/20 Sales and Marketing – Perry Marshall

Warfighting — US Marine Corps

Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger — Peter Bevelin

Strange New World – Carl Trueman

The War of Art — Steven Pressfield

Execution – Bossidy and Charan

Elements of Style – Strunk & White

Team of Teams and One Mission – Chris Fussell

Essentialism – Greg McKeown

Suicide of the West – Richard Koch

The Natural Laws of Business – Richard Koch

Exponential Organizations – Salim Ismail

Man’s Search for Meaning – Victor Frankl

The Art of War – Sun Tzu

Deep Work – Cal Newport

On Becoming a Leader – Warren Bennis

The Truth About Leadership – Kouzes and Posner

Start with Why – Simon Sinek

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni

Failure of Nerve – Edwin Friedman

War of the Worlds – Niall Ferguson

The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership – Wooden and Jamison

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect – John Maxwell

Crucial Conversations – Patterson and Grenny

The Goal – Eliyahu Goodratt

Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

The Power of Full Engagement – Loehr and Schwartz

Getting Things Done – David Allen

Deep Survival – Laurence Gonzales

Made to Stick – Chip and Dan Heath

Presentation Zen – Garr Reynolds

How to Lie with Statistics – Darrell Huff

Work the System – Sam Carpenter

Making Things Happen – Scott Berkun

Competitive Strategy – Michael Porter

Blue Ocean Strategy – Kim and Mauborgne

Seeing What’s Next – Clayton Christensen

The Design of Everyday Things – Donald Norman

Six Easy Pieces – Richard Feynman

High Output Management – Andy Grove

Poor Charlie’s Almanack – Charlie Munger

Half-Time — Bob Buford

Walden– Henry Thoreau

Essays – Montaigne

Collected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Federalist – Hamilton, Madison, Jay

The Abolition of Man — C.S. Lewis

The Gulag Archipelago – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger – Peter Bevelin

Pre-Gutenberg Classics and Religious Texts

Beowulf

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Iliad and The Odyssey – Homer

The Aeneid — Virgil

The Republic – Plato

Rhetoric — Aristotle

The History — Herodotus

On the Brevity of Life – Seneca

Lives — Plutarch

The Divine Comedy – Dante

The Canterbury Tales — Chaucer

The Emperor’s Handbook – Marcus Aurelius

Treatises of Friendship and Growing Old – Cicero

The Strategemata – Sextus Julius Frontinus

The Prince – Machiavelli

The Bible

The Bhagavad Gita

The Koran

The Tao

The Analects of Confucius

The Divine Conspiracy – Dallas Willard

In Introduction to the Devout Life – Francis de Sales

Confessions – St. Augustine

The Imitation of Christ – Thomas a Kempis

The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan

Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis

Run with Horses – Eugene Peterson

The Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Biographies

Titan (biography of John D. Rockefeller) — Ron Chernow

Benjamin Franklin – Walter Isaacson

Leonardo da Vinci – Walter Isaacson

The Last Lion (biography of Winston Churchill in 3 volumes) – William Manchester

Eisenhower in War and Peace – Jean Edward Smith

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt – Edmund Morris

Theodore Rex — Edmund Morris

Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin

Truman – David McCullough

John Adams – David McCullough

Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow

Robert E. Lee – Emory Thomas

Lew Kwan Yew: The Man and His Ideas – Kwang and Fernandez

Washington: A Life – Ron Chernow

Einstein: His Life and Universe – Walter Isaacson

The House of Morgan – Ron Chernow

Margaret Thatcher (authorized biography) – Charles Moore

Indira Ghandi – Inder Malhotra

Victoria: The Queen – Julia Baird

A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael – Elisabeth Elliot

George Marshall: Defender of the Republic – David Roll

Coolidge – Amity Shlaes

Fiction and Literature

The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Dune – Frank Herbert

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

Best Poems of the English Language (anthology) – Harold Bloom

The Wasteland – T.S. Eliot

The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis

The Brothers Karamazov – Leo Tolstoy

Paradise Lost – John Milton

Moby Dick – Herman Melville

Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

1984 – George Orwell

Animal Farm – George Orwell

Complete Robert Frost collection

Mary Oliver’s poems

Becoming all-consumed and completely focused on the inside operations of your organization is a recipe for decline and failure.  Jack Welch famously said, “If change is happening on the outside faster than the inside the end is in sight.”

An organizational insight from biology:  As organisms grow in size their volume goes up by the cube yet their surface area increases only by the square.  A single cell bacterium is completely in touch with the external environment.  A single cell in the heart of a blue whale is yards from the ocean. 

You need to proactively work to be aware of what’s going on outside your organization.  Smart C-suite leaders spend considerable time and effort to connect with customers, industry peers, and a diverse world. 

Specific suggestions to be informed and thoughtful:

• Consistently read newspapers of record and journals for your industry
• Get news alerts for your industry, competitors, key customers, and technologies
• Talk with customers who pay for your products and services (even if you’re not in sales)
• Share what you’re reading and learning with your direct reports and peers
• Participate in conferences and society groups relevant to your role or your industry
• Cultivate a network of external people who can give you ground-truth insights about trends and changes
• Follow influencers in your industry on LinkedIn

This takes energy and time.  Worth it. 

One more suggestion:  Find ways to follow a seemingly independent industry which shares some similarities to yours.  There are many lessons to be learned which will help you, too.  For example, I found that the Pharma world was very similar to the Ag Biotech space.  We could have deep conversations about our same struggles because we weren’t competitors.

How many times have you looked at some administrative process and thought, “This is incredibly inefficient.  We can do this so much better!  Why hasn’t someone already fixed this?”

Often, the status quo is the status quo, however inefficient and wasteful, because someone benefits from the status quo.  

If you’re going to exert any effort to improve a status quo process, first figure out who benefits.  Benefits can include:

·         Retaining control, or at least veto rights on decisions

·         I don’t have to work harder

·         It’s half my job, and if this goes away what would I do?

·         Bureaucratic contentment with “we’ve always done it this way

·         Forced alignment of conflicting agendas (and usually nobody is completely happy)

·         No need to create a better data management system

·         No need to involve someone I’d rather not work with

Once you’ve identified who benefits and how, you’ll need to showcase why your preferred process would yield better results and not trigger “inconvenience” excuses.  There will be a switching cost.  This took me a l-o-o-n-n-g-g-g time to figure out.