You only need one strategy: embrace learning and change

Leadership is not a virtue, but the byproduct of our virtues. Bettering ourselves and improving our teams helps us plan ahead for reality instead of running behind it. Businesses that learn are more sustainable, outperforming their competitors. Work-related stress becomes more manageable, and the team’s culture is harder to beat.

Drucker’s quote at the top of this piece— quite often and weirdly misattributed to Lincoln — seems particularly relevant in this context. Adapting our businesses to the fast-changing pivotal technology breakthroughs (looking at you, AI), amplifies our ability to shape our future and serve our audiences better.

Learning and Change: Don’t stop me now 👑

Learning to learn is training to run twice as fast. Here’s a roundup of fresh concepts, tools & inspiration we’ve kept returning to in our journey.

Where’s your 15%? 

Small and consistent changes lead to drastic transformation and growth. What are the quick wins you’re not seeing? How do you challenge your preconceptions and explore opportunities for evolution? Godin’s article is from 2010 but still brilliantly simple and relevant. Also this.

The adjacent possible

Use objective data to learn conclusions and evolve your strategy. Kauffman’s theory teaches us to conceive organizations as living, evolving organisms. Every step forward opens new, exponential alternatives to drive your company forward. Finding the time and budget to explore and break things always pays off.

Creative Samba

Miguel Ferreira’s newsletter on all things storytelling, copywriting, and marketing gives us a weekly dose of food for thought. It challenges the status quo and puts the value back on human creativity and love for brands.

A culture of (un)learning

Challenge beliefs and assumptions within your organization and be open to letting people challenge the beliefs and assumptions you, personally, hold to be true about what ​‘right’ looks like.

FarnamStreet

A treasure trove of valuable insights on personal growth, learning and change. Mental models are essential to train thinking and innovation. This piece in particular is a great reminder that true learning requires a willingness to let go of what we think we know and embrace the journey of learning and discovery.

Numbers. Most of them are not fake. 🤞

• Insider Intelligence says retail eCommerce sales worldwide will grow by 8.9% this year. Initial forecasts were slightly above 10% but were adjusted due to the world losing its marbles. After the 2020’s huge digital sales boom during the pandemic, the gap with brick and mortar seems to be shortening.
• 37% of B2B companies have implemented artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in some form, and 27% are planning to do so in the next 12 months.
• It takes humans an average of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become experts in a particular field or skill. This translates to approximately9 years of daily practice for 3 hours daily. Watcha waitin’ for?
• The human brain can process and retain new information at a rate of up to 60 bits per second.
• Dogs can learn the names of over 1,000 different objects and commands and understand human gestures, with success rates ranging from 70% to 80%, outperforming most politicians.