As it happened, my grandpa only played one match for them before injury put paid to his rugby career. That was in 1921, but he wore this affiliation like a badge of honor right up until his death at the age of 99.  

The All Blacks were revered a hundred years ago, and they still are. This makes them a perfect case study for Professor Alex Hill, co-founder and director of the Centre for High Performance, a collaboration between Kingston University London, Duke University, London Business School, and the University of Oxford. 

Building Centennial Organizations

For more than a decade, he’s researched organizations that have outperformed their peers for over 100 years. In addition to the New Zealand All Blacks, he’s studied NASA, Eton College and the Royal Shakespeare Company, among other household names. 

Hill has identified 12 habits they share, looking at how they analyze success and failure, recruit great talent, and create new products and ideas. He lays these out in his new book, “Centennials,” and offers advice for others who aspire to such longevity today. 

In this clip from our Expert Interview, Hill reflects on how corporate behavior can embed itself from generation to generation. (You can stream the audio clip below or read a transcript here.)

The How and Why of Centennial Organizations

Hill acknowledges that not all organizations are in it for the long haul. Some don’t want to last 100 years, so for them, a focus on short-term returns is appropriate. 

“A lot of management thinking comes from business, and actually those principles and ideas are great if you want to burn bright, but then disappear,” he says. “But if you don’t want to do that and you want to build something that’s going to last, then you have to think in a very different way.” 

And this is a worthy goal, he believes, as “centennial” organizations deliver benefits for communities and society as a whole, as well as for themselves. 

“They help us solve bigger, more complex questions, things like climate change or poverty or health or education, where actually you’re building a collective knowledge in an institution that is growing over time. And you’re solving a problem which can’t just be solved quickly, where actually it might take many decades or many generations to actually work out how to fix it,” he explains. 

The 12 habits in Hill’s book provide a framework for organizations with such ambitions. The first six help to build a stable core, identifying a strong purpose for the work, developing stewardship, and fostering an open attitude toward the world. The last six focus on what he calls the “disruptive edge.” These habits encourage new ideas that propel organizations forward. 

The Power of Performing in Public

I was particularly struck by habit five, “perform in public,” about harnessing the power of strangers. Within an organization, it’s hard to see what you’re doing well – or not so well. Whereas, if you perform to a trusted stranger, you can learn a lot from their feedback, which may include fresh ideas from the outside, too. And of course, when we’re being watched, we almost always raise our game. 

“They’ve done lots of different studies around this, [and] they found that if you have a stranger present in a group, the group feels that they need to perform better,” says Hill. “So they will often be more rigorous in their discussion or their debates, they will explain things more clearly, they make [fewer] mistakes, and they often perform at a higher level because of that.”  

As a freelance producer, I’ve seen this firsthand. Often, I’m the stranger, going into organizations to record a podcast or interview employees. In these situations, I’ve noticed that people do tend to make an effort to act as professionally as they can. 

A few years ago, I produced a series of educational podcasts for a U.K.-based university. Each episode consisted of a roundtable discussion between academics teaching on a particular degree course. As soon as the microphones were set up, all the participants switched into “performance” mode. 

They listened attentively to one another, articulated their views with clarity and verve, and sometimes asked to redo something if they felt it could have been expressed better. If I hadn’t been there, the discussion may have been a bit more relaxed. But it might not have been as useful for the audience of students. 

Outside Observation Brings Centennial Results

Hill says he’s seen performance work in all sorts of situations. 

“You start to realize that every high-performing organization has a performance, and sometimes it happens very naturally, like an Olympic Games or a World Cup or a moon landing – this moment where they have to really perform,” he says.  

“But other organizations where it doesn’t happen naturally will artificially create it. So, like the Royal College of Art has open studios, where strangers can walk through, or they’ll get students to do shows where people can come.” 

It’s an effective way for organizations to practice the mindset they need to last for 100 years. 

The post The Centennial Mindset: My Expert Interview With Alex Hill appeared first on Mind Tools.

Do you arrive at a straightforward answer, or is it tricky to come to a clear view?

I confess, I have been pondering this for some time and have come to the conclusion that assigning the responsibility of strategy is more complex than I first thought. I started by considering what strategic leadership involves.

What Is Strategic Leadership?

A strategic leader is an individual within an organization who possesses the vision, foresight, and capability to guide the organization toward its long-term goals. This type of leader not only focuses on the day-to-day operations, but also on the larger picture and future direction of the organization. They're responsible for shaping and implementing strategies that help the organization to adapt to change and to excel in a dynamic and competitive business environment.

If that wasn't enough, strategic leaders need a clear vision of where they want the organization to be in the future. They must anticipate market trends, technological advancements, and other relevant changes, enabling them to prepare the organization for the future. Effective strategic thinkers conduct thorough risk assessments, and then focus on long-term planning and are able to set realistic and achievable goals that align with the organization's mission and vision. However, these plans can’t be set in stone: strategic leaders are open to change and can adjust strategies and plans to respond to evolving circumstances, whether within the organization or in the external environment.

Considering all that’s involved with being a strategic leader, it is clear that they play a crucial role in setting direction, inspiring teams, and ensuring the organization remains relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing business environment.

Strategy as a Collaborative Journey

These days, good strategic leaders take people on a journey rather than telling them where to go. It's about fostering a shared understanding of an organization's vision and purpose. Leaders must communicate the "why" behind strategic decisions, making it easier for team members to align their efforts.

In today's fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, the concept of "being strategic" has arguably gone through a bit of a make-over. The global pandemic forced organizations to re-evaluate their strategies, and as we emerge from this crisis, the question arises: whose job is strategy now?

Pre-Pandemic vs. Today: the Evolution of Strategy

Before the pandemic, many of us would have experienced strategy largely at the hands of top-level executives and managers. They would craft long-term plans and communicate them down the hierarchy. However, today's dynamic environment demands a more inclusive approach. Strategic leadership is no longer a top-down process but a collective effort involving individuals at all levels.

Empowered Team Members

To make strategy a collective effort, team members need to provide their input. They are the ones on the front lines, interacting with customers and experiencing market shifts first-hand. Their insights can be invaluable in shaping and refining strategies. To achieve this collective effort, creating an environment where ideas are welcomed and valued is absolutely crucial.

Influencing Strategy Without Being a Leader

Not everyone holds a formal leadership position, but everyone can influence strategy. Regardless of your role, you can contribute by staying informed and interested in where the company is heading, being proactive in problem-solving, and sharing your insights. Take the initiative to propose innovative solutions and collaborate with colleagues to implement them. Your contributions can make a significant impact on shaping the organization's direction.

So, Whose Job Is Strategy?

My conclusion is that strategy works best when it’s a shared responsibility. No longer confined to the boardroom, strategy happens at every level of the organization. It shouldn’t happen to you; it should happen with you. By empowering team members to provide input and encouraging a collaborative approach to strategy, organizations can adapt more effectively to the ever-changing challenges of our times. Whether you hold a leadership position or not, you have the power to influence and shape the strategic direction of your organization. Embrace this opportunity, and together, we can navigate the complexities of the post-pandemic world.

Strategy Resources

You may like to take a look at the following Mind Tools resources, then join the coaches’ events to share your thoughts, ask questions and learn more.

The Line Manager's Role in Strategy Video
What Is Strategy?
Strategic Leadership, With John Adair
Creating Successful Strategic Plans
Creating a Culture of Collaboration Infographic

About the Author:

Sarah is an experienced and qualified leadership, culture and conflict coach. An author, skilled trainer, facilitator, manager mentor, and workplace mediator, Sarah has over 30 years’ experience to draw on. Following a career as an HR leader and consultant, she now loves coaching leaders and teams to improve their results through developing better workplace relationships and creating savvy conversational cultures. Away from work, Sarah can be found in her garden or perhaps writing her next book.

The post Whose Job Is Strategy? appeared first on Mind Tools.

We're still feeling the effects of the global pandemic. Oil prices fluctuate wildly. War has returned to Europe. The climate is in crisis. Generative AI has arrived.  

And political, social and technological change is only going to get faster, more frantic – and harder to foresee. It’s the epitome of a "VUCA world": volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. [1] It’s become very difficult to see any kind of clear view ahead. 

“May you live in interesting times” was always meant as a curse, after all. 

But there are also opportunities amid unpredictability – if you're ready to grab them. And, while many businesses are going by the wayside, many others are finding ways to survive and thrive. They keep a grip on their future – however fractured things get. 

And usually, it’s because they have a plan. 

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail 

In turbulent times, mid-to-long-term planning lets you and your organization focus on the things you can control – and at least be aware of the things you can't. Get it right, and you'll keep a handle on who you are as a company, what you want to achieve, how you’re going to do that, by when, and with what effect. And you'll spot some of the difficulties and dangers ahead.  

Your plan isn't a rigid list of actions you can take to guarantee success, because that's just not possible now – and probably never was. 

Instead, it's a well-thought-out map for the way forward, with room for a little "course correction" along the way. And it lets you bring others on the journey with you. Even if the direction has been set by the C-suite, managers at all levels need to know how they fit in, to make sure the core work gets done. Only then can they inspire their teams to help turn aspirations into actions.  

Without a plan, you’re lost. 

Business Planning, the Family Way! 

I know the power of a good plan from personal experience. 

Eighteen years ago, my family life felt like its own little VUCA world. My wife and I both worked in radio, and our industry was changing fast: new technology, unexpected challengers, different ways of doing things. And in the radio station where we worked, large-scale change was looming. 

We had two young children then, and suddenly there were big decisions to make – about our jobs, where to live, how to share the childcare, what to do about schools… It felt overwhelming trying to consider everything: to know what would be best for everyone, and how to achieve it all. 

So we made a five-year plan – a fairly small-scale one, granted, but, in retrospect, it was actually a very business-minded approach. Because it covered many of the things that commercial enterprises need to put in their plans (just couched in ways that made sense for two parents and their kids!). 

Business Planning Basics 

Here’s an example of the type of business plan I’m talking about. It shows what many companies consider when they’re starting out, or looking for new investment, or launching new products or services, or – like us – just in need of more clarity about where to go in the next few years and how to get there. There are nine common components: 

• Executive summary 
• Mission statement 
• SWOT analysis 
• Goals and metrics 
• Industry analysis 
• Competitor analysis 
• Financials 
• Marketing plan 
• Conclusion 

And here’s how that collection of information, analysis and ideas can work in practice – as experienced by my wife and me! 

Business Planning in Action 

We started with our version of the executive summary – an in-a-nutshell description of all the information and ideas we’d be pulling together – then followed it by drafting a kind of mission statement, based on who we were, what we wanted to achieve, and why we felt it was important.  

For us, that highlighted the importance of getting a good work-life balance, doing jobs we felt passionate about, and finding a community where our family could thrive. For businesses, it’s often a useful way to summarize plans for stakeholders – or maybe prospective investors. 

We did our own version of a SWOT analysis, listing all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that we could think of, relating to our family. My wife and I both love learning, for example, and could retrain if we decided to – that was a strength. We had little help with childcare though – that was a weakness. The value of our house had gone up recently – so there were opportunities there. But we also saw a new level of competition for jobs where we worked, adding urgency to our decision-making.  

In a commercial plan, this is a particularly important part of the process, helping to shape ambitious but achievable strategies, and to secure internal and external support.  

For us, all of this led naturally to defining our goals – and trying to do it in a SMART, businesslike way. We looked for useful metrics, including the income we’d need at different points in the plan. And, since a key goal was to have more time for the kids, we chose some fairly loose ways to measure that, too. 

We did our own kind of industry analysis. As in a typical business plan, we thought about our industry – radio – as it was then, and how it was likely to change in the near future.  

I suppose we even did some competitor analysis – thinking about the people who might be coming for our jobs, as well as the market forces that were putting the whole industry under pressure. 

By this point, we'd already begun thinking about leaving radio – potentially to retrain as teachers. So we had a new target audience to research. Were there enough opportunities for us there? What needs could we satisfy – and what did we have to offer?  

And then, to make that shift, how would we show off our experience and skills? A marketing plan of sorts emerged as we decided to spruce up our CVs, and targeted people to talk to. As in a commercial business plan, all the earlier analysis focused our ideas.  

The financials were particularly important. Like any business we looked back at our records, drew up budgets, and made projections. More companies use complex algorithms to do that. We took a simpler approach, but we still had to be rigorous. Any five-year plan needs to make financial sense, with regular checkpoints, a little wriggle room, and at least some form of safety net in case things get really tight.  

Looking back, that financial part turned out to be the one we relied on the most. It helped us make decisions, gave us confidence – and, occasionally, confronted us with hard truths – as we enacted our plan. 

The last element was a conclusion, bringing together everything we’d collected and explored. In a commercial five-year plan, this summary often becomes a rallying call to stakeholders and a powerful message to potential investors. For us, too, it was a clear call to action. It crystallized everything we’d been thinking and talking about. 

Suddenly we had a route to follow to the future we wanted. It fueled our confidence to push ahead – and, as we did, we learned even more about the full power of a well-made plan. 

The Benefits of a Five-Year Plan 

Whether you’re managing people in a company or a family, having a plan helps at every turn. 

It provides clarity for everyone involved and influences everything you do – from the people you gather around you, to the products or services you decide to develop, to the way you end up delivering them.  

It can help you to secure funding if you need it, and keep your stakeholders involved and informed as you move forward. 

However busy things get, you’ve got a document to refer to that reminds you of your purpose and your priorities. It helps you to do the things that move you in the right direction – and say no to the things that don’t.  

It’s a way to avoid overwhelm, manage stress, and stay motivated. But it also lets you see when to adjust your course a little – because, inevitably, things will change. 

Five Years Later… 

Five years after making our plan, we were both fully trained teachers, living in a new city, and our children were happy in their schools. Some of our work-life balance was right, although that part was still very much a work in progress. And we’d taken a financial hit that would take a while to heal. But our plan had helped us get the big things right, bounce back from the odd misstep, stay afloat financially, and just about manage all the moving parts of family life.  

Some of the thinking we did back then still guides our decisions today. It's good to look back at our original goals and see how far we’ve come. And we may well repeat the process before long. The kids are starting to leave home. Retirement is no longer a distant prospect. Where do we want to be five years from now – and how are we going to get there? 

Meanwhile, times are likely to keep getting more “interesting” for everyone. In families and businesses everywhere, VUCA levels can make it hard to see anything beyond the struggles of the here and now. 

But experience tells me that, when you feel like there’s simply no point making any meaningful plans, that’s exactly when you need them most.  

To learn more about business planning, Mind Tools members have a range of resources to choose from, including:

Practical Business Planning

Business Requirements Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Managing in a VUCA World.  

Reference: 

[1] U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (2018). Who first originated the term VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity)? [online]. Available here. [Accessed June 9, 2023.] 

About the Author:

After a 15-year career as a BBC presenter and producer, Jonathan switched to education, where he spent a decade as a teacher and school leader. With numerous books about memory and learning to his name, he compiles quiz questions for TV shows and heads up the U.K.'s Junior Memory Championship. Since 2019 he's been a writer and editor at Mind Tools, working on a wide range of resources and co-presenting the Expert Voices podcast. Outside of work, he loves watching soccer, tending his garden, and running – everything from 5Ks to ultramarathons.

The post What's the Point of Planning? The Benefits of a 5-Year Business Plan appeared first on Mind Tools.

We've become accustomed to digital assistants that recognize our voice to conjure up information on demand. And we're as comfortable to use fingerprint scanners to unlock our phones as to accept facial recognition technology to cross a border or to catch a criminal.

The pace of technological change is fast and phenomenal. But how afraid should we be that it will run away with us, creating a world where our identities are swallowed up and reshaped for profit and control?

This is a question for a futurist – someone like Tracey Follows (pictured above), the author of a new book titled "The Future of You: Can Your Identity Survive 21st-Century Technology?"

When I spoke to her for the latest Mind Tools Expert Interview, she stressed the importance of engaging with the march of technological progress, rather than ignoring or resisting it. Each of us, she says, has to "operate as a digital persona" to function in today's world, whether we like it or not.

Below is an audio clip from our conversation. You can download a transcript here.

As Follows emphasizes, "if our identity is being digitized, then we want to be in control of it."

Technology: Possible, Probable or Preferable?

According to Follows, members of the "futuring community" can be divided into those who think you can predict the future, and those who think you can't, but you can do some useful preparation for what might come. She's the second kind.

"Obviously, anything societal or cultural is a lot more difficult to predict, and so that's really more about preparing," she explains. "So you're preparing for different possible outcomes or different possible futures, as we would call them, not just the probable future."

In her book, she brings together research and insight about several aspects of our identities in the 21st century, in chapters that indicate their focus. There's "Knowing You," about data collection; "Watching You," about digital surveillance; "Creating You," about our online personas; and "Connecting You," about communication. The others are "Replacing You," "Enhancing You," and "Destroying You."

This builds a mostly dystopian vision of the future, where governments and companies can influence who you are and what you do. I asked Follows if people can opt out of this by simply not using technology. After all, not everyone has an online life. Her answer? It's not that simple.

"It doesn't really matter how much or how little you're using technology. Society is using technology and the state certainly is using technology. And that obviously has ramifications for not only who you are, but how you are treated and how you are assumed to be someone you are," she says.

Creating "You" Through Technology

So what can we control? Our social media personas, for one. We can curate a digital image of ourselves that is close to the reality, or very far from it. Or something in between – a better version of ourselves, if you will. And while this may be fun, it can also have a fascinating impact on our day-to-day lives, back on Planet Earth.

Follows explores this in the chapter "Creating You," in a discussion about avatars. This stood out for me, with its logical and tantalizing upside.

She cites research by Jeremy Bailenson at Stanford University, looking at how people represented by avatars behave in virtual environments.

"What he found was that their own behavior was very much affected by the avatar they thought they were. So how they thought they showed up affected their own behavior," she reports.

"If they thought they were a really tall person in a virtual reality space, they might be much more confident. He found that they were, I think, better negotiators, because they felt like they were more imposing when they were taller. And if they felt like they were very small avatars, they acted differently. Likewise, if they were more 'attractive,' they would be much more confident."

Follows encountered a similar effect among people in Tokyo who spent a lot of time on live social media feeds. The avatars they chose allowed them to be "discovered" – and in more ways than one.

"Sometimes when they are themselves on some of these social platforms, they are less confident," she says. "And if they can take on an avatar suddenly, they're able to turn up in these environments and sing their heart out or play the piano, and they've found these amazing talents."

Tech to Hide Behind or to Shine Through

An avatar can be a mask that hides a person's identity, but it can also enable people to adopt a new identity, with the power to draw out new strengths. It's an intriguing idea, particularly since we increasingly communicate online.

"Who we turn up as, who we represent ourselves as, how we profile ourselves, is obviously having a really fundamental and quite profound effect on our communication and our interaction in lots and lots of different ways," Follows reflects.

Granted, there are moral dilemmas and even mental health risks if "we build ourselves a wardrobe of avatars" for different situations, or to deal with different people in different ways. But on the positive side, unlike some of the other scenarios presented in Follows' book, this is one technological advance that we can manage – and benefit from – ourselves.

Transhumanism and Transparent Government

Mind Tools Club members and Mind Tools for Business licensees can listen to my full 30-minute interview with Tracey Follows. In it, she also touches on the use (and abuse) of technology for democracy, physical and mental augmentation, creativity, and more. It comes with a complete transcript.

If you're not already signed up, join the Mind Tools Club now to gain unlimited access to 2,400+ resources, including our back catalog of 200+ audio Expert Interviews. And to find out more about Mind Tools' enterprise solutions, you can book a demo with one of our team.

Meanwhile, you can read more from me, Rachel Salaman, by searching the Expert Interview blog topic.

The post Avatars, AI and Authentication, with Tracey Follows appeared first on Mind Tools.

If you think racism is a U.S.-only issue, think again. If you believe solving racism is best left to governments, think again. If you're under the impression racial equity is just a new twist on racial equality, think again. And if you think racial equity is just another training program to roll out, then, yes – think again.

Every society has centers of influence, such as education, religion, healthcare, and government. The workplace is another of these centers. From the industrial revolution to the digital revolution, the workplace has been where we experience change in the making.

Business leaders around the globe are now leading another transformation: creating a workplace that reflects the multicultural world in which we live.

Business Leads Change

For several decades, the global communications firm, Edelman, has conducted an annual trust and credibility study. They call it The Edelman Trust Barometer. Last year's results (of 38,000 respondents from 28 countries) found that "business," once again, is the most trusted source. Sixty-one percent of respondents said they trust business, ahead of NGOs at 59 percent, government at 52 percent, and media at 50 percent. This puts business leaders in the best position to advance racial equity in the workplace, and in turn, society.

What Is Racial Equity?

Through our own exploration, we define equity as a measure of diversity and inclusion, which together make DEI (or EDI). Neither finite nor absolute, "E" measures how and to what extent "D" and "I" are embedded into an organization’s business strategy and every business policy and practice. An organization's "E" perpetually monitors and, as necessary, recalibrates "D" and "I" to stay ahead of potential relapse and continually advance toward an antiracist workplace.

When something is a little tricky to understand, sometimes it's helpful to describe what isn't. Racial equity is not a Black Lives Matter statement on your company's website; it's not an addendum to your company's values statement; it's not checking a box for Human Resources that confirms you sponsored or attended a workshop on unconscious bias; it's not writing a check to your favorite non-profit organization. It takes more than that to embed equity in your organization.

Equity Versus Equality

We are often asked, "So what's the difference between equity and equality?" We believe that the Annie E. Casey Foundation describes it best:

"Equi­ty involves try­ing to under­stand and give peo­ple what they need to enjoy full, healthy lives. Equal­i­ty, in con­trast, aims to ensure that every­one gets the same things in order to enjoy full, healthy lives. Like equi­ty, equal­i­ty aims to pro­mote fair­ness and jus­tice, but it can only work if every­one starts from the same place and needs the same things."

The Racial Equity Continuum

Before you can embed racial equity into your business strategy, you must define what racial equity means for your organization specifically. Equity is a relative newcomer to the diversity and inclusion space. Many DEI professionals and business leaders alike are still wrestling with what it means and how to implement it.

Two internal DEI professionals, from two different global companies (one tech, one research), recently shared with us how their organizations define equity:

1. When there are no systemic biases that impact the employee lifecycle.
2. When race is no longer a predictor of our outcomes.

Notice how the first definition does not mention race, while the second one does.

By not specifically mentioning race in its definition, it may signal that this organization is “race tentative,” to use the term the Annie E. Casey Foundation uses in its learning continuum for race-focused work (see figure below). The continuum shows the stages an organization goes on in its journey toward embedding equity.

After decades of work, some organizations have moved from "color-blind" (avoids or shuts down conversations about race, believing it will only create unmanageable discord), to "diversity-only" (proposes universal strategies that are presumed to work for all employees), to "race-tentative" (employees or management has gone through antiracism or unconscious bias training, but the organization is still unclear about what to do next), and now to "equity-focused"(measures are in place for management accountability). This transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It requires intention, commitment and resources.

Conversation Is Key

Another DEI professional we interviewed for our book, The Business of Race, was Nereida Perez, from the global spice company McCormick. Perez believes that understanding workplace racial equity surfaces from cross-functional conversations about how your company will measure progress, like you do for any other strategic business priority. "What I've seen in the industry is the term 'equity’ being introduced, but these deeper conversations are not happening," Perez told us.

We agree. Your definition of racial equity will only surface through deep conversations – and not solely with your most senior team. One of the resounding themes from the more than two dozen business leaders we interviewed was that you cannot do this work in a vacuum: you must engage your employees and other key collaborators.

Racial Equity in Action

Once you commit to having deeper conversations on what racial equity means for your organization, you can then begin to examine your policies and practices to see how racially equitable they are. But don't try to tackle every policy and practice at once.

Instead, pick one. Then create a diverse, cross-functional team to examine the current state, define the desired state, set specific goals with clear accountabilities, identify measures, and then report on progress – just like you do for other strategic priorities.

Want to take it a step further? Tie a percentage of executive compensation to the achievement of your racial equity goals, like Starbucks, Prudential Financial, and other companies have done.

Closing the Wage Gap

Let's take a closer look at one thing that we can all relate to, regardless of where we sit in an organization: compensation.

A September 2020 report by the global banking and financial services company, Citigroup, found a plethora of inequities between Black and White communities in the U.S. Specific to the workplace, the economists found income levels peak for Black men sooner and lower (ages 45–49, $43,849) than for White men (ages 50–54, $66,250).

Pay inequities related to race are not unique to the U.S. According to the Resolution Foundation, Black male university graduates are paid 17 percent less than White male university graduates in the U.K. – the equivalent of £3.90 an hour, or £7,000 over a year. And Black female university graduates are paid 9 percent less than White female university graduates, or £3,000 less over a year.

Fixing Pay Inequity

To combat this trend, we recommend organizations conduct a pay equity analysis, that includes a focus on race, to establish a baseline. Be transparent in your reporting of where you are today and identify steps with clear accountabilities to close the gaps. Repeat the process annually to measure progress, just like you would for any other strategic priority.

What will you gain by ensuring your pay is racially equitable? A competitive advantage. You'll be more likely to attract and retain talent when they know there is fair compensation.

A growing number of U.S. federal states and local municipalities have passed laws requiring employers of a minimum number of employees (some as few as one) to disclose salary ranges or minimum/maximum wages for open positions and in some cases, current positions. Some innovative companies, like software development firm Truss, implemented pay transparency long before it was mandated. Why? Because they knew it would attract and retain more diverse talent.

If the state or city you do business in has not enacted pay transparency laws, get ahead of the curve and begin this work now. Competition for talent continues to be at or near the top of the greatest business challenges list of nearly every executive we work with.

The Journey to Equity

Embedding racial equity into your business strategy is a journey. A journey that will be both exciting and daunting. One that is fraught with missteps and filled with surprising giant steps. A journey that is both self-reflective and other-focused. What's one actionable step you can take to advance a more racially equitable workplace?

About the Authors

Margaret H. Greenberg and Gina Greenlee are executive coaches, organizational development (OD) consultants, and the coauthors of "The Business of Race: How to Create and Sustain an Antiracist Workplace and Why It's Actually Good for Business" (McGraw-Hill, 2021).

They recently added two more cohorts of their 6-part, live series, Embedding Racial Equity into Your Business Strategy. One cohort kicks off January 19th 4:00-5:30 pm EST (UTC -5) and the other on January 23th 7:00-8:30 am (UTC -5). See their website to learn more and reserve your virtual seat.

The post Embedding Racial Equity in Your Business Strategy appeared first on Mind Tools.

During our Mind Tools Expert Interview, the U.S. professor, founder and strategist shared with me stories of how her father instilled a problem-solving attitude in her and her brother. This came to fruition when, with his guidance, the youngsters invented a tidying tool for local diners that was quickly adopted and mass produced.

Marchand told me that that experience – at the tender age of 13 – taught her two things. First, that children are boundlessly creative, and as adults, we can all "tap back" into that spirit. And second, that every successful innovation has to solve a problem that’s a genuine pain point for the customer. 

Be Curious to Innovate

In this clip from our conversation, she offers advice on how to home in on the problems that can lead to great innovations. According to Marchand, it’s all about employing your curiosity, developing observation skills, and asking great questions.

Marchand’s innovation process starts with identifying the "right" problem to solve. Sometimes, a problem may look like it’s caused by one thing when, in fact, something quite different is behind it. Other times, we may think there’s no problem at all. We can get used to long wait times and faulty tech.  

Innovation Begins at Home 

My interviewee said, "The best problems to solve are the ones that you have personal involvement with." A case in point that I’ve noticed in my own life is the variety of ways that publicly funded doctors’ offices try to meet the huge demand for their services here in the U.K. 

Some practices offer patients appointments on a "first come, first served" basis. As each slot fills, availability tightens to the point where patients end up being offered dates that are weeks ahead. But they want action now. 

Other offices run a daily appointment book. Call from 8am and hope to grab one of that day’s slots – along with dozens of other patients scrambling for the same thing. You have to prepare yourself for a long wait on the phone, and when you finally get through, you may be told there’s no space that day. Try again tomorrow. 

Some practices operate a nurse triage system, with nurses talking to patients before any appointment is made. This may weed out time wasters and simple admin. But, by definition, nurses don’t have the same diagnostic training or experience as doctors. What if they make a wrong call? 

I’ve always been impressed by the solution offered by my own healthcare center, which is a mixture of the above. If you want a consultation with a doctor, you can call in the morning and leave your name and number, and a brief description of your issue. Then a senior doctor will call you back quickly, bringing all their authority and medical knowledge to bear. They decide if you need to be seen that day or later, and they can give instant medical advice over the phone as well. 

At first glance, the "pain point" in this scenario appears to be the desire to see a doctor. But it’s actually the desire to know if you need to see a doctor. Face time with a doctor when you don’t need it is a nuisance for everyone. So a short call with a senior doctor before an appointment is even made addresses the "right" problem.  

Step by Step Invention

During my conversation with Marchand, I was reminded of an event I covered a few years ago in central London. It was a "design hackathon" attended by around 100 teenage girls, who were invited there on a Saturday for a fun day of learning. 

The point was to teach them a five-step process to innovation, the first two being researching and defining a suitable problem. Sound familiar? The other steps were: to think through solutions, create a prototype of the best one, and test it with potential users. 

The girls were put into groups, each of which had to come up with an innovation by applying those five steps. During the day, they had access to lots of making materials, from cardboard and glue to feathers, straws and balloons. This was for their prototypes. 

The solutions they came up with were inspiring, ranging from a magnetic levitation hospital bed, through a smart fridge to help people cook nutritious meals, to a teaching app that allowed users to select their preferred level of language complexity. 

Women and Innovation 

I think Marchand would have approved of this event for girls. Women innovators still face unique challenges, and she devotes a whole chapter to this in her book, "The Innovation Mindset," exploring what the sticking points are, why they happen, and how to change things for the better. 

"When we look at the companies that are invested in, still only around two or three percent of founders or co-founders are women," she points out.

Her aim is to help "lift women up and get them to think more strategically, creatively, about being innovators and know that this is something that’s available to them."

For a few dozen young women in London, at least, I’m pretty sure that message has landed. 

8 Ways to Innovate

Mind Tools Club members and Mind Tools for Business licensees can listen to my full 30-minute interview with Lorraine Marchand. It comes with a complete transcript so you can easily review all eight practical steps in her innovation model while being inspired by her encouraging and creative attitude.

If you're not already signed up, join the Mind Tools Club now to gain unlimited access to 2,400+ resources, including our back catalog of 200+ audio Expert Interviews. And to find out more about Mind Tools' enterprise solutions, you can book a demo with one of our team.

Meanwhile, you can read more from me, Rachel Salaman, by searching the Expert Interview blog topic.

Your Turn!

Have you seen a problem that no one else has spotted or knows how to fix? What innovative ideas do you have, and how will you test them? Share your innovation successes and failures in the Comments, below!

The post "Become an Observer Every Day!" Lorraine Marchand on Innovation appeared first on Mind Tools.

It's remarkable that, these days, each of these visions is as likely as the others, because people are living for longer and in very different ways. Some of us decline over decades. Others stay fit until the end.

Personal financial insecurity may dictate that people remain in (or return to) the workplace later in life, or it could be a creative passion that keeps them involved. Either way, they're consumers too, equating to a potential $22 trillion market worldwide.

The nuances – and opportunities – of this diverse picture aren't lost on Susan Wilner Golden, a former venture capitalist who now leads a program on the business implications of longevity at Stanford Business School.

She recently brought some of her ideas together in a new book, "Stage (Not Age)." In this clip from my Expert Interview podcast with Susan, she explains what's behind that title.

Breaking Age Stereotypes

Shakespeare wrote of "the seven ages of man." Wilner Golden believes it's more like 18 stages.

Some of them, like caregiving and formal education, may come around a few times in one life. And everyone will experience their stages differently.

"The key is to stop thinking of all older adults as just one type of person," she says. "It's much more important to think about what stage of life they're in. Are they in their repurposed stage, a new renaissance stage?"

Yet the idea that all older people are alike remains stubbornly prevalent in the business world.

"You can look at a lot of advertising and marketing toward older adults. It often portrays people as one type of person, which is frail. Somebody's holding their hand. And that maybe is needed, but that's not true for everybody," she points out.

Opportunities of Age

The "old person" stereotypes may be outdated, but older people still have specific needs, as they move from one stage to another. This is where the business opportunities lie.

Take communication as an example. My aunt Kate has struggled to use smartphones since she first got one. That isn't unusual among her peers. They came to the digital world later in life than others.

The irony is that the model Aunt Kate struggled with the most claimed to be designed for older people. That's why she picked it.

I remember trying to help her perform simple functions such as text and search, but I failed. The icons were large, so they were easy to see, but they weren't standard or intuitive. And when I touched them, they didn't take me where I was expecting.

The designers had set out with a good business idea aimed at serving this large, growing, and often wealthy segment of the population. But they'd ended up with a device that did the opposite of what it promised. It increased stress and a sense of inadequacy among its target users.

Wilner Golden has a simple tip for companies looking to serve older people in the right way: create intergenerational teams.

As well as increasing the likelihood of producing something truly useful, it may give new purpose to the older employees involved, who might otherwise feel like they're counting down to retirement.

Don't Assume – Include!

If an older person had helped design Aunt Kate's phone, perhaps the icons would have been familiar, just a little larger or brighter than usual. Wilner Golden calls such tweaks "stealth features." And the navigation pathways would have matched those of mainstream models. Not everything has to change.

"Having someone to design with, rather than for, is the mantra in the field," Wilner Golden says, "because you may not know what the needs and wants of an older adult are, but your older employees may well."

This applies equally to younger employees. Your millennial and Gen Z team members can bring valuable insight into product design for their peer groups, too. It's all about working well together, regardless of age.

Indeed, for Wilner Golden, "engaging intergenerational opportunities" is the "secret sauce" for companies and individuals looking to win in our changing world.

"We cannot be an age-segregated society," she believes. "To integrate more would be wonderfully powerful going forward."

A Strategy for Older Age Inclusion

Mind Tools Club members and Mind Tools for Business licensees can listen to or read my full 30-minute interview with Susan Wilner Golden, in which she discusses her work with students aged 50-80, the imperative to build digital literacy across generations, and which companies are leading the way in inclusion for older employees and customers alike.

If you're not already signed up, join the Mind Tools Club now to gain access to 2,400+ resources, including our back catalog of 200+ Expert Interviews. And to find out more about Mind Tools' enterprise solutions, you can book a demo.

When Will You Retire?

Do you love your work too much to leave, or has financial insecurity forced you to return? What product would you like to see redesigned so that you could use it into later life? Share your experiences in the Comments, below!

The post "Don't Call Me Senior!" Susan Wilner Golden on Age, Work and Product Design appeared first on Mind Tools.

I was reminded of this recently during a parents' evening at my children's school. Both of them – I'm pleased to say – are bright, happy kids. But a discussion about other kids who compete with each other to be "the best" brought that quote to mind.

What exactly did "being the best" mean, I wondered. It sounds noble enough, but did I want my children to join in? And thinking of that old quote, why might "being unique" trump "being the best?"

I thought about it some more and remembered what my dad used to say when I was a kid. "Just try your hardest," he would tell me. "I don't mind if you're not the best; just try hard and be yourself." Nobody's word carried more weight than my father's did back then. And if being myself was more important to him than being the best, then I was ready to listen.

Racing to the Bottom Is Not Unique

I realized that the tussle at school to become numero uno was probably destructive and self-defeating. OK, so whoever emerged on top might have their podium moment, but at what cost? How many playground friendships might unravel? How many tender souls might end up nursing battered egos?

Instead of being, as at first it appeared to be, a competition to reach the top, these schoolyard shenanigans were actually a race to the bottom. Kids were competing by matching each other's moves – copying notes, drawings, language, and even looks.

Any time someone arrived with a new hairstyle, the latest sneakers, or a fancy pencil case, their classmates would imitate them to gain an advantage. This most innocent of environments was becoming a dog-eat-dog world. Kids were competing to be the best by being the same.

Michael Porter in Pictures

All this was fresh in my mind when I read the excellent "What Is Strategy? An Illustrated Guide to Michael Porter," by Joan Magretta and Emile Holmewood.

It's a graphic novel – essentially, a short book in which text, illustrations, speech bubbles, and commentary panels interplay in a kind of storyboard format. And at first glance it does seems like an awkward marriage of business and children's publishing.

The book's theme and cartoon animals seem unlikely bedfellows. But it's actually a fantastically accessible introduction to the fundamentals of strategy.

Read on, and you'll pick up takeaways from the mind of world-renowned strategist, Michael Porter, famous for his Five Forces Model. One such takeaway is the importance of adopting the right mindset. This sounds a little woolly but it's a foundation for the more theoretical stuff that comes later.

Think of the outlook that your favorite team carries onto the field with them. Whatever the sport, players set out to be "the best." They have to, it's the only way to win.

Compare that to your favorite musician, dancer, or comedian. People in the performing arts don't reach the top of the tree by crushing the opposition. They do it by being creative, by developing unique identities and approaches to what they do.

No two bands sound exactly alike (even the dodgy tribute acts) and no two singers have the same voice. Each actor, each circus performer, each magician can develop an audience and successfully create unique value for their customers. This generates a self-sustaining, flourishing field in which everyone can win.

Best vs. Unique

The sports analogy reflects what goes on in my kids' school – the trap of competing to "be the best." It might work on the soccer pitch but it doesn't work in the classroom, and it doesn't work in business either.

It's the second approach – the creative, "performing arts" mindset – that pays dividends, both at school and in the world of work.

Not adopting it means making what Porter calls "the worst error in strategy" – that is, competing with your rivals within the same dimensions.

Playing by Your Own Rules

I'm happy to say that my kids stand slightly apart from these playground tussles. They're part of the crowd but don't jockey for position within it, and they're confident enough in themselves to play by their own rules.

That both my kids are as stubbornly independent as they are sometimes drives me to distraction. But it also makes me very proud.

Every so often, they tell me about a classmate who leaves the competitive mêlée to sidle up to them when there's work to be done. All will get on and do what they each want to do and resist the urge to instigate an imitation game or a bout of one-upmanship. Maybe they're learning that there's a better way. Maybe the right mindset is spreading.

Download Our "What Is Strategy?" Book Insight

We review the best new business books and the tested classics in our monthly Book Insights, available as text or as 15-minute audio downloads.

So, if you're a Mind Tools Premium Club member or corporate user, download or stream the "What Is Strategy?" Book Insight review now.

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What's your strategy mindset? Join the discussion below and let us know!

The post What Would Michael Porter Say – Be the Best or Be Unique? appeared first on Mind Tools.

In his book, "The Business of Choice: How Human Instinct Influences Everyone's Decisions," he digs deep into "behavioral insights." In other words, how unconscious instincts can sometimes nudge us to choose one thing over another.

How Does Human Instinct Sway Choice?

Willcox works in marketing, where this knowledge can help organizations sell products and services. But he believes that understanding how our instincts dictate our choices can be useful to anyone.

Looking at my toilet paper purchase through a behavioral science lens, I can see a few instincts at play.

For a start, there's what Willcox calls "Social Proof." This is when we're encouraged to do something because other people are doing it. One example Willcox references is how the U.K. government persuaded more people to pay a hard-to-collect tax by sending them a letter stating that similar folks had paid it on time.

I bought my toilet paper with a £5 discount voucher sent to me by a friend. She also got £5 off her next purchase. Not only did this give us a sense of togetherness in our choice of brand, it also had a little financial perk.

Positioning the Consumer as Expert

Getting a bargain made me feel positive about my purchase, and this speaks to a fundamental human instinct – our desire to feel good. There are lots of ways for marketers to achieve this, according to Matthew Willcox. From the age-old tactic of offering discounts, to using quizzes and surveys, which makes consumers feel more like experts.

For me, the toilet paper brand's sustainability credentials made the most difference. The product is 100 percent recycled, and 50 percent of the profits go toward building toilets in communities where they're needed. This boosted the "feel-good" factor of my purchase. It also wrapped in another behavioral insight: we're hardwired to compare.

"If you put us in front of one washing machine and you ask us to assess its capabilities, we don't do very well," Willcox says. "But, if you put two different machines in front of us, we will be able to compare one to the other. We will probably not stop until somebody tells us to stop doing it, because suddenly we have a frame of reference."

Comparing Comes Easy

This rings true for me. It was easy to compare my new toilet paper brand's green credentials with my old brand's lack of them. But I didn't stop there. Before I placed my order, I compared the number of sheets in each toilet roll with the product I used to buy. The new eco choice had more than double, further reinforcing my decision.

This instinct to compare is driven by how our brains work, Willcox says. For example, we naturally reach for the familiar. In this case, the familiar is my old brand of toilet paper, which I used as a comparator. And we like things to be easy.

"It's much easier to play off an existing mental model we have, an existing sense of something we have... and apply that to the new thing, than it is to create something new from the ground up," he explains.

Ethical Nudging

Nudging people's decisions with their own instincts can be a powerful tool. But one that should be wielded carefully and ethically.

Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. For example, Willcox says, "...there have been a number of cases where insights from behavioral science have been used to get people to sign up for loans with ridiculously high interest rates... You have to make sure you're encouraging people to make choices that are beneficial for them."

If this sounds a bit like manipulation, consider the alternative – if you can persuade people to make a beneficial decision by activating their instincts, isn't it worse to keep them in the dark?

"If you don't do anything, you're also affecting a choice," Willcox points out. "There's no neutral, really, in the world of choice architecture."

Certainly, as a consumer, I want to know that my toilet paper is recycled and helps to build facilities for people who don't have them. Do I mind that the brand is using the feel-good factor to get my custom? Frankly, in this case, not at all.

Listen to My Interview With Matthew Willcox

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The post How Instincts Rule Our Choices: My Expert Interview With Matthew Willcox appeared first on Mind Tools.

That approach didn't work.

"It would take me an hour just to read one page in a book with a magnifying glass, with eye fatigue," she recalls, in my Expert Interview podcast. "Actually, at one point, I started thinking I was stupid, like, 'What's wrong with me? I can't keep up in class'."

Then Cox had a revelation – she could get the information she wanted in other ways. She didn't have to see it... she could feel it or hear it instead. The problem wasn't her lack of vision. It was people's attitude toward it. Mindset made all the difference.

"When that changed for me, it really opened up my life," she says.

Are You "Decorating the Fish" Instead of Fixing the Problem?

This insight has impacted her distinguished career as a top public official, and it's one of the many useful lessons in her book, "Stop Decorating The Fish: Which Solutions to Ignore and Which Problems Really Matter," co-written with the entrepreneur and economist, Yishai Ashlag.

What Are the Seductive Seven Solutions?

Like the townsfolk in the book, and Cox's helpers in college, many of us assume our problems are caused by a lack of something.

We might think we need more technology, for example, more data, a new strategy, or more training and communication. Perhaps a reorganization would do the trick, or do we just need to blame someone for the problem? Or maybe we should throw more money at it, to make it go away.

Cox calls these perceived solutions the "Seductive Seven," because they can be dangerously distracting.

Haunted by Phantom Problems

It reminds me of a job I had at a start-up, years ago. The company failed after a few years, but not before ripping through many of the Seductive Seven.

The company produced multimedia cross-cultural training tools, designed for people living and working abroad. When the initial venture capital ran out, it needed to generate revenue, but no one was buying the product.

The owners upgraded the computers and software, to streamline and accelerate workflow. That didn't boost sales. So they developed a new strategy, which involved switching the focus from corporate clients to consumers. That didn't work either.

Then came the inevitable "blame game." If a product isn't selling, it must be the marketing team's fault. A couple of people were fired and replaced. Again, nothing changed.

The final push was a new influx of capital from a trusting investor, which carried the company through to its collapse a few months later.

All that remedial action made the owners feel like they were tackling the problem. The truth is they weren't even addressing it, because they hadn't figured out what it really was.

Finding the Real Problem: The Customer's Always Right!

"So many of the Seductive Seven are great for management. We can feel successful launching a new initiative or a new strategic plan," Cox observes. "The hardest thing to get in leadership or management, or even in our own lives, is clarity. What is the problem we're trying to solve?"

To identify this in any given situation, we need to adopt the end user's perspective.

"It sounds so simple, but know your goal for your customer... and this is true in product design, it's true for R&D, it's true for value," Cox says.

"You see some of the biggest companies over time losing profit share [because] they started focusing on what they're going to get, not what they're going to give. And I think that's where we can all lose our way."

More Isn't Always Better

If my former employers had focused on the customer experience, the company might still be around today. The product was of high quality and looked great, but the delivery method was awkward. This made it hard for people to access the content. That's why the product didn't sell.

Sometimes, one of the Seductive Seven may indeed be part of the solution. Technology might have helped my former company create a better user interface, for example. But often, we don't lack anything. We just need to take a fresh look at what we already have.

Listen to My Interview With Kristen Cox

Discover fascinating insights from some of the world's leading business figures with my series of Mind Tools Expert Interviews.

Mind Tools Club Members and Corporate Licensees can listen to my full 30-minute interview with Kristen Cox.

If you're not a Mind Tools member, you can join the Mind Tools Club and gain access to our 2,400+ resources, including 200+ Expert Interviews. For corporate licensing, ask for a demo with one of our team.

The post When You Can't See the Real Problem: My Expert Interview With Kristen Cox appeared first on Mind Tools.