Like a child taking the marshmallow test, decision makers have two options when dealing with questions they do not know the answers to. Only one of them paves the way for a bright future. — What if AI is not about finding the best answers to the most difficult questions, but about avoiding dealing with the fact that some questions cannot be answered? Asking scientists and decision makers to deal with a question they do not know the answer to is like asking children to…

Imagine Strategy is calling. She wants your advice on how to get Culture to listen. What do you say? — Strategy: “Hi Pia, it’s me Strategy.” Me: “Hi…?” Strategy: “I just got off the phone with Culture, and I was wondering if you could help us?” Me: “Yes…?” Strategy: “You see, we both want our company to do better, but we have a really hard time collaborating.” Me: “I know.” …

What if Culture never meant to eat Strategy for breakfast? What if Culture and Strategy were colleagues trying to align their efforts? — Culture: “Hello…?” Strategy: “Hi, C, it’s S — are you busy?” Culture: “Always! I have a customer on hold — is it important?” Strategy: “Yes, indeed — I want to invite you over for breakfast?” Culture: “Now?” Strategy: “Yes! I’m working on some new ideas, and I want to tell…

Forget agile development, innovation and management — you need a culture where all levels of your organisation constantly adapt to change. — Dear reader. If you only want to know the four steps to building an agile culture, please go directly to section five. If you also want to save hours trying to understand ‘agile’ and save your company months, maybe even years, cultivating an environment that enables all levels of your…

Successful CEOs empower reflection, relationships and shared responsibility. This is why. — Not so long ago I wrote an article titled What McKinsey gets wrong about uncertainty. Now it’s time to look at what CEOs in successful Danish companies like Grundfos, Carlsberg and Vestas get right. Interestingly, they seem to do the exact opposite of what the big management consultant company recommends…

Heidegger died before modern technology turned into digital technology, but he was right: Our relationship with technology calls for constant attention. — If you could change one thing about digital technology what would it be? And would changing the thing you want to change transform digital technology into something else? I recently re-read Heidegger’s The Question Concerning Technology (one of my absolute favourites) — and once again, I am fascinated by his…

Uncertainty makes leaders human. Here’s why you should think of uncertainty as an opportunity. — This week McKinsey published a report stating that uncertainty is toxic for our economic recovery: ”Uncertainty about the continuing spread of the coronavirus makes people fear for their health and their lives. Uncertainty about their livelihoods makes them cautious about spending. …

Have you ever held back a question or an idea because you were afraid of how your leader might react? If you have, you are not alone. …

These days, everything is changing — and fast. As a leader, the expectations people have of you are changing day to day. In fact, you have probably never had to change the way you think and act as quickly as you need to right now. The pressure is mounting and…