ChangeThis
ChangeThis is our weekly series of essays from today's thought leaders that are meant to evoke conversation by bringing forth new and unique ideas.
ChangeThis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Everything We Know About Great Workplaces is Wrong
By Porchlight
"When we think about extraordinary workplaces, we tend to think of the billion dollar companies at the top of Fortune magazine's annual list. We picture a sprawling campus, rich with generous amenities; a utopian destination where success is constant, collaborations are seamless, and employee happiness abounds. But as it turns out, many of the assumptions these images promote mislead us about what it means to create an outstanding workplace. In recent years, scientists in a variety of fields have begun investigating the conditions that allow people to work more successfully. What they've discovered is that in an astonishing number of cases, not only are the factors that contribute to creating a great workplace not obvious—they are surprisingly counterintuitive. Here are five great workplace myths we routinely get wrong."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How To Create Eternal Life In Any Business
By Noah Fleming
"What if I told you that there is a gold mine of new business that you're probably missing out on? And what if I told you that these will be the easiest to find, most loyal, and highest grossing customers you will ever find? These are what I call, your evergreen customers. Your evergreen customers are the ones you already have. They are the ones who can provide eternal life, growth, and regeneration for your business. In this day and age, too many companies ignore their evergreen customers and are squandering this most precious resource in the endless pursuit of new customers. Of course the goal of every company is to grow. I'd be crazy to suggest otherwise. But in actuality, it's the loyal customers that are the beating heart of a great business, and it's the companies that ignore this, by placing greater emphasis on customer acquisition, will most likely to end up stalling their own growth."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Get Rid of the Jerks
By Porchlight
"What's the best way to have a better life? Just do this one thing: Get rid of the jerks. Yes, that's right, get rid of those people who are bothering you, the people who hold you back, the ones who don't appreciate you, the ones who complain all the time, the ones who are always criticizing you, the ones who drive you nuts, the ones who just tolerate you. In short, the jerks. I have had them in my life. Too many of them. Consulting clients who always pushed for a price cut and were never satisfied with the work I had done for them. Faculty colleagues who spent more time spreading rumors than doing research. Gossipers who would suck me in to conversations berating others. I often didn't know they were jerks because it was so comfortable being with them. I just figured everyone was like that. It took me a while to learn otherwise."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
It's Your Turn: Make Something That Matters
By Porchlight
"We live in a world that's still filled with barriers and limits, a culture where too often people are judged, stripped of their dignity, and denied true freedoms. But at the same time, the economic and technological shifts around us have created an entirely new class of ruckus makers and have given people the freedom to stand up and acknowledge that it's their turn."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Get Off the Couch!
By Roger Connors, Tom Smith
"Because we all hold on pretty tight to what we know, even if it ain't so, we tend to push back on the notion of feedback—solicited or not. How do you work up the courage to admit your reality may not actually be the reality and seek out the opinions of others? As with everything related to change, it all starts with making a personal choice—taking accountability for seeing things as they really are."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Debunking the Myths, Lies, and Misconceptions of Word of Mouth Marketing
By Ted Wright
"If you have ever tried to discuss word-of-mouth marketing, you've likely confronted the many myths and misconceptions that surround it. It may be statements like "Oh, that costs too much" or "There's technology that does that for you already," or it may be a question like "Isn't that just social media?" All of these people come from a place of wanting the best for your company. In the many years that I've been doing this, I've heard every single one of them. By now, I've gotten pretty good at responding. Maybe I can help you do it too."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Fight Through the Ambush: How to Thrive When Shit Hits the Fan
By Jake Wood
"Getting ambushed sucks, no doubt about it. The ability to fight your way through to the other side, however, is what sets great leaders apart."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
A Consistent Personal Narrative is the Key to Leading in the Social Age
By Sudhanshu Palsule
"In the new world of deep interconnectivity, what we call the Social Age, leaders are confronted with challenges that constantly test 'who they are' while making each of these tests public with everyone able to comment. ... Social Age leadership challenges ... five areas of 'who we are' as leaders that most impact our leadership narrative. ... There is no one right way to lead in these five areas. Rather, they are aspects of who you are as a person. Thriving as a leader in the Social Age means taking a good look at your self and understanding how you are most productive in each of these five areas."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
A New Superpower: Building Habit-Forming Products
By Nir Eyal
"A 2011 university study suggested people check their phones 34 times per day. However, industry insiders believe that number is closer to an astounding 150 daily sessions. Face it, we're hooked. The technologies we use have turned into compulsions, if not full-fledged addictions. . . . How do companies, producing little more than bits of code displayed on a screen, seemingly control users' minds. What makes some products so habit-forming. For many products, forming habits is an imperative for survival. As infinite distractions compete for our attention, companies are learning to master novel tactics to stay relevant in users' minds. Today, amassing millions of users is no longer good enough. Companies increasingly find that their economic value is a function of the strength of the habits they create. In order to win the loyalty of their users and create a product that's regularly used, companies must learn not only what compels users to click, but also what makes them tick. ".
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Welcome to the Conscience Economy
By Porchlight
"Something extraordinary is happening. Humankind's increasing interconnectedness is causing a global transformation of values and expectations, at both the individual and societal level. The shift is reaching a tipping point that will transform business forever. You don't have to be an economic detective or business futurist to see myriad signs of the unstoppable rise of a new set of economic prerogatives that prioritize proactive positive impact on people and planet. Consider this short list: the emergence of universally available virtual education, the mainstreaming of environmental consciousness on the political and business agenda, the accelerating growth of the organic and Fairtrade foods industry, the growth of impact investing as a sector, the innovation in biosensor-enabled mobile healthcare solutions—these phenomena and more herald a mass movement for good that's great for humanity. And for business."
Categories: changethis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.