Can business do well by doing good - A Guide To Sustainability: Accenture Outlook:

October 2010 Today, there probably isn’t a company anywhere in the world that does not at least acknowledge the importance of sustainability—of doing business in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Indeed, for many companies, sustainability is now as much of a strategic priority as such traditional business concerns as technology, talent and customers. The commitment to sustainability has weathered the storm of the downturn well; in some cases, it has even been strengthened by it. Meanwhile, an emerging body of research suggests that sustainable business practices correlate closely with high performance. On an operational level, however, sustainability is not yet seamlessly woven into the fabric of business. Executives still must make, almost daily, difficult trade-offs between practices that meet short-term business needs and those that will contribute to sustaining the needs of future generations.

Click to read more ...

7 Ways to help your employees understand and become involved in your company strategy - The Globe and Mail, Toronto

If your strategy is sensible but isn't working, it's because you have failed in implementation. Toronto-based consultant Morry Patoka, of iQuest Inc., says there are seven choke points to strategy implementation that we unfortunately create ourselves before we even reach the implementation stage. On his blog, CreateTheConditions.com, he notes if the strategy isn't being effectively implemented, it's likely because of one these problems:

Click to read more ...

10 Whole Brain Essentials for Leadership and Learning in the Innovative Era - Dr Ellen Weber

Ask – don’t tell. What if you were to ask one innovative question to a leader you encounter? What if you held back a strong opinion, in favor of learning from others today? Imagine the ground-breaking results for innovative workplace solutions you pioneer. Yet experts remind us how innovation loses because leaders remain locked in the past. Sadly, innovative opportunities get stomped on by narrow-minded demands. It doesn’t have to be that way! Can you see growth benefits for holistic leading that inspires organizational change?

Click to read more ...

In Search of An Innovation Policy - Dr Sami Mahroun, Director. INSEAD Innovation Policy Initiative

Everywhere innovation has become a buzzword: in academic journals, popular media, corporate promotional materials and government strategies. The use of the word has rapidly expanded from a noun to its various hyphenated transmutations. Thus, today we don’t only talk of the importance of innovation to societies, but often the importance of specific types of innovation too, such as green innovation, social innovation, open-innovation. The innovation jargon has expanded exponentially with colourful analogies ranging from innovation corridors, clusters, poles, and valleys, to “disruptive” , ‘radical’and ‘incremental’ innovations.

Click to read more ...

The psychology of change management - McKinsey Quarterly - Organization - Change Management

Companies can transform the attitudes and behavior of their employees by applying psychological breakthroughs that explain why people think and act as they do. Over the past 15 or so years, programs to improve corporate organizational performance have become increasingly common. Yet they are notoriously difficult to carry out. Success depends on persuading hundreds or thousands of groups and individuals to change the way they work, a transformation people will accept only if they can be persuaded to think differently about their jobs. In effect, CEOs must alter the mind-sets of their employees—no easy task.

Click to read more ...