Ditch Your Old Thinking (with Roger L Martin)

Mark speaks with Roger L. Martin, a 40-year trusted adviser to CEOs of some of the world’s top companies and author of A NEW WAY TO THINK: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness. After watching the dominant models of management fail leaders time and again, Roger became passionate about helping leaders and businesses think differently and ditch old models for new ones in the ways of management, culture, and competition.

Today, Commander Divine speaks with Roger L. Martin, best-selling author of A NEW WAY TO THINK: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness where he urges leaders to toss out the old ways of thinking, and instead try new models in every domain of management. In the episode, Roger shares his expertise and rich experience working with the world’s most powerful CEOs and businesses to rethink how they think.

Key Takeaways:

Create like a designer. Today’s markets require less structure and more culture. A culture of creation and designing, which requires employees and leaders to think of new possibilities constantly. This is the way of the future.

Be ready to pivot, like a SEAL. The elite teams and business leaders all think similarly – they know that plans are only temporary and the real work comes when they get into the field. Real leadership requires agility & trust in your team to create the next answers.

Imagination, visualization, and clarity. Mark and Roger connect on how the SEALs use imagery to ensure the team has a collective vision of how the operation will work. By using imagery, visualization is possible, and cohesion is achieved. The best leaders attack VUCA; they don’t wait. Roger shares his angst for leaders that wait for VUCA to disappear to act, which Mark agrees makes for a block in information and productivity. Instead, act amidst VUCA to attain information more quickly. Expect to fail, and iterate.