5 Highlights of the Week in Creative Leadership – November 29, 2024

At a Media Summit in Paris this week, the plans repeated by several of Europe’s most respected and influential journalistic and media brands involved extending their reach across new publications, channels, and specialized products. While exciting—particularly in the context of ever-growing TikTok and other social media content (which was frequently acknowledged/lamented at the event)—the breathless push for more and more content, however high the quality, should give pause. For while expanding readers’ (and viewers’ and listeners’) understanding and experience of others and the world through content is commendable, they also need—we, as humans, also need—time away from all that content. Harvard Business School professor and The Atlantic columnist Arthur C. Brooks provides a useful variation on this claim when advocating more deep thinking. Mental workouts, long walks, and inviting boredom may be the means he proposes, but motivating them is the existential and social thinking he describes—and that is not to be found in the greater consumption of content.

• • Sharon Strickland-Clark also recently offered a related call for “The Power of Thinking Time” for leaders (November 22, 2024).

Links:

• Arthur C. Brooks on LinkedIn
• Sharon Strickland-Clark on LinkedIn
• “The Power of Thinking Time” by Sharon Strickland-Clark

1. Ethan Kross is a psychologist at the University of Michigan whose research on internal dialogue adds depth to this understanding, demonstrating how our inner voice can either enhance or impede performance. For creative leaders, these conversations often become particularly intense during times of uncertainty, creative work, and interactions with other creatives. In his conversation with Andrew Huberman, Kross picks up on the argument in his highly recommended book, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It, that our innate ability for self-reflection can either serve as a catalyst for growth or become a paralyzing source of negative self-talk. While the silent conversations we have with ourselves are a fundamental part of the human experience, destructive self-talk—especially that based in comparisons with others—can quickly produce a cycle of negative thoughts that hijack our attention and fill us with distress. Among the helpful and actionable tips he offers is to take “psychological distance”—that is, to step back and observe our experiences more objectively. For example, the simple technique of referring to ourselves in self-talk by our name, rather than the first-person “I,” can help provide the distance needed to maintain more clarity and reflect on negative experiences and address challenges less emotionally.

Links:

• Huberman Lab Podcast episode
• Andrew Huberman on LinkedIn
• Chatter by Ethan Kross

The Si Social Hub offers nearly daily posts, links, and discussions about systems thinking, leadership, change, and innovation that are both illuminating and provocative. In a recent post, they shared an excerpt from “Systems Change: A Field Building Convening,” capturing outcomes from a Systems Change Education event documented by Anna Birney, Darcy Riddell, and Laura Winn. As they wrote, “In the context of growing use of the term ‘systems change’ and increasing interest in systemic approaches to address some of the world’s most complex challenges, they wanted to convene a retreat bringing together practitioners, academics, and funders to explore how they might work together. In the run-up to the retreat, they harvested people’s definitions of ‘systems change’ so they might explore alignments and differences.” The result is a summary mapping that shows at once the inefficacy of straightforward definitions and the value of revealing the wider assumptions and interdependencies that can facilitate thinking, learning, and finally action about change.

Links:

• Si Social Hub on LinkedIn
• Si Social Hub post: “What is Your Definition of Systems Change?”
• Systems Change Education
• Anna Birney on LinkedIn
• Darcy Riddell on LinkedIn
• Laura Winn

Pete Bernhardt is a Deloitte strategy advisor and consultant based in New Zealand. His recent short post organizes strategy book recommendations around, first, a series of questions to determine a reader’s priorities in selecting a strategy book and then, second, a “Strategy Palette of Strategy Books” that categorizes a shelf of essential strategy books by the conceptual contributions they make to the field. The four conceptual contributions—Classical, Adaptive, Shaping, and Visionary—cover many of the major works in the history of the field of strategic management. The titles in each quadrant of the palette are then listed in rough suggested reading order. While debates about placement, order of reading, and potential omissions or inclusions are inevitable for such an exercise, they are also part of the point: namely, that taking a longer view of the many dimensions and perspectives of strategy is a crucial step in assessing how best to approach—and dive more deeply into—strategic thinking, analysis, and decision-making in any given situation and context.

Links:

• Pete Bernhardt on LinkedIn
• Strategy Palette of Strategy Books post

A central goal for leaders in every domain involves how to promote behaviors that benefit individuals, institutions, and society at large. This multidisciplinary meta-analysis by a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania examines research about the individual and social-structural determinants of behavior and the efficacy of behavioral change interventions that target them. While written primarily for policymakers, the key takeaways also apply importantly to creative leaders, particularly the imperative to “focus on interventions that enable individuals to circumvent obstacles to enacting desirable behaviours rather than targeting salient but ineffective determinants of behaviour such as knowledge and beliefs.” In other words, leaders can better promote behaviors by addressing structural and social hindrances—like removing administrative sanctions, enhancing institutional trustworthiness or cultures of safety, providing monitors and reminders about desirable behaviors, and increasing material incentives for behavioral change—than by targeting general attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and knowledge. The findings speak to the broader benefits of creative leaders who commit to deliberate and well-considered workplace and behavioral design efforts.

Links:

• Article in Nature Reviews Psychology