Relying on Jargon
Clear language creates collective understanding and a shared purpose

CLARITY
Whiffing on Purpose Statements
An authentic specific practical purpose improves performance

CLARITY
Making Everything the Strategy
A sharp focus on just a few durable customer needs creates unique value

CLARITY
Pursuing Fluffy Goals
Goals connected to customer impact guide growth

CLARITY
Misusing Metrics
Measures connected to value and purpose supercharge learning

CLARITY
Working Together but Not as a Team
Executives committed to collaborating with their peers jointly deliver enterprise-wide value

CLARITY
Declaring Superficial Principles
Values that are useful lived and living foster trust and engagement and independent action

CLARITY
Spreading Priorities Too Thinly
The embrace of a few initiatives that make you say Hell yes creates focus and impact

CLARITY
Customizing Commodities
Buying wheels instead of reinventing them frees talent to focus on differentiators

CLARITY
Entrenching Silos
A focus on the flow of value from idea to customer breaks through bottlenecks

CLARITY
Guarding Information
Making insights accessible to everyone creates transparency that fosters innovation

CLARITY
Leaning on Reorgs
Small iterative changes and the thoughtful allocation of people to where they are needed keep restructures at bay

CLARITY
Gaming Budgets
Dynamic forecasting and transparency direct money to where it produces the most value

CLARITY
Operating on a Culture of Fear
When honesty is valued and psychological safety is present ownership blossoms

OWNERSHIP
Upholding Poor Leadership
Empathy humility and curiosity transform leadership from a role to a behavior

OWNERSHIP
Gatekeeping Approval
Tenets and guardrails that remove checkpoints speed up teams

OWNERSHIP
Creating Dependencies
Self-sufficient teams that reduce reliance on others increase productivity exponentially

OWNERSHIP
Centralizing Decentralizing
A glocal approach stops the endless tug-of-war between central control and local freedom

OWNERSHIP
Fetishizing Process
Principles and a focus on outcomes dismantle bureaucracy and accelerate innovation

OWNERSHIP
Seeking Perfect Decisions
Good enough reversible decisions encourage speed learning and growth

OWNERSHIP
Diluting Accountability
When you have ham and eggs chickens contribute but pigs commit; they foster action and engaged teams

OWNERSHIP
Hiring Poorly
A focus on learning agility and values over credentials increases long-term value

OWNERSHIP
Prizing Individuals over Teams
A high-performing cross-functional team of average talent outperforms brilliant jerks every time

OWNERSHIP
Mismanaging Incentives
Opportunities for ownership and mastery drive the most powerful incentive: intrinsic motivation

OWNERSHIP
Granting Artificial Ownership
Creating organization-wide conditions for trust and agency to solve problems ignites innovation

OWNERSHIP
Evading Failure
Productive setbacks provide quick and valuable learning and reduce risk

CURIOSITY
Using Proxies for Customers
Deep obsession with getting close to and understanding real customers ensures long-term impact

CURIOSITY
Mortgaging the Future
Ambitious exploration helps companies forge new futures for customers and reshape markets

CURIOSITY
Falling in Love with Answers
Love of problems and deep investment in learning the why behind them produces superior solutions

CURIOSITY
Avoiding Hard Problems
To put a talking monkey on a pedestal start with the monkey problem not the pedestal

CURIOSITY
Avoiding Tough Conversations
Honest dialogue and constructive conflict dissolve surface-level harmony and boost performance

CURIOSITY
Building Homophilic Teams
Cognitive and intellectual diversity in teams amplifies problem-solving acumen

CURIOSITY
Deferring to Data
Data-informed decisions that honor human experience improve quality of outcomes

CURIOSITY
Segregating Technology
Broad digital fluency bridges divides and unlocks innovation

CURIOSITY
Downplaying People Development
Weaving development into daily tasks builds tomorrow's critical skills

CURIOSITY
Pretending to Innovate
Ideas of any size from anyone anywhere create real value

CURIOSITY
