It's nearly embarrassing to admit, but yes, I have delivered four different TEDx talks.

[Clearly, it's some form of addiction.]

My very first talk was for TEDxLjubljana nearly a decade ago.

The TEDx community was just getting started, and there were barely any people in the room.

I prepared a powerpoint that did not look good on video.

So, it was a waste for everyone involved - and I learned that form, not only content, matters.

The second talk was with TEDxKlagenfurt.

I got so excited that I ran out of time.

The talk literally sped up like a bad cartoon at the end - and I learned that less is more.

The third talk was for TEDxNavesink. 

The team worked so hard to get us all ready and truly prepped.

The day of the event I had an insane fever, my skirt kept making it hard to walk, and I re-did the slides the morning of the event.

Perhaps because I was miserable and sick - or because my AMAZING coaches kept nudging me on - but in the...

 It’s time for some real talk.

But first, let me set the stage.

I first asked this question during an Executive MBA course I was teaching about a decade ago.

The room was filled with experienced professions who really had some mileage behind them.

So, imagine my surprise, when my question was met with absolute I-don’t-know-what-to-say silence.

No, I was not asking about anything private, weird, or inappropriate.

All I asked was this:

What value have you created last week?

Not your company. Not your business unit. You.

Simple question, right?

So it’s so remarkable how many of us have trouble with the answer.

We adore our product and services, we love or hate our processes, we celebrate or cry over our financial results… But value… That seems very abstract.

Yet, without a real grasp of value creation, reinvention is not possible – it’s all about new and improved ways of creating value.

And that’s...

Our team at Chief Reinvention Officer had a big September.

First, I made a trip around the world (Columbus - Toronto - Frankfurt - Nur Sultan - Seoul - Vancouver - Chicago - Columbus.... Even typing it up makes me dizzy!)

Then we launched the Fall 2019 Class of our foundations-of-reinvention course. (All those emails. Yes, we are done. Back to weekly articles!)

Then we started our own company reinvention - our quest for better team flow, better tech, better value for all of you...


So, when the idea came up to hold our next big strategic discussion while taking a walk at a beautiful park, I jumped. 

What can be better than talking about letting go of no-longer-useful ideas while watching the trees letting go of their leaves?!

So, here we were, turning a corner of the park, talking about our mission - about the shift required in how we manage our organizations to meet the challenges of speed and uncertainty.

I am in my normal all-knowing preachy self, talking a lot.

...

I still remember the moment.

I was working on this new free knowledge platform that still did not have a name.

We all knew that it is desperately needed - after all, the demand for helping companies and non-profits to survive disruption was so high, that we had to say "no" to most requests for help.

We knew it was time to make our knowledge and tools public and radically accessible.

But we did not know how to describe it.

So, Mark Levy, our positioning extraordinaire, asked me: "If what you do in companies had a title, what would it be?"

That was a tough one.

I went through a list one by one.

Chief Innovation Officer? No, my job is also about protecting the old...

Chief Transformation Officer? We are so tired of the word transformation - and it so rarely produces results!

Chief Strategy Officer? But what about implementation...

And then it just came out. Chief Reinvention Officer.

Mark stopped for a second (he is a very tough critic, so I was bracing for...

I am sitting at the airport in South Korea, wondering how can I convince you to take the time and join me for a new live online Masterclass.

I am thinking of a story to tell.

Or a clever tagline to entice you with.

Or a piece of data to feature that will show you how useful this virtual get-together gonna be.

But all of it seems like a cheap marketing trick.

This Masterclass is a labor of love – so empty marketing tricks simply won’t do.

And we are talking about life and death here – quite literally – life and death of your organization or your career.

As I am writing these words, a client is waiting on WhatsApp to get help with a list of disruptions that only a few years ago would be unimaginable. 

Brexit.

US-China (and the whole world) trade war.

New competitors.

New breakthrough technology making his products absolute.

Every kind of threat of ecological disaster from climate change to the catastrophic...

You know that horrible feeling.

You’re working hard: trying to improve things, bring results, do the right thing.

But you feel like you’re stuck. 

Your company is resisting.

Your customers keep changing on you.

Your competitors are throwing you curveballs left and right.

Your suppliers don’t get on board.

And now the upcoming recession is all over the news.

You keep pedaling and pushing but don’t get any closer to the desired outcome. 

You feel exhausted, frustrated, and alone. And it keeps getting worse and worse.

Why is this happening . . . and how can you move forward without closing your eyes and waiting for things to “magically” get better?

That was exactly what drove our team as we committed to writing “Titanic Syndrome: Why Companies Sink and How to Reinvent Your Way Out of Any Business Disaster.”

We wanted to make sure you have an easy-to-follow toolkit that will help you deal with today’s...

A few years ago, a celebrity chef opened a pizza place near my house.

I’m not really a “celebrity chef” kind of person because I don’t tend to care if someone uses artesian water or features a special salt menu instead of the regular stuff.

But, I love me a good old pizza…  …so my husband, our 15-year-old daughter Lila and I went to check the place out.

As we looked over the menu, we were hopeful. No weird ingredients, but the prices sent all the right signals. The pizza was about four times as much as a standard pizza, so surely they were going to rock our worlds.

When our pizza came out, it looked the part.

But… the taste was disappointing.

It wasn’t bad… but it wasn’t great… it was just a pizza. And that was EXACTLY the issue.

There was nothing to justify the higher price. The celebrity chef just decided that he “could” charge more, so he did. 

...

It’s no secret a well-done reinvention can completely transform your business – and life. 

Heck, maybe you’ve thought about changing things up . . . only to get tripped up by all the things you know you’d need to do. Things like… 
 

• pitching and selling your reinvention idea to your team or even your boss 
• overcoming various WHAT IFs, BUTs, and “we’ve always done it this way” thrown your way from every direction  
• putting yourself out there, leading the change, and being ultimately responsible for its outcomes

… among other things. 

Kinda makes you wanna hide in a closet when you look at it that way, right? Especially when you’re busy doing your current job, running a business, rocking a side hustle, parenting, and much more. 

As someone who’s been in charge of many reinvention efforts, I’ve learned to break down the entire process into simple...

A few days ago, I had a very funny – and very honest – conversation.

We were having a virtual coffee with a client executive talking about reinvention tools and resources.
We talked about the need to go deep.
We complained about the world’s obsession with quick fixes.
We discussed the danger of simplification.

And then – in a split of a second – all that great philosophy went out of the window and the real life (with all its crazy schedule and competing priorities) took over.

“I know there are TONS of resources and tools to take me to the next level. But I can’t handle a lot right now. So, if you could give me just ONE, I would so appreciate it.”

I know the feeling oh so well.

No matter how much I want to go deep and wide every day, some days it’s just all too much.

And on those days I don’t need a lot – I need THE one answer.

So, I gave him my answer with zero hesitation – and then went on to record...