For me 1WTC is less about what it is — a building — than what it stands for — the commitment to building something bigger, better and bolder. Think about it.

• A building is static. The act of building is active.
• A building is about what is. Building is about what can be.
• A building is the embodiment of how things were. Building is about forward progress and reaching higher.

Why is the notion of building so important — especially now? Because doing the opposite — not building — is a path to nowhere. Why?

• Consider the speed at which everything is changing.
• Consider how innovation lifecycles are shorter and shorter.
• Consider our easy access to just about anyone and any market.
• Consider the thousands of entrepreneurs and billions of investment currency committed to challenging conventional wisdom and current market leaders.

Taking pleasure from past success may be comforting, but it’s delusional. Continuing to operate in the same manner and style as how it’s always been may feel familiar, but it’s an insular trap. A new workout routine ceases to produce new results after six weeks. Budgeting off of past year models is an inside-out view that doesn’t reflect what’s going on in the market. Managing off of organizational practices built for productivity and efficiency will not produce the innovation and breakthroughs needed to prevail in a highly dynamic and fiercely competitive economy.

Contemporary thought leaders are actively promoting the need to think and act in this manner. Take Gary Hamel, who was ranked #1 most influential business thinker in the world by the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, What Matters Most, is about “how to win in a world of relentless change, ferocious competition, and unstoppable innovation.” You should also check out The Management Innovation Exchange. It’s “an open innovation project aimed at reinventing management for the 21^st Century.”

You have a choice. Remain as you are. And stay how you’ve been. Or courageously commit to aggressively building a bigger, better and bolder future for yourself and your organization. 1WTC may have eclipsed the Empire State Building as the tallest building in New York City, but it is committed to building the tallest building in the Western hemisphere and third largest in the world. Now that’s ambition.

The question is: Are you a building? Or are you building for a better future?

Thomas Butta

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

How many times have we heard that refrain? How many times have we ignored it? How many times have we believed that nothing will change because of another day?

If you want (or need) to do something then why not get on with it?  Whether it’s energizing your company, reshaping how you do things, or simply making contact with someone you’ve been thinking about, why is it so hard to act with urgency?

Certainly inertia has something to do with it. Inertia, after all, is a force more powerful than momentum. Inertia is the weight that keeps us rooted in the status quo. Weighty things typically don’t inspire action.

Could it also be laziness? I suppose not doing what we want (or need) can be construed as being lazy no matter what excuses we might have.

But at the end of the day, I believe the failure to act in the here and now comes down to commitment. Acting with urgency requires a commitment to velocity that’s based on the belief that there are no guarantees about what tomorrow may bring. Anything can and very often does happen. The earth might quake. Your competition announces what you’ve been thinking of doing. Someone else writes the piece you’ve been noodling with. Etc.

Tomorrow has yet to emerge. Yesterday is gone. They are far, far away from what exists today. Today is in your control. What you do today is in your control. The sooner you internalize the notion that speed actually matters, the sooner you’ll take the steps toward becoming the person, company, parent, athlete, writer, friend, spouse, partner, mentor, and leader you want/need/can be.

Be in the moment. Focus on what’s in front of you. Then do it again and again and again. Be impatient with yourself. Just do it. Because you can.

Third, given the importance of transformation should organizations consider making transformation a business function? I would argue, yes. Organizing for success is key. Where can we find the best candidate to lead the transformation effort?

The Office of the CEO would seem to be a natural candidate, but it’s not my choice. While the Office of the CEO sets company vision and strategy it does not have the time or operational bandwidth to physically drive the transformation agenda day in and day out.

Who then? Who is best equipped to lead the cross-functional, enterprise-wide effort of making transformation happen?

I believe someone from Marketing should lead the transformation function. Why?

1. Marketing sees the whole. To do marketing well, it must understand customer needs and integrate the core of every organization – sales & service/product/marketing.
2. Marketing drives positioning. It brings vision to life. And it activates strategy.
3. Marketing is the point of the corporate spear. Everything lines up behind it as proof.

The original business can’t get to next level by working off of the old framework. Transformation to a new, higher-value business requires hammering out new boundaries and values that the sales & service/product/marketing functions can use.  Unlike the original business where boundaries and values were established under different conditions, there are three problems facing any new business that’s built on top of an old one.

1. Holistic understanding. The business is too big for any one person to fully grasp.
2. Alignment. Different camps derived from different functions, origins and cultures have built-in biases and agendas.
3. Accountability. The lack of common language and detailed cross-functional commitments and dependencies doom the group to under-achievement.

A cross-functional group does not have the time nor the expertise to solve these problems through the many execution iterations required. Nor will CEO-led management off-sites. The only way to give sustainable transformation a chance of sticking is to organize for success and select the right leader. For my money, that’s establishing transformation as a business function and selecting someone from marketing to lead the effort.

The Future of the Enterprise is at Stake

The job of driving transformation is critical. The future of your entire enterprise is at stake. The decisions on how to organize for success and who to select to lead the effort are politically loaded, that’s for sure. But, they are probably the most important decisions a CEO and board can make. They are decisions that will make the difference between success and failure – between remaining an organization stuck in its past or one whose value is vital to the interests of its customers.

This is the second part of a 2 part post. Read part 1 here.

Certainty is a lofty goal. We all strive to be certain about our choices and recommendations, but the reality is certainty is a continuous work in process.  People don’t expect you to be absolutely certain, but they expect you to be transparent in your efforts to be certain. That’s how I read this study. If you think about it, honesty, clarity, and transparency make for the most effective communication in all areas of our lives. The power of trying to be certain in the right ways will speed progress.

BY ANDREW HANELLY

Nobody can possibly know everything.

And we tend to look through a thick lens of skepticism to anyone who claims they do (here’s looking at you, gurus, ninjas, and self-proclaimed experts).

It may be that we’re cynical toward braggarts and wary of for-profit prophets with an agenda hidden behind their proclamation of knowledge, but it could be something more.

According to new research from Zakary Tormala, “[people] don’t necessarily mistrust confident experts, but we’re more persuaded by experts who are not confident,” he said in an interview with Harvard Business Review.

A description of the research:

“Subjects read a review that gave a new eatery four out of five stars. Half the subjects read a write-up by a professional food critic, and the other half, one by an amateur. Half of each group saw a review that was highly certain; the rest, a review that was tentative. The subjects were then asked how good they thought the restaurant would be … People who read the tentative professional review were willing to pay 56% more than people who’d read the highly certain professional review.”

It seems counterintuitive but there may be value in showing not playing your hand close to the vest and showing your audience what you’re holding – even if some of your cards are wild cards.

Admitting that you don’t know, but that you are committed to continually learning can be the most powerful promise you can make.

People can accept that experts don’t know everything. They are turned off when they claim they do. And they are most confident in an expert who is committed to improving, acquiring new knowledge, and staying as informed as possible.

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