Welcome to the October 2022 edition of Streamline. We gathered 10 interesting articles for this month!
What caught our attention in September
Innovators in China stay closer to the market than in other regions. Businesses in China increasingly source their innovations from customers, competitors, and front-line employees, bucking trends seen elsewhere in the world. (11 min read)
You can map any industry in ten steps. Steve Blank walks us through a program to gradually refine your understanding of a given industry by diagramming it, using the semiconductor industry as an example. (6 min read)
The most under-appreciated reason that digital transformations fail is by going too big, too fast. The key is to start with modernization efforts that don’t transform the business — much less create a new one — but which create the capacity to succeed in more ambitious efforts later on. (5 min read)
Untold Stories. What are you missing? What’s not being said may be more important than what is. Sjoerd Nijland shares his 20 favourite provocative prompts to reveal the real issues at work behind the too careful conversations. (6 min read)
"Quiet Quitting" — Why do managers think it's okay to ask people to do more? Johanna Rothman takes exception with the idea that setting reasonable work expectations and boundaries is a bad thing. (5 min read)
What makes people choose to adopt new things? Studies show about 50-90% of adoption choices can be explained by people’s perceptions of five aspects of a change. (7 min read)
How do you account for personality (or do you?) in leading and participating in teams? One of the bigger mistakes managers is treating people as if they were interchangeable. (3 min read)
To get over analysis paralysis, adopt a risk management mindset. Engineers want to decide based on data but often, there is no data that can help them make a definitive decision. Noa Ganot shares a few tips to help them decide nonetheless. (7 min read)
To make the right strategic decisions, having a product strategy model is key. Many product teams do not use a systematic approach to create and evolve a product strategy. Roman Pichler shares his own product strategy model. (7 min read)
3 types of meetings — and how to do each one well. Transactional gatherings move work forward; relational gatherings strengthen connections; and adaptive gatherings help us address complex or sensitive topics. Now is a great time to reintroduce and redesign these gatherings, as all had flaws even before the pandemic. (8 min read)
A QUOTE THAT MADE US THINK ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION
Kingdoms which depend only upon the exceptional ability of a single man are not long enduring, because such talent disappears with the life of the man, and rarely does it happen to be restored in his successor.
— Niccolò Machiavelli via The other Machiavelli in Strategy+business