Michele Wucker's Blog, page 9
March 30, 2016
Marketing Thought Leadership Podcast on Gray Rhinos
I had a great conversation about The Gray Rhino with Linda Popky on her Marketing Thought Leadership podcast recently. Linda’s a marketing powerhouse, named one of Silicon Valley’s Top 100 Women of Influence and author of Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters (Bibliomotion, March 2015). We talked about the importance of changing our focus from the unlikely to the highly probable events we may think are too big to impact; the three Gray Rhinos that marketers are likely to face, and why New Coke may have been the best thing that ever happened to Coca-Cola. Follow this link to listen to the Marketing Thought Leadership podcast.
March 22, 2016
WorldPost: One Drop, One Step at a Time
Mina Guli running in Chile’s Atacama Desert
On World Water Day this year, March 22, I am thinking of the increasing global urgency of water scarcity and of Mina Guli’s epic quest to wake people up and convince them that every single person can make a difference.
Some people see a problem and ignore it. Some see a problem and decide it’s someone else’s responsibility; it’s too big to make a difference on; it’s not a priority.
Then there is Mina: the rare somebody who sees a problem and does something about it. Something really, really big and kind of nuts but all the more incredible for being so crazy.
Over the past seven weeks, Mina has been running the equivalent of 40 marathons in seven deserts across seven continents to raise awareness of water scarcity. She started in Spain’s Tabernas Desert, then moved on to Jordan, Antarctica, South Africa, Australia, Chile, and finishes with a run in the Mojave Desert in California, just in time to celebrate her achievement on World Water Day.
Mina’s quest is all the more important right now, at a time when so many people feel powerless to change some of the most obvious and increasingly urgent, yet unresolved dangers in the world.
I call these highly probable, high impact threats gray rhinos.
March 2, 2016
World Economic Forum Agenda: The Gray Rhinos of 2016
The top right hand quadrant of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risks Report is home to highly likely, high impact dangers that have not been resolved: climate change, weapons of mass destruction, water scarcity, mass forced migration, and energy price shocks. All too often, policy and business leaders neglect risks like these even after recognizing them.
I call these risks “Gray Rhinos”: large, dangerous and heading straight for us. Unlike a certain large fowl that people can only envision if it’s the right colour, black rhinos are no more black in colour than white rhinos are white. They are all grey: something that is so obvious, yet too often missed.
Since I introduced the concept of the Gray Rhino at a Thinking Ahead talk at Davos in 2013, conversations with leaders around the world have helped me develop a framework to understand the progression of Gray Rhinos and strategies for overcoming them. This framework can improve our ability to confront large-scale risks in business, organizations and policy-making.
I’ve expanded the concept for the World Economic Forum Agenda, applying the Gray Rhino framework to the top 10 risks for 2016 identified in the Global Risks Report. Read more HERE.
February 28, 2016
Upcoming Events
UPCOMING APPEARANCES:
Upper West Side Barnes & Noble, New York City, April 6, 2016, 7 pm
Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC, April 13, 2016, 5-7 pm
Boswell Books, Milwaukee, April 20, 2016, 7 pm
Financial Planning Association FPA Retreat 2016, Phoenix, AZ, April 28, 2016 (by invitation/registration only)
Association of Language Travel Organizations, ALTO Conference 2016, San Francisco, CA, April 29, 2016 (by invitation/registration only)
Check back soon for additional appearances in the works
PCMA Convening Leaders Interview
Here’s a brief interview with me talking about gray rhinos, done a few minutes after my presentation at PCMA Convening Leaders in Vancouver January 11, 2016.
February 2, 2016
World Economic Forum Agenda: Confronting the Gray Rhinos of 2016
The top right hand quadrant of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risks Report is home to highly likely, high impact dangers that have not been resolved: climate change, weapons of mass destruction, water scarcity, mass forced migration, and energy price shocks. All too often, policy and business leaders neglect risks like these even after recognizing them.
I call these risks “Gray Rhinos”: large, dangerous and heading straight for us. Unlike a certain large fowl that people can only envision if it’s the right colour, black rhinos are no more black in colour than white rhinos are white. They are all grey: something that is so obvious, yet too often missed.
Since I introduced the concept of the Gray Rhino at a Thinking Ahead talk at Davos in 2013, conversations with leaders around the world have helped me develop a framework to understand the progression of Gray Rhinos and strategies for overcoming them. This framework can improve our ability to confront large-scale risks in business, organizations and policy-making.
I’ve expanded the concept for the World Economic Forum Agenda, applying the Gray Rhino framework to the top 10 risks for 2016 identified in the Global Risks Report. Read more HERE.
January 31, 2016
Michele's Bookshelf: An Eclectic List of Books Worth Your While
As social media provided more and more opportunities to give shout outs to some of the amazing people I’m lucky enough to meet, the list of books grew as my circle of contacts widened, and demands on my time became overwhelming, I ruefully let the annual list fall by the wayside.
This is a perfect place to revive the practice in a slightly different form. So, herewith (in no particular order): a list of recently published books by friends, colleagues and acquaintances, ranging from business, politics, and policy to history, psychology and true crime.
Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World that Made Him by T.J. English, an account of the exploits of gangster Whitey Bulger. TJ is a great reporter and story teller who has delved deep into the underworld of gangs and gangsters.
The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry by Ned Sublette and Constance Sublette is a sobering look at the clash between American importers of slaves and those who made money by forcing slave women to have children. Ned’s earlier books on Cuban music and New Orleans are worth a read as well.
Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy. I was lucky enough to be in a class that Amy Cuddy taught at the Harvard Kennedy School in March 2012, not long before her famous TED talk that made power-posing a household word.
The Lion Awakes: Adventures in Africa's Economic Miracle by Ashish Thakkar is a refreshing first hand account by an African entrepreneur of doing business in Africa and a clear-eyed vision of the continent's future that breaks wide open any stereotypes you might have held.
If you’re interested in the intersection of policy and entrepreneurship and inspired by the stories of intrepid and innovative entrepreneurs around the world, you’ll love From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places by Elmira Bayrasli, who was one of the senior fellows I recruited to the World Policy Institute during my time there.
Pristine Seas: Journeys to the Ocean's Last Wild Places by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala (and another guy you may have heard of, Leonardo something or other….) offers a rare glimpse into underwater Edens.
Lera Auerbach’s Excess of Being is an exuberant and inspiring book of aphorisms and art. Lera is a world-class composer, poet, and performer.
Investing with Impact: Why Finance Is a Force for Good by Jeremy Balkin, “the anti-Wolf of Wall Street,” who argues that when used properly, finance provides tools that can help solve the world’s problems, in sharp contrast with the way it has been misused (case in point: the recent global financial crisis).
Peter Lacy, the co-author of Waste to Wealth: The Circular Economy Advantage, shows how the growth of the circular economy can create competitive advantage while protecting themselves –and the world- from the impact of environmental degradation and resource shocks.
Superpower: Three Choices for America's Role in the World, by Ian Bremmer, offers three paths that America could take in its foreign policy and engages readers in weighing the choices.
Speaking of politics and policy, Joanne Cronrath Bamberger has edited an important collection of essays about the paradoxical reactions to the career of Hillary Clinton: Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox. It’s helped me think through some of my thoughts, and those of my friends, in a world that too often punishes women for ambition and achievement.
Unfinished Business: Women Men Work FamilyUnfinished Business, by Anne-Marie Slaughter, offers a thoughtful and thought-provoking vision of how to re-think work and family in order to achieve equality between men and women.
Soul in a Bottle: A Journey in Haiti is a memoir of Madison Smartt Bell's visits to Haiti over the years.
Finally, hot off the presses are four early 2016 books:
The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated by Helaine OlenHelaine Olen and Harold Pollack is a no-nonsense, simple list of tips for keeping your finances in order.
Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency by David Greenberg shows how the spin-meisters behind today’s political campaigns grew out of a long history of American presidencies shaped by image making and message craft
Edward Paulino’s Dividing Hispaniola: The Dominican Republic's Border Campaign against Haiti, 1930-1961 is an important new history of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo’s project to create hostility toward Haiti; a subject that many of you know is near and dear to my heart.
Alec Ross’s The Industries of the Future draws on his experience traveling to 41 countries and witnessing innovations that will shape the economy and workplace of the future.
I know I’ve probably missed a few, so please drop me a note if you’re a friend who’s had a book published recently. Also let me know if you’ve got a book coming out in 2016, since I’ll be back soon with a list of forthcoming books by people in my community.
January 21, 2016
Enter Goodreads Giveaway ending Jan 28th
Use this link to sign up by January 28th for a chance to win a free advance copy of THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore, to be published April 5th by St Martin’s Press.
November 24, 2015
Top Ten Ways to Welcome the Gray Rhino
Top Ten Ways to make gray rhinos a common part of our vocabulary
Read a free sample of THE GRAY RHINO on amazon.com and pass it on to someone who is facing a Gray Rhino or share it on your social networks.
Join the Gray Rhino Thunderclap, which adds your Facebook and Twitter posts to a thunderclap of simultaneous posts from other gray rhino trackers the morning of publication, April 5th. Sign up in just a few seconds HERE
(There also are sample posts below if you’d like to post directly to Facebook or Twitter.)
Change your Facebook profile photo to the book cover for a day on April 5th.
Leave an online rating and/or review on amazon.com and/or Goodreads.
Email five (or more!) friends and colleagues about the book. If you have an e-newsletter, mention it in the context of your business.Here’s sample text that you can cut and paste to include:I thought you’d find my friend Michele Wucker’s important new book, THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore , extremely interesting. A “gray rhino” is a highly probable, high impact yet neglected threat: kin to both the elephant in the room and the improbable and unforeseeable black swan. Though gray rhinos occur after a series of warnings and visible evidence, leaders are surprisingly bad at addressing these obvious dangers before they spiral out of control: climate change, financial crisis, corporate crashes. Michele Wucker shows in The Gray Rhino how to recognize and strategically counter looming high impact threats. Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group, has this to say about the book: “Equally vital for companies and countries, The Gray Rhino serves as a critical reorientation of crisis management strategy and policymaking.” There’s more information at www.wucker.com/the-gray-rhino
Spread the word on Twitter using the hashtag #grayrhino via @wucker. Here are some sample tweets:
Read The #grayrhino by @wucker for #riskmanagement strategies to deal with, not deny, the obvious dangers we ignore: bit.ly/1nJr5q The #grayrhino is here! Important, provocative new book bit.ly/1nJr5qV by @wucker on obvious but neglected #risks
Tell your Facebook friends or LinkedIn connections about THE GRAY RHINO. Here are some sample posts:
Are you denying or dealing with the obvious dangers in front of you? My friend Michele Wucker’s important new book, THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore, tells why we have trouble responding to probable risks and shows how we can do better. Learn more at http://www.wucker.com/the-gray-rhino. Gray rhinos are the love child of the massive but ignored elephant in the room and the rare, unpredictable black swan. My friend Michele Wucker’s important new book, THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore, offers strategies that can make the gray rhino your ally instead of foe. Learn more at http://www.wucker.com/the-gray-rhino
Buy a copy of the Gray Rhino on Amazon or Barnes and Noble as a gift for a friend, colleague or student you know. Encourage your company, educational institution or civic organization to invest in buying bulk copies, available via CEO READ.
Work in gray rhino references or the #grayrhino hashtag when you talk, write, or tweet about what keeps you up at night. Here’s a great example from Regina Rodriguez Martin, who says in her blog that the end of her marriage was a gray rhino.
Invite your networks to attend Gray Rhino book events in their cities. As many of you who are connected with me on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter already know, I am spending launch week in NYC with a talk at the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble April 6, then heading down to Washington, DC to do a talk at the Foreign Policy Institute April 13. Then I’m back to the Midwest for an event at the Boswell Book Company April 20. I’ll be doing lunch events at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco May 2 and at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs June 13.
Even doing just one or two of these things will make a big difference. Thank you for helping to make gray rhinos part of our vocabulary and draw needed attention to critical but neglected threats in business, life, and the world.
November 16, 2015
World Economic Forum Agenda: Will Migrants and Robots Compete for Jobs?
Throughout history, technological breakthroughs have created industrial revolutions that have shaped not only how we produce goods and services but also the movement of people around the world. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as the New Machine Age, is no different. As increasing automation makes some jobs obsolete and additive manufacturing moves industries and jobs across national borders, these technological changes will upend the politics and economics of global labour migration. In an article for the World Economic Forum Agenda, “Will migrants and robots be competing for the same jobs?” published on November 10, 2015, I reflected on the challenges these changes will present.
