Rishad Tobaccowala's Blog, page 5

Transformation, Leadership & Talent: A Conversation with David Kenny.

David Kenny is the Chairman of Nielsen, Best Buy and Teach For America.

He was the CEO of Digitas when it was bought by the Publicis Groupe where he served as a member of the Directoire, before joining Akamai as its President. David then became the Chairman and CEO of Weather Channel which was bought by IBM, where he served as SVP of Watson and Cognitive Solutions before joining Nielsen as its CEO. David began his career at Bain Consulting.

David joined me in person for a live audio and video taping of a special episode of What Next? the twice monthly global podcast I host, to share his distilled learnings on transformation, leadership and talent.

It is a 45 minute masterclass that everyone should watch or listen to.

In the following weeks some other amazing leaders from Jack Klues the driving force behind the creation of Starcom, Starcom Mediavest and what would with the merger of Zenith Optimedia, Digitas and Razorfish become Vivaki and Publicis Media, Ann Mukherjee who most recently was the CEO of Pernod Ricard USA and before that held major posts at SC Johnson and Pepsico, Seth Green the Dean of the University of Chicago Graham School, will be just a few of the extra-ordinary leaders sharing their thoughts about modern leadership. If you do not subscribe to What Next? you may want to. It is totally free like this Substack with no subscription fees and no advertising. Just amazing people in conversation with world class production and editing to help you grow and transform and see the light vs heat you up with enragement.

Today we have David Kenny.

The links so you can here the entire conversation are at the end of this post but here are the one dozen takeaways that will hopefully make you listen to David in his own voice and entirety.

Transformation.

Know where you are going: Transformation is not just about speed but also direction. It is important to know what one is transforming to. What matters is velocity of change which is a combination of speed and direction. Speed alone can kill if one does not know direction.

Roots and Wings: Transformation is successful if one remembers what we wish to retain from the existing business. If there is little or nothing we wish to keep then one should start with a blank sheet of paper but that is not the case for most businesses. In fact in many businesses the existing businesses while declining are very profitable and help fund the change. Also in successful transformations everyone and every part of the businesses is given an opportunity to transform. One cannot leave the past behind if legacy businesses are making money and it is very dispiriting to folks to believe they belong to the past while others are the future.

The importance of aligning with technology curves: Successful transformation requires a company and leaders to align with technology curves. Too early or too late one results often in failure. Sometimes the customer, the technology and the eco-system takes time to develop so it can scale and be cost effective.

A focus on Clients is not enough: Transformation must keep Clients front and center but in order to deliver for Clients many non Client facing parts of our organizations will have to transform including IT, Legal and Finance. New wiring, new contracts and new measurement are are part and parcel of transformation. The voice and inclusion of so called “support” functions is critical.

Leadership.

Leadership is balancing innovation and trust: Trust is key and driven by integrity. Integrity is when there is alignment between what a leader believes, says and does.

Both leadership and management are important but different: Leadership is about pioneering and deciding where to go. It is about making hard calls and is both future oriented and lonely. Management is ensuring one gets there. Many leaders are great managers but neither by themselves are enough.

Three keys to trust: Data, Intention and Transparency. Follow the data and share the data and adapt to the data. Be clear with intention and be transparent about decision making.

The best leaders are willing to admit they are wrong and are okay changing their mind: People trust people who say they are not sure or when new data comes in accept that they were wrong.

Talent.

To lead talent one must realize the importance of emotion and heart: People choose with their hearts and use numbers to justify what they do. Software is not just code but the soft skills of engaging, connecting and inspiring people.

Talent will be even more important in the future but talent will have to learn new technologies, be curious, be creative: There are so many ways to learn and those who do not will be left behind. If one is not upgrading oneself one is falling behind.

Diversity is critical to win in the marketplace: For AI to be trained right one needs diverse inputs. To compete one needs the best talent and they can come from everywhere. David made himself the Chief Diversity Officer for a year because he believes ensuring belonging, ensuring access to the best talent and ensuring the best talent is everybody’s job including the CEO’s and is the way to win in business.

Talent wants access to leadership : Leadership that is accessible to talent learn fast and see patterns and better understand what the opportunities and challenges are. An involved leader is a learning leader.

Here is the Spotify Link which includes video:

Here is the Apple Link:

Besides this Substack (free), and the podcast (free), I am also a published author and my next (second) book while not free is very reasonable ( about $20 in the US and will be available also on launch day much cheaper in my birth country of India in both print, audible and electronic). If you can please do pre-order between now and Feb 4 for yourself or your company ( huge discounts for 25 or more) . More about Rethinking Work here.

On Work.

Image by Joe Latimer using Midjourney.

Work is central to the human experience.

Along with our physical health and our family relationships, work is the other significant factor that impacts the quality of our lives.

Work is critical not only in that it provides us with a) income but also b) identity (what do you do? is one of the first questions any one new we meet asks), c) community ( many of our social connections are built around our work and industry), d) purpose and meaning and e) growth ( the challenges and connections of our job help grow us).

Work not only drives GDP but factors such as the unemployment rate, the age of retirement, and the opportunities for youth are central to all politics.

In 2020 Covid-19 created a major shock to the structure of work in myriad ways from our inability to work in the ways we were used to, the importance of certain kinds of work, where we worked and much more which many companies and countries are still grappling with.

Many knowledge industries are fixated today on the right combination of in person and distributed work to ensure they can manage the quality of their service, their cultures and the imparting and growth of skills.

While this is an important factor to consider, smart companies, and visionary leaders understand that fixating on where someone works is like moving shells on a beach when waves of change are about to crash onto the shore. It is not only the wrong question to ask (the question should not be how to get people back x days in the office but how to maximize the benefits of in person interaction while enjoying the flexibility and freedom distribute work affords) but even this question is trivial compared to what is coming…

Work will change more this decade than it has in the past five decades due to a combination of significant demographic shifts (aging and declining populations and multiple generations at work ), technology (AI, XR, Blockchain, Biotech), marketplaces (anyone can now access scaled technology and marketplaces to compete with large companies using a mobile device), atomized work (task vs jobs, the rise of gig work) where a majority of the US population in 2025 will be doing freelance work either full time or as a side gig to their main job, and completely new mindsets about the place of work in one’s life ( A majority of Gen-Z do not want to grow up like their parents , or become like their bosses and ask the question should we find time for life in a world of work or find time for work in a world of living a life? )

After a 43-year working career that I hope to keep going for another decade or two I have never been as excited about how extra-ordinarily amazing the future of work is going to be.

It is going to unleash, unfurl and unhook both individuals and companies from the way it was to the way it can be and let everyone re-imagine their firms and their careers.

Over the past five and a half years I have met with, advised, spoken with or for, over 150 companies in over a dozen countries from companies with 20 employees to those with hundreds of thousands across all industries.

Almost everybody I meet asks the same three questions.

Business Model Relevance: Is my business model still relevant and how do I future proof it?

Structural Relevance? Is my organizational design, existing partners, data and other skill sets still relevant and if not how can they be upgraded?

Personal Relevance: Am I still relevant? Do I have the right skill sets and the right leadership mindset to lead a new generation into a new era? (this last question usually requires some alcoholic libation before it is asked and maybe the most important)

Over the years it became clear that in addition to upgrading one’s own mental operating system, investing and partnering with the right people in areas from data to content, to technology, investing in and upgrading talent, rethinking category definitions, dealing with change and restructuring the organization for more agility and lower costs there was something even deeper and broader and more central that had to be addressed.

The very nature of work, what a worker is, and why should a company exist?

With everything we know now if we started with a blank sheet of paper and only some legal, scientific and economic constraints (need income and or must run a viable business) what factors should we consider and what frameworks should we use as each of us design our firms and or manage our careers to thrive and win in the future?

After many years of thinking and researching these topics, a year and a half writing and a year of fact checking, updating and editing by a team of professionals at HarperCollins my distilled learnings of everything I have discovered on how to thrive in the future of work is in production and available for pre-order. It is called Rethinking Work.

This book is for everybody who works, whether you are a long­time senior leader or a brand-new employee, whether you work in a large company or for yourself, and whether you work in a developed or developing market.

This book identifies the key trends and issues, suggests ways for each individual and leader to interrogate their beliefs, their structures and much more. It has a chapter for CEO’s and Strategists that build the case that most existing strategies will be challenged, a chapter for Finance professionals identifying how financials will need to be recalculated, a chapter for anyone working in talent, HR or People Development to show how the entire training and incentive systems of the present are not going to work and what to do about it and much more.

Most importantly it is for everyone of us that works and wants to seize the future and thrive.

Work is central to our lives and as it gets redefined, nothing is as important as being informed and provided with tools to thrive in the coming transformation.

To help you judge if this book is any good after my request below you will see a link to the entire opening section of the book. You can read what CEO’s, Chief Talent Officers, Deans of Universities, and even other authors of books about the future of work and the workplace from whom I learned while working on this book have to say. You will see the table of contents and the introduction. This should help you determine if the book is any good and worth spending twenty dollars on.

A Request.

The sales of a book are determined by many factors including quality of the book, whether the topic is in vogue, how well it is reviewed and the success of the marketing efforts.

A huge factor driving these is something that occurs before the book is published which are pre-orders. Pre-orders determine the size of the print run, how many books are ordered, the merchandising support and the marketing support.

My first book Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data was successful because it had many thousands of pre-orders. It also anticipated distributed work before Covid, had a chapter on AI three years before ChatGPT, spoke of the importance of Blockchain when crypto was in a deep winter and Augmented reality before the Metaverse hype and sells hundreds of copies a month because it seems to have been written a few days ago and not five years ago!

It is why I am hoping you will pre-order today for a book that will be available for another two months (Feb 4, 2025). You do not have to pay till then and for those buying individual copies the actual price is likely to be closer to 22 US dollars vs 30 US dollars which will be reflected in the price guarantee that the various folks like Amazon and others offer. Please check your local retailer or Amazon for outside the US for options on how to order and time of delivery.

This LINK or this site : https://rishadtobaccowala.com/rethinking-work shows you all the places you can order including if you are in a position or interested in ordering more than 25 books for nearly half off. Many leaders have bulk ordered books for their teams and companies realizing it’s the best 20 dollars they can spend per employee.

This is a book that can help you as an individual or a leader.

Here is a link to the opening of the book (first 20 pages) that you can read or download.

It’s time for a rethinking for something so central to every person, firm and leader.

Rethinking Work.

Outside of our health and families, work is the most important thing we have.

It is going to be amazing believe me…

Rishad Tobaccowala spent 37 years in a spectrum of roles including being the Chief Strategist and Growth Officer of the Publicis Groupe a 106,000 person marketing and business transformation company before beginning a new career over five years ago as a company of one. Rishad helps people see, think and feel differently about how to grow themselves, their teams and their business through a combination of content creation, speaking and advising. More at https://rishadtobaccowala.com/

People.

image by peder 241 using Midjourney.

Everything is easy but people get in the way.

Every leader and every Board of Directors have strategy decks, PowerPoint slides and press releases about how they will forge into the future and transform themselves. 

They will AI this and AI that.

They will re-organize this and downsize that.

They will buy this, divest that and merge this with that.

But the best laid plans fail to come to fruition

Because between the idea and the reality falls the shadow.

And the shadow are people.

People we define as employees, customers, partners, suppliers, stake-holders, users, members or audiences.

But they are people.

People like you and people like me.

And we sometimes forget to keep some things about people front and center.

An AI take on Pablo Picasso and Cubism using Midjourney

1. Companies do not transform people do.

Any transformation strategy that does not incorporate why the transformation is good for the various people involved is unlikely to succeed. 

Just because it is good for the company does not necessarily mean it is good for the people. The change involved is often described as good when reality is that change that is imposed on anyone is scary and sucks.

The key questions that people ask is not how the strategy will allow the company to grow but how will it help them grow?

Grow their skills, opportunities, income, and options.

Spreadsheets are cool and calculating.

People are warm blooded and feeling filled.

People are messy and many folks do not want to deal with messiness.

But to transform a company is to transform people.

So aside from Strategies and M&A and Re-org plans the key are constant communication, aligned incentive plans where people are incentivized to do the new versus the old and significant training investment to close the gap from the skills of today to the skills of tomorrow.

Companies do not transform. 

People Do.

Image by Vangardis using Midjourney

2. People will be the differentiator not the technology.

While technology is key to competitiveness and no company can remain relevant without embracing, adopting and incorporating technology very few companies have superior technology since most technology is developed by a few dozen companies that every one has access to and can utilize through licensing agreements.

AI is like electricity in that every company will need it to compete but it only a differentiator if one is competing with companies that do not use AI. 

Just like no one goes around saying they are better because they have access to electricity since no company they compete with uses candlelight the same will be true about AI.

Having an AI strategy is not the point. 

Determining how AI changes the strategy of the company including how to re-imagine itself in a world of new competitors and capabilities should be the focus.

That re-imagining unlike the efficiency and effectiveness deliverables that AI brings ( which every company must leverage to stay competitive and is primarily driven by technology) is dependent on the quality of the talent including that of the leadership.

The Internet required media companies to reimagine their business and very few of them like the New York Times crossed the divide. Most others moved slow and just ported their current business over to the Internet.

If the New York Times had decided to use the power of the internet only to gain subscriptions to the newspaper, find ways to make their printing presses work faster and used mobile to better manage the movement of their trucks they would not be where they are today. The future does need printing presses, trucks and paper and in such a world one had to reimagine. 

In a world of AI and HI where HI is Human Intelligence. Human Inspiration. Human Interaction. Human Insight. Human Ingenuity. Human Imagination it will be people that will be the difference. 

The impact of AI on people and organizations and leadership are key.

Every business may or may not be a technology business.

But every business is a people business. 

Creator: Ralph A. Clevenger | Credit: Getty Images

3. People change slowly and therefore organizations need to start earlier to be ready.

Transformation is not like an expresso coffee but much more like slow percolating tea.

It takes its own time because it involves people and people adapt slowly.

To transform people go through a stage of transition like a caterpillar as it becomes a butterfly must go through the pupa stage.

Transformation are stages of transition, adaptation, and finding fit.

This takes months and often years and so a company that believes their industry might change dramatically two years from now should start adapting now.

Because people change slowly.

And if companies are to transform it can only happen when people do.

People.

They are what matter.

Avoiding Career Irrelevance.

Photography by Edward Riddell

The conflation of five major forces from 1)technology to 2) demographic change, to 3) the growing importance of marketplaces where one can access both resources or customers with minimal to no capital, to 4) the rewiring of work due to Covid and 5) the rise of an economy of free-lance workers and rise of the side hustle, will impact every job but particularly those of knowledge works very significantly.

Photography by Edward Riddell

The Career Implications.

While the future is often hard to predict one can be quite sure that in less than 500 days the current waves of change will grow into a tsunami, and everybody will be impacted in some way or the other.

1.     We are now going to have 50-year careers: Extended life spans, limited government pensions, incentives for elder people to stay in the workforce, machine enabled work will have us working for multiple decades versus a 30-year career. Here is how to prepare for 50 year careers.

2.     Life-Long Training and Education: Even three decades into a career well into the 50’s one may need to go back to school, re-skill and re-tool. And the days of saying “We will be retired before all these new things happen” will not be realistic. Investing in continuous learning will be key to stay relevant. Here is how to learn.

3.     Jobs replaced by tasks:  A job will not be a title, a position and a static role but a constantly changing  number of tasks, outcomes and deliverables  In a globalized and connected marketplace of unbundled and distributed work we will all become gig workers even if we spend long time in a firm since all firms will become increasingly agile and connected, looking to put the best people on the most appropriate tasks very much like the way Hollywood  or TV production works.

4.   We will be work in tandem with machines: Almost every job will leverage AI, and we will need to be comfortable with intelligent agents as co-workers. A company or individual working without AI will be like trying to compete without electricity and access to the Internet.

5. The trend towards “De-bossification” will intensify: The rapid delayering we see around us will accelerate as tenure, seniority and knowledge will give way to expertise, agility and ability to learn. More on De-bossification.

The keys to success will be a) what expertise one has, b) what do we make, create, build, and what outcomes do we deliver, c) how good are we at leading, training, and growing talent to unleash their potential and d) how rapidly can we learn and unlearn.

The big corner offices, the gauntlet of handlers, receptionists, and other awe-inspiring fear mongering scaffolding of the pre-2020’s will all be seen as the crutches of the insecure and the fearful causing most talent to rapidly re-route around such blockages and blockheads.  

People’s “zone of influence” and “zone of impact” will be far more important than their “zone of control” or “size of kingdom”.

Photography by Edward Riddell

Three ways to ensure one remains relevant. 

Here are three keys to thriving and remaining relevant.

1. Being in charge of our own career.

Today most people will work for 50 years while most companies last fewer than fifteen.

Even if your company has been around for a hundred years the talent team in any company is focused on serving the company you work for first versus you. They need to hire to their strategy, retain talent in some areas and exit talent in others, invest in skills the company needs now and for the future which might not be consistent with your career strategy, your continued need for income and different than the skills you need for now and the future.

Human Resource and Learning and Development teams are critical and important and can be a huge benefit to everyone, but the individual must decide how to utilize, leverage and strategically incorporate the resources of these teams. 

Do not outsource your future to your company.

To oversee your own career is to have the optionality of leaving your existing company at any time with a high likelihood of improving your position and income.

Paradoxically when you do this you can focus on your job, stay long in your company and even adapt to soap opera drama at work because you know you have options. 

Optionality will be the key to career power.

And your company by knowing that will also treat you well.

2. Thriving at our current gigs by operating like we are looking for one.

Too many people end up not being prepared when their company downsizes or their career stalls. They find that they do not have the skills that make them marketable, and their reputation and networks are deeply limited and often over indexing in their own industry which might be in secular decline.

a) Every individual should Google or ChatGPT themselves and work to improve the results by developing their own web presence, by being active on social channels, and participating in industry activities.

b) Begin another career while you are working on an existing career: There are many parallel careers one can run which are not in any way conflicted with or need to be hidden from your management.

These include writing, teaching, public speaking, advising non-profits or being active in industry or personal passions such as art, music and other civil or charitable events.

These help one build skills, create goodwill by helping others and giving back, expose oneself to new people and thinking which can help one’s current job and much more.

c) Build a reputation for expertise and generosity.

Leo Burnett taught us that relevance and likability are key to any brand.

Every individual should have relevant skills in transformative times and be known for their ability to help and work with others. 

People known to have skills that are in demand and who are pleasant to work with tend to be the most successful

Expertise is essential and it is critical that one is known to be excellent in a few areas while being a generalist in many. Increasingly people will hire for tasks and needs and will not fill jobs and roles and it is far easier to fit if one is well positioned.

This 9 word exercise will help you discover what you should focus on and the skills you should hone.

Generosity is a great strategy for the following reasons: 

1) being good to people who need help when we had a job will help us when we are in need 

2) we should not make the mistake of conflating our company and position with our own reputation. People are genuflecting to our role not us, so we need to build our own expertise and brand in addition to the halo of our company.

3) If one focuses only on oneself without building one’s company’s brand or helping others build theirs it will backfire. We work for companies and if we do not keep them in focus they will note it. And our reputation is built on the quality of our work and relationships not just our postings. 

Do the things you would do if you lost a job and had to find one.

Don’t wait.

Till it is too late.

3) Investing in four key skills.

a) AI: Whether we are an intern or a CEO we should allocate a few hours a week to keep honing our understanding of AI. This is too important to outsource completely to “experts”, “consultants” or someone else. Of course, many companies will need strategic advisors, technology consultants and more but unless one uses and builds AI muscle we will not be able to direct them or truly understand why AI even now is still under hyped. Read AI is Under-hyped and Upgrading our AI Quotient for more.

b) Communication Skills: Forget learning Mandarin or Coding but rather learn how to hone writing skills and become a great presenter in one’s native language. If the future is AI +HI a big part of HI will be world class communication skills. It can be learned, and it will make a difference. When everybody has the same knowledge it will be how we convince and inspire that will make the difference.

c) Making/Creating/Imagining/Building: Sooner rather than later all knowledge will be free so much of our existing expertise will matter less. Quantify how much of one’s job is about allocating, measuring, monitoring, delegating, and researching. These tasks which often are the majority of many jobs, but all these will be be done 100 X faster and 10X cheaper by technology.

We should ask how much time we spend making and creating things or asking questions to re-imagine our business and ourselves or building other people or our clients business versus processing stuff and sitting in meetings watching the same PowerPoint updated with new numbers every month!

d) Continuous Re-Invention: The day one believes one is a Master is the day one begins the road to disaster.

A key skill will not just be learning constantly but also unlearning and detaching from some past ways or beliefs. There is no going back but only moving ahead. Imagine if we came out of school today, would we act and behave the way we do or are we doing what we do because we believe 1) we will retire before change hits us, 2) we cannot learn new things because they are complicated or 3) because we do not have time.

We should not sell ourselves short.

Everybody regardless of age can re-invent. The ability to learn is cheap and there are many real world and online resources to tap.

Finally, growth and learning is key to life since the day we stop learning is the day we start dying.

Unless we plan to end our career in a year or less, we will have to begin future proofing right away whether we like it or not.

Repairing Ourselves.

“Everything that has a shape breaks”- Japanese Proverb

But…

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places”- Ernest Hemingway

And…

“Repair is the creative destruction of brokenness” - Elizabeth Spelman

Paths to repair.

1.Poetry. 

2.Water 

3.Wabi-Sabi 

4. Kintsugi 

5. Gardens.

6. Untying

1. Poetry

Poems restores us to what is deepest in ourselves.

Poetry finds the perfect words in the perfect order.

CK Williams in his Pulitzer Prize winning collection “Repair” writes how

‘Self-doubt is almost our definition” as we move forward with the “hesitant music” of our lives

“If I can create myself, I’ll be able to amend myself.”

“Re-establishing myself in myself like this always comes to pass”.

He celebrates “Invisible mending”.

The minds procedures of forgiveness and repair.

The greatest poetry is written at the borders of what can be said. As this stanza on persevering and resurrecting and restoring oneself through the ups and downs of life while never losing your internal melody …

“Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream. Have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the groves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you”.  Sheng-Yang

The photograph above is from an amazing oasis in Chicago is the Poetry Foundation library which holds the largest collection of poetry books in the United States. You can have the library on your phone by downloading the app from here: 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/mobile-app

You can access poems by topic, by mood, by author and much more and it is all free.

2. Water.

Moving water is often symbolic of power and life. It can reputedly heal the sick and the lame, restore youth, confer fertility, dissolve sin, and so on.

It is an alchemy of thermal simulation that leaves one clean and pure and reconciles mind and body.

Flowing water whether it be rainfall, a stream, a river, or the tides of a lake or ocean has a certain timelessness to its biological rhythms.

P Walton wrote in the philosophy of water:

The three key lessons that can be drawn from this are humility, harmony and openness.

Humility: water stays low in the river, yet it is a life-giving force.

Harmony: water does not fight against its surroundings, it works with them to find a course.

Openness: water is open to change: gas, liquid, solid. It adapts and alters its form accordingly.

3. Wabi-Sabi

Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things that is unconventional.  

It is a philosophy of repair and therefore real life for it does not have perfection or ideal as a goal

Wabi refers to a way of life, a spiritual path, the inward, the subjective, a philosophical construct. It is about “space”.

Sabi refers to material objects, art, and literature, the outward the objective an aesthetic ideal, it is about “time”.

4. Kintsugi

Kintsugi is a Japanese repair technique that takes ceramic destruction and makes a broken object into a new entity. It leaves clear bold visible lines with the appearance of solid gold. A kintsugi repair speaks of individuality and uniqueness, fortitude and resilience, and the beauty to be found in survival. Kintsugi leads us to a respectful acceptance of hardship and aging.

Kintsugi has in it the Wabi-Sabi philosophy and its belief of beauty, knowledge and humanity arising from the scars and the repairs is sung by Leonard Cohen…

Ring the bells that can still ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in…

And the philosopher Rumi…

“The wound is the place where the light enters you”

5. Gardens

In the Charlevoix region of Quebec there lies a private garden which covers more than 20 acres and is called Les Quatre Vents ( The Four Winds). It is considered amongst the finest private gardens in the world (it is opened a few times a year to the public).

The garden was created by one person, Francis Cabot, as his life work that blends creativity and passion and it is simply the most breathtaking places one can imagine.

Francis Cabot believed that gardens are like art and have the power to change you. And unlike other art, which may affect you differently over time, because you have changed over time, a garden is itself always changing. Francis designed his garden to lift the soul of people who walked through it. To help them grow and repair and heal.

He wanted us to come out different after the experience.

Here is a peek at Les Quatre Vents…

One prescription for the pressures and challenges we face is to take a walk in a garden.

Regardless, it is key to remind ourselves of Francis Cabot’s belief that every individual is creative and we have a garden within ourselves that we need to tend to so that we can heal, self-repair and always bloom…

6. Untying vs Cutting.

Sometimes we cause damage to ourselves and our relationships by making hasty decisions, or having litmus tests with which we judge an entire person based on a single opinion or act. In doing so we cut harshly, end abruptly, or shut down angrily.

If something has to end it is better to untie then to cut.

When we cut both sides of the string or rope get frayed but when we untie things both sides remain intact. 

And in the gradualness of the act we may find that we did not want to untie in the first place or we leave things in such a way that they can be retied in the future.

Sometimes repair means not creating situations that need repair.

Grace.

Photography by Daniel Bergmann

The most updated and advanced versions of foundational AI models from Anthropic, Google and Microsoft, as well as a seasoned version of human intelligence (HI) were asked the same question about grace.

Query to OpenAi (GPT 4o): What does it mean to have grace?

Having grace often means embodying qualities of kindness, empathy, and composure, especially in challenging situations. It's about responding to people and circumstances with patience, understanding, and an open heart rather than reacting with anger or judgment. Grace can also mean carrying oneself with dignity and humility, even when you have reason to feel wronged or superior.

In interpersonal situations, grace might involve forgiving others, letting go of resentment, or acknowledging others' perspectives, even when they differ from your own. It’s about being resilient without becoming hardened, and compassionate without seeking anything in return. Grace is often thought of as a strength that is quiet, gentle, and profound.

Photography by Daniel Bergmann

Query to Claude (Sonnet 3.5) : What does it mean to have grace?

Grace can be viewed as having several interconnected dimensions. At its core, grace involves both internal qualities and how we interact with others.

In relating to others, grace manifests as showing kindness and understanding even when it may not be expected or "deserved." It's extending compassion to others in their moments of weakness or failure, and offering forgiveness rather than judgment. A graceful person might gently correct someone's mistake without making them feel small, or maintain their composure when treated poorly.

Internally, grace often means accepting imperfection - both in ourselves and in life's circumstances. It's about moving through difficulties with dignity and poise, not by being perfect, but by responding to challenges with patience and wisdom. This might mean accepting criticism constructively, acknowledging our mistakes without harsh self-judgment, or adapting to unexpected changes with flexibility.

Photography by Daniel Bergmann

Query to Gemini (Advanced with 1.5 Pro): What does it mean to have grace?

Having grace is a multifaceted concept with interpretations spanning social, theological, and personal realms. Here are a few key facets:

1. Undeserved Kindness

At its core, grace often refers to receiving something positive that you haven't necessarily earned. It's about kindness, forgiveness, and understanding offered without any expectation of repayment or reciprocity.

2. Divine Favor

In many religious traditions, grace is seen as a divine gift from a higher power. It's the unearned love and mercy bestowed upon humanity, often leading to salvation or spiritual enlightenment.

3. Elegant Movement

Grace can also describe physical movement that is smooth, balanced, and aesthetically pleasing. Think of a dancer, a gymnast, or even a gazelle – their movements exude a sense of effortless beauty and coordination.

4. Social Etiquette

In social contexts, grace involves behaving with politeness, tact, and consideration for others. It's about navigating social situations with ease, showing respect, and making others feel comfortable.

5. Handling Difficult Situations

Grace can also be demonstrated in how you respond to challenges and adversity. It's about maintaining your composure, dignity, and compassion even in the face of difficult circumstances.

Key Aspects of Grace:

Forgiveness: Letting go of resentment and offering understanding to those who have wronged you.

Humility: Recognizing your own limitations and acknowledging that you're not always right.

Empathy: Putting yourself in someone else's shoes and understanding their perspective.

Gratitude: Appreciating the good things in your life, both big and small.

Resilience: Bouncing back from setbacks and maintaining hope in difficult times.

Ultimately, having grace is about living with kindness, compassion, and a sense of balance in all aspects of your life. It's about extending understanding to yourself and others, navigating challenges with composure, and appreciating the beauty in everyday moments.

Photography by Daniel Bergmann

Query to Rishad (seasoned version); What does it mean to have grace?

Grace is a tapestry that interweaves:

Generosity. Humility. Empathy. Kindness. Elegance. Poise. Acceptance. Resilience.

To be a person of grace might be a goal and in some ways a quest more likely to lead to fulfillment than power, wealth or fame and its pursuit does not need power, wealth or fame to achieve. 

And it may be rarer than power, wealth or fame.

A good life might be one where aims to be a person of grace.

On Technological Change: 3 Learnings.

Image using Midjourney using prompt “On technological change”

For four decades my career at Publicis Groupe has been deeply intertwined with technology, allowing me to observe its changes across several industries including the communications industry.

The communications business has always changed as technology shifted. The company was first a print-based business and then a print and broadcast business, with radio initially and then television dominating it. In the early ’90s with the advent of the internet, a team of us began some of the first digital marketing and digital media companies, and in the past three decades, the entire business of marketing, media, and communications has restructured itself around the internet. Wave after wave of technology, from search to e-commerce to social to mobile to now AI and Web3, have shifted every aspect of all businesses. 

Having observed all of this firsthand, I’ve come to three conclusions that apply to all organizations experiencing this technological evolution. 

1. Technology does not care about anybody’s business model or way of working. 

Nearly fifteen years ago, I spoke to leaders at a major newspaper conference, imploring them to rethink their business in the light of search and mobile technology. I warned them that every aspect of their business model, from local monopolies and distribution routes to auto, classified, and other advertising, would disappear unless they embraced the internet, stopped thinking about their paper publication as central, embraced multimedia with continuous publishing, and attracted new talent. Essentially, I was suggesting that they rethink every aspect of their organization. 

Most papers did not adapt, and the newspaper industry is a shell of its former self. 

Just as technology rendered many newspapers obsolete, it’s having the same effect on a wide range of industries and functions today. Business models cannot be sacrosanct. “Adapt or die” is a good adage for an age of rapidly advancing technology. 

2. Technology can be used as an accelerant, but its real power is often the capacity to reinvent.

Companies may invest deeply in technology to automate and upgrade their way of working, but they still fail. 

This is because they often do not change their way of doing business.a

Procter & Gamble invested deeply in technology to automate its manufacturing plants and be a leader in digital marketing. They leveraged search and mobile and video to reach people as their habits changed.

But what technology really enabled was not just better ways to communicate but new ways to do business, giving rise to a range of competitors. 

For instance, social media leveraged YouTube video’s cost effectiveness and ease of distribution. The advent of e-commerce made it possible to sell without Walmart or Walgreens, and companies like Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club were born and ate into Gillette’s market share, despite Gillette having a superior product, brand, distribution, and spending. The new media allowed for direct distribution, subscription services, word of mouth, and sampling, and customers recognized that the new blades were good enough but much cheaper and much more convenient.

Similarly in the age of AI it is not just increased efficiency (more for less) and greater effectiveness (higher impact) that companies should focus on but also existential risk and opportunities. Running your current business model more efficiently and effectively will not save you if others are using AI to rethink your business model.

Digital marketing reinvented the newspaper business versus making printing presses faster or truck delivery more effective.

The really smart firms are not just thinking about how to make their businesses more efficient or effective using new technology such as AI but have teams who are reimagining their businesses.

They behave as if they were beginning the firm again today with access to modern technology, new ways of working, changing demographics and new market places, but without any constraints except how best to satisfy changing customer needs and expectations in a world of new competition.

3. It is not the technology—it is the talent.

As technology is widely distributed it helps individuals as much as it does institutions, and every advance in technology places a premium on superior ability.

AI will be like electricity. Few companies differentiate on their use of electricity because all their competitors use electricity. Similarly when every company utilizes AI often accessed from the same firm it is highly unlikely that an AI strategy will differentiate the company.

In some cases it may be proprietary data but in every case it will likely be talent.

Remind yourself that the typewriter did not write A Farewell to Arms; Hemingway did. If I had a word processor and ChatGPT and Hemingway had a pen, he still would write better. Of course, if Hemingway also had ChatGPT, he would be that much better than me. Hemingway with a Substack would have scaled amazingly better than most.

As talented individuals do with TikTok.

Today, streaming and the internet make the popular courses on justice at Harvard and on happiness at Yale available to everybody for free. It’s not the technology that makes these courses great, but the talent of professors Michael Sandel and Laurie Santos, respectively.

From Rethinking Work which is at the printers and available for pre-order everywhere. More here: https://rishadtobaccowala.com/rethinking-work

Modern Leadership.

Image by Almosthumankreative using Midjourney.

We have entered an age of de-bossification.

In many industries, particularly “White-collar” ones, the era of “bosses” is in decline.

Less of a clamoring for bosses, managers, controllers, monitors, evaluators, and paper pushers.

This shift has been driven by changing demographics, the spread of technology, the rise of unbundled and distributed work, new behavior expectations, and a re-definition of what “work” is including the rise of fractionalized and free-agent talent who work for themselves or at multiple jobs and are expected to comprise most of the workforce in the US by the end of the decade.

There is a rise in the need for leaders, guides, coaches, mentors, role-models, creators, and builders.

Leaders matter like never before but what are the characteristics of such leaders and how do we build such skills?

A long time colleague Drew Ianni and myself were very fortunate in having one hundred leaders convene in New York over one and a half days to listen to each other and begin to work together on how to best to identify, craft, discuss and enhance modern leadership skills at the inaugural salon of The Athena Project.

Ten Insights to Modern Leadership.

Every one of us can be a leader since it is a way of being and behaving while a boss is a title and requires having people reporting to them.

Many bosses are great leaders but leaders do not need to be bosses.

Leaders focus on zones of influence versus fixating on zones of control.

Leaders build wide spectrum skills versus just being full-stack. They have wide and broad horizons.

In a world of change and connections the best leaders recognize that mastery of craft alone will not be enough to navigate the complexity of leadership.

Leaders have courage. If one goes with the flow or just follows the number there is really no need for the individual.

Trust is and always will be the key currency for leaders. Today only 10 percent of CEO’s trust their CMO’s.

The best leaders are always learning and growing but never grow up. They feed not just their mental operating systems but also their physical and emotional operating systems.

Leaders recognize that companies do not transform but people do and they need to transform themselves. But transformation is a process of transition and the best leaders are managing many transitions both of their firms, the people around them and themselves.

Today's leaders think of growth in many more ways than just growing their business or focusing only on their firms. Optionality is freedom. They want to grow their own influence whether it be writing, speaking, other boards and planing for a non company career. They wish to grow their own intelligence in many areas not just focussed on things like AI but also Private Equity, Cultural Trends to be impactful in a multitude of ways.  Almost everyone is thinking about how to manage a portfolio career in a world that is in transition.

Transforming from boss/manager to leader/coach is possible for those wishing to try.

As times change the best managers adapt and learn and flex into new shapes and learn new skills.

This transformation requires three conditions:

First it requires today’s bosses to accept that to grow and remain relevant they will have to change and while it may be difficult it is better than becoming irrelevant.

It also requires their leaders to ensure that new incentive systems that are more about zones of influence, growth of craft and people versus zone of control of budgets and team size are put into place.

There is an urgent need for coaching and training and patience to help today’s managers become tomorrow’s leaders.

A personal hunger supported by new incentives and buttressed with training including the opportunity to self-learn is the formula.

Talent is short and many leaders are aware of this and planning accordingly.

They know that new brooms sweep clean but old brooms know the corners.

Becoming You.

While it is important to listen to and learn from other people and be aware of what they may  think of us, we should not live in other peoples minds.

Worrying about how we will be perceived or how we compare and measure up to others is like handing over the remote control of our life to someone else.

The more we ask what will they think, how will we look, and let every driver of our success and decision making come from external perception and extrinsic measures rather than internal introspection and intrinsic measures , the more likely we end up not achieving our true potential or peace of mind.

Many of the people we admire go against the way they should behave and question the status quo.

Galileo questioned whether the earth was at the center of the Universe.

Picasso invented new forms like Cubism that collapsed and re-expressed the rules.

Steve Jobs asked us to “Think Different”.

The key with these rule breakers is not that they broke rules and were fixated on just being different or not caring what others thought but that they were builders creating things that transformed and positively impacted the world of science, art, business and technology.

They did not tear down society or other people but rather got the world to see, think and feel differently. 

They were about breaking rules in ways that empower, that open new horizons and drive growth.

They became themselves.

But while few can be like these giants we can all self-empower, set off toward new horizons and transform and grow ourselves by not letting external rulers drive our lives.

We can learn to compete with our elves and get better every day, versus competing with others or aligning with the changing fashions and expectations of others.

Let’s not be born as originals and die as copies.

It’s important to become who we are.

One way of doing so is to architect, sculpt and hone.

Architect.

“The way we spend our time defines who we are.” Jonathan Estrin.

One way to gain control is to architect one’s week in ways that time and its vagaries do not toss us around.

Consider setting aside an hour a day or seven hours a week to feed each of one’s physical, mental, emotional systems.

Physical operating system: A long walk or exercise.

Mental operating system: Learn or read or watch or do.

Emotional operating system:  Connecting with friends and family. Helping others.

Image using Midjourney by Osoyoi

Sculpt.

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the sculptor’s job to release it” Michelangelo.

Every individual has one or more talents, and it is our job to find, feed and sculpt these talents.

Today we are increasingly in a world of builders, makers, creators, inventors and in sculpting something special out of raw materials is a way to find flow and make and leave one’s mark.

It may be writing or photography or video or writing code, cooking a meal, investing in a relationship, building a company or many other things but transforming and building is both an anti-dote and a homage to a transforming world.

We transform and are not just transformed.

Build things. Make stuff. Create something .Unleash potential.

We can release the statue within us or help others find the statue within them.

Image using Midjourney by Mikie555

Hone.

“To hone my voice, I read everything, from books to cereal boxes, three times: once for fun, the second time to learn something new about the writing craft, and the third time was to improve that piece.”  Amanda Gorman

In a world of change we must hone ourselves to align with change since change does not care to adjust to us.

Honing through iteration, learning, re-inventing, and many other ways of enhancing excellence of craft.

For many of us in the coming years it will be how to incorporate, build on, extend, and leverage AI as a tool, enabler, extender, and idea generator for our work.

Organizational Misfit.

The future organization does not fit in the containers or the mindsets of the past.

Until around January 2020, most companies operated under the following five assumptions or beliefs:

1. The organization gives structure and directs work.

2. Tenure and experience are critical to advancement.

3. Most of the work is done inside an organization.

4. Fairness requires a common set of rules and ways of work­ing that apply to all.

5. Most people are full-time employees of the company.

Here are beliefs that have already begun to replace current beliefs and will by the end of this decade completely supplant these traditional ones:

1. The organization enables talent to create structure and direct work.

2. Expertise and constant learning in a changing world are more highly valued than tenure/experience.

3. Most of the work is done outside an organization by sup­pliers and by accessing talent as needed.

4. Fairness means customizing programs for each talent and giving everyone equal access to those programs.

5. Most staff are either contract workers, freelancers, or fractionalized employees.

Because of these new beliefs and assumptions, organizations must rethink how they design everything, from compensation systems to decision-making processes.

Dump the charts!

To create a redesign that is effective now and for years to come, we need to think about structure more broadly than is typical. Most people think of business structures from an organizational-chart perspective. They envision boxes and connecting lines that indicate who reports to whom or the flow of goods and services from the company to various markets. That’s why when people talk about restructuring, they focus on things like flattening the organization and eliminating some of the lines or streamlining the supply chain.

While all of this is important, it’s just part of what needs to be redesigned. An organizational chart is a two-dimensional view—I’m advocating a three-dimensional redesign.

For years, we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that the orga­nizational chart represents how the organization works. That was okay in less complex, less volatile times, but it’s no longer accept­able. Consider that organizational charts and maps indicate how leaders want the company to operate, but the reality often is quite different.

For instance, the maps and charts document zones of control rather than zones of influence. A title represents a position that may be vested with authority but not necessarily the authority to determine how work is done. These charts also impose clarity where there often is none. Business is messy, and operations often shape-shift based on circumstance, ignoring the flowchart. The official organizational structures are also limited in scope, failing to account for all the external partners, freelancers, and other outside groups that have become necessities.

Consider the static nature of organizational design, driven by internal factors (that is, areas of expertise) and client/customer categories. In an increasingly globalized world filled with new marketplaces and transformed by technology, this design must be more organic, adapting to external stimuli.

Tenets of organizational design.

On the most basic level, it means they must design structures from the outside in rather than the inside out. In a fast-changing world, companies must create their processes and procedures based on marketplace realities (that is, emerging competitors and chang­ing talent mindsets) rather than relying on “the way things have always been done around here.”

They should also embrace multiple models of working rather that a single model. Given the multiplicities in workplaces today, models need to differ based on country, competition for talent, and whether the focus is on current business or innovations.

And finally, it means outcomes and goals take precedence over process and control.

Financial results, customer satisfaction, and talent attraction/retention should take priority over following strict procedures or maintaining tight control about how work is done.

Design discussed as a singular object is a mistake. Plural de­signs make a lot more sense.

For this reason, redesigning the structures must take the follow­ing factors into consideration:

Customer benefit. This may seem obvious, but company design often reflects internal requirements first and customers second. Given the increasing diversity and changing needs of customers, organizations should consider creating different designs for different customers. This might mean co-locat­ing with a customer or integrating with customer suppliers

Talent advantage. In the past, points of differentiation in­cluded price, service, innovation, and so on. Today, the main differentiator is talent. Companies must organize in ways to ensure that their talent is satisfied and growing. Considering that talent often is spread across different locations, possesses different work-style preferences, and represents a wide de­mographic range, one organizational model doesn’t fit all. Instead, the model should accommodate the full range of talent.

Change adaption. The previous two points allude to this one: organizational design must be flexible, able to shift as changes occur. Competitors change. Laws change. Markets change. The design, therefore, must anticipate that these shifts will occur and be created in such a way that adapting a policy or revamping a process isn’t a big deal. This is an or­ganic, evolving approach to design (versus an artificial, static one). To deliver on strategy, one needs to update the design continuously.

Permeability. Traditional designs are closed systems. Today, they need to be open. They must be capable of connecting and fusing with other companies in an increasingly con- nected, fast-moving world. A company and its deliverables grow by combining capabilities and products from different external firms or being part of those other firms’ deliveries.

Trust a key to Organizational Re-design.

To commit to this type of redesign requires trust—management must trust talent and teams to determine the best ways to drive financial results, customer satisfaction, and talent attraction and retention. By restructuring roles, talent takes the initiative while management guides and coaches.

This trust extends to empowering teams to solve problems and capitalize on opportunities in ways that make sense for their markets (rather than everyone follow­ing the mandate from headquarters). Management’s restructured role involves setting parameters—they grant their people freedom within a framework. They know where the guardrails should be erected to prevent teams from getting in legal difficulties or taking unreasonable risks.

Is your organization biased toward yesterday or tomorrow?

While many organizations have taken steps in this direction, most are not there yet. To assess redesign progress, the following questions might help:

Does your company possess agile systems and processes? Is it flexible when it comes to how and where work is done and how partnerships are initiated?

Can you deliver customized products and services? Does your organizational structure support personalization or is one particular system or process mandated?

Are the policies and protocols of your organization designed to facilitate trust among teams and customers?

This is a an extract from 2 pages of a chapter called Redesign the Structures from Rethinking Work which has been called “that rare book that simultaneously helps you look at the world, your work, and your life in new ways.”

CEO’s, Deans of Schools, Heads of Talent who have had access to the book believe it is the most comprehensive, yet distilled, highly realistic and yet future forward take to every aspect of work from strategy to talent to technology to financials. Available for pre-order. Turbocharge your career, unleash your teams and reinvent your company’s tomorrow! Learn more here.