Bubble Bubble, Toil & Trouble and Some Brewing (see what I did there?) Inflection Points

 

We’ve been talking a lot about bubbles this month. An economic bubble happens when the market assigns a value to an asset that is disconnected from its true economic value. Mortgage CDO’s. Tulips. Dotcoms. You get the idea.

Two that we have been looking at are the bubble that is programmatic advertising, and the one that is anything AI. When billions and billions are going into programmatic ads, you have to wonder about their effectiveness.

Two big problems: 1) the assumption that seeing an ad caused a change in behavior (in many cases, I was going to shop for or buy the thing anyway; and 2) the ad will actually reach a human being who might buy something. In the first case, the ad doesn’t change behavior (as eBay learned). In the second, ad-blockers, clickbait farms and robo-users mean that many ads people pay good money for never reach an actual human. And AI? Don’t even get me started. Yes, it is a Big Deal. But it’s early. We’re waging patient money here at Valize to be in AI for the long haul.  

Speaking of which, welcome Kes Sampanthar, Scott Wolfson and Noah Frank to the Valize team to get to what AI will really mean to the practice of management. I couldn’t be more excited! 

Events – In Case You Missed It 

I was honored by Innovate New Jersey as one of their Innovate 100. Honorees included leaders in government, commerce, academia, arts, and more across the state. Their celebration featured great company and great music! 

 

My Friday Fireside Chats this month were a consistent high point. I hosted Paul LeBlanc, who is just completing his tenure as president of Southern New Hampshire University, to talk about the difficulties in scaling social systems.  

I’m still reflecting on the “Human Future of Work” conference that I co-chaired with my colleague Hitendra Wadhwa under the sponsorship of Emeritus, our education partners. The event gathered over 50 CHRO’s from major companies, to discuss how we can make work more human, not less, in the face of a digital revolution that's forcing us to re-examine how we work.  

At the Coaching.com Summit, I led a session about permissionless organizations, and how decentralizing decision-making helps organizations become more agile, efficient, and better for employee wellbeing. The Summit runs through June 13, and I highly recommend checking out their other offerings!  

The Mind Matters weekly webinar series, presented by Thinkers50 and the Silicon Guild, ran this month for Mental Health Awareness Month. I was featured in a panel about "How to Make Work Better for Everyone’s Mental Health”. Read more about the rest of the series, which covered topics like the 4 day work week, burnout, and intrusive technology. 

Ideas – Thought Sparks 

Fertility is falling almost everywhere, for women across all levels of income, education and labor-force participation. Is the “baby bust” truly as bad as people think? 

When we scale systems, we need to guarantee human interaction at key touchpoints – see Southern New Hampshire University and One Medical as good examples.  

Is instant intimacy really achievable? And what else leaders should know about building trust, whether in the office or working from home.  

The AI revolution is democratizing expertise and turning knowledge professions on their head, not unlike how the Model T completely disrupted the railroad system.  

 

Press – In the News 

The omnipresence of Ozempic has shaken the $80 billion weight loss industry, and more about this inflection point from my appearance on WTNH.  

We’ve cheerfully rebranded failure -- Fail fast! Fail well! But when it comes down to it, we’re still wildly uncomfortable with failure, affecting everything from how we raise our kids to how we run our organizations.  

48 leaders were asked how they catalyzed their own success in unconventional ways. Here are a few:  attending "weekend film school" to writing handwritten thank you notes to teaching philosophy to a class of second graders. 

 

Tool of the Month: Impact Network

Introducing the Impact Network,  a new peer-to-peer network, designed for leaders who are looking for camaraderie, advice, feedback, and support in an intimate circle of peers, all backed by the leadership expertise provided by myself and my partner Ron Boire.  

We’re launching two nodes to begin: a global, virtual network and an in-person network based in the NYC area. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. To stay up to date on all things Impact, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter/X, and please contact our team with any questions! 

Upcoming Events 

From June 3-6, I’ll be joining the folks at Novartis as part of their Culture Leadership Advisory Board, or C-LAB to help develop their company culture going forward. 

From June 10-14, I’ll be teaching Leading Strategic Growth and Change, my Columbia Executive Education course. If you’re struggling with how to approach innovation efforts in our increasingly uncertain world, then this is the course for you. There’s still time to join in the fun, so be sure to register! 

As always, I’m eager to hear your questions, chat about what’s new and keep in touch.