Change Leadership Articles - Steve On Leadership

Getting to Yes with Lower Friction

I’m slow to notice things sometimes. Like how frequently almost all media companies now move right to the next show in a series without a break. I noticed it when I was watching a rerun of the Big Bang Theory on cable and then again when we were watching Longmire on Netflix. When I stopped and thought about why they do this, of course, it makes sense. If I’m on a cable channel, it likely holds me on that channel and I might see more commercials. If I’m on Netflix, it creates more binge watching and hooks me to Netflix. [...]

By Steve Wood|2022-03-03T17:58:35-05:00March 3rd, 2022|Change Leadership, Leadership|

What is a Vaccine Whisperer

Today at a meeting someone asked me what my favorite music is, and I said, “folk music.” My love of folk music began when I was a counselor at a Virginia Boy Scout camp in 1969. One of the few vinyl albums available to listen to in the Admin/Dining Hall was Simon & Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence. And the lyrics from the title song that really caught me were: “And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening” In that summer 52 years ago, I thought those lyrics were [...]

By Steve Wood|2022-02-16T20:05:50-05:00February 16th, 2022|Change Leadership, Leadership|

What Resolution? I Forgot Already

My wife Patti and I enjoy the Voice and especially the enthusiasm of one judge, Kelly Clarkson. I recently read Clarkson shared this amusing New Year’s resolution, “To the person that lost weight over the holidays… Don’t worry, I found it and will get it back to you starting January 1st," Clarkson joked. New Year’s Day is what Katy Milkman calls a “landmark date”. Landmark dates help we humans move away from the past and experience the Fresh Start Effect. Yesterday on January 17th when I went to Planet Fitness I saw fewer people – just like last year. Why [...]

By Steve Wood|2022-01-18T18:50:54-05:00January 18th, 2022|Change Leadership, Leadership, Uncategorized|

Do You Know What You Don’t Know

Yesterday I went sailing on another rather dreary day here in New Hampshire. But the day brightened when I approached a dock on the far side of the lake and an excited little boy ran down on his dock and waved. He yelled, “Nice boat, where did you come from?” “Far away,” I said, smiling. His mom smiled, too, as she walked-up and spoke to him. When I turned the boat I could see his face – it was full of wonder about knowing what he didn’t know. The Unknowable. I was stopped dead in my mind’s tracks last [...]

By Steve Wood|2021-07-13T16:18:38-04:00July 13th, 2021|Change Leadership, Leadership|

He Likely Saved Your Life and You Never Knew

I have always been curious about how a few leaders and entrepreneurs became game changers. People whose actions changed the world for the rest of us. This year I thought I would write about several dozen of my favorites. I will start with a man who has been called “the greatest scientist of the 20th century” and I bet you never heard of him - Maurice Hilleman. Hilleman created eight of the fourteen vaccines you and I see on our vaccine schedule today - measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, chickenpox, Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria. Hilleman, [...]

By Steve Wood|2021-02-03T11:16:42-05:00February 3rd, 2021|Change Leadership, Leadership|

A Gratitude Lesson from The Fonz

Today many of us are just speechless. We are tired of all the bullying, name-calling, and rancor. Most of us are kind humans just trying to get through the week. And then something wonderful happens and you just feel better. Yesterday morning, for example, Patti and I received the most wonderful note from an 80-year-old woman in our Church showing gratitude to us personally for all the ways we both quietly help our Church family flourish. We were both speechless. Then, I happened to re-listen to Henry Winkler’s wonderful segment on Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me. Winkler, whose Jewish parents [...]

By Steve Wood|2020-03-05T13:30:02-05:00February 6th, 2020|Change Leadership|

Can Our Dysfunctional Politics Industry be Fixed?

If you visit Mt. Vernon, Virginia or Quincy, Massachusetts at night these days you might hear some strange thumping sounds. President George Washington in his farewell address in 1796 talked about the dangers of partisanship and the formation of strong parties. John Adams, concerned with the Constitution’s limitations, said, “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the Republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader and concerting measures in opposition to each other.” So, the sounds you might hear in Mt. Vernon and Quincy are Washington and Adams flipping in their graves because [...]

By Steve Wood|2019-03-14T12:59:00-04:00March 14th, 2019|Change Leadership, Leadership|

Holiday Wonder – Ugly Sweater or Food?

Why is it we can order an ugly holiday sweater on-line and have it delivered tomorrow, and at the same time throw away 40 percent of our food while 40 million Americans don’t have enough to eat? This is one question I am curious about this holiday season. Ultimately the food problem is a distribution challenge in need of leadership and there is one leadership story on the food front I’ll share in a moment. Package Delivery Innovation. This week I happened to spot this 1931 picture of a New York City post office flooded with packages at Christmas. Since [...]

By Steve Wood|2018-12-20T09:02:07-05:00December 19th, 2018|Change Leadership, Leadership Lessons|

Customers Want Solutions Not Sympathy

Not too long ago I was really, really mad at Southwest Airlines and I must tell you why, but I am really, really sorry if this bores you. Patti and I were flying home on Southwest Airlines from Orlando with a connecting flight in Baltimore. The plane in Orlando had mechanical problems and we got started 90 minutes late. (When planning we knew connecting flights were problematic so we allowed over two hours for the connection.) On our flight from Orlando there were about 20 passengers who were trying to make the same connecting flight in Baltimore to Boston. We [...]

By Steve Wood|2018-01-18T08:45:41-05:00January 18th, 2018|Change Leadership|

Step Out Into the Darkness

When I was 15 years old I had to really step out into the darkness. As faithful readers know I was Boy Scout and in 1968 I was “tapped” to enter the Order of the Arrow, a Boy Scout honor society. At a campfire at Goshen Scout Camps in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia someone tapped my shoulder. I was told to go get my sleeping bag and return. When I returned I was blindfolded and my hand put on the shoulder of another Scout. Then we were led out into the dark George Washington National forest. For about [...]

By Steve Wood|2017-09-28T09:24:53-04:00September 28th, 2017|Change Leadership, Leadership|