John Weathington
Helps leaders improve individual and organizational performance. In a recent effort, he helped the leaders of a precocious, high-tech firm develop a strategy to accelerate their growth from $1B to $5B in revenue within four years
The Lullaby of Simplicity
The push to simplify often feels right—until it quietly changes what the system is capable of doing.
The Morning After the Storm
Friday night a Kona storm rolled across Maui and knocked out the power. For nearly twenty hours the lights were out. The street outside our condo flooded, and for a while it was impossible to drive anywhere—even if we wanted to. Inside, however, everything was...
Dealing with Complexity: Why an Auto Mechanic Can’t Fix Your Strategy Problems
When strategy falters, leaders often look for someone to diagnose the problem and fix it—like calling an auto mechanic for a broken engine. But most organizations aren’t engines, and good strategists aren’t mechanics. Strategy realization breaks down when leaders try to manage a complex environment with a complicated mindset.
Become Ultra-Competitive Using Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence will not determine which organizations win. The real advantage will belong to those that learn how to combine human ingenuity with machine intelligence—and elevate the cognitive capability of the entire enterprise.
Winning the Talent Game with Hybrid Work
The debate over hybrid work has produced an impressive amount of certainty. Some leaders insist organizations function best when employees return to the office. Others argue fully remote work is the inevitable future of knowledge work. Both views capture part of the truth—but neither addresses the underlying issue.
Good People are Burning Out Quickly
As we enter March, I’m noticing an unsettling pattern across several leadership teams I’m working with: in many cases, key contributors are already showing early signs of burnout — and we are only two months into the year. For senior leaders, this is more than a...
The People Choice
Many organizations claim their people are their greatest asset. Few design their strategy as if that were actually true. Companies that make the people choice build cultures where smart and happy people transform ingenuity into innovation—and innovation into enduring competitive advantage.
Protecting the Space Where Innovation Happens
Innovation is fragile. Even well-run organizations can unintentionally crowd out the conditions required for discovery. Sustaining innovation requires more than creativity—it requires a system where discovery is protected, ideas are developed into value, and people are motivated to move them forward.
Are You Spending Time on Strategy?
By now, most leaders have moved beyond annual planning and are back in the gravitational pull of day-to-day execution. Recently, I began working with a senior leader at a major pharmaceutical company who is struggling to focus on strategy because she is deeply...
20/20 Organizational Design
The challenge of organizational design is no longer simply arranging structures and processes, but creating a system whose elements align and reinforce one another so the enterprise can operate in a state of organizational flow.
