Change as a core competency

We aren’t prepared for the kinds of multi-layered transformations we’re going through right now.

Let’s start with us personally. We’re being asked to change on multiple levels: to switch up our personal behavior in response to a pandemic (wear masks, avoid activities we normally enjoy), while reconciling the negative roles we may have played in a perpetuating racism. (And that’s only in the last couple of months.) Our social context is collapsing in on itself, as we ingest and respond to massive amounts of data in practically real time.

As many have written, our brains simply aren’t wired for this.

Management, StrategyCaleb GardnerAugust 4, 2020Change Management

"Omni-Specialized Design for Beautiful Futures"

In the past few years, I’ve been very interested in the critiques of design thinking and human-centered design more broadly—which mostly focus on the empathy part of the design-thinking process, i.e. whether I, as a white man, can ever truly design for the experiences of marginalized communities.

StrategyCaleb GardnerJune 24, 2020Design

Lessons from Amazon HQ2

In case you haven’t heard, Amazon is canceling its much-aligned plans to build a second headquarters in Queens, New York.

Would having a large Amazon footprint in NYC have created jobs? Probably. Would it have helped the local tech economy over subsequent years? Maybe. Would it have exacerbated the already bad affordable housing market? Almost certainly.

StrategyCaleb GardnerFebruary 15, 2019Amazon, Community organizing, Strategy

Strategy that moves

Not enough people invest in strategy—not just planning, not just ideation, but actual strategy. Because developing a strategy is hard, self-reflective work.

It’s the craft of finding out what doesn’t matter, and the art of saying “no.”

StrategyCaleb GardnerFebruary 12, 2019Strategy, Strategic Planning

Data vs. reality

There’s a mythology that persists around data, and its ability to act as a salve to heal all organizational woes. “If only we could do more with our data!” “If only we could apply it to XYZ problem!” “If only, if only …” It’s a misguided treasure hunt, the real gold always just around the corner.

StrategyCaleb GardnerFebruary 7, 2019Data, Marketing, Technology

Progressed a man can get

In case you were asleep yesterday (read: unplugged from the internet), you may not have noticed the new ad debuted by Gillette this week. The anti-toxic masculinity message was incredible resonant—but not always positively.

In fact, I'd say many men are losing their goddam minds about it.

StrategyCaleb GardnerJanuary 16, 2019Marketing, Advertising, Politics, Strategy

© 2024 Caleb Gardner

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