by Richard Spoon | Mar 23, 2026 | Leadership, Teams
A recent conversation with my daughter turned to Annie Dillard’s essay “An Expedition to the Pole,” which she had recently read. It’s a layered meditation on spiritual searching juxtaposed with 19th century expeditions to the north pole. I found my mind returning to...
by Richard Spoon | Sep 15, 2025 | Leadership, Change Management
How many times have you been in a planning session and heard yourself use the phrase “cover all the bases”? It’s a phrase that feels good—it has a ring of prudence and thoughtfulness. But these four words can often produce the opposite of safety: sluggish...
by Richard Spoon | May 18, 2023 | Leadership
Through a recent podcast, I was reminded of a TED talk given by Niro Sivanathan, a professor of organizational behavior at the London Business School, in which he introduces two hypothetical students. One student “studies 31 hours per week outside of class,” while the...
by Richard Spoon | Mar 30, 2023 | Leadership, Talent Management, Teams
Consider the bee. On a productive day, she visits as many as 5,000 flowers, quickly extracting the nectar and pollen, then moving on to the next flower, where she’ll repeat the process and aid in the blooming of countless meadows. Now consider the woodpecker. If he...
by Richard Spoon | Mar 7, 2022 | Strategy & OGSM
I have used OGSM for nearly three decades, over half of my career. Through my tenure at Procter & Gamble and Campbell Soup, we used OGSM to align our business units globally and in my years as a consultant, we have used OGSM to develop and execute strategic plans...
