by Richard Spoon | Jul 29, 2026 | Leadership, Organization Design, Strategy & OGSM
We live in an era obsessed with more—where constraints of any kind are viewed as the enemy. Organizations, too, are susceptible to the belief that we should spend our days chasing more: more capital, more time, more strategic latitude. We imagine that total freedom—an...
by Richard Spoon | Jun 17, 2026 | Leadership, Talent Management, Teams
Every leader has felt the anxiety that comes with looking at an organizational chart and wondering, “What happens if someone leaves tomorrow?” Whether the result of a future retirement, career mobility, or unexpected life changes, leadership transitions are...
by Richard Spoon | Apr 28, 2026 | Leadership, Talent Management, Teams
Like so many Americans, I recently found myself wading through a mountain of documents needed by my tax advisor to make sense of a stereotypically complex year. I was standing over the scanner, watching the white light pass over page after page of my family’s...
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 just read. It’s a layered meditation on spiritual searching juxtaposed with 19th century expeditions to the north pole. I found my mind returning to the...
by Richard Spoon | Sep 15, 2025 | Change Management, Leadership
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 John Petersen & Richard Spoon | Jul 8, 2025 | Customers, Leadership
I recently saw a fascinating video from a famous 1998 study called the “Door Study,” which shows an unsuspecting subject providing directions to another person. Amazingly, the subject fails to notice when the person they are speaking with is replaced as two people...
