From Bold Ideas to Scalable Practices: The Greenlight Research Institute

Ferrazzi Greenlight’s Research Institute exists to rewrite the rules of high performance. We don’t study what worked yesterday. We engineer what’s next.

Our applied research turns bold ideas into scalable practices that fuel rapid growth, team agility, and a sustained competitive edge.

When traditional playbooks stall, teams turn to us to harness innovation, pressure-test what’s possible, and implement proven methodologies that move the needle.
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AI and the Future of Work

Next-Gen AI Leadership: What’s The Super-Fuel For Bold, Fast And Moonshot Innovation?

Discover how AI is completely transforming leadership and teamwork, moving beyond mere efficiency to spark bold innovation. This article reveals why the future belongs to organizations that embrace "teamship," fostering open dialogue and psychological safety to truly unleash AI's potential. Learn how integrating AI with human ingenuity can redefine collaboration and drive unprecedented breakthroughs.

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Hybrid Teams

Wrongheaded thinking about remote work and how teams can optimize for hybrid

As we move into this new paradigm of business post-pandemic, the hybrid workforce—where some team members work remote and some from the office—is our new reality

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Co-Elevation & Leadership

Three Symptoms of a Vulnerable Team

Albert Einstein once said, “If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.”

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Hybrid Teams
Fast Company

Wrongheaded thinking about remote work and how teams can optimize for hybrid

As we move into this new paradigm of business post-pandemic, the hybrid workforce—where some team members work remote and some from the office—is our new reality

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Forbes

Winter Blues: Seven Tools To Foster Mental Wellness In The Workplace

With the holiday season upon us, the physical and mental toll of social distancing, wearing a mask, and working from home for the last nine months is adding up. So how can we achieve mental wellness among our staff? Here are seven tools to foster and provide mental wellness in the workplace.

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

Working Smoothly with a Virtual Boss

Physical distance is not the death knell to collaborating effectively and forming strong relationships. In fact, it may be irrelevant altogether.

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

Why Off-Sites Should Go Virtual

Let’s start by remembering why companies have strategic off-sites in the first place. The overall goal is to figure out the best strategy for a business, a process that can be broken into five major steps, each of which can be performed better in a virtual environment:

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Will the Happy Entrepreneur Please Stand Up?

If I asked of you what I asked of those UCLA b-school students, "If you want to do [what you did yesterday], please stand up," what would you do?

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Innovation Acceleration
Inc.

When to Walk Away

We all act inappropriate at times, for whatever reason, so it's important that even in cases so bad they warrant you walking away, you don't give up all hope in the person.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Fast Company

Virtual' Doesn't Have To Mean Second Best.

Over the course of the last three weeks, as corporate America has made the transition from meetings in conference rooms and common spaces to Zoom calls and other online sessions, If your teams aren't crushing it online, you're doing it wrong. Your remote team can outperform traditional ones.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Forbes

Verizon Doubles Down On Team Dynamics And Prospers During Pandemic

Leaders today need to do more than respond and pivot. They need to think five years ahead to keep up. It’s why at Ferrazzi Greenlight, we created the Go Forward to Work research community in partnership with Harvard Business School to stay plugged into emerging business trends

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Hybrid Teams
Fast Company

‘Virtual’ doesn’t have to mean second best. Your remote team can outrun traditional ones

Over the course of the last three weeks, as corporate America has made the transition from meetings in conference rooms and common spaces to Zoom calls and other online sessions, I’m struck by the number of confident, competent executives who’ve confessed to me that they’re struggling to lead teams in the virtual world.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

To Be Known, Or Unknown

Few things can have greater impact on your personal brand and your organization's brand recognition than developing and sharing your expertise with the world

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

To Make Virtual Teams Succeed, Pick the Right Players

Setting up small, high-performing virtual teams has enormous potential for companies to increase sales, penetrate new markets, improve business processes and come up with the next generation of disruptive innovations. But putting together a great team is tricky.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Harvard Business Review

Three Symptoms of a Vulnerable Team

Albert Einstein once said, “If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.”

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Forbes

This Resilient Events Company Turned Virtual Into A Major Advantage

Navigating the shift to virtual, doubling down on figuring it out, will have lasting positive impact on SongDivision’s fortunes. “Demand for virtual will continue as things open up and live events return at the end of this year. If there is a second wave, demand for virtual will obviously go up.”

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Think Big, Act Small

One of the books on my nightstand right now is Think Big, Act Small: How America's Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-up Spirit Alive by Jason Jennings.

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Agile Methodology
Forbes

The Workforce Of The Future: 12 Questions Every Leader Should Ask Right Now

As a part of a global research effort around how the future of work has unfolded in 2020 called Go Forward To Work, we closed off the year by co-hosting a focus group with Dell Technologies tailored for CHROs and their CIO counterparts who are leading the future of work initiatives at each of their companies.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

The No-time Networking Plan

Need a little entertainment -- and a jolt of advertising inspiration? Check out Adweek's BestSpots, a monthly listing of some of the most creative television commercials, according to the editors of Adweek.

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Innovation Acceleration
Harvard Business Review

The New Pressures Facing CMOs and How to Overcome Them

There are lessons we can learn by exploring why so many CMOs get fired—and they can be useful to any executive working to navigate the radically interdependent world of business today.

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Hybrid Teams
Fast Company

The Key to Managing Teams You Can’t See: Make Everyone Accountable to Each Other

Peer-to-peer accountability is a new muscle that our teams need to regularly exercise in order to fully develop, but once unleashed, your colleagues will realize that they need to own one another’s success. Only then will they cross the finish line together.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Forbes

The Hidden Links Between Mindfulness and Happier Employees

Stressed out? Improving your employees' mental health has clear side effects: Lower health care costs, and a boost to reputation and attracting talent.

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Networking & Relationships
Fast Company

The Art of Audacious Conversation

Here are a few things you can do today to make good on that commitment and get more comfortable at being audacious in social situations:

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Innovation Acceleration
Inc.

The 10 Secrets of a Master Networker

Keith Ferrazzi needs two iPhones to keep track of all his contacts, people like Bill Clinton and Michael Milken.

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AI and the Future of Work
Harvard Business Review

Technology Can Save Onboarding from Itself

Competition among the most innovative companies is growing ever more heated for one of the most highly-coveted resources on the market: talented employees.

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Innovation Acceleration
Inc.

Summer Blues? Not Necessarily

It happens every summer: you call someone's office, but you can't reach her because she's on vacation. Pretty barren time for building a relationship, isn't it?

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Networking & Relationships
Forbes

Six Useful Lessons (and Reminders) from my Recent Marketing Debacle

Keith shares his principles about the Six Rules for Building Relationships Online and offline.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Six Ways To Come Back From The Pandemic With A Stronger Team

The shift to virtual teams doesn't make this work any harder, and may, in fact, make some aspects of change easier. Let's look at the co-elevating traits that underpin great teams, along with some high-return practices to sustain these traits.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Forbes

Resilience Is A Team Sport

As business leaders navigate a rocky reopening and the care of a workforce stressed after months of forced remote work, one word that keeps coming up in my conversations with executives is resilience. They know resilience is important and the word sounds great, but specifically, what is resilience and where do we get it?

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AI and the Future of Work
Harvard Business Review

Remote Board Meetings Are Better Than The Real Thing. Here’s Why.

Like everyone else, members of corporate boards have had to innovate quickly due to COVID-19. A once-in-a-generation economic shock has put vital strategic decisions on the table without the luxury of in-person meetings.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Referrals: Now They're Asking and You're Making

As entrepreneurs and salespeople, referrals are our lifeblood because they jumpstart the trust-building with potential customers, partners and suppliers

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Networking & Relationships
Harvard Business Review

Playing Games with Customers

Companies like Sony and Electronic Arts are making pots of money selling gaming software and the hardware to play it. But a growing number of executives are looking for ways to marry the public’s love of gaming with their companies’ strategic objectives.

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Agile Methodology
Harvard Business Review

Managing Change, One Day at a Time

How companies can bring about dramatic cultural change.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Making Customers More Than Your Top Priority

Our goal was to establish cross-divisional lead-sharing as a part of the company culture and to get everyone to understand how big of a win-win that practice can be.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Making Business Personal

One of the most common mistakes people make when building relationships for career success and revenue growth is treating business contacts differently than personal friends

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Make Moneyball Changes in Days Instead of Seasons

How did Colin end the feet-dragging that had stalled the change he was brought on board to finish? Not by telling the team what leadership wanted them to achieve, but by changing how the team did things.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Forbes

Love In The Time Of Cubicles

Whenever companies have me help their people build stronger relationships for professional success and personal joy, I always share one powerful point that's quite prominent in my book Never Eat Alone: Business relationships are personal relationships.

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Innovation Acceleration
Inc.

Look for the Loose Brick

Finding the loose brick requires really active listening and calm questioning, not interrogating. And remember, if you want your prospect to get down to the truth, you may need to expose a little of yourself first to establish a deeper trust.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Lessons from the Green

Want to know how to make it to the top of your game? It's easy, if you throw out many of the things you've been taught over and over.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Harvard Business Review

How To Use Your Staff Meeting for Peer-to-Peer Coaching

One of the unintended consequences of the constant right-sizing and flattening of our organizations is that we now live in a world where managers just don’t have time to do all that’s required of them in their daily jobs, let alone find time for coaching their employees.

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Hybrid Teams
Fast Company

I’ve Spent 2 Years And $2 Million Researching Virtual Teams: Candid Communication Is Possible

Above all, when collaborating, Candor is King. Team members must be willing to speak courageously in service of the mission and each other. The best way to reinforce the power of candor is to reward naysayers. You’ll get more criticism, but with criticism comes critical thinking.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Instant Intimacy

Whether your goal is to sell more widgets or make more friends, you'll be more successful the quicker you can connect with people. And of course, the more intimate the connection, the better.

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

How Virtual Teams Can Create Human Connections Despite Distance

Technology has too often been disruptive. It sets us on edge and discourages us from coming together. But I’m seeing tools leverage the relationships and discussion threads captured in team interactions over time to foster very human connections.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

How to Use Collaborative Problem-Solving to Get to the Right Answers--Quickly

Faced with a tough decision that needs to be made quickly, most leaders' command-and- control instincts kick in. They are often wrong. In a world changing at an extraordinary pace, expecting a leader under pressure to make the call alone is to overlook the talent in the team.

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Innovation Acceleration
Harvard Business Review

How to Turn a Relationship Into a Sale

Sales teams that focus on relationships quickly learn the value of providing personal and professional value to clients rather than focusing solely on the sale.

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

How to Manage Conflict in Virtual Teams

Such benefits, though, can only be obtained by pro-actively managing the online discussion board in certain ways. Otherwise, it will likely become just another task that team members always find themselves too busy for. To avoid that, here are some best practices:

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

How to Build Trust in a Virtual Workplace

Teams can’t function well when co-workers don’t trust one another. Building and maintaining trust in the traditional, physical workplace is difficult enough, but the process is even tougher in a virtual environment, where people often have to work with people they haven’t met in person.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Fast Company

How to Fix What’s Sapping Your People’s Energy

Frustration and fatigue are an epidemic in the workplace. Here’s what savvy business leaders are doing about it. Here’s a brief list of the seven prominent workplace stressors and some practices leaders are taking to deal with them.

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

How to Avoid Virtual Miscommunication

Why is miscommunication common in the virtual workplace? Lack of context. And it’s not just that e-mails and phone conversations lack a person’s visual reaction to what you’ve said.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Harvard Business Review

How Successful Virtual Teams Collaborate

How you write your advertising copy will be based on where you will place your ad. If it’s a billboard ad, you’ll need a super catchy headline and simple design due to the speed at which people will pass. Online ads are similar.

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Agile Methodology
Fast Company

How CEOs Do Burning Man

For about $10,000, Keith Ferrazzi offers C-suiters a version of the weeklong Nevada desert freak fest, complete with direct flights and a kitchen staff, of course. Could it be the new corporate retreat?

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AI and the Future of Work
Forbes

How Agile Is Helping Unilever Go Forward Faster

“We weren’t even making hand sanitizers in the U.S. in early 2020. Leveraging our Suave brand, we went from idea to market in 6 weeks in 7 formats - amazingly we were out of stock in less than 1 day. While that is typically unheard of, our consumers are looking for us to respond to their needs as quick as possible, so we need to move fast and work differently.

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AI and the Future of Work
Forbes

How Abbvie Closed The Strategic Distance Of Its Remote Teams

Transforming data practices isn’t as exciting as launching a new brand. One thing we’ve learned during these last few months of socially distant working is that physical distance has nothing to do with the success of a team.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Harvard Business Review

Getting Virtual Teams Right

Remote teams—ones made up of people in different physical locations—are on the rise.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Give Clients What They Really Want

This amazing demonstration of how he's much more than your average financial advisor won Ty clients in the developers, the real estate agent, and some of the investors. You, too, can make your business boom if you find and deliver what clients really want before selling your core product.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Getting Face Time

When you're trying to meet someone who seems unreachable for whatever reason, sometimes getting access is just a matter of putting yourself in the right place at the right time.

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

Get Your Virtual Team Off to a Fast Start

Whether you’re a virtual team leader or team member, there’s no honeymoon period anymore. The pressure to be productive from Day 1 is enormous.

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

Five Ways to Run Better Virtual Meetings

Teleconferences can be a huge waste of time. But, when conducted properly, they can be both efficient and effective, even more so than face-to-face meetings.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Finding Your Currency

"What if I don't have much to offer?" You know, I'm shocked and a bit sad by the number of people who ask that when I explain that to build strong relationships -- the kind that will consistently grow sales, boost your career, or just pack your social calendar -- you have to give, give, give, and not keep score.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Ferrazzi: Stars Need Personal Branding, Too

My friend Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, recently brought his friend Lionel Richie to one of our regular meetings where we brainstorm ideas and exchange candid advice and a healthy dose of mutual admiration

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Hybrid Teams
Harvard Business Review

Evaluating the Employees You Can’t See

We all tend to trust what we can see. If someone is always in the office early and leaves late, you’d probably assume he is a dedicated, hard-working employee. But he might actually be the least productive of his co-workers

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Don't Keep Score

"Don't Keep Score" doesn't mean you should let yourself be taken advantage of. Here is a general rule of thumb to guide you: Just do those things that make you feel good - truly good inside.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Inc.

Do Your Homework (Really)

Before I meet with any new prospect I've been thinking of introducing myself to, I make damn sure I do my homework. A good salesperson does research on companies; a great salesperson does research on people.

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AI and the Future of Work
Forbes

Cyber Monday Every Day: The Tech Mindset Behind Target’s Digital Growth

Target stood out as a leader among competitors in 2020, during a year in which the entire retail industry was plagued by uncertainty and unforeseen challenges. Here’s how Target’s technology team navigated and innovated this year, and served as an invisible backbone for the company’s operations under extreme demands.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Confessions of a Networking Luddite

For years now, the newspaper industry has been virtually paralyzed as it has watched its readership age and younger consumers turn to other media.

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Hybrid Teams
Inc.

Courageous Speech Is a Key Block in the Innovation Stack of a High-Return Team

In teams, there’s no absence of innovative ideas, but rather, the unwillingness to speak courageously. Keith Ferrazzi sat down with Jim McKelvey to define best practices for boosting team innovation.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Forbes

Co-Elevation: Your Way to Leading Without Authority

Breathtaking advances in science and exponential technological innovation bloom all around us, making our lives better and easier. And yet there are people at all levels of organizations who feel fatigued, fretful, and even beaten down at work.

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AI and the Future of Work
Harvard Business Review

Checklist for A Killer Virtual Board Meeting

We asked more than a dozen governance experts and directors about what's been working for them these last few months, and drew on our own experience coaching this transformation from traditional to remote meetings. Here's your go-to plan for setting up and leading a successful virtual board meeting.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Harvard Business Review

Candor, Criticism, Teamwork

We’ve all been there: trapped in pointless meetings where participants are afraid to speak honestly. We twiddle our thumbs through diplomatic PowerPoint presentations, waiting for the meeting to end so that the real conversations—which usually happen in private—can begin.

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Networking & Relationships
Forbes

Be a Relationship Master

Relationships, networks and collaboration are the defining elements of the next era of business leadership. You can’t do big things anymore – as a company, as a team, as an individual – if you’re stuck doing them alone.

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Befriending the Competition

Since I've had some extra time on my hands, I finally got around to reading Alison Stein Wellner's piece in Inc.'s March issue: "Let's Be Friends: It seems nuts. But new research says that CEOs who become pals with their rivals do better than those who don't."

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Networking & Relationships
Inc.

Be a Conference Commando

The Bush administrations proposal to cut $119 million from the SBA's 2005 fiscal year budget doesn't seem to upset the SBA's leader, Hector V. Barreto, as Elizabeth Olson writes in a recent New York Times News Service article.

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Co-Elevation & Leadership
Forbes

Stop The Meeting Madness—Start Prepping For Decisions Before You Meet

Most organizations waste tremendous time and potential in unproductive meetings, when the real collaboration could happen before anyone enters the room.When Matt Mullenweg, cofounder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, showed me his company's workflow system, I glimpsed the future of collaboration that 85% of companies still haven't awakened to. His 1,900 employees across 93 countries work with virtually no standing meetings. Instead, they collaborate through a custom-built system where ideas, debates, and decisions unfold transparently, often asynchronously, and permanently—what he calls an "organizational blockchain" of decision-making.

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AI and the Future of Work
Forbes

Next-Gen AI Leadership: What’s The Super-Fuel For Bold, Fast And Moonshot Innovation?

Discover how AI is completely transforming leadership and teamwork, moving beyond mere efficiency to spark bold innovation. This article reveals why the future belongs to organizations that embrace "teamship," fostering open dialogue and psychological safety to truly unleash AI's potential. Learn how integrating AI with human ingenuity can redefine collaboration and drive unprecedented breakthroughs.

Read More -->
Co-Elevation & Leadership
Marketplace

TEST: Building a Customer-Centric Culture

A customer-centric culture is vital for long-term success. This article explores the steps organizations can take to prioritize customer needs and create a culture that values customer feedback and engagement.

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Asynchronous Collaboration
Fast Company

TEST: Leadership in the Digital Age: Skills for Success

As technology continues to reshape industries, the role of leadership is also changing. This article examines the essential skills leaders need to thrive in the digital age and how they can foster innovation within their teams.

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Innovation Acceleration
WorkLife

TEST: Sustainable Business Practices for a Greener Future

Sustainability is no longer optional for businesses; it's a necessity. This article highlights effective sustainable practices that can help organizations reduce their environmental impact while also improving their bottom line.

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Asynchronous Collaboration
CEOWORLD Magazine

TEST: The Future of Work: Embracing Change

The workplace is evolving rapidly, influenced by technology and changing employee expectations. This article discusses the trends shaping the future of work and how organizations can adapt to create a more flexible and inclusive environment.

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Asynchronous Collaboration
Fast Company

TEST: Navigating Digital Transformation in Business

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, businesses must adapt to survive. Digital transformation is not just about technology; it's about rethinking how organizations operate and deliver value to customers. This article explores key strategies for successful digital transformation.

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