C Christensen Quotes

When we come to [work] we bring an attitude. We can bring a moody attitude and have a depressing day. We can bring a grouchy attitude and irritate our coworkers and customers. Or we can bring a sunny, playful, cheerful attitude and have a great day.

By Believeing,One sees

Credendo vides: by believing, one sees. Post nublia phoebus: after clouds, sun!

The wisdom of stories and legends is that they give us another way to understand ourselves and the place we inhabit.

The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. —C. S. Lewis

Christensen died a few months after I arrived at Harvard, but his legacy looms large at HBS, in no small part because of his famous book, How Will You Measure Your Life?[51] Christensen analyzes a good life well lived in the same way he would assess a company, and the book is well worth reading in its entirety.

I’ve puzzled for years over the question of why some companies fail to adapt quickly enough to what Clayton Christensen called “disruptive innovation,” while others don’t. Reflecting on cases in our research studies, I’ve concluded that the primary answer is really quite simple—failure to apply productive paranoia, not just in the short term, but also with a fifteen-plus-year time frame. When executive teams visit my management lab in Boulder, I often ask them the following three questions: What significant changes in your world (both inside your company and in the external environment) are you highly confident will have happened by fifteen years from now? Which of those changes pose a significant or existential threat to your company? What do you need to begin doing now—with urgency—to march ahead of those changes?

The self-deception of the human soul is endemic to our fallen state (Jer. 17:9). We tend to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. And our self-deception goes hand in hand with self-righteousness. Isaiah pours a lethal dose of sober and startling truth on our moral delusions when he says that even the nicest deeds we perform are like a bloody “menstrual rag” (Isa. 64:6 NET). Not a pleasant image. Yet there is something that makes the problem of internal evil more acute. Personal sin is not something that merely affects others. Our moral evil is, as the late R. C. Sproul often said, cosmic treason.

Planning Your Courses at the Schools of Experience If you think about McCall’s theory, going through the right courses in the schools of experience can help people in all kinds of situations increase the likelihood of success. One of the CEOs I have most admired, Nolan Archibald, has spoken to my students on this theory. Archibald has had a stellar career, including having been the youngest-ever CEO of a Fortune 500 company—Black & Decker. After he retired, he discussed with my students how he’d managed his career. What he described was not all of the steps on his résumé, but rather why he took them. Though he didn’t use this language, he built his career by registering for specific courses in the schools of experience. Archibald had a clear goal in mind when he graduated from college—he wanted to become CEO of a successful company. But instead of setting out on what most people thought would be the “right,” prestigious stepping-stone jobs to get there, he asked himself: “What are all the experiences and problems that I have to learn about and master so that what comes out at the other end is somebody who is ready and capable of becoming a successful CEO?” That meant Archibald was prepared to make some unconventional moves in the early years of his career—moves his peers at business school might not have understood on the surface. Instead of taking jobs or assignments because they looked like a fast-track to the C-suite, he chose his options very deliberately for the experience they would provide. “I wouldn’t ever make the decision based upon how much it paid or the prestige,” he told my students “Instead, it was always: is it going to give me the experiences I need to wrestle with?” His first job after business school was not a glamorous consulting position. Instead, he worked in Northern Quebec, operating an asbestos mine. He thought that particular experience, of managing and leading people in difficult conditions, would be important to have mastered on his route to the C-suite. It was the first of many such decisions he made. The strategy worked. It wasn’t long before he became CEO of Beatrice Foods. And then, at age forty-two, he achieved an even loftier goal: he was appointed CEO of Black & Decker. He stayed in that position for twenty-four years.

The gravity pull of old habits begins the minute a change is made.

. Rita G. McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan, “Discovery-Driven Planning,” Harvard Business Review, July–August, 1995, 4–12.

Does Expedia charge cancellation fees? For your convenience, cancellations can be made either online or by Contacting their support at+1-855-716-3282. Or +1-855-716-3282. To speak with Expedia customer service, call +1-855-716-3282. Expedia itself does not charge for cancellations, but fees may arise from the travel provider.

Accepting this as an obedience, Fr. Seraphim went to his cell to write out some notes. On one page he jotted down the following “convert pitfalls,” or what he called “obstacles in the Orthodox mission today”: A. Trusting oneself, samost. Remedy: sober distrust of oneself, taking counsel of others wiser, guidance from Holy Fathers. B.  Academic approach — overly intellectual, uninvolved, uncommitted, abstract, unreal. Bound up with A. also. C.  Not keeping the secret of the Kingdom, gossip, publicity. Overemphasis on outward side of mission, success. Danger of creating empty shell, form of mission without substance. Remedy: concentrate on spiritual life, keep out of limelight, stay uninvolved from passionate disputes. D. “Spiritual Experiences.” Symptoms: feverish excitement, always something “tremendous” happening — the blood is boiling. Inflated vocabulary, indicates puffed up instead of humble. Sources in Protestantism, and in one’s own opinions “picked up” in the air. Remedy: sober distrust of oneself, constant grounding in Holy Fathers and Lives of Saints, counsel. E.  Discouragement, giving up — “Quenched” syndrome. Cause: overemphasis on outward side, public opinion, etc. Remedy: emphasis on inward, spiritual struggle, lack of concern for outward success, mindfulness of Whom we are followers of (Christ crucified but triumphant). F.  A double axe: broadness on one hand, narrowness on the other.