Maria Giudice Christopher Ireland

LEADERSHIP BY DESIGN

Maria Giudice Christopher Ireland

Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design
Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland

New Riders
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Copyright © 2014 by Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland

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ISBN 13: 978-0-321-93439-0

ISBN 10: 0-321-93439-3

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Printed and bound in the United States of America

 dedication

To Max, Olivia and Lilah —

our own future DEOs.
We can’t wait to see the world
you will create.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

NOW
Change 11

ME
Change Agent 22
Risk Taker 26
Systems Thinker 30
Profile: Carl Bass 35
Intuitive 42
Socially Intelligent 46
GSD 50
Profile: Ayah Bdeir 55

WE
Co-creation 66
Networks and Communities 70
Mentoring vs. Managing 74
Profile: Jesse Ziff Cool 79
Crafting Culture 86
Care and Feeding 90
Place Matters 94
Profile: Mark Dwight 99

6
DO
Positive Passion 110
Expertise 114
Problem Solving 118
Profile: Steve Gundrum 123
Permission to Fail 130
Playful Work 134
Iterate and Evolve 138
Profile: Chris Anderson 143

BE
Integrity 154
Humility 158
Profile: Emily Pilloton 163
Generosity 170
Originality 174

NEXT
Next 180
Profile: Maria Giudice and Christopher Ireland 185

Resources 197
Index 202
Acknowledgments 210
About the Authors 212

7
CHANGE

The crowd at SXSW stretches

to the horizon. The two-week-long
conference showcasing music, film,
and interactive talent attracts a young
crowd. Mostly under 40, the attendees
come from around the globe for a hit
of their favorite drug: change.

Change used to be much less popular. In busi- certainly for the 60,000 paid attendees at SXSW,
ness, it was an outcome: the result of deliber- it’s in the bloodstream.
ate, often measured efforts to reach a new goal
or solve a significant problem. Considered No organization is static right now. Even the
inherently risky, it was administered in small most staid and conservative company changes
doses. We welcomed a refreshed logo or name. simply by staying the same while everything
A minor feature could be advertised as “new around it evolves. Traditional companies become
and improved,” but large-scale change signaled dated companies through no effort of their own.
distress. Big change meant something was wrong. They become the 1950s suburban ranch home
Big change meant someone had erred. Today, surrounded on all sides by updated remodels—
while change retains its prescriptive quality in their safe, traditional stance slowly but surely
some circumstances, for most businesses, and lowering their value.

11
NOW: CHANGE

In the United States alone, over six million start-

ups are launched annually.1 Google, Comcast,
Amazon, Cisco, and Oracle are well-established
Fortune 100 companies, yet none of them were
on that list ten years ago. Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube, and Pinterest connect billions of people
around the globe. All were founded within the
last decade.

This turbulence naturally impacts employment

64%
of SXSW attendees say
and careers. The conventional map of success— they go to find new
get a degree, start at the bottom, network aggres- opportunities.
sively, follow the rules, climb the ladder, retire
comfortably—is now a no-man’s-land.

The average adult worker in the United States

holds more than 10 jobs in a lifetime.2 It’s become
increasingly common to hold more than one job Buck, Stephanie. “SXSW by the Numbers.” Mashable. Mar. 2013.
at a time, to reeducate yourself continuously and
to reinvent your career three to four times. The
simple inquiry “what do you do?” has become a distribution networks, and brand imagery,
complex question unanswerable with a simple bolting them together into a profit-making,
title or function. market-share-gaining machine. An industry
might be cutthroat, but it was understandable
This chaotic landscape of constant and continual and advanced relatively slowly. Innovations
change is at odds with the established view of required years of development. Aspiring CEOs
business and business leaders, particularly CEOs. wrote five-year business plans, built brand equity,
Good CEOs once ruled from a position of stabil- assembled their associations, and climbed up
ity. They commanded forces of people, money, a well-defined hierarchy.

The Rate of Change

1937 75 Yrs

Today 15 Yrs

In 1937, companies listed in the Standard & Poor’s 500 had an average
life expectancy of 75 years. Today, companies listed in Standard & Poor’s
500 have an average life expectancy of just 15 years.
Hagel, John. “Running Faster, Falling Behind: John Hagel III on How American Business Can Catch Up.” Knowledge@Wharton. 2010.

12
As attractive and permanent as that world may
sound, it simply doesn’t exist anymore and it isn’t
coming back. 1 2 3 4
We live in a time where little is predictable. No
career path is predetermined. No one can play it
safe. The majority of companies, their employees,
and their leaders navigate a space where com- Only 1 in 4 employees believe
petitors appear overnight, customers demand their organizations have the
innovations monthly, business plans rarely last a leaders to succeed in the future.
full year, and career ladders have been replaced by
trampolines. This environment of incessant, non- Burke, Eugene and Glennon, Ray. 2012. The SHL Talent Report.
linear change will only accelerate in the future.
Traditional CEOs are ill-equipped to survive.

Some authors and advisors focus attention on

the problems, noting that today’s challenges
DESIGN are “wicked” and defy conventional solutions.
CEOs, we’re told, need to change their character
and develop peripheral vision, pattern recogni-
We’re not the only ones tion, an experimental mindset, and a high panic
threshold.
to see this leadership gap.
A logical response to these avalanches of advice
In 2010, the IBM Global CEO Study announced, is to surrender. We throw up our hands and
“More than rigor, management discipline, integ- hope our inherent traits or some measure of
rity or even vision—successfully navigating an luck will suffice. Perhaps we’ll work for the right
increasingly complex world will require creativ- startup, or get the attention of the right boss,
ity.” Two years later, it added three more essential or happen upon the right industry in its earliest
traits: “empowering employees through values, stages. Maybe we’ll stumble across a mentor who
engaging customers as individuals, and amplify- can help us make sense of conflicting paths and
ing innovation through partnerships.”3 tortuous routes.

Daniel Pink takes a holistic perspective and Another response—the one advocated in this
relabels our era the “conceptual age.” As a result, book—is to identify the business function best
CEOs need to be storytellers, big-picture think- suited to these tumultuous times and use it to
ers, and empathetic humorists capable of giving guide your actions. The business world has done
meaning to our lives through their products, this before. When companies needed to develop
services, and management styles—not to men- procedural discipline, it turned to Operations as
tion their honest, revealing, re-tweetable posts. a guide. When companies needed to attract and
retain customers, Marketing led the way. When
Thomas Friedman warns that we’re living in companies needed to learn how to scale, Finance
a hot, flat world where a successful CEO must provided the tools and perspective.
upload, outsource, and offshore. Tom Kelley and
David Kelley invite us to reclaim our creative Now that companies need agility and imagina-
confidence, while Sheryl Sandberg instructs us tion, in addition to analytics, we believe it’s time
to “lean in.” to turn to Design as a model of leadership.

13
NOW: CHANGE

If you want to start a contentious, circular debate Leaders who understand this transformative
among a group of sophisticated, otherwise mature role of design and embrace its traits and tenets
adults, ask them to define “design” as a business can command in times of change. We call these
function. Google lists over four billion entries. leaders DEOs—Design Executive Officers—and
Wikipedia adopts a particularly lame dictionary they are our new heroes.
definition: “Design is the creation of a plan or
convention for the construction of an object or
a system (as in architectural blueprints, engineer-
ing drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams FROM CEO TO DEO
and sewing patterns),” then makes it worse by
adding that no real definition exists.
Ask a recruiter to describe
The International Council of Societies of
Industrial Design gives it credit for creativity, the characteristics of a
but then complicates it with grandiosity: traditional CEO.
“Design is a creative activity whose aim is to
establish the multi-faceted qualities of objects,
processes, services and their systems in whole She’ll first mention the need for an MBA and
life cycles. Therefore, design is the central factor the disciplined financial perspective that degree
of innovative humanisation of technologies implies. Nearly 40 percent of current CEOs add
and the crucial factor of cultural and economic “MBA” to their collection of capitalized initials.4
exchange.” Phew. Good to know. Next, she’ll list traits associated with military
commanders: authoritative, strategic, able to del-
A more recent definition from proponents of egate, decisive, prepared to lead, equipped with
design thinking emphasizes design as problem a big-picture perspective. Finally, she’ll suggest
solving that creates new, useful products, places, that the ideal CEO has some humanistic touches
communications, or experiences. We have no as well: personable, charismatic, perhaps a dash
argument with this description as long as prob- of compassion.
lem solving is understood to be a process and
not the literal definition of design (surely we can These traits have served companies well over
build on successes or enhance desires as well as the past century. When assembly lines traversed
solve problems). We would add—with empha- the Midwest and shift workers numbered in the
sis—to design is to encourage collective change. tens of millions, CEOs made decisions and met
deadlines. When most employees were low skilled
When we think design, our first association is or “cogs in a wheel,” companies needed a com-
change: change that responds to need, embodies mander at the top. They implemented order and
desire, pursues a stated direction, and reflects a ensured conformity.
shared vision. Those who are designers—either
through training or by nature—actively encour-
age and support collective change. And then the world changed.
Historically, design changed “things.” More We leaped out of the Industrial Age and buried
recently it’s changed services and interactions. our noses in the Information Age. By the time
Looking ahead it will change companies, indus- we looked up from our screens, we were advanc-
tries, and countries. Perhaps it will eventually ing on the Conceptual Age and the business lead-
change the climate and our genetic code. ership traits we previously praised had started

14
to weaken. They’d become a little creaky. They This scenario is repeated all around the world
strained to be relevant. where the gap between who the CEO is equipped
to manage and who actually works for him
If we could borrow Harry Potter’s invisibility or her grows wider by the day. Employees are
cape, we’d use it to visit an executive board meet- increasingly higher skilled. They seek challenge
ing chaired by a traditional CEO. We’d see that and growth over security and predictability.
he follows an agenda set months before. He They’re networked both inside and outside
points to data from the past quarter. He calls on their companies. Many have direct contact with
each department to report on prescribed topics. customers. They’ve grown up collaborating and
Cloaked in invisibility, we’d slip outside and iterating in school and in personal relationships.
wander down the hall. In a cubicle, we’d find a They expect leadership that understands and
young manager surreptitiously checking his social embraces all this.
networks, future stock prices, competitors’ posts,
and more appealing job openings—all updated Putting a traditional CEO at the front of a mod-
instantly in the palm of his hand. ern workforce is anachronistic. He or she is the

SHARED

CEO DEO

CEO TRAITS SHARED TRAITS DEO TRAITS

Top executive Ambitious Most senior partner

Authoritative Confident Aspirational
Linear thinker Rational Systems thinker
Executes to plan Competitive Experiments and improvises
Maintains stability and order Permits useful disruption
Commands respect Earns respect
Must be accurate Comfortable with ambiguity
Delegates actions Hands-on when needed
One-way communication Networked
Follows the manual Adapts and iterates as needed
Doesn’t like to fail Learns from mistakes
Sensitive to threats Open to new experiences

15
NOW: CHANGE

Organizational Challenges
Leadership is the biggest people-
side issue in organizations.
Freedman, Joshua. Feb 2012. 2012 Workplace Issues Report.

58% 24% 13% 5%

LEADERSHIP TEAM SALES CUSTOMER
PERFORMANCE SERVICE

outdated, boxy TV in an era of flat screens, the With these traits, DEOs attract and coalesce
heavy-hulled yacht struggling to keep up in the stakeholders who share their vision, goals,
America’s Cup. and values. They build corporate cultures that
nurture and retain talented employees. They lead
How do we fill this gap? Do we put traditional teams who learn from one another and collabo-
CEOs on steroids or add bionic components? rate easily and effectively. With these traits, DEOs
Do we decide that women are better suited to create resilient organizations that value expertise
the job or minorities or recent immigrants? but make room for failure—organizations able to
Do we declare the job irrelevant and banish it iterate and evolve with the changes taking place
altogether? all around them.

We suggest a simpler solution. Just as we took For years, business acumen and creative ability
our cues from MBAs and the military in casting have been siloed, united only at office parties and
the ideal CEO of the 20th century, we can look to the occasional brainstorming session. But we live
designers—in that term’s broadest definition— in a time that requires new leadership. We live in
to model our future leader, the DEO. a time that requires people who look at every
business challenge as a design problem solvable
Proposing design-inspired leadership as the with the right mix of imagination and metrics.
answer may sound delusional to some, like a
zealous art teacher attacking poverty with a new
color palette. But that’s a knee-jerk reaction, 1 Fairlie, Robert W. 2012. Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity,
based largely on associations of design with 1996–2011. http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/KIEA_2012_report.pdf
2 Bialik, Carl. “Seven Careers in a Lifetime?” Wall Street Journal, Septem-
discretion, luxury, and logos. A more realistic
ber 4, 2010. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704206804
assessment confirms that design leaders usually 575468162805877990.html
possess characteristics, behaviors, and mind- 3 IBM Global Business Services. 2012. Leading Through Connections:
sets that enable them to excel in unpredictable, Insights from the IBM Global Chief Executive Officer Study. http://www.
ibm.com/ceostudy2012
fast-moving, and value-charged conditions.
4 Spencer, Stuart. 2004 CEO Study: A Statistical Snapshot of Leading CEOs.

16
Six defining characteristics of a DEO

Change Agents Intuitive

DEOs aren’t troubled by change; in fact, DEOs are highly intuitive, either by nature
they openly promote and encourage it. They or through experience. They have the
understand traditional approaches, but are ability to feel what’s right, by using their
not dominated by them. As a result, they intense perceptual and observational skills
are comfortable disrupting the status quo or through deep expertise. This doesn’t
if it stands in the way of their dream. They mean they have a fear of numbers. They
try to think and act differently than others. know that intuitively enhanced decision
They recognize this ability as a competitive making doesn’t preclude rational or logical
advantage. analysis. They use both—and consider each
valid and powerful.

Risk Takers
DEOs embrace risk as an inherent part of Socially Intelligent
life and a key ingredient of creativity. Rather DEOs have high social intelligence. They
than avoiding or mitigating it, they seek instinctively connect with others and inte-
greater ease and command of it as one of grate them into well-defined and heavily
the levers they can control. They recast it accessed networks. They prefer spending
as experimentation and invite collaborators. time with employees, customers, and
A failed risk still produces learning. strangers rather than equipment, plants,
or spreadsheets. “Everyday people” are a
source of strength, renewal, and new ideas.
Systems Thinkers
Despite their desire to disrupt and take risks,
DEOs are systems thinkers who understand GSD
the interconnectedness of their world. They Finally, DEOs can be defined by a new
know that each part of their organization set of initials: GSD—short for “gets shit
overlaps and influences another. They know done.” They feel an urgency to get personally
unseen connections surround what’s visible. involved, to understand details through their
This helps to give their disruptions intended, own interaction, and to lead by example.
rather than chaotic, impact and makes their DEOs make things happen.
risk taking more conscious.

17
INDEX

80-20 rule, 51 beginner’s mind, 116

behavioral science, 32
Being Wrong (Schulz), 133, 159, 161
A belonging, sense of, 92
abortions, 30–31 benefits/perks, 93
Absolute Honesty (Johnson and Phillips), 89 Best of Office Architecture and Design (Allen), 97
acknowledging workers, 93 Better by Mistake (Tugend), 133
Adams, Scott, 50 Bezos, Jeff, 115
adaptability, 176 Bielenberg, John, 132
Against the Gods (Bernstein), 29 Blink (Gladwell), 45
agile development system, 67–68 blocking out time, 53
All Marketers Are Liars (Godin), 157 book resources, 197–199
Allen, Andrew S., 174 borrowing from others, 33
Allen, Woody, 131 branded offices, 96, 97
alternate offices, 97 Brilliant Mistakes (Schoemaker), 133
altruism, 171 Brown, Brené, 133
amateurs, 116 Brown, Tim, 25, 171–172
ambiance, office, 88 Buck, Stephanie, 12
ambiguity, living with, 120 buffers, 29, 32
American Psychological Association, 91 Burke, Eugene and Glennon, 13
analysis vs. intuition, 44 business
anchors, 116 annual startups in, 12
Anderson, Chris, 115, 143–149, 171, 175 design as function of, 14
Anderson, Ray, 22 Business, Science, and Everyday Life (Barabási), 73
apprenticeships, 75 Business Dynamics (Sterman), 33
Aristotle, 116
arrogance, 158–159, 160
arts, 45 C
Ash, Mary Kay, 91 calmness, 24
athletes, 115–116 camaraderie, 92
Atkinson, Philip E., 87 Cards Against Humanity game, 135
attitude, 47 care and feeding skills, 90–93
authenticity, 155 book resources on, 93, 198
Autodesk, 36–41 examples for developing, 91–92
workouts to improve, 93
career changes, 12
B career development mentoring, 75
Bass, Carl, 35–41, 75, 160, 175 caring about people, 161
Bdeir, Ayah, 55–61, 87, 175 Carlin, George, 181
Beauvoir, Simone de, 171 Carlson, Matthew, 177

202
Carrot Principle, The (Gostick and Elton), 93 connectivity
casual time, 49 book resources on, 73
catch-up days, 53 intuition and, 44
cellular organizations, 24 social intelligence and, 47
CEOs systems thinking and, 32
changes required of, 13 workouts to increase, 73
comparison of DEOs and, 15 See also networking
conventional role of, 12, 15 continual learning, 92, 117
traits of traditional, 14, 15 control, giving up, 177
change Cool, Jesse Ziff, 79–85, 160, 175
contemporary view of, 11–13 cooperation, 67
corporate rate of, 12 corporate culture. See company culture
DEOs as agents of, 17, 22–25 Creating Minds (Gardner), 177
design related to, 14 Creative Intelligence (Nussbaum), 137
change agents, 17, 22–25 creativity
book resources about, 25, 197 recognizing, 81, 102–103, 125, 190–191
skill set required of, 23–24 self-assessing, 81, 101
workouts for cultivating, 25 sustaining, 147–148
Change by Design (Brown), 25 teaching, 166–167
Chaos: Making a New Science (Gleick), 29 workspace and, 128
Cheskin, 191, 195 Creativity (Csikszentmihalyi), 177
Christensen, Clayton, 26 crediting people, 69
clarifying roles, 68 Crowdsourcing (Howe), 69
Clinton, Bill, 22 culture
Clinton Global Initiative, 22, 50 artistic, 45
coaching, 75, 127 popular, 48
co-creation, 66–69 See also company culture
book resources on, 69, 197–198 curiosity, 176
characteristics of, 67–68 Curious? (Kashdan), 177
cognitive types involved in, 68 custom care, 91–92
workouts for cultivating, 69
Cohen, June, 148
collaboration, 67, 97, 171–172 D
Collins, Jim, 158, 161 deadlines, 52, 116
colors, corporate, 96 Dealing with Darwin (Moore), 141
commitments, tracking, 157 deep connections, 44
communities, 70–73 deep networks, 71
See also networking delegation, 44, 76
company culture, 86–89 DEO profiles
book resources on, 89, 198 Chris Anderson, 143–149
DEOs on, 40–41, 60–61, 84–85, 128, 169, 195 Carl Bass, 35–41
progression for crafting, 87–88 Ayah Bdeir, 55–61
workouts for building, 89 Jesse Ziff Cool, 79–85
completion, rewarding, 52 Mark Dwight, 99–105
Conley, Chip, 118 Maria Giudice, 185–195
Connected (Christakis and Fowler), 73 Steve Gundrum, 123–129
connections, sharing, 171, 173 Christopher Ireland, 185–195
Emily Pilloton, 163–169

203
INDEX

DEOs E
care and feeding by, 90–93
Edison, Thomas A., 52
as change agents, 22–25
Edmondson, Amy, 131, 132
co-creation and, 66–69
Einstein, Albert, 120
comparison of CEOs and, 15
Eliot, T. S., 28
connectivity of, 70–73
Emergence (Johnson), 33
culture crafted by, 86–89
empathy, 47
defining characteristics of, 17
employees
expertise of, 114–117
care and feeding of, 90–93
generosity of, 170–173
continual learning by, 92, 93
GSD ability of, 50–53
poll on passion of, 111
humility of, 158–161
engagement, 24, 140
integrity of, 154–157
environment, work. See workspace
intuition used by, 42–45
EQ measurement, 47
iterative process for, 138–141
Erez, Miriam, 68
mentoring by, 74–77
error blindness, 159
new leaders as, 180–182
Esprit textile museum, 41
originality of, 174–177
evolution
permission to fail by, 130–133
company culture, 88
personal traits of, 15, 16
iteration and, 138–141
playful work by, 134–137
experimentation, 27
positive passion of, 110–113
expertise, 114–117
problem solving by, 118–121
book resources on, 117, 198
risk taking by, 26–29
building and maintaining, 115–116
social intelligence of, 46–49
workouts to strengthen, 117
systems thinking by, 30–33
workspace design by, 94–97
design F
definitions of, 14
iterative approach to, 139 Facebook, 115, 185, 191
related to change, 14 failure
workspace, 95–96 fear of, 131, 132
Design MBA (DMBA) program, 92 learning from, 131–132, 167
Design Revolution (Pilloton), 166 permitting, 130–133
Designful Company, The (Neumeier), 89 fallibility, 159
details, attending to, 44 fast thinking, 43
diagrams, use of, 33 feedback, 132
Dilbert cartoon character, 50 fellowship, 92
disconnecting from technology, 45 Fifth Discipline, The (Senge), 33
divergent thinking, 119–120 First, Break All the Rules (Buckingham and
Coffman), 93
Divergent Thinking (Runco), 121
flat organizational structure, 24
diversity, seeking, 48, 68, 69
flexibility, 140
drawing pictures, 113
Foldit computer game, 135
dream-driven change, 23, 24
Fortune 100 companies, 12
Dubner, Stephen, 30, 33
framing the problem, 119
Dwight, Mark, 99–105, 176
Freakonomics (Levitt and Dubner), 30, 33
Dynamics of Creation, The (Storr), 177

204
Fred Factor, The (Sanborn and Maxwell), 113 higher purpose, 160
Freedman, Joshua, 16 Homo Ludens (Huizinga), 137
Friedman, Thomas, 13 Honest Business (Phillips and Rasberry), 157
friends, making, 49 honeycomb structure, 24
Future Partners, 132 Hot Studio, 95, 97, 172, 190, 195
Hsieh, Tony, 76
Humilitas (Dickson), 161
G humility, 158–161
Game Plan for Life, A (Wooden and Yaeger), 77 arrogance vs., 158–159, 160
games, playing, 29, 135, 137 book resources on, 161, 199
generosity, 170–173 characteristics of, 159–160
book resources on, 173, 199 workouts to improve, 161
infinite scale of, 171 hypergrowth model, 104
reciprocity and, 171–172
workouts to improve, 173
Generosity Factor, The (Blanchard and Cathy), 173 I
Gerstner, Louis V., Jr., 88 I Wish I Worked There! (Groves and Knight), 97
Getting Things Done (Allen), 53 IBM Global CEO Study, 13
Giudice, Maria, 185–195 IDEO design firm, 171–172
Give and Take (Grant), 173 immersion, 44
Gladwell, Malcolm, 45, 116 improvisation, 53
Goleman, Daniel, 47, 49 infinite scale, 171
Good to Great (Collins), 158, 161 information sharing, 171
Google, 14, 136 innovation
Graham, Paul, 71 iterative approach to, 138–139
Grant, Adam, 172, 173 people vs. process in, 39, 60, 127, 169
Group Genius (Sawyer), 69 spurring in companies, 191
Grow (Stengel), 89 integrity, 154–157
GSD ability, 17, 50–53 authenticity and, 155
books related to, 53, 197 book resources on, 157, 199
methods for exercising, 51–52 systemizing and maintaining, 156
workouts to improve, 53 workouts to improve, 157
guidance Integrity (Cloud), 157
providing higher-level, 24 Integrity Dividend, The (Simons), 157
value of seeking, 160 intelligence, social, 17, 46–49
Gundrum, Steve, 123–129, 175 International Council of Societies of Industrial
gut feelings. See intuition Design, 14
interpersonal connections, 46–47
interviewing skills, 47–48
H intuition, 17, 42–45
Hackathons, 53 analysis compared to, 44
Hagel, John, 12 book resources on, 45, 197
hanging out, 49 methods for strengthening, 44
happy accidents, 72 workouts for cultivating, 45
happy employees, 90 Intuition: Its Powers and Perils (Myers), 45
Hastings, Reed, 131 Ireland, Christopher, 185–195

205
INDEX

iterative/evolutionary process, 138–141 Learning Landscape, 167

books related to, 141, 199 Lehrer, Jonah, 96
methods for navigating, 140 Lennon, John, 48
number of design iterations in, 139 Levitt, Steven, 30, 33
workouts for cultivating, 141 Lewes, George Henry, 175
Ito, Joi, 59 Lewis, C. S., 159
Linked (Barabási), 73
listening to others, 49, 89
J lists, to-do, 52, 53
Jarman, Beth, 119 Little Bets (Sims), 29
Jobs, Steve, 46, 93, 147 littleBits, 56, 58, 59–61, 87
Joie de Vivre hotels, 118–119 Lives (Christakis and Fowler), 73
lounge, office, 97
Love ‘em or Lose ‘em (Kaye), 93
K Lovelady, Brett, 101
Kelley, David, 13, 101
Kelley, Tom, 13
M
Kodak, 39, 140
Kotter, John, 25, 130, 131 macro forces, 32
Kouzes, James, 23 maintaining integrity, 156
Make Space (Doorley and Witthoft), 97
Make the Impossible Possible (Strickland and
L Rause), 113
LaForge, Tom, 32 Maker Movement, 57, 58
Land, George, 119 Managing with Carrots (Gostick and Elton), 93
Lawrence, D. H., 112 Marshall, Jessica, 135
leadership mastery, 176
change agents and, 25 Mattson, 124, 175
design as model of, 13–14, 16 MBA degrees, 14
organizational challenge of, 16 mentoring, 74–77
in times of change, 39–40 book resources on, 77, 198
leadership style characteristics of, 75–76
of Chris Anderson, 146–147 improving generosity by, 173
of Ayah Bdeir, 59–60 managing vs., 74, 75, 76
of Jesse Ziff Cool, 84 workouts to improve, 77
of Mark Dwight, 103 Mentoring (Huang and Lynch), 77
of Maria Giudice, 190 Meyer, Marissa, 22
of Steve Gundrum, 123 Millennials, 74–75
of Christopher Ireland, 190 mindmaps, 121
of Emily Pilloton, 168 mindset changes, 75–76
Leading Change (Kotter), 25, 130 Mindset (Dweck), 25
Lean Startup, The (Ries), 139, 141 Minerva Schools, 181
learning Miron-Spektor, Ella, 68
collaborative, 93 Mix and Stir Studio, 185
continual, 92, 117 modeling roles, 47, 111
from failure, 131–132, 167 modular organizational structure, 24
Monday Morning Leadership (Cottrell), 77

206
More or Less (Shinabarger), 173 paying it forward, 172
MVPs (minimum viable products), 51, 139 people-centered practices, 88
PeopleSmart (Silberman), 49
perceived authenticity, 155
N perceptiveness, 47
Naveh, Eltan, 68 perks/benefits, 93
Negroponte, Nicholas, 59 permission to fail, 130–133
Nelson, Ben, 181 book resources on, 133, 199
Netflix, 131 ways of cultivating, 131–132
networking, 48, 70–73 workouts to increase, 133
book resources on, 73, 198 personal space, 97
deep vs. wide, 71–72 perspective changes, 25, 33
ways to engage in, 72 Pilloton, Emily, 163–169, 176
workouts to increase, 73 Pink, Daniel, 13
See also connectivity Pinterest, 177
Nin, Anaïs, 96 planning meetings, 52
novices, 116 Play (Brown), 137
playacting, 135
playful work, 134–137
O book resources on, 137, 199
office environment. See workspace integrating into companies, 135–136
One-Minute Manager, The (Blanchard and Johnson), 53 workouts for improving, 137
online games, 135, 137 Poincaré, Henri, 43
open source concept, 171 popular culture, 48
openness, 111–112 positive passion, 110–113
optimism, 112 book resources on, 113, 198
organizations employee poll about, 111
contemporary change in, 11 ways of working with, 111–112
corporate culture in, 40–41 workouts to increase, 113
leadership challenge in, 16 Posner, Barry Z., 23
modular or cellular, 24 Power of the Herd, The (Kohanov), 49
Organizations Evolving (Aldrich and Ruef), 141 Power of Thinking Differently, The (Galindo), 121
originality, 174–177 Power of Vulnerability, The (Brown), 133
book resources on, 177, 199 Practice Perfect (Lemov et al.), 117
characteristics of, 176 problem solving, 14, 118–121
workouts to improve, 177 book resources on, 121, 198
Out of Control (Kelly), 33 process involved in, 119–120
Outliers (Gladwell), 116, 117 workouts to improve, 121
outsiders/troublemakers, 121 Problem Solving 101 (Watanabe), 121
profitability vs. integrity, 155
Project H Design, 165–166, 176
P public failure, 132
pace of development, 87 purpose, company, 87, 159
paper prototypes, 51
Parnassus Workplace Fund, 91, 92
Q
passion. See positive passion
Pathfinders (Fernández-Armesto), 177 Quantified Impressions, 181

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INDEX

R shared accountability, 132

sharing
reciprocity, 171–172
connections, 171, 173
Redesigning Leadership (Maeda and
information, 171
Bermont), 69
knowledge, 117
resilience, 112
meaningful content, 73
resources, 197–199
risks, 28
respecting virality, 72
values, 72
rewarding
Shedroff, Nathan, 92
project completion, 52
Short of the Week website, 175
risk taking, 28
signage, office, 97
Rickshaw Bagworks, 100, 101, 103–105, 176
silence, maintaining, 69
Ries, Eric, 139, 141
Sinclair, Cameron, 166
riseofthedeo.com website, 182
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, 72
risk taking, 17, 26–29
Social Animal, The (Brooks), 49
book resources on, 29, 197
social awareness, 47
Jesse List Cool on, 85
social facility, 47
originality and, 174–175
social intelligence, 17, 46–49
required for success, 27
book resources on, 49, 197
sizing, sharing, and rewarding, 28
EQ related to, 47
validating risks in, 194
ways of developing, 47–48
viewed as experimentation, 27
workouts for cultivating, 49
workouts to build, 29
Social Intelligence (Goleman), 47, 49
Roe v. Wade decision, 30–31
social networks, 48, 70–73
roles
space, office. See workspace
clarifying, 68
Spiro, Jarrett, 67
delegating, 76
standing out, 177
modeling, 47, 111
starting projects, 51–52
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 183
startup companies, 12
Startup Weekends, 53
S Stevenson, Bryan, 111
strangers, welcoming, 69
S&P 500 companies, 12
Strategic Intuition (Duggan), 45
Sandberg, Sheryl, 13
stress reduction, 45
Schulz, Kathryn, 133, 159, 161
Studio G, 165, 168
Schwalbe, Michael, 27
success
Science of Serendipity, The (Kingdon), 141
conventional map of, 12
self-awareness, 157
risk taking required for, 27
self-control, 49
Switch (Heath and Heath), 25
serendipity, 72
SXSW conference, 11, 12, 180
servant role, 161
Sync (Strogatz), 73
Servant, The (Hunter), 161
systems thinking, 17, 30–33
7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The
book resources on, 33, 197
(Covey), 53
characteristics of, 32
SFDs (shitty first drafts), 51, 133
workouts to build, 33

208
T W
Talent Code, The (Coyle), 117 Washington Post, 115
teamwork, 67, 127 weak links, 71
technology wealth, sharing, 173
disconnecting from, 45 Wealth of Networks, The (Benkler), 69
online learning and, 181 Who Moved My Cheese (Johnson), 25
TED conferences, 72, 104, 115, 144, 148–149 wide networks, 71–72
Thinker’s Toolkit, The (Jones), 121 Wikinomics (Tapscott and Williams), 69
thinking Wikipedia, 14, 148
divergent, 119–120 Winfrey, Oprah, 115, 156
fast, 43 Wisdom of Crowds, The (Surowiecki), 29
systems, 17, 30–33 Wisdom of Failure, The (Weinzimmer and
Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 45 McConoughey), 133
Thinking in Systems (Meadows), 33 women leaders, 194
time work in progress, 159–160
buffer, 32 Work with Passion (Anderson), 113
casual, 49 working vacations, 113
to-do lists, 52, 53 Workplace by Design (Becker and Steele), 97
Toffler, Alvin, 23 workspace, 94–97
toys, 135–136, 137 book resources on, 97, 198
transparency, 132, 156 company culture and, 88
trends, cultural, 32 creativity and, 128
troublemakers/outsiders, 121 example of choosing, 61
True North (George and Sims), 157 ideas for redesigning, 95–96
playful environments in, 135–136
workouts for improving, 97
U
Uzzi, Brian, 67
Y
Yousafzai, Malala, 181
V
values
Z
sharing, 72
vision and, 155, 156 Zandan, Noah, 180–181
virality, respecting, 72 Zuckerberg, Mark, 115
vision Zullinger, Chip, 167
change driven by, 23, 24
values related to, 155, 156
voice, finding your own, 173
vulnerability, 133

209
Christopher Ireland

Ethnographer, strategist, idea generator, and At heart, Christopher is an entrepreneur. Dur-

alliance builder—Christopher Ireland started ing her career at Cheskin, she contributed to
her career with the notion that businesses hundreds of product launches working with tiny
could benefit from a better understanding of startups and giant monopolies. She continues
people and culture. Her ability to create simple to satisfy that drive to create new ventures by
explanations of complex human behavior and teaching entrepreneurship at California College
to translate those insights into effective design of the Arts (CCA) and mentoring startups as the
and development strategies attracted clients from co-founder of Mix & Stir Studio, an incubator
both technology and consumer goods compa- for design-driven technology companies.
nies, including Microsoft, HP, Pepsi, Levis, Gap
and more. Christopher has an MBA from the UCLA
Anderson School of Management. She has writ-
As a founder and CEO of Cheskin, a firm that ten numerous magazine articles on strategy and
pioneered design research in Silicon Valley, design and most recently co-authored the highly
Christopher and her partners had ringside seats rated book China’s New Culture of Cool.
to unrivaled feats of creation, innovation, and
reinvention. Beginning in the early 1990’s, she
lead teams exploring notions like how trends
move through the teen population, how music
relates to mood, the history of residential archi-
tectural styles, the power of play, the cultural and
behavioral differences between girls and boys,
the emerging culture of “cool” in China, the
development of trust online, and the meaning
of color around the globe—to name just a few.
She and her partners sold Cheskin in 2007, and
walked away with their sanity mostly intact.

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