Bill Fox

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The future is already here, and it’s unexpectedly and suddenly different than we’d planned or imagined—even just yesterday. 

Today, we’re living in a state of constant whitewater, besieged by an avalanche of ever-increasing information, with interruptions coming at us from every corner.

New times and new challenges call for innovative Forward Thinking. Yet most organizations are still mired in the Industrial Age. 

In that bygone era, methods like best practices, working harder and even working smarter may have served us well, but now they keep us stuck living in the past.

To step into a better future, we need to shift into more modern ways of being and working that work for everyone. These new ways must allow us to sense changes early, and to adapt swiftly and intuitively. 

To do this, we must interact with each other differently: with an open mind, listening to every voice, ready to discover whatever is there for us to see. 

And we must give ourselves the freedom to act upon what we discover.

The purpose of my work is to help people bridge the gap between the Industrial Age and the Forward-Thinking Age, with new insights and strategies you won’t find elsewhere.

Advice, Experience and Tools From Leading Experts 

The Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplace interviews are a new type of strategic conversation with over 70 pioneering leaders of tomorrow — today. These top business and thought leaders come from many different countries and industries.

They span the business, human potential, psychology, communications, acting, and spiritual domains. 

Yet they all have one thing in common: Their work demonstrates a deep understanding of how to navigate the shifts that are occurring today. 

Together, the interviews illuminate how — together — we can uncover new and better solutions to our most vexing challenges. 

The advice, experience and tools shared by these experts can help us create a future in which every voice is heard and matters, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally. 

As one reader who chose to remain anonymous said:

“This conversation invites and allows whole beings to show up. Like whole food, whole beings are more nutritious to the system they exist within.” 

In addition to questions specific to each leader, there are the six core questions that I ask in each interview:

Question 1: How can we create workplaces where every voice is heard and matters, everyone thrives and finds meaning, and change and innovation happen naturally?

This question helps get at the essence of what’s missing in most workplaces, and it opens up a space for people to freely describe how to create an ideal workplace. As Joseph Jaworski said:

“We don’t describe the world we see, but we see the world we describe.” 

Change and innovation may be top-of-mind for most organizations today, but they still struggle to implement it. The answers to this question reveal how organizational change and innovation can occur naturally, if we start with the inner change of the human participants. 

Question 2: How do we get an employee’s full attention and best performance?

This question deals directly with one of the top priorities for today’s bottom-line focused executives, and you’ll find that the responses are practical and actionable.

Question 3: What do people really lack and long for at work?

Even in the best of companies I worked for, there was always something that would dampen my enthusiasm and my engagement. Often, it was office politics. Sometimes it was a bully. Many times, it wasn’t safe to share my true thoughts or what was really going on. Then there was the meaningless work, even in organizations with a grand purpose. And this was just the tip of the iceberg. 

So I asked, “What do people really lack and long for at work?” Few people talk about this, and even fewer try to address it. But we can’t move forward if we don’t. 

You’ll find that the answers to this question provide more than just increased awareness: They provide the means to do something about it.

Questions 4 and 5: What is the most important question leaders should ask employees?and What is the most important question employees should ask leaders?

Every organization I’ve ever worked with has had an “us” versus “them” dynamic to one degree or another, at one or more levels. My intention with these two questions is to bridge the gap between levels and help people other see one other’s perspective. 

The answers to this question will help you see that, too often, we are still asking the same old questions—or not asking questions at all. 

You’ll also discover just how important it is to create a space for questions to be asked, as well as for us to listen to each other. 

Question 6: What is the most important question we should ask ourselves?

This question has been one of the most popular among readers of the interviews, and with good reason. I can’t think of anything that’s had a greater impact on my life than asking myself new questions. These leaders and experts will introduce you to powerful questions that you’ve likely never heard or asked yourself before. 

As Kurt Wright says in Breaking the Rules:

“The energy around an unanswered question may very well be the most powerful motivating force in the universe.”

The core questions I ask each interviewee were designed to harness this powerful motivating force. 

To your great worklife & success!

Bill Fox

Co-founder

P. S. One of the fastest and easiest ways to learn from the insights and wisdom shared in my interviews is through our new Be a Workplace of the Future NOW books at Leanpub. Each book focuses on one of the six core questions from all the interviews. For more information or to purchase, please visit Leanpub. 

About Bill Fox

I help leadership teams achieve their most important strategic objectives by introducing a forward thinking approach. This approach helps people discover how to advance beyond best practices, working harder or even smarter in the post Industrial Era. In my interview series, Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces, I lead a new type of conversation for the 21st Century with global business and thought leaders that is uncovering exciting new solutions to our most vexing workplace challenges. 

To learn more or get in touch, visit https://billfox.co. 

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Shifting our center of gravity is a powerful idea that I learned from Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir. Hrund uses the phrase “shifting our center of gravity” to describe a powerful way to approach change in today’s world where “we are exploring, learning and asking questions together.”

This is an idea that is particularly attractive to me because it describes exactly how we approach the work that we do at Exploring Forward Thinking Workplaces.

This idea is also meaningful to me because as a private pilot, I have first hand knowledge and experience (some good, some interesting) at how small changes in where we choose to place our weight (or attention) can have dramatic impacts on our results and future.

By working together with an alliance of over 70 global business and thought leaders and our clients, we are “exploring, learning and asking questions together” to discover many exciting new ideas and solutions to our most vexing workplace challenges.

If you’re not familiar with Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir, I encourage you to get to know more about her through her amazing documentary film Innsaei ⏤ The Power of Intuition.

Below are the key insights I found most intriguing in my interview with her. You can learn more about Hrund and read or listen to the full interview at Shifting the Center of Gravity.

What do you find most intriguing here?

To your great work life & success!

Bill Fox

About Bill Fox

I help leaders and leadership teams achieve their most important strategic objectives by introducing a forward thinking approach. This approach helps people discover how to advance beyond best practices, working harder or even smarter in the post Industrial Era. In my interview series, Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces, I lead a new type of conversation for the 21st Century with global business and thought leaders that is uncovering exciting new solutions to our most vexing workplace challenges.

To learn more or get in touch, visit https://billfox.co.

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1. A CLEAR FRAMEWORK WHERE WHAT I SAY AND HOW I SEE THINGS MATTERS

“If you think about a workplace in the sense that you can create a constellation, which represents a clear framework then there are some borders to what we do. But inside the constellation, there is a lot of trust. I trust my colleagues and my supervisors in a way that I can speak openly, ask silly questions, or be genuine about what I’m thinking. I’m free to think outside the box and open my mind. Then there’s encouragement and affirmation, so I’m encouraged to be who I am. I feel that what I say and how I see things really matters. I think that is important to people.”

2. PEOPLE NEED TO FEEL SECURE & GENUINELY LISTENED TO

“But in order to create that creative workplace, you need to have that constellation that makes people feel secure in their space where they are genuinely listened to. People appreciate what they have to offer because of who they are – not only what they studied. It’s also a workplace that encourages you to use tools that you’re not necessarily specialized in. And when I say tools, I mean knowledge. It can be a concept, theory or just a bit of information from somewhere that is not your specialty but you have feeling it may help a thought process, strategy, way of seeing things, something that is worth exploring.”

3. LEADERSHIP THAT UNDERSTANDS INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

“I also think in essence it’s about leadership within that workplace that understands the incredible value of intrinsic motivation. You’re willing to do so many things when you are intrinsically motivated. My friend Gordon Torr, who wrote Managing Creative People, said if you have a room with five highly creative individuals and you want them to come up a very original creative idea, then you don’t say to them, “You know, if you do this in a week then you’ll get a free parking space for a year or I’ll give you a pay raise.” It’s not really going to motivate them in a creative or innovative sense.”

4. WE SOMETIMES LACK SHOWING WE’RE IMPERFECT

“One of the barriers we sometimes have in the workplace is basically the lack of people showing that they’re imperfect. Let’s say I’m a leader in the workplace, and I want people to excel in an area. If I have the self-confidence to show that I make mistakes, and I sometimes say silly things, and I don’t know everything, then people are more likely to do that too and they relax.”

5. SHIFT THE CENTER OF GRAVITY — EXPLORING LEARNING & ASKING QUESTIONS TOGETHER

“Let’s say you have a workplace that’s been around for decades. You’ve been doing things that are traditional and now you need to be innovative. You need to do things differently, so that’s shifting the center of gravity in the way that we approach work – and I think that’s what we’re all going through in one way or another. It means we are exploring, learning and asking questions together.”

6. GIVE PEOPLE THE WAYS & TOOLS TO FIND HARMONY BETWEEN WORK & HOME

“I’ve talked about intrinsic motivation and bringing out the best in people, and this idea of enabling people to live out their fullest potential is amazing. But you can’t just focus on that at work. We need to respect that people have different roles and responsibilities, so I think that it’s key to recognize that and approach every individual from that perspective. Not everybody makes that distinction. Some people are what they do. Some people come home and take care of their kids, and they can’t stop thinking about what they’re doing at work. It really benefits them and what they do at work to be present with their kids or otherwise in their private lives. So I think it’s learning to allow all these components to work together.”

7. BIG CHALLENGES WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT

“We also talk about creativity and innovation. That’s the big thing today in the world of work. In 2020, creativity, critical thinking and the ability to solve complex problems are going to be the top three skills sought after in the work market, according to the World Economic Forum. At the same time, the World Health Organization (WHO) is telling us that depression is increasing and is the leading cause of disability in the world today. I remember 18 years ago to be precise, I was looking into what were the five main health threats to people globally, and I realized for the first time that depression was actually one of the five highest-ranking things that are debilitating us health wise in the world. So, you have depression, stress and anxiety peaking, and you have a need for creativity, resilience, and open-mindedness at the same time. This does not go well together. These are things we need to think about.”

8. HOW CAN I SUPPORT YOU IN BECOMING PROFESSIONALLY STRONG IN GENERAL?

“How can I support you? How can I make your work more challenging and rewarding depending on what’s relevant? What information do you need that can help you? Can I connect you with people who can help you in terms of meeting likeminded people or getting information that you need? Or can I elevate you somehow? How can I support you in becoming professionally strong in the work market in general, but you will still choose to work here?”

9. VISIONARY & FEARLESS LEADERSHIP

“I also think that there needs to be a strong vision. Leaders need to have a strong vision, and it needs to be inspiring. People look up to and want to be around visionaries. They want to work with the individual, but that individual is really there to support them in reaching that vision.

And in order to be supportive of your people, you can’t be dominated by your fear of them taking your job away. I love it when I hear leaders say, “I’m so honored to be here.” The people I’m surrounded with here are so much more intelligent, clever and efficient than I am ever. But I’m here to be the facilitator of great things.”

10. WHAT WILL YOU DO TO MAKE ME THRIVE IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT?

“What will you do to make me thrive in your environment? How can I best support the objectives, visions and my colleagues? In order for me to do the best job that I can do, what are you offering me so that I will thrive and build my skills, and I will become so good that I still decide to work for you, but not somebody else?”

11. HOW DO WE BUILD SKILLS THAT ENABLE US TO NAVIGATE UNCERTAINTY?

“It may sound counterintuitive but could it be genuinely economically feasible that employers build the skills of employees that do not directly relate to the jobs that they’re in? But they make them feel like they will be sought after in the workplace in the future? Because that could lead to some extraordinary innovation inside that same corporation. It’s again about trust and self-confidence. Discovering the creative potential that we can have. One of my favorite sentences now is “The only thing that’s certain about the world we live in today, is uncertainty.” So how do we build skills that enable us to best navigate uncertainty?”

12. DO WE WANT THIS?

“I think on a collective scale and in the context of the Fourth Industrial revolution, which involves immensely fast technological and scientific developments, globalization, political, social and economic turbulence it would be, “Do we want to want this?”, as the historian and author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, Noah Yuval Harari coined it. What is the meaning, end goal, of these technological and scientific developments? We need to remember, perhaps now more than ever before, that technology, science and systems and a means to an end. They are not, or should not, be end in themselves. They should serve to improve the lives of people and a thriving ecosystem on our planet.”

13. WE WOULD BE MORE EMPATHETIC

“If we lived more connected between the head and the heart, it would mean that we would be more empathetic. We would be more courageous to be who we are. We would be better able to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. This way we would be more creative and responsible. Our agency would be much stronger. I remember walking the hallways of the Palace of Nations in Geneva one day, and I would look for a sparkle in people’s eyes. I very seldom found it. When I see a sparkle in people’s eyes, I know something wonderful is happening, at least partly – because of course life is never perfect. I realized that that was an energy I wanted to see and feel, and be a part of. I think that’s important. I think that has to do with the connection too.”

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I could hardly believe what I just heard. One of my project team members had rushed up to me with a very distressed and unsettled look on his face. He nervously told me that they canceled our project! 

What? 

I was shocked to hear what he just said.

As the project leader for one of the organization’s key strategic projects, shouldn’t I have known about this before he did? He must be mistaken.

He had just rushed out of a meeting led by a mysterious person sent in by corporate headquarters. Her exact role was unknown, but there were rumors she would be in charge of this group’s operations in a few months. She was apparently calling together groups of employees sowing distrust and dissent right under the current leader’s nose. 

Sadly, this is the shocking activity and behavior that goes on in so many companies. It’s behavior that destroys morale, robs people of their dignity and deadens the soul. 

How many times have you experienced or seen something similar in your career? 

How many times have you tried to change your workplace — or found yourself in a companywide transformation process? Did it succeed? Did it last?

As you probably know, this behavior is common and most attempts at change fail. I know this all too well.

This event with my project team member occurred back in 2009 when I was experiencing one of the most satisfying accomplishments of my career. I had just played a leading role in a strategic transformation project for a well-known U.S. corporation. But the satisfaction didn’t last long because politics would soon sideline a celebrated and successful project.

For the third time in my career, a strategic transformation project I’d helped lead to success came to an abrupt and sudden end. A new executive stepped in to replace the leadership team, and this project was no longer a priority. They wasted all the hard work and commitment by so many people over the previous 18 months. 

Unfortunately, this is all too common occurrence in too many workplaces. 

A Better Way?

After experiencing my third heartbreaking end to an organizational change initiative, I looked for a better way to transform and improve organizations. But how? 

As Tom Thomison, a leading voice on Holacracy said in my interview with him:

“How do we start? By making it real for ourselves first.” 

To make it real, I interviewed leading change practitioners and other experts in a series I called 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success. I asked, “What is your best improvement strategy?”

Remarkably, I rarely got an answer about process improvement. People didn’t talk about Agile, CMMI, Lean, Six Sigma or the latest silver-bullet solution. 

Instead, they talked about something deeper: about trust, reflection, new questions, new leadership, understanding the status quo and much more. People shared fascinating and surprising new strategies and insights with me. 

I published 23 of those interviews in a book called 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success. A review by David Marquet, leadership expert and author of Turn the Ship Around, is typical of the feedback:

“Most topics have multiple valid perspectives. A diversity of opinion allows me to see sides of an issue I’d missed, allows my organization to be more resilient when one approach isn’t working and allows a more nuanced implementation of initiatives. This is EXACTLY what you get with this book.” 

Going Deeper

After 50 interviews, I discontinued the 5 Minutes to Process Improvement series because it wasn’t about process improvement. Something else seemed to happen, and I needed time to reflect on it.

In fact, conducting those 50 interviews was so powerful that it triggered my own inner transformation. My mind became noticeably quieter. I became a better listener. I was less reactive to my circumstances. I also realized there was an enormous power in my intentions — and in the questions those intentions led me to ask. 

These inner changes allowed me to have a new conversation. As I became less judgmental, more open and a better listener, people seemed to feel freer and safer, and they shared deeper insights with me. 

I was experiencing what Michael Neill, transformational coach and author of The Inside-Out Revolution and five other books, describes in my interview with him:

“A good meeting is a meeting where everyone is listening, and there is space to hear something new beyond what anyone brought into the room with them.” 

I also knew how rare that was in the workplace. And I recognized that I and so many others felt like aliens at work. 

On the surface, we may have seemed happy, committed and motivated. But look a little deeper, and there was more unease and dissatisfaction than most of us will admit.

Questions that Open Up New Pathways

Because of the deep and pervasive need for transformation in most workplaces—along with the changes occurring within me and the kinds of insights people were now eager to share—I came up with a new series of interview questions. 

With that, the Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces interview series was underway.

I wasn’t sure these questions would work, so I did an experiment: I selected three very successful executives and thought leaders to see if they would answer my new questions. To my surprise, they enthusiastically embraced them and shared intriguing insights and wisdom. 

Learn More About My New Book from Apress

About Bill Fox

I help CEOs and leadership teams achieve their most important strategic objectives by introducing a forward thinking approach. This approach helps people discover how to advance beyond best practices, working harder or even smarter in the post Industrial Era. In my interview series, Exploring Forward-Thinking Workplaces, I lead a new type of conversation for the 21st Century with global business and thought leaders that is uncovering exciting new solutions to our most vexing workplace challenges. 

To learn more or get in touch, visit https://billfox.co.