Rita McGrath: “The first thing you do in a discovery driven plan is define what success would look like at some point in the future – say three to five years, when you are past the launch stage and your offering is in the market. Success could be dollars of profit. It could be impact, as in a social venture. It could be in amount of behavioral change. Whatever you pick, you’re going to drive the rest of the plan backward from that.”
Doug Conant: “As a leader, you’ve got to live in three time zones simultaneously, the past, the present, and the future. Everything you do has got to honor the past, deliver in the present, set the table for a more prosperous future. And as you think that way, that’s why trust building becomes mission-critical.” [via Shane Parish]
Alexander Cohen on why a third political party will not emerge in the US: “In the 1950s and 1960s, the political scientist Maurice Duverger posited that the winner-take-all system used in Congressional elections and in the vast majority of gubernatorial and state legislative races would favor the emergence of two—and only two—viable candidates. This is the bedrock of the two-party system. Duverger provides two explanatory mechanisms. First, voters think strategically and will vote for a less-preferred candidate if their sincere preference cannot win…Duverger’s second mechanism focuses on how the elites—the wealthy and powerful—allocate resources to candidates. They recognize that it is important to back the right horse and they don’t wish to invest in a candidate who won’t win. They know that voters behave strategically. Thus, elites concentrate their resources on likely winners.”
