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As a Game of Thrones junkie, I’ve begun binge watching past episodes again in growing anticipation of the show’s final season that will air in 2019. No matter how many times I watch the shows, I always walk away with new information or insight that I could apply to my own life.

(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read this article if you have not watched all of the past episodes and plan on doing so)

No matter how much resources, talent, or prestige you have…you still need allies. Jamie Lannister reminds Cersei Lannister of this important lesson in season 7. Cersei builds a war room within the Red Keep and begins questioning the loyalty of royal family house within The Realm. It becomes evidently clear that she doesn’t have many powerful allies as in the past. Cersei wants to destroy anyone she deems an imminent threat to her family’s claim to the throne, particularly Daenerys Targaryen whom she sees as the next battleground to be won. Jaime reminds Cersei of the bigger picture; while they may be able to win a couple of battles short term, they are ill equipped to win a long term war alone. Jaime and Cersei agree that their energy is better spent seeking loyal allies at this time to rebuild their capabilities.

Leadership lesson: before you proceed with any strategic decisions, think through your ability to win in the short and long run. What is the risk and are you prepared for various outcomes? Are you willing to accept defeat in lieu of short term gains? Sometimes it is better to fall back and focus on cultivating relationships that could become allies.

It’s not about where your story started, it’s about where you were destined to end up is what matters. We see this time and time again throughout the show with the rise of both Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow rise to power. While they both had very different life paths, hardships, and leadership styles, they both have made conscious decisions to live life on their own rules. What is fascinating about both characters is that they were both destined to be leaders despite their upbringing or people’s opinions of their less than perfect backgrounds.

Leadership lesson: do not let the story of your past dictate your future. Be bold and lead with courage, even if you have critics or detractors. You are supposed to be here.

The ability to influence and understand the needs your stakeholders can be life or death. Tyrion Lannister steals the show every season with his cunning ability to study the people around him and communicates based on their needs. Tyrion has (impressively) survived being kidnapped twice, being accused of murders he did not commit twice, standing trial twice, being in the middle of a battlefield (twice), and finding himself surrounded by people who despise him regularly.

Leadership lesson: the leader with the most friends is the leader that wins. Each and every time. Make sure you take care of the needs of those around you, and you will be taken care of.

Focus on being effective rather than being right. In season 6, Sansa challenges Jon’s decision about whether to take away two different northern kingdoms from their family due to betrayal of family members. Jon, on the other hand, doesn’t agree that children should pay for the sins of their families. With winter season upon them, Jon believes it is better to forgive and focus on securing all of the North in preparation for the battle with the Night King. As a result, Jon spares the two families from removal of their homes. In return, both families re-commit their alliances to Winterfell and order is restored.

Leadership lesson: Always follow your gut, even if it may not be what is considered a “popular” decision. Make decisions with the best information at the present time and once you make a decision, stand strong behind that decision.

Embrace and celebrate who you are no matter what others say or expect from you. Throughout the series, we follow the journey of Samwell Tarly, a man that is disowned by his father because he doesn’t meet the physical expectations of what his father expects from his first born son. In search for a new purpose in life, Sam realizes that being well read and intellectual curosity can open up new opportunities for him to serve. As a result, he ends up serving Jon Snow as a SME advisor and Maester in training for Castle Black.

Leadership lesson: take time to reflect on what values you bring and how you can differentiate yourself. Once you have identified your strengths, focus on building them up each and every single day.

• The MECE Muse Unplugged Podcast show
• MECE Muse book website
• My latest TEDx talk + full speech transcription

Have you ever joined a team at work where, in the beginning, everything was fine? Then, you begin to realize that something is not quite right, but you are unable to articulate it. After all, the team is comprised of smart, intellectually capable people doing meaningful work. Team conversations are surface-level, interactions are cordial and brainstorming sessions are safe. Everyone is nice, yet you sense sidebar conversations and decisions are being made without you — but you have no real evidence to justify this feeling. Then, something happens one day that validates your initial hypothesis, leading you to stop trusting the team.

Over time this lack of trust manifests into moments when you cannot wait to leave meetings, when you dread attending offsite workshops or when you quickly complete assigned tasks, just to stay as far away as you can.

If you are familiar with this scenario, you have likely been part of a dysfunctional team. You are not alone: A staggering 68% of respondents in a University of Phoenix study cite being part of a dysfunctional team. Great teams create a lifetime of friends, good memories, strong networks and higher performance. Dysfunctional teams, however, result in missed opportunities, irreparable relationships and damage to personal brands.

High performing team models are the future of work.
Organizations need to begin prioritizing the development of high performing teams: It is common knowledge that high performing teams consistently outperform, are more profitable and result in increased employee engagement and retention. Many organizations focus on individual “bottom-up” career management or organizational “top-down” development, yet rarely do they make “within the middle” differential investments in team development.

With the rise of the gig economy, I believe the true disruption in the “workplace of the future” model will not only be comprised of freelancers but also autonomous, self-directed, high performing “pods” or teams that go from project to project together. With this shift in workplace trends, I believe high performing team design and development are the next wave of focus for human capital professionals.

Here are seven things to keep in mind if you’re trying to reboot your dysfunctional team:

1. Teams are similar to marriages.
Like individuals entering a marriage, no one sets out to join a team with the intention of becoming part of a dysfunctional collective of individuals. But, also like marriages, cohesive teams take a deliberate focus on trust building, vulnerability, establishing rules of engagement, ongoing communications and shared goals.

2. Transforming a dysfunctional team starts with mindset.
What can you do to turn a group of smart individuals into a healthy, high functioning team? It starts with mindset. Each individual comes to a team with different perspectives, motivational drivers, experiences, biases and personal/professional backgrounds that should be embraced.

3. You should strive for progress, not perfection.
No team will ever be perfect. Accept team members for who they really are, not who you want them to be.
4. Team cultural change takes time.
Despite what you may read, there is no true quick fix to a dysfunctional team. Teams create subcultures. And cultures of any size take time to change. Timing is a critical component to turning around a dysfunctional team.

5. Team members have to acknowledge the truth and buy into a change.
All team members have to be ready and willing. It may take one vulnerable moment of truth amongst the team to break the ice and create the space to shift the energy. Everyone has to be on board and agree on the current pains and decide as a collective that there has got to be a better way of operating. Creating a sense of urgency and communicating what will continue to happen if there is no change is an important element to evoking the will to change.

6. Focus on building trust and creating unique rituals.
Once mindset and timing are in the right place, transforming a dysfunctional team is solidified by building trust. Trust on a team opens all doors. Trust can universally be a learned skillset — it’s never too late to reset the dial of a team with an intentional focus on creating trust. To create trust, start with the team’s why. Collectively decide what success looks like for the team. Discuss what behaviors will or will not be tolerated by the team. Create team symbols — such as a tagline, logo, quotes, etc. — that become a visual representation of what the new image of the team looks like. Create team rituals — such as virtual coffee connects or unique celebratory victory laps — that are inclusive of all team members.

7. Manage team member transitions to keep momentum and culture intact.
Team members do not stay forever, no matter how great a team is. Acknowledge when team members leave or new members join by creating specific, memorable onboarding and offboarding rituals. Ensure laser focus on recruiting individuals for teams that are both a cultural and skillset fit. Anytime there is a change of individuals, team dynamics will shift, and the collective will become a brand new team. Going through these steps each and every time will help to minimize disruption.

Original article published on Forbes.com 

Thrilled to share with you that I will be giving my first TEDx Talk in Zaragoza Spain, discussing how to develop high performing on organizational cultures.  This TEDx talk  was inspired by a viral blog post I wrote that was viewed over 170,000+ times all over the world in one month.  

To date, I continue to get emails and messages about that blog post – and it has definitely been debated across the internet.  Looking forward to sharing the video and pics!

My new book, The MECE Muse, is being distributed worldwide today and I could not wait for this moment. It’s been gratifying to hear and read early accolades about a project that was one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences I have had professionally to date.

As I continued to reflect on this journey, I thought about decisions that paid dividends. Although each of the techniques below created turning points in my writing journey, a key theme stuck out – they all centered on feedback. Creating space to receive feedback throughout the writing process in whatever form is an area all authors should take seriously.

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – Ken Blanchard

Feedback beta reader group. Beta readers are a group of people curated from your targeted future book readers to preview your manuscript at various different points with the sole intent on giving you feedback. Based on the topic, beta readers give invaluable insights of what they need from the book. I had a diverse set of 7-12 individuals, all who were living versions of the avatar of my ideal readers. They collectively picked my book apart and helped me put it back together. If you are writing a book and do nothing else – make sure you assemble beta readers that are not afraid to provide constructive feedback.

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” – Bill Gates

Primary research. While an author may decide to conduct secondary research, taking the extra step to do your own research is a great differentiator. While primary research adds an additional layer of scope and time to your book project, it is well worth it. Not only is it a great way to laser focus on the angle of your book, what you may uncover can sometimes surprise you. In the MECE Muse, I conducted research by connecting with over 50 consulting partners and leaders across 27 different professional services firms on what makes a great consultant.

“There is no failure. Only feedback.” – Robert Allen

Bring your experiences to life. Attending events with fireside chats of consulting partners and leaders was the closest I got to finding mentorship earlier in my career. I wanted to capture the power of clarity that a leader fireside chat provides and conducted interviews as a subset of primary research for the book. I purposefully kept interviews largely intact to mimic a true fireside chat in the voice of the consulting partner that provided the story. What is interesting is that while I already had similar content to what they collectively shared, the coupling of their individual perspectives provided interesting texture while validating concepts and hypotheses I already had based on my 15 years of consulting experience.

Getting a popular vote on key visual design elements. With books, details really matter. The book cover and internal design layouts are key areas that I continue to receive praise on. It took a global village to decide on the book design elements. While I focused on obtaining feedback on content from targeted readers, 100s of people across the world – many whom were perfect strangers – in person and online gave me feedback on the book designs.

“Feedback is a gift. Ideas are the currency of our next success. Let people see you value both feedback and ideas.” – Jim Trinka and Les Wallace

Feedback from an online course cohort. Enrolling in Seth Godin’s altMBA leadership development program was also one of the best decisions I made for my book journey. The altMBA is a 4 week virtual immersive sprint that you experience with 100 people all over the world at the same time The program’s sole intent is to arm you with tools, concepts, and candid “altMBA style” feedback to help you take whatever your goals to the next level. My cohort provided generous feedback on all aspects of the book from angle positioning, who the book is for, constraints, storyline techniques, and much more. While this hack is not for everyone or for every program, my altMBA experience provided the momentum I needed to complete the book.

This perfect storm of feedback hacks brought clarity to my message, helped me dig deep to provide value to my targeted reader, and gave me the confidence to push through the end of this years long project.

Here’s to your journey to greatness.

• Writing something every day will be one of the best decision you make.  That decision will pay off dividends in the future of your book because of the habits you end up creating. You will not only become a better writer & build more confidence, you will end up creating a blog to which 1000s of people will read your posts, and it will inspire you to create a podcast show.  One suggestion as you go down this journey is to consider creating an outline earlier on of the content in the book and while writing every day, have a compass as to what you need to write.
• You are going to struggle with who the book is for because you are trying to help so many people.  I get it.  As you begin writing, consider creating an avatar of who you want the reader of this book to be.  Run your avatar suggestion to some of your close colleagues.
• Every time you write a page, I recommend reading it out loud before moving on.  You will save yourself a lot of time during the editing process.
• Start the outreach process for gathering interviews from consulting partners earlier in the journey of the book.  While that was another great decision, do not be so nervous about reaching out to others for help with the book.  You will be thrilled to know that people – sometimes perfect strangers – are going to be so excited to hear about your project.  Your passion will influence a lot of people to go out of their way to help. They will root you on, introduce to others that can help, and give you great resources.
• Some nights and weekends are going to be tougher than others.  Embrace the suck.  I’m not going to sugar coat it, some days writing a book just suck.  Remember why you are writing the book and as needed, take breaks.  You will find that taking a couple of nights off to give you time to think through your next steps will actually help you write better and think with more clarity.  
• After you finish writing the book, you are going to spend almost an entire year going through the publishing process.  Surprise!  Take the time to do research and plan it out, but let the process unveil itself.  Do not be in a rush because this is the crucial stage where you take a somewhat ok manuscript and polish into what will become a masterpiece.
• Do not obsess over the aesthetics of the book or stress about it.  Your publishing team is going to do a great job and the book is going to be absolutely stunning to look at and feel to the touch.  Your book is going to be exactly as you had envisioned it. And you are going to be so proud of the day that you get to hold the final product in your hand.   
• Do not stress over the fact that it is taking a long time to write and publish the book based on your original expected timeline.  You are going to meet John Kotter (yes, that John Kotter!) and he is going to share insights as to why your book was actually right on time.
• You are going to inspire a lot of people just through your own journey.  Be proud that because of people watching your own walk, you will create a community of authors around you. Get ready because you will be attending a lot of book launches in the future!

I had a lot of fun contributing to the now very popular “Hottest Jobs in 2040” TIME magazine article published back in October 2017.  The article has resurfaced and has been trending recently.

In that spirit, I decided to dig through my archives and share the original, uncut submission that while some components didn’t make the cut, centers on future jobs specifically for the human capital, talent, change management, and organizational development community.

Let me know what you think – and what predictions you have for 2040. Enjoy!

External (market facing) consultants operate externally of their organization and their expertise is provided on a temporary for a pre-determined fee. Internal consultantsoperate within an organization but is available to be consulted on areas of specialty by various business units, leaders, and individuals.