Organizational Culture Insights to Strengthen Leadership and Drive Change

Summer has a way of pulling us in different directions. A couple of weeks at the lake, long weekends, and the ebb and flow of vacation coverage can leave even high-performing teams feeling disconnected. By September, this disconnection can be palpable. But here’s the good news: Fall is a built-in reset. If approached intentionally, it can be one of the most productive, aligned, and energizing times of the year. In school, we returned each September to three Rs: reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. Here at WhiteWater, we focus on the five essential R’s of re-entry after summer. 1. Recenter We are living through very distracted times, and summer only compounds this sense of drift. With personal and professional distractions pulling us in every direction, leaders and teams need a shared compass. Re-centering is about asking: What really matters right now? Our time management program starts with this deceptively simple question: What is the highest and best use of my time? Without clarity on the bigger picture, that question is almost impossible to answer. This is why it is essential to keep articulating it. It will give your team focus and alignment. 2. Reset Goals By the time fall arrives, annual goals set back in January can feel distant or even forgotten. Now is the time to revisit your goals. Revise them according to current conditions and make the necessary course adjustments to your work plan. While this might sound obvious, it is often overlooked. Do not skimp on reviewing and resetting your goals. Focus on outcomes, not just activities. We coach our clients to get crystal clear on results, not just to-do lists. Before discussing anything else, ask: What is our desired endpoint here? What result are we trying to achieve? This shift from activities to outcomes has a powerful effect on teams. It gives your people clarity and purpose. It eliminates noise and aligns effort with impact, providing a great motivational launchpad for the months ahead. 3. Re-engage the Team People return to work at different speeds. Some hit the ground running, fueled by rest. Others need time to click back into work mode. That is normal. The trick is to meet your team where they are and bring them back together. Re-engagement is about clarity, connection, and co-ownership. Fall is a great time to re-share the story of where your organization has been, where it is going, and why it matters. Invite people back to that journey. It is also a great time to reset your team agreements, if needed. 4. Refocus Priorities After a summer break, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by all the projects and tasks vying for your attention. Refocusing is about sequencing, not speed. What has to happen first? What is most important now? I think of one of our clients who has a huge appetite for new markets and opportunities. They struggle to prioritize, even though they know they cannot pursue them all. Like all of us, their resources are finite. So, which potential projects rise to the top? Which ones should be postponed or let go entirely? This is about seeing the big picture, sorting the urgent from the essential. Refocus means knowing when to say “yes” and when to say “not yet.” 5. Re-energize with Purpose Finally, you cannot sprint through the fall without fueling up. People need to know that what they are doing matters. That the juice is worth the squeeze, as I like to say. This is the time to reconnect to your why. Remind your team why the work matters. Tell the stories that bring it to life. Share the wins. Bring purpose into the conversation because it powers performance. And remember, fall will always be busy. But it does not have to feel chaotic. With a thoughtful, intentional re-entry that brings everyone back together for focus, clarity, and alignment, you can turn this season into a strategic advantage for a strong finish. Conclusion: Embrace the Fall Reset As we embrace the fall, let’s commit to these five essential R’s. They will guide us in reconnecting with our goals, our teams, and our purpose. By doing so, we can harness the energy of the season and drive meaningful results. Ready to align your time with what matters most? Our Time Management course gives you the tools to recenter, reset goals, and refocus priorities with impact. Learn more and enroll here → Top down bottom up time management

We are in the age of AI. It’s daily headline news. Not a week goes by without small to medium-sized business leaders wanting to discuss its uses and limitations. The most common question I hear is, “How do we integrate AI into our workflow?” The second question is, “Where do I start?” I sense trepidation among these business owners, and research backs this up. A 2025 survey by the National Federation of Independent Business found that only 24% of U.S. small businesses currently use AI, compared to 78% of large companies. Those that do use it sparingly, often for simple tasks like drafting emails or social media posts. Why the Hesitation? I dug a little deeper to find out why many SMBs remain cautious despite the buzz. Here are some key reasons: Limited resources and time : Owners often juggle multiple roles. Learning new technology can feel overwhelming when you’re already stretched thin, according to “Small Businesses Are Slower to Adopt AI. Here’s Why,” in Inc in June. Lack of expertise : Few SMBs have dedicated IT teams, making it hard to choose, integrate, and effectively use AI tools. Cost concerns : This Fast Company piece found that while AI tools are becoming more affordable, there’s still a perception that they’re expensive or built for enterprise budgets. With uncertainty about ROI, adoption stalls. This tells me that the hesitation isn’t about whether AI could help, but whether small businesses can realistically implement and benefit from it. Our Journey with AI I am no techie, but I am the owner of a small business navigating this new technology. I wanted to share how our team has waded into AI and some of the best advice I’ve found on how SMBs can start. How WhiteWater is Using AI One of the most common pieces of advice is to start small and work with what you’ve already got. Most major business software, such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Shopify, comes with built-in AI. At WhiteWater, we’re on Teams, which includes Copilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant. We use it for various tasks: High-Level Thinking : We’ve been using Copilot to help with high-level thinking and structure. For example, we are currently assisting a client in developing a health and safety program. We asked Copilot to outline key topics, and it provided six or seven points that helped us get started. From there, we layered the program's structure with our consultant’s expertise, gained over decades in health and safety, and the client-specific needs she’s discovered through multiple site visits. Picture a Venn diagram with three overlapping rings: our expertise, our client-specific knowledge, and AI’s big-picture work. Template Creation : AI complements our team by providing templates and handling some formatting or outlining tasks. In this way, it acts like a very efficient administrative assistant. I always think of AI as a helper, not the final decider. It can guide you in the right direction, but you still need to apply your intellect to reach the final version. Time Management : The core message of our Top-Down Bottom-Up Time Management Course emphasizes focusing on the things only you can do while delegating or outsourcing the rest. We see great value in assigning AI mundane yet time-consuming tasks, allowing our team to concentrate on higher-order work. Research Assistant : As consultants, we specialize in leadership development and supporting organizations in their strategy-to-execution work. Our clients span a wide range of industries and sectors. We’ve been using Copilot as a digital research assistant to gather information on new markets, sectors, trends, and more. AI’s tendency to generate incorrect information has been widely discussed. We are always careful to take everything with a grain of salt, verify sources, and conduct our own research to ensure we’re using well-sourced material. After all, it pulls from everything that's out there, and some of it is just plain wrong! We also conduct extensive research when developing new programs or newsletters. Again, it’s about using technology to complement our human talent. Tracey, who leads our instructional design efforts, has such a profound grasp of leadership literature that she’s like her own large language model! AI can’t replace that discernment and critical thinking. Marketing and Creative Applications We have a great in-house designer, a contract writer, and a videographer we’ve worked with for years, along with a marketing agency that helps with our strategy. However, sometimes opportunities arise that are outside our usual scope. A recent example? A long-time client wanted to create a series of internal videos to promote their safety culture. In the past, we probably wouldn’t have pitched being involved at all. We created a rough script, including voice samples for narration and interview subjects. We used AI to draft the storyboard, which our team then refined to generate the real-world emotional impact we wanted. In Canva design software, we used AI to create a rough concept that received immediate approval from our client. Let me be clear: We are not trying to become a marketing firm or filmmakers. Our plan was to collaborate with professional creatives on the final concept and story. But this just shows how AI complements our key skill set with tools that extend our reach. The biggest lesson we’ve learned? What you get back is largely a function of the questions you ask. Prompting is an art in itself. How to Start Small Using AI in Your Business If you’re curious but tentative, here are five easy ways to begin, according to Fast Company and Inc.: 1. Start Small Don’t attempt to “AI-ify” your entire business overnight. Pick a single pain point, like handling repetitive customer questions, drafting marketing emails, or tracking invoices, and test a tool that addresses it. 2. Use What You’ve Got Many tools you already pay for (like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, QuickBooks, or Shopify) have AI features built-in. Activating these is an easy way to gain value without additional cost. 3. Experiment with Collaboration Platforms like ChatGPT can help brainstorm product names, write social posts, or draft proposals. Treat it like a collaborator: provide context about your business and clear instructions, then refine the output. 4. Reclaim Your Time Think of AI as your “time machine.” Automating routine tasks, like scheduling, research, or fundamental data analysis, frees you up to focus on higher-value work (or take a break!). 5. Stay Human AI isn’t set-and-forget. Review what it produces for accuracy, tone, and fit. Especially for customer-facing content, a quick human check ensures the tech amplifies, not undermines, your brand. The Bottom Line As our team has learned, AI isn’t a silver bullet. But when used wisely, it can be a powerful tool for SMBs, saving time on mundane tasks, sparking ideas, and helping you compete in new ways. Think of it less as a tech revolution and more as a toolkit. Start with one tool in one area, and build from there. As Harvard Business Review put it, AI is a “force multiplier” that’s “leveling the playing field” for smaller businesses. The question is no longer whether AI will shape your industry, but if you’re ready to take advantage of it. The businesses that experiment today will be the ones ready to thrive tomorrow. Small Company, Big Potential As we mark Small Business Week, it’s a reminder that real progress starts small. It begins with focus, courage, and the commitment to keep moving forward. Here’s to the small teams doing big things every day.

Pivot on Curiosity, Culture, and Core Competencies If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that certainty is overrated.  Tariffs can appear seemingly overnight. Supply chains can seize up. New competitors emerge from industries you didn’t even know existed. In a world this unpredictable, the traditional idea of strategy as long-term plans carved in stone just doesn’t cut it anymore. Today, strategy is less about predicting the future and more about preparing your organization to adapt  to it. It’s about building agility into the way you think, operate, and lead. When I think about what’s helped WhiteWater and our clients thrive through perpetual change, I see three key enablers that separate agile organizations from the rest: curiosity, culture, and core competencies. 1. Curiosity: Relaxing your assumptions. Agility starts with curiosity: the willingness to challenge what you think you know.  One of my clients recently faced a dilemma. They manufacture a specialized product that moves back and forth across the border during production. Tariffs hit them both ways, importing the unfinished material and  exporting the finished product. Ouch. Margins evaporated overnight. Most leaders, faced with that kind of problem, ask, “What should we do?” It’s a natural question, but it’s a convergent one, narrowing thinking to a few select options or even a single correct answer. Curious leaders come at it differently, with an altogether different question: “What could  we do?” Could we move manufacturing closer to our end market? Could we rethink our supply chain? Could our capabilities apply to an entirely different customer base or sector? That subtle shift from “should” to “could” opens up possibilities that rigid thinking shuts down. It’s the same mindset that allowed Captain “Sully” Sullenberger to land a disabled jet on the Hudson River. In those 200 seconds of crisis, he didn’t panic or fixate on the expected answer (getting back to the airport). He paused and asked, What are my options? That’s curiosity in action under pressure. Curiosity also requires humility. As leaders, we can get attached to our own experience, what worked before, what’s familiar. The more certain we are, the less space there is for learning. Agile strategy demands the opposite: relaxing assumptions, staying open, and continuously asking, What else is possible? 2. Culture: Creating safety for agility. Curiosity can’t survive in a fear-based culture. Agility requires an environment where people can question, test, and occasionally fail without fear of punishment. That takes trust: trust that leaders will listen, that experimentation won’t be career-ending, and that people’s contributions matter even when ideas don’t pan out. I often say agility is a team sport. You can have the best strategic insight in the world, but if your people aren’t connected, engaged, and empowered, you can’t pivot fast enough when conditions change. We’ve seen this play out in companies undergoing large-scale change. Implementing a new system or structure often meets resistance from long-tenured employees who “know how things have always been done.” They’re uncomfortable, not because they dislike progress, but because they’ve lost their footing in familiar territory. Contrast that with a new hire who’s never seen the old way. They learn the new system, no problem. Why? Because they don’t have years of assumptions to unlearn. That’s the cultural muscle we need to build: flexibility. Just like physical flexibility, it atrophies without use. Organizations that stay agile practice it by encouraging learning, welcoming fresh perspectives, and making space for discomfort. When leaders show care for their teams by truly listening, communicating openly, and involving them in decision-making, they create the trust needed for agility. People move faster and more confidently when they know leadership has their back. 3. Core Competencies: Doing different things.  When uncertainty is high, it’s tempting to hunker down and protect what you know. But the most agile organizations look at their core competencies, the things they do uniquely well, and ask how those could be applied in new ways. I work with a client that fabricates steel for large retail buildings. Their team saw themselves strictly as a truss manufacturer. But their true competency wasn’t making trusses. It was fabricating steel with precision and reliability, a high-value capability with countless other applications. Similarly, another company I know built a niche product that involved high-grade insulation technology. When their core market contracted, they didn’t shut down. They asked, “Where else could this technology add value?” That led to new lines of business that looked different but drew on the same strengths. Agility isn’t about reinventing who you are every six months. It’s about knowing your DNA and being willing to express it differently as opportunities change. Even here at WhiteWater, our roots are in organizational alignment, helping leaders pull every lever in sync to achieve results. But when a client needed to engage their people in a new way, we stretched that core competency into a different format: gamified learning. It wasn’t about changing who we are (we are NOT a gaming company!); it was about applying what we do best in a new way that met our client’s needs. That’s agility in action. Bringing It All Together: Building an Agile Strategy that Lasts When the ground shifts beneath you, whether due to changing markets, technology, or customer expectations, your best defence isn’t a thicker strategy binder. It’s a culture and mindset built for movement:  Curiosity  keeps you open to new possibilities. Culture  provides the safety and trust to act on them. And a clear understanding of your core competencies  gives you the foundation to pivot without losing your footing. Remember, agile strategy isn’t about reacting faster; it’s about thinking differently. It’s about replacing rigidity with readiness, prediction with preparation, and control with curiosity. We know that the future can always surprise us. The question is: Will we be ready to adapt when it does?

How Sears Killed Sears A Horrific Case of the Missing Follow-up/Follow-through Process Early in my career, I was responsible for a team of technical sales engineers. After a few weeks, I inherited an engineer who had worked for our company for about a year and had developed a reputation as lazy and ineffective. Yeah, I know: the proverbial Thanksgiving Special: the organization was playing “Pass the Turkey” with him. Yet, as I got to know him, I found that he was bright, energetic and highly motivated…the complete opposite of his reputation. I asked him what he’d been doing for the last year. His completely honest response: “Not much.” Why? “Well, frankly, no one has asked me to do much, and then they never check on me. So, I spend my time researching, reading and, generally, hanging out.” Besides the obvious lack of direction or anything that resembled a critical goal, the Follow-up/Follow-through process was totally non-existent. While the sales engineer bore a lot of the responsibility for being missing in action, his previous leaders also clearly failed him. The good news: after we established a few critical goals and started a regular Follow-up/Follow-through process, the sales engineer began to put all that reading and research to work. Within months, he had earned his new reputation as being smart as a whip and doing great things for our customers and our organization. Follow-up/Follow-through: Generating Learning and Accountability for Results In our last post, we talked about the 7th gear in the Strategy>Execution>Results Framework: Follow-up/Follow-through. It’s the gear that keeps the other gears aligned and translating effort to results. As the story above illustrates in stark terms, when Follow-up/Follow-through is missing or ineffective, the other gears wobble, grind and waste time and energy. Effective Follow-up/Follow-through: Set the Rhythm Performers and Leaders need to establish a consistent rhythm for following up and following through. They should create a consistent time frame for meeting, updating and assessing progress toward the project’s goal. Once the rhythm has been established, the burden is on the performer to follow-up with the leader at the agreed upon time. This shifts the responsibility and accountability for performance to the performer and away from the leader. Instead of having to nag performers about scheduling their next status meeting, leaders can focus their attention on their own critical goals and priorities. Follow-up/Follow-through Rhythm: Driven by the Performer’s Needs and the Goal How frequently should they meet? The answer is generally driven by: • the performer’s needs • the nature of the goal or task. Let’s say you just hired a new team member who brings a ton of new capabilities, raw talent and enthusiasm to the organization. But, she has no experience with how things work within your organization and has not proven that she can apply her talent and enthusiasm to consistently achieve critical goals. In this case, you would be wise to start with a fast follow up/follow-through cycle. This enables the leader to provide the guidance the new team member needs to be successful. It also allows the leader to celebrate quick wins and understand her quickly evolving development needs. In the first few days on the job, the cycle might be daily or even every few hours. Or the new team member might be assigned to shadow or be shadowed by a mentor, in which case, the cycle might be nearly continuous. As the new team member demonstrates that she can operate safely and effectively on her own, you can (must) gradually decrease the frequency of the follow-up/follow-through cycles. On the other hand, your “pros in position” will feel smothered by an hourly or daily Follow-up/Follow-through rhythm on a goal or task they are expert in. Weekly, monthly or quarterly better fits their needs. A Recipe for Disaster Establishing a Follow-up/Follow-through rhythm that is less frequent than quarterly is a recipe for disaster. Waiting for the annual or six-month performance review creates too much potential for performers to drift out of day-to-day alignment with their critical goals. (Wait a minute…are you still doing annual performance reviews? We should talk.) If you’re not already comfortable with follow up/follow through, I suggest that whatever interval you choose, make it regular, such as every week at the same day and time. But follow up/follow through can also occur at specific, but not necessarily regular, intervals if that’s what a project plan or task requires. For example, a foreman at a commercial windows and doors company might follow up with his manager within a day of completing an installation. Depending on the size of each job, their meetings could be days, weeks or months apart, but they still occur at specific times. What do you think? To what extent have you established a Follow-up/Follow-through cycle for each of your goals? Is Follow-up/Follow-through driven by the Performers’ needs and the nature or the goal, or driven more by crisis? To what extent does your Follow-up/Follow-through process push responsibility and ownership to Performers, rather than Leaders? Next: The project’s role in setting the Follow-up/Follow-through rhythm. Intrigued by what you’re reading? Download our white paper on converting strategy into execution and learn more about us by visiting our website . WhiteWater International Consulting, Inc. helps organizations understand the challenges they face and helps enterprises achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it.

After more than two decades on the frontlines of emergency response and industrial safety, I’ve learned a thing or two about hard conversations. As a former paramedic and health and safety leader in industry, I’ve had to deliver difficult messages and directives to people in high-stress, high-stakes situations. Often, there was no time to sugarcoat it. That experience taught me one of the most important lessons in leadership: the first 30 seconds of a tough conversation matter more than anything. That insight is at the heart of Whitewater's Courageous Communications program, which I now help lead. The program is part of our curriculum for Just Lead , WhiteWater’s signature leadership development program, and it's designed to equip leaders with the skills to navigate conflict with confidence and care. Why We Avoid Conflict (And Why That’s a Problem) Let’s face it: most of us hate conflict. In a recent webinar I hosted, entitled " Courageous Communications Tips for Women in the Workforce ," we asked participants to share what comes to mind when they hear the word. The answers included “drama”, “frightening”, “stress”, “avoidance”, “misunderstanding”, and “tension.” These replies reflect the discomfort that most of us feel about conflict, as well as our negative associations with it. No wonder “avoidance” was one of the top answers.  Avoiding conflict may feel good in the moment, but it creates long-term problems, including misalignment, resentment, and broken trust. The good news? You can get better at it. Courageous communication is a skill, and like any skill, it can be learned, worked on, and improved. Understanding Conflict Styles: The Thomas-Kilmann Model A helpful starting point is understanding how you (and your team members) tend to approach conflict. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument outlines five typical styles: Competing (my way or the highway) Accommodating (it would be my pleasure) Avoiding (let’s not talk about it) Collaborating (two heads are better than one) Compromising (let’s make a deal) There’s no right or wrong style, but knowing your default setting helps you pivot when a different approach is called for. In the webinar, one participant noted they might “compete” in one situation and “compromise” in another. That’s exactly right. Awareness creates choice. Mastering the First 30 Seconds This is my favourite tactic—and the one I rely on most. Start the conversation with clarity. It doesn’t need to be harsh, but it does need to be direct. "Here’s what I’m seeing, and here’s what I’d like to talk about." That’s it. Getting it out early helps you stay focused and lowers anxiety. In fact, I believe in this so much that I raised my daughters on a version of it. We call it the "20 seconds of courage" rule: be brave long enough to get started, and you’ll almost always be glad you did. A Framework for Courageous Communication In the communications module of Just Lead, we teach a three-part framework to structure productive, respectful conflict: Prepare for Success: Know your purpose. Choose the right time and place. Consider your audience. Confront Collaboratively:  Lead with your point. Listen to theirs. Work together on the path forward. Follow Up and Follow Through: Align on expectations. Check back in. Reinforce what’s working. We also help participants practice real-life scenarios and offer tools for managing emotions, avoiding common pitfalls (such as the dreaded "feedback sandwich," where the tough stuff is buried, and the conversation risks going off the rails), and staying grounded even when things get tense. Why This Matters, Especially for Women Although the content applies to everyone, this recent webinar focused on women in the workforce. Why? Because navigating conflict is especially fraught for women, who are often judged more harshly for being assertive. I've spent most of my career in male-dominated spaces, from paramedicine to industry, and I know how hard it can be to speak up. The truth is, courageous communication is not just about having your say. It’s about building trust, solving problems, and creating workplaces where everyone feels heard. It’s a leadership skill, but it’s also a life skill.  Ready to Build Your Conflict Confidence? The Courageous Communications  webinar is just the beginning, and I invite you to access the free recording for a primer. And if you're ready to dig deeper, check out Just Lead , Whitewater's leadership development program designed to help managers lead with clarity, care, and courage. Because avoiding conflict won’t make it go away. But learning to face it with skill? That changes everything. Janet Currie  is a Senior Consultant at Whitewater Consulting. 👉 Download the full 10 Tips guide as a printable PDF. keep it handy for your next tough conversation.

Why Strategy Needs Rethinking The strategy canvas is a powerful strategic planning tool that helps businesses visualize their market position and competition. In this post, we’ll explore how this tool can replace outdated planning methods with agile, big-picture strategic thinking. You know the drill: consultants swoop in and gather random, potentially contradictory intel from key team members. They go away and conduct independent market research. From this dog’s breakfast, they piece together disparate pieces of data and perspective into thick, densely written reports full of figures and jargon. Not only does this approach, in which strategy is done to rather than with or, even better, by your team, not engage people, but it can also create confusion, resulting in opaque direction and subpar execution. “No wonder so few strategic plans turn into action,” Kim and Mauborgne write in a Harvard Business Review  article . “Executives are paralyzed by the muddle.” I couldn't agree more. In more than 30 years of corporate and consulting work, I’ve seen managers’ bookshelves groan under these dust-collecting bricks. And I’ve seen too many organizations miss a chance to grow and thrive because they couldn’t get clarity and alignment at the strategy creation stage. What Is the Strategy Canvas? The Strategy Canvas was developed by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne , professors of strategy at INSEAD  and co-directors of the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute  in Fontainebleau, France. They created it as an alternative to the typical strategic planning process. It’s a diagnostic and action framework that helps organizations: Visualize their current strategic position. Compare it directly with competitors’ profiles. Identify opportunities to diverge and focus. Unlike a 100-page plan, the Strategy Canvas is a one-page picture that leaders and teams can actually use.   Why Traditional Strategic Planning Fails Traditional planning is slow, costly, and disconnected from reality: Bulky reports don’t translate into action. Teams aren’t engaged in creating the plan. Strategy becomes abstract — not actionable. No surprise then that 75–90% of strategies fail at execution . There’s specificity in simplicity: if your team can’t clearly see the strategy and how it applies to their daily work, execution will fail. The strategy canvas does three things in one picture. It shows:   Your industry’s strategic profile–what the authors call your value curve–by mapping current and potential future competition factors. The value curve of current and potential competitors. Your company’s strategic profile, showing current and potential future investment in customer choice factors. Sample Strategy Canvas template showing how organizations compare on customer choice factors such as price, quality, ease of use, and service. To get started, chart the choice factors, such as price, quality, flexibility, etc. (this will vary depending on your industry, of course) along the horizontal axis. The vertical axis is where you chart the degree of investment in each, moving from low to high. Connect the dots across all factors to reveal your and your competitors’ value curves. Key Elements of an Effective Strategy Canvas Kim and Mauborgne have found that all effective strategies have these three things in common: The Four Stages of the Strategy Canvas. Stage 1: Visual Awakening In this step, the strategic planning participants in your company arrive at a common understanding of your current condition by: • Comparing your business with your competitors’ by drawing “as is” strategy pictures • Seeing where your strategy needs to, or could, change. The draft strategy canvas shows where you overlap on the customer choice factors with your key competitors, where you may have competitive advantage, and where they may have competitive advantage currently. Stage 2: Visual Exploration This is the fieldwork component, where leaders get busy with outreach. Talk to your customers. Talk to your competition’s customers. Talk to users if they’re different from customers. In this stage, managers come face-to-face with their products/services to learn about: • Adoption hurdles for noncustomers • The competition’s distinctive advantages • Factors you should eliminate, create, or change “There is simply no substitute for seeing for yourself,” Kim and Mauborgne write. This step is critical to seeing the world through the eyes of your customers, potential customers and lost customers. There is often a huge gap between how an organization sees itself during the Visual Awakening stage and how customers see it during the Visual Exploration stage. Stage 3: Visual Strategy Fair This is the time to revise based on your exploration, and share your results more widely by: • Drawing new “to be” strategy canvases based on your fieldwork • Getting feedback on alternative strategy pictures from customers, lost customers, competitors’ customers, and noncustomers • Using this feedback to build the best “to be” strategy Challenging your thinking–your underlying assumptions, beliefs, perceptions, etc.–about your current and potential “to be” strategies is critical here. Far too many organizations are constrained by their historical success–“this is the way we’ve always done it”–to allow themselves to see what’s possible, or where potential disruption will occur. As Matthew Olsen and Derek Van Bever wrote in Stall Points, “...it is the assumptions you believe the most deeply or that you have held as true for the longest time that are likely to prove your undoing.” As a result, they are too late to truly change when a disruptor appears out of seemingly nowhere. Stage 4: Visual Communication Now it’s time to share your final strategy canvas with everyone in your organization by: • Distributing your before-and-after strategic profiles on a single page for easy comparison • Pursuing only the projects and actions that support the new strategy and letting the rest go This one-page image should become the referential document for all investments and other business decisions moving forward. Strategy requires making choices about both what you will, and won’t, do. If an idea doesn’t support the strategy, it doesn’t happen. Ideally, your strategy canvas is being referenced across your organization to ensure actions across departments and units align to the same strategic goals. As the authors indicate, strategic planning doesn’t end with the canvas. What it does do, however, is set the process off in the right direction by putting, as they write, the “strategy back into strategic planning.” Benefits of Using the Strategy Canvas Simple  → One page beats a 100-page binder. Visual  → Everyone sees the same picture. Action-Oriented  → Makes execution clearer. Agile  → Easy to adjust as the market shifts. Strategy Canvas vs. Strategy Map One common question: What’s the difference between a Strategy Canvas and a Strategy Map? Strategy Canvas  → External focus: visualizes market position and value curves. Strategy Map  → Internal focus: shows cause-and-effect logic of strategic objectives. Want to go deeper? Check out our guide on Design & Execute Your Best Strategic Thinking Session Ever Free Strategy Canvas Template Want to apply the Strategy Canvas with your team? Scroll up to see the   visual template example  included in this post. This one-page view gives you everything you need to start: Compare your organization against competitors. Identify overlaps, gaps, and opportunities. Spark alignment in your next strategy session.  People Also Ask (FAQs) What does the Strategy Canvas help visualize? It shows how your organization and competitors invest in customer value factors, revealing overlaps, gaps, and opportunities. Who created the Strategy Canvas? It was created by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD and authors of Blue Ocean Strategy. What are the 9 business model canvases? That refers to the Business Model Canvas  by Osterwalder, which is a different tool. What’s the difference between a Strategy Canvas and a Strategy Map? Canvas = external competition. Map = internal goal alignment. From Planning to Thinking In a world of perpetual whitewater, strategy must constantly evolve. The Strategy Canvas helps leaders cut through noise, align their teams, and focus on what matters. It replaces static “planning” with dynamic strategic thinking. We’ve worked with organizations from start-ups to Fortune 50s to help them use tools like this to deliver better results. Ready to explore?  Book a Strategy Session with WWICI.   Related Searches (with links) Strategy canvas template Strategy canvas maker Blue Ocean strategy canvas Strategy canvas Excel Free strategy canvas PDF How to make a strategy canvas Strategic planning canvas

Why Strategy Needs Rethinking The strategy canvas is a powerful strategic planning tool that helps businesses visualize their market position and competition. In this post, we’ll explore how this tool can replace outdated planning methods with agile, big-picture strategic thinking. You know the drill: consultants swoop in and gather random, potentially contradictory intel from key team members. They go away and conduct independent market research. From this dog’s breakfast, they piece together disparate pieces of data and perspective into thick, densely written reports full of figures and jargon. Not only does this approach, in which strategy is done to rather than with or, even better, by your team, not engage people, but it can also create confusion, resulting in opaque direction and subpar execution. “No wonder so few strategic plans turn into action,” Kim and Mauborgne write in a Harvard Business Review  article . “Executives are paralyzed by the muddle.” I couldn't agree more. In more than 30 years of corporate and consulting work, I’ve seen managers’ bookshelves groan under these dust-collecting bricks. And I’ve seen too many organizations miss a chance to grow and thrive because they couldn’t get clarity and alignment at the strategy creation stage. What Is the Strategy Canvas? The Strategy Canvas was developed by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne , professors of strategy at INSEAD and co-directors of the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute  in Fontainebleau, France. They created it as an alternative to the typical strategic planning process. It’s a diagnostic and action framework that helps organizations: Visualize their current strategic position. Compare it directly with competitors’ profiles. Identify opportunities to diverge and focus. Unlike a 100-page plan, the Strategy Canvas is a one-page picture that leaders and teams can actually use.   Why Traditional Strategic Planning Fails Traditional planning is slow, costly, and disconnected from reality: Bulky reports don’t translate into action. Teams aren’t engaged in creating the plan. Strategy becomes abstract — not actionable. No surprise then that 75–90% of strategies fail at execution . There’s specificity in simplicity: if your team can’t clearly see the strategy and how it applies to their daily work, execution will fail. The strategy canvas does three things in one picture. It shows: Your industry’s strategic profile–what the authors call your value curve–by mapping current and potential future competition factors. The value curve of current and potential competitors. Your company’s strategic profile, showing current and potential future investment in customer choice factors. Sample Strategy Canvas template showing how organizations compare on customer choice factors such as price, quality, ease of use, and service. To get started, chart the choice factors, such as price, quality, flexibility, etc. (this will vary depending on your industry, of course) along the horizontal axis. The vertical axis is where you chart the degree of investment in each, moving from low to high. Connect the dots across all factors to reveal your and your competitors’ value curves. Key Elements of an Effective Strategy Canvas Kim and Mauborgne have found that all effective strategies have these three things in common: The Four Stages of the Strategy Canvas. Stage 1: Visual Awakening In this step, the strategic planning participants in your company arrive at a common understanding of your current condition by: • Comparing your business with your competitors’ by drawing “as is” strategy pictures • Seeing where your strategy needs to, or could, change. The draft strategy canvas shows where you overlap on the customer choice factors with your key competitors, where you may have competitive advantage, and where they may have competitive advantage currently. Stage 2: Visual Exploration This is the fieldwork component, where leaders get busy with outreach. Talk to your customers. Talk to your competition’s customers. Talk to users if they’re different from customers. In this stage, managers come face-to-face with their products/services to learn about: • Adoption hurdles for noncustomers • The competition’s distinctive advantages • Factors you should eliminate, create, or change “There is simply no substitute for seeing for yourself,” Kim and Mauborgne write. This step is critical to seeing the world through the eyes of your customers, potential customers and lost customers. There is often a huge gap between how an organization sees itself during the Visual Awakening stage and how customers see it during the Visual Exploration stage. Stage 3: Visual Strategy Fair This is the time to revise based on your exploration, and share your results more widely by: • Drawing new “to be” strategy canvases based on your fieldwork • Getting feedback on alternative strategy pictures from customers, lost customers, competitors’ customers, and noncustomers • Using this feedback to build the best “to be” strategy Challenging your thinking–your underlying assumptions, beliefs, perceptions, etc.–about your current and potential “to be” strategies is critical here. Far too many organizations are constrained by their historical success–“this is the way we’ve always done it”–to allow themselves to see what’s possible, or where potential disruption will occur. As Matthew Olsen and Derek Van Bever wrote in Stall Points, “...it is the assumptions you believe the most deeply or that you have held as true for the longest time that are likely to prove your undoing.” As a result, they are too late to truly change when a disruptor appears out of seemingly nowhere. Stage 4: Visual Communication Now it’s time to share your final strategy canvas with everyone in your organization by: • Distributing your before-and-after strategic profiles on a single page for easy comparison • Pursuing only the projects and actions that support the new strategy and letting the rest go This one-page image should become the referential document for all investments and other business decisions moving forward. Strategy requires making choices about both what you will, and won’t, do. If an idea doesn’t support the strategy, it doesn’t happen. Ideally, your strategy canvas is being referenced across your organization to ensure actions across departments and units align to the same strategic goals. As the authors indicate, strategic planning doesn’t end with the canvas. What it does do, however, is set the process off in the right direction by putting, as they write, the “strategy back into strategic planning.” Benefits of Using the Strategy Canvas Simple  → One page beats a 100-page binder. Visual  → Everyone sees the same picture. Action-Oriented  → Makes execution clearer. Agile  → Easy to adjust as the market shifts. Strategy Canvas vs. Strategy Map One common question: What’s the difference between a Strategy Canvas and a Strategy Map? Strategy Canvas  → External focus: visualizes market position and value curves. Strategy Map  → Internal focus: shows cause-and-effect logic of strategic objectives. Want to go deeper? Check out our guide on Design & Execute Your Best Strategic Thinking Session Ever Free Strategy Canvas Template Want to apply the Strategy Canvas with your team? Scroll up to see the visual template example  included in this post. This one-page view gives you everything you need to start: Compare your organization against competitors. Identify overlaps, gaps, and opportunities. Spark alignment in your next strategy session.  People Also Ask (FAQs) What does the Strategy Canvas help visualize? It shows how your organization and competitors invest in customer value factors, revealing overlaps, gaps, and opportunities. Who created the Strategy Canvas? It was created by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD and authors of Blue Ocean Strategy. What are the 9 business model canvases? That refers to the Business Model Canvas  by Osterwalder, which is a different tool. What’s the difference between a Strategy Canvas and a Strategy Map? Canvas = external competition. Map = internal goal alignment.    From Planning to Thinking In a world of perpetual whitewater, strategy must constantly evolve. The Strategy Canvas helps leaders cut through noise, align their teams, and focus on what matters. It replaces static “planning” with dynamic strategic thinking. We’ve worked with organizations from start-ups to Fortune 50s to help them use tools like this to deliver better results. Ready to explore? Book a Strategy Session with WWICI.   Related Searches (with links) Strategy canvas template Strategy canvas maker Blue Ocean strategy canvas Strategy canvas Excel Free strategy canvas PDF How to make a strategy canvas Strategic planning canvas

Leadership training In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape, leadership training is no longer optional—it’s essential. Organizations that invest in developing their leaders are better equipped to navigate change, drive innovation, and achieve sustainable success.   How Leadership Training Empowers Leaders to Excel  Effective leadership goes beyond managing tasks.  It’s about inspiring people, fostering collaboration, and creating a culture of accountability and trust. By building the capabilities and confidence of leaders, businesses empower them to deliver exceptional results, even in uncertain environments.   Leadership training equips leaders with the tools they need to: ·       Communicate with clarity and purpose ·       Build trust and meaningful connections with their teams ·       Think critically and solve complex problems ·       Adapt to change with resilience and agility ·       Foster engagement and motivation across the organization   The Human Side of Leadership Training Great leaders don’t just manage—they lead with empathy , emotional intelligence, and self-awareness . These qualities are essential for resolving conflicts, courageous communications, nurturing strong workplace relationships, and creating a positive, inclusive culture.   Leadership training helps leaders develop these soft skills, enabling them to support their teams in ways that truly matter. When leaders are equipped to motivate and empower others, job satisfaction rises, turnover decreases, and performance soars.  Driving Culture and Accountability Through Leadership Training A thriving workplace culture starts at the top. Leaders who understand how to set clear goals, create accountability, and engage their teams are the cornerstone of high-performing organizations. Leadership development programs reinforce these principles, helping leaders align their actions with the organization’s values and vision.   A Smart Investment in the Future Investing in leadership training is an investment in your company’s future. It ensures your organization remains competitive, resilient, and forward-thinking—while building strong, trust-based relationships across teams.   In a world where change is constant, strong leadership is your greatest asset. Equip your leaders with the skills they need to lead with confidence, compassion, and clarity—and watch your organization thrive.   Leadership Training: A Smart Investment in the Future 1. Leadership Development ROI Companies that invest in leadership development are 2.4 times more likely to hit their performance targets  2. Impact on Employee Engagement Organizations with strong leadership development programs report up to 25% higher employee engagement   3. Business Priorities In 2024, leadership training is primarily focused on: Increasing productivity (44%) Improving customer experience (44%) Developing business acumen (43%) Leading through change (40%) Promoting innovation (37%)   4. Emotional Intelligence & Soft Skills 71% of organizations now prioritize emotional intelligence and empathy in leadership training  5. Budget Shifts Despite economic pressures, 90% of companies still consider leadership development a top strategic priority, even as average budgets have decreased by over 70% since 2023. Ready to future-proof your organization? Explore our leadership training programs and unlock your team’s full potential

How Understanding Fuels Success Lead with empathy and transform your organization's culture. Discover the power of empathetic leadership—where understanding, compassion, and emotional intelligence drive morale and boost the bottom line. Empathy in leadership isn’t soft; it’s smart. This post unpacks the role it can play in your leadership style and your organization to foster collaboration and create a culture where everyone feels seen, valued and supported. We’ll explore the Empathy Spectrum and Empathy Map, two tools you can use to build your empathetic leadership practice. Leading with Empathy: The empathetic leader Leadership is not about just getting stuff done. Sure, leaders need to deliver results. But outstanding leadership is about fully engaging the team to achieve great things together. That means that leadership is about who  you are - your character. That encompasses characteristics like integrity, trust, trustworthiness and respect. At the very center of that core is caring…caring for your team and your organization to be their best.  Most leaders genuinely care about their team members. The big question is: Do your team members know  you care? Unfortunately, when we ask them, the answer is usually either “no” or “I really don’t know.” We created Lead with Empathy,  our professional empathy program, to help close this gap. The program results from many years of fieldwork with hundreds of leaders. Along the way, I realized that character and how we relate to others are essential. And I saw, time and time again, that so-called “soft skills,” like active listening and empathetic communications, weren’t just about being “nice” but were essential to successfully navigating change and leading through uncertainty.  What is empathy?  Whenever I talk about empathy and leadership, I’ve encountered confusion about what it is and why it’s an essential leadership skill.  So… what is empathy? Empathy is simply being able to understand how someone else feels. It’s seeing how your words, actions and decisions might affect them.  And empathy matters.  A recent study found that up to 92% of people seek out an empathic organization when looking for a job. And yet, other recent data shows that only 41% of employees feel like someone cares about them at work. There’s a real empathy shortfall!   And it’s not just about not hurting people’s feelings–it’s hurting your company’s performance. Leader empathy directly correlates with results.  Empathy builds trust and connection, which is just another word for engagement. When people feel known and seen and know their leaders care for them, it fosters collaboration and creates a culture where everyone feels valued and supported. That’s a workplace people want to go to every day because they feel like they’re part of something that matters.  I believe that it is increasingly a competitive advantage. As I wrote in a recent post, empathy and innovation are inherently related.  The Empathy Spectrum One of the first things we cover in Lead With Empathy is the Workplace Empathy Spectrum, which outlines four levels of emotional engagement in a workplace: Leaders feel sorry for others but don’t fully comprehend or connect with their experiences. Pity often involves a superficial acknowledgment of another's challenges. Sympathy involves a greater degree of emotional connection than pity. You may understand and acknowledge teammates' struggles, but there could still be a degree of separation between you and your teammate. A deeper level of understanding and connection. Leaders who demonstrate empathy understand others’ perspectives, emotions and challenges. This level of empathy fosters stronger bonds and trust within teams. The highest level of engagement in the Workplace Empathy Spectrum. At this level, leaders understand and empathize with their teammates and are deeply committed to supporting them and driving positive change.  Ultimately, you want to hit Level 4—passion—where everyone feels connected to the organization. Passionate leaders go above and beyond to create a supportive and inclusive work environment. In return, teammates feel connected to the organization and are passionate about their success and the organization's success.  An empathetic leader can not only dictate vision but also create a culture where the team feels heard, valued, and inspired. And we know that this translates into higher engagement, reduced turnover, and the ability to attract and retain top talent. Reflect on your own level of understanding and engagement. What level are you typically at? How can you cultivate empathy and passion within yourself and your team? The Empathy Map An Empathy Map is a powerful visualization tool for understanding team members’ needs, perspectives, and emotions. It's a simple yet effective way to imagine yourself in their shoes and see things through their eyes.  The Empathy Map was created by Dave Gray, an author and founder of XPLANE, a consultancy focused on visual thinking and design, as a tool for helping individuals understand and empathize with their target users or customers to improve product design and communication strategies. But it’s just as valuable within your organization, and your teammates.  The Empathy Map increases understanding of others by visualizing their thoughts, feelings, and experiences by charting insights into their perspectives through four key quadrants: SEEING What does your team see that impacts their work? This could include their physical work environment, customers' expressions, or data. HEARING What are team members hearing or reading? These are the messages they're receiving from you, customers, other team members, or the broader culture of your organization. DOING What actions are your team taking? These can be related specifically to their job tasks, interactions with customers, or even off-hour pursuits that impact their work life. SAYING What is your team communicating with one another or with customers? This ranges from formal channels like meetings to informal channels like water cooler conversations and social media. By taking the time to fill out this map and regularly updating it, you can gain a deeper understanding of your team's experiences, which in turn can inform your leadership decisions. The Empathy Map can help you:  Understand teammate’s needs Prepare for discussions Anticipate reactions I hope this post inspires you to be more intentional about bringing empathy to your workplace. As we can see, the higher the level of understanding and engagement a teammate experiences, the greater their motivation and effort in the workplace. By cultivating empathy and moving toward passion, organizations can enhance teammate satisfaction, productivity, and overall success. Book your complimentary consultation now

Courageous Communications and Feedback “Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions.” – Ken Blanchard “Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions…as long as you’re willing to eat it.” – Sean Ryan Over the last few weeks, we’ve shared a series of posts discussing “courageous communications.” One topic we’ve not touched on directly: the cost of NOT holding the tough conversation, especially when it involves not providing people – your direct reports, peers or even bosses – with the kind of tough feedback that really does “feed” champions. By “cost” I don’t mean the financial cost. That may not even be calculable, but I’ll bet the mortgage that it is massive. The real question is, what’s the human cost of not providing people the feedback they need to grow? The short answer: it’s staggering. Feedback doesn’t Feed if It’s Not on the Menu Let me share one story – of hundreds — that emerged from our work. We were working with the senior leadership group in a unit of a multi-national firm. The group included one leader, let’s call him Frank, who had been identified by his manager, the VP in charge of the Divsion, as having the potential to be promoted. Several of the manager’s peers had concerns about Frank’s potential but were generally not close enough to the situation to have a definitive point-of-view. Over the course of our discussion with the leadership group that day, I began to understand why people were hesitant about Frank’s potential. It was clear that Frank was a good person – he had a good value set, he truly cared about the organization and his team and he was technically competent. But, it was also clear, from both what he said and what others in the room said, that he had difficulty with follow-up/follow-through and creating accountability with both his team and others he worked with. To his credit, at the end of our session, Frank very pointedly asked me for my feedback about him. I said I had some thoughts and offered to discuss it with him in private. He insisted, though, on hearing it in front of the group. While I thought that was risky – maybe more for me than Frank – I felt compelled to share my observations. So, I told him: From our conversation today, your colleagues believe you don’t hold your team members accountable. And, you seem to do a fine job of identifying issues, but you don’t follow through to make sure they get corrected. Fortunately, Frank took the feedback well and agreed with the assessment. He was willing to eat the tough feedback. But, here’s the punchline. After our session, we had the opportunity to tour the unit’s operations. Three times in that one-hour tour, Frank pulled me aside to thank me for the direct, honest feedback I provided him. He said, “No one – including my boss – has ever provided me with that kind of feedback.” To emphasize the point: His manager, who wanted him to succeed and was actively campaigning for Frank to be promoted, had never given him the very feedback he needed to succeed. Frank was willing to eat the breakfast of champions, but no one who worked with him and could truly help him, was willing to feed him what he needed to grow to his fullest potential. What’s the Cost of Not Providing the Feedback People Need? So, what’s the cost? To Frank — The sad result was that it likely had prevented him from being promoted for several years – all because his boss had avoided having the courageous conversation. The boss was withholding valuable information from him – information that might have cost him an opportunity to advance in the company. To Frank’s team – What growth opportunities had they missed out on because of Frank not holding the tough conversations with them and holding them accountable for being their best? To Frank’s business unit – How much could performance have improved if Frank had been more effective with Follow-up/Follow-through and holding people accountable? To the larger organization – Like many, Frank’s company had a need for a steady pipeline of talent to fuel its growth and continuing success. What was the cost of Frank not growing to the extent of his capability and potential to enable him to move up in the organization? And, again, this is just one of hundreds of similar situations we’ve seen where people aren’t being fed the feedback they need in spite of being willing eat it. What’s the cumulative cost of that to them, their organizations and the people around them? Questions to Consider As Ken Blanchard said, “Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions.” My questions to you: Are you willing to feed people the tough feedback they need to be their best? Are you willing to “eat the breakfast” that others are trying to feed you? Who on your team, or peer or manager, needs the feedback you could provide them? What’s holding you back from providing the feedback they need? Please feel free to leave your thoughts below. I’ll look forward to continuing the dialogue. Intrigued by what you’re reading? Download our white paper on converting strategy into execution and learn more about us by visiting our website . WhiteWater International Consulting, Inc. helps organizations understand the challenges they face and helps enterprises achieve and sustain outstanding performance through unleashing the passion and capabilities of its people. Because an organization is only as good at the people who power it. Ready to communicate with more courage and authenticity? Explore the Courageous Communications Course today.

When people hear the word “leadership,” they often picture someone at the top. A CEO, a manager, a coach with a whistle. Someone with authority. But some of the most powerful leadership I’ve ever seen, and some of the most critical leadership businesses need today, doesn’t come with a title. It comes from peers. And that’s not just a philosophical point. It’s a practical one. At WhiteWater, we’ve been spending a lot of time lately with growing teams that are moving fast and need to spread leadership beyond a single person at the top. I’m thinking of a couple of local clients here in New Brunswick, including a bustling marketing consulting firm and a rapidly expanding rehabilitation clinic, where peer-to-peer leadership is becoming not just a nice-to-have, but a necessity. Why? Because the people with titles are drowning in tasks. These are companies with big opportunities, great clients, and momentum. But their leaders are so deep in day-to-day delivery that they’re having to pause or postpone the bigger-picture leadership their businesses need. Sound familiar? It is to me, to be honest. I’ve spent the better part of this year on planes, tending to clients and projects. While we’ve been working hard to develop  new leaders inside WhiteWater (shout out to Janet, Darlene, and our Southern California-based consulting team!) I’m responsible for the context, our client history, and the long-term relationships necessary to continue to grow the business. The result? Like many people in similar situations less focus on actually leading. That’s why peer-to-peer leadership is so important. Because if everything depends on one person, we bottleneck our potential. When we empower our people to lead without waiting for permission, we unlock capacity. We give teams the green light to step up, make decisions, and move the work forward together. What Peer Leadership Looks Like When I work with teams on peer leadership, I start by asking a simple question: Where are you on the doer-to-leader spectrum? If -5 is pure doer (deep in the weeds), and +5 is leader (guiding, coaching, delegating), where are you now? And where do you think you need to be to be most effective? That single reflection can be a game-changer. In a recent session with one team, we had people realize they weren’t leading as much as they thought they were; some even shifted their self-assessments mid-discussion! One participant had a little leadership epiphany right there in our session: “Wait, I’ve led a whole project before,” she said. “Maybe I’m more of a leader than I give myself credit for.” That’s the kind of shift we’re after. After this first exercise, we work through the four principles we use in our Just Lead! Program. Because title or not, leadership is still leadership: 1.  Define the Playing Field  Everyone needs to know the fundamentals, including: How do we win? What are our goals? And just as importantly, what are the values and boundaries within which we work? When you’re leading without a title, that clarity is even more critical. You can’t “make” someone follow you; you need to inspire alignment. 2 . Define the Gap and Engage the Team Ask yourself: Where are we now? Where do we need to be? And how do we get there, together? Peer leaders have to communicate, connect, and co-create the path forward. And that relies on empathy and accountability, not top-down dictates.  3. Lead from Who You Are  Leadership is personal. Character matters. Caring matters. And so does embracing the roles of learner, teacher, and steward. When you lead by example and bring your whole self to the table, people notice. And they follow. 4. Challenge Your Thinking Good leadership demands reflection. Can you pause, examine your assumptions, and truly hear other perspectives? Can you adapt, evolve, and make a better decision because of it? Being able to separate your thinking from your actions and the outcomes they generate is a leadership superpower.  Leading is tough!  Let’s be honest: leading, whether you’ve got a title or not, is hard work! Often, it’s easier just to do it yourself. Delegation is slow. It takes time to teach, time to correct, and time to get comfortable letting go. Challenging conversations are easier avoided. And when your team members don’t do it exactly the way you would? It can be frustrating. But the alternative is worse. If we don’t let people step up, they never will. And if we hold onto the work that could, and, frankly, should belong to others, we rob them of the opportunity to grow. Why deprive someone of their development by doing their work for them? We also put a ceiling on what the organization can accomplish. There’s an old saying we lean on often: “Only do the work that only you can do.” Peer leadership works when everyone embraces the idea that leadership isn’t a title, but a mindset and an action. It’s about stepping forward when the moment calls for it. Helping each other see the goal, stay in bounds, speak up, and move forward. Whether you’re the new hire or the founder, you have a role to play in that. From Compliance to Commitment There’s a subreddit I sometimes read called r/Malicious Compliance . It’s full of stories where employees follow bad directions to the letter (often with hilarious or disastrous results) just to prove a point. It’s a good reminder that authority might get you action, but it won’t get you commitment. If you want people to think critically, take initiative, and lead from where they are, you have to create the space for that. And that’s what peer leadership does. It fosters a culture where everyone can contribute, and accountability is shared.  That’s what I want for my team. And I’ll bet it’s what you want for yours, too. So let’s stop waiting for titles, and start leading from right where we are. This blog reflects the kind of conversations we’ve been having with organizations looking to strengthen leadership across all levels. Through our Just Lead! Program , we h Just Lead Leadership Training elp teams build clarity, confidence, and collaboration — no title required. 👉 Learn more about the Just Lead! Program

Bringing Big Ideas Back to Work Strategic Thinking for Business Leaders Some of your best business ideas won’t come from a spreadsheet. They’ll come while you’re staring at a lake, flipping burgers, or walking barefoot through the woods. That’s not a bug in your brain; it’s a feature. Downtime unlocks insight. Neuroscientists call it the “default mode network,” the part of your brain that lights up when you’re not focused on anything in particular. It’s where creativity lives. So if you’ve ever solved a tough problem mid-paddle, you’re not alone. Strategic Thinking for Business Leaders Starts with Stillness At Whitewater, we see it all the time. The leaders who make the biggest leaps are the ones who step away from time to time. Not just to rest, but to think. To question. To reconnect with the long game. As the Forbes article Why You Need White Space To Be A Strategic Thinker  put it, “mental white space is essential for strategic clarity.” Summer can give you that space — but only if you take it. Bring a notebook, not a laptop. You don’t need to schedule your insights, but you do want to be prepared when they arrive. Keep a notebook nearby or use the voice memo app on your phone to capture inspiration as it strikes. Jot down anything that feels big, bold, or just plain different. Cottage-time clarity has a short shelf life. Capture it while it’s fresh. Trust the drift .  Sometimes your brain needs to wander before it can connect the dots. That’s why ideas often surface when you least expect them: mid-sandwich, mid-hike, mid-sunset. Let them. Resist the urge to fill every moment with email or podcasts. Leave room for drift. It’s not wasted time. It’s fuel for what comes next. Return with intention.  When you come back, don’t jump straight into inbox triage. Set aside an hour to review your notes. What still feels exciting? What might be worth sharing with your team? What small move could you make to test a bigger shift? The real ROI of summer isn’t rest, it’s renewal .  Your next big idea probably won’t arrive during Q3 planning. Strategic thinking for business leaders often emerges unexpectedly, perhaps while you’re untangling a fishing line or watching the tide roll in. Be ready for it. And tap into that sweet spot where hammock and the aha! moment meet.  Catch up on the rest of the Summer Stretch series here: Leadership Isn’t on Vacation: How to Recharge Without Checking Out The Mid-Year Check-In: Strategy’s Secret Weapon Summer Workplace Rituals: Why They Matter for Building Culture and Connection Ready to transform your big ideas into actionable strategies? Connect with Whitewater today and unlock the full power of strategic thinking for your business.