By Linda Fisher Thornton Global unrest is being fueled by widespread misinformation campaigns. Who's fueling these campaigns? The bad actors who are creating misinformation? Or the platforms who intentionally or unintentionally share false information for profit? Or the people who believe the disinformation they read and incite violence? Or the leaders who fail to recognize the clear and present danger of the disinformation machine? Or the leaders who do recognize the danger and turn away, doing nothing? Together, all of these are fueling the disinformation machine in a systemic self-reinforcing loop.
Category: Trends
How Dangerous Are Conspiracy Theories?
By Linda Fisher Thornton How likely are we to believe things that aren't true? According to Lynne Malcolm in The psychology of conspiracy theories, "Psychological research suggests that we're all conspiracy theorists, thanks in a large part to our cognitive makeup."
Top 10 Posts of 2021: Leading in Context Blog
By Linda Fisher Thornton Of the 52 individual posts published on the Leading in Context Blog in 2021, these 10 were the most popular. See if you notice a theme that connects these new topics that readers accessed most frequently:
Aligning Strategy and Values
By Linda Fisher Thornton Consumers are seeking brands that support well-being, sustainability and social justice, realizing that brands that care about these things are more likely to have the best interests of consumers and society at heart. Brands will be well served to assess their alignment between values, culture and strategy.
Leading the Way Forward (Part 2)
By Linda Fisher Thornton This post is Part 2 of a series sharing trends for leading the way forward. Part 1 shared over 60 trends, and Part 2 includes over 60 more.
Leading the Way Forward (Part 1)
By Linda Fisher Thornton Each year I curate a list of sites that write about trends that will change how we do business in the coming year. This year’s list includes some ongoing trends from last year and some fresh ideas and new directions. Take a look at the 60+ trends at the links below and start getting ready for what’s ahead!
The Journey to Authentic Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton The journey to authentic leadership is not an easy one. It's full of challenges, and it requires developing a high level of self- and other-awareness over time. "Knowledge experiences" alone won't be enough to stimulate the kind of learning that is required on this important journey.
Leadership, Blurred Lines and Sliding Scales
By Linda Fisher Thornton Leadership has entered a new realm, leaving the space of knowns and certainties (which was an illusion anyway) and entering the space of deep uncertainty, blurred lines and sliding scales. What it takes to succeed as a leader in this new realm is completely different from the leadership of ages past.
Staying Focused in a “Human Attention Power Grab” World
By Linda Fisher Thornton Whether it's cute cat videos or shocking (and sometimes untrue) headlines, we've all found ourselves "down the rabbit hole" of distraction. We suddenly realize how much time has passed, and that we have abandoned important tasks to take an "infotainment journey."
Trust Repair For Leaders (Part 3): Notice
By Linda Fisher Thornton This series of posts shares strategies for repairing organizational trust. It was inspired by conversations with other members of the Trust Across America Trust Alliance and my work as part of the Trust Alliance TAP team. #tap2021 Trust Repair Part 1 addressed the importance of Accountability and strategies for building a robust accountability system. Trust Repair Part 2 addressed strategies for improving leader Transparency. Trust Repair Part 3 includes strategies for overcoming a third area the Trust Alliance found to be a common problem - Notice. This important element of trust requires us to "seek out and listen to diverse perspectives - every voice can matter." (TAP Principles, Trust Across America Trust Alliance)
Trust Repair For Leaders (Part 2): Transparency
By Linda Fisher Thornton This is the second in a series on how to repair organizational trust. It was inspired by conversations with other members of the Trust Across America Trust Alliance and my work as part of the Trust Alliance TAP team as part of #tap2021. In this series, Trust Repair Part 1 addressed the importance of Accountability and strategies for building a robust accountability system. Trust Repair Part 2 addresses another area that the Trust Across America Trust Alliance found to be lacking in many organizations - Transparency.
Trust Repair For Leaders (Part 1): Accountability
By Linda Fisher Thornton This post is the first in a three-part series about how to repair organizational trust. It was inspired by conversations with other members of the Trust Across America Trust Alliance and my work as part of the Trust Alliance TAP team.
10 Trends Shaping the Future of Ethical Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton We need to get leadership right because so much depends on it. Many global factors are driving changes in ethical leadership expectations, and in high-stakes times, how we handle ethical leadership development can make or break our success. This week I've created a graphic that brings the expectations and priorities into clearer focus.
It’s Time For Ethically Adaptive Leadership
By Linda Fisher Thornton Agility and adaptability are mantras for leaders during this time of global unrest and catastrophic change. Each day brings new challenges that consume our time and require us to grow into higher levels of ethical awareness to avoid missteps and miscalculations. As we try to find stable footing in unstable times, ethical agility will be a factor in our success.
Ethical Awareness is a Moving Target
By Linda Fisher Thornton How well is your organization navigating the ethical pitfalls of the working world? If you're finding it to be a major challenge right now, you're not alone. Why is it so hard to navigate ethical minefields now? There is currently a "toxic soup" of factors at play...