Content alone, regardless of its quality, rarely results in significant change. Expand your persuasion repertoire to include everyone’s “go-to” decision tool.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a great proxy metric but isn’t a surrogate for all that encompasses customer loyalty. Revenue is a great proxy metric but isn’t a surrogate for all of marketing. It’s like saying a street map is the equivalent of a city. You can forget that there is so much more to pay attention to.

Organizations mobilize tiger teams when a valuable and difficult project needs to get done quickly. If you’ve participated on a tiger team, congratulations! You already have real-life experience in an important element of an agile organization.

The capriciousness of markets derives from the same complexity as traffic and weather. Many persistent marketing challenges are caused by the mismatch between long-accepted work practices and the market’s reality.

Some things are just out of our control. My nephew lamented on Facebook, “Patience is a virtue…that I don’t have right now”. Here are practices we can take up to “untangle” ourselves while we are waiting.

Our unconscious mental biases influence our decisions. A quick list of the six that put your outcomes at the highest risk and suggestions of how to work with them.

Today, the best marketers are scientists. They test. They research and analyze. They look to better understand customers and the future. It’s a role available to any marketer.

At different stages in your career, there are different lessons to pay attention to. Here is bit of reflection on the most valuable lessons I learned along the way.

Safely scale customer-facing empowerment while avoiding chaos. Wisdom from leaders in hospital operating rooms, military theatres, and software development.

To change, humans need a fleeting moment when solid ground gives way. Five ways leaders can open minds to change by creating ‘coachable moments’.

Marketing organizations experience constant change. Using methodologies adapted from software development, Agile marketers gain increased productivity, greater innovation, faster delivery and staff satisfaction.

Science and technology ensure that we seldom fail for lack of knowing. Our problem is more often applying knowledge consistently and correctly. Checklists, used in hospitals, aviation, and other turbulent environments, can help marketers get things right with customers.

When the path forward contains unexpected, variable conditions or the destination is puzzling, executives need to employ strategies intended for turbulent situations.

Marketing builds the road that sales will eventually drive on. Marketing is an investment – not an expense. If your business plan calls for revenue growth tomorrow – you must build the conduit for delivering it today.

Business complexity often arises from a spirited interaction of many players with independent motives. Randori, an Aikido exercise, is much the same.