I am so fortunate to learn from and alongside my amazing Berkeley students each week. They’ve been developing a changemaker mindset all semester, so on Tuesday I asked them what aspects of thinking and acting like a changemaker are most helping them navigate all of the change around us right now. I wanted to understand which course concepts they are applying to their own life to stay grounded, positive and to continue making a positive impact on those around them during such challenging times. Here are the top 5 results from a poll and our class discussions alongside some resources if yo ..read more

Ask an economist what holds back change and they’ll talk to you about “switching costs.” These costs are often thought of as monetary (imagine if you are an avid iPhone user, the need to repurchase all of your apps on Android would be an undesirable cost to switching platforms). But switching costs also apply to our psychology, our time and our effort when it comes to successfully making change happen (or finding excuses not to). Right now the world around us is changing more rapidly than we’ve ever experienced, and this is naturally quite scary. But if you are looking to make or lead a chang ..read more

Change and resilience go hand-in-hand and I will have much more to say on this in coming days.  But I want to start by challenging you to evolve the way you think about resilience.   Too often -- especially here in Silicon Valley -- resilience is thought of simply as enduring as much pain as possible.  This is misleading and potentially dangerous to our minds and bodies. Instead, I define resilience as “staying strong for the long haul.”  An intentional practice which includes endurance, yes, but which also elevates learning, self-care, and leading with purpose.  ..read more

Psychologist Steve Zaccaro has spent his career studying adaptability and has identified three types of flexibility great leaders (*ahem* changemakers!) possess. As we feel the fear of uncertainty creeping in, “Dispositional Flexibility,” will be a powerful tool for us. Put simply, Dispositional Flexibility is the ability to find optimism while grounded in reality. When faced with overwhelmingly scary and uncertain futures, two paths are most common: fear-based pessimism (“the world as we know it is over,”) or blind optimism (“pass the bud light bro, it’s St. Paddy’s Day, a little f ..read more

I'm still trying to get over the shock and discomfort of seeing my face on a book cover like this! But I'm otherwise thrilled to share that the very first translation of Becoming a Changemaker was just published in Japanese! (My American publisher said I was their first author ever to ask for my name on the cover to be smaller -- not bigger -- so you can imagine how I feel about having my photo on here)! After visiting and falling in love with Japan this Spring, it's special that this is the first translation. Thank you to Sunmark Publishing for believing in the book and its potential for im ..read more

I originally wrote this article for INC magazine, which you can access here. While most of the action during this year's World Cup is taking place on the pitch, my favorite moments are happening long after the final whistle has blown. These are not scenes of miraculous goals and deft defensive maneuvers. They are actions taking place in the stands and in the locker rooms, with little--if any--fanfare around them.   I'm writing, of course, about the scenes that so many of us have found compelling in our social media feeds: Team Japan leaving its locker room perfectly neat and tidy, and Jap ..read more

This excerpt from my book, Becoming a Changemaker, was originally published in INC magazine, which you can access here. Companies, communities, and, indeed, our world are calling out for a new type of leader. A leader who is resilient, creative, collaborative, and optimistic. A leader who can work across sectors and hierarchies and defies stereotypes and the status quo. A leader who is ready and able to create the future. Gone are the days when a leader should aspire to be a boss --someone who leads by telling others what to do. There's a fresher, more inclusive and aspirational ..read more

I originally wrote this article for INC magazine, which you can access here. Can you change the world while working 40 hours or fewer per week? That's the question I've been asking entrepreneurs and change-makers recently. My favorite response came from Swedish social entrepreneur, Admir Lukacevic, who simply replied, "just give me one second--that will be enough for me!" I love Lukacevic's passion (and confidence) but most of us would agree we need a bit more time at work than that. The question, though, is how much? The results of my informal study paint a very clear picture: 81 percent ..read more

I originally wrote this article for INC magazine, which you can access here. It's a position you may not even know exists, but it will soon be playing a crucial role in leadership teams around the country. I predict every major company and startup will soon be hiring its own chief impact officer (CIO) and in doing so, elevating the voice of impact into the C-Suite.   While you can no doubt rattle off all kinds of acronymed roles starting with the letter C, the chief impact officer role is one unknown to most companies. You may even think of it as being limi ..read more

4%. 5%. 6%. Those are the undergraduate acceptance rates of Stanford, Harvard and Princeton, respectively. Stanford admits about 2,300 students per year, but it could easily accept multiples of that without sacrificing the quality of its student body. And with an endowment of $28.9 billion there’s no practical reason it couldn’t admit many, many more students each year. No reason, that is, except for the value universities place on that coveted low acceptance rate. Universities obsess over acceptance rates, elevating it as a key proxy of the institution’s impact and worth. Low acceptance rate ..read more