Strategic Minds

Dr. Max McKeown, a strategist and innovation expert, shares his insights on shaping the future through strategic thinking. He emphasizes that strategy is about action and adaptability, blending creativity and results. Max introduces the concept of 'Speed Strategy' for quick alignment in teams and highlights the importance of fostering a culture of innovation. He discusses visual mapping techniques to enhance engagement and promote idea-sharing, as well as the traits of strategic thinkers, focusing on the need for a rhythm between slow and quick strategic actions.

Mo Edjlali, a mindfulness innovator and founder of Mindful Leader, shares insights from his journey, including how a setback led him to mindfulness. He discusses the importance of self-awareness for effective leadership, emphasizing that leaders must first understand themselves to perceive reality. Mo also highlights practical mindfulness techniques like breath-focused practices and the value of stepping back to foster creativity. Furthermore, he connects mindfulness to navigating the challenges posed by AI, suggesting it can help leaders stay grounded in turbulent times.

Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, dives deep into the art of strategy by reframing competitive problems. He emphasizes the rarity of ambidexterity in leaders, balancing exploration with exploitation. Reeves introduces his Strategy Palette, outlines principles of competitive advantage, and discusses how AI fits into evolving strategies. With engaging anecdotes, including insights from Lego's culture, he advocates for restoring play to spark creativity, urging firms to embrace collective imagination and innovative thinking.

How can leaders develop strategies that adapt to uncertainty and avoid the pitfalls of overconfidence?   In this episode, Rich sits down with Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman — Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London and one of the world’s leading scholars on strategy, international relations, and military history. Knighted for his contributions and the official historian of the Falklands Campaign, Sir Lawrence has authored seminal works including Strategy: A History, The Future of War, and The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy.   In this wide-ranging conversation, he shares insights on: How strategy is more than a plan — and why it’s a continuous, iterative process Why understanding your adversaries and allies is as important in business as in war The dangers of hubris, overextension, and failing to listen to dissenting voices How leaders can recognize when to adapt or reverse course without losing momentum   Sir Lawrence also offers timeless lessons for business leaders on reading context, anticipating friction, and practicing strategic empathy. ⏱ Time Stamps (00:00) Deep Dive Interview with Sir Lawrence Freedman (54:35) Practice Makes Profit (56:23) League of Strategic Minds (58:43) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage 🔑 Key Quotes “Strategy is one of those things that you do without calling it strategy. So if people at any time are working out how to achieve what they want to achieve and looking at the means available, they're engaging in strategy.” “It's easier to have a good strategy if you've got resources, much harder if you don't have resources, which is why, incidentally, a lot of the most ingenious strategic thinkers have been underdogs because they really needed to work at it.” “The thing about strategy is it's a continual process. So I kind of talk about it as a sort of soap opera rather than a three-act play. You don't suddenly say, now I'm done.” “If you look at why military strategy fails most, it's because of underestimation of your adversaries.” “Most strategy, let's say 50% of strategy is defensive. I don't know how much that's taught in business schools, but that's the way in practice a lot of it's gonna work because you're just being caught out. So it's against the ability to read situations.”   🔄 Practice Makes Profit Rich shares a practical exercise for conducting a meeting audit — helping leaders reclaim time and improve organizational efficiency by aligning meetings with strategic purpose.   🧠 League of Strategic Minds Listener Question: What are the keys to leading a truly strategic meeting? Rich outlines the importance of clear agendas, pre-work, interactive dialogue, and actionable takeaways to transform standard meetings into value-creating sessions.   💡 Winsight: Idea for Advantage Michael Porter reminds us: “It’s healthy for people to disagree, but there comes a time when discussion ends. Strategy is about picking a direction and getting everybody really excited about it.” Leaders who decide decisively and align teams behind a clear direction outperform those who linger in consensus-building.   🔗 Links Sir Lawrence Freedman’s Books on Amazon: Strategy: A History The Future of War: A History Command: The Politics of Military Operations The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy (4th Edition) Sir Lawrence’s Substack: https://samf.substack.com/ Additional Links: Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/ Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/ Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath Rich Horwath on X: https://x.com/RichHorwath Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/ STRATEGIC Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1394215339 Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com Free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/ Strategic Quotient (SQ) Assessment: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-quotient-assessment/ Subscribe to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0

Nate Zinsser, a performance psychologist and director of West Point’s Center for Enhanced Performance, shares strategies to boost confidence for elite performance. He discusses how mental training techniques can transform athletes, leaders, and anyone facing high-stakes situations. Zinsser emphasizes the importance of visualization and 'first victories' for success, teaching listeners to embrace excitement over anxiety. He also highlights self-affirmation as a powerful tool to reshape self-perception, providing concrete methods to enhance mental resilience.

Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt, former Chief Innovation Evangelist at Google and Stanford educator, dives into cultivating a future-ready mindset. He discusses how psychological safety fosters innovation and emphasizes rituals over rules to embody organizational values. Frederik also explores the importance of resilience and curiosity in preparing for uncertainty, suggesting that we should focus on internal preparation rather than rigid planning. His insights on prototyping non-physical ideas and the power of asking questions to spark deeper inquiry make for a thought-provoking conversation.

How does a long-term entrepreneur identify a good idea, scale it, and stay committed to that vision over 30 years?  In this episode, Rich sits down with Angie Hicks, Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Angi, formerly Angie’s list. They discuss building a business from the ground up, leading employees and external partners, and maintaining enthusiasm for a long-term goal.  --------- Key Quotes: “ If you don't maintain the culture, it'll be a bad culture.”  “When I think about whether I like what I'm doing, I base it on two factors. One, do I like the people I'm working with? And two, am I learning new things?” “Sometimes you have to force a learning function on the organization because it's important. Because the landscape shifts and you don't want to get caught flat-footed.” “Find your unit that you're going to evaluate things on. What is it? What is that process? And then make sure you can always pull back the layers to make sure that element is working well.” Practice Makes Profit: Solve challenges effectively and efficiently with solutional thinking.  League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:    How can I help my team be more innovative Winsights: Ideas for Advantage: Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay and HP Enterprises, said, “First, you need the right strategy. Less than perfect execution against the right strategy will probably work. 100 percent execution against the wrong strategy, won't.” Does your team have a strategy that you believe in and can help win in the market? If not, all the time you're spending on execution and tactics is being wasted. The motto is ready, aim, fire not just keep firing. Think first. -------- Time stamps:(00:41) Deep Dive Interview with Angie (47:27) Practice Makes Profit 486:57) League of Strategic Minds  (50:11) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage   --------- Links: Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/  Angie Hicks on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angie-hicks-30566/ Angi: https://www.linkedin.com/company/angi/ Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/ Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/ Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/ Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC  Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339 New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com  Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/ [Subscribe to the Podcast]  On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976 On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941 

What military strategies and tactics can business leaders leverage to position their companies for success?  In this episode, Rich sits down with four-star General Robert Brown, President and CEO of the Association of the United States Army. General Brown is an experienced commander who has led at every level, from platoon through Army Service Component Command, leading a group of over 100,000 soldiers.  In this conversation, he discusses military strategy and best practices for navigating the modern Fog of War, sharing his insights on red teaming, after action reviews, and leadership principles.  --------- Key Quotes: “Too much information has become the fog of war. It used to be not enough. Now it's too much… Now you've got to look through haystacks of information, thousands of haystacks of information, to try to find that golden needle in the haystack that will help you make a decision.”  “ I've seen somebody say to me: ‘Here’s my strategy, it’s 15 pages.’ And it's like, hey, it's gonna fail, You might as well stop. Start again. Can't be 15. Nobody's gonna read it.” “ The key is creating a learning environment where people want to learn and that after action review helps you learn and overcome those issues that may be buried if you didn't pull them out. It's like pulling a band aid off. You can't be thin skinned. Sometimes it's tough.” Practice Makes Profit: Increasing team velocity through a decision inventory.  League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:   What's the best way to tell if someone is strategic?  Winsights: Ideas for Advantage:    Sun Tzu, the Chinese general and philosopher, wrote, “Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.” Are you and your team repeating the same tactics year after year and expecting some type of miraculous change?  Carve out time to think strategically about the changes in your market and with your customers. Stop procrastinating and start innovating. -------- Time stamps:(00:00) Deep Dive Interview with General Brown (54:57) Practice Makes Profit (56:17) League of Strategic Minds  (57:31) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage   --------- Links: Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/  General Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-brooks-brown-1981usma/ AUSA.org: https://www.ausa.org/ Strategic Quotients Assessment: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-quotient-assessment/  Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/ Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/ Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/ Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC  Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339 New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/ [Subscribe to the Podcast]  On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976 On Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941

What strategic thinking techniques can leaders apply from a world poker champion to better position themselves for success?  In this episode, Rich sits down with Darren Elias,  a four time World Poker Tour champion. Darren is ranked number one all time in victories, final tables and cashes on the World Poker Tour and has amassed over $12.5 million in live tournament poker winnings.   In this conversation, Darren gives us insight into preparation and execution, how to adapt on the fly, assessing and reading competition, and maintaining emotional control to make good decisions.  --------- Key Quotes:“You really can't think about the money that much. You have to execute the strategy and you shouldn't be thinking in dollars or anything like that. You should be thinking in numbers and players and the relationships between our strategies. I think a lot of mistakes I've seen at big final tables come from players that get a little overwhelmed by the moment or the thinking about the money. That stuff you really shouldn't be thinking about until after the tournament.” “ The biggest thing for me is objective self evaluation, where I'm looking at how I played, I'm looking at the decisions from a distance and saying, was this hand played well? Was this the right play against this player in that situation? And really remaining confident that even though you're losing, and in poker tournaments, you actually lose 80 percent of the time.” “ Know who you're playing against….because  everybody has different strategies. You have loose players, tight players. You have ones that don't want to play big pots. You have ones that maybe don't play as many hands preflop….So really, try to understand your opponent. Uh, what they're trying to do with the table, what their general strategy is.” Practice Makes Profit: Reducing mental fatigue and burnout by batching your work.  League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:  What's the best way to align strategies between different functional areas? Winsights: Ideas for Advantage:   Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, said, “Our company is 30 days from going out of business. You're always on the way to going out of business. If you don't internalize that sensibility, you will go out of business.” Ask yourself this, are you and your team meeting to discuss your business model and how it needs to evolve? -------- Time stamps:(00:41) Deep Dive Interview with Darren Elias (37:48) Practice Makes Profit (39:43) League of Strategic Minds  (41:08) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage   --------- Links: Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/  Darren Elias on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-elias-3a1432114/ BetMGM: https://www.linkedin.com/company/betmgm/ Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/ Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/ Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/ Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC  Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339 New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/ [Subscribe to the Podcast]  On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976 On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941

What are the business techniques leaders can learn from a Chess Master CEO and how should they be thinking about the future of AI?  In this episode, Rich sits down with Alan Trefler, a chess master and the Founder and CEO of Pegaystems, the Enterprise Transformation Company that helps organizations Build for Change® with enterprise AI decisioning and workflow automation. Alan has earned multiple patents and overseen the expansion of Pega from start-up to a $1.3+ billion, global, public company with about 6,000 employees.  In this episode, he discusses the lessons he has taken from chess into business, and how he thinks companies should be strategically thinking about AI.  --------- Key Quotes:“The chess master will look and identify a set of candidates. They don't just stare at the position and magically figure out what to do. They say, ‘hey, here are three, four, five things that appear to be credible alternatives’ and then very methodically dig through them to figure out which might be the best one or what the holes are.” “In the four decades of Pega’s existence, we've done five complete technology shifts…. And every single one of those encompass the risk of doing something that was materially different. And there's always risk when you're doing something the first time, or you're doing something that is hard. Ultimately I think evaluating those risks is key, but you also need to think about the risk of not making a change.” “If you think of AI as an accelerant, as a way to, for example, tell you something about your business that you should make better and then you have the chance with your team to weigh in and don't necessarily do what the AI is telling you, but use the AI as a stimulus. Boy, you can use the AI as it exists now, and it can profoundly change the way a business works.” Practice Makes Profit: Increasing productivity and efficiency by scoring and categorizing your interactions.  League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:  What are the keys to running a good strategy offsite meeting?  Winsights: Ideas for Advantage:  Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, said, “When the rate of change inside a company is slower than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight. The only question is when.” Are you and your team making changes internally in your thinking, processes, resource allocation, and structure each and every quarter? -------- Time stamps:(00:44) Deep Dive Interview with Alan Trefler  (43:50 Practice Makes Profit  (45:48) League of Strategic Minds  (48:27) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage   --------- Links: Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/  Alan Trefler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alantrefler/ Pegasystems: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pegasystems/ Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/ Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/ Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/ Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC  Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339 New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/ [Subscribe to the Podcast]  On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976 On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941