When people say No, Stay on Your Journey. When people bully you, use your voice. Communicate your boundaries. When people are barriers, go around them. When people are exclusive rather than inclusive, reach out to help others. When people are cliquish, build your own community full of care and love. Live Your Journey—and NEVER Give Up!

Great leaders are open to new learning. Peter Winick and I had a great conversation on his podcast Leveraging Thought Leadership. We discussed why huge companies fail and disappear. Why old methods of motivation no longer work. And how people often forget about their customers. Listen, and discover what you learn!

The Flow of Caring When there’s strife in politics and unrest around the world, some people or groups become polarized. Others protest by raising the torch to remind people to be kind, humane, and caring. It’s essential for people to care and feel cared for when they are at home, at work, or in their community.

In this podcast, Marcia discusses the key factors that allow an organization to create positive transformation. She tells us why adding best practices without a compelling purpose creates complexity but not success, and why it’s important to stop using a language of failure and create a language of success instead.

Great planning for the future starts with different, bold strategic thinking and new questions. Traditional strategic planning in organizations generally means that the more of the same will be done in the same way. There are two significant strategies that are foundational. One is the improvement strategy. The other is the innovation strategy.

THIS YEAR in many places there have many challenges. In California, some of our recent catastrophes have been with the wildfires in both northern and southern parts of our state. The impact on hundreds of thousands of families is shocking.

Part of what has emerged from these horrific tragedies is the generosity of people who are coming together to help and serve. For some like the first responders, it is the work they have a passion to do. When the surrounding and global communities step up to donate, share, open their home, or contribute however they can, it’s why we are on this earth, to live well with each other. I’m proud to say that everyone I know who I have talked to has taken time to donate. That’s a huge outpouring of care.

Sunday was a new experience, beginning my book signing process at the Barnes & Noble in San Jose, CA. Thank you Barnes & Noble for being my host and setting up a great space at the front of your store!

Thank you to all who attended the book signing: family, friends, Rotarians, my MBA students, and Bay Area Deming User Group (BADUG) friends. It was non-stop flow of seeing and chatting with everyone for a few minutes for almost two hours!

As a leader (of your home, job, organization), are you choosing to fail or succeed? Failure happens when you follow a path of the “status quo” through struggles and La-La Land! Those who succeed are focused! They have a vision that they continually adapt as they learn (and they are obsessive learners and listeners), ask questions to understand and connect in their relationships and with customers.

Over the past few years, I have written articles and posts (and now a book manuscript) and spoken about SURVIVAL IS OPTIONAL. Many people and organizations struggle, but they don’t need to. Leaders (all through your system) can rapidly accelerate its growth and collaboration and achieve disruptive success like never before.

By now, through my newsletters and various posts, you may have discovered my love of asking questions. They open up possibilities and opportunities. They create environments so people can share ideas. Whether at home, school, work, or in society, questions allow us to pause, reflect, envision—and then learn, work, problem solve, improve and innovate TOGETHER. What power!

How are you doing? Almost 8 months through the year. Pause . . . pause . . . pause. Are you happy? Are you contributing? Are you making a difference? Are you supporting others around you and being helpful? Start with family and close friends. They’re your foundation. There’s your workplace. Are you in a healthy system?

How ever we seize the opportunities and confront challenges in 2017, its helpful if we can mentally and emotionally prepare ourselves for what we know and some of the unknown. Coming TOGETHER to focus on what is important to us at school, at work, in our nation and in society, matters!

REVISE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE: Is it time to update your LinkedIn profile? How many years has it been since you updated your photo, current work location, accomplishments, contact information? Take out your calendar and schedule 10 minutes to invest in updating your own profile! (I learned that at the NSA meeting I attended.) Update your profile or you may miss connecting with friends, colleagues, or those who have a dynamic opportunity “just made for you!”

COMPELLING AIM/PURPOSE. What are we trying to accomplish TOGETHER to serve our customers or members? Your aim is NOT to make money. That is a result of leading your organization as a system.

CLEAR, FREQUENT COMMUNICATION. (multiple times daily with every constituency you interact with; for example if you lead a school, you communicate your Aim to teachers, students, staff, parents, the community, politicians, repeatedly so that everyone understands it and how you all need to work together to support it.)