Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Are we Living at a Moment When Significant Change is Possible?

“The best way to predict the future is to create it,” said Abraham Lincoln. The future is hard to predict. Yet, that's not for lack of trying. A thriving trends industry says forecasts are in high demand. Futurists work outward from data and evidence, seeking to identify highly probable events. While unpredictable in scope, pandemics are undesirable parts of our past and highly probable events. But proceed with caution. Labeling an observation about what's going on “insight” doesn't make it so. Further, insights are not as useful to understanding changing habits, behaviors and attitudes and what will stick as you'd... Read more →

Eight Books to Argue Well

Why do people share quotes? There's a nugget of truth that seems to hold, regardless of their context. Their echo stretches over time. Take the idea of service, for example. Being on the receiving end of the extra mile appeals. It paints a vivid picture. It takes work to figure out the place where a word is most effective. The odds increase in your favor if you're using a proven structure to build the image. “Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory,” is itself a good argument,... Read more →

Is Happiness a Choice?

Only 14 percent of Americans are happy right now.* This is a new low, the lowest it's been in 50 years. We're living in a challenging context: for individuals, community, and companies. The community context is interesting, because it does impact the level of satisfaction in life for people. I was looking at another report that polled a sample about half the respondents for the U.S. and the numbers are not as low.** As the report says (slide 6): In most European countries satisfaction has increased compared to the beginning of the crisis. Australia and Hong Kong see the largest... Read more →

What Worries you the Most that is Not Getting Enough Attention?

In 2000, Enron claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion and employed approximately 29,000 people. The darling of the stock market set its sights on innovation with visionary plans for broadband. Fortune named Enron “America's Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years. “We were building a—what I thought was a fantastic company. We had great people. We were changing—we were changing the way the marketplace operated. We were creating a market for natural gas and electricity that had never existed before,” said Jeffrey Skilling. A major electricity, natural gas, communications and pulp and paper company, it started shifting parts of its... Read more →

Three Books with a Sense of Humor for Serious Leaders

“The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form,” says Canadian businessman and politician Stanley J. Randall. That should give anyone pause, it's both funny and true. It's funny because it's true. Being funny at work is a difficult proposition. Yet, “A company is known by the people it keeps,” said Will Rogers. He was an American stage and film actor, and for that reason knew a thing or two about performance. In all seriousness, play is serious business. Johan Roos and Bart Victor created the “Serious Play” concept and process while... Read more →

Working to Build Together: Words are not Enough

“The hands are an extension of the heart,” goes an Italian saying. In fact, they say that if you want to see how big your heart is, you close your fist. That's about the size of it. But open hands are much more practical for work. And we have much work to do. As if fears from the pandemic weren't enough to increase the level of physical distance from others, this past weekend have been very trying in the U.S. with #BlackLivesMatter protests. Panic now includes a terrifying escalation of violence in major cities around the country. Leaders I've talked... Read more →