A New Way to Think

**Author:** Roger L. Martin **Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn:**

- Why most conventional business wisdom fails in practice - How to replace outdated management models with better ones - A systematic approach to strategy, culture, knowledge work, and innovation - Practical frameworks you can apply immediately

**Who This Book Is For:**

Leaders who suspect that the standard playbook no longer works. Managers frustrated by strategies that never materialize, culture initiatives that fizzle, and innovations that fail to gain traction. Anyone who wants to think more clearly about the fundamental choices that shape organizations.

Every field of human endeavor operates on models. These models are simplified representations of reality that help us make sense of complexity. They tell us what to pay attention to, what to ignore, and how to act. In business, these models are everywhere. We talk about strategy as a plan. We treat customer loyalty as a goal to be pursued through rewards. We organize work into jobs. We attempt to change culture through values statements. These models feel natural because they have been repeated so often that they have become invisible. They are simply "how things are done." But what if many of these models are wrong? What if they lead us systematically toward poor decisions? Roger L. Martin has spent decades studying why smart leaders make bad choices. His conclusion is uncomfortable: the problem is not a lack of effort or intelligence. The problem is that the models themselves are flawed. Leaders are working hard to execute against frameworks that do not match how the world actually works. Consider the relationship between strategy and execution. The conventional model treats these as separate activities. Strategy happens first, in the boardroom, where leaders make choices. Execution happens second, in the field, where employees carry out those choices. When results disappoint, leaders assume the strategy was sound but execution failed. The model tells them to push harder on implementation. But this model is wrong. Strategy and execution are not separate. They are the same activity viewed from different angles. Every decision made throughout an organization is a strategic choice, whether it happens in the executive suite or on the front lines. When leaders treat strategy as something that gets handed down and execution as something that happens afterward, they create a gap that cannot be closed through better communication or more detailed plans. This is just one example. Martin identifies many more. The model of customer loyalty that drives billions of dollars in rewards programs is built on a misunderstanding of how human beings actually make choices. The model of corporate functions as service providers to business units creates exactly the dysfunction it claims to solve.…