Business leaders often rely on rules of thumb, simple tools designed to guide decisions in complex environments. But when followed too rigidly, even the most trusted rules can create blind spots. In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Dave Whorton explores this tension and offers a fresh perspective on how Evergreen® leaders might think differently.

Dave is the founder and CEO of Tugboat Institute and the author of Another Way: Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last. Drawing on decades of experience, he challenges widely accepted misconceptions about growth and encourages Evergreen leaders to embrace the courage, patience, and discipline required to build enduring businesses.

Listen and be inspired to rethink familiar formulas and to lead with intention and imagination.

In business as in life, there are trade-offs. This is an accepted part of the business world as well, and is usually accepted as an unavoidable truth. This includes pairs like Profit and Purpose, or Profit and Paced Growth, which can sometimes appear to be at odds with one another. But what if this didn’t always have to be true? Marianne Lewis proposes a leadership strategy that can help resolve this tension.

Marianne is Professor in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at University of Cincinnati and co-author of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems. In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Marianne makes an argument for finding a way to embrace, rather than cave to tensions within an organization. It starts with a shift in mindset.

Watch and be inspired to shift your own mindset, and make room for Both/And, instead of simply Either/Or.

The last five years have seen an ever-tightening talent pool and, therefore, increased competition for great employees. It seemed that it was a pandemic-related phenomenon at first, but demographics tell us that in fact, this is here to stay for many years. Coupled with this tight labor market, employees have become more particular about what they are looking for in their work, and they have become more apt to move on if their situation is not just right. The great resignation and quiet quitting, were, it turns out, just the start. In this era where it has become so challenging to hire great employees and even more so to keep them, Michael Horn invites us to understand why, and how to combat this trend.

Michael is a longtime friend of Tugboat Institute®’s and Co-Founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation. In his recent book, Job Moves, he explores what drives employees to quit so readily and offers them advice about what factors to consider when considering taking this step. In this Tugboat Institute talk, he flips his perspective and offers company leaders a look into the factors that drive employees to quit - and to stay – in order to be more intentional about improving recruitment and reducing turnover. It turns out that many of the things he recommends go hand in hand with being an Evergreen® company.

Watch and consider how you might improve your employees’ experience and keep your best players for the long term.