 |
|
|
|||||
In a world where trust in institutions is at an all-time low and the pace of change is relentless, the most effective leaders are not those who hide behind polished press releases or corporate jargon. They are the ones who step forward with authentic storiesstories that reveal not just their vision, but their humility, values, and the messy realities of leading in uncertain times. Welcome to the era of the storytelling CEO, where transparency isnt just a buzzword, its the new leadership currency. Why Stories Matter More Than Ever For millennia, stories have been the glue that binds communities, shapes cultures, and helps us make sense of the world. Today, as organizations grapple with complex challenges, from digital transformation to climate change, data and strategy alone are not enough. Humans are narrative animals, and stories help us make sense of the world in ways that data and rational arguments often cant. Stories help to build trust, foster empathy, and catalyze action in ways that spreadsheets never will. Transparency: The Foundation of Innovation Culture Culture is critical to innovation. The storytelling CEO understands that transparency, sharing not just successes but also failures, doubts, and lessons learned, creates the conditions for new ideas and psychological safety. When leaders model openness through the stories they tell, they give permission for others to do the same, unlocking creativity and risk-taking across the organization. For example, Satya Nadella at Microsoft championed a learn-it-all culture over a know-it-all one. By sharing stories of his own learning journey, Nadella made it safe for others to experiment, fail, and grow. This shift didnt just improve morale, it drove innovation and business results. The Five Phases of Story-Centred Leadership Based on my research and work with thousands of leaders globally, Ive developed a five-phase circular model for story-centred leadership: Story Listening: Deep listening is the antidote to echo chambers and ego chambers. Walk in the shoes of others to gain empathy and perspective. Story Building: Craft narratives that are clear, compelling, rooted in purpose and full of sticky details. The best stories answer, why does this matter? for every stakeholder. Story Shaping: Practice and refine stories with feedback. Authenticity beats perfection, and people connect with whats real, not whats rehearsed. Story Sharing: Stories are the connective tissue of change. Seed stories throughout the organization to grow a fearless, purpose-led culture. Story Living: Embody the story through actions and decisions. The most powerful stories are those we live, not just tell. Stories are not soft, they are our essential software Many leaders struggle with the idea of storytelling, dismissing it as superficial or soft. As digital transformation efforts repeatedly fail due to lack of buy-in and cultural resistance, the need for narrative becomes clear. If we want our strategies to succeed, we must shift that mindset: stories are our essential software. As a previous Fast Company article notes, The six most common reasons digital transformations fail often boil down to poor communication and lack of shared visiongaps that stories can bridge. Storytelling is not about spinning fairy tales or sugarcoating reality. Its about making meaning from complexity, surfacing the why behind the what, and inviting others into a shared journey. As one leader, Ian Ellison, told me, Ive learnt the hard way that they (stories) are essential in engaging people in sustainable change. The Risks of Storytelling and How to Avoid Them Stories can always be misused, something that were currently seeing on a global scale. In the wrong hands, they can become tools for manipulation or exclusion. The shadow side of storytelling is spin, distraction, and even outright deception. Thats why transparency is so vital. The storytelling CEO must be vigilant about grounding stories in truth, inviting diverse voices and challenge, and acknowledging complexity rather than oversimplifying. Cross-Cultural Communication: Stories as Bridges In our globalized world, leaders must navigate cultural differences with sensitivity and skill. Stories are universal, but the way theyre told and received can vary widely. The best leaders are those who listen deeply to the stories of others, adapt their narratives for different audiences, and use storytelling to bridge divides. The Neuroscience of Storytelling Understanding how our brains are wired for stories can make us better leaders. Stories activate multiple regions of the brain, making messages more memorable and emotionally resonant. As Fast Company has reported, understanding how your brain works can make you a better leader and storytelling is a key part of that tool kit. The New Leadership Currency In a world awash with information but starved for meaning, the storytelling CEO stands out. Transparency, rooted in authentic, purpose-driven stories, is the currency that builds trust, inspires action, and accelerates change. As leaders, our challenge is not just to tell better stories, but to listen, shape, share, and live them every day. If you want to lead, start by asking: Whats the story youre telling? And is it true, transparent and worth following? Five Ways to Become a Storytelling CEO Listen first. Seek out stories from every corner of your organization. Be humble. Share your failures and lessons learned, not just your wins. Connect the dots. Use stories to shine a light on your North Star, linking strategy to purpose and values. Invite others in. Make space for diverse voices and perspectives. Live your story. Let your actions reinforce your words. And remember: you are speaking volumes before you even open your mouth!
Category:
E-Commerce
When someone takes a shower at a new apartment complex in Washington, D.C., the water is heated in part by a brewery downstairs. The mixed-use developmentpart of a larger new neighborhood called the Bridge Districtis designed to be as sustainable as possible. That includes using waste heat from commercial tenants like the brewery to save energy in the apartments. [Image: courtesy Redbrick LMD] Atlas Brew Works, a solar-powered brewery that serves craft beers, moved into the building in November. At most breweries, the heat thats generated from the brewing process would be vented outside. But in the new building, any hot water that the brewery doesnt reuse is sent into a heat exchanger, which transfers heat to the hot water loop for the apartments. (The water itself never mixes; tenants are not showering in brewery water.) [Photo: Atlas Brew Works/Redbrick LMD] Theyre still ramping up, but theyre starting to make a lot of beer, says William Passmore, managing partner at Redbrick LMD, the developer behind the project. So were using as much of that heat as possible. Were literally transferring the heat to support domestic hot water for all of the units throughout the building. When the brewery is operating at full capacity and the complexs 757 apartments are fully occupied, around 60% to 70% of the heat for the apartments hot water can come from the brewery. The complex is also designed to be able to harvest heat from other businesses. A small grocery store that will soon open can share waste heat from its refrigerators, for example. [Image: courtesy Redbrick LMD] All of this means that residents can save money on energy bills, and the buildings have a lower carbon footprint. The heat exchange system is one piece of a larger sustainability strategy for the development, which is on track to become the largest net-zero carbon residential project in the U.S. [Photo: Atlas Brew Works/Redbrick LMD] The development is next to a metro station and a riverside bike trail, so residents can drive less. The all-electric buildings feature a solar array on each rooftopexpected to generate 228 megawatt-hours of electricity each yearwith renewable power purchased to cover additional energy needs. The developers carefully tracked the carbon footprint of construction, measuring the embodied carbon of every piece of material and even how individual construction workers commuted to the site. They used materials like low-carbon steel and produced 40 different concrete mixes, carefully tailoring the amount of cement for each part of the building, which cut the overall carbon footprint of that material by 35%. In the next phase of the development, another new building will use mass timber construction. [Image: courtesy Redbrick LMD] Even though some parts of the process didnt necessarily cost much more from an engineering perspective, it took a commitment to make it happen. You need to have the mindset and the staff and the willingness to invest in it as an organization, Passmore says. Developers typically wouldnt go this far. It’s one of those things that doesn’t sound that difficult. [But as] you start to go and try and do it, [they’re thinking], ‘Oh, you know what? Let’s put this off for the next project, he says. [Image: courtesy Redbrick LMD] The developers theory: The work is worth itnot just for the environmental benefit, but because tenants are looking for more sustainable options. In surveys, the companies found that the renters they were targeting in their 20s and 30s wanted options like this. It differentiates our product, so it helps us with lease-up, Passmore says. We hope it will help down the roadresidents will appreciate it and enjoy the lower utility bills. And perhaps theyll stay a little longer, so that will help us again.
Category:
E-Commerce
Artificial intelligence certainly didn’t debut in 2025, but it was the year it really started to hit the mainstream. ChatGPT, at the start of the year, had between 300 million and 400 million average weekly users. By October, that number had doubled. Meanwhile, usage of other AI systems, including Perplexity and Google’s Gemini, saw similar leaps in usage. Now, with 2026 on the horizon, people are wondering what’s next. Fast Company spoke to several analysts and industry experts to get their projections on what we can expect as AI’s influence continues to spread in 2026. The bubble won’t pop While the bears on Wall Street continue to talk loudly about an AI bubble, Wedbush’s Dan Ives says those fears are overblown and the AI trade will actually get bigger in 2026. Ives says the consumer AI revolution has not truly begun, and the expected rise of robotics in the years to come, as well as the long runway for corporate use and global expansion, will drive an ongoing tech bull market. “This AI revolution is just beginning today, and we believe tech stocks and the AI winners should be bought, given our view that this is Year 3 of what will be a 10-year cycle of this AI revolution build-out,” he writes. “We expect tech stocks to be up another 20% in 2026 as this next stage of the AI revolution hits its stride.” A leap in “lazy thinking” Not all of the predictions around AI in 2026 are quite so bullish. Gartner sends up a red flag about people’s growing dependence on chatbots and their automatic acceptance of whatever those devices spew out. Through 2026, the analytics firm predicts, there will be an “atrophy of critical-thinking skills due to Gen AI use.” That, it says, will push half of global organizations to require AI-free skills assessments. “As automation accelerates, the ability to think independently and creatively will become both increasingly rareand increasingly valuable,” Gartner writes. Gen AI will move from stand-alone sites to search engines Generative AI chatbots are how many people interact with AI. They don’t require any tech knowledge (although the more you know about how to phrase prompts, the more efficient they are), and they’re free. For tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, you generally have to visit a stand-alone website to access them. In 2026 and beyond, however, Deloitte says that more people will begin to use generative AI that’s embedded within existing applications, like search engines. “In terms of daily use, accessing Gen AI within a search engine [when a search yields a synthesis of results] will be 300% more common than using any stand-alone Gen AI tool,” the consulting firm writes. Rise of the robots While humanoid robots in 2026 may not reach the levels Elon Musk predicts, we are likely to see a substantial increase in AI-driven robotics, Deloitte says. The number of industrial robots is expected to reach 5.5 million. That’s the beginning of a wavewhich could see annual shipments begin to increase until they reach 1 million per year by 2030. That increase, the firm says, will be driven by labor shortages and “exponential advancements in computing power.” A legal tsunami AI firms are already facing a number of lawsuits, most prominently involving cases in which plaintiffs argue that AI drove people to take their own lives. That has put a spotlight on the lack of guardrails around the industry. But to date, Washington has shown little interest in setting firm parameters for AI companies. (Some states are attempting to do so, however.) Gartner predicts that by the end of 2026, there will be more than 2,000 “death by AI” legal claims. The upside of this tragedy, it continues, is that it could finally push regulators to focus on safety issues. “Black box systemsAI models whose decision-making processes are opaque or difficult to interpretcan misfire, especially in high-stakes sectors like healthcare, finance, and public safety,” the analytics firm writes. “Explainability, ethical design, and clean data will become nonnegotiable.”
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||