What if the biggest risk in leadership wasn’t failure — but success that blinds us to change?
In this episode of the Positive Leadership Podcast, I had the great pleasure of welcoming Rita McGrath, one of the world’s most influential voices on strategy and innovation. A professor at Columbia Business School and author of The End of Competitive Advantage, Discovery-Driven Growth, and Seeing Around Corners, Rita has transformed how leaders think about disruption, renewal, and adaptability.
Together, we explore how to spot inflection points before they upend your business, why discovery-driven learning is the antidote to overconfidence, and how purpose and curiosity can keep teams resilient in uncertain times. Rita also shares a warning for today’s executives: when companies rush to go fast and big in complex environments — without room to test and learn — it’s almost always a recipe for disaster.
From AI and education to human adaptability and leadership humility, this conversation will change the way you think about strategy in a world where advantage is always transient.
🎧 Listen now — and discover why I believe that good strategy isn’t about predicting the future, but about preparing to learn from it.
If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like:
- Amy Edmondson – How to fail well: https://www.jpcourtois.com/podcast/how-to-fail-well-with-amy-edmondson
- Jean-Pascal Tricoire – Turning Sustainability into a Growth Engine: https://www.jpcourtois.com/podcast/jean-pascal-tricoire-turning-sustainability-into-a-growth-engine
- Sal Khan – Revolutionizing Education: https://www.jpcourtois.com/podcast/revolutionizing-education-with-sal-khan
Subscribe now to JP's free monthly newsletter "Positive Leadership and You" on LinkedIn to transform your positive impact today: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/positive-leadership-you-6970390170017669121/
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