How Will You Measure MY Life?

  If you are reading on a smartphone, use landscape / hold phone sideways. 

When I took over running the Distance Learning Association back in 2010 (it was bankrupt at the time) one of our first "big wins" was Clay Christensen. It went like this (via a cold email from me):

Clay, I just finished reading your new book, "How Will You Measure Your Life?" and it is amazing. Would you like me to promote this for you to the members of the DLA? 

"That would be wonderful. Thank you." 

That was it. Permission granted. 

We had Clay's new book 'loud and proud' on page 1 of our website as fast as our webmasters could work their magic. 

Karen Dillon is the former editor of Harvard Business Review magazine and co-author of 3 books with Clayton Christensen: New York Times best-seller "How Will You Measure Your Life?", Wall Street Journal best-seller "Competing Against Luck: the Story of Innovation and Customer Choice"; and "The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty", which was a nominee for Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea.

She is also the author of "The Harvard Business Review Guide to Office Politics". A graduate of Cornell University and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, she was named by Ashoka as one of the world's most influential and inspiring women and a ''top influencer'' by Product Management Review in 2016. She is currently a contributing editor to Harvard Business Review and Editorial Director of Banyan Global Family Business Advisors.

Last year, 2023, I received an advance copy of Karen's book The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems - -and What to Do about It. Amazing book. We did a podcast to promote the book launch - and our interview reached millions of DLA members around the world. 

2024: Just last week, I received an email from Karen's colleague Ann-Somers Hogg. Ann is the director of health care research at the Clayton Christensen Institute. She focuses on business model innovation and disruption in health care, including how to transform a sick care system to one that values and incentivizes total health. Her current research addresses why various organizations across the health care landscape are addressing “social determinants of health” and what enables success in this domain. She is tackling these questions through the lens of Jobs to Be Done and Business Model theories.

Next week we shall record a video podcast on Ann's research: Maternal health policy change won’t save enough mothers’ lives. Our video podcast interview will reach millions of people around the world. And maybe, just maybe, it will save lives.

And so, I met Ann-Somers Hogg via Karen Dillion. And I met Karen Dillion via Clay Christensen. And I met Clay Christensen via.... well, via Gmail.  

And here we are in 2024 - OUR DLA MISSION: we are all Living, Learning, Working, Playing, Teaching, Training, Coaching, Mentoring in the Global Cloud Economy.

Christenseninstitute.org - Improving the world through disruptive innovation.

NYDLA.org - Improving the world through democratizing education. 

Sadly, Clayton Magleby Christensen passed away on January 23, 2020, at the age of 67. 

Clayton Magleby Christensen (April 6, 1952 – January 23, 2020) was an American academic and business consultant who developed the theory of "disruptive innovation", which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century. Christensen introduced "disruption" in his 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma, and it led The Economist to term him "the most influential management thinker of his time." He served as the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School (HBS). 

I think it is a good time for us reread all of Clay's books, don't you?