There is a challenge many successful organizations encounter that is easy to misdiagnose. From the outside, it may appear to be a communication problem. The organization needs a clearer message.A stronger story.A better explanation of what it does. But often, the issue is deeper. The organization is not difficult to understand because it lacks value....
The reputation that created your success may not fully represent the leader you have become. There is a stage of leadership growth that is rarely discussed. It does not happen when leaders are unknown. It does not happen when they are trying to establish credibility. It often happens after years of doing the work, building...
Part 2 of the Trust & Leadership series. Part 1 explored what happens when public leadership breaks trust. This installment examines why trust rebuilds differently than most leaders assume. There is a common assumption that trust rebuilds the same way it breaks. That assumption is wrong. Most people believe trust is damaged by a single...
Part 1 There are moments in public leadership that don’t stay contained, and once they cross into public cost, they stop being personal mistakes and become institutional liabilities. They move beyond the individual decision.They extend into budgets, teams, legal exposure, and ultimately, into public trust. And once that happens, the conversation is no longer about...
Here’s when your outcome was already decided By Christopher D. ThomasFounder, inMMGroup Most leaders believe they will be judged by outcomes. Performance. Results. Execution. The visible end of the system. But by the time a system is being evaluated, the outcome has already been shaped. Not by performance. By decisions made earlier, when the structure...
By Christopher D. ThomasFounder, inMMGroup There is a point in a city’s growth where progress alone is no longer enough. Projects are underway. Investments are visible. Momentum is real.But something begins to shift beneath the surface. Not in what is happening.In how what is happening must be understood. This is the moment when a city...
By Christopher D. ThomasFounder, inMMGroup There is a moment that rarely gets named. It does not appear in pitch decks.It is not reflected in product demos.And it is almost never discussed publicly. But inside a certain class of companies, it is felt with increasing clarity. The very systems designed to reduce complexity begin to create...
Pamela Wallace in her kitchen, where a longtime family tradition is beginning to take on new structure.
A reflection on the role community colleges are playing in workforce mobility, regional resilience, and economic transformation. A reflection by Christopher D. Thomas – Founder, inMMGroup | Founder, inCity Magazine Across Alabama, some of the most consequential work shaping the future of communities is happening in places that rarely dominate national headlines. In cities and...
New Models of Leadership Development Emerging by Christopher D. Thomas • President inMMGroup For years, leadership development was treated primarily as a knowledge problem. Organizations invested in seminars, certifications, executive coaching, and academic frameworks built to expand what leaders know. Increasingly, however, a different realization is taking hold across business, civic, and institutional environments: leadership...