While not quite a change in venue, but how about a change in medium? Please take a moment to enjoy these two relatively short audio interviews from Harvard Business Review.

“HBR IdeaCast: Positive Deviance and Unlikely Innovators” — Interview of Richard Pascale (associate fellow of Said Business School at Oxford University) coauthor of “The Power of Positive Deviance”.

“What Copycats Know About Innovation” — Interview of Oded Shenkar, professor at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business and author of “Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge”.

“Leading Change – Why Transformation Efforts Fail” by John P. Kotter (Harvard Business Review, www.HBRreprints.org).  In this day and age, it’s difficult to have a conversation about almost anything without some reference to change. In fact, one of the longest standing uber-buzzwords is innovation, which obviously requires change. Ironically, what doesn’t seem to change is that so many fail at trying to change. Mr. Kotter’s ideas might be the difference maker for you.

If this topic interests you — and it should — you can also consume: “Change Through Persuasion” by David A. Garvin and Michael A. Roberto (Hardvard Business Review).

Truth be told, neither of these articles are new. However, they do address many of the fundamentals and the universal truths that continue to challenge every organization regardless of the date on the callendar. As they say, “Change is constant.” The issue is, are you going to be proactive, reactive, or a victim of your denial that things are never going to be as they were.

“Decoding Leadership” by Norm Smallwood (HarvardBusiness.org, 15 September 15, 2009). And where do you stand? Where do you wish to stand? Better yet, where do you need to stand? Something to ponder this weekend as you indulge in some downtime, eh?

Oh! What the heck!! Here are two more helpful goodies on social networks.

“Understanding Users of Social Networks” by Sean Silverthorne (Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, 14 September 14)

“Q&A with:Sunil Gupta — Social Network Marketing: What Works?” by Sarah Jane Gilbert (Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, 27 July 2009)

Ok, that’s enough soc netting for a while.