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September is here, and a new season is on the horizon! In this edition of ARC Reads we continue to share the latest tech and business articles that have piqued our interest.

What We're Reading This Month

‍How to Pitch Like a Pro; Lessons From a ‘Shark Tank’ Insider - You’ve spent a lifetime building skills, learning lessons, nurturing relationships, and developing a perspective as prescient and powerful as your personal drive. You’ve poured it all into your business. Now, you have five minutes (or less)to communicate an irresistible vision for the world and convince a panel of respected and sometimes disrespectful judges that you can make the vision real and make some money. How do you do it? Read the whole article here.

To Change Company Culture, Focus on Systems, Not Communication - Many leaders treat culture as a communication strategy. They believe it lives in messaging, in the articulation of purpose, the rollout of values, the tone of internal campaigns. But culture doesn’t shift because a new narrative is introduced. It shifts when systems change. When leaders take personal risks. When norms are not just declared but demonstrated. New research shows how culture doesn’t fail because it’s forgotten; it fails because it’s misunderstood. It’s treated as branding, not behavior. As output, not infrastructure. And when that happens, even the most well-meaning efforts can erode the very trust they’re meant to build. Article.

Growth Isn’t the Only Way for Companies to Create Value - It’s a basic goal of most companies: to grow revenue each year. But as globalization recedes, populations in many nations grow older (and buy less), and sustainability concerns lead more people to scrutinize the necessity of every purchase, companies are facing headwinds to growth. And while growth can be a particularly powerful differentiator in such a challenging context, it is also particularly risky. Pushing for growth at all costs can end up destroying value rather than creating it, through wasteful investments and diverting resources from the core strengths of the firm. Find out more.

Our Favourite Management Tips on Leading Effective Meetings - In this article, we’ve compiled seven of our favourite Tips on leading effective meetings, from how to boost participation to how to stay grounded and guide high-stakes conversations with clarity and composure.

The Secret to Building a High-Performing Team - Teams need to be able to take risks, from making hard decisions, to naming inconvenient truths, to having a hard conversation in order to be successful. But human biology makes risk-taking the exception, rather than the rule. So, how can leaders encourage smart risk-taking among their employees? Surveys find that two elements are key for cultivating this behavior: connection and courage. Teams that rank high in both tend to be more savvy risk-takers than teams that fall into three other categories. You can determine where your team falls by analyzing a 2×2 chart and asking a series of probing questions. More here.