3593 Posts Found

When I feel myself not communicating as clearly as I would like to, not using precise language, with a single person, a group of people, or an audience on TV, generally, it means that I haven’t understood two things completely.

“What specifically am I trying to communicate?” and “Have I properly understood the details of that subject and how I’m going to express myself on them?”

[…] … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ros Atkins | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Communication, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

For more than half a century, brainstorming has been the go-to method for teams to surface new ideas. But there’s ample evidence that shows it rarely works well. Research shows that individuals working separately tend to generate more creative ideas than groups brainstorming together. Good ideas get lost due to pressure to conform, fear of looking foolish, and the difficulty of breaking through the noise. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Adam Grant | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

Putting people together in a group doesn’t automatically make them a team. Neither does convening a group of individual experts and giving them a problem to solve. Research reveals that the smartest teams aren’t composed of the smartest individuals. The best teams are aligned around a common goal, evaluated on a collective outcome, organized around a unique role for each member, and motivated to share … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Adam Grant | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

As many organizations get larger, they get more effective at delivery. That delivery muscle pushes out discovery, and people wake up 20 years later and realize they have all delivery and no discovery. That’s not a problem, except the world continues to change, and they need to continue to evolve also. The end result is very large companies that have powerfully effective delivery muscles, yet … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ron Shaich | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

Change is absolute. It is ongoing. What an organization does by its very nature is lock in processes to reproduce or to continue what it does. If we get very good at doing what was valued yesterday, as the world continues to evolve, we aren’t highly conscious of that change. We also aren’t aware enough of the continuing demand from the organizations we work in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ron Shaich | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

One of the things that happens when we speak spontaneously is that many of us are uncovering what we want to say while we are saying it. That leads us to speak more than we need to. Being concise, clear, and focused is key… We want people to understand how we came to our conclusions or the suggestions and recommendations that we’re making. That information … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Matt Abrahams | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Communication, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

Companies repeatedly launch cost reduction programs—with mixed results. To cut costs sustainably, they need to redesign the organization and change the underlying behaviors that lead to cost creep.

Content: Article | Authors: Kevin Kelley, Miyabi Honda, Sarah Baxter, Travis Meyer | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Too often, companies focus on organizational structure at the expense of governance, leadership, and ways of working. Rigid structures lock talent into fixed teams. Companies fail to establish clear mechanisms for building future-proof competencies into the organization and to adopt company-wide mechanisms for structuring alignment across teams.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Andrew Toma, Benjamin Rehberg, Jaap Backx, Julia Madden | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Folks (often rightly) assume that in order to grow their influence and their career at a company, their value is measured in their number of direct reports. As a company, it’s vital to carve out career tracks for folks who want to be deep-diving ICs and technical subject matter experts, without devoting their time to solving people problems. So, for starters, consider how you’re rewarding … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marcel Weekes | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

The biggest inequity in advancement remains the broken rung—the very first step up into a manager position. Proportionally, for every 100 men we see leap forward, only 87 women advance. And if you’re a woman of color, it’s 73. If you’re a Black woman, it’s only 54. And it starts at the very beginning of a career. The challenge with this is that it sets … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Alexis Krivkovich | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Diversity, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, Women in Business

Very often when you say the word “culture” or the words “culture clash” in the context of mergers and acquisitions, companies or people will say, “We both wear jeans to work and have beer at the end of the day on Friday,” and then they say, “Our cultures are the same, therefore things will be fine when we do mergers and acquisitions.” That’s a completely … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Emilie Feldman | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Culture, Mergers & Acquisitions, Organizational Behavior

“Move fast and break things” gave speed a bad name. You can move fast and take care of people. In fact, when you’re taking care of people, you can move even faster. People think the only way to fix things is to slow down. It’s not true. Meaningful change happens with momentum.

Content: Quotation | Author: Frances Frei | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

While most business leaders now believe having a diverse and inclusive culture is critical to performance, they don’t always know how to achieve that goal. Here are eight powerful truths that can help turn aspirations into reality.

Content: Article | Authors: Bernadette Dillon, Juliet Bourke | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Diversity, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

The social rewards for going with the crowd are felt long before the benefits of going against it are gained. One measure of a person is the degree to which they’ll do the right thing when it goes against popular belief.

Content: Quotation | Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development, Personality / Behavior

Mergers and acquisitions, though powerful tools for growth, often fall short of expectations. One reason is a lack of focus on the integration experience of acquired employees. While companies tend to invest heavily in pre-deal due diligence, they frequently overlook the day-to-day realities faced by incoming employees—who often feel undervalued, unsupported, and overwhelmed—ultimately threatening deal success, long-term productivity, and retention. These challenges are preventable through planning … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Culture, Mergers & Acquisitions, Organizational Behavior

To unlock a team’s abilities, a manager at any level must spend a significant amount of time on two activities: helping the team understand the company’s direction and its implications for team members and coaching for performance.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Aaron De Smet, Marc Vinson, Monica McGurk | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

Organizations are intricate systems with various components interacting in diverse ways, making it impossible for any member, including the directors and the CEO, to have a complete picture of the organization, despite all efforts to collect data and information. Consequently, all members inevitably focus on partial observations of what happens and fill in the gaps of unobserved reality with their own beliefs and assumptions.

Content: Quotation | Author: Ekin Ilseven | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subject: Organizational Behavior

So whether you’re a manager delivering feedback to your direct report, or sending feedback up the management chain, the best way to make your conversation heard is to make the listener feel safe, and to show that you’re saying it because you care about her and want her to succeed. “If you come off with even a whiff of an ulterior motive — you want … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Julie Zhuo | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

In fast-paced, complex business environments, it’s often hard to carve out the time for thoughtful, thorough analysis. Leaders might recognize that better questions lead to better decisions, but they aren’t sure exactly what to ask. These five questions can help. 1) What would happen if we did nothing? 2) What could make us regret this decision? 3) What alternatives did we overlook? 4) How will we … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Steven Morris | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Decision Making, Organizational Behavior

A new study finds that revealing employee pay unexpectedly influences workplace dynamics in ways never demonstrated before.

Content: Article | Authors: Boris Maciejovsky, David Danelski | Source: Futurity.org | Subjects: Compensation, Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior