3605 Posts Found

As a long-time product leader for Chrome at Google, Tyler Odean found himself using persuasion as a tool to herd massive organizations — engineers, designers and executives — toward product decisions and developments. He realized how powerful it was to be able to rally people to his and others’ points of view. Today, he regularly speaks on the topic and applies it in his role … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Tyler Odean | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

When seeking to understand and address these [organizational] mind-sets, we like to use the image of an iceberg popularized by MIT academics Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer. Above the surface (the tip of the iceberg) is the visible behavior repeated and reinforced by the organization every day. Under the surface are employees’ thoughts and feelings (both conscious and unconscious); their values and beliefs (the things … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Chris Gagnon, Elizabeth John, Rob Theunissen | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Given all the data and practical experience that supports working on [organizational] health, companies’ obsession with the P&L alone continues to puzzle us. It’s right that leaders manage their P&L meticulously, but why not do the same for their health? In fact, why not measure health frequently throughout the year, since it’s a leading indicator of performance, whereas financial results are a lagging one? Similarly, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Chris Gagnon, Elizabeth John, Rob Theunissen | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management, Organizational Behavior

We think of organizational health as more than just culture or employee engagement. It’s the organization’s ability to align around a common vision, execute against that vision effectively, and renew itself through innovation and creative thinking. Put another way, health is how the ship is run, no matter who is at the helm and what waves rock the vessel.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Chris Gagnon, Elizabeth John, Rob Theunissen | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

More companies are committing to gender equality. But progress will remain slow unless we confront blind spots on diversity—particularly regarding women of color, and employee perceptions of the status quo.

Content: Article | Authors: Alexis Krivkovich, Irina Starikova, Kelsey Robinson, Lareina Yee, Rachel Valentino | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Women in Business

[The] question — should we cooperate or should we compete — is often the wrong one. Our most important relationships are neither cooperative nor competitive. Instead, they are both. Rather than choosing a single course of action, we need to understand that cooperation and competition often occur simultaneously and we must nimbly shift between the two, and that how we navigate the tension between these … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Adam Galinsky, Maurice Schweitzer | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

The flaw in so many policy statements, especially those of business, is that they contain no action commitment—to carry them out is no one’s specific work and responsibility. Small wonder then that the people in the organization tend to view such statements cynically, if not as declarations of what top management is really not going to do.

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter F. Drucker | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

It is a waste of time to worry about what will be acceptable and what the decision maker should or should not say so as not to evoke resistance. (The things one worries about seldom happen, while objections and difficulties no one thought about may suddenly turn out to be almost insurmountable obstacles.) In other words, the decision maker gains nothing by starting out with … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter F. Drucker | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Decision Making

Jay Desai has FOMU. As a first-time founder and CEO of health technology startup PatientPing, he’s got a healthy fear of messing up. This anxiety especially bubbles to the surface when it has to do with his team — now over 100 employees — and particularly the seven who report directly to him. He’s seen too many immensely talented and productive teams stall because of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jay Desai | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

For faster progress, companies need to draw on the power of design, rethink their assumptions, and use data to inform decision making.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Iris Bohnet | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Women in Business

We not only assign undue levels of importance to whatever captures our attention at a certain point in time, but also assign causality to it.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Robert Cialdini, Theodore Kinni | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Attention, Organizational Behavior, Thought

A well-designed operating model involves far more than the lines and boxes or spans and layers in the organization chart. It includes accountabilities. Who has P&L authority? Who on that org chart has the authority to make which decisions? As companies move to more agile operating models, they must learn to balance accountability with autonomy. A new operating model also requires a governance structure and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Eric Garton | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

A decade into our research, we highlight key findings—and invite 16 global leaders to look at how to increase gender diversity in corporations and imagine the inclusive company of the future.

Content: Article | Authors: Alix de Zelicourt, Cecile Kossoff, Eric Labaye, Georges Desvaux, Sandra Sancier-Sultan, Sandrine Devillard | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Women in Business

The change-management literature has long focused on the need to overcome resistance. But resistance can imply intent, when in reality people often revert to old behavior out of habit or instinct, reflecting old mind-sets that may persist even after an apparently successful initial transformation.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Alessandra Fantoni, Jacek Fabianowicz, Randy Cook, Stefan de Raedemaecker | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

Dr. Jody Foster categorizes the types of people whom others find difficult at work — and shares how to identify and interact with them. She outlines the telltale signs of two of the most common profiles and suggests language to avoid and embrace to make headway with them. Whether you’re 5 or 5,000 people strong at your company, use this guide to troubleshoot these archetypes … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jody Foster | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Saying no is one of the greatest gifts an executive can give their organization. Too many leaders overestimate the capacity of their organizations under the ruse of “stretch goals” or “challenge assignments” to justify their denial of the organization’s true limitations.

Content: Quotation | Author: Ron Carucci | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

We have things called hard conversations, and we ask people all the time, “What’s the last hard conversation you had?” Because our belief is that as companies get bigger, people tend to be less willing to have the hard conversation. And if you look at companies that fail, it’s not like they sat there one day and suddenly said, “Oh, God, our business is gone!” … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Carolyn Everson | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Some observers might consider organizational silos—so named for parallel parts of the org chart that don’t intersect—a structural issue rather than a cultural one. But silos are more than just lines and boxes. The narrow, parochial mentality of workers who hesitate to share information or collaborate across functions and departments can be corrosive to organizational culture.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Julie Goran, Laura LaBerge, Ramesh Srinivasan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

The critical question for executives concerned with their organization’s risk appetite is whether they are trusting their employees, at all levels, to make big enough bets without subjecting them to red tape.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Julie Goran, Laura LaBerge, Ramesh Srinivasan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Risk Management

One of the things about failure is that it’s asymmetrical with respect to time. When you look back and see failure, you say, ‘It made me what I am!’ But looking forward, you think, ‘I don’t know what is going to happen and I don’t want to fail.’ The difficulty is that when you’re running an experiment, it’s forward looking. We have to try extra … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ed Catmull | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior, Success / Failure