Derek Lidow

Every relationship of two or more people is based on shared objectives. They needn’t agree on how to bring it about and may not both take action to effect the change. Cooperative relationships are those where both parties agree on how to share the benefits and costs of creating change. Competitive relationships, by contrast, are those in which you don’t agree on how to allocate … [ Read more ]

Beware Groups

The Internet is generating “groupthink” inside groups and greater conflict between groups. Here, Chief Executive details the three types of groupthink and how CEOs can resist groupthink in their organizations.

Sangick Jeon: How Do You Manage Diversity?

In Kenya, a Stanford researcher shows that ethnic diversity can spur productivity.

Sydney Finkelstein

In the constant push to get everyone going in the same direction on the job—an admittedly critical component of leadership—we’ve fallen into the trap of valuing alignment over insight. What’s the point of having everyone rowing in perfect unison if you’re going the wrong way?

Can People Analytics Help Firms Manage People Better?

How an organization makes its people-related decisions has a huge impact on its success or failure. But traditionally, these decisions have largely been based on intuition and biases and therefore have been prone to error. But now, companies are starting to use data and sophisticated analysis in issues such as recruiting, compensation and performance evaluation because they believe it can help in better decision making. … [ Read more ]

Yves Morieux and Peter Tollman

Power is the possibility for one person to make a difference on issues—or stakes—that matter to someone else. Because A can make a difference on issues that matter to B, then B will do things that he or she would not have done without A’s intervention. Power always exists, one way or another, either helping or hindering good outcomes. It helps mobilize people, either directly … [ Read more ]

Need to Solve a Problem? Take a Break From Collaborating

Organizations spend a lot of money enabling employees to solve problems collectively. But inducing more collaboration may actually hinder the most important part of problem-solving: actually solving the problem. Research by Jesse Shore, Ethan Bernstein, and David Lazer.

Thomas Malone

We found four factors that were correlated—four things that might account for the degree of collective intelligence in a team. The first was the most obvious: the intelligence of the individual team members. We had expected that the group intelligence would correlate with the average or maximum intelligence of individual group members. But we were surprised to find that the correlation was not very strong. … [ Read more ]

Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead

Regardless of from which side of the desk one has experienced the rite known as the performance appraisal, there are many who will welcome the authors’ provocative proposal. Coens is an attorney and organizational trainer; Jenkins is a former human resources director at a division of General Motors. They acknowledge the countless books about performance appraisals and note that most suggest ways to make appraisal … [ Read more ]

How to Frame Goals to Increase Motivation

What motivates individuals to achieve goals differs depending on their cultural background.

David Marquet

The shift from “we” to “they” is typically the boundary between where we cooperate (we cooperate with we) and where we compete (we compete with they.)

David Marquet

Humans are incredibly good at making quick interpretations of visual scenes. We then decide what to do. This provides an evolutionary advantage. It works extremely well at an individual level and has kept the species alive.

When we interact as a group, however, this skill limits our effectiveness. We argue about what to do without being curious about the different interpretations we may have of … [ Read more ]

How to Run a Great Virtual Meeting

Virtual meetings don’t have to be seen as a waste of time. In fact, they can be more valuable than traditional face-to-face meetings. Beyond the fact that they’re inexpensive ways to get people together – think: no travel costs and readily available technology – they’re also great opportunities to build engagement, trust and candor among teams.

Several years ago, my company’s Research Institute embarked on an … [ Read more ]

Michael E. Raynor

Explanatory power is a red herring when the objective is predictive accuracy.

The Untapped Value of Overseas Experience

How skilled return migrants can be your company’s agents of change.

Michael E. Raynor

The next time someone offers you advice, ask yourself these two questions: Can I imagine the opposite ever making sense, and will I know if I’ve acted on it? If the answer to either one is “no,” you’re at grave risk of being led astray.

Selling the Best Hour of the Day to Yourself

Many of the best organizations are learning organizations that encourage their employees to take time to think creatively and innovate. Do you put a priority on learning? Here’s an idea to use your time in clever ways to advance your learning and thus your effectiveness.

Overcoming the Toughest Common Coaching Challenges

Great managers strive to do right by their employees — treat them well, motivate them to succeed, and provide the support and coaching each person needs. This is often easier said than done, especially when it comes to coaching. That’s because coaching takes time, skill, and careful planning. And there are certain types of people who may be particularly challenging for managers to coach. Think … [ Read more ]

Forget About CEOs, How Should We Pay Employees?

Subjective evaluation by supervisors can address the shortcomings of numeric measures. When numeric measures focus employees on one goal, a second, subjective bonus can make employees pay more attention to other objectives that may be difficult to quantify, like managing controllable risks.

Michael E. Raynor

Learning something that is both new and true seems to be extraordinarily difficult only when it is extraordinarily important.
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In the words of one commentator, our rational mind is a mouse riding, and attempting to steer, the elephant that is our emotions. Since that elephant, even when entirely even-tempered, can wreak havoc with our rational intent, we must—at the risk of getting all new … [ Read more ]