3590 Posts Found

We’ve got to have both predictability and unpredictability in organizations, where we’re measuring and tracking but where experimentation is still possible. The great organizations learn how to do both those things.

Content: Quotation | Author: Tim Brown | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The economic slump offers business leaders a chance to more effectively reward talented employees by emphasizing nonfinancial motivators rather than bonuses. A recent McKinsey survey indicates that executives find some nonmonetary rewards motivate employees better than cash bonuses do. See what they are, then let us know what’s working in your organization.

Content: Article | Authors: Elizabeth Mohr, Martin Dewhurst, Matthew Guthridge | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

The finding: It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. It’s possible to predict which executives will win a business competition solely on the basis of the social signals they send.

The study: Sandy Pentland and colleague Daniel Olguín Olguín outfitted executives at a party with devices that recorded data on their social signals—tone of voice, gesticulation, proximity to others, and more. Five days … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sandy Pentland | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Organizational Behavior

The best-selling case study of all time at Harvard Business School (HBS) is not about Coca-Cola or Microsoft, but the Cleveland-based arc welding manufacturer Lincoln Electric. First published in 1975, the case has sold roughly 300,000 copies. Almost every MBA candidate at Harvard reads the original or one of several updated versions, as do tens of thousands more business students across America.

I stumbled on that … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Frank Koller | Source: The Huffington Post | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, MBA Related, Organizational Behavior | Company: Lincoln Electric Company

Wrongly assuming you and your collaborator want the same goal will cripple your alliance

Content: Article | Authors: Gale Muller, Rodd Wagner | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Companies increasingly rely on a relatively scarce resource to maintain their competitive edge: the people who are able to use statistics; rigorous quantitative or qualitative analysis; and information-modeling techniques to make business decisions. Or, in shorthand, “analytical talent.”

For business leaders, the importance of such people poses several challenges, but in our experience one question stands out: What’s the best way to organize analysts? Executives have … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Elizabeth Craig, Henry Egan, Jeanne G. Harris | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Multinational corporations have a lot of good things going for them. They have built up a rich store of knowledge over the years, allowing their subsidiaries to share ideas and best practices in ways that smaller companies can only dream of. They also exploit their vast global reach and on-the-ground knowledge to sniff out new concepts or products being used by rival companies in other … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: L. Felipe Monteiro | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

Lucky risk takers use hindsight to reinforce their feeling that their gut is very wise. Hindsight also reinforces others’ trust in that individual’s gut. That’s one of the real dangers of leader selection in many organizations: leaders are selected for overconfidence. We associate leadership with decisiveness. That perception of leadership pushes people to make decisions fairly quickly, lest they be seen as dithering and indecisive. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Daniel Kahneman | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Confidence, Decision Making, Leadership, Organizational Behavior

Rajesh Chandy, Professor of Marketing and Tony and Maureen Wheeler Chair in Entrepreneurship discusses why managers need to focus on the future in order to help an organization remain innovative through difficult and prosperous times.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Rajesh Chandy | Source: London Business School | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

A story from Keith Yost, an MIT grad, about his relatively short experience working at BCG in Dubai as a management consultant. [Hat tip to Brad Feld]

Content: Article | Author: Keith Yost | Source: The Tech | Subjects: Career, Ethics, Industry Specific | Industry: Consulting

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers — and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling. [Hat tip to Brad Feld]

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Simon Sinek | Source: TED Conferences LLC | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

Find a bright spot and clone it.

That’s the first step to fixing everything from addiction to corporate malaise to malnutrition. A problem may look hopelessly complex. But there’s a game plan that can yield movement on even the toughest issues. And it starts with locating a bright spot — a ray of hope.

Content: Article | Authors: Chip Heath, Dan Heath | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Change Management, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

We work with many scientists, chemists, engineers, and accountants. By training, they are usually able to absorb, digest, and analyze large amounts of information. Their challenge is in making the leap from information to implication. Frequently, head-only leaders will struggle with the implications because wild swings in social, economic, and technological trends undermine logical, fact-based forecasts. Guts-only leaders will miss the boat because their … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: David L. Dotlich, Peter C. Cairo, Stephen H. Rhinesmith | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Decision Making, Leadership

Collaboration has become a hot buzzword. Tear down silos. Get employees to talk to each other from separate cubicles, separate countries. Partner with suppliers and customers to bolster innovation. The mandate for CEOs and senior executives seems clear: You should get your employees to collaborate more.

Guess what? This conventional wisdom is dead wrong: Collaboration is not necessarily a good thing, and more of it is … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Morten T. Hansen | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Having moved from political prisoner to cognitive scientist to Chilean senator, this uncompromising philosopher of communication is now educating business leaders for the world of social media.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Fernando Flores, Lawrence M. Fisher | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Organizational Behavior

We naturally develop patterns of thought and behavior over time. These are a sort of survival technique, enabling us to deal with what life has taught us can be classified and dealt with by recourse to routine approaches. As a result, our reservoirs of intellectual energy are freed from being drained by repetitive solutions to the same problems, and are available to be alert to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jim Stroup | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Decision Making, Thought

Some employees make products, some make sales; the CEO makes decisions. Therefore, a CEO can most accurately be measured by the speed and quality of those decisions. Great decisions come from CEOs who display an elite combination of intelligence, logic, and courage.

Content: Quotation | Author: Ben Horowitz | Subjects: Decision Making, Management

Could a simple five-minute interaction with another person dramatically increase your weekly productivity? In some employment environments, the answer is yes, according to Wharton management professor Adam Grant. Grant has devoted significant chunks of his professional career to examining what motivates workers in settings that range from call centers and mail-order pharmacies to swimming pool lifeguard squads. In all these situations, Grant says, employees who … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Adam Grant | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Hate is the consequence of fear. We fear something before we hate it.

Content: Quotation | Author: Cyril Connolly | Subjects: Change Management, Fear / Doubt, Organizational Behavior

I can find only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours and God’s. Much of our stress comes from mentally living out of our business.

Content: Quotation | Author: Byron Katie | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development, Personality / Behavior