459 Posts found for Source: Fast Company

Imagine the differences in behavior between leaders who operate with the idea that “leadership means influencing the organization to follow the leader’s vision” and those who operate with the idea that “leadership means influencing the organization to face its problems and to live into its opportunities.” That second idea—mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges—is what defines the new job of the leader.

Content: Quotation | Author: Ronald A. Heifetz | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Leadership

Not everything is subject to change. If the role of the leader is first to help people face reality and then to mobilize them to make change, then one of the questions that defines both of those tasks is this: What’s precious, and what’s expendable? Which values and operations are so central to our core that if we lose them, we lose ourselves? And which … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ronald A. Heifetz | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Change Management, Leadership, Management

Our complete guide to maximizing your productivity in an increasingly distracting world.

Content: Article | Author: Drake Baer | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Productivity / Work Tips

Dante’s got nothing on the endless loops of interruptions, overwhelming emails and pointless formalities that plague workplaces. Here’s how to break free.

Content: Article | Author: Stephanie Vozza | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Jonah Berger wants to be the next Malcolm Gladwell. Welcome to the making of a guru.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Danielle Sacks, Jonah Berger | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Marketing / Sales

He captivated the world with visions of self-driving cars and Google Glass and has signed up 1.6 million students for online classes. So why is he pivoting away from MOOCs? “We don’t educate people as others wished, or as I wished,” Thrun says.

Content: Case Study | Author: Max Chafkin | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Education, Industry Specific | Industry: Education / Training

Venture-capital firms have been the engine of the United States’ innovation economy. At Google Ventures, the search giant’s investing arm, Google thinks it can build a better one.

Content: Article | Author: Farhad Manjoo | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Industry Specific, Venture Capital | Company: Google Ventures

Joe Kraus says that analysts have discovered research that overturns some of Silicon Valley’s most cherished bits of lore. Take that old idea that it pays to fail in the Valley: Wrong! Google Ventures’ analysts found that first-time entrepreneurs with VC backing have a 15% chance of creating a successful company, while second-timers who had an auspicious debut see a 29% chance of repeating their … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Farhad Manjoo, Joe Kraus | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

As an investor at Accel Partners, Theresia Gouw has heard her share of spiels from entrepreneurs. Here’s her checklist for all the right (and wrong) things to say.

Content: Article | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Entrepreneurship

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We play host to an imaginary gathering of experts who share their real-life thoughts on how to brainstorm better–or whether to brainstorm at all.

Content: Article | Author: Anya Kamenetz | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

The cardinal rule of improv comedy: Keep a riff lively with “Yes, and. . . .” The phrase fosters funnier creative exchanges through positive reinforcement. Will and Kevin Hines of the Upright Citizens Brigade theater share ways to break out “yes, and”–along with other tools of the improv trade–in business settings.

Content: Article | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Personal Development

We use creativity in the singular, as if there’s one way the brain generates new connections. But there are probably three neurologically distinct forms of creativity. One is when you have these moments of insight that come out of the blue–when you have epiphanies in the shower. Those seem to come from the part of the brain that’s involved in things like the interpretation of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jonah Lehrer | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Creativity

Many white Americans have stopped thinking that workplace discrimination is a problem. It’s not malicious. They think that the process works, that people are judged on their own merits. They’re ignorant of their own privilege.

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Diversity, Human Resources

Everything we see hides something else we want to see.

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Perception, Vision

If you look closely at how people make decisions, a clear pattern emerges. No matter what the new strategy, initiative, or change program is, people have the same questions: How is this change relevant to what I do? What, specifically, should I do? How will I be measured, and what consequences will I face? What tools and support are available? What’s in it for me?

The … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bill Jensen | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Change Management, Decision Making, Leadership, Organizational Behavior

Bill Nguyen launches startups with haste, never researches the competition, and makes the same mistakes “again and again.” So why do people keep giving him so much money?

Editor’s Note: This is the guy behind Color. I don’t find the portrait of him flattering nor does he seem especially worth emulating, but some of the discussion about Silicon Valley, funding and entrepreneurship is indeed interesting … [ Read more ]

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Danielle Sacks | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Entrepreneurship | Company: Color

When supersecretive agriculture giant Cargill decided to attack the no-calorie-sweetener market dominated by Sweet’N Low, Splenda, and Equal, it sent its best marketers and scientists to basement war rooms and covert labs. Only now can the inside story of Truvia — and its unlikely success — be told.

Content: Case Study | Author: Ben Paynter | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Industry Specific, Marketing / Sales | Company: Cargill

Dan Heath and Chip Heath explain why it’s not enough to give people something they need.

Content: Article | Authors: Chip Heath, Dan Heath | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Market Research, Marketing / Sales

Dan Heath and Chip Heath ask, Have you been looking closely enough at your business?

Content: Article | Authors: Chip Heath, Dan Heath | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Management