1166 Posts found for Source: McKinsey Quarterly

So what happens when we automate our most impactful and superior cognitive capacity—thinking—and we don’t think for ourselves? I think we end up not acting in very smart ways, and then the algorithms are trained by behaviors that have very little to do with intelligence. Most of the stuff we spend doing on a habitual basis is quite predictable and monotonous and has very little … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Organizational Behavior

What we found is teams with psychological safety and a supportive work environment actually benefit from being edgy and pushing to do better. But you put that same edge, that same kind of push, on a team that doesn’t have psychological safety or an open and supportive work environment, and it has the opposite effect. It actually makes the team go into a sort of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Aaron De Smet | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

When people claim they have survey fatigue, they’re not tired of you asking them. They’re upset about you not doing anything with it.

Content: Quotation | Author: Bill Schaninger | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

Through most of the last three and a half, four decades, we’ve changed our approach to developmental experiences throughout childhood. In large part, it was to reward kids for their participation in order to avoid the disappointment of perceived failure. My point is we’ve raised two generations of folks who believe that participation and the collective is the end result. I think we’re seeing things … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bill Schaninger | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

If you want a test-and-learn environment, you have to make it OK to share failure, so that not only can I learn from failure but others can learn from my failure, and they don’t have to make the same mistakes I made.

Content: Quotation | Author: Aaron De Smet | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Success / Failure

Sometimes we hear this thing about “embrace failure. Failure is good.” Actually, it’s not that failure is good. I, at least, don’t like failure. I like working with people who don’t like failure. But there’s a difference between not liking failure and having failure be taboo and not discussed or shared or learned from. If you never fail, you probably aren’t being bold enough.

Content: Quotation | Author: Aaron De Smet | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Success / Failure

Transaction costs are now low enough that you can have a gig economy. We can create technology-enabled platforms that allow us to have collaboration at scale through nonemployees or quasi employees.

Now there were some economists who said that when transaction costs fall enough, the large employed workforces will go away. That was the prediction. I never agreed with it, because another reason why people work … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Aaron De Smet | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Organizational Behavior

Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer shares advice for gaining power through resources, reputation, and relationships.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Jeffrey Pfeffer, Simon London | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Power / Authority

In a traditional hierarchical organization, it is not unusual to see seven, eight, or even nine layers of management. In agile, that effectively goes down to three. It is a radical shift, as middle managers don’t exist in the agile model, but the middle-management function remains, albeit in a different form. The role of middle management absolutely continues to be done, just not any longer … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Joe McCollum | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Are you in a situation where the challenge you’re facing requires you to be adaptable, or can you solve it with things that have worked for you before? That distinction is a very important distinction, and it’s very helpful for people to determine if they can solve this situation with old answers or if they need to develop and be open for new things to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Michiel Kruyt | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Change Management, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

Author and academic Richard Rumelt explains how to develop strategies that aim to solve problems rather than simply state ambitions.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Richard Rumelt, Yuval Atsmon | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

I’ve learned that there are two kinds of mistakes in venture capital. There’s the mistake of commission, in which you invest in or go work for a company that fails. And then there’s the mistake of omission, in which you don’t invest in Google or don’t go to work at Facebook in 2005.

The longer you’re in this industry, the more you learn that the mistakes … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marc Andreessen | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Succeeding as a start-up is as hard as it’s ever been, because the same fundamental dynamic is in play. You’ve got some idea of why the world should change, but the world doesn’t want to. People are too busy to hear another pitch from another start-up. People are happy in their jobs and don’t want to leave for your start-up. People are happy with the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marc Andreessen | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Entrepreneurship

We are meaning-making creatures. We are quick to tell ourselves stories. And in those stories, we often cast ourselves as the hero and the other person as the villain because it’s an easy shortcut. It’s an easy trope, but it’s often not the full story.

Content: Quotation | Author: Amy Gallo | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

Weighted average and median P/E ratios rarely diverge significantly—and when they do, the gap soon closes.

Content: Article | Author: David Schwartz | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Market/Investment

If you base your strategy on analyzing the past, then you are implicitly making the assumption that the future will be identical to the past. Because it’s based on rigorous analysis—and you’ve been taught in business school that rigorous analysis is correct—then you will not be ready for the future to end up looking different than the past, and you’re more likely to stick with … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Roger L. Martin | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Strategy

New data highlights five things incumbent businesses could learn from venture capitalists and unicorns.

Content: Article | Authors: Jerome Königsfeld, Kai Vollhardt, Leo Leypoldt, Markus Berger-de León | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Venture Capital

Companies often shy away from the method because they fear it or believe it means “budgeting from zero.” In reality, it’s a structured process that can build a culture of cost management.

Content: Article | Authors: Carey Mignerey, Kyle Hawke, Shaun Callaghan | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Accounting, Finance

In today’s world, strategy is relatively easy to replicate and capital is relatively easy to access. What gives you a real source of competitive advantage is your talent and culture.

Content: Quotation | Author: Mary Meaney | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Culture, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

While ESG is likely to evolve both in substance and name in the coming years, its underlying impulse is here to stay. Here’s how companies can take a more systematic and rewarding approach to ESG.

Content: Article | Authors: Dame Vivian Hunt, Donatela Bellone, Hamid Samandari, Lucy Pérez, Robin Nuttall | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)