The Myth of the Sustainable Consumer

Tania Yakunova/Ikon Images Sustainability has become a powerful driver of consumer behavior. People are changing what they consume, how they consume, and how they lead their day-to-day lives, motivated by a concern for sustainability. Our research has identified a consumer-driven megatrend that holds tremendous strategic opportunity for companies if they…

Five Tips on Avoiding ‘Terminal Niceness’: Former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

Five Ways Predictive AI Can Improve Sales Performance Management

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images When it comes to maximizing growth and revenue, you may be missing something — something big. It’s the harnessing of predictive AI to enhance and deploy sales performance management (SPM). Companies with sizable sales forces — whether in the technology, medical device, pharmaceutical, industrial,…

Building Human Connection in a Remote World

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Employee engagement — the measure of individual commitment to organizational success — positively correlates with discretionary effort and meaningfully impacts every individual and organizational performance metric that matters. However, despite significant investments across most industries, leading engagement studies have never found more than 36%…

When Qualified Women Resist the Leader Label

Topics Leadership Talent Management Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Alex Nabaum/theispot.com Sarah, a manager in a bustling tech company, consistently delivers top results. Her team outperforms others, her strategic insights drive innovation, and her emotional intelligence allows…

Managing an Employee Who Has a Side Hustle

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The rise of the gig economy and remote work has blurred the boundaries between primary jobs and side hustles. As…

Sometimes Sustainability Costs More. So What?

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Corporate sustainability efforts are seemingly facing a slump of low enthusiasm, with some tired clichés like “sustainability always costs more”…

How Integrating DEI Into Strategy Lifts Performance

Jing Jing Tsong/theispot.com Today’s top leadership priorities include attracting and retaining top talent, fostering innovative thinking and action, motivating employee performance, and enhancing stakeholder value in an increasingly diverse and competitive market. At the same time, many leaders have supported diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to address inequities for…

How to Make Culture a Strategic Imperative: Cummins CHRO Marvin Boakye

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

How to Sabotage Your Board

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Ever sat through a board meeting and wondered whether other directors or trustees are not conscious of the time or are consciously sabotaging the meeting? Do some members seem hell-bent on turning decision-making into a no-win game? You’re not alone. The line between accidental…

How Not to Organize In-House Experts: Lessons From Boeing

Accidents involving 737 Max airplanes and Boeing’s ongoing internal struggles serve as a stark reminder that having experts is not enough: Leadership must organize expertise effectively. Pedro Monteiro November 06, 2024 Reading Time: 11 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images In the race to recruit and deploy talent, organizations…

A Practical Guide to Gaining Value From LLMs

1. Credit for this example is due to X user Dean Buono (@deanbuono); credit for subsequent examples in this section is due to Colin Fraser (@colin_fraser). 2. L. Berglund, M. Tong, M. Kaufmann, et al., “The Reversal Curse: LLMs Trained on ‘A Is B’ Fail to Learn ‘B Is A,’”…

A Fragmented Landscape Is No Excuse for Global Companies Serious About Responsible AI

Topics Responsible AI The Responsible AI initiative looks at how organizations define and approach responsible AI practices, policies, and standards. Drawing on global executive surveys and smaller, curated expert panels, the program gathers perspectives from diverse sectors and geographies with the aim of delivering actionable insights on this nascent yet…

How to Walk the Talk on Culture: Former HubSpot CPO Katie Burke

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

Intelligent Choices Reshape Decision-Making and Productivity

Better choices enable better decisions. Profitably thriving through market disruptions demands that executives recognize that better decisions aren’t enough — they need better choices. Choices are the raw material of decision-making; without diverse, detailed, and high-quality options, even the best decision-making processes underperform. Traditional dashboards and scorecards defined by legacy…

Building Mastery: What Leaders Do That Helps — or Impedes

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images This is a time when we are all asking how best to prepare for a long working life. With expanded life expectancies and…

The Risks of Too Much AI: Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn

Topics Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy The Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy initiative explores the growing use of artificial intelligence in the business landscape. The exploration looks specifically at how AI is affecting the development and execution of strategy in organizations. In collaboration with More in this series Get updates…

How to Stand Up When It Comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Recently, several high-profile U.S. organizations have backtracked on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments. Rural chain store Tractor Supply said it would eliminate…

Tackling Disruption Playfully

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Patrick George/Ikon Images Purposeful play is a critical behavior for executives facing disruptive change. In good old-fashioned play, the goal isn’t to win or lose. It isn’t to achieve…

How GenAI Helps USAA Innovate

Topics AI in Action This column series looks at the biggest data and analytics challenges facing modern companies and dives deep into successful use cases that can help other organizations accelerate their AI progress. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images USAA, a 102-year-old financial services company…

Make Character Count in Hiring and Promoting

Jing Jing Tsong/theispot.com It’s been said that we hire for competence and fire for character. Consider Boeing, which has been brought low by poor leadership decisions that have severely compromised its planes’ quality and safety, and hence public trust, forcing its CEO to announce a year-end departure. And yet the…

Liberals Versus Conservatives in Your Office: How to Cool Tensions

1. K.E. Brink and R.D. Costigan, “Oral Communication Skills: Are the Priorities of the Workplace and AACSB-Accredited Business Programs Aligned?” Academy of Management Learning & Education 14, no. 2 (June 2015): 205-221. 2. K.E. Brink and R.D. Costigan, “Development of Listening Competence in Business Education,” Current Opinion in Psychology 50…

Immersive Commerce: Early Lessons From Walmart

The retailer is using immersive commerce — a form of online shopping that combines VR with 3D visualizations and gamification — to connect with the next generation of shoppers. Mary Lacity and Remko Van Hoek October 17, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Retailers must…

Know Your Data to Harness Federated Machine Learning

Sam Falconer/theispot.com Nowadays, deploying artificial intelligence no longer guarantees a competitive edge. What truly sets companies apart is access to diverse, extensive, high-quality data that enhances their AI system’s performance compared with that of their competitors. But concerns over data privacy can limit the use of unique, relevant data for…

What You Still Can’t Say at Work

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Here are some things I bet you can’t say at work, no matter how much you believe them and how…

A Radical Rethink of HR

Human resources needs to rethink its role as an agent of management and become a passionate advocate for employees and their interests. Ashley Goodall October 10, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min  subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images For the human resources profession, this has been the best…

How to Build Diverse Leadership Teams by Enlisting Stakeholders

Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series Matt Herring/Ikon Images When decision makers include individuals from varied economic backgrounds, generations, genders, races and ethnicities, sexual orientations, physical abilities, and religions, everyone is better off — employees, customers, suppliers,…

C-Suite Hiring: Seven Mistakes Companies Still Make

Topics Leadership Talent Management Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Selecting the right candidate for an executive role ranks high on the list of the most consequential organizational decisions. But despite employing the common tools of due diligence when assessing whether someone will perform well in the role, most companies’…

How to Develop Continuous Learners

Leaders can help more employees upskill, reskill, and adapt to change by applying four key strategies. Wendy Tan and Joo-Seng Tan October 07, 2024 Reading Time: 7 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Amid the ever-increasing frequency and complexity of job changes and career transitions people experience, the notion…

Bring Your Own AI: How to Balance Risks and Innovation

Research Highlight Banning GenAI tools won’t work. Leaders should set guidelines that let employees experiment: This mitigates risks while opening the door to organizational gains, research shows. Nick van der Meulen and Barbara H. Wixom October 03, 2024 Reading Time: 10 min  Matt Harrison Clough / Ikon Images The Research…

Manage Boundaries Better With Your Team

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Just how much do employees resent it when leaders cross work-life boundaries? Our research found that employees consider being contacted during off-hours an unwelcome intrusion into their personal lives 76% of the time.1 Additionally, 83% of people reported experiencing interruptions at least twice a…

Ethically Sourced Creativity: Shutterstock’s Alessandra Sala

Topics Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy The Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy initiative explores the growing use of artificial intelligence in the business landscape. The exploration looks specifically at how AI is affecting the development and execution of strategy in organizations. In collaboration with More in this series Get updates…

How Employers Can Stop Failing Parents

Annalisa Grassano Dual dangers are threatening the national workforce: a child care crisis and a mental health crisis. The connection between the United States’ inadequate child care system and parents’ mental health struggles is so significant that the U.S. Surgeon General highlighted it in an advisory released in August on…

Four Ways to Energize Your Dull Team Meetings

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images You call your team into a meeting to discuss a looming decision. As the meeting begins, you notice that your questions are being met with little response. Most people seem uninterested while a few dominate the conversation. You’re not making progress on reaching a…

How to Deal With Political Polarization in the Workplace

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Many of us try to avoid workplace discussions about electoral politics — along with conversations about topics such as guns,…

Artificial Intelligence Disclosures Are Key to Customer Trust

Topics Responsible AI The Responsible AI initiative looks at how organizations define and approach responsible AI practices, policies, and standards. Drawing on global executive surveys and smaller, curated expert panels, the program gathers perspectives from diverse sectors and geographies with the aim of delivering actionable insights on this nascent yet…

When Moving Sideways Makes Sense

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Slower promotions and a weaker job market have led to a lot of folks feeling stuck in a rut. The solution might be…

How GenAI Changes Creative Work

1. L. Bourton. “Shades of Intelligence: 83% of Creatives Are Already Using Machine Learning Tools — Is Now the Time to Get on Side With AI?” It’s Nice That, Nov. 15, 2023, www.itsnicethat.com; and K. Whiting, “This Is How AI Is Impacting — and Shaping — the Creative Industries, According…

Meet Your New Teammate, AI: Asana’s Saket Srivastava

Topics Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy The Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy initiative explores the growing use of artificial intelligence in the business landscape. The exploration looks specifically at how AI is affecting the development and execution of strategy in organizations. In collaboration with More in this series Get updates…

Don’t Bet Against the Move to Clean Energy

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The transition to an economy with radically lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is not a matter of if but of when and how. Discussions with executive teams about how they are navigating sustainability issues, however, too often remain framed around the question of “Should…