The old recipes for making a firm a talent factory have eroded. Executive development programs provided formal training specific to organizational levels, and employees were expected to remain with their organizations for long careers. Today,… Read more »
leadership
How a Threatening Situation can turn Leaders into A**holes (and what to do about it)
During times of change, especially when the change is threatening, the right response for leaders is to double-down on flexibility and problem-solving. Unfortunately, as researchers have discovered, CEO’s often fall victim to the “threat rigidity”… Read more »
CEO Symbolic fallout, 2023 Edition
My friend and colleague Bob Sutton and I continue to be amazed (and a little depressed) at the ongoing popularity of his landmark book “The No Asshole Rule.” It seems that, as Ron Boire is… Read more »
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Anxiety (But Were Afraid to Ask)
We’re doing a lot of talking about mental health these days, but that doesn’t make the issues magically disappear. What a great opportunity, then to be joined by Morra Aarons-Mele, an entrepreneur, host of the… Read more »
Rewriting the employment contract, courtesy of COVID
As we begin to slowly emerge from the pandemic, some of the contours of what post-pandemic life will be like are starting to come into focus. As employees leave their old roles in droves and… Read more »
Nasty choice architecture – the prevalence of dark patterns
We may think we exercise free choice when we are making decisions. But as my colleague Eric Johnson points out, the structure of our choice architecture actually has a huge influence on the eventual outcome…. Read more »
If your organization operates as a multi-layer bureaucracy, it’s headed for extinction
Image credit: https://elearningindustry.com/reasons-why-talent-development-is-important Happy New Year! Ram Charan and I co-authored an article just out in this month’s Harvard Business Review about how technology is creating the conditions for what we call the “permissionless” corporation…. Read more »
Rebuilding Ukraine: Huge opportunity, huge risks?
I’ve been asked to offer a public lecture for Ukraine by the DTEK Academy, the learning and development arm of one of the country’s leading energy providers. As we bring 2022 to a close, I… Read more »
A few reflections from the Global Peter Drucker Forum
I’ve always had an affection for the writing of the late Peter Drucker. His legacy is honored by the annual gathering of the Global Peter Drucker Forum, and there are always some nuggets of wisdom… Read more »
Lying – or at least not telling the whole truth – as a business model comes to haunt Meta
When a major inflection point passes through, institutions and the environment take a long time to catch up. But when they do, the consequences can be swift. Facebook’s current troubles illustrate this principle. Source: https://thewire.in/film/the-social-dilemma-netflix-media-review… Read more »
What does Ford’s decision to drop Argo AI Mean for autonomous driving?
Big flashy billion-dollar investments. Leaders optimistically pronouncing totally unrealistic launch dates. Geeky engineers becoming the darlings of the moment. Yes, the story of Ford’s foray into autonomous cars has it all! The autonomous driving bubble… Read more »
Simultaneous discovery – or the sincerest form of flattery? Board Committee research
Two topics here – how to get Boards focused on science and technology for the long term, and how good ideas can get … um … discovered? Image Source The difference a special Board committee… Read more »