ServiceNow, Workday And Salesforce Are Driving Digital Transformation
May 29, 2018 // Digital transformation. It’s the hot topic in corporate America today. Executives are being told with increasing frequency that they need a “digital transformation” strategy—one that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning—or they’re going to be left behind. Patricia Tourigny, senior vice president of HR shared services at the Scottsdale, AZ, […]
The Power of Leaders Who Focus on Solving Problems
April 16, 2018 // In front of a packed room of MIT students and alumni, Vivienne Ming is holding forth in a style all her own. “Embrace cyborgs,” she calls out, as she clicks to a slide that raises eyebrows even in this tech-smitten crowd. “Really. Fifteen to 25 years from now, cognitive neuroprosthetics will fundamentally […]
How to Cultivate Leadership That Is Honed to Solve Problems
Spring 2018 // In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, the terrorists responsible for that act took the life of a police officer, Sean Collier, who worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Those who knew and loved him at MIT resolved to commemorate his memory. J. Meejin Yoon, head of […]
Better Brainstorming
April 1, 2018 // About 20 years ago I was leading a brainstorming session in one of my MBA classes, and it was like wading through oatmeal. We were talking about something that many organizations struggle with: how to build a culture of equality in a male-dominated environment. Though it was an issue the students […]
What Kind of Leadership Works Best at Your Company?
March 19, 2018 // Inventive companies like Amazon and Tesla are constantly churning out new products and services, but there is something else that they, and other distinctive enterprises, are also in the business of producing: their version of leadership. A research project we just completed suggests there might be something important and innovative going […]
How Does Amazon Stay At Day One?
August 8, 2017 // Visit the office of Amazon’s head of Devices, Dave Limp, and you may get an offer to look at a piece of corporate history: the original short documents drafted by an internal team in 2011 to propose the development of Alexa, the intelligent personal assistant Amazon launched in late 2014. Call […]
Great Teaching And The ‘Escalation Of Insights’
May 11, 2017 // Owen Fiss, the longtime Yale law professor, has a new book out. Called Pillars of Justice, it devotes a chapter each to thirteen lawyers who influenced his thinking (and not incidentally, also left their marks on the world). I don’t know Fiss, and I don’t know much about legal history, but the […]
We Need to Ask How We Can Make Economic Growth More Inclusive
April 25, 2017 // Some questions have what I like to call a catalytic quality. That is, they do for creative problem-solving what catalysts do in chemical processes: they dissolve barriers and accelerate progress down more productive pathways. Take the question that has lately been put on the political table because of the prosperity bind […]
Leading Across Boundaries: Respect, Leadership And The Future Of Work
December 2, 2016 // Incivility – in the community, in politics, in the workplace – is on the rise. In one survey, nearly everyone (79%) believes it’s creating a serious problem in society. It’s whittling away at people’s health, performance and souls. It’s affecting business. It’s compromising the American Dream for future generations. How we […]
What Great Leaders Can Learn from Great Photographers
October 4, 2016 // Almost everyone on this planet is a worker in some way, but only a minority deserve to be called craftspeople. This is especially true of leaders. We don’t often think of leaders as artisans, but like good craftspeople, good leaders go about their work thoughtfully and purposefully.