Commentaries

The Disney Recipe

February 3, 2016

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Todd Zenger for Harvard Business Review and the HBR Blog Network. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, and sign up for a subscription to HBR…

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The defining characteristics of a healthy organization

February 3, 2016

I have been thinking about organizational health and decided to share my list of defining charactertistics. Actually, here is a baker’s dozen of “vital signs,” in no particular order: o The company always “lives within its means.” o Those who…

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Collaborative Overload

February 2, 2016

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Rob Cross, Reb Rebele, and Adam Grant for Harvard Business Review and the HBR Blog Network. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, obtain subscription information,…

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How to create and then nourish a workplace culture in which innovation is driven by diversity

February 1, 2016

In Driven by Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity, David Livermore explains how to establish and then nourish a workplace environment within which culturally intelligent innovation is most likely to thrive. In Part II, he introduces the 5D…

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10 great talks to celebrate Black History Month

February 1, 2016

February is Black History Month. These fascinating TED talks offer fresh perspectives on black identity, and fascinating insights on how to finally defeat racism. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story (18:49) Our lives, our cultures, are composed…

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Literally, one of history’s coolest ideas

January 31, 2016

In Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation published by Riverhead Books/Penguin (2010), Steven Johnson examines the origin and development of what is quite literally one of history’s coolest ideas: the air conditioner. Based in Brooklyn, the…

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Why Ken Robinson is so important

January 31, 2016

Why don’t we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies — far from being cultivated for their…

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Lincoln and leadership

January 30, 2016

A recent Schumpeter column published in The Economist, “Lincoln and leadership,” explains how and why outsiders can make the best leaders — and also the worst. To read the complete article, please click here. * * * IN MAY 1860…

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Stop Second-Guessing Your Decisions

January 30, 2016

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here. * * * Do you find yourself revisiting every decision you make, agonizing…

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The huge impact of the “small liberal arts college”

January 29, 2016

The quality of education at Beloit College helps to explain why I was awarded a full scholarship for graduate study in the comparative literature department at Yale University. On numerous occasions thereafter, when asked where I had attended “school,” I…

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