Have your customers been unusually irritable lately? Are people taking forever to respond to e-mails? Are friends and colleagues making surprising life changes? Have you lost focus during important conversations? All of these behaviors, different as they may be, are responses to the overwhelming circumstances people are facing as we move into the third year
“They’re Watching You at Work.” “AI Here, There, Everywhere.” “What People Hate About Being Managed by Algorithms.” We are no stranger to headlines conjuring up science fiction images of a future in which human judgment, ingenuity, and initiative are increasingly undermined by machine-based management. The dominant narrative regarding technology at work is that the machines
Despite years of discussion, understanding what digital transformation means for established companies remains a daunting challenge. Leaders put in charge of a digital transformation feel pulled in many different directions, with competing demands from IT, marketing, sales, and operations. Without a clear understanding, the wrong people are often put in charge, with the wrong resources,
If your organization isn’t making large tech investments, you’re in the minority. Indeed, nearly half of the CEOs in PwC’s 24th annual CEO survey (2021) reported plans to increase their rate of digital investment by 10% or more — more than any other spending category. With all of this investment, it’s alarming that most executives
Data per se is not a new, but its power to drive business value in modern times is unprecedented. This power is most evident in the business models of digital platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google. But, for a vast majority of legacy firms operating with value-chain-driven business models, this newfound power of data
As far as buzzwords go, “flexibility” is now rivaled in prominence only by the novel work model it is so often used to describe: hybrid work. Together, these words have taken over the way we speak about the future of work and constitute a whole series of new ways to think about the further integration
Everyone hates meetings. Attending too many can be highly stressful and tiring, and both productivity and quality take a hit when employees tune out, become demotivated, and lose valuable heads-down work time. As such, it’s hardly a surprise that managers in one survey reported 83% of the meetings on their calendars were unproductive, or that
Our capacity for learning is becoming the currency we trade on in our careers. Where we once went to work to learn to do a job, learning now is the job. Adaptive and proactive learners are highly prized assets for organizations, and when we invest in our learning, we create long-term dividends for our career
The ability to accept reality is one of the most useful, and most misunderstood, skills for a leader. It’s a concept that has been around for centuries in philosophy and more recently in psychology, and properly applied can help drive change. As Carl Jung wrote, “We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does
The Covid-19 pandemic has wrought massive disruption throughout society, leading to loss of life, health, jobs, childcare, industries, stability, and peace of mind as we knew it. It marks the first time in a century that everyone on the planet has simultaneously gone through the same unplanned, stressful transition. Despite experiencing such large-scale uncertainty, we