How We Think About Risk
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? Almost everyone feels the temptation to answer "10 cents" because the sum $1.10 so neatly separates into $1 and 10 cents, and 10 cents seems the right price for a ball relative to a bat. In fact, more than half of a group of students at Princeton and at the University of Michigan gave precisely ... posted on Jan 07 2009, 6,097 reads

An Upside to the Economic Downturn
With the global finance system imploding, maybe this time of creative destruction offers us the chance for a fresh start. What sort of society do we want to rebuild? What will expand our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness without diminishing the chances for other people, now and in the future, to have the same? Maybe we'll learn to share the work and reclaim time for the aspects of our lives ... posted on Jan 01 2009, 5,221 reads

From Good to Great
Jim Collins, perhaps the most influential management expert alive today, has served as a teacher to senior executives and CEOs at more than a hundred corporations and non-profits worldwide. Collins' 2001 book, "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't," attained long-running positions. In 2005, Collins, a former Stanford University business school professor, wrote a 3... posted on Dec 30 2008, 4,054 reads

The Balance Needed To Lead Change
One reason leading change is so difficult is the tension it sets up between managing business issues and managing people issues. Most managers are trained to deal with structural and operational issues, and they are evaluated on and rewarded for their ability to innovate and to deliver business results. But the pressures generated by major structural or operational change compel leaders to pay par... posted on Dec 21 2008, 5,970 reads

Best Friends Are Good For Business
Best friendships are good for business -- companies are coming to discover this, yet are at a loss at what to do about it. Diversity proponents worry that they have made too many strides to see it all disintegrate into the office version of high school cliques. Yet it's widely accepted that the winning companies during the next generation will be those that have employees eager to come to work and... posted on Dec 01 2008, 2,896 reads

The Slow Money Movement
What if you were told that one solution to crises such as global warming and the worldwide financial meltdown could be unearthed in the simple act of growing your own food? Nothing drastic; nothing revolutionary. Just a window box for a tomato plant in your kitchen."It's remarkable, but people who grow their own food, who reconnect with the soil, can immediately appreciate the implications of an e... posted on Nov 18 2008, 3,130 reads

Leading With Kindness
A new way of managing is emerging. Some of the world's most successful companies are realizing that the better they treat their employees, the more productive they get. College opportunities, flexible schedules, advanced health care plans or transparency between ranks are only a few examples of a new phenomenon known as leading with kindness. Businessmen and professors William F. Baker and Michael... posted on Oct 27 2008, 6,042 reads

Why Social Capital Matters
"The one thing I've consistently seen entrepreneurs do that has significant measurable impact on everything they do -- more than any other factor -- is manage their relationships and manage their social capital. Folks that do that really well are bound to find some measure of success in some area of their life. It may not be the course they set initially, but there's invariably some positive that ... posted on Sep 16 2008, 2,776 reads

Listening to Failure
"Failure is the rule rather than the exception, and every failure contains information. One of the most misleading lessons imparted by those who have reached their goal is that the ones who win are the ones who persevere. Not always. If you keep trying without learning why you failed, you'll probably fail again and again. Perseverance must be accompanied by the embrace of failure. Failure is what ... posted on Sep 13 2008, 4,961 reads

How To Get Unstuck
"Do you feel overwhelmed? Exhausted? Directionless? Hopeless? Battle-torn? Worthless? Alone? These symptoms are what I call The Serious Seven -- the seven most common indicators that you're stuck. If you're feeling one of these emotions, it's likely you -- or your organization -- is stuck. I think one of the most interesting observations we gleaned from studying stuck teams is that successful team... posted on Sep 04 2008, 6,201 reads