In order to reduce the debt levels imposed by Covid-19, governments will need their country’s economies to grow. Corporate innovation is the major source of economic growth. Unfortunately, companies are generally wasteful in R&D spending, according to a measure called RQ, which allows you to assess the profits generated for the last dollar of R&D. The evidence suggests that activist investors are good at figuring out when companies are wasteful with their R&D budgets but their fixes are oriented to cutting expenses and speeding up project completion in order to deliver immediate stock price performance and do not deliver more innovation in the long run. By studying RQ at the unit level and over time, companies can identify internal benchmarks to improve their overall R&D efficiency and even identify external practices to adopt.

As organizations adopt virtual operations as a core way of conducting business in the long term, managers need to be conscious of the powerful effect of slights, snubs, and other rude behavior on employee and team functioning. For employees from marginalized groups, patterns of uncivil experiences may signal that they don’t belong in the organization or that their perspective is not welcome. Managers can create an antidote to incivility by providing opportunities for personal connections and accountability to shared norms of respect. The authors present five of their best pieces of advice for conducting virtual work that will cultivate positive relationships among your team.

As the manager, it’s your job to support your team through the transition to hybrid. But what people need largely depends on their personality. The author offers advice for how best to support introverts and extroverts during this time. The first piece of advice? Give introverts time and space. If some of your employees are now in the office and some are at home, it’s especially important to ensure that the introverts on your team aren’t overshadowed, especially in team meetings. The second: Give extroverts airtime. If you find that your extroverts are struggling to feel connected, set up a regular face-to-face or video meeting with them so that they can talk things through with you directly. And finally: encourage a range of communication styles so that everyone can engage authentically.

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“I’m so busy.” This is a common refrain among knowledge workers, and for the most part, companies have left it up to individuals to come up with a solution. But research from ideas42, a behavioral science nonprofit, finds that it’s virtually impossible for people to break out of their “busyness tunnel” without structural changes within an organization. That’s because we’re wired to complete the easiest task on the vine, and rewarded professionally for our near-constant availability. To prevent burnout, and improve work-life stress, companies should consider three new mental models for employees: send regular social signals that working 24/7 is not expected or rewarded; build in deliberate slack time for getting big projects done; and making everyone’s workloads more transparent.

Research indicates that only 26% of people often leave the office having accomplished the tasks they set out to. A good first step is to understand the mental mistakes that typically prevent us from focusing on and finishing meaningful work.  Five common ones include underestimating the time you have for focused work, overlooking simple productivity hacks, thinking about change in an all-or-nothing way, forgetting how to do infrequent but recurring tasks, and underestimating the costs of small time or energy leaks. Recognizing these common traps is the first step in regaining productivity.

The new year is here, and for many of us, that means resolutions. At work, it often translates into a vague desire to broaden our horizons or learn new things. But to really make consistent progress, we need to make learning a habit. Habits are freeing because they save us from the difficult, draining business of making decisions and exercising our self-control. Because about 40% of everyday life is shaped by habits, if we have habits that work for us we’re far more likely to be happier, healthier, and more productive.

In my book Better than Before, I identify 21 different strategies that we can use to make or break habits in all facets of life. But there are a few that are especially helpful for making a habit of on-the-job learning.

Chief strategy officers and those responsible for shaping the direction of their organizations are often asked to facilitate “visioning” meetings. This helps teams brainstorm ideas, but it isn’t a substitute for critical thinking about the future. Neither are the one-, three-, or five-year strategic plans that have become a staple within most organizations, though they are useful for addressing short-term operational goals. Futurists think about time differently, and company strategists could learn from their approach. For any given uncertainty about the future — whether that’s risk, opportunity, or growth — we tend to think in the short- and long-term simultaneously. To do this, consider using a framework that doesn’t rely on linear timelines or simply mark the passage of time as quarters or years. Instead, use a time cone that measures certainty and charts actions.

Data science has been around for a long time. But the failure rates of big data projects and AI projects remain disturbingly high. And despite the hype, companies have yet to cite the contributions of data science to their bottom lines.

Why is this the case? In many companies, data scientists are not engaging in enough of softer, but more difficult, work, including gaining a deep understanding of business problems; building the trust of decision makers; explaining results in simple, powerful ways; and working patiently to address concerns among those impacted.

Managers must do four things to get more from their data science programs? First, clarify your business objectives and measure progress toward them. Second, hire data scientists best suited to the problems you face and immerse them in the day-in, day-out work of your organization. Third, demand that data scientists take end-to-end accountability for their work. Finally, insist that data scientists...

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

If you think you’re under-performing at work, you’re probably right, because few individuals are 100% motivated throughout sustained periods at work. In fact, even if you think that you are performing to the best of your capabilities, you’re probably wrong, as there is generally little overlap between what people think of their performance, and how they actually perform. The truth is that most people don’t try their best after they’ve been on the job for more than six months. The are four common reasons for this:  1.) Poor fit. Talent is mainly personality in the right place. 2.) Disengagement, often due to poor leadership. The antidotes to this are finding time to be curious and learn, connecting with colleagues, and talking to your boss about the fact that you’re disengaged. 3.) Organizational politics. It’s naïve to think that you can let your talents speak for themselves. In fact, the more talented you are, the more enemies you will make — particularly in toxic...

Now that workplaces are turning to a hybrid model, many of us are going to have to face change and uncertainty like we never have before. Research in organizational psychology suggests that three traits will help you navigate this new era:

Now more than ever, leaders are struggling with anxieties, fears, and all sorts of difficult emotions. What’s the best way to handle these internal struggles at work? The authors analyzed journal entries from thirty global leaders in May and June of 2020 and identified three distinct leadership styles: Heroes, who focused on the positive; Technocrats, who focused on results; and Sharers, who openly shared both positive and negative experiences. Despite a common assumption that the Hero and Technocrat leadership styles are best, the authors found that Sharers were in fact most effective when it came to building cohesive, high-performing teams that were resilient in the face of the myriad challenges posed by the pandemic. Based on both their own study and extensive secondary research, the authors go on to offer several strategies to help leaders get more comfortable sharing negative emotions in a helpful, appropriate manner.

After Wall Street firms repeatedly had to shell out millions to settle discrimination lawsuits, businesses started to get serious about their efforts to increase diversity. But unfortunately, they don’t seem to be getting results: Women and minorities have not gained much ground in management over the past 20 years.

The problem is, organizations are trying to reduce bias with the same kinds of programs they’ve been using since the 1960s. And the usual tools—diversity training, hiring tests, performance ratings, grievance systems—tend to make things worse, not better. The authors’ analysis of data from 829 firms over three decades shows that these tools actually decrease the proportion of women and minorities in management. They’re designed to preempt lawsuits by policing managers’ decisions and actions. But as lab studies show, this kind of force-feeding can activate bias and encourage rebellion.

However, in their analysis the authors uncovered...

Companies spend millions on antibias training each year in hopes of creating more-inclusive—and thereby innovative and effective—workforces. Studies show that well-managed diverse groups perform better and are more committed, have higher collective intelligence, and excel at making decisions and solving problems. But research also shows that bias-prevention programs rarely deliver. So what can you, as an individual leader, do to ensure that your team is including and making the most of diverse voices? How can one person fix what an entire organization can’t?

Although bias itself is devilishly hard to change, it is not as difficult to interrupt. The authors have identified several practices that managers can use to counter bias (and avoid its negative effects) without spending a lot of time or political capital. In hiring, leaders should insist on a diverse pool, precommit to objective criteria, limit referral hiring, and structure interviews around skills-based...

The pressure that can overcome star performers is a function of three things: the importance of a situation’s outcome, the uncertainty of the outcome, and the volume of tasks, decisions, and distractions surrounding the outcome. Coaches can help them handle the pressure of a high-stakes event by reducing the overwhelming baggage they can attach to failure by getting them to see what’s important to them that won’t change regardless of the outcome, and by aiding them in realizing which tasks and distractions they can put aside.

The Chief Data Officer is arguably one of the most important roles at a company. It’s also a position that has become notoriously hard to stay in. The average tenure of CDOs is just two to two-and-a-half years. There are a few reasons for this. The role is relatively new, so companies are still trying to decide what they want from the person in this position. Many companies expect the impossible from their CDO. Finally, CDOs often have trouble selling their actual accomplishments to a business audience — they just don’t speak the language. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. One successful CDO imparted two pieces of advice: 1) Start with a clear connection to business strategy with tangible examples of how data analytics can drive business outcomes (topline, bottom line, cash, stewardship), and 2) lead with 1-2 forward thinking business partners to demonstrate what is possible. Those partners become the change agents across the organization.

Most companies approach hiring with faulty assumptions and poor practices. They believe talent is fixed rather than contextual. They fail to create real partnerships between internal recruiters and hiring managers. And they rely too much on salary surveys and rigid compensation formulas.

The author shares what she learned about making and keeping great hires during her 14 years as the chief talent officer at Netflix. The process requires probing beneath the surface of people and their résumés; engaging managers in every aspect of hiring; ensuring that recruiters deeply understand the business and are not viewed as support staff; adopting a mindset in which you’re always recruiting; and coming up with compensation that suits the performance you need and the future you aspire to.

These lessons may be especially relevant to fast-growing tech-based firms, whose rapid innovation means a continual need for new talent. But organizations of all types can...

More and more people are feeling tired and lonely at work – and it’s having an impact not just on individuals but organizations too. The authors’ research shows that 50% of people across professions are burned out. Experts and companies have struggled to figure out how to counter this growing level of burnout. Many recommendations focus on relieving stress, teaching mindfulness, or reducing workload – all of which treat burnout as an individual condition. But its link to loneliness suggests that greater human connection at work may also be key to solving the burnout problem. Leaders and managers can play a key role in helping people feel less lonely, and therefore, less burned out at work by promoting a workplace of empathy and inclusion, encouraging employees to build networks that can provide emotional support, and celebrating collective success that fosters a sense of belonging.

We often hear about the power of personality in shaping our careers — how some traits are beneficial while others are more harmful. But it is less clear when personality traits matter most and who benefits most from them. A recent paper investigates this by looking at the connection between personality traits and lifetime earnings among men at different ages. It finds that men’s earnings are not affected by personality at all in the beginning of their careers, but that men who are more conscientious and extroverted, as well as less agreeable, reap large benefits between their 40s and 60s. The evidence also points to a subgroup of men who benefit from these traits more than twice as much as others: those with a graduate education.

What makes a successful startup team? One common answer is that prior startup experience, product knowledge, and industry skills predict the success of a new venture. But is prior experience sufficient for a team to work well together? In a recent study of 95 new startup teams in the Netherlands, researchers explored that question. They found that experience alone was not enough to make a team thrive. While experience broadens the teams’ resource pool, helps people identify opportunities, and is positively related to team effectiveness, a team also needs soft skills to truly thrive. Specifically, they found that shared entrepreneurial passion and shared strategic vision are required to get to superior team performance.