I just read a fascinating article by Bryan L. Bonner and Alexander R. Bolinger regarding bringing out the best in teams (HBR, September 2014 – Bring Out the Best in Your Team). I have always been a proponent of bringing out the best in people, so this research really interested me. We’ve all been in…
I am always interested in reading new stuff about how the brain works, and we are all trying to get the most out of our work week. An interesting research survey of German workers lead by Wolfgang Maennig of the University of Hamburg found that employees with high levels of education had consistent levels of…
Can a firm’s performance be linked to the Board? In some instances, it seems it can. In an article in HBR (April 2014, How Much Board Turnover is Best?) the authors, George M. Anderson and David Chun shared the outcome of a study of board turnover and shareholder returns for the S&P 500 companies from…
Look around your office. Is there a balance of male and female talent throughout your firm and across your team? If your field is academic science or engineering, I would guess probably not. In a 2012 review of recent work sociologist Lara Perez-Felkner of Florida State University and her colleagues revealed that by age five,…
What sparks your creativity? Do you work more creatively alone or in a group? I read an article in Scientific American Magazine that talked about the perception of what helps creativity flourish. While many creative people think they can only create working solo, the article [Creativity is Collective, by S. Alexander Haslam, Inmaculada Adarves-Yorno and…