Management Teams
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- 20 Sep 2022
- Research & Ideas
How Partisan Politics Play Out in American Boardrooms
The discord gripping the nation has reached the heights of corporate America, with costly consequences for companies and investors. Research by Elisabeth Kempf shows just how polarized the executive suite has become.
- 28 Sep 2020
- Research & Ideas
How Leaders Can Navigate Politicized Conversations and Inspire Collaboration
Francesca Gino discusses the psychology of conversation in politicized workplaces and how managers can improve their conversation styles to create high-quality collaboration. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Jun 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Iterative Coordination and Innovation
Do Agile methodologies promote innovation? Results of a field experiment with Google show that increasing the frequency and goal orientation of stand-up meetings reinforces integration and value but reduces specialization and novelty in outcomes.
- 04 Jun 2020
- Book
It’s Not About You: Why Leaders Need to Look Outward
By unleashing the full potential of their teams, leaders increase safety and inclusion in the workplace. Co-author Frances Frei discusses her new book, "Unleashed." Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 12 May 2020
- Research & Ideas
It’s Time To Relaunch Your Remote Team
Now that we have learned the basics of working from home, managers need to relaunch their teams, advises Tsedal Neeley. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Feb 2019
- Working Paper Summaries
Gender Stereotypes in Deliberation and Team Decisions
Professional success requires the ability to contribute ideas, and receive credit for them. This paper explores gender differences in how men and women communicate and reward each other in team decision-making problems. We find that women are recognized less often for their contributions in male-typed domains.
- 26 Nov 2018
- Book
Make Your Employees Feel Psychologically Safe
To do their best work, people need to feel secure and safe in their workplace. In a new book, Amy C. Edmondson details how companies can develop psychological safety. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 29 Jan 2018
- Book
How 'Teaming' Saved 33 Lives in the Chilean Mining Disaster
Teams composed of people from across expertise areas can create solutions beyond what any one agency can deliver, says Amy Edmondson. Just ask several dozen Chilean workers rescued from a mine collapse. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 04 May 2017
- Cold Call Podcast
Leading a Team to the Top of Mount Everest
In a podcast, Amy Edmondson describes how students learn about team communication and decision making by making a simulated climb up Mount Everest. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 26 Aug 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Unpacking Team Diversity: An Integrative Multi-Level Model of Cross-Boundary Teaming
In a growing number of cases, cross-boundary teams span organizational boundaries, not just functional ones. This paper explores how newly formed temporary groups may be able to develop rapidly into high-performance teams. The authors integrate research streams on team diversity and knowledge boundaries, and present a framework that considers the kinds of specific knowledge boundaries that must be spanned to achieve high-level, cross-boundary teaming.
- 22 Aug 2016
- Research & Ideas
Master the One-on-One Meeting
The one-on-one meeting between supervisor and staff is an invaluable tool for managing, but requires much attention to detail. Julia B. Austin explains best practices for getting the most out of the 1:1. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Jan 2016
- Research & Ideas
The Problem with Productivity of Multi-Ethnic Teams
Ethnically diverse teams can be less productive than more homogenous teams, according to research in Kenya by Vincent Pons. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 May 2015
- Research & Ideas
Build 'Scaffolds' to Improve Performance of Temporary Teams
Many critical tasks are performed by teams created on the fly, but lack of stability can hinder their performance. Amy Edmondson and Melissa Valentine use the idea of scaffolds to produce greater collaboration and efficiency on temporary teams. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Feb 2015
- Working Paper Summaries
The Challenges and Enhancing Opportunities of Global Project Management: Evidence from Chinese and Dutch Cross-Cultural Project Management
In a study of how project management is handled cross-culturally, the authors conducted observations and interviews with Chinese and Dutch managers in a variety of industries from food to engineering. Focusing on three key elements—process, people, and technology—the authors found that people of two seemingly opposite cultures are able to work together in a project-based environment to complement each other and reap mutual benefits for a win-win result. These findings will significantly help managers who work on cross-cultural projects in a global economy. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 25 Jun 2014
- Lessons from the Classroom
FIELD Trip: Conquering the Gap Between Knowing and Doing
Forget what you remember about school field trips. Harvard Business School is in its fourth year of a bold innovation that ships all first-year students on global excursions. FIELD leaders Alan MacCormack and Tony Mayo describe lessons learned so far. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Jun 2014
- Research & Ideas
Book Excerpt: ‘Collective Genius’
Leaders of innovation teams are successful when they collaborate, engage in discovery-driven learning, and make integrative decisions. Read an excerpt from the book Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, by Linda Hill and coauthors. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Jun 2014
- Research & Ideas
Leading Innovation is the Art of Creating ‘Collective Genius’
As Linda Hill sees it, innovation requires its own brand of leadership. The coauthor of the new book Collective Genius discusses what's been learned from 16 of the best business innovators. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 Apr 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Facts and Figuring: An Experimental Investigation of Network Structure and Performance in Information and Solution Spaces
How can managers create organizations that bring people together to successfully solve problems? One increasingly popular managerial tactic to improve problem-solving performance is to increase the connectedness, or what academics call clustering, of the organization. Using everything from transparent, open offices to open social collaboration platforms, connecting everyone and everything, the theory goes, will produce better solutions. True or false? In the lab, the authors randomly assigned individuals to 70 sixteen-person organizations—some more clustered than others—and asked each organization to solve a complex problem: divine the who, what, where, and when of an impending terrorist attack (akin to the famous Clue® whodunit game). They did so using a platform not unlike real intelligence problem-solving environments: Through their computers, individuals could search for information, share information with each other, and share theories about the solutions, while the platform tracked all behavior. The results? Connectedness had different effects on the "facts" and "figuring" stages of problem solving. Search for information (facts) was, indeed, more efficient the more connected the organization. But performance in interpreting the information (figuring) to develop solutions was undermined by too much connectedness. The same connections that helped individuals coordinate their search for information also encouraged individuals to reach consensus on less-than-perfect solutions, making connectedness a true double-edged sword. The authors conclude with a discussion of implications for both theory and practice in our increasingly connected 'small world' and suggest directions for future research. Key concepts include: Problem solving requires two important and complementary forms of search: searching for information (for the facts that may be important pieces of the puzzle) and searching for solutions (for theories that combine puzzle pieces into an answer). The same network structure can promote or inhibit knowledge diversity, depending on whether that knowledge consists of information, or interpretations of information. 'Good' communication structures may only be good for parts of the process of collective problem solving: structures that are good now may be bad later. Organizations might be wise to adopt different communications structures for different phases of collective problem solving. Rather than allow the march of technology to dictate organizational performance, it is possible to imagine how technology could be harnessed to achieve different performance goals. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Jan 2014
- Research & Ideas
Language Wars Divide Global Companies
An increasing number of global firms adopt a primary language for business operations—usually English. The problem: The practice can surface dormant hostilities around culture and geography, reports Tsedal Neeley. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
How Much Does 'Deep Purpose' Matter to the Bottom Line?
More leaders want their employees to aspire to loftier goals at work. But is deep purpose more about feel-good ideas or delivering business value? wonders James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.