The Best of This Week

You Have More Change Strategy Options Than You Think

When it comes to change, business leaders often feel that their options are to either double down on their existing strategy or pivot to pursue a radical transformation. But new research finds that for the majority of companies, it makes more sense to innovate around the ways they deliver value to customers and other stakeholders.

What ‘Skills Atrophy’ Means for Workers in the Return to Work

Some workers’ skills may have atrophied while they experienced unemployment during the pandemic, and getting employees back up to speed is a challenge that hiring managers will now need to address. The author suggests three approaches leaders can take to help people recover, refresh, and update their skills when returning from an extended period out of work.
 

A Blueprint for Hybrid Work

Executives are being put to the test when it comes to determining optimal policies for workers as businesses move forward from the pandemic. Much of the conversation happening is on how to implement hybrid models — which blend remote and in-office work — that can clarify expectations and goals, reduce busywork and meetings, and support employees’ personal lives.

Mix and Match Your Customers to Smooth Demand Fluctuations

Companies that experience big fluctuations in demand can incur significant costs: overtime and lost sales when demand is too high, and idle capacity and excess inventory when demand slumps. But by looking at your customer list as a portfolio and targeting new customers whose demand patterns are complementary to those of existing customers, it’s possible to better manage this variability.

Why Gender and Race Harassment Increased During Remote Work

According to a recent report on harassment and hostility in remote workplaces, a significant number of people experienced an increase in workplace hostility or harassment during the pandemic. Kevin Delaney of Reset Work interviewed Ellen Pao, CEO of Project Include — a nonprofit focused on diversity and inclusion in the tech industry — to dig into these findings and their implications for remote and hybrid work.

What Else We’re Reading This Week

• Drive positive change, boost earnings, and build resilience with supplier diversity initiatives (Source: MIT SMR)
• Three ways to encourage informal communication in a hybrid workplace (Source: Fast Company)
• Benchmark your organization’s readiness to adopt a workforce ecosystem approach using this interactive dashboard (Source: MIT SMR)
• Half of the world’s emissions cuts will require tech that isn’t yet commercially available (Source: MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the Week:

“We offer two frameworks to guide scientists and companies as they pursue the future, including their use of AI. First, we all should remember that basic science is quite different from applied science. And second, we all need to understand the distinction between what science can do and what it should do.”

— Ayanna Howard, dean of the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University, and Deven R. Desai, associate professor in law and ethics at Georgia Institute of Technology, in “Taming AI’s Can/Should Problem”