The Best of This Week
The week’s must-reads for managing in the digital age, curated by the MIT SMR editors.
Topics
Weekly Recap
Nine Leadership Lessons From 2020
We reached out to MIT Sloan Management Review contributors who study leadership up close with the following question: What lessons can managers take from 2020 and put into practice in the coming year?
Five Ways to Develop an Effective CSR Response
“Giving back” through siloed corporate social responsibility departments is insufficient to tackle structural inequities, which demand a more integrated approach. Leaders can take five key steps to develop a whole-company approach that enables racial and health justice.
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Putting Purpose Over Pay
Per Malia Lazu, MIT Sloan lecturer, while millennials may well enjoy Ping-Pong tables, they’re more compelled by “working for a place that has a set of values, that attempts to live those values.” This age group, the eldest of whom are now entering their 40s, are “more willing to take a pay cut to work for a company that is doing social good.”
At Year’s End, Appraising Your Organizational Alliances
Business leaders can conduct a fast review of the value of your company’s alliances by asking four key questions.
Algorithms Can’t Handle Holiday Cookie Calculations
Research suggests that algorithms can’t pack more than 5 to 10 objects optimally — which won’t even cover a dozen reindeer.
Some of Our Favorite Reads of 2020
- A classic for 2020: How to adjust to an ever-changing situation where the “new normal” is indefinite uncertainty
- MIT Sloan Management Review’s top articles of the year
- Hopeful findings on forgiveness
- HBR’s excellent interview with grief expert David Kessler tackled the collective loss of normalcy felt during the pandemic
- Let’s circle back and touch base on this piece about the business jargon that haunts our workplaces
Quote of the Week:
“In 2021, resiliency, character, and engagement will all matter more than ever. Throw in courage, cleverness, caring, a commitment to justice for all people, and an eagerness to engage with the unclear and indefinite and then, folks, we’ll be getting somewhere.”
— Paul Michelman, editor in chief of MIT Sloan Management Review, in “Leading With Crisis as Your Copilot”