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
The New Competitive Dynamics of Disruption
In the age of AI, traditional businesses are under attack from highly scalable, data-driven companies. As Harvard Business School professors Marco Iansiti and Karim Lakhani put it, “The collisions between innovators and established players are forcing leaders of existing companies to reexamine how they do business in environments where new players follow radically different rules.”
The Coronavirus May Transform Remote Work — And Not Temporarily
As the number of COVID-19 cases rises worldwide, companies previously reluctant to embrace remote work arrangements are now being forced to rethink their approaches. Each day brings news of more companies promoting remote work amid the coronavirus crisis — but once the virus wanes, the return to onsite work may be slow, if it happens at all.
A New Approach to Assessing IT Talent
How can companies nurture engineering talent and boost productivity while reducing costs? Finding the best people and paying more for them is, paradoxically, the most cost-effective way to optimize IT output.
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When Culture Makers Lead
A new report from Accenture reveals that there’s a substantial gap between what leaders think is going on in workplace culture and what employees say is actually happening — and that organizations could see a $3.7 trillion increase in global profits by halving the gap. Other notable findings: The proportion of employees who do not feel included in their organizations is a whopping 10 times higher than leaders believe, and younger employees are more concerned than older workers about workplace culture.
Advice on (Not) Giving Advice
Although it feels great to offer a needed answer, immediately defaulting to advice-giving can be a problematic response for three main reasons: You may be solving the wrong problem, proposing a mediocre solution, or offering a speedy response rather than empowering your team.
What Else We’re Reading This Week:
- A recent study explores codes of conduct — and, surprisingly, finds that they may actually encourage misconduct
- Three new books investigate the mechanics of trust
- This is your brain on no sleep
Quote of the Week:
“As a leader, you have two fundamental challenges: You’ve got to deliver today, you’ve got to create tomorrow … if you can have the ability to do both of those things simultaneously, you’re positioned to confront these deceptions of disruption.”
— Scott Anthony, senior partner at the growth strategy consultancy Innosight, in this week’s Three Big Points podcast, “The Lies Leaders Tell Themselves About Disruption”