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
How Workers Can Win Back the Gig Economy
Sociologist Juliet Schor’s new book, After the Gig: How the Sharing Economy Got Hijacked and How to Win It Back, out this week from the University of California Press, provides a deep, research-based view of the gig economy’s platform-based businesses. In an interview with MIT SMR, Schor discusses where the sharing economy has fallen short and how it could be improved with a model for more equitable digital business.
Building Momentum to Advance Racial Justice at Work
In recent months, many business leaders have spoken out against systemic racism and made organizational commitments to racial equity. Momentum today is strong — but to sustain it, leaders must build support for their ongoing efforts to fight against injustice. The success of any racial equity and inclusion initiative starts at the top, and four principles can help establish that ongoing support.
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3 Types of Revenue Models to Win Customers and Drive Growth
Customers ultimately want to pay for meaningful outcomes, not the products and services that presumably deliver them. Today, companies can be increasingly accountable for those outcomes with three kinds of technologically enhanced revenue models.
How Working Parents Can Cope With Pandemic-Era Anger
Many working parents are angry right now — and rightfully so — as plans for children’s schooling remain in flux and stress skyrockets amid workplace demands. When no good solutions are at hand, accepting this anger doesn’t need to equal resignation; instead, acceptance keeps us from wasting energy expecting a situation that’s beyond our control to be different than it is. Getting curious about the anger can help you figure out what needs your action or attention.
4 Practices to Manage Today’s Uncertainty
Examining the pandemic responses of several companies, columnist Lynda Gratton illustrates how four team management practices can help companies pivot to a virtual work environment.
What Else We’re Reading This Week:
- A notable new priority for coronavirus-era business operations is risk mitigation
- How Twitter’s retweet function helped spread misinformation and outrage on the internet “at a pace that made it difficult to fight back”
- What a customer-owned company founded in 1851 can teach us about stakeholder capitalism
Quote of the Week:
“I don’t advocate for leaders to be vulnerable without intention. Adding additional context is critical, especially when we’re working at a distance in this virtual setting. Otherwise, people might attribute a negative reason for why you choose to do or share something. It’s Hanlon’s razor at work.”
— Vanessa Tanicien, leadership trainer and facilitator at LifeLabs Learning, in “6 Small Steps for Handling the Emotional Ups and Downs at Work”