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
What Astronauts Can Teach Us About Hybrid Work Routines
Work on a space mission involves extended periods of labor in confined spaces, a tight integration of overlapping personal and professional time, and limited physical social interactions with colleagues — sound familiar? These three strategies astronauts use for building routines can benefit remote individuals as well as their teams.
Fast Fashion Needs to Slow Down
Much of the fashion industry trades on speedy design-to-sale and a culture of disposability. Although this business model is seductive and profitable, it isn’t environmentally sustainable. A growing number of consumers have begun acting on their environmental values and are flocking to sophisticated online options for reselling, renting, and repairing clothes.
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The Surprising Roots of Sustainable Work
Conventional wisdom about the principles underlying management science — maximizing economic efficiency and financial returns — has downplayed higher goals than making money. But new research highlights that sustainable management is a fundamental business practice, not just a modern trend.
How the Workplace of the Future Could Leave Women Behind
The hybrid workplace of the future is full of potential problems — and these downsides could hit women hardest. If women take advantage of the hybrid benefit more than men while companies (intentionally or not) continue to favor employees who come into the office more often, these so-called hybrid-friendly companies will develop two-tier workplaces.
What Else We’re Reading This Week
- Four steps leaders can take to drive developers toward a mindset of designing for cybersecurity (Source: MIT SMR)
- Why did home security surveillance go so wrong? (Source: Wired)
- The best “tool for thought” remains the humble Post-it note (Source: Forge)
- Three emerging trends suggest that traditional in-person networking’s appeal is losing out to the digital-first approaches favored by Gen Z (Source: Quartz)
Quote of the Week:
“It all starts with being more concerned about your error rather than your accuracy.”
— Doug Hamilton, associate vice president and head of AI research at Nasdaq, in the latest Me, Myself, and AI podcast episode, “Predicting Volatility and Risk”