MSLOC Community

Forbes By Senia Maymin, Ph.D. and Margaret H. Greenberg March 3, 2014 Shared by Ashley Boehm Punzalan, MSLOC Student "One of our clients, Kevin, had a goal to complete a redesign of his website by the end of the third quarter. However, as a business owner, he never seemed to find the time to focus on it while juggling dozens of other responsibilities. "At the end of each day, it just falls off my to-do list because more urgent things pop up," he told us. As executive coaches, we work with highly successful people like Kevin who are usually quite good at getting things done and getting good results. But … sometimes these same clients find it hard to achieve their more strategic or longer-term goals due to day-to-day demands. Usually, they are missing just one ingredient. The following study gives a hint of the missing puzzle piece."

By Jeff Haden Shared by Catherine Suer, MSLOC Student "I love setting goals. Unfortunately, my goals don't always love me back. I've tried using silence to accomplish a goal, and I've tried to sneak up on big goals, and although those strategies work, they're hardly foolproof. Fortunately James Clear, an entrepreneur and guy who thinks a lot about goals, habits, and success, has a much better approach to achieving almost any goal--and it's an approach anyone can use."

By Beth Kuhel March 8, 2014 "If you want to get hired and stay hired you need to know how hiring managers think. Since Google is setting the standard for attracting, hiring (and paying) top talent, examining and understanding their hiring standards and practices could help you even if you have no interest in working there."

By Maria Konnikova March 8, 2014 Shared by Jeff Merrell, MSLOC Associate Director ""I HATE quotation. Tell me what you know," Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his journal one spring day in 1849. He was talking about a very specific tendency. When we're faced with an issue that's meant to be thought provoking (in this particular case, immortality), we reach for the easy way out. "I notice," he writes, "that as soon as writers broach this question, they begin to quote." Quotation becomes a way not to add depth to your thinking, but to avoid thinking in the first place. Welcome to the world of the Internet. What would Emerson have made of it? Examined from one perspective, it's a place that provides endless fodder for the type of anti-thought he despised. He would have shuddered to find himself quoted and requoted millions of times (make that millions plus one), often with little understanding of who he was or what he stood for. Decontextualized knowledge - snippets that stream past as links, tweets, posts, memes - dominates. "

Author: Nicole Carter Date: March 11, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter Description: It's the fourth day of SXSW Interactive, and though the throngs of geeks and enthusiasts are getting tired, it didn't stop a handful of them from lining up to see Patricia Korth-McDonnell, partner and managing director of design firm Huge, talk about chaos and creativity.

By: Suzanne Lucas Date: March 5, 2014 Shared by: Zoe Hoeppner, MSLOC Student Description: "Up to 70 percent of recruitment is unnecessary, she claims. So what is necessary? Here are seven tips:"

March 2, 2014 Shared by Keeley Sorokti, MSLOC alumna "Over the last few years, there has been an enormous amount of industry discussion about how the digital world is changing the way we work. To any reasonable observer, the ways that we communicate, interact, and collaborate with each other are all in the midst of profound change. At least the why seems fairly clear. At at high level, there appear to be three major root causes for why collaboration - the very core of how people come together and function as a business - is in the midst of reinvention: Hierarchical management styles break down in the face of the inherent complexity and scale of the modern business environment. New digital tools have put us in constant and direct contact with nearly every person in the developed world at virtually no cost or effort. Thus businesses are now primarily subject to the power laws of networks, rather than the legacy rules of business. There has been a sustained shift in the power of creation, as the edges of our organizations and marketplaces now have readily in hand as much - and often more - productive power and reach than our institutions. The obvious cause is today's pervasive global platforms for self-expression (yes, by this I largely mean social media, but also all forms of digital connectedness.)"

By Eric Jaffe Shared by Keeley Sorokti, MSLOC alumna "By now we're all familiar with the stereotypes of different generations in the workplace. Boomers are workaholics who respect authority and have a lifelong loyalty to their company. Generation X employees prize a work-life balance. Millennials float from job to job and flaunt managerial authority and are too busy texting to care what you think of that. Given the popular consensus about office generational gaps--and the abundance of advice columns on bridging them--you'd think evidence for these traits would be strong. That's not at all the case, says management scholar John Bret Becton of University of Southern Mississippi. "We're always looking for a reason why people are different," Becton tells Co.Design. "But at least half of the research shows there's really not a lot of difference.""

What really sets the best managers above the rest? It's their power to build a cadre of employees who have great inner work lives-consistently positive emotions; strong motivation; and favorable perceptions of the organization, their work, and their colleagues. The worst managers undermine inner work life, often unwittingly. As Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer explain in The Progress Principle, seemingly mundane workday events can make or break employees' inner work lives. But it's forward momentum in meaningful work-progress-that creates the best inner work lives. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees in 7 companies, the authors explain how managers can foster progress and enhance inner work life every day. The book shows how to remove obstacles to progress, including meaningless tasks and toxic relationships. It also explains how to activate two forces that enable progress: (1) catalysts-events that directly facilitate project work, such as clear goals and autonomy-and (2) nourishers-interpersonal events that uplift workers, including encouragement and demonstrations of respect and collegiality. Brimming with honest examples from the companies studied, The Progress Principle equips aspiring and seasoned leaders alike with the insights they need to maximize their people's performance. Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School. Michelle Bavester, MSLOC student recommends this book. She says: "The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile? Her book has a checklist of sorts for making work meaningful and igniting engagement in employees. There's a lot of real-life examples from her research that she uses to illustrate her points as well. It's a great read!"

Debate about the definition of Design Thinking. Great resources/ideas shared in the comments too.

Author: Karen Bonsignore Date: NA Shared by: Sandy Schwan, MSLOC Alum on Evolving Strategies blog Organizational leaders must fully understand the consequences of disengagement, and devote attention and resources to initiatives that will increase and sustain employee engagement. Employees are free to leave their jobs to find more fulfilling work, or a better work environment, or even a more supportive boss. However, building an engaged workforce is the responsibility of a leader: from the top-down. The reason is that while there are known factors that can drive or derail engagement, regular employees are generally not in control of company policies and practices. Consequently, the buck begins at the top.

Author: Matt Palmquist April 9, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter, MSLOC student Bottom Line: Companies gain a competitive advantage when different divisions, such as sales and marketing, share non-quantifiable information. But to support the flow of this all-important tacit knowledge, managers must encourage social ties and cross-functional relationships.

Author: Matt Palmquist March 20, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter Bottom Line: Although the forward-thinking and innovative efforts of employees drive many elements of corporate strategy and success, managers lag behind in their ability to support such creative endeavors. They must give employees the resources to take on their own pet projects, and turn them into corporate assets.

Author: Eric McNulty April 18, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter, MSLOC Student

Author: Simon Sinek Date: May 19, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter

By Bea La O', MSLOC 2014 Capstone Research "This study seeks to understand how managers make strategic decisions through the lens of three approaches proffered by Mintzberg and Westley (2001): "think-first," procedural rationality, "see-first," insight and intuition, and "do-first," sensemaking. Through interviews with six leaders on strategic decision issues that range from changing the growth strategy of a large healthcare firm to redefining the talent management framework of a large quick service restaurant company, the study finds managers switch between the three approaches over the course of considering a decision issue. It also finds managers manage the inherent tension between "thinking-first," "seeing-first," and "doing-first," and socialize decision issues with stakeholders using "think-first," procedural rationality, and "do-first," sensemaking. "

Written by MSLOC alumna Tracey Wik May 28, 2014 Using the language of business - standardized processes, measures and reporting - will go a long way to transform management of learning functions.

Author: John Coleman Date: August 29, 2014 Shared by: Michelle Bavester

Author: Jeff Haden Date: September 10, 2014 Shared by: Andee Weinfurter