We all know the power of stories in business. We know too that it’s the heroes who give stories power. The hero may be a person, a brand, a company, or it may be the listener. When the story and the hero are strong, it resonates with the audience. Peter Guber and Magic Johnson In […]
The title says it all: to help teams perform better, add more women. An intriguing research project highlighted in the June 2011 issue of the Harvard Business Review by Anita Woolley of Carnegie Mellon and Thomas Malone of MIT suggests what makes teams smarter: having more women on them. The study also points out some […]
Some of the most entertaining, content-rich and downright helpful business blogs we love are written by women. Here are a few of our favorites. What are yours? Danah Boyd’s Apophenia is both scholarly and immensely readable. She has real research, real clues and real heart about what’s going on with young social media consumers. Want […]
This is one of my all-time favorite stories. Three umpires (baseball, for our international readers) were talking about how they make calls on each pitch. The first umpire said: “There’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call them like they is.” Umpire number two said: “No, there’s balls and there’s strikes, and I call ’em […]
Nestled between the delicious food shots and cool clothes in the April print issue of Real Simple magazine is a gem of an article called “Life Lessons: 5 Ways to Make a Good Impression.” Forget firm handshakes and eye contact, shined shoes and prep for the meeting. Real Simple asked five experts to chime in, […]
In his Zing-Review of March 3, employee engagement expert David Zinger cited research by the health care research firm Beryl on improving patient experiences in hospitals. The whole article is rich with references and research, though the title is a bit intimidating. David pulls from the final paragraph: [The CEOs’] vulnerability is the first step […]
Readers of this blog know that we often write about Intimacy in a business context. And two of the three elements which make up that invaluable quality are empathy and discretion: creating a cocoon of safety in which another person can talk to us. I have never heard a more poetic description of this than […]
There’s a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between what science knows – the science around human motivation – and what business does, and the result is disastrous for the economy, for businesses, and for human beings. This, according to Daniel Pink in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Motivation […]
My nominee for one of the best business blogs ever is The Cynical Girl, previously known as Punk Rock HR. It may also be the funniest business blog going. In a recent posting, Laurie Ruettimann explained what employers think makes a great employee: a super hardworking slob who labors for love of the company and […]
Lessons in how to be heard and having influence.