The ability to deliver an energizing pep talk is a prerequisite for any business leader. But few managers receive formal training in how to give one. Instead, they learn mostly by emulating inspirational bosses, coaches, or even fictional characters. However, research shows there is a science to psyching people up for better performance. According to motivating language theory, most winning formulas include three key elements: direction giving, or describing precisely how to do the task at hand; expressions of empathy, or concern for the performer; and meaning-making language, which explains why the task is important. All the evidence suggests that, once leaders understand these three elements, they can learn to use them more skillfully.

A summer intern isn't sure how to respond to a request that she misrepresent herself in collecting competitive intelligence for her company. One of her primary duties is to assist with market research by calling direct competitors and asking for sensitive information. Her manager wants her to tell these contacts that she's a student working on a project. She needs the internship and the money, but she also doesn't want to start her career in this industry by deceiving people. Should she push back on her manager? Or perhaps ask to do the project another way? This fictional case study written by Sandra Sucher and Matthew Preble features expert commentary by Josh Bersin and Ruwan Weerasekera.

Best known for playing Hawkeye Pierce on the TV series "M*A*S*H," actor Alan Alda is also a director, scriptwriter, book author, science-show host, and founder of two organizations that help people improve their communications skills. In this interview, he shares his insights on the value of the imperfect and explains how improvisation can help teams gel.

A summer intern isn't sure how to respond to a request that she misrepresent herself in collecting competitive intelligence for her company. One of her primary duties is to assist with market research by calling direct competitors and asking for sensitive information. Her manager wants her to tell these contacts that she's a student working on a project. She needs the internship and the money, but she also doesn't want to start her career in this industry by deceiving people. Should she push back on her manager? Or perhaps ask to do the project another way? This fictional case study written by Sandra Sucher and Matthew Preble features expert commentary by Josh Bersin and Ruwan Weerasekera.

A summer intern isn't sure how to respond to a request that she misrepresent herself in collecting competitive intelligence for her company. One of her primary duties is to assist with market research by calling direct competitors and asking for sensitive information. Her manager wants her to tell these contacts that she's a student working on a project. She needs the internship and the money, but she also doesn't want to start her career in this industry by deceiving people. Should she push back on her manager? Or perhaps ask to do the project another way? This fictional case study written by Sandra Sucher and Matthew Preble features expert commentary by Josh Bersin and Ruwan Weerasekera.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. A new global study finds several new categories of human jobs emerging. These roles are not replacing old ones. They are brand-new positions that complement the tasks performed by AI machines and will require skills and training that have never before been needed.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Thanks to emerging technologies like 3-D printing, manufacturers can offer consumers customized products and do so with unprecedented speed. Intrigued by a new product you saw in a YouTube video? Well, someday soon you may be able to personalize it, order it via the company's website, and have it in your hands in a matter of days. But to enable this phenomenon at scale, an entirely new model of supply chain is required.

As companies attempt to diversify into portfolios of business models that achieve higher performance than other configurations, they need to match their own resources and capabilities to the external opportunities they face. In this article, the authors argue that executives need to assess whether there is fit not only between the activities underpinning the business models they use but also across multiple business models. How can companies assess whether there are advantages to using multiple business models? And when might it make sense to focus on fewer business models rather than more? To develop their understanding of business models, the authors studied the Formula One auto racing industry, the various businesses operated by Amazon.com Inc., and nearly 50 other companies. This article addresses three core questions: What should you consider when thinking about business model diversification? In deciding to add a new business model to your portfolio, how can you assess and optimize its value? How should you modify your business model portfolio over time? Like other forms of corporate diversification, the authors say, business model diversification does not always generate superior performance. In settings where a business model isn't generating the synergies that were envisioned, managers shouldn't be afraid to streamline, improve, or divest from some business models in the portfolio to focus on and bolster the activities that are strategically optimal.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. As organizations search for better solutions to their everyday problems, many are encouraging employees to use their experiences to develop new ideas and play a more active role in the innovation process. Companies including AT&T Inc., Google Inc., and Deutsche Telekom AG have turned to what's known as internal crowdsourcing. Although external crowdsourcing, which solicits ideas from consumers, suppliers, and anyone who wants to participate, has been widely studied, internal crowdsourcing, which seeks to channel the ideas and expertise of the company's own employees, is less well-understood. However, as the authors point out, harnessing the cognitive diversity within organizations can open up rich new sources of innovation while at the same time engaging younger employees and people working on the front lines. In this article, the authors examine the benefits of internal crowdsourcing and the common roadblocks to participation, collaboration, and implementation; they draw on their research at a number of companies, including a health care company, a telecommunications company, and fashion and retail company Li & Fung Ltd. The authors present a set of action steps to help executives make their internal crowdsourcing efforts more effective. Those steps include: (1) keeping the focus broadly on long-term innovation rather than short-term problem-solving; (2) giving employees slack time to participate; (3) allowing for anonymous participation; and (4) making sure experts within the company don't exert too much influence. The authors also recommend that companies encourage collaboration, use technology platforms that connect individuals with ideas from other participants, and have well-defined procedures for how ideas will be handled after the crowdsourcing event.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. New research finds that stories about consumers'positive experiences with a brand significantly increase users'engagement with brand websites, and stories originating from consumers are especially powerful in shaping brand attitudes in social media. Indeed, companies that aren't offering experiences that leverage consumer input in brand-related narratives are missing out on important opportunities to connect in a meaningful way with potential buyers.

The authors argue that executives need to better support emergent innovation to supplement planned new product or service development activities. Successful service, product, or process innovations within large, complex organizations are, the authors contend, very much a social phenomenon. This is why organizations that are routinely innovative are intentional about enabling individuals to engage and connect in ways that trigger and expand ideas. How can organizations best connect employees in ways that more systematically unleash emergent innovation? The authors'research suggests that part of the answer lies in the power of network structures and the ability of organizations to create what the authors call adaptive space. They define adaptive space as the network and organizational context that allows people, ideas, information, and resources to flow across the organization and spur successful emergent innovation. Adaptive space works by enabling ideas generated in entrepreneurial pockets of an organization to flow into the operational system to generate innovations that lead to growth. Adaptive space within organizations is fluid and can shift based on need. Companies create adaptive space through environments that open up information flows and enrich idea discovery, development, and amplification. That can be done in a number of ways. For example, the nonprofit research corporation Noblis created adaptive space through an internal crowdsourcing initiative, while General Motors has generated adaptive space through events that bring together people from different parts of the organization. Using network analysis and data collected from more than 400 interviews, the authors found that innovation leaders within an organization engaged with experts, influencers, and decision-makers through different phases of an innovation's journey, and in the process managed to substantially expand the impact of their innovation and streamline its acceptance as it moved from

Scenario planning came to prominence following World War II and gained recognition in the corporate world in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While several different approaches to scenario planning have emerged since then, this article focuses specifically on the Oxford scenario planning approach. Rather than taking a probabilistic stance (that is, making predictions in percentage terms or as best-case/worst-case scenarios) or a normative stance (that is, envisioning what a future should look like), the Oxford scenario methodology is based on plausibility. By recognizing the part of uncertainty that is unpredictable and by actively exploring the sources of the turbulence and uncertainty, the goal is to iteratively and interactively generate new knowledge and insights to help organizations reperceive their circumstances. During periods of turbulence, unpredictable uncertainty, novelty, and ambiguity (what the authors refer to as TUNA conditions), organizations frequently experience serious challenges that threaten existing value chains, communities, and even whole fields of endeavor. Such conditions can be unsettling and destabilizing on many different levels. A core feature in the Oxford scenario planning approach is making a distinction between the immediate business environment an organization inhabits (where business transactions take place) and the broader environment, or context, in which it operates. Different organizations go about scenario planning in different ways -there is no cookie-cutter methodology, the authors write. This article examines two cases. The first case involves Rolls-Royce plc, a leading supplier of power systems for aircraft and the marine and energy markets; the second case looks at the Royal Society of Chemistry, a London, U.K.-based international organization involved in advancing the field of chemical sciences.

In a global survey of 2,000 C-suite executives in more than 60 countries, McKinsey & Co. found that few companies are responding appropriately to digital disruption. While 90% of companies indicated that they are engaged in some form of digitization, only 16% said their companies have responded with a bold strategy and at scale; only 30% of companies are focusing on new ways to bundle demand or resegment their market. Based on these numbers, some leaders might assume that they have plenty of time to get their digital acts together. But the authors argue that this would be a dangerous assumption because new digital entrants are seizing a significant share of revenue across regions and industries. The authors highlight three bold tactics companies can use: 1. Develop new customer segments. Rather than just defending existing business lines through cost cutting, automation, or service improvements for existing customers, companies should focus on developing new customer segments. Medialaan NV, a leading free-to-air video broadcaster in Belgium, spotted young customers moving to platforms such as Netflix or YouTube. In response, it bought a mobile virtual operator with attractive data plans, thus becoming one of the few traditional broadcast companies to grow its TV audience in the youth segment. 2. Introduce new business models. Innovative companies are experimenting with business models intended to disrupt their own legacy strategies. When Schibsted Media Group of Oslo, Norway, saw that its print classified advertising was drying up, it moved the classified business to a free online marketplace. Today, more than 80% of the group's earnings come from commissions on sales from its consumer e-commerce platform. 3. Redefine the value chain. When digital entrants threatened its payment services business, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) chose to confront the disrupters head-on with a new open payments platform that hosts an ecosystem of applications and

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In the final report of our 8-year study of how corporations address sustainability, MIT Sloan Management Review and The Boston Consulting Group examine the crossroads at which sustainability now finds itself. Despite sociopolitical upheaval that threatens to reverse key gains, our research has shown that companies can develop workable -and profitable -sustainability strategies to reduce their impact on the global environment by incorporating 8 key lessons.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Despite India's economic growth and potential, developing a successful strategy for the country remains one of the most complex challenges for foreign multinationals. This challenge is rooted in the hard realities of global scale and costs. Most foreign executives have found it difficult to make money in India with their existing product portfolios at the scale of operations dictated by local demand. In addition, India has not provided foreign direct investment incentives anywhere near those of neighboring China. However, U.S. management consulting firm A.T. Kearney estimated in 2014 that India's share of global trade would be approximately five times greater by 2025 -and at that point would represent 6% of all global trade. Given that growth projection, waiting for a target income segment to reach the break-even level or waiting for greater government incentives to materialize is not the right strategy. Indeed, the authors observe, many foreign multinationals have increased their focus on India. However, they add, many foreign executives are frustrated that they cannot replicate the same strategies in India that led to success in China. One reason is the local high-income segment, which constitutes the initial target market for most foreign companies, is relatively small in India compared with China. This often causes foreign executives to refrain from investing in more extensive value-chain activities in India and delay committing to local manufacturing. Based on their research, the authors present a framework for foreign multinationals for a successful first-time entry into India or for upgrading an existing operation in India that has not been very effective. This approach involves simultaneously taking advantage of local sourcing, manufacturing, and marketing activities in conjunction with local adaptation of global products to generate mutually reinforcing advantages.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Many western multinationals have a tough time finding local talent in East Asia -a problem that global companies originating in East Asia don't seem to face. One problem: The cultural values and expectations of those doing the hiring and those seeking the jobs are at odds.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Futurists are skilled at listening to and interpreting signals. They look for early patterns on the fringe, before those "pretrends"begin moving toward the mainstream. Although futurists know most patterns will come to nothing, they watch and wait and test the patterns to find the few that will evolve into genuine trends. The art of forecasting the future, author Amy Webb notes, involves "simultaneously recognizing patterns in the present and thinking about how those changes will impact the future so that you can be actively engaged in building what happens next."Organizations that are able to track emerging trends have opportunities to converse and collaborate with those in other fields to plan ahead. Although it's rare for companies to have their own in-house futurists, Webb argues that forward-thinking organizations can develop their capabilities for foresight by combining creative perspectives with logic-oriented ones. BlackBerry Ltd.'s inability to reconcile different views, she writes, contributed to the decline of the company's smartphone business. BlackBerry's smartphone experience, she concludes, "suggests that forecasting the future of a product, company, or industry should neither be relegated to inventive visionaries nor mapped entirely by left-brain thinkers." In this article, Webb offers a six-step process for identifying trends. To begin with, she advises keeping an open mind and gathering information from the fringe without judgment. This involves creating a map of what you observe at the fringe. Next, she proposes narrowing the research and uncovering the hidden patterns to spot trends. The third step is asking questions to determine whether the patterns you observe are really trends. The fourth step involves interpreting the trend and ensuring that the timing is right for the organization.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Digital technology has already upended the media and information sectors. It's about to do the same to the manufacturing economy, and pave the way for what can be called the "pan-industrial"strategy.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Many executives believe they are good at identifying leadership talent. However, when asked how they make their decisions, they often cite intuition or "gut"instincts. Social science research, on the other hand, suggests that individuals are often prone to cognitive biases in such decisions. Rather than just relying on the subjective opinions of executives, some companies are using assessment tools to identify high-potential talent.

This case traces the sexual assault scandal that rocked the United States Air Force Academy in 2003. Over a period of several months, dozens of current and former female students came forward to the media and government representatives about being sexually assaulted by their male peers on campus. Several victims also implicated the Academy's leadership for not doing enough to address the problem. When the scandal broke, Lieutenant General John Dallager was the Academy Superintendent (equal to President of a civilian university). The Academy's decade-old sexual assault program guaranteed confidentiality for victims of sexual assault. The program also offered a slew of prevention and support services. Many Academy staff regarded the sexual assault program as the "gold standard." But the rising number of allegations shined a harsh light on the Academy's culture and immediately cast doubts on Dallager's leadership. Why had he and other senior officials at the Academy failed to notice the scale of the problem? Or had they willfully ignored it? Case number 2098.0