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Karin Vardaman, a lifelong conservationist now committed to protecting wolves in the American West, finds herself unexpectedly allied with the one of the species' most fervent opponents: cattle ranchers.

Bill Riddick employs the charrette process to help black and white community leaders overcome differences and desegregate local schools in Durham, NC.

On April 12, 2018, two African American entrepreneurs had scheduled a business meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. They sat without ordering, waiting for a local businessman to show up for the meeting. The store manager called 911 on them, despite the fact that they were behaving neither violently nor disruptively. When the police arrived soon after the call, they arrested the young men. The incident was viewed by the Starbucks' leadership team, including the CEO, as "a disheartening situation" and, in the words of John Kelly, the company's Senior VP of Public Affairs and Social Impact, "a profound failure to live up to our ideals and a violation of our values." Starbucks, which employed around 175,000 individuals nationwide and served more than 4 million customers daily in its approximately 8,000 U.S. stores, strived to abide by its mission statement: "...To inspire and nurture the human spirit, one cup, one person, one neighborhood at a time." The case describes how the company and its leadership responded to the crisis. To react to the incident, the leadership decided to close down its stores for a day of unconscious bias training, aimed at raising awareness of racial bias and discrimination in particular. The company also started a journey of providing more training and development for the partners, to assure that they lived by the company values on a daily basis, and revised store policy that, the leadership believed, contributed to how the store managers and employees in the Rittenhouse Square store behaved back in April 2018. As the case closes, CEO Kevin Johnson reflects on how he could assure that every Starbucks employee not only understood the company mission and values, but truly connected to them emotionally and carry them out daily in their work.

When most organizations strive to increase collaboration, they approach it too narrowly: as a value to cultivate--not a skill to teach. So they create open offices, talk up collaboration as a corporate goal, and try to influence employees through other superficial means that don't yield progress. Companies that excel at collaboration, in contrast, realize it involves instilling the right mindset: widespread respect for colleagues' contributions, openness to experimenting with others' ideas, and sensitivity to how one's actions may affect teammates and outcomes. What's more, these firms have established programs to help employees develop those attitudes. In her research, Gino, an HBS professor, has identified six types of training techniques used by such programs. They teach people to (1) listen, not talk; (2) practice empathy; (3) be comfortable giving and receiving feedback; (4) lead and follow; (5) speak with clarity and avoid abstractions; and (6) have win-win interactions. Drawing from her observations of Pixar, Webasto, and other companies, the author shares specific tools and exercises that show employees how to work well together, learn from one another, and connect more fully.

Plant management at Pasta Serafina, a pasta producer in the south of Italy, is struggling to contain employee absenteeism. While the misbehavior is concentrated in a minority of the workers, its effects impact not only the plant's performance, but also the climate and work environment. Embedded in institutional and legal environment that allows very little room for corrective action, and already dealing with persistent low margins, management decides to address the issue by asking the employees themselves to find a solution to the problem. The case exposes students to managerial challenges associated with curbing moral hazard and changing the company culture in a setting where standard legal and contractual tools, such as firing workers for performance or using incentives to influence behaviors, are not available.

The case complements Pasta Serafina (A) by describing the aftermath of a town hall meeting in which management had publicly denounced the absenteeism problem and challenged the employees to find a solution. In spite of the initial mistrust against management, the fear of an imminent plant closure coupled with the relief associated with finally being able to be heard by management, pushes the employees to act to contain the problem themselves. Within a short time, absenteeism hits record lows. Management, however, is left wondering about the sustainability of the new culture.

This case explores one company's attempt to experiment with a different underlying model for a capitalist enterprise. Brunello Cucinelli, S.p.A. is a leading manufacturer of luxury fashion apparel. Despite being a publicly traded enterprise with annual revenues exceeding 500 million, the company follows a somewhat unique human resource and cultural model. The company's founder, Brunello Cucinelli, has striven to create an enterprise that follows principles of what he calls "humanistic capitalism". Human capitalism, according to Cucinelli, means pursuing growth and profitability in a "gracious way." At the company, humanistic capitalism manifests itself in a very specific set of policies and behavioral norms. Workers are paid wages that exceed 20% of the market norms; the workday (even fore senior executive) is limited to the hours of 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM; emails are not to be sent after hours or on weekends; lunch breaks are one and half hours long to allow workers to have lunch at home should they choose. There are also strong cultural norms emphasizing respect and dignity. As part of this culture, employees are expected to keep their workspaces clean; eating at desks is not permitted; water can only be drunk from cups (not bottles,); speaking should be done in hushed tones so as not to disturb colleagues. None of these cultural norms, however, are explicitly described in any written documents. The company has adopted this model in both its Solomeo, Italy headquarters and in its North American headquarters located in New York City.

In 2018, Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments, the largest minority-owned investment firm in the U.S., was considering how best to divide her time and use her position and personal characteristics to push for positive change at her firm and in society at large.

FB Holdings had made it through the financial crisis of 2008 without losing money, but Franklin, its automotive climate control systems division, had not fared as well. It had the unfortunate distinction of having been the group's poorest-performing unit for nearly a decade. As CFO, Noelle Freeman was, of course, concerned about the numbers. But after spending time in Little Rock, she worried they might be facing a bigger problem. She knew the plant had been through years of belt-tightening and turnover, so she hadn't expected a warm welcome, but the negative vibe she'd felt from the employees had been even worse than she'd expected. The word that kept popping into her mind was "toxic." A numbers person, Noelle had assumed that once the division was out of the red, the people problems would go away. Now she wondered if the low morale and disengagement was a problem a spreadsheet just couldn't fix. This fictional case study by Francesca Gino features expert commentary by Philipp Schramm and Jeremy Andrus.

FB Holdings had made it through the financial crisis of 2008 without losing money, but Franklin, its automotive climate control systems division, had not fared as well. It had the unfortunate distinction of having been the group's poorest-performing unit for nearly a decade. As CFO, Noelle Freeman was, of course, concerned about the numbers. But after spending time in Little Rock, she worried they might be facing a bigger problem. She knew the plant had been through years of belt-tightening and turnover, so she hadn't expected a warm welcome, but the negative vibe she'd felt from the employees had been even worse than she'd expected. The word that kept popping into her mind was "toxic." A numbers person, Noelle had assumed that once the division was out of the red, the people problems would go away. Now she wondered if the low morale and disengagement was a problem a spreadsheet just couldn't fix. This fictional case study by Francesca Gino features expert commentary by Philipp Schramm and Jeremy Andrus.

FB Holdings had made it through the financial crisis of 2008 without losing money, but Franklin, its automotive climate control systems division, had not fared as well. It had the unfortunate distinction of having been the group's poorest-performing unit for nearly a decade. As CFO, Noelle Freeman was, of course, concerned about the numbers. But after spending time in Little Rock, she worried they might be facing a bigger problem. She knew the plant had been through years of belt-tightening and turnover, so she hadn't expected a warm welcome, but the negative vibe she'd felt from the employees had been even worse than she'd expected. The word that kept popping into her mind was "toxic." A numbers person, Noelle had assumed that once the division was out of the red, the people problems would go away. Now she wondered if the low morale and disengagement was a problem a spreadsheet just couldn't fix. This fictional case study by Francesca Gino features expert commentary by Philipp Schramm and Jeremy Andrus.

This case revolves around Verisk Analytics' initiatives to drive innovation throughout the firm's many business verticals. Verisk, originally named ISO, started life as an insurance rating agency in the early 1970s, acting as an intermediary between insurance companies and state governments. Over time, the firm transformed from being a non-profit to a for-profit entity, while expanding its lines of business to realms other than insurance. By both exploring the history of the insurance industry and Verisk's unique position within it, the case provides readers with an understanding of the firm's growth strategy and why innovation is so crucial for its success. The case leaves readers to ponder Verisk's innovation and growth strategy, challenging them to assess its strengths and weaknesses.

Faced with a persistent robbery problem at his convenience store company, Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac's of Central Canada, looked to standardize safety measures and devise a new way of preventing employee injury. But as a 32-year old with just one year on the job, Sportun had to tailor his message for change carefully to his colleagues, many of whom had worked for Mac's for decades. The case provides an overview of the convenience store industry and examines the challenges of crime prevention in a late-night retail environment.

Supplement to 918-001. The case describes the inventive approaches to retail crime prevention that Sean Sportun, security and loss prevention manager at Mac's Convenience Stores, implemented between 2007 and 2017.

Webasto Roof Systems, Americas, the North American subsidiary of Germany-based Webasto Group, limped into 2014 in poor financial and operational shape. The company's early optimism emerging from the financial downturn had proven naive, and now, five years later, the company was consistently losing money, and was battling severe operational challenges affecting quality and threatening customer relationships. Furthermore, senior leadership had completely turned over three times in the five year period. Now, the new--and young--leadership is attempting to navigate that crisis, and repair the organization, with an organization full of skittish and disengaged employees. Philipp Schramm, the new CFO, must figure out how to enact positive change with a team of unenthusiastic employees, and a near-toxic culture.