A team of researchers found that people who were optimistic about their abilities scored no better than people who doubted themselves on a wide range of tests. And overconfidence, it seems, may even impair performance, especially if it leads to a lack of preparation.
Only recently have we been able to apply science to one of the world's oldest questions: "What is the nature of happiness?" In this edited interview, the author of the 2006 best seller Stumbling on Happiness surveys the field. Gilbert explores the sudden emergence of happiness as a discipline, reviews the major findings (including the mistakes we all make in predicting how happy or miserable we'll be), and examines the role of happiness in productivity on the job. He describes what makes us truly happy--it's not a promotion or a new house--and sketches out a "happiness diet" that emphasizes small, routine efforts. Looking forward, Gilbert discusses the breakthrough work of his colleague Matthew Killingsworth, whose iPhone-enabled real-time surveys of people's moods are providing an ultra-high-resolution picture of how our emotional states shift from minute to minute. A sidebar by Killingsworth offers a preliminary look at his findings and their implications for our personal and workplace lives.
When Johnson joined Apple, in 2000, as the senior vice president for retail, conventional wisdom held that a computer maker couldn't sell computers. Johnson promptly tossed out the retailing rule book and built the Apple Store from scratch. "The Apple Store succeeded not because we tweaked the traditional model," Johnson says. "We reimagined everything." Today, Apple stores are the highest performing stores in the history of retailing. In November, Johnson took the reins as CEO of the venerable J.C. Penney department store. Times are tough for many retailers, but Johnson, characteristically, sees the chance to reinvent the department store as a great opportunity. He also understands the challenges ahead. "A store has got to be much more than a place to acquire merchandise," he says. "It's got to help people enrich their lives." In this edited interview, Johnson discusses his vision of the future of retail and shares insights about innovation, leadership, and why he trusts his gut.
The surgeon and best-selling author readily concedes his own limitations as he explains how doctors-and health care generally-could do better. In his latest book, The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande describes how asking a set of simple questions before the surgery starts-things like "Did we give the patient her antibiotic?" and even "Did we introduce ourselves to one another?"-can reduce infections and deaths by nearly half. As simple as this exercise is, it's often met with hostility, because it challenges beloved notions about doctors' status, autonomy, and expertise. In this edited interview Gawande discusses what checklists reveal about the culture of medicine and how its dysfunctions might be fixed.
Organizations are tapping people's mental and physical energy on the sly and using it to power lights, digitize books, and do other work. Are they simply putting "wasted" energy to good use or extracting value they should be paying for?
Trying to keep up with the world's insatiable appetite for energy, scientists and entrepreneurs are exploring six innovative concepts: high-altitude wind turbines, genetically engineered algae for biofuel, wave power from the ocean, nuclear fusion, enhanced geothermal systems, and solar cells in space. They all have serious backing; not one is a sure bet.
The CEO of the X Prize Foundation explains how offering cash jackpots for breakthrough innovations can help solve problems big and small in fields like space exploration, energy, and education.
A business historian reminds us that since the nineteenth century, predictions about globalization have been reliably wrong. Despite technology for the fast diffusion of knowledge, information-like wealth-seems to be concentrating even further.
The founder of Wikipedia analyzes why wikis are becoming popular tools for sharing knowledge in the workplace. He encourages managers to provide institutional support for these highly practical forums but to be judicious about direct participation.
Few deal makers have been at it as long, and at such a high level, as Bruce Wasserstein, the chairman and CEO of the financial advisory and asset-management firm Lazard. In this edited interview, two HBR editors explore how he creates value as a manager, as a deal maker, and as a counselor to CEOs. Wasserstein, who has been a major figure in mergers and acquisitions for more than 30 years, talks about attracting and managing talent, building and sustaining a knowledge business, sizing up industries and companies, and crafting advice to help CEOs unlock value. At the heart of his approach is a singular ability to dissect a strategy's underlying premises in order to figure out whether a plan or deal "makes sense." Part of that determination involves understanding the broader context: Where is the industry going? What external factors will affect it? Such sensemaking informs every move Wasserstein makes, and it has paid off handsomely. In his career, he has helped broker more than a thousand deals, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. His intellect, creativity, and doggedness are what allow him to pick apart the most complex problems and devise novel solutions. In an age of specialization, he recognizes the importance of connecting the dots; he draws on the knowledge and skills of creative generalists as well as industry and regional specialists when setting up and executing deals. Wasserstein studied at Harvard University's business and law schools and at Cambridge University, helped lead First Boston's M&A practice, cofounded the investment-banking firm Wasserstein Perella Group, and then joined Lazard, which he famously took public in 2005 after disassembling a century and a half of family ownership. He is the 2007 recipient of Harvard Law School's Great Negotiator Award.
The oldest family-run business in the U.S., the Zildjian Company has been making cymbals, first in Turkey and then in America, since 1623. As a 14th-generation leader of the company, Craigie Zildjian sees innovation in collaboration with customers as her best path to continued success.
Most organizations bend over backward to avoid failure. They shouldn't, says economist Paul Ormerod. History shows that failure and success are inherently random, so firms should innovate and adapt.
Ivor Tiefenbrun, head of the high-end audio equipment maker Linn Products, explains why the assembly line isn't always the most efficient way to manufacture.
When we make decisions, we're not always in charge. One moment we hotheadedly let our emotions get the better of us; the next, we're paralyzed by uncertainty. Then we'll pull a brilliant decision out of thin air--and wonder how we did it. Though we may have no idea how decision making happens, neuroscientists peering deep into our brains are beginning to get the picture. What they're finding may not be what you want to hear, but it's worth listening. We have dog brains, basically, with human cortexes stuck on top. By watching the brain in action as it deliberates and decides, neuroscientists are finding that not a second goes by that our animal brains aren't conferring with our modern cortexes to influence their choices. Scientists have discovered, for example, that the "reward" circuits in the brain that activate in response to cocaine, chocolate, sex, and music also find pleasure in the mere anticipation of making money--or getting revenge. And the "aversion" circuits that react to the threat of physical pain also respond with disgust when we feel cheated by a partner. In this article, HBR Senior Editor Gardiner Morse describes the experiments that illuminate the aggressive participation of our emotion-driven animal brains in decision making. This research also shows that our emotional brains needn't always operate beneath our radar. Although our dog brains sometimes hijack our higher cognitive functions to drive bad, or at least illogical, decisions, they play an important part in rational decision making as well. The more we understand how we make decisions, the better we can manage them.
The most dubious business plans can appear solid, even smart, when illustrated with snappy circle-and-arrow graphics. Look closely, though, and you'll see that many of these diagrams are full of it.