The author of the book "Global Dexterity: How to Adapt Your Behavior Across Cultures Without Losing Yourself in the Process," Molinsky draws on his years of field research, teaching, and consulting to advise managers who must learn to adapt to a new culture. He focuses on how people practice new behaviors in actual situations, such as speaking up in a meeting or giving performance feedback, rather than on the differences between cultures. He suggests an approach that consists of three stages: (1) Figure out what the cultural norms are and how they differ from the home culture in directness, enthusiasm, formality, assertiveness, self-promotion, and self-disclosure. (2) Figure out what the "zone of appropriateness" is in the new culture for each of those six dimensions. (3) Once you know what adaptations you can (and are willing) to make, practice them to develop "muscle memory." Certain psychological barriers may arise in the process. People get anxious about whether they're being authentic, or they feel incompetent and worry that others see them that way, or they become resentful of the hard and stressful work of adapting. But they often learn something interesting about themselves, Molinsky says, and that can be exciting.

The ability to persuade others to contribute to your efforts is a key skill for managers, for team members--for anyone who wants to elevate the probability of success. Research by leading social scientist Robert Cialdini has found that persuasion works by appealing to certain deeply rooted human responses: liking, reciprocity, social proof, commitment and consistency, authority, and scarcity. In this edited interview with HBR's executive editor, Cialdini expands on the six principles of persuasion and how leaders can make effective, authentic use of them in everyday business situations. He also previews findings from new research on the ethics of influence and how dishonesty affects individuals and the organization.

With product life cycles growing ever shorter and competition cropping up in unexpected places, nearly every industry is facing disruption. How can you tell if your model is running out of gas? For starters, if your next-generation innovations provide smaller and smaller improvements and your people have trouble thinking of new ways to enhance your offering. Pay heed to the signs and start experimenting with several new options until you find one that will turn your threat into an opportunity.

Krugman - a professor at Princeton University, the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, and a columnist for the New York Times - talks about the global financial meltdown: what surprises him, what scares him, and what he'd do to ensure a recovery if he were calling all the shots.

The CEO of the British Library explains how the United Kingdom's exclusive repository for rare books, manuscripts, and scientific papers has loosened up the design of its Business & IP Centre to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.

After a long stint in consulting, Jane Epstein has just become a manager at TechniCo. She's trying to get a fix on the various personalities and roles of her new coworkers, and by and large, she seems to have inherited a pretty good team. One's got a lot of social capital built up; another seems to be a natural salesperson. Something about Andy Zimmerman, though, has her worried. At first she can't put her finger on it--maybe he's a bit too aggressive? But as time passes, she watches Andy's mean streak show itself again and again: He belittles administrative assistants for minor mistakes, ruthlessly cuts down colleagues when they present ideas that aren't fully developed, and makes everyone in the group feel small and stupid. But Andy has another side: He's usually right, and he's very, very good at his job. In fact, in terms of pure performance, he's the best Jane's got. She'd be crazy not to want him in her group. And yet, she can't deny that Andy's behavior is undermining morale and hurting the team's financial performance. Now Jane's feeling frustrated. When she left her consulting job for this position, she expected to focus on numbers, products, customers--on building something. Instead, she finds that people issues are taking up most of her time. This fictional case study explores the dynamics that occur when a star performer has a highly abrasive personality. In R0108A and R0108Z, Mary Rowe, Chuck McKenzie, Kathy Jordan, and James Waldroop advise Jane on how she can curb Andy's bad behavior without hurting the team's bottom line.

After a long stint in consulting, Jane Epstein has just become a manager at TechniCo. She's trying to get a fix on the various personalities and roles of her new coworkers, and by and large, she seems to have inherited a pretty good team. One's got a lot of social capital built up; another seems to be a natural salesperson. Something about Andy Zimmerman, though, has her worried. At first she can't put her finger on it--maybe he's a bit too aggressive? But as time passes, she watches Andy's mean streak show itself again and again: He belittles administrative assistants for minor mistakes, ruthlessly cuts down colleagues when they present ideas that aren't fully developed, and makes everyone in the group feel small and stupid. But Andy has another side: He's usually right, and he's very, very good at his job. In fact, in terms of pure performance, he's the best Jane's got. She'd be crazy not to want him in her group. And yet, she can't deny that Andy's behavior is undermining morale and hurting the team's financial performance. Now Jane's feeling frustrated. When she left her consulting job for this position, she expected to focus on numbers, products, customers--on building something. Instead, she finds that people issues are taking up most of her time. This fictional case study explores the dynamics that occur when a star performer has a highly abrasive personality. In R0108A and R0108Z, Mary Rowe, Chuck McKenzie, Kathy Jordan, and James Waldroop advise Jane on how she can curb Andy's bad behavior without hurting the team's bottom line.

After a long stint in consulting, Jane Epstein has just become a manager at TechniCo. She's trying to get a fix on the various personalities and roles of her new coworkers, and by and large, she seems to have inherited a pretty good team. One's got a lot of social capital built up; another seems to be a natural salesperson. Something about Andy Zimmerman, though, has her worried. At first she can't put her finger on it--maybe he's a bit too aggressive? But as time passes, she watches Andy's mean streak show itself again and again: He belittles administrative assistants for minor mistakes, ruthlessly cuts down colleagues when they present ideas that aren't fully developed, and makes everyone in the group feel small and stupid. But Andy has another side: He's usually right, and he's very, very good at his job. In fact, in terms of pure performance, he's the best Jane's got. She'd be crazy not to want him in her group. And yet, she can't deny that Andy's behavior is undermining morale and hurting the team's financial performance. Now Jane's feeling frustrated. When she left her consulting job for this position, she expected to focus on numbers, products, customers--on building something. Instead, she finds that people issues are taking up most of her time. This fictional case study explores the dynamics that occur when a star performer has a highly abrasive personality. In R0108A and R0108Z, Mary Rowe, Chuck McKenzie, Kathy Jordan, and James Waldroop advise Jane on how she can curb Andy's bad behavior without hurting the team's bottom line.

In this fictional case study by HBR Senior Editor Sarah Cliffe, a merger that looked like a marriage made in heaven to those at corporate headquarters is feeling like an infernal union to those on the ground. The merger is between Synergon Capital, a U.S. financial-services behemoth, and Beauchamp, Becker & Company, a venerable British financial-services company with strong profits and an extraordinarily loyal client base of wealthy individuals. Beauchamp also boasts a strong group of senior managers led by Julian Mansfield, a highly cultured and beloved patriarch who personifies all that's good about the company. Synergon isn't accustomed to acquiring such companies. It usually encircles a poorly managed turnaround candidate and then, once the deal is done, drops a neutron bomb on it, leaving file cabinets and contracts but no people. Before acquiring Beauchamp, Synergon's macho men offered loud assurances that they would leave the tradition-bound company alone--provided, of course, that Beauchamp met the ambitious target numbers and showed sufficient enthusiasm for cross-selling Synergon's products to its wealthy clients. In charge of making the acquisition work is Nick Cunningham, one of Synergon's more thoughtful executives. Nick, who was against the deal from the start, is the face and voice of Synergon for Julian Mansfield. And Mansfield, in his restrained way, is angry at the constant flow of bureaucratic forms, at the rude demands for instant information, at the peremptory changes. He's even dropping broad hints at retirement. Nick has already been warned: if Mansfield goes, you go. In 99103 and 99103Z, Bill Paul, J. Brad McGee, Jill Greenthal, Dale Matschullat, Daniel Vasella, and Albert J. Viscio advise Nick on how to save his job by bringing peace and prosperity to the feuding couple.

In this fictional case study by HBR Senior Editor Sarah Cliffe, a merger that looked like a marriage made in heaven to those at corporate headquarters is feeling like an infernal union to those on the ground. The merger is between Synergon Capital, a U.S. financial-services behemoth, and Beauchamp, Becker & Company, a venerable British financial-services company with strong profits and an extraordinarily loyal client base of wealthy individuals. Beauchamp also boasts a strong group of senior managers led by Julian Mansfield, a highly cultured and beloved patriarch who personifies all that's good about the company. Synergon isn't accustomed to acquiring such companies. It usually encircles a poorly managed turnaround candidate and then, once the deal is done, drops a neutron bomb on it, leaving file cabinets and contracts but no people. Before acquiring Beauchamp, Synergon's macho men offered loud assurances that they would leave the tradition-bound company alone--provided, of course, that Beauchamp met the ambitious target numbers and showed sufficient enthusiasm for cross-selling Synergon's products to its wealthy clients. In charge of making the acquisition work is Nick Cunningham, one of Synergon's more thoughtful executives. Nick, who was against the deal from the start, is the face and voice of Synergon for Julian Mansfield. And Mansfield, in his restrained way, is angry at the constant flow of bureaucratic forms, at the rude demands for instant information, at the peremptory changes. He's even dropping broad hints at retirement. Nick has already been warned: if Mansfield goes, you go. In 99103 and 99103Z, Bill Paul, J. Brad McGee, Jill Greenthal, Dale Matschullat, Daniel Vasella, and Albert J. Viscio advise Nick on how to save his job by bringing peace and prosperity to the feuding couple.

In this fictional case study by HBR Senior Editor Sarah Cliffe, a merger that looked like a marriage made in heaven to those at corporate headquarters is feeling like an infernal union to those on the ground. The merger is between Synergon Capital, a U.S. financial-services behemoth, and Beauchamp, Becker & Company, a venerable British financial-services company with strong profits and an extraordinarily loyal client base of wealthy individuals. Beauchamp also boasts a strong group of senior managers led by Julian Mansfield, a highly cultured and beloved patriarch who personifies all that's good about the company. Synergon isn't accustomed to acquiring such companies. It usually encircles a poorly managed turnaround candidate and then, once the deal is done, drops a neutron bomb on it, leaving file cabinets and contracts but no people. Before acquiring Beauchamp, Synergon's macho men offered loud assurances that they would leave the tradition-bound company alone--provided, of course, that Beauchamp met the ambitious target numbers and showed sufficient enthusiasm for cross-selling Synergon's products to its wealthy clients. In charge of making the acquisition work is Nick Cunningham, one of Synergon's more thoughtful executives. Nick, who was against the deal from the start, is the face and voice of Synergon for Julian Mansfield. And Mansfield, in his restrained way, is angry at the constant flow of bureaucratic forms, at the rude demands for instant information, at the peremptory changes. He's even dropping broad hints at retirement. Nick has already been warned: if Mansfield goes, you go. In 99103 and 99103Z, Bill Paul, J. Brad McGee, Jill Greenthal, Dale Matschullat, Daniel Vasella, and Albert J. Viscio advise Nick on how to save his job by bringing peace and prosperity to the feuding couple.