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Every organization-regardless of industry-shares a common quest: they are all in the business of changing human behavior in some way. For-profit companies try to convince consumers who currently buy a competitor's product to switch to theirs; while governments try to convince citizens to pay their taxes on time or renew their driver's license online. Yet, the author argues, if you think about what people actually do in organizations from day to day, the bulk of their efforts are spent on 'first-mile problems'. These include efforts devoted to thinking through the competitive landscape and coming up with new products and services. Very little attention is paid to the 'last mile'-the part where the consumer actually walks into your establishment or begins a dialogue with your staff, and then makes a decision to switch to embrace your product (or not). The solution to this 'last-mile problem', he shows, isn't so much about creating awareness about your offering as it is about facilitating action. Throughout the article, he provides guidance on how to successfully embed the science of behavioural insights into the DNA of both government and for-profit organizations.

Two of the world's leading management thinkers and two global CEOs discuss the changing nature of leadership in this excerpt from the 6th annual Global Peter Drucker Forum. Despite their varied experience and backgrounds, they agree that idea of 'architectural thinking' for leaders is becoming very powerful: of leaders designing environments and cultures to enable innovation. They show how the leadership landscape is shifting, and that the young leaders coming along are converging around a new type of leadership. In order to 'act like a leader' today, you have to devote much of your time to four activities: bridging across diverse people and groups; envisioning new possibilities; engaging people in the change process; and embodying that change.

Exponential improvement in computer gear is one of three fundamental forces enabling what the authors call 'The Second Machine Age'. They describe how innovation is being propelled by vast numbers of powerful-but-cheap devices (smartphones), each equipped with an array of processors, sensors and transmitters. They describe how services like Waze only became feasible in the past few years because of accumulated digital power increases and cost declines. Data are the lifeblood of science, they argue, and as a result, the second force powering the Second Machine age is digitization, which increases understanding by making huge amounts of data readily accessible. Thanks to the first two forces, a new style of innovation has emerged that adds social and sensor data to an existing system, greatly increasing its power and usefulness. This approach to innovation is the third and last of the forces shaping the Second Machine Age.

Despite all the hoopla around Big Data these days, the fact is, there is nothing dramatically new about having data at our fingertips. What is new, the authors argue, is that modern technology has increased the types of data that can be collected and made it cheaper, easier and faster to collect, store and analyze that data. They define three key realms of data: Descriptive, Predictive and Prescriptive, and show that progressing to the Prescriptive realm is the best way to enable a 'scientific' approach to business. They show that data and analytics are only valuable if they are used to generate insights, learning and evidence that inform business decisions-and that managers have a critical role to play: ensuring that their organization's analytics are motivated by the key decisions and challenges facing managers.

Most businesses now understand that their sustained global success depends upon the economic, social and ecological contexts in which they operate. The problem is, the stability of those contexts can no longer be taken for granted: the physical environment is becoming increasingly unpredictable; our interconnected global economy is altering social conditions; and technological innovation is transforming the nature of both consumption and production. As a result, corporate sustainability has evolved significantly, and now involves addressing critical business issues involving a complex network of strategic relationships and activities. The authors show how companies like Intel, BASF, Walmart and Stonyfield are partnering with other organizations-including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund-to find solutions to sustainability challenges in their communities.

Boards of directors represent the shareholders of publicly-traded companies, validating financial results, protecting their assets, and counseling the CEO. It's a demanding responsibility, requiring directors to learn as much as they can about a company so that their insights stand up alongside those of executives. That, at least, is the ideal; but is it anywhere close to being the reality? Sadly, no, argues veteran director and educator David R. Beatty. In a wide-ranging interview with two McKinsey authors, he describes where many boards are lacking; the importance of focusing on the 3Ts (talent, time and tone), and why adding the CFO to every board is an idea worth considering. In a sidebar, the merits of family-run firms' governance models are discussed.

The author introduces the concept of 'Total Leadership', an approach he developed that aims to improve a leader's performance in all aspects of life-work, home, community, and self-by finding mutual value among them. In this article, he focuses on Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who exemplifies Total Leadership by embracing three elements of the approach: building networks that provide support, using personal stories to teach, and continually resolving tensions between the different parts of life. By sharing her personal story, he shows that Sheryl Sandberg is a new breed of executive: for her, it's not about yielding to either/or; instead, it's about searching for both/and. Along the way, he shows how she has struggled, adapted, and felt intense guilt, but continues to actively pursue four-way wins over the long run. No matter where you are on the arc of your life, Total Leadership offers a model for shaping your life for the better.

A key challenge facing entrepreneurial ventures-and any company with a game-changing new offering-is to reduce audience uncertainty about the quality of the new product or service. The authors argue that certain types of communications are more effective than others in achieving this goal. Having studied eight companies and their Twitter communication strategies, they define three characteristics of a successful social media communication: a focus on quality, a relational orientation to the user, and distinctiveness cues. They then present four distinct communication streams that an organization can embrace, from 'Sparse' to 'Multi-Dimensional', concluding that the latter is most likely to receive high levels of audience responses that affirm quality.

The systemic challenges we face are beyond the reach of existing institutions and their hierarchical authority structures. Problems like climate change, destruction of ecosystems, growing scarcity of water, youth unemployment, and embedded poverty and inequity require unprecedented collaboration between organizations, sectors-and even countries. As a result, the authors argue, we have never needed System Leaders more. They describe how system leaders share three core capabilities: they are profoundly committed to the health of the whole, which nurtures similar commitment in others; they build relationships based on deep listening, so that networks of trust and collaboration begin to flourish; and they are so convinced that something can be done that they don't wait for a fully developed plan, freeing others to step ahead and learn by doing. Providing examples including Nike and Unilever, they describe how the strategic use of the right tool at the right time-with a spirit of openness-can create collective success.

When we think of leadership, we often focus on external characteristics, practices, behaviour and actions that exemplary leaders demonstrate as they take on complex challenges. While this line of thinking is a great place to start, the authors-both from McKinsey-argue that we cannot reach our potential as leaders by looking at only what is visible: we need to see what lies underneath to understand how remarkable leaders lead, and that begins with mindsets. They provide four simple exercises can help you recognize-and begin to shift-the mindsets that are limiting your potential as a leader, including 'practicing the pause' and 'making time to recover'.

A renowned Harvard Business School professor discusses her research findings around 'Collective Genius'. After spending hundreds of hours watching the world's most innovative leaders work at places like Google, Pixar and Pfizer, she found that leading innovation is really about one thing: creating a context in which others are both willing and able to do the hard work of innovation. Enabling innovation, she found, involves building your organization's capacity for three things: collaboration, discovery-driven learning, and integrative decision making. Together, these elements constitute Collective Genius-and every employee has a slice of genius to contribute. In the end, she shows that you can't plan for innovation or tell people to innovate; but you can organize for it.

With cyberattacks soaring, corporations must step up efforts to protect their IT networks. Most firms could learn from the U.S. military, which has been tightening its cyberdefenses for the past six years. In the past year alone, it adroitly repelled more than 30 million intrusions. A focus on reducing human error is core to the military's heightened security. As is true in the private sector, mistakes by administrators and users open the door to the vast majority of successful attacks. To address this, the Defense Department has been borrowing from the "high reliability" practices of the U.S. Navy's nuclear program, which hasn't had a single accident in its six decades of existence. In this article the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a special assistant to the Joint Chiefs' chairman, and a management professor describe the military's approach and how business leaders can apply it in their firms. It involves six cultural principles: integrity, which leads people to adhere fully to protocol and own up immediately to mistakes; depth of knowledge, which is ensured by rigorous and continual training and testing; procedural compliance, which is enforced by extensive inspections; forceful backup, to prevent problems that could be introduced by workers acting alone; a questioning attitude, which induces people to investigate anomalies quickly; and formality, which prevents miscommunication. By taking charge, making everyone accountable, and instituting tough standards for IT training and operation, CEOs can embed these principles in their organizations and close critical gaps in security.

Certainty profoundly shapes our behavior. The more certain we are of a belief--regardless of its objective correctness--the greater its influence will be on what we do. People who are certain of their opinions are more likely to buy, buy sooner, and spend more; more willing to recommend products; and more apt to resist challenges to their beliefs. Certainty is the catalyst that turns attitudes into action. Imagine that two customers flying Virgin America give the carrier the same high rating--a 9 out of 10--on a satisfaction survey. Most marketers, seeing that the customers are both highly satisfied, assume they'll behave similarly--that they're equally likely to fly Virgin America again, recommend it to friends, and so on. But their behavior depends less on their stated opinion than on how firmly they hold it. Suppose that one of the Virgin customers is a frequent flier and has had reliably good experiences. She is likely to be very certain of her favorable attitude and to remain a loyal customer. The other may have flown just once on the carrier. She's probably less certain of her opinion--wondering whether future experiences would be different--and therefore less likely than the frequent flier to choose Virgin again. They may hold the same view, but if one of them is more certain of that view than the other, she'll be the better customer. Despite the voluminous body of research on the influence of certainty on behavior, it is poorly understood in business and rarely measured or put to use.

For ambitious executives working in dynamic global businesses, big career transitions--to new roles, organizations, industries, or geographic locations--are a fact of life. So is the need to constantly adapt to new technologies, work groups, strategies, and ways of thinking and behaving. And yet even seasoned professionals find this sort of change difficult. Management researchers have a lot to say about the best way to approach organizational change, but when it comes to personal transitions, there is no blueprint for success. Over years working with MBA students and executives, the author has developed a framework to help in thinking about change. It involves navigating through the Seven C's: Complexity (considering all the issues in a particular change effort); Clarity (understanding and prioritizing those issues); Confidence (believing that one can be successful in making the change); Creativity (brainstorming innovative solutions to problems that arise); Commitment (beginning to implement the change); Consolidation (leaving behind the previous identity to adopt the new one); and Change (living into the change and its consequences).

The acclaimed novelist discusses his creative process, the appeal of social media, and the unique truths found in fiction.

The market vision that led to Siri, the virtual personal assistant that's now an integral part of Apple's iPhone, can be traced back to 2003, when a mobile phone's primary applications were still limited to ringtones and messaging. The author and his colleagues at SRI International recognized that the phone's growing capabilities would eventually put a communicating supercomputer in everyone's pocket. They believed that their company was well suited to be a leader in the inevitable technology and market revolution--as it had been in every previous computing revolution. They didn't originally plan to create a stand-alone venture. They talked to dozens of telecom carriers and handset providers, with the aim of jointly starting a project that would license the technology. But because the few resulting commercial projects implemented only small parts of its original vision, the founding team decided to drop that idea and create and build its own venture. Speech-to-text was the easy part: SRI had launched Nuance, a world leader in speech solutions. The hard part was analyzing words so as to understand the user's intent and then reason about and answer the request. The runaway success of Siri demonstrates how well the team met that challenge.

At some point, every company makes a mistake that requires an apology--to an individual; a group of customers, employees, or business partners; or the public at large. And more often than not, companies and their leaders fail to apologize effectively, if at all, which can severely damage their reputations and their relationships with stakeholders. Companies need clearer guidelines for determining whether a mistake merits an apology and, when it does, for crafting and delivering an effective message. In this article, the authors present their framework--the apology formula--to help companies navigate the tricky terrain. Leaders should ask themselves four questions: (1) Was there a violation? (2) Was it core to our promise or mission? (3) How will the public react? (4) Are we committed to change? As a general rule, the more central to the mission of the company the violation is and the more people it affects, the more important it is that the apology be pitch-perfect. Once a company decides that an apology is necessary, it needs to carefully consider the who, what, where, when, and how of executing it. For core violations, the "who" has to be senior leaders, the "what" has to show a tremendous commitment to change, the "where" has to be high profile, the "when" has to be fast, and the "how" must be deeply sincere and demonstrate empathy.

Ever since it became clear that smart design led to the success of many products, companies have been employing it in other areas, from customer experiences, to strategy, to business ecosystems. But as design is used in increasingly complex contexts, a new hurdle has emerged: gaining acceptance of the "designed artifact" into the status quo. In fact, the more innovative a new design is, the more resistance it's likely to meet. The solution, say the CEO of IDEO and the Rotman School's former dean, is to also apply design thinking to the introduction of the innovation itself. This process, "intervention design," grew organically out of the iterative prototyping that designers did to help understand customers' reactions to new products. Not only did iterative prototyping create better offerings, but it was a great way to get organizational funding and commitment, because it improved the chances of success and reduced fear of the unknown. Intervention design uses iterative prototyping to get buy-in too, but extends it to interactions with all the principal stakeholders--not just customers. When Intercorp Group devised a revolutionary concept for Peru's schools, it needed to win acceptance for corporate-run education and for a very different role for teachers. Thanks to intervention design, it now has 29 schools in operation and is rapidly growing.

In large organizations, design is moving closer to the center of the enterprise. This shift isn't about aesthetics and product development, however. It's about imparting the principles of design--collectively known as "design thinking"--throughout the organization. The approach is in large part a response to the complexity of many products, services, and processes. People need help--they need their interactions with technologies and other complicated systems to be intuitive and pleasurable. Design thinking is an essential tool for simplifying and humanizing. The principles include a focus on users' experiences, especially their emotional ones; the creation of physical models, such as diagrams and sketches, to explore problems; the use of prototypes to experiment with solutions; a tolerance for failure; and thoughtful restraint in product features so that even a complex piece of technology can be easy to use. Creating a design-centric culture requires understanding that the returns on an investment in design are difficult to quantify, allowing people to take chances, and appreciating what design can and cannot achieve. Design helps people and organizations cut through complexity and imagine the future, but it doesn't solve all problems.

Until 20 years ago, South Korea's Samsung Electronics manufactured inexpensive, imitative electronics for other companies. Its leaders valued speed, scale, and reliability above all. The few designers working for the company were dispersed in engineering and new-product units, and they had little status in a company that emphasized efficiency and engineering rigor. Then, in 1996, Lee Kun-Hee, the chairman of Samsung Group, grew frustrated by the company's lack of innovation and concluded that in order to become a top brand, Samsung needed expertise in design, which he believed would become "the ultimate battleground for global competition in the twenty-first century." He set out to create a design-focused culture that would support world-class innovation. But shifting to an innovation-focused culture without losing an engineering edge is not a simple matter. It involves managing a number of very real tensions. Samsung's success in making this shift stems from a single early decision--to build design competency in-house rather than import it. The authors describe how the company created a committed, resourceful corps of designers who overcame internal resistance by deploying the same tools they use in pursuing innovation: empathy, visualization, and experimentation in the marketplace.