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This article aims to help employers implement equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) training efforts that can make the difference between meeting today’s elevated expectations and falling short by focusing only on select characteristics like race and gender. Understanding the pervasiveness of biases and how they impact our thinking and behaviour can help us try to moderate how we act and communicate, which is why introspection and implicit bias tests are used to detect the strength of a person’s automatic associations between mental representations. But introspection and implicit bias tests don’t eliminate biases or help us avoid falling into the Judgment Trap. According to the research behind the TRACOM SOCIAL STYLE Model, 75 per cent of people with whom you interact have a different behavioural pattern or “Social Style,” including the Driving Style, Expressive Style, Amiable Style, and Analytical Style. Social intelligence training can help those with each of the four Social Styles make adjustments that can enable people to interact more effectively, empathetically, and transparently. By deploying Social Style training to focus on behaviours, organizations empower people to recognize how their perceived strengths can actually impede their relationships with co-workers, while moving them to appreciate diversity of thought and behaviour. This counters the unfounded judgments that our brains ironically make in the name of efficiency, and thus enables us to interact more respectfully and effectively.

This article aims to help employers support women as they pursue their goals and dreams by changing organizational dynamics that prevent progress. There are steps that one can take to balance cross-gender relationships and improve the cultural context in which employees interact. These steps will get organizations headed in the right direction—and faster, while getting them farther, than preaching change by itself. Unfortunately, when an organization decides that it needs to change something like its gender relationships, employees typically have no idea what to do other than talk about the fact that they are being told to change. The following steps can mitigate the pain associated with change by focusing on objectives while letting employees lead the conversation about what needs fixing to achieve them: 1) start at the end and visualize the story you want tomorrow’s organization to tell, 2) set a release date for your new story, 3) build a plan backward, 4) create a pilot team of change agents, 5) create new habits one at a time, 6) measure the right things, and 7) celebrate objectives and reward the right behaviours. Ultimately, firms should not assume their employees will reject change no matter how it is positioned. More often than you might think, an organization’s people really just don’t know what change could or should be.

As the second wave of COVID-19 was ramping up in 2020, a three-day virtual summit organized by the Ivey Academy brought together senior HR professionals from across Canada to discuss working on the front lines of organizational disruption. Day 1 examined equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) efforts. As 2020’s civil rights protests demonstrated, the institutional programs conducted around EDI in the past have failed to deliver what is expected today, not to mention what justice demands. Day 2 was themed “from staying afloat to charting a course.” With remote work leading to problems—ranging from rising mental health issues and Zoom fatigue to increased cyberattacks—most companies are still trying to figure out what level of remote work makes sense for future operations. Summit attendees discussed the need to further develop virtual working skills and leadership empathy, while focusing employees on purpose more than profits, beefing up mentoring/coaching, and breaking down virtual silos. Finally, Day 3 examined the re-humanization of the workplace. The pandemic has essentially stripped the workplace of direct human-to-human interaction as work hours soar. As a result, employee stress is up, along with substance use, which has impacted engagement. HR summit attendees discussed the need to explore new ideas that go well beyond offering flexible hours, technical training, and mental health support programs—these included blackout periods, high-end virtual events, and online food vouchers for team lunches.

When Hurricane Sandy struck the mid-Atlantic coast, in October 2012, thousands of Guardian employees in New York and New Jersey were affected, and company headquarters was flooded by five feet of water. Two days later all the team members had been accounted for; some had been put up in hotel rooms, others had been supplied with generators, and Guardian had created a fund to cover employees' hurricane-related costs.That experience taught Mulligan to think even longer-term than she always had: What were all the things that could go wrong, and how could the company protect itself from them? What could go right if Guardian were poised to seize the opportunities presented? Technology became a top priority: The company migrated many applications to the cloud and modernized employee productivity tools. It built a data analytics operation from the ground up and retrained actuaries to be analysts. Working remotely became common at Guardian. And its leaders anticipated two other important issues for organizations: diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the gig economy.

"Co-opetition"--cooperating with a competitor to achieve a common goal or get ahead--has been gaining traction for three decades. Yet many companies are uncomfortable with the concept and bypass the promising opportunities it presents. In this article two professors who helped introduce the approach offer a framework for deciding whether to team up with a rival, drawing on examples from Apple and Samsung, DHL and UPS, Ford and GM, and Google and Yahoo. Their advice: Start by analyzing what each party will do if it chooses not to cooperate and how that will affect industry dynamics. Sometimes working together is a clear win, but even if it isn't, it may still be better than allowing someone else to take your place in the deal--which could leave you at a disadvantage. Next, it's critical to figure out how to cooperate without giving away your "secret sauce"--your current advantages. Once you've done that, you'll need to craft an agreement that clearly outlines the deal's scope, who is in charge, how the arrangement could be unwound if needed, and how gains will be divided. You'll also have to manage resistance within your own firm and alter internal mindsets. Co-opetition requires mental flexibility, but firms that develop it can gain an important edge.

Workers who come from lower social-class origins in the United States are 32% less likely to become managers than those who come from higher social-class origins. That represents a disadvantage even greater than the one experienced by women compared with men (27%) or Blacks compared with whites (25%). Social class disadvantage in the workplace prevails in every major economy around the world. In discriminating against people who come from a lower social class, we're discriminating against a majority of the work­force--a grossly harmful indulgence, especially when you consider what happens if you don't discriminate. According to the author's research, GDP is higher per capita in countries where more managers come from lower social-class origins. Companies pay a lot of attention to issues of gender and race, and for very good reason. In this article, the author argues that it's time to focus equally on social class disadvantage. In doing so, he notes, firms reinforce their efforts to combat other forms of disadvantage. He explores the root causes of the problem and lays out the most promising interventions that are emerging from research and practice to help remediate it.

When you're seeking to advance your career--by joining a different company or moving into a new role with your current employer--it's important to think strategically about not just what you want but how to get it. In this article the authors draw on their work coaching executives and their cross-cultural research to propose four steps that can help you prepare to negotiate. First, think broadly about your long-term career goals instead of focusing narrowly on the offer at hand or the question of pay and benefits. Second, be mindful of what type of opportunity you're asking for--something standard, an unusual arrangement for yourself, or a chance to take your organization in a new direction--and tailor your arguments accordingly. Third, arm yourself with the necessary information to reduce ambiguity about what's possible and with whom to negotiate. Fourth, connect with people who can be helpful in making your case, and approach negotiations as an opportunity to enhance your working relationships. If you follow these steps and set career targets that are specific and realistic, you're more likely to chart a path to success.

Products and services that rely on machine learning-computer programs that constantly absorb new data and adapt their decisions in response-don't always make ethical or accurate choices. Sometimes they cause investment losses, for instance, or biased hiring or car accidents. And as such offerings proliferate across markets, the companies creating them face major new risks. Executives need to understand and mitigate the technology's potential downside. Machine learning can go wrong in a number of ways. Because the systems make decisions based on probabilities, some errors are always possible. Their environments may evolve in unanticipated ways, creating disconnects between the data they were trained with and the data they're currently fed. And their complexity can make it hard to determine whether or why they made a mistake. A key question executives must answer is whether it's better to allow smart offerings to continuously evolve or to "lock" their algorithms and periodically update them. In addition, every offering will need to be appropriately tested before and after rollout and regularly monitored to make sure it's performing as intended.

By now most companies have committed to sustainability efforts--and yet many CFOs still see those efforts as a cost rather than a source of value. That makes it hard to unlock the internal financing needed to scale them up. The authors--the director and a senior scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business--have developed the Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI) analytic tool, which companies can use to measure the financial returns on their sustainability activities. Implementing ROSI is a five-step process. Companies should (1) identify their current sustainability strategies, (2) identify related changes in operational or management practices, (3) determine the resulting benefits, (4) quantify the benefits, and (5) calculate the monetary value. The savings and growth thus revealed can reach hundreds of millions of dollars; in large companies, it can be billions. Particularly now, as companies scrutinize budgets threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic, ROSI analysis can help CFOs improve organizational finances through sustainability investments that create value for investors, employees, customers, and the world at large.

Across society, volunteerism has been stagnant or trending slightly downward in recent years. In the corporate world, however, it has been on the rise. In fact, paid time off for volunteering is one of the few employee benefits that has increased significantly over the past five years. The benefits of well-designed corporate volunteer programs have been clearly established: They boost productivity, increase employee engagement, and improve hiring and retention, to name just a few. But too often, firms' programs fall short. In designing their volunteer programs, companies fall prey to common pitfalls: They blindly copy what other firms are doing, prioritize leaders' pet projects, or pressure employees to participate, essentially making volunteering mandatory. Such errors diminish the value of the programs to the company, employees, and society. Instead, firms should prioritize meaning, balance top-down structure with bottom-up passion, and seek to involve a variety of stakeholders in their initiatives.

By aligning executives' financial incentives with company strategy, a firm can inspire its management to deliver superior results. But it can be hard to get pay packages right. In this article four experts break down the key elements of compensation and explain how to put them together effectively. When designing packages, boards must make decisions about the proportion of fixed versus variable pay, short-term versus long-term incentives, cash versus equity, and group versus individual rewards. Many look at the copious data available on executive pay and benchmark their plans against those of their industry peers. The mix is also driven by company size, region, culture, and risk appetite. A good plan always begins with a firm's strategic goals, however. Is the company striving for profitable growth, a turnaround, or a transformation? Is it trying to compete with public companies as a private entity? Each scenario calls for a different plan design. The Covid-related economic crisis may also alter plans. If targets become unachievable, incentives will lose their power and need to be revised--offering firms a chance to incorporate measures that serve stakeholders' interests better.

Judging from how they're portrayed in the media, it would be easy to dismiss family businesses as hotbeds of power-playing, backstabbing, and favor-currying, ultimately destined to fail; think of the Murdochs and News Corp, or the Redstones and National Amusements, to name just two. But many family businesses have enjoyed success for decades, even centuries. The authors explore five aspects of ownership that are crucial to whether a family business thrives or perishes: the type of ownership (whether a sole owner, a partnership, or another arrangement); the governance structure; how "success" is defined; what information the owners will (and won't) communicate to other family members and stakeholders; and how to handle the transition to the next generation.

Extensive research shows that when employees get hands-on managerial support, they perform better than when they're left to their own devices, but unnecessary or unwanted help can be demoralizing and counterproductive. So how do you intervene constructively? The authors share three key lessons learned during 10 years of study: (1) Step in only when people are engaged in a challenging task and ready to accept help; (2) clarify that your role is to offer assistance, not take over the project or judge anyone; and (3) align the rhythm of your involvement to employees' needs, determining whether the situation calls for intensive guidance in the short term or intermittent path clearing over a prolonged period. These strategies are especially valuable for helping teams that are physically separated, as so many are during the current pandemic.

Two new books--"The Game Is Not a Game" and "Football's Fearless Activists"--offer some useful context for examining the current relationship between athletics and activism, from Colin Kaepernick's kneel to the NBA Bubble.

The iconic recording artist on courage, compassion, and resilience.

Experienced executives rely too much on old playbooks PLUS the downside of creative superstars, a better way to manage virtual queues, and more.

Companies that want to increase their innovativeness often copy hip start-ups by adopting agile practices like stand-up meetings. Too bad they don't really work.

When 2020 began, the world was literally on fire, and things got worse from there. In a wide-ranging interview, best-selling author and Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson shares key insights from her latest book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, which was short-listed for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. After describing the key changes required to the capitalist system, including 'rewiring finance', she describes what each of us can do-as an employee, a consumer and a citizen-to shape the world for the better.

The authors-senior editors at Bloomberg News and The Economist-argue that the global pandemic has laid bare the weaknesses of Western societies. In an excerpt from their book of the same title, they share part of their recipe for reform. Among their recommended reforms are 'Stop Subsidizing the Rich and the Old', 'Reinvigorate Talent' and 'Unleash Technology'. While they focus on the U.S. in the book, their wake-up call can be applied to any western nation. In the end, they say, COVID-19 gives us an opportunity to re-think the design of our entire system-something that hasn't happened in decades.

The global pandemic is changing the way we eat, work, shop, exercise, manage our health, socialize and spend our free time-and the 'low-touch economy' is here to stay. Board of Innovation co-founder Nick De Mey describes how our society and the global economy have been permanently altered by COVID-19. In a wide-ranging interview, he argues that the pandemic is shaping a new era of consumer behavior, and that successful companies will be those who adapt their business models accordingly.