AI with a Human Face

AI with a Human Face

The case for—and against—digital employees Summary. All companies want to provide their customers with richer and more engaging experiences. The challenge is how to scale the experiences in a way that does not depersonalize or commodify them. Enter the digital human. Rapid progress in computer graphics, coupled with advances in AI, is putting humanlike faces…

Don’t Let Perfection Be the Enemy of Productivity

Don’t Let Perfection Be the Enemy of Productivity

Summary.   Perfectionism is often driven by striving for excellence, but it can be self-sabotaging. There are three big mistakes that tend to kill perfectionists’ productivity. First, they are often unable to designate any decision as unimportant which prevents them from quick action or delegation. Second, they feel morally obligated to overdeliver. Third, they rigidly cling to…

Why Visionary Leadership Fails

Why Visionary Leadership Fails

Summary.   Visionary leadership is widely seen as key to strategic change. That’s because visionary leadership does not just set the strategic direction — it tells a story about why the change is worth pursuing and inspires people to embrace the change. But research finds that the positive impact of visionary leadership breaks down when middle managers…

Customer Surveys Are No Substitute for Actually Talking to Customers

Customer Surveys Are No Substitute for Actually Talking to Customers

Summary.   Surveys are a pain to complete and, as a result, most people don’t invest much thought in filling them in, which means the information they give is low-quality and unlikely to provide strategic insight.  Talking to customers and asking open-ended questions yields better results and in most cases your managers will not need to conduct…

How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive

How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive

Summary.   In a recent survey of 100 productivity hacks, timeboxing — migrating to-do lists into calendars — was ranked the most useful. Timeboxing can give you a much greater sense of control over your workday. You decide what to do and when to do it, block out all distractions for that timeboxed period, and get it…

Every Leader Needs to Navigate These 7 Tensions

Every Leader Needs to Navigate These 7 Tensions

Summary: In decades past, executives were usually taught to practice command-and-control leadership. Today they’re often advised to be more nimble, more adaptive, and less controlling. The truth is that most executives need to be able to move back and forth between those two leadership styles. This article looks at seven tensions that executives need to…