You can either help build cars or you can manage the workers who build them. You can write code or set the five-year roadmap for an entire team of coders. You can care for patients or oversee the hospital’s growth. In short, you can be an expert—an “individual contributor”—or you can be a manager. “There…
As video games become increasingly popular, they present a great opportunity to teach a variety of subjects. But that leaves companies attempting to both teach and entertain in a bind. Push the educational content too hard, and players might check out. But dial up the fun factor to increase engagement, and the educational mission could…
Microsoft Copilot/Unsplash Companies are betting that AI chatbots will deliver faster and cheaper customer service. But if you’ve ever tried to circumvent a chatbot and get to a human, you’re not alone. Here’s what three recent studies discovered about when customers will and won’t let AI do a human’s job. 1. Customers avoid chatbots for…
Ivan Diaz/Unsplash Human beings are not good at separating fact from fiction. But surely hard-nosed B2B professionals are different? Our research suggests otherwise. In two experiments with 622 B2B sales professionals, we gave participants a negotiation scenario in which a buyer either lied or told the truth. We then gave half the participants a story…
Photo courtesy DHL John Pearson has been CEO of DHL Express and on the DHL Group board of management since 2019. He joined the global logistics and courier company in 1986 and has held senior management positions in its divisions in the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S., and Europe. MIT Sloan Management Review…
Nimble Made/Unsplash Getting manager buy-in for a good idea is harder than it should be. Our research points to a communication style that reliably breaks through this wall — and that is disproportionately exhibited by white-collar employees with working-class origins. We studied how employees present ideas to their managers by conducting a field survey of…
One of the best ways to understand the modern world is to look back at history. From the origins of government to the peacekeeping role of potatoes in the Old World, episodes from the past can explain a lot about why things are the way they are today. Kellogg researchers are no strangers to this…
Matt Chinworth Across industries, companies are investing unprecedented sums in reskilling programs to prepare employees to use emerging technologies.1 The programs are typically built around forecasts of which skills, such as data literacy, digital fluency, systems thinking, and adaptability, will matter most. Each year, when the forecasts are updated, training courses — and their related…
Brian Stauffer/theispot.com By the ordinary measures of any new technology, the current wave of generative AI has moved fast. By some estimates, about 2.4 billion people worldwide use generative AI platforms each month, and coding agents have changed how software is written. Efforts to commercialize the technology have scaled just as fast. AI coding platform…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Unsplash, Fotos After receiving some challenging feedback about my management style, I’ve done a lot of introspection, taken responsibility, worked with a coach, and I believe I’ve made real changes in how I work with others. But I don’t sense that others’ perceptions have changed accordingly. What else do I need…