In a meeting at a law firm in Norway, two attorneys, Vera and Nora, discussed whether to invite a job applicant to an interview. The candidate’s resume had scored well on academic criteria, but his athleticism piqued their interest, too. “This guy is actively involved in sports at a high level,” Vera said. “Norwegian champion,…
Every entrepreneur wants to see their startup flourish. But as easy as it may be to envision the mature company, the path to getting there can be full of unexpected turns, breakthroughs, and setbacks. Founders often feel pressure to scale too soon—especially after bringing in capital from investors. This pressure can come from anywhere: ambitious…
The rise of right-wing politics in the US has significantly influenced both governmental and corporate approaches to humanitarian funding. Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s new honeymoon project is the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This has the potential to not only lead to real-world crises in aid-dependant countries but the United…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Stress has become a defining feature of modern organizational life. When channeled constructively, stress can act as a powerful motivator — fueling productivity, innovation, and change. Conversely, unmanaged stress can breed dysfunction, lower morale, and lasting psychological harm. Yet most organizations still lack systematic approaches for managing stress across…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images As the pace of work has accelerated and the line between “on” and “off” has blurred, you’ve probably felt it: There just isn’t enough time. With endless notifications, shifting priorities, and expanding responsibilities, trying to do everything yourself is no longer realistic. And that’s actually good news, because delegation…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images As generative AI’s evolution continues, the next challenge for leaders is clear: making GenAI scale and deliver measurable value across their organizations.1 As companies move from experimentation to enterprisewide adoption, many struggle not with the tools themselves but with the organizational transformation required to integrate them meaningfully into people’s…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images “What’s the best-case scenario that you can logically describe?” As an academic and adviser who has spent more than 30 years forecasting future intersections of people and the political economy through the lens of technological change, I’m often asked that question. My answer is always the same: Best-case scenarios…
Sometimes a concept captivates our readers. With the publication of “Philosophy Eats AI” in January, Michael Schrage and David Kiron didn’t just put an intellectual stake in the ground: They started a business leadership discussion. Consider their assertion: Philosophy is eating AI: As a discipline, data set, and sensibility, philosophy increasingly determines how digital technologies…
At the 2025 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, many tech and business leaders voiced the same frustrations — about AI initiatives that aren’t delivering business value, pilot projects that never made it to production, and their ongoing struggle to figure out what’s going wrong. So we asked those leaders and AI experts in the room to…
Something goes wrong—a mistake, perhaps even a serious incident. What happens next defines not only personal character for a values-based leader, but also organizational culture. This is the power of a sincere apology. As my good friend and former chair and CEO of Medtronic, Inc., Art Collins, observed in our recent conversation on leadership and…