A chemical engineer by training, Angela Nakalembe worked in the sciences and management consulting before landing at YouTube as the company’s engineering program manager for trust and safety. At YouTube, Angela explains, AI has become a first line of defense against harmful content. The technology not only accelerates content moderation tasks but makes the process…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The pressure to “do more with less” is wearing people out. Burnout affects at least half of us: In a 2024 survey of 1,500 full-time employees of U.S. companies, 51% said they’d suffered burnout in the past year. Nearly two-thirds cited mental and emotional stress as the top cause.…
Calls to bans smartphones in schools have been increasing in recent years—driven by the view that they are sources of distraction. Dr Aaron Cheng challenges this position by drawing on his recent research, and argues that when used correctly, smartphones can be useful tools that enhance learning rather than detract from it. In October 2024,…
Related Reading A. Tomaselli and O.A. Acar, «How GenAI Changes Creative Work,» MIT Sloan Management Review, Sept. 19, 2024. A. Gvirtz and O.A. Acar, «Why Text-to-Image AI Requires a New Branding Mindset,» MIT Sloan Management Review, Oct. 26, 2023. Many marketing leaders recognize the opportunity of using generative AI for marketing but struggle with a…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images There’s a quiet crisis in strategy today. Most executives assume that if they scan hard enough, analyze deeply enough, or plan thoroughly enough, a path forward will reveal itself. But that’s an illusion left over from a more stable era. I’ve spent years working with Fortune 100 leaders, founders,…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images In my work at MIT Sloan School of Management, I have taught the basics of how large language models (LLMs) work to many executives during the past two years. Some people posit that business leaders neither want to nor need to know how LLMs and the generative AI tools…
Matt Harrison Clough In collaborative organizations, where teams are matrixed, workers are multi-allocated, and the work itself is often fluid, exploratory, or evolving, managers face a major challenge: Cooperation is often messy and opaque, and it rarely follows a linear path. Today’s joint work products and multiproject environments don’t have the simple measurability of, say,…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images To compete and survive, companies need to adopt innovative ways of working, but new options seem to be emerging more frequently than ever before. Fortunately, not all innovative practices need to be invented anew. Many — such as lean management, digitization, and agile approaches — have already been conceptualized…
According to a recent Slack survey, nearly half of employees are unwilling to tell their managers that they’re using generative AI because they fear being seen as incompetent or lazy. This is a typical outcome in a traditional command-and-control structure, where fear becomes the primary motivator. When leadership takes a trust-based approach, on the other…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Time invested in the hiring process can win your organization a top performer who ultimately helps it grow — or, just as easily, a poor fit who doesn’t stay long, leading to additional strains on resources. Employers today are, as ever, under pressure to fill open roles quickly, but…