Neil Webb/Ikon Images Anxiety and low confidence are two of the most common feelings people experience during negotiations — just the thought of negotiating can send many people spinning. These reactions can cause people to preemptively throw in the towel and engage in behaviors that end up being self-sabotaging, including making lower first offers, responding…
Nothing sucks the air out of the room quite like learning the nice person you’ve been talking to completely disagrees with your worldview. Suddenly, your differences seem too stark to forge ahead with the conversation. Such encounters have seemingly become far too frequent, if you ask Steve Franconeri, a professor of management and organizations by…
Related Reading M. Webster and G. Westerman, «Generate Value From GenAI With ‘Small t’ Transformations,» MIT Sloan Management Review, Jan. 22, 2025. Despite two years of broad experimentation, most companies aren’t seeing the large-scale GenAI transformations they initially envisioned. The challenge isn’t the technology’s potential — it’s understanding how to generate real value at three…
Nick Lowndes/Ikon Images Grocery retailers are racing to reinvent the customer experience. As omnichannel shopping becomes the norm — with 90% of consumers now purchasing food through both online and offline channels — grocers are deploying new tactics to attract shoppers, build loyalty, and drive profitability. But do these customer experience investments actually pay off?…
The consequences of war are devastating. While it’s often the most-visually striking results that grab our attention, in examining the costs of war, it is crucial to understand how it affects the economy. “Of course, economic consequences do not encompass all of the misery that war inflicts on people,” says Efraim Benmelech, a Kellogg professor…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Many people want to do right by their colleagues. They mentor them, advocate for them, and confront bias, believing that these behaviors — commonly referred to as allyship — contribute to a fairer workplace. Allyship is often framed as a tool to support colleagues and to create fairer workplaces…
Dan Page/theispot.com As artificial intelligence has begun to write code, pilot vehicles, and even diagnose disease, narratives of machines abruptly replacing humans have taken hold. However, the real story is slower, messier, and far more uneven. Across roles and industries, AI’s emergent capabilities form what’s often called a “jagged frontier,” where it excels at some…
Sergio Ingravalle/Ikon Images Every leader eventually faces the moment they dread most: standing before their people to deliver bad news. It’s the test no one asks for, yet it arrives for everyone who leads. When delivered poorly, bad news can drain trust and morale. It can sap the energy of the very people you need…
What happens when you deploy AI tools to enhance workers’ capabilities instead of replacing people? At Cascade Engineering, a $400 million plastics manufacturer, “physical AI” — the use of intelligent machinery alongside human problem solvers — is giving people more time to innovate. That workforce management tactic dovetails with CEO Christina Keller’s distributed leadership approach,…
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The idea of meritocracy is under attack: It has been called a “myth,” a “sham,” a “trap,” a “tyranny,” and an “alibi for plutocracy.” While meritocracy, as historically and currently practiced, is clearly in need of reform, it is hard to accept the notion that it is so flawed…