Guides

We live in a VUCA--volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—world. As the ground shifts rapidly under their feet, leaders must maintain their vision, manage change, and anticipate a completely new kind of workforce. This MIT SMR guide offers insights on the changing nature of work, culture, collaboration, and leadership in this transforming environment.

From supply chains to user ratings, this guide, a compilation of insights from MIT SMR, offers advice for each step of the customer journey. As customers grow more discerning and have more information at their fingertips, leaders need a guide to help them attract, satisfy, retain, and even win back the powerful consumer.

Researchers have established that diverse teams tend to have better outcomes. Yet it can be difficult to build a diverse team and also to help a culturally diverse group coalesce around a goal. This guide, a compilation of insights from MIT SMR, offers a cross-section of viewpoints on what it means to build and lead a productive, heterogenous group of contributors.

Leaders are only as good as the teams behind them. Yet most leaders are not very good at giving and receiving meaningful feedback. This compilation guide shows some of the different ways managers can develop their people and clear the way for them to work to their fullest potential. And research shows that individuals working at their fullest potential are among the most engaged and productive team members.

Leadership is not just about power, of course. It’s about building a team, driving consensus, and eliciting trust. This guide, a compilation of insights from MIT SMR, helps leaders understand how to wield executive authority to greatest effect. Learn how to translate your vision into reality and guide your team with empathy and inspiration.

This guide, a compilation of insights from MIT SMR, gives leaders a range of perspectives on why disruption is so hard to cope with, and what they can do to both respond and create disruption in their own industries. From business model creation to leadership skills required, the guide offers a series of coping mechanisms for disruption challenges.

Many leaders are building AI into their DNA. Some are still experimenting and some are pursuing AI at scale. This guide, a compilation of insights from MIT SMR, gives leaders research-based frameworks for how to think about changing your leadership, your culture, your data, and your talent in order to incorporate AI into your organization’s DNA.

We’re all technologists now. Every leader must understand how significant new technologies will change the ways we work and create value. This compilation of insights from MIT SMR offers a road map for the digital transformation journey, with guidance on new technologies, digital culture, and how leaders need to change to achieve ongoing digital growth.

Most leaders want to build — and work in — ethical organizations. This guide, a compilation of insights from MIT SMR, gives readers some new ways to think about the place of ethics and the value of non-owner stakeholders in companies. From AI to climate change to social responsibility, the guide helps readers to think deeply about what ethics will look like in their companies.

Life — and work — are complicated indeed. As we lead our organizations through complex transformations and the resulting projects, how best to foresee problems before they happen? This guide, a compilation of insights from MIT SMR, gives leaders a variety of strategies to help them see the big picture, manage complexity, and keep the team focused on positive outcomes.