Organizations continue to experiment with where and when work takes place. They’re also paying attention to how these decisions —and trade-offs — impact everything from productivity to morale.
Featured Leadership Collections: Navigating the Future of Work
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Teamwork Reinvented: How to Orchestrate Successful Teams in the New World of Work
Great teamwork is at the heart of how managers add value to organizations — but creating the conditions for it to flourish is a tougher job than ever.
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Leading for Maximum Productivity
How can organizations increase productivity and value creation? Research shows that leaders who are most successful pay close attention to creating healthy and open cultures.
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AI’s Edge: A Leader's Guide to AI and Its Limits
AI has transformational power, but it’s not without limits. Learn how to assess AI’s potential and address some of its limitations for successful implementation.
New in Reports
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The Future of Strategic Measurement: Enhancing KPIs With AI
Smart organizations need smarter KPIs. This report outlines how leaders can create and capture value from smart KPIs.
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Building Robust RAI Programs as Third-Party AI Tools Proliferate
The 2023 MIT SMR-BCG responsible AI report finds that third-party AI tools pose increasing risks for organizations.
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Learning to Manage Uncertainty, With AI
The second Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy report of 2024 looks at how organizations that combine organizational learning and AI learning are better prepared to manage uncertainty.
Bestsellers
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The Three Traps That Stymie Reinvention
Successful growth in new sectors requires balancing support for the core business with investment in radical innovation.
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Sustainable Strategy: Rightsizing Goals and Assessing Impact
As climate change looms large, business leaders can — and must — take practical steps to limit their companies’ impacts on the global environment.
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Philosophy Eats AI
AI’s ability to create value rests on the philosophy determining how and what it learns.
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Reengineering Negotiations
How can organizations make their negotiations more efficient and rewarding? Managers must recognize that negotiations inside the organization strongly influence the outcome of negotiations outside the organization. Using the example of Alta Systems, an information technology consulting services company, the author illustrates how internal and external negotiations processes are integrally linked and describes how managers can enhance negotiation results by improving those processes. Alta's difficult negotiations with an important client demonstrate the obstacles that arise when organizations are balancing internal and external negotiations: negotiators walk away from good deals because these do not match the organization's stated position or they agree to suboptimal deals because the organization views any agreement as better than no agreement; negotiating parties fail to explore underlying interests and see the other's perspective; negotiators function as advocates rather than as joint problem solvers; internal and external negotiations are compartmentalized; and the parties do not discuss the negotiations process. Managers of negotiators can take the following actions to overcome these obstacles: Choose wisely among options and alternatives. Use internal prenegotiations to gain agreement on the organization's best alternatives and to clarify the negotiator's role and authority in gathering information, sharing interests and alternatives, and committing to deals. Change the negotiator's role. Treat negotiators as "handymen" who undertake different tasks at different times; negotiators may serve, for example, as meeting facilitators or problem solvers as the need arises. Integrate internal and external negotiations. Institute flexible processes that survey the interests of all parties and encourage ongoing interaction among internal and external groups. Explicitly discuss the negotiations process. Encourage negotiators to set meeting agendas that focus on establishing the long-term plans, goals, and purposes of the negotiations. Communications within organizations too often sabotage the success of negotiations with suppliers, customers, and clients. By taking steps to align internal and external negotiations, managers can significantly increase the value that their organizations derive from any agreement.