All Features
Mike Figliuolo
You put a lot of time and energy into leading slackers, but you don’t get anything back in terms of results. Your job as a leader is to figure out what will motivate them to perform.
Slackers are in the lower left corner of the leadership matrix. They have the talent to get work done, but they…
Matt Fieldman
As 2022 came to a close, I was as amazed as I am every year by all the “___ of the Year” lists. It seems like every media outlet creates its own list of the year’s 10 best books, and then there’s the Sherwin-Williams Color of the Year, the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year, and so on.
This got me…
Harry Hertz
It all started with my bathroom sink. I noticed that it was draining slowly, and that I could pull out the pop-up stopper. It was no longer attached to the lever that raised and lowered it. A look into the cabinet below the sink revealed that the ball socket and lever had become loose, freeing the…
Jon Munnery
When choosing to spend money, customers will likely investigate the brand behind the name to get an idea of whom they’re building ties with as well as an impression of service quality. Customer reviews must point to a genuine interaction with the company to be valuable and influence purchasing…
Rick Gould
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting last month saw the launch of new guidance to support the logistics industry on its journey to net-zero emissions. Davos attendees got a first glimpse into how companies can better understand and track their logistics emissions. Released by the Smart Freight…
Gleb Tsipursky
Disney’s CEO Bob Iger demanded on Jan. 9, 2023, that all employees return to the office for at least four days a week because “in a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe, and create with peers that comes from being physically together.” That’s similar to…
Gorur N. Sridhar
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety condition characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry (collectively termed obsessions), along with repetitive behaviors (or compulsions) aimed at reducing the associated anxiety.
For team members in…
Jake Mazulewicz
Do you lead your team to learn primarily from successes, or from failures? Many leaders argue that their teams are just too busy to spend time discussing why a successful project went well. They just wrap up fast, then dive into the next project. So, the unspoken insights and unwritten lessons…
Lisa Apolinski
A not-so-surprising fact, according to HubSpot: 65 percent of consumers state that the experience they encounter on a website is a “very important” factor in recommending a brand. If that statistic’s not enough, HubSpot also reported that 75 percent of consumers expect new technologies to be used…
Megan Wallin-Kerth
Quality and IT are usually kept separate in the corporate world—or considered two different beasts. But in his interview with Shelly LaPointe, senior manager of IT, Quality, Regulatory and Clinical Affairs, at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Quality Digest CEO, Jeff Dewar, discovers a different…
Sarah Burlingame
There is more to lean manufacturing than improving a few processes. Sustainable lean success requires a companywide culture of continuous daily improvement. Companies that develop their people to think scientifically, using facts and data to drive their decisions, are often the ones that most…
Michaël Bikard, Keyvan Vakili, Florenta Teodoridis
Collaboration has become an important feature of various industries, particularly when it comes to creative work. This comes amid growing interest in nonhierarchical structures with autonomous teams and the increasing prevalence of open innovation.
The benefits of collaboration—be it leveraging…
Gleb Tsipursky
As increasing numbers of companies are requiring employees to return to the office for 3–5 days per week this fall, they’re running into the buzzsaw of what one of my clients calls the “Four Horsemen of the Required Return to Office”—challenges with resistance, attrition, quiet quitting, and…
Gleb Tsipursky
The term “quiet quitting” emerged in March 2022, and refers to doing the bare minimal tasks of your job description well enough that you don’t get fired. The concept quickly went viral on TikTok.
Yet it only started to gain traction as an issue of concern among business leaders when government…
Mark Hembree
When I started working from home in 1998, it wasn’t by choice. I was writing for a major record label that decided—in so many words—that I was like a painting that didn’t go with the furniture. (Fine. Know what you get when you play New Age music backward? New Age music.)
My panic-stricken…
Matt Fieldman
I’m sure you’ve heard the buzz around the German apprenticeship system—but does it really live up to the hype?
That’s what a recent mission of 16 workforce professionals from around the United States set out to learn. Supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany,…
Keith Tully
The coronavirus pandemic made way for trailblazers of flexible work as employers embraced working from home around the globe to combat the spread of the virus. This redefined expectations and shaped the way nonproduction staff operated professionally during and after the pandemic.
As Covid-19…
Scott Trevino
Nearly a quarter of surveyed healthcare cyberattack victims experienced increased mortality rates following a data breach, and more than half reported poorer patient outcomes due to longer hospital stays and delayed procedures. Healthcare has faced the highest average data breach cost—more than $10…
Gleb Tsipursky
One of the key stakeholders in stakeholder capitalism is the employee. You could argue that the employee is the key stakeholder, because without employees you’d have no stakeholders at all. This is why employers need to stay aware of today’s health environment and its effect on their employees.…
Marni Baker-Stein, Bridgett Paradise, Rodney Petersen
There’s a growing movement to increase competency and skills-based education and hiring practices in both the public and private sectors.
For example, the Executive Order on Modernizing and Reforming the Assessment and Hiring of Federal Job Candidates calls on the federal government to “ensure…
Bryan Christiansen
The U.S. utility industry, a cornerstone of modern infrastructure, is undergoing a significant transformation. Recent trends, primarily the shift toward renewable energy, are reflected in the sector’s changing statistics.
Strategic asset management in the utility sector is essential for…
Michael Muillenburg
Consider these two pieces of recent industry data: (1) 75 percent of the workforce will be millennials by 2025. Thousands of experienced workers are retiring daily. The Silver Tsunami is real, and it’s rising fast. This unprecedented talent loss is draining industry of its ability to train and…
Sue Via
Research shows that during times of economic uncertainty, companies that find a balance between reducing the resources they need to survive and investing in key areas for growth will fare better through a recession and beyond. It’s a nuanced approach that involves playing offense and defense at the…
Matthew Greenwood
Getting the most out of your older capital equipment is a priority for any manufacturer. Luckily, the technology needed to bring legacy equipment into the internet of things (IoT) is readily available.
Let’s take a look at some specific products and technologies businesses can use to bring legacy…
Harry Hertz
Yes, I have a wicked dream. No, not that definition of wicked—I mean wicked in the sense meant by scientists when they discuss “wicked problems.” Wicked problems are those that typically involve a combination of technical, social, and economic challenges. Wicked problems are daunting. They’re…
