archiveChief Design Officer Insider

The pandemic forced leaders to reconcile with the need for effective hybrid and remote team management strategies, including in performance evaluations. Research has shown the benefits of moving away from large-scale quarterly or annual performance reviews. Instead, systematic, frequent, and brief reviews focused on task performance, effective feedback and coaching,...

Readers of this magazine are well versed on the challenges of the Great Resignation, which has seen an estimated 24 million or more American employees leave their jobs between April and September 2021.  Such disruption creates challenges for companies, but savvy leaders understand the opportunity to differentiate their company by...

In today’s world, we place a premium on adaptability. Whether in the boardroom or on the football field, we are challenged to adapt to difficult conditions or try something new to respond to the unexpected. During this year’s NFC playoffs, the 49ers overcome the bitter cold at Lambeau Field to...

Whenever I coach leaders on communication, I invariably recommend that they tell the end of the story first. The end of my story is: Think about the messages you give to your team and your organization through small, day-to-day actions; they are much more impactful than the big events and...

The needs of the hybrid workspace and its employees may have outgrown conventional HR systems and responsibilities. But HR will remain an essential, helpful asset if leaders are willing to rethink their purpose and contributions. In under two years, knowledge workers have become surprisingly untethered to traditional office setups — and...

It was two weeks before go-live. A small, dedicated team had worked for six months on the project's many aspects. The software was ready to go. Publicity for this initiative had been happening for a good while. Training sessions explained the ins and outs of the new system and staff...

Business leaders have touted a welcoming return to the office and new diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Now, they need to convert words to action with a better workplace experience – or risk losing their best employees. The reality of many of today’s workplaces is not cutting it for the...

The most successful companies over the next couple of decades will be those that practice responsible innovation. They will seek to build technology that benefits all stakeholders, and try to foresee and avoid harmful unintended consequences.  But how? Doing all that requires thinking in ways that refute Silicon Valley’s conventional...

Your manager just messaged you to touch base. They’ve asked you to hop on a call to get the ball rolling with the new client. They say there’s a lot of pressure to move the needle this month, but there are a lot of moving parts, so you’ll have to...

Management consultancy has often been a target of criticism, with popular brickbats including eye-watering fees, huge contracts, secretive ways of working and an apparent ability to make money out of any crisis. However, most decision-makers and executives recognize the value that the best management consultants provide, and the industry continues...