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The Condensed April 2016 Issue

Amy Bernstein, editor of HBR, offers executive summaries of the major features.




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How to Say No to More Work

Karen Dillon, author of the "HBR Guide to Office Politics", explains how to gracefully decline excessive projects–and thankless tasks.




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Life’s Work: Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Iconic relationship expert Dr. Ruth discusses what she's learned over a long career.




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Smart Managers Don’t Compare People to the “Average”

Todd Rose, the Director of the Mind, Brain, & Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the author of "The End of Average: How to Succeed in a World That Values Sameness," explains why we should stop using averages to understand individuals.




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Understanding Agile Management

Darrell Rigby of Bain and Jeff Sutherland of Scrum explain the rise of lean, iterative management tactics, and how to implement them yourself.




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Make Better Decisions

Therese Huston, Ph.D. and author of "How Women Decide," offers research-based tips for both men and women on how to make high quality, defensible decisions -- and sell them to your team.




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Be a Work/Life-Friendly Boss

Managers play a huge role in their employees' personal lives, which in turn affects productivity, morale, and turnover at work. Professor Scott Behson, author of "The Working Dad's Survival Guide," and professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, gives practical tips for being a leader who is flexible, fair, and effective.




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Yo-Yo Ma on Successful Creative Collaboration

The acclaimed cellist explains how he chooses and works with partners and shares advice on honing one's talent.




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Asking for Advice Makes People Think You’re Smarter

The research shows we shouldn't be afraid to ask for help. Francesca Gino and Alison Wood Brooks, both of Harvard Business School, explain.




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Getting Growth Back at Your Company

Chris Zook of Bain explains the predictable crises of growth and how to overcome them. His new book is "The Founder's Mentality," coauthored with James Allen.




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Greg Louganis on How to Achieve Peak Performance

The champion diver explains how visualization and ambitious goal-setting helped him achieve double gold medals in back-to-back Olympic Games and why he now serves as a mentor to younger athletes and a spokesman for LGBT causes.




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A Brief History of 21st Century Economics

Tim Sullivan, co-author with Ray Fisman of "The Inner Lives of Markets," on how we shape economic theory -- and how it shapes us.




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Brexit and the Leadership Equivalent of Empty Calories

Mark Blyth of Brown University and Gianpiero Petriglieri of INSEAD discuss Britain's vote to leave the European Union.




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Teaching Creativity to Leaders

Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO, on breakthrough problem-solving.




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We Can’t Work All the Time

Anne-Marie Slaughter on (finally) bringing sanity to the work/life struggle.




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The Era of Agile Talent

More of us are working in organizations employing a mix of freelancers, contractors, consultants, and full-timers, explains Jonathan Younger, coauthor with Norm Smallwood of "Agile Talent: How to Source and Manage Outside Experts."




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The Zappos Holacracy Experiment

Ethan Bernstein, Harvard Business School professor, and John Bunch, holacracy implementation lead at Zappos, discuss the online retailer's transition to a flat, self-managed organization. They are the coauthors of the HBR article "Beyond the Holacracy Hype."




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In Praise of Dissenters and Non-Conformists

Adam Grant, Wharton professor and author of "Originals", on the science of standing out.




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Negotiating with a Liar

Leslie John, Harvard Business School professor, explains why you shouldn't waste time trying to detect your counterpart's lies; instead, use tactics drawn from psychology to get them to divulge the truth. She's the author of the HBR article "How to Negotiate with a Liar."




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How Work Changed Love

Moira Weigel explains how the changing nature of work has reshaped the way we meet, date, and fall in love. She's the author of "Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating" and is completing a Ph.D. at Yale University.




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The Connection Between Speed and Charisma

Bill von Hippel, professor at the University of Queensland, on how the ability to think and respond quickly makes someone seem more charismatic.




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Excessive Collaboration

Rob Cross, professor at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, explains how work became an exhausting marathon of group projects. He's the coauthor of the HBR article "Collaborative Overload."




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Macromanagement Is Just as Bad as Micromanagement

Tanya Menon, associate professor at Fisher College of Management, Ohio State University, explains how to recognize if your management style is too hands off. She's the co-author of "Stop Spending, Start Managing: Strategies to Transform Wasteful Habits."




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When Not to Trust the Algorithm

Cathy O'Neil, author of "Weapons of Math Destruction" on how data can lead us astray–from HR to Wall Street.




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Power Corrupts, But It Doesn’t Have To

Authority changes us all. Berkeley's Dacher Keltner, author of the HBR article "Don't Let Power Corrupt You" and the book "The Power Paradox" explains how to avoid succumbing to power's negative effects.




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What the World’s Best CEOs Have in Common

Long-term thinking, short-term savvy, and relentless focus on employees.




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The 10 People Who Globalized the World

Jeffrey Garten of Yale School of Management discusses how Genghis Khan, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Margaret Thatcher, and others made the world more integrated. Garten is the author of "From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization through Ten Extraordinary Lives".




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Re-Orgs Are Emotional

Stephen Heidari-Robinson and Suzanne Heywood, authors of "ReOrg: How to Get It Right" explain how good planning and communication can help employees adapt.




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A Leadership Historian on the U.S. Presidential Election

Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn talks about the surprising election of businessman Donald Trump as U.S. president, and what leaders throughout history can tell us about bridging divides and leading in times of uncertainty.




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Why the White Working Class Voted for Trump

Joan C. Williams, distinguished professor and director of the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings, discusses the white working class voters who helped elect Republican Donald Trump as U.S. President, and why Democrat Hillary Clinton did not connect with them.




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How Focusing on Content Leads the Media Astray

Bharat Anand, author of The Content Trap and professor at Harvard Business School, talks about the strategic challenges facing digital businesses, and explains how he and his colleagues wrestled with them when designing HBX, the school's online learning platform.




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Handling Stress in the Moment

HBR contributing editor Amy Gallo discusses the best tactics to recognize, react to, and recover from stressful situations. She's a contributor to the "HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work."




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The “Jobs to be Done” Theory of Innovation

Clayton Christensen, professor at Harvard Business School, builds upon the theory of disruptive innovation for which he is well-known. He speaks about his new book examining how successful companies know how to grow.




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What Superconsumers Can Teach You

Eddie Yoon, author of "Superconsumers" and growth strategy expert at The Cambridge Group, explains how companies can find their most passionate customers and use their invaluable insights to improve products and attract new customers.




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The Secret to Better Problem Solving

Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg discusses a nimbler approach to diagnosing problems than existing frameworks: reframing. He’s the author of “Are You Solving the Right Problems?” in the January/February 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review.




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Restoring Sanity to the Office

Basecamp CEO Jason Fried says too many people find it difficult to get work done at the workplace. His company enforces quiet offices, fewer meetings, and different collaboration and communication practices. The goal is to give employees bigger blocks of time to be truly productive.




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Collaborating Better Across Silos

Harvard Law School lecturer Heidi K. Gardner discusses how firms gain a competitive edge when specialists collaborate across functional boundaries. But it’s often difficult, expensive, and messy. The former McKinsey consultant is the author of the new book, “Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos.”




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Voices from the January-February 2017 Issue

Roger Martin of Rotman School of Management, Paul Zak of Claremont Graduate University, Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, and HBR Editor-in-Chief Adi Ignatius respectively discuss customer loyalty, the neuroscience of trust, entrepreneurship in Africa, the source of innovation, and the new, hefty magazine. For more, see the January-February 2017 issue.




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Stopping and Starting With Success

Jerry Seinfeld shares his insights into innovation, self-criticism, and how to know when to quit. The U.S. comedian conquered 1990s television with his sitcom and is now finding a new audience for his online talk show, "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee."




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Generosity Burnout

Senior leaders Brad Feld, Sarah Robb O’Hagan, Mike Ghaffary, Heidi Roizen, and John Rogers Jr. discuss burning out on giving, the techniques they use to avoid it, and how they recognize it in their employees.




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Business Leadership Under President Trump

Larry Summers, former U.S. treasury secretary, is calling on American business leaders to stand up to President Donald Trump. Summers sharply criticizes the administration’s protectionist agenda, and he says it’s time for executives to call out how those policies undermine the economy and the country's best interests in the long term.




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Escape Your Comfort Zone

Andy Molinsky, professor of organizational behavior at Brandeis International Business School, discusses practical techniques for getting outside of your comfort zone, and how that can develop new capabilities and experiences that can help your career. His new book is “Reach: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge and Build Confidence.”




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Globalization: Myth and Reality

Pankaj Ghemawat, professor at NYU Stern and IESE business schools, debunks common misconceptions about the current state and extent of globalization. (Hint: the world is not nearly as globalized as people think.) He also discusses how popular reactions in Europe and the U.S. against globalization recently could affect the global economy, and how companies will need to adapt to the new reality. Ghemawat is the author of several books on globalization, including “World 3.0” and most recently “The Laws of Globalization and Business Applications.”




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Reduce Organizational Drag

Michael Mankins, Bain & Company partner and head of the firm's Organization practice, explains how organizations unintentionally fail to manage their employees' time and energy. He also lays out what managers can do to reduce what he calls organizational drag. Mankins is a coauthor of "Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power."




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Making Intel More Diverse

Danielle Brown, Intel Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, talks about the corporation’s $300 million initiative to increase diversity, the largest such investment yet by a technology company. The goal is to make Intel’s U.S. workforce mirror the talent available in the country by 2020. Brown breaks down what exactly Intel is doing, why the corporation is doing it, where it’s going well (recruiting), where it’s not going as well (retention), and what other companies can learn from Intel’s experience.




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Break Out of Your Managerial Bubble

Hal Gregersen, executive director of the MIT Leadership Center at Sloan School of Management, says too many CEOs and executives are in a bubble, one that shields them from the reality of what’s happening in the world and in their businesses. The higher you rise, the worse it gets. Gregersen discusses practical steps top managers can make to ask better questions, improve the flow of information, and more clearly see what matters. His article “Bursting the CEO Bubble” is in the March-April 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review.




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The Rise of Corporate Inequality

Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom discusses the research he's conducted showing what’s really driving the growth of income inequality: a widening gap between the most successful companies and the rest, across industries. In other words, inequality has less to do with what you do for work, and more to do with which specific company you work for. The rising gap in pay between firms accounts for a large majority of the rise in income inequality overall. Bloom tells us why, and discusses some ways that companies and governments might address it. He’s the author of the Harvard Business Review article, “Corporations in the Age of Inequality.” For more, visit hbr.org/inequality.




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How Personalities Affect Team Chemistry

Deloitte national managing director Kim Christfort talks about the different personality styles in an organization and the challenges of bringing them together. Her firm has developed a classification system to help companies better understand personality styles and capitalize on their cognitive diversity. She and Suzanne M. Johnson Vickberg coauthored the article, "Pioneers, Drivers, Integrators, and Guardians" in the March-April 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review.




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Dealing with Conflict Avoiders and Seekers

Amy Gallo, HBR contributing editor, discusses a useful tactic to more effectively deal with conflict in the workplace: understanding whether you generally seek or avoid conflict. Each personality style influences how you approach a particular conflict, as well as how your counterpart does. Gallo talks about how to escape the common pitfalls of conflict seekers and conflict avoiders, so that you can improve your work and your relationships. She’s the author of the “HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict.”




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To Reinvent Your Firm, Do Two Things at the Same Time

Scott D. Anthony, Innosight managing partner, discusses why established corporations should be better at handling disruptive threats. He lays out a practical approach to transform a company’s existing business while creating future business. It hinges on a “capabilities link,” which means using corporate assets—that startups don’t have—to fight unfairly. He also discusses the leadership qualities of executives who effectively navigate their companies’ imminent disruption. Anthony is the coauthor of the new book, “Dual Transformation: How to Reposition Today’s Business While Creating the Future.”