How Generative AI Changes Everything is a special series from HBR IdeaCast. Each week, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius and HBR editor Amy Bernstein host conversations with experts and business leaders about the impact of generative AI on productivity, creativity and innovation, organizational culture, and strategy. The episodes publish in the IdeaCast feed each Thursday in May, after the regular Tuesday episode. Generative artificial intelligence is grabbing headlines with the widespread public excitement over tools like ChatGPT. And early academic research shows significant productivity gains in written communications, customer service, market research, computer coding, and professional analysis such as legal work. Meanwhile, the technology is rapidly evolving and getting better the more people use it. As a leader, it’s hard to stay ahead of the developments. In this episode, How Generative AI Changes Productivity, Amy Bernstein speaks with Karim Lakhani, a professor at Harvard Business School and a coauthor of the book Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World. They discuss initial productivity gains for individuals from the technology, how that will scale across a workforce, and the pressing challenges facing organizational leaders.

From prehistoric cave paintings to an inventor’s Eureka moment, creativity has always been described as a particularly human trait. But something strange can happen with generative artificial intelligence. Your ideas can take shape far faster. You also get ideas that you might never have imagined on your own. So, who is the creator here? What is creative work in the era of generative AI? What is innovation in this emerging world? In this episode, How Generative AI Changes Creativity, Adi Ignatius speaks with video artist and consultant Don Allen Stevenson III about how generative AI is disrupting creative work and the creative industry. Then Ignatius speaks to two innovation researchers, Jacqueline Ng Lane and David De Cremer, about changes to the creative process within organizations. Lane is a professor at Harvard Business School. De Cremer is a professor at the National University of Singapore Business School and a coauthor of the HBR article “How Generative AI Could Disrupt Creative Work.” How Generative AI Changes Everything is a special series from HBR IdeaCast. Each week, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius and HBR editor Amy Bernstein host conversations with experts and business leaders about the impact of generative AI on productivity, creativity and innovation, organizational culture, and strategy. The episodes publish in the IdeaCast feed each Thursday in May, after the regular Tuesday episode. And for more on ethics in the age of AI, check out HBR’s Big Idea on implementing the new technology responsibly.

You don’t have to be a famous author to suffer from writer’s block. We all can get stuck in our thought processes and mired in our actions. That's true for leaders and managers as well, explains Adam Alter, a marketing professor at the NYU Stern School of Business. He has studied how people hit plateaus or roadblocks in their work and careers. And he shares different methods for breaking free, including one proven tactic that seems very wrong: doing nothing. Alter wrote the new book Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most.

Read just about any business history and you realize just how much a firm’s success depends on its culture. Without the right culture, you can't have successful innovation. You can't compete successfully. You can't thrive over the long term. So, if you want to lead your organization into a future that features generative artificial intelligence, you need to build the right culture for it. In this episode, How Generative AI Changes Organizational Culture, HBR editor Amy Bernstein speaks to two experts, Nitin Mittal and Tsedal Neeley, about how to adopt generative AI effectively and ethically within your organization. Mittal leads Deloitte’s global AI business and cowrote the book All-in On AI: How Smart Companies Win Big with Artificial Intelligence. Neeley is a professor at Harvard Business School and wrote the HBR article “8 Questions About Using AI Responsibly, Answered.” They discuss the risks, challenges, and emerging best practices of adapting organizational culture to generative AI. How Generative AI Changes Everything is a special series from HBR IdeaCast. Each week, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius and HBR editor Amy Bernstein host conversations with experts and business leaders about the impact of generative AI on productivity, creativity and innovation, organizational culture, and strategy. The episodes publish in the IdeaCast feed each Thursday in May, after the regular Tuesday episode. And for more on ethics in the age of AI, check out HBR’s Big Idea on implementing the new technology responsibly.

Strategy is about making the future happen, not just reacting to it, according to author Gary Hamel. And with generative artificial intelligence, senior leaders suddenly wield an awesome new tool to change the fortunes of their organizations. The promise of generative AI is more than just a sweet hack to boost productivity and streamline operations. Its deeper potential lies in companies that rethink what they do and conjure brand-new, AI-first products and services. Simply put, generative AI is blasting open new strategic paths to create novel business opportunities, even as it brings serious risks and heightened competition. In this episode, How Generative AI Changes Strategy, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius speaks to Microsoft’s head of strategy Chris Young and Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu. They lay out the technology, its emerging value chains, and its main providers. They also break down the key choices and tradeoffs that large and small companies alike will be making in this fast-changing market. This is the fourth and final episode in the special series How Generative AI Changes Everything. Each week, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius and HBR editor Amy Bernstein have been hosting conversations with experts and business leaders about the impact of generative AI. Find those episodes on the impact on productivity, creativity, and organizational culture in the HBR IdeaCast feed. And for more on ethics in the age of AI, check out HBR’s Big Idea on implementing the new technology responsibly.

Sabbaticals have long been thought of as an academic privilege, but a growing number of companies offer them, especially since the pandemic. DJ DiDonna, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and founder of The Sabbatical Project, has interviewed hundreds of workers who’ve taken them and studied organizations that offer them. From his research and his own experience on a sabbatical, DiDonna shares the surprising impacts that extended time off—paid or unpaid—can have on workers, teams, and the overall organization. And he explains how organizations can make sabbaticals work both financially and culturally.

It's easy to see how big stresses at work or home -- like layoffs, illnesses, or even a complex and important project -- cause anxiety too spike. But sometimes the stresses that cause the most hard are the tiny, everyday ones that build up over time into a much bigger problem because we don't take the time to recognize and manage our reactions to them. Former HBR editor Karen Dillon and Babson College professor Rob Cross studied the most common types of "microstress" and the ways in which they impact individuals, teams, and organizations. They explain why, if left unchecked, microstress can lead to mistakes, burnout, damaged relationships, and poor mental and physical health. But they also offer advice for better handling it -- and helping others to do the same. Dillon and Cross wrote the book The Microstress Effect and the HBR article "The Hidden Toll of Microstress."

With all the hype in the startup world around unicorns and hypergrowth, entrepreneurs feel enormous pressure to raise massive amounts of cash from venture capitalists. But now, as interest rates have risen, a lot of that funding has dried up. And a growing number of founders are seeking ways to scale without burning through cash to acquire users. Mike Salguero is the CEO and founder of the meat subscription service ButcherBox. After a negative experience with venture capital at his prior company, Salguero pledged to grow his new startup without it. That meant a "Box One Profitable" strategy built on the creative leverage of influencers, laser focus on costs, and making tough decisions during the pandemic. Salguero shares how he grew a $600 million company in seven years without outside money.

If you had the chance to talk to hundreds of business leaders at the top of their game, what habits and patterns would you learn? Adam Bryant has done just that. He's the senior managing director of the ExCo Group and founded the “Corner Office” interview series at The New York Times. Along the way, he has identified the mindset and attributes that the world's best leaders have acquired to truly influence and change their organizations. He shares what they are and how to develop them in your own career. Bryant wrote the HBR article “The Leap to Leader” as well as the book The Leap to Leader: How Ambitious Managers Make the Jump to Leadership.

There are few jobs that demand decisive, clear thinking under pressure more than that of a fighter jet pilot. But the best combat pilots don't act on gut and muscle memory alone. They train to use proven mental models for making tough, fast decisions with extremely high stakes. Hasard Lee is a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and instructor who has learned, practiced, and taught these techniques. He breaks down the tools that individuals and organizational leaders alike can apply to some of their biggest problems and most difficult situations. Lee wrote the new book The Art of Clear Thinking: A Stealth Fighter Pilot’s Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions.

After decades of industrial policy that favored globalization and free trade, we are entering a new era. Prompted by the pandemic, climate change, rising geopolitical tensions and economic concerns, countries and groups of countries are once again using the power they have to intervene in the private sector, whether it's investing in drug development, offering clean energy tax breaks, or incentivizing domestic manufacturing. Harvard Business School professor Willy Shih wants to help corporate leaders navigate these changes in a way that protects their businesses, workers, and customers. He explains the new challenges - as well as opportunities. Shih wrote the HBR article, "The New Era of Industrial Policy is Here."

How does a brand or product that's been around for decades suddenly become popular with a whole new segment of consumers? Terence Reilly has some pointers. As CMO of Crocs, he used social media and celebrity collaborations to drive sales of its signature boat shoes. Now, as president at Stanley, he has made the company's durable mugs TikTok famous and bestsellers across numerous retail outlets. He explains how listening to employees and customers and acting quickly on their insights can help any organization spur growth.

Companies plan for crises and aim to be resilient and adaptive in the face of all kinds of risks, but it’s always easier said than done. And perhaps none of these threats is as serious as war. That’s what Roman Rodomansky had to prepare his company for. He’s the cofounder and COO at Ralabs, a Ukrainian software development company. As Russia prepared to invade his home country, Rodomansky and his leadership team crafted a plan to survive and keep serving clients. He shares how his firm put people first, communicated with customers, and managed to become resilient. Rodomansky wrote the HBR article “A Cofounder of Ralabs on Leading a Ukrainian Start-Up Through a Year of War.”

New AI technology enables anyone to become a programmer — opening doors to faster analytics and automation but also presenting big challenges. Organizations need policies and strategies to manage the chaos created by what Tom Davenport calls “citizen developers.” Davenport is a professor of management and information technology at Babson College, and he’s been studying how employees are using new AI tools and how companies can both encourage and benefit from this work. He suggests practical ways for team and organizational leaders and IT departments to best oversee these efforts. Davenport is coauthor of the HBR article “We’re All Programmers Now” and the book All-in On AI: How Smart Companies Win Big with Artificial Intelligence.

Many leaders realize they need to change their organization’s culture to save the business. But employees usually resist change and stick to past norms. Jay Barney, professor at the University of Utah’s Eccles School of Business, studied leaders who successfully led culture change and found one thing in common: they created and spread stories. He says it's not about making up stories but taking action — in authentic, yet theatrical and memorable ways. The new stories then emanate throughout the workforce and rewrite the old narrative. Barney explains the six rules of this practice that leaders need to follow. He’s a coauthor, with Manoel Amorim and Carlos Júlio, of The Secret of Culture Change: How to Build Authentic Stories That Transform Your Organization and the HBR article “Create Stories That Change Your Company’s Culture.”

It is now accepted wisdom that increasing the diversity of your workforce in any dimension can improve both organizational culture and performance. But one group — people living with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities — continues to be overlooked by many companies. Luisa Alemany, associate professor at London Business School, has studied workplaces that do recruit and hire employees with disabilities and found that it can be a true source of competitive advantage. She explains four main ways this talent strategy benefits the firm. She’s the coauthor, along with Freek Vermeulen, of the HBR article “Disability as a Source of Competitive Advantage.”

After the summer of 2020 in the United States, many organizations made a big push to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in their ranks and operations. But now, many fear that that momentum is slipping, especially in the face of economic headwinds. Laura Morgan Roberts, organizational psychologist and professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, says it is time to recommit to these efforts by creating the conditions for all workers to flourish. She explains four freedoms that organizations can foster to allow employees to become their best selves — and even be able to fade into the background when they choose. Roberts wrote the HBR Big Idea article “Where Does DEI Go From Here?”

When it comes to solving complicated problems, the default for many organizational leaders is to take their time to work through the issues at hand. Unfortunately, that often leads to patchwork solutions or problems not truly getting resolved. Instead, Anne Morriss offers a different framework: to increase trust and transparency and the speed of execution to truly tackle big problems. Morriss is an entrepreneur, leadership coach, and founder of the Leadership Consortium. With Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei, she wrote the new book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems.

How does someone who's been told he will die much sooner than expected find contentment in the time he has left? As a former therapist, cofounder of the Deeper Coaching Institute, and business book author, Mark Goulston has spent his entire career trying to help others manage their emotions, improve their communication, and find the right balance between the personal and the professional. Faced with his own cancer diagnosis, he's been reflecting on lessons learned in his own life, things he and clients wish they'd done differently, and how to both prepare for a "good" death and leave a meaningful legacy. He shares his newfound perspective and his advice for early, mid- and late-career leaders.

It’s a reality that more employees are discussing their mental health in the workplace. And proactive leaders can serve their teams better by listening and responding. At the same time, managers can’t play the role of a therapist or the HR department. Counseling psychologist Kiran Bhatti and University of Cambridge leadership professor Thomas Roulet argue that following the basic practice of cognitive behavioral therapy can serve managers well. The researchers explain the mental-health first-aid tool, how managers can help employees address emotional distress and negative behavioral patterns, and how that can strengthen the work culture and ultimately the business. Bhatti and Roulet wrote the HBR article, “Helping an Employee in Distress.”

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence technology is creating, destroying, and changing jobs. And Harvard Business School professor Raffaella Sadun has been studying how leading companies are training and reskilling employees for this new paradigm. She says many firms underestimate how quickly and significantly workers will need to be reskilled and leave this effort to the HR department. Instead, she explains leaders and middle managers across the company are essential to manage this change. With Jorge Tamayo and Leila Doumi of HBS and Sagar Goel and Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic of the BCG Henderson Institute, Sadun wrote the HBR article “Reskilling in the Age of AI.”

The future of AI goes far beyond individuals using ChatGPT. Companies are now integrating artificial intelligence into all aspects of their businesses. One key player in this transition is Nvidia, the AI-driven computing company, which makes both hardware and software for a range of industries. In this episode, HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius speaks with Nvidia’s CEO and cofounder Jensen Huang at HBR’s Future of Business conference about how he keeps his company agile in the face of accelerating change and where he sees AI going next.

Traditionally, private equity companies have created value at the companies they own by taking on debt, restructuring, and exploiting underserved opportunities. But surging interest rates and increased competition have made it much harder to deliver strong returns. Ted Bililies, a partner and managing director of AlixPartners, says private equity leaders can no longer count on financial engineering to drive performance. Instead, they need to invest in the human capital at their portfolio companies. Bililies wrote the HBR article “Private Equity Needs a New Talent Strategy.”

The restaurant business is notoriously competitive and often propelled by passing fads. But, first at the helm of Au Bon Pain, and then as the founder of Panera Bread, Ron Shaich managed to create an entirely new category of dining between fast food and table service and then dominate that market in the United States. He says the strategies that brought him success can be applied in any type of organization:  listen to and observe customers so you know what they want, create a truly differentiated offering, execute with excellence, and find the right opportunities to grow. He’s employed this playbook as an investor in newer ventures like Cava and Tatte, as well. Shaich wrote the book Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.

Introducing HBR’s podcast for young professionals, New Here, hosted by Elainy Mata. Whether it’s your first job or a fresh start, New Here will help you build a meaningful career on your own terms. In this episode, author and personal finance expert Anne-Lyse Ngatta and author, career advisor, and past HBR IdeaCast guest Gorick Ng explain how to lay the groundwork before you ask for a raise, when and how to start the conversation with your manager, and how to navigate the negotiation that may follow.

Economic activity has long been concentrated in big metropolitan areas. But has the rise of remote work technology -- and its accelerated adoption during the pandemic -- changed that? How are talent flows between geographies changing? And what does it mean for employers? Richard Florida, professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto known for coining the term "creative class," shares his latest research, which shows the deepening links between urban centers in various parts of the world, and he explains how these "meta cities" remain important places for people to connect. He is coauthor of the HBR article “The Rise of the Meta City.”

For a long time, conventional wisdom ruled that companies should avoid reselling their own products in used condition. There’s the threat of cannibalization, marketing confusion, and tricky logistics that can erase margins. But more name-brand retailers are jumping into resale, says Wharton marketing professor Tom Robertson. Thanks in part to Gen Z with its zeal for sustainability, he says consumer demand is rising fast for reused goods. He sees a revolution where brands cash in on resale, knowing that if they don’t own those customer relationships and sales, others will. Robertson wrote the HBR article “The Resale Revolution.”

Research shows that happiness bottoms out for people in their mid to late 40s. We might struggle with mid-career slumps, caring for both children and aging parents, and existential questions about whether everything has turned out as we'd planned. But Chip Conley says we can approach this phase of our personal and profesional lives with a different perspective. He's a former hospitality industry CEO and founder of the Modern Elder Academy, and he explains how to reframe our thinking about middle age, find new energy, and become more fulfilled and successful people at work and home. Conley wrote the book Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better with Age.

The rapid pace of technological change is making a big impact on hiring. Some organizations are dynamically securing freelance workers through platform apps like Upwork and Freelancer. Other companies are investing heavily in work enabled by artificial intelligence. John Winsor and Jin Paik say these structural changes call for a reimagining of your talent strategy — one that is open to flexible, project-based work for talent inside or outside your organization — and they explain how to go about it. Winsor is the founder and chair of Open Assembly and an executive-in-residence at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard. Paik is a cofounder and managing partner at the AI consultancy Altruistic and a visiting research scientist at Harvard Business School. Together, they wrote the book Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges and the HBR article "Do You Need an External Talent Cloud?"

Organizations too often subject their employees and customers to unnecessary friction that creates inefficiency and causes frustration. But, in some situations, friction can be a positive force, spurring more innovation and better decision-making. So how do you reduce the bad kind and embrace the good?  Stanford professors Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao have studied this problem for seven years and offer strategies for leaders at every level to help them recognize when friction is needed or not and then add or subtract accordingly. They share ample examples of people and companies getting it right. Sutton and Rao are the authors of The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder, as well as the HBR article, "Rid Your Organization of Obstacles that Infuriate Everyone."

Many leaders confidently go about tackling challenges. After all, relying on their experience got them to where they are. But taking the same approach over and over again can actually hold you back. Sometimes you need to switch up your tactics to break through to the next level. Decision-making expert Cheryl Strauss Einhorn says the first step is to understand your personal problem-solving style. Then she explains a framework to assess the situation and select the best approach. Einhorn is founder and CEO of Decisive. She also wrote the book Problem Solver: Maximizing Your Strengths to Make Better Decisions and the HBR article “When Your Go-To Problem-Solving Approach Fails.”

In a globally connected and highly politicized world, organizations are increasingly expected to comment on social, political, and environmental issues. But taking a stance doesn't always make business sense and can backfire when employees or consumers see a disconnect between leaders’ words and actions. Alison Taylor, associate professor at New York University, says there's a better way to make decisions on corporate speech, which includes involving workers in the process. Taylor is the author of the HBR book Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World and the HBR article “Corporate Advocacy in a Time of Social Outrage.”

Organizations regularly reward devoted workers who put in long hours. At the same time, “always-on” communication spurred by the pandemic and new digital tools encourage workaholism. But research shows that it’s not just individuals who are harmed by overworking. Their employers are, too. Malissa Clark, associate professor and head of the Healthy Work Lab at the University of Georgia, explains how companies unwittingly create a workaholic culture — one that ultimately backfires with higher turnover and disengaged employees. She shares what companies can easily do to change that. Clark wrote the new book Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business--and How to Fix It.

Many companies, especially in the tech world, have come to embrace the idea of growth at all costs. But according to research from Gary Pisano, professor at Harvard Business School, most firms fail to consistently increase revenues and profits over the long term, adjusting for inflation. He says that it’s important for leaders to think more strategically about not just the rate of growth they want to achieve but the direction they want to grow in and their method for doing so. Trying to grow too fast can be the downfall of many organizations. He shares examples of companies that have fallen into this trap, as well as those getting the balance right.  Pisano wrote the HBR article "How Fast Should Your Company Really Grow?"

The coauthor of the classic book Getting to Yes has new advice on how to negotiate, designed for a world that feels more conflicted than ever. William Ury, cofounder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation, has come to learn that the biggest obstacle in a negotiation is often yourself—not your opponent. Ury, who also coined the term BATNA, explains the latest thinking from his research and consulting. He shares his tried-and-true methods for overcoming yourself to negotiate better outcomes at work and in life. Ury wrote the new book Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict.

There's a lot of advice out there on how to get job interviews right, whether you're the one trying to get hired or the one evaluating the candidates. But the dos and don'ts aren't always applicable to every person. In fact, author Anna Papalia thinks we're better served by understanding and leveraging our own natural interviewing style. Having spent years as a corporate recruiter, organizational consultant, and coach to students and professions, she's conducted thousands of real and mock interviews and noticed that people tend to fall into one of four categories: charmer, examiner, challenger, or harmonizer.  She outlines the strengths and weaknesses of each and explains how this framework can help us get better from both sides of the desks. Papalia wrote the book "Interviewology: The New Science of Interviewing."

A growing number of workers are reaching retirement age around the globe. At the same time, many countries face a worker shortage, especially in critical areas like health care. Ken Dychtwald, cofounder and CEO of Age Wave, says it’s time for companies to stop overlooking this valuable labor pool, because AI alone won't alleviate the tight supply. He explains why many late-career people want to work longer. And he shares creative and often simple ways that companies can keep older workers engaged, including phased retirements, non-ageist recruiting, mentorship programs, and grandparental leave. Dychtwald is a coauthor of the HBR article "Redesigning Retirement."

It's been nearly two decades since the term "glass cliff" was coined; it refers to the tendency for women to break through the glass ceiling to top management roles only when there is a big crisis to overcome, which makes it more difficult for them to succeed. In short, senior female leaders are often set up to fail — and this continues to happen today, as recent examples from business, politics, and academia show. Sophie Williams, a former C-suite advertising executive and global leader at Netflix, has researched why the glass cliff remains a problem and offers advice for women facing them — as well as lessons for the broader corporate world. She's the author of the book "The Glass Cliff: Why Women in Power Are Undermined - and How to Fight Back."

Worker disengagement is on the rise around the world. Even those of us who generally like our jobs sometimes find it hard to muster energy and focus. So what's the key to regaining motivation? Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and research associate Robin Abrahams share a four part process to help you get your groove back: detachment, empathy, action and reframing. They offer simple tips like thinking in the third person, helping others, and gamification to help get back on track. Groysberg and Abrahams are the authors of the HBR article "Advice for the Unmotivated."

Managing technology has never been more challenging. HBR IdeaCast’s new special series, Tech at Work, offers research, stories, and advice to make technology work for you and your team. Listen every other Thursday starting May 2 in the HBR IdeaCast feed, after the regular Tuesday episode.

There's plenty of advice on how to grow into a better leader. And it takes effort to become more effective. But bad leadership gets worse almost effortlessly, says Barbara Kellerman, a Center for Public Leadership Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. She shares real examples from the public and private sectors of how bad leaders spiral downward, and how bad followership enables that negative trend. She gives her advice for recognizing and avoiding ineffective and unethical leaders. Kellerman is the author of the new book Leadership from Bad to Worse: What Happens When Bad Festers.

Managing technology has never been more challenging. HBR IdeaCast’s new special series, Tech at Work, offers research, stories, and advice to make technology work for you and your team. This week: how your team can get the most out of working with generative AI.

Around 18 million adults in the U.S. alone suffer from long Covid, a chronic illness with a wide range of symptoms and severity. With approved therapies a long way off, workers with long Covid often struggle in silence. And most companies have neither a good understanding of the situation nor effective policies in place, say MIT research scientist Beth Pollack and Vanguard University professor Ludmila Praslova. They share the conditions associated with long Covid, what life is like for those workers, and the accommodations and flexibility they recommend HR leaders and organizations implement. Pollack and Praslova are coauthors with researcher Katie Bach of the HBR Big Idea article “Long Covid at Work: A Manager's Guide.”

Managing technology has never been more challenging. HBR IdeaCast’s new special series, Tech at Work, offers research, stories, and advice to make technology work for you and your team. This week: how digital marketers are preparing for the end of third-party cookies—and what this change means for the open Internet.

Disruption and transformation at the new normal in nearly every industry. So how do you stay ahead of the curve?  Over the past four decades, Bonnie Hammer  successfully adapted to massive changes in the media industry, rising from production assistant to leadership roles in broadcast, cable, and streaming. Now vice chair of NBCUniversal, she has advice on how to get noticed, acquire the right skillsets, make smart decisions, and adjust to shifting corporate and market dynamics. She's the author of the book 15 Lies Women Are Told at Work: ...and the Truth We Need to Succeed.

Venture capital firms notoriously embrace risk and take big swings, hoping that one startup will become a monster hit that pays for many other failed investments. This VC approach scares established companies, but it shouldn’t. Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Ilya Strebulaev says that VC firms have proven best practices that all leaders should apply in their own companies. He explains exactly how VC’s operationalize risk, embrace disagreement over consensus, and stay agile in their decision-making—all valuable lessons that apply outside of Silicon Valley. With author Alex Dang, Strebulaev cowrote the new book The Venture Mindset: How to Make Smarter Bets and Achieve Extraordinary Growth and the HBR article "Make Decisions with a VC Mindset."

Managing technology has never been more challenging. HBR IdeaCast’s new special series, Tech at Work, offers research, stories, and advice to make technology work for you and your team. This week: how your team can get the most out of digital collaboration tools.

While many teams and organizations engage in scenario planning, most don't go far enough. Arjan Singh, consultant and adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University, says a more disciplined approach, borrowed from the military, can help leaders truly test how their strategies, operations, and tactics hold up against competitors, shifting market dynamics, and unexpected events. He's helped hundreds of companies identify risks and find new ways to innovate by leading them through corporate war games, and he explains his process and results. Singh is the author of the book Competitive Success: Building Winning Strategies with Corporate War Games.

After 15 years leading the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, David Novak wanted to help others become better leaders. He believes the key is to put learning at the center of everything you do, whether you’re an entry-level worker or a multinational executive. Novak outlines three main areas for learning: from your own life experiences, from the people and situations available right now, and from the habit of curiosity. Above all, he says the most effective leaders turn their learnings into action, something that takes insight and practice. Novak’s new book is How Leaders Learn: Master the Habits of the World's Most Successful People.

Managing technology has never been more challenging. HBR IdeaCast’s new special series, Tech at Work, offers research, stories, and advice to make technology work for you and your team. This week: how to prepare your company for the future of spatial computing.