Tsedal Neeley

Tsedal Neeley

Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research

Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research

Organizational Behavior
+1 (617) 495-6776
 
Tsedal Neeley
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(617) 495-6776
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Tsedal Neeley is the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research, and Faculty Chair of the Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning at the Harvard Business School. She is recognized as one of the Forbes Future of Work 50, Thinkers50 and 100 people transforming business who are innovating, sparking trends, and tackling global challenges. She focuses on leading transformation through digital innovation and global expansion, and regularly conducts research and advises organizations on scaling cultural change. 

She has authored three award-winning books on organizations, technology, and transformation. The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the age of Data, Algorithms and AI introduces the "30% rule" outlining the minimum technology and change capabilities needed to succeed in a future driven by machine learning and AI.  Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere highlights evidence-based best practices in remote and hybrid environments, grounded in over 50 years of research. The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations chronicles the five-year transformation of a globalizing company.

Tsedal's work has been featured in many media outlets, including television and online platforms. Her teaching and speaking have garnered millions of views online. Her popular online courses Remote Work Revolution for Everyone and Leading in a Remote Environment (with Ronald Heifetz), have had over 100,000 learners. She teaches extensively in executive education (e.g., Advanced Management Program) and previously led the required MBA course Leadership and Organizational Behavior, covering topics such leadership, teams, change, and organizational alignment with strategic priorities. She has authored several best-selling HBS cases, including Managing a Global Team, which is the most widely used case worldwide on global and virtual work worldwide, as well as her patented software simulation on global collaboration. 

Prior to her academic career, Tsedal spent a decade working for companies like Lucent Technologies and The Forum Corporation in various roles, including strategies for global customer experience, 360-degree performance software systems, sales force and sales management development, and business flow analysis for telecommunication infrastructures. 

Tsedal is a recipient of the prestigious Charles M. Williams Award for Outstanding Teaching in Executive Education and the Greenhill Award for Outstanding contributions to Harvard Business School (a two-time recipient). She serves on the Board of Directors of Brightcove, Brown Capital Management, Rakuten Group, Inc., and The Partnership Inc. She received her Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, specializing in Work, Technology and Organizations. Tsedal was honored as a Stanford Distinguished Alumnus Scholar and as the recipient of the School of Engineering Lieberman Award for excellence in teaching and research.

Featured Work
8 Questions About Using AI Responsibly, Answered
How to avoid pitfalls around data privacy, bias, misinformation, generative AI, and more
Generative AI tools are poised to change the way every business operates. As your own organization begins strategizing which to use, and how, operational and ethical considerations are inevitable. This article delves into eight of them, including how your organization should prepare to introduce AI responsibly, how you can prevent harmful bias from proliferating in your systems, and how to avoid key privacy risks.
Tsedal Neeley on Why We Need to Think of the Office as a Tool, with Very Specific Uses
HBR professor Tsedal Neeley has focused for years on a pair of essential business imperatives: how to go global, and how to become truly digital. More recently she has established herself as an expert in the nitty gritty aspects of the new workplace – how to hire and retain talent, how to collaborate in a hybrid world, how to think about the new role of the office. In this episode of “The New World of Work” Neeley says she believes the office will never be what it once was and that we should think of it more as a “tool” in how we do business. And she urges companies to move now to adapt to the new imperatives of leadership and technological innovation. As she puts it, “Either you adapt, or you die.”
A Lesson from Google: Can AI Bias be Monitored Internally?

Dr. Timnit Gebru was the co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI research team – until she raised concerns about bias in the company’s large language models and was forced out in 2020.

Her departure sent shockwaves through the AI and tech community and raised fundamental questions about how companies safeguard against bias in their own AI. Should in-house ethics research continue to be led by researchers who best understand the technology, or must ethics and bias be monitored by more objective researchers who aren’t employed by companies?

Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley discusses how companies can approach the problem of AI bias in her case, “Timnit Gebru: ‘SILENCED No More’ on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models.”

Wharton Professor Adam Grant's 12 Must-Read Books of the Summer

We at the Next Big Idea Club are in the business of finding new, groundbreaking nonfiction books. Our curators—Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink—usually work with our Editorial Team to identify the titles that we think everyone should read.

But of course, each of our curators still has books that they, individually, are most excited about. So today, we wanted to share the 12 summer picks from Wharton psychologist Adam Grant. Enjoy!

Eight Business Books to Challenge Your Thinking

We hope our readers are able to enjoy plenty of downtime this summer, as leisure and rest are an important part of preventing burnout and allowing ourselves time to develop new ideas.

We’ve rounded up recommendations for eight books that have held our attention recently, in the hopes that your summer reading list can help you feel less stressed and more successful as a leader in the months ahead.

100 People Transforming Business

Insider’s most prestigious list profiles 100 business leaders across 10 distinct sectors who are innovating, sparking trends, and tackling global challenges.

Transformers nominated in these categories are the disrupters and thought leaders that are driving unprecedented change, both for their organizations and communities, and across the global business world.

12 Questions About Hybrid Work, Answered by Tsedal Neeley

At the beginning of the pandemic, I answered HBR subscribers’ most pressing questions about the sudden shift to remote work. Recently, I called on readers again to send me their questions about transitioning to hybrid work. I’ve answered the most frequently asked ones here. They cover everything from inclusive hybrid planning to onboarding; measuring performance to fostering connection and trust; and using digital tools effectively while also fortifying cybersecurity and transforming physical spaces. It’s an essential guide for any leader managing this transition.

The Biggest Mistakes Bosses Will Make With Workers Returning After Covid-19 (by Tsedal Neeley)
No. 1: treating their employees like children. They’ve grown accustomed to independence. Get used to it.

There’s little doubt that how we work changed dramatically during the sudden, unexpected and extensive experiment in remote work brought on by the pandemic. Many employees, working at home, became more efficient, productive and happier; others struggled and desperately missed office life.

Now, as returning to the office becomes more feasible, the temptation for many managers is to consider the past year and a half as an aberration—a period that’s best left behind and forgotten. Or they will take some of the emergency pandemic practices and consider them a permanent fixture of the workplace.

Bosses do both of those at their peril. If managers ignore some of the lessons remote work has taught us, empty offices may remain the norm—but this time it will be because resentful employees have moved on to other companies that better serve their new needs.

Whether dealing with employees who are working in the office, remotely or on a hybrid schedule, here are some of the key mistakes that managers should avoid with returning employees.

Building Successful Hybrid Teams
Tsedal Neeley, professor at Harvard Business School, has been studying remote work and global teams for years. In episode 732 early in the pandemic, she shared how managers could lead their teams while many team members worked from home. Now, as more people return to more in-person work, she’s back on the show to help managers lead their teams effectively in a hybrid workplace, a mix of working from home and the office. Neeley is the author of the book Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere, and the HBR article “15 Questions About Remote Work Answered.”
Author Talks: Tsedal Neeley on why remote work is here to stay-and how to get it right
In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey’s Eleni Kostopoulos chats with Tsedal Neeley, the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, about her book Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere (Harper Business, 2021). The award-winning scholar and expert on virtual and global work offers teams and managers a road map for navigating the enduring challenges of a virtual workforce. 
World Reimagined: The Power of Connection with Dr. Vivek Murthy and Tsedal Neeley
In this episode, host Gautam Mukunda is joined by President Biden's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and award-winning author, Tsedal Neeley to discuss how humans will thrive in the post-pandemic, new world of work. New digital tools can allow us to combat loneliness as the world transitions to a predominately remote workplace. But can technology create an experience where people feel a deeper source of connection with one another? Can it mimic the face-to-face environments of the past? One thing we do know: The only way we will be able to overcome this pandemic is if we do it together. But in a time of such intense isolation, how do we reclaim togetherness to solve the problems that plague us?
How to Recalibrate Work Dynamics and Embrace Digital Transformation in a Post-Pandemic Worklplace
Tsedal Neeley, Harvard Business School professor, award-winning author, and global management and leadership expert, recently caught up with us to share her insights and advice as the workforce continues to go through rapid transformation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. From digital transformation, team relaunch, to leading in times of radical change, she gives a picture of the future of work and essential advice for employees and leaders alike. 
Adjusting to Remote Work During the Coronavirus Crisis
Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School, says that there are simple ways leaders can help their employees stay productive, focused, and psychologically healthy as they work from home during the current global global pandemic. The right technology tools and clear and constant communication are more important than ever. She recommends that managers do an official remote-work launch, carefully plan and facilitate virtual meetings, and pay extra attention to workers’ behavior. For individual contributors, it’s critical to maintain a routine but also embrace flexibility, especially if you’re in the house with family.
Working While Distancing
Are you suddenly working from home? In this episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer your questions with the help of Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School. They talk through how to be productive at home whether you’re alone or distracted by children, how to care for your newly remote team and make sure they still get work done, or how to adapt when your job requires going outside and seeing people face-to-face.
15 Questions About Remote Work, Answered
The coronavirus pandemic is expected to fundamentally change the way many organizations operate for the foreseeable future. As governments and businesses around the world tell those with symptoms to self-quarantine and everyone else to practice social distancing, remote work is our new reality. How do corporate leaders, managers, and individual workers make this sudden shift? Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business School, has spent two decades helping companies learn how to manage dispersed teams. In this edited Q&A, drawn from a recent HBR subscriber video call in which listeners were able to ask questions, she offers guidance on how to work productively at home, manage virtual meetings, and lead teams through this time of crisis.
Books
Journal Articles
Cases and Teaching Materials
Awards & Honors
Winner of the 2024 Axiom Business Book Award Gold Medal in the Emerging Trends/AI category for The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms and AI (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022) with Paul Leonardi.
Included as #10 in the 2023 Thinkers50 list—a list of the world's most influential management thinkers.
Selected for the 2022 Forbes Future of Work 50 list.
Included in the 2022 Thinkers50 list—a list of the world's most influential management thinkers.
Selected by Business Insider as one of the 100 people transforming business in 2021.
Winner of the 2021 Emerald Literati Outstanding Author Award.
Received the 2020–2021 Robert F. Greenhill Award for Outstanding Services to the HBS Community.
Received the 2018-2019 Robert F. Greenhill Award for Outstanding Service to the HBS Community.
Winner of the 2018 Axiom Business Book Award Bronze Medal in the International Business/Globalization category for The Language of Global Success: How a Common Tongue Transforms Multinational Organizations (Princeton University Press, 2017).
Included in the 2018 Thinkers50 On the Radar list—a list of "emerging thinkers with the potential to make lasting contributions to management theory and practice."
Received the 2015 Charles M. Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Honored as a 2013 Stanford Distinguished Alumni Scholar.
Awarded the 2012 Marvin Bower Fellowship by Harvard Business School to support research by outstanding scholars.
Received the 2006–2007 Stanford University Lieberman Fellowship award at the School of Engineering for excellence in teaching and research.
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