Improving Creativity - Publications - Faculty & Research

07 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Digital Transformation: A New Roadmap for Success

its leaders distribute authority and delegate decision-making. Too often, leaders only communicate how digital transformation will improve the company’s performance. Instead, they must develop a narrative—a human-centric story—for how... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

28 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

types of work Cash rewards are best suited as a motivator for work that is measured quantitatively, Whillans says. Many studies of the service and sales industries show that cash rewards lead to increased sales and improved customer... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Encouraging Dissent in Decision-Making

made the discussion, and hence the ultimate decision, much better," George says. "You need to reward and promote the mavericks or else the organization will lose its creative edge. You try to create tension inside because the... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

26 Sep 2023
Book

Digital Strategy: A Handbook for Managing a Moving Target

faster decisions. Big data analytics also allow businesses to improve their operations and efficiency, explore other new waves of big data use opportunities, and eventually exploit new sources of competitive advantage, including superior... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Information Technology; Technology

06 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

and financial management, and generating creative ways to identify and meet market opportunities. FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES As more people take the assessment and HBS develops a richer data set, scholars, educators, entrepreneurs and those who... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Is Government Just Stupid? How Bad Decisions Are Made

hold these positions? Do they strike you as wise? Near-Pareto improvements include policy changes that create vast benefits for some and comparatively trivial losses for others. —From "You Can't Enlarge the Pie” We will argue that... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman, Jonathan Baron & Katherine Shonk

30 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 30, 2007

allocation, and accountability and performance improvement systems to support an overarching strategy. This central idea provides a valuable conceptual framework for current and future school leaders. The case studies presented in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Jun 2008
First Look

First Look: June 10, 2008

"Moonshine Shop," a group of plant-savvy creative generalists, is helping a great industrial company become more innovative. Chronicles the history of the Moonshine Shop, its successes and failures, and describes innovations... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Scrap the Big New Year's Resolutions. Make 6 Simple Changes Instead.

ability to collect and analyze more data more quickly, decision-making and problem-solving have become increasingly complex. Many people look to technology to solve modern problems, but the more technology advances, the more human reasoning and View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

investment firm Act III Holdings, said that although sales at restaurants in his investment portfolio were initially down more than 80 percent, he’s seen incremental improvements each week as more locations implement View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

09 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations

cutthroat competition or totally collusive bonding. Either extreme will harm the firm's performance. These swings can occur because each of the four drives was created by evolution to improve the odds of gene survival. When any one drive... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria

2023
Chapter

Organizational Development

By: Min Basadur, Tim Basadur and Goran Calic

Our review of the field of Organizational Development (OD) reveals an extensive range of tools which attempt to help organizations improve performance. We believe that OD should be studied differently: As a continuous process of change-making or innovation. How this... View Details

Keywords: Change; Cognition and Thinking; Creativity; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Innovation and Management

Citation

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12 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 12

enabled by creativity and the right organizational flexibility and mindset. The case highlights the key role of performance metrics in building a flexible system that could be refined through experimentation and testing, steadily View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

appreciate. Gift certificates for takeout to local restaurants, personalized miniature embroideries, and online classes in yoga (for adults) and improv (for kids) are only some of the creative rewards... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

identification and party mapping, to "social mapping" and building guanxi, to creative deal design and tactics, in order to most effectively work out issues of equity, management control, territory, and exclusivity. Purchase the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

also matters in how its disclosures are received. Many restructurings try to improve company profitability two ways, by both reducing costs and raising revenues. Scott Paper Company's restructuring was also designed to increase the firm's... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

13 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

Extroverts, Your Colleagues Wish You Would Just Shut Up and Listen

When people feel heard, they tend to be less defensive, less anxious, and more relaxed. High-quality listening, research suggests, also increases creativity and improves work performance by boosting a... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

Sometimes, thinking outside the box isn’t ambitious enough to get real innovation flowing. In her new book, Rosabeth Moss Kanter encourages organization leaders to think much more broadly at what restricts creativity and how to overcome... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

25 Aug 2014
HBS Case

Starbucks Reinvented

it, he bemoaned decisions (for which he accepted responsibility) that improved efficiency and increased economies of scale but robbed stores of some of their essential magic, such as the smell of roasting coffee and the sights and sounds... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

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