Insights

By Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein First published in 2009, “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” introduced a concept that seemed like a radical departure from conventional wisdom: Even the smartest, most informed person is susceptible to influence, and there is no such thing as true “freedom of choice.” Someone — the government, corporations, social networks — always has a finger on the scale. For individuals, the best way to ensure...

By G. Shawn Hunter The opportunity to lead exists at all levels of an organization, regardless of where you are in your life or in your work. Author Shawn Hunter explores the small, intentional behaviors that provide opportunities to step into leadership and change the environment you are working in. In his book, “Small Acts of Leadership: 12 Intentional Behaviors That Lead to Big Impact,” Hunter uses personal life stories and interviews with business leaders to discuss...

By Priya Parker People come together for all kinds of reasons — to solve problems, to celebrate, to mark transitions, to build things, to tell stories, to mourn — and because gathering is such a fact of life, we tend not to think very much about why we do it and whether our gathering habits are working as well as they could be. Of course, the pandemic has thrown all our expectations about gatherings out the window. First we spent time in total isolation. Then we...

By Hubert Joly In his time as CEO of Best Buy (from 2012 to 2019), Hubert Joly turned a company that was headed for extinction into a thriving business poised to compete in the coming decades. He also learned in those years that so much of what he had been taught in business school and as a consultant and young executive is “either wrong, outdated or incomplete.” Companies that exclusively focus on making money and pressing employees to implement a strategic plan that is...

By Mike Konczal Some of the most heated political debates in the U.S. — around healthcare coverage, student loan debt, child care, work-life balance and access to home ownership — can be traced back to the question of whether or not we should allow the free market to determine how we live. In “Freedom from the Market,” author Mike Konczal, a director at the progressive economic think tank the Roosevelt Institute, says no. He argues that modern capitalism, in which...