Management

Every so often a book comes along that changes the way you see the world. Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, which comes out today, is one of those books. In 305 insightful pages, Wharton professor Adam Grant recasts our notions of what it takes to succeed. Talent is a factor, of course. […]

There’s lots to dislike about the modern workplace. Dunderheaded managers. Snarls of bureaucracy. And all those endless meetings. But Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan say all those threats to our sanity might actually be helpful — the equivalent of sheep in wolves’ clothing. In their provocative and endlessly interesting new book, The Org: The Underlying […]

In his recent New York Times interview with Adam Bryant, venture capitalist Tony Tjan, CEO of CueBall, offers an amazingly simple and sensible approach for responding to new ideas. As he puts it: “When someone gives you an idea, try to wait just 24 seconds before criticizing it. If you can do that, wait 24 […]

The Germans have a word for everything – usually a long, hard-to-pronounce word. Now the country that gave us Götterdämmerung, schadenfreude, and Fahrvergnügen brings us . . . “bildungsurlaub.” The ungainly word roughly translates as “training vacation” — and captures a concept that seems worth emulating or at least taking seriously. German law entitles workers to six […]

One of the best ideas I’ve heard in the last 10 years is the FedEx Day. Created by the Australian software company Atlassian, FedEx Days give people 24 hours to work on whatever they want — so long as it’s not part of their regular jobs and provided that they show what they’ve created to their […]

If you have any interest in picking the brain of one of the top management thinkers of our times — and thereby cadge thousands of bucks in free consulting — tune in to Office Hours today at 2pm, EST. Our guest will be Gary Hamel. He’s the originator (with CK Prahalad) of the idea of […]

Any time a marketing guy sends an email about how awesome his boss is, I react with an emotion that registers somewhere between deep suspicion and utter disregard. But earlier this month I received a note from Christopher Jensen, Marketing Team Lead for Modern Survey, whose CEO President, Don MacPherson, I happen to know. Jensen’s story rang […]

On the business pages, columnists are writing about income inequality. On the sports pages, they’re discussing the labor economics of the National Basketball Association. Here at the Pink Blog, we can do both. Take a look at this chart of the 50 highest paid NBA players. These guys make a lot of money – practically CEO […]

On Saturday night, Mrs. PinkBlog and I — along with two-thirds of our progeny — decided to go out for pizza. We chose a place about three miles from our house called Il Canale, which a friend (an Italian journalist posted in the States) had raved about. I wasn’t sure what to expect. But moments […]

Jim Collins — the author of the legendary Good to Great and co-author of the new and equally compelling Great by Choice— has an insightful 3-minute Big Think video describing three ways organizations demotivate their employees. Watch it below or view it on Big Think. Then send a copy to your boss. ** BREAKING NEWS: […]