Not long ago, a bank in Colombia found itself in a managerial thicket. Its loan officers were putting off a significant amount of their work until the last week of the month, just before their monthly bonuses were calculated. Such behavior didn’t make much sense. By procrastinating, the loan officers were creating cash flow problems […]
Josh Stumpenhorst, a teacher in the suburbs of Chicago, wrote to share his experience trying implement a FedEx Day, one of the stickiest ideas in the Motivation 3.0 repertoire, in his 6th grade classroom. He dubbed it Innovation Day 2011 and has a great description at his blog, Stump the Teacher. But I wanted to highlight some
John Warrillow has been studying entrepreneurs for fifteen years. First as the producer of a syndicated radio show, then as the founder of a research company that surveyed ten thousand business owners each year, and now as an angel investor and columnist for both Inc.com and CBS NEWS. As it happens, he has a terrific
One of the hottest ideas in education policy these days is tying teacher pay to student performance on standardized tests. The theory is that offering up cash bonuses will prompt unmotivated and unaccountable teachers to get their acts together and do better by our kids. The first comprehensive study of this approach, from the Nashville public
Yeah, I know. It sounds like a spammy Internet come-on – a proposition too good to be true. But in this month’s Sunday Telegraph column, I look at the work of University of Pennsylvania management scholar Adam Grant – and his research on using purpose and significance as performance-enhancing drugs. His finding: Reminding people why
On New Year’s Day last year, we introduced our Two Sentences video. On New Year’s Day this year, we introduce a new video inspired by its predecessor. Over the past few months hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of Pink Blog readers and Pink Newsletter subscribers have sent us 15-second video clips answering the question: “What’s
Who are these two guys — and what can they teach you about innovation? The answer is in this month’s Sunday Telegraph column.
Last week at a conference, I had the good fortune of hearing a lecture by Stanford University professor Carol Dweck, whose research on intelligence and mindsets has been revelatory for me in all aspects of my life. Dweck’s broad argument is that what people believe shapes what they achieve — mostly irrespective of their innate
In this month’s Sunday Telegraph column, I strap on my spelunking gear and explore the most feedback-deprived cave in our civilization: The modern workplace. While the rest of our lives are rich in feedback — just look at the Tweet counter for this post or listen for the little sound your phone makes when you
So . . . how’s your week going? For me, and perhaps for you, this week is like any other — a tangle of deadlines, meetings, phone calls, email, and dreams deferred. But in the hallowed halls of Twitter, something else is going on. It’s “Hack Week.” For seven days, Twitter employees will “all be
