How do we get from “values on the wall” to “values in action”? Articulating aspirations is only the first step. The second step is integration — embedding values in everyday behavior and organizational systems. Here are four lessons that can help as you integrate values into action: - You can’t impose culture from outside. - People don’t commit to words on a wall. - No one always lives their values. - People expect programs to fade. In the end, the only values that matter are

There are many reasons companies with more diverse executive teams should outperform their peers: fielding a team of top executives with varied cultural backgrounds and life experiences can broaden a company’s strategic perspective, for example. To score a company’s diversity, we focused on two groups that can be measured objectively from company data: women and foreign nationals on senior teams (the latter being a proxy for cultural diversity). For companies ranking in the t

Given all the effort that companies have put into diversity, it’s perplexing that they are not making faster progress. Most corporate leaders now understand that in today’s business environment, companies must achieve diversity if they want to acquire and retain talent, build employee engagement, and improve business performance. But many leaders still have blind spots regarding diversity. The set of solutions includes: - antidiscrimination policies - training to mitigate bia

Gradual shifts have led to an explosion of creative thinking around strategy. First, a new era of business demands a new approach to strategy. Second, micro-battles help companies execute good strategy and compete on the basis of scale and speed. Finally, there are 6 questions all CEOs should ask themselves. Over the past three decades, we’ve seen a transformation in how strategies are developed: - from perfect anticipation to fast adaptation - from “where to play” to “how to

Teams are a critical part of today’s workforce — but they’re often unsuccessful. One wide-ranging study looking across industries found that 75% of cross-department teams are dysfunctional. Some of the reasons for failure include problems with coordination, motivation, and competition — as well as waiting too long to address these issues. How do you know if your team is working at the highest level? By assessing a series of factors known to influence a team’s success — such a