Worldwide, perception of discrimination have become widespread despite efforts to promote diversity. We asked Dr. Fiske if we humans are prone to discriminate against others. She describes how the motivational forces that help us survive also cause us to be biased and prejudiced, making it harder to control. In the course of our discussion, Dr. Fiske shared approaches to reducing discrimination that is more effective than diversity training. Some of the more interesting aspects of social cognition relate to the formation of first impressions which tend to overshadow our judgments. Dr. Fiske’s ..read more

Prof. Avraham N. (Avi) Kluger is a faculty member at the Organizational Behavior Unit of the School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.  His research on giving feedback demonstrated that it can be detrimental to performance and that even positive feedback can cause deterioration in performance.  To explain the puzzle of the detrimental effects of positive feedback on performance, he proposed, with Dina Van-Dijk, that positive feedback reduces motivation when people do things out of a desire (promotion focus) and that negative feedback increases m ..read more

You don’t have to look too far within a professional environment to see that there still exists a significant disparity between the opportunities offered to women and those provided to men. Many of those imbalances lay in employee wages, and other differences lay in the accessibility to higher positions. Because women are at the center of this issue, many deem it just that; “a woman’s problem.” However, mentorship experts Dr. David Smith and Dr. Brad Johnson have shown through their extensive research that women can benefit from having men as mentors and allies. David Smith and Brad Johnson ar ..read more

​In this podcast Dr. Subramony describes the HR Value chain and the benefits it brings to organizations.  He discusses the importance of selecting the right set of practices and shares three key bundles of HR interventions that drive extraordinary outcomes. These are the talent bundle, the energy bundle, and the opportunity bundle. Listen to the podcast for advice on which one of these bundles is the most critical and has an amplifier effect.  Dr. Mahesh Subramony, PhD is an associate professor of management and the director of the Center for Human Capital and Leadership at Northern ..read more

​In this podcast, Dr. Victoria Davis discusses the 21st-century skills needed for HR to drive business results and deliver positive employee experiences.  Drawing upon her talent management experience at Marriott, Home Depot, and J.P. Morgan Chase she lays out the new skills that are essential for HR to rise to the challenge.  She discusses the options available for talent management professionals for advancing their skills. In particular, she compares the various HR and talent management certifications available in the marketplace and the unique value proposition of each. Expect to ..read more

In this podcast, we discuss the topic of the future of work.  We all want to know what jobs may go away in the future and what skills are likely to gain importance. While this topic has been gaining prominence in recent years, what’s missing is an organizing framework on how to think about the future of work in a way that’s actionable. Our guest, Dr. Fred Oswald, professor of Psychology at Rice University sheds light on all the influential contributing factors.  He also provides a useful framework for us to think about skills as it relates to the future of work. Dr. Fred Oswald is a ..read more

Our podcast with Dr. Ken Barr, an acclaimed researcher who has led several drug discovery teams around the world.  He is an MIT-trained Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry with several patents to his credit. He is currently the executive director and head of R&D Strategic Global Operations at FORMA Therapeutics Inc.  Previously, he was with Merck, Amplyx Pharmaceutical, Sunesis, and Abbott Labs. ​We had the privilege of partnering with Dr. Barr on a project that resulted in the successful turnaround of a failing cross-border collaboration.  In this podcast, we explore what ..read more

Google ‘goal setting’ and you get close to 500 million search results. A popular business practice with many points of view, and some management gurus touting its inefficacy. What should leaders do – abandon setting goals and resort to “do your best”? This is the question we asked Dr. Gary Latham, the world’s foremost expert on the topic of goal setting. In this podcast, he shares the scientific-evidence on three types of goals: “do your best,” “specific and challenging,” and “primed” goals. Only one of these is backed by substantial evidence, and another bears great promise but requires addit ..read more

Our guest in this podcast is a leader who exemplifies humility, courage, and the ability to envision. I first met Dr. Jim MacDonald in 2012.  It was in the early days of him taking over the leadership of the San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) and embarking on a major transformation effort.  I was fortunate to partner with Jim and his team on some of the change initiatives. SFTS was struggling financially, the trustees lacked confidence that the institution could survive, and many of the staff were openly critical of Jim’s plans for transformation. They were challenging times o ..read more

​In this podcast, our guest Dr. Alec Levenson discusses why organizations struggle to derive value from their HR analytics efforts and offers useful suggestions for improvement. He offers ideas that are non-intuitive but have demonstrated results. For example, start with the right questions and the data you have, do not fall into the trap of doing fancy analytics when sometimes simple descriptives are all you need and having analytics-driven insights does not guarantee accurate interpretation. Anyone struggling to get the buy-in for investing in analytics efforts or looking to tighten the link ..read more