Last year’s “Breakthrough Ideas” list from Harvard Business Review reflected the growing belief in social networking, open source collaboration, and other advancing technologies to improve business management. One example:
“The future of ‘experts’ is clouded by the rise of ‘wisdom of the crowd.’”
This year’s just-released 20-idea list is, as you might anticipate, less visionary, more concrete and practical.
In “Just Because I’m Nice, Don’t Assume I’m Dumb,” Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy shows how managers can avoid snap judgments of fellow workers — something all of us are genetically programed to do.
My favorite HBR idea to contemplate so far is “The Dynamics of Personal Influence.” The authors argue that our ability to influence others ends at about three degrees of separation from the influencer. “This has implications for business,” HBR editors observe, “where the success of campaigns to foster, say, creativity or worker safety may hinge on enlisting employees to influence colleagues’ behavior.”
Here’s the complete list. Visit the HBR Web site for more details on each idea. Don’t forget to come back and share your impressions.
- Just Because I’m Nice, Don’t Assume I’m Dumb
- Beware Global Cooling
- Institutional Memory Goes Digital
- Stumbling to a Longer Life
- The Rise of Economic Forensics
- Launching a Better Brain
- The IKEA Factor
- Consumer Safety for Consumer Credit
- State Capitalism Makes a Comeback
- Now’s the Time to Invest in Africa
- A Central Nervous System for the Earth
- A Looming American Diaspora
- Harnessing Social Pressure
- Western Union World
- How Social Networks Network Best
- Should You Outsource Your Brain?
- What You Need to Know about the Semantic Web
- The Business of Biomimicry
- The Dynamics of Personal Influence
- Forget Citibank - Borrow from Bob
