Innehållsförteckning för Fall 2024 från Rotman Management

DAY AFTER DAY, we observe people doing the same things in the same ways. As a result, we expect people to wear shoes on their feet and gloves on their hands; to eat ice cream with a spoon, not a fork; and to sit at the front when they drive and the back when they don’t. When we observe these things over and over, our mind stops registering the action and responding. There is no ‘surprise’ signal in our brain to draw attention and make us think, ‘Hey, maybe we could do things differently?’ But once in a while, someone does come along and wonder whether the way we have always done things is the only way — or the best way. Someone who thinks, ‘Hey, maybe humans can travel…

IN HIS WRITINGS, Aristotle considered various aspects of a life led in accordance with virtue and excellence: a life of pleasure, honour, wealth, health and eminence. Of these, only two have survived the test of time: the pleasurable life (despite Aristotle’s admonitions) and the ‘eudaimonic’ life (i.e. seeking meaning and purpose). In the millennia since Greek philosophers debated the question, the strong dichotomy between these two prevailing models—hedonic versus eudaimonic well-being — continues to dominate psychological research on the good life. Yet this dichotomy limits psychology by overlooking many types of lives that don’t fit neatly within it. In this article, we move beyond the eudaimonic–hedonic divide to suggest a third powerful contender for a good life: a psychologically rich life — a life characterized by a variety of interesting…

A COMPANY’S EFFORTS TO INNOVATE can fall short for many reasons. Critical assumptions about customers, technologies, rivals and innovation domains may not reflect current trends and circumstances. The diversity and quality of ideas in the funnel may be too low. Or, the organization may struggle to identify, prioritize and invest behind the best ideas. Whether the focus is on new products, services, processes or business models, Generative AI (GenAI) can enhance and challenge the work of teams across all phases of the innovation cycle. GenAI’s most obvious contribution is in idea generation and validation — the divergence and convergence phases of innovation. Yet it can play an even more important role in helping leaders confront and update the strategic assumptions at the foundation of their business and innovation strategies: the…

You are a huge proponent of ‘Intentionality.’ How do you define it, and why is it so powerful? Intentionality is a ‘feelings-first’ approach to life and leadership that guides you to identify how you want to feel and then helps you take incremental steps towards making that a reality. In the business world, feelings have always been pushed away. As the old saying goes, ‘it’s not personal, it’s just business.’ But we are feelings-based beings, so it is simply unrealistic to think we can compartmentalize our feelings when we get to work. The way we see the world was likely shaped when we were young, influenced by those around us and their subconscious programming. This means we could be living our lives based on subconscious drivers that we have no…

Why are reputations so important? Your reputation can be defined as ‘a perceptual identity formed from the collective perceptions of others.’ It reflects a complex combination of your personal characteristics, accomplishments and demonstrated behaviour over a period of time — as observed from secondary sources. There are some very good reasons to pay attention to your reputation. At the individual level, reputation has been linked to power, career advancement, greater autonomy and other positive results. People are motivated not only to become their ideal selves, but also to convince others around them of this image. This psychological desire for a positive personal reputation exists in order to fill a basic human need for both self-fulfillment and self-esteem. What are some of the key outcomes of a great reputation? Recent research…

SINCE THE RELEASE of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot based on a large language model (LLM), scientists and lay people alike have marvelled at its ability to simulate human qualities. One of these is empathy, which involves resonating with another’s emotions, taking another’s perspective and generating compassionate concern. In a recent paper, I worked with my University of Toronto Psychology colleague Paul Bloom, C. Daryl Cameron (Penn State) and Jason D’Cruz (SUNY Albany) to determine where ‘empathic AI’ might be helpful, and where it might cause harm. We were an unusual group of collaborators because we have disagreed in the past about empathy’s nature, its apparent limits and whether we should be for or against it. But here, we agreed: perceived expressions of empathy can leave beneficiaries feeling that someone is…

IN SPITE OF EVIDENCE that human work is increasingly social and relational in nature — and ample evidence to suggest that social and relational ‘work’ is valuable to individuals and organizations alike — we have not, to date, built a language system and methods of measurement of the skills that allow us to assess whether people do such work competently or superlatively. And, as a result, we have not been able to develop ways to help humans demonstrably acquire these skills. From LinkedIn knowledge graph reports to white papers of the World Economic Forum, from McKinsey & Co. and Boston Consulting Group to the International Labour Organization reports, soft skills have been touted as critically important to the current and next generation of workers and leaders. Moreover, demand for soft…

THERE IS ONE THING that virtually every organization — whether it’s a bank, a tech start-up or a hospital — has in common: a desire to reach its full innovative potential. The question is, how can this be achieved? There is no easy answer, but the research has identified several factors that have important effects on the innovative ability and activity of both small and large firms. In this article — an excerpt from my new book, The Management of Innovation — I will share eight of the most important elements and principles for leaders to consider when aiming to optimize innovation for their organization. The first four relate to the use of intellectual property (IP) for effective management of the technologies developed by an organization while the other four…

Brett Hendrie: How do you define perfectionism? Thomas Curran: Perfectionism is a form of deficit thinking that comes from a place of feeling like we’re ‘not enough’: We don’t have a perfect enough life; we’re not working hard enough; we’re not attractive enough — or whatever it might be that is important to us. That is the starting point for all the high standards and over-striving we see today. The good news is, some of the people you identify as being perfectionists are just highly conscientious or meticulous. Those things come from a very optimistic place of wanting to improve and learn. But perfectionism — over-striving and all the effort that’s bound up in trying to perfect certain aspects of ourselves — comes from a place of lack. That’s the…

Here’s a paradox: Companies have never placed a higher priority on innovation—yet they have never been as unready to deliver on their innovation aspirations. Our annual survey of global innovators finds that the pandemic, a shifting macroeconomic climate and rising geopolitical tensions have all taken a toll on innovation discipline. For 18 years, we’ve asked senior innovation executives where innovation ranks in their company’s priorities. Is it at the top, in the top three, one of the top 10 or lower? This year a record 83 per cent of respondents reported that their companies rank innovation among their top three areas of focus. In the last two years, innovation readiness has plummeted, with just three per cent of companies in the ready zone today, compared with 20 per cent as…

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT IDENTITY, diversity and justice are some of the thorniest human interactions of our time. Consider Uber’s head of diversity, who hosted a workplace event titled ‘Don’t Call Me Karen’ to highlight the “spectrum of the American white woman’s experience” and foster an “open and honest conversation about race.” Following backlash from employees of colour, she was placed on a leave of absence. Or consider Stanford Law School’s associate dean for diversity, who tried to de-escalate student protests during a speech by conservative judge Kyle Duncan. The dean tried to placate the students, who were angered by the judge’s anti-LG-BTQ+ views, while giving the judge the space to finish his talk. But her intervention led to a public furor due to a perception that she had prioritized students’ feelings…

INTENTION 1: Leverage Energy over Time • Time is the standard metric for how we prioritize what is important to us, but when we shift our focus to energy, we become more aware, more present, and are less likely to get lost in negative belief loops. • Look at your calendar. Is there a meeting, appointment or commitment that defaults to a certain amount of time that you could shorten? Edit at least one of these events in the next week, and then schedule in a 10- or 20-minute self-care break with the time saved. INTENTION 2: Embrace Discipline over Rigidity • Rigidity frames things from a punitive lens, while discipline, when implemented with compassion, is an act of self-love. • Challenge yourself to squeeze in some form of exercise…

Regardless of industry, today’s leaders are facing a high degree of uncertainty—and there is no end in sight. What is your advice for them? Events that cause leaders to pause and rethink their organization’s growth pathway are increasingly common. As a result, we would all benefit from building flexibility into our strategies to absorb — and then leverage — these unexpected shocks when they occur. I find it is helpful to categorize different types of uncertainty using two gauges: familiarity and impact on the organization. If you’re a retail executive opening a new store or a consumer goods company launching a new product, these are challenges that involve uncertainty to a degree, but these are familiar uncertainties. Whereas things like Brexit, COVID-19 and how and when AI will disrupt an…

IF BY SOME MIRACLE, you could dump the contents of your imagination onto a table and spread them out, what would you find? Shiny visions of the future lying next to wispy hopes and glowing dreams. Mushy blobs of half-baked schemes tangled among solid pillars of belief. Decaying regrets and throbbing clumps of worry leaving messy trails behind. Far-flung ideas falling off the edges of the table and scattering across the floor. Look closely at this heap of ideas and ideals and you will find they’re all made of the same things: fragments of your experience spawned, preserved and reassembled by feelings. Feelings inspire us: What’s an epiphany but an insight laced with excitement? They guide decisions: Get to the bottom of any choice, and you’ll find feelings leading the…

Please describe what you call the ‘the illusion of innovation.’ I’ve worked with many Fortune 500 companies over the past 25 years, and I’ve seen my share of ‘innovation theatre.’ This consists of people acting busy doing something so executives can explain to the board that ‘innovation is definitely a top priority!’ But most of these efforts produce very little impact. In fact, they often destroy value by wasting resources and distracting the organization. Leaders need to be aware of this illusion, how to spot it — and what to do about it. In my experience, the key is to allow for some deliberate inefficiency in the organization to escape the efficiency trap. This can be done systematically, through experimentation designed to challenge core assumptions. That’s the only way to…

Why do so many people begin to question their job and/or their career at some point? People have always done this, but we’re definitely more comfortable expressing it now than in the past, and I think there are a couple of explanations. First, the well-being boom that we experienced a couple of years ago during the pandemic has really opened up people’s ideas that happiness at work is an actual possibility — and that they can think more deeply about the ‘relationship’ they have with their careers in ways that we used to only think about other types of relationships. Like all relationships, the career relationship involves some complicated emotions. Our feelings can go up and down. We can love it one week and then hate it the next. Another…

Mo Bunnell: In terms of personal well-being, languishing and flourishing lie at opposite ends of a spectrum. How do you define languishing? Corey Keyes: Languishing is the absence of some really important things that make our lives meaningful and give us a sense that we matter in this world. A hypothetical person who is languishing might feel like their life has no direction or meaning; like they’re not being challenged to grow and become a better person; that they aren’t making much of a contribution to the world; that they have no community to which they belong; or that they are lacking in warm, trusting relationships. Languishing is a persistent state, regardless of whether life around you is going well or not. To diagnose it, I’ve developed a 14-item scale…

CANADA’S HEALTHCARE SYSTEM, renowned for its decentralized, universal and publicly funded structure, faces significant challenges, particularly in managing chronic and complex diseases. The healthcare crisis in primary care has been well-documented, with one in six Canadians lacking a regular family physician. However, less attention has been given to the similar meltdown occurring within specialist care. Compared to other nations, Canada struggles with specialist access; for instance, 57 per cent of Canadians wait at least four weeks to see a specialist — only slightly better than the United States and more than double the rate of the most efficient countries. Particularly for those with uncommon chronic and complex illnesses, the lack of timely specialist care is critical. These patients, who require urgent attention, often experience prolonged diagnostic periods and delays in…

ALTHOUGH WE AS CONSUMERS LIVE IN THE PRESENT, most of our spending and saving choices have temporal components to them. Because the present is immediate and the future is distant, consumers often discount the enjoyment their future selves will experience, choosing to accelerate rewards to the present and delay costs to the future. When choosing to splurge today, not saving for tomorrow might seem like a small price to pay. But as tomorrow morphs into today, consumers repeatedly eschew opportunities to pay off past purchases and save for the future; instead, they continue to spend more and more. Procrastination comes easily and resisting the urge to spend is difficult, which is why most consumers don’t have sufficient savings to survive even smallscale disruptions. In 2023, the Federal Reserve found that…

WHEN GOLIATH WAS ATTACKING the Israelites unopposed, with bravery, courage and faith entered the shepherd boy David. His stones and sling threw the giant to the ground at once. In today’s digital era, where digital native firms compete with established organizations through innovative business models, this classic story can be viewed as an analogy to the business world. Imagine placing the legacy and digital incumbents as Goliaths and digital native companies as Davids. Digital transformations driven by innovation and execution mindsets replace David’s bravery, courage and faith. Consider the fact that the fastest-growing digital natives have scaled from US$50 million in revenues to $1 billion in just four to eight years. Today, digital technologies are employed to establish novel enterprises or to improve existing business processes, organizational cultures and customer…

Tell us a bit about your journey from being a Rotman MBA student to becoming a futurist. It has certainly been a winding road, but I think for most Millennials, career paths are becoming more and more unconventional. During the MBA program at Rotman, I focused on Strategic Management and learned how to help businesses make the right decisions for the medium and long term. I also really enjoyed Statistics — how to assign probabilities to decisions, and game theory. And of course, Economics: How do the macro decisions of businesses, sectors and entire countries impact the decisions we make? Perhaps most importantly, I took a course called Strategic Foresight, and that really planted the seed. By the time I graduated, I had learned all of the varied components of…

Youwrite that “Strategy is not a definitive plan that promises certain results.” What is it, then? We behave as if the world is certain and we can know the answers in advance — but that isn’t the case. Very few, if any, strategies ever unfold as intended. That’s why I encourage leaders to think about strategy as an ongoing conversation and inquiry around what they want to achieve and how they will get there. My brother is a mechanic, and I find it interesting to compare our lines of work. When he is called on to repair a car, he can usually pinpoint the malfunctioning part quickly (i.e. a broken hose). He orders the part, replaces it and his job is done. Organizations are dynamic and full of human behaviour…

Over the past 50 years, the economic landscape in Indigenous communities has undergone some dramatic changes. How would you describe them? There really have been significant changes. It’s almost hard to believe that only 50 years ago, the federal government turned its back on treaties and revved up the Indian Act in an effort to assimilate the Indigenous population into the rest of the country with the goal of eliminating Indigenous identity, to some extent. That is obviously not where we are today. We are now on a path in which there has been significant recognition — at least in some sense — of Aboriginal rights and titles. It’s night and day. We’ve gone from a period in which the government, in the best-case scenario, ignored harms—and in many cases,…

MOST PEOPLE know by now that Generative AI (GenAI) has the power to radically transform entire industries. But they might not fully comprehend the significant changes that will be required to the way companies do business. Organizational change is never easy, and most change initiatives ultimately fail. With GenAI, the rapid pace of innovation and widespread fear of the technology heighten the risk of failure. But the workforce needs to understand that GenAI doesn’t just have the capacity to replace workers, it can also add immense value to their work. “There is going to be a lot of resistance to implementing AI, and a lot of different reasons for that resistance,” says Yongah Kim, an associate professor of strategic management at the Rotman School of Management. One site of resistance…

IN A WORLD WHERE CHANGE is the only constant and the degree of uncertainty amplifies the further we look into the future, strategic foresight — also called strategic anticipation or prospective — is the key to play the long game in business. It empowers companies to anticipate changes, seize opportunities and dodge potential pitfalls. By analyzing trends and preparing for various scenarios, businesses can stay ahead of the curve, innovate proactively and maintain a competitive edge. Strategic foresight is not about predicting the future, but being ready for it, ensuring that decisions made today will lead to success tomorrow. Contrary to strategic planning — which relies mostly on prediction based on extrapolation from historical data and current understanding — strategic foresight explores a broader spectrum of potential influences, including those…