HBR’S 10 MUST READS2021

THE DEFINITIVE MANAGEMENT IDEAS OF THE YEAR FROM

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

BY HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

Contents

The Right Way to Help Colleagues Excel 3 How to Ask Good Questions 4 Which Connected Strategies Should You Use? 5 Gender Identity and Expression: A Glossary 6 The Grass Is Always Greener… 7 Organizing AI for Scale 8 Alarming Forecast: Current Climate Policies Are Grossly Inadequate

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Rising Temperatures, Rising Risks: Flooding Cities 10 Rising Temperatures, Rising Risks: Food Shortages 11 Rising Temperatures, Rising Risks: Nature’s Collapse

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Rising Temperatures, Rising Risks: Heat Waves 13 Rising Temperatures, Rising Risks: Water Uncertainty

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Instead of Try

Can I give you some feedback? Here’s my reaction.

Good job! Here are three things that really worked for me. What was going through your mind when you did them?

Here’s what you should do. Here’s what I would do.

Here’s where you need to improve. Here’s what worked best for me, and here’s why.

That didn’t really work. When you did x, I felt y or I didn’t get that.

You need to improve your communica-tion skills.

Here’s exactly where you started to lose me.

You need to be more responsive. When I don’t hear from you, I worry that we’re not on the same page.

You lack strategic thinking. I’m struggling to understand your plan.

You should do x [in response to a re-quest for advice].

What do you feel you’re struggling with, and what have you done in the past that’s worked in a similar situation?

The Right Way to Help Colleagues Excel

IF YOU WANT to get into the excellence business, here are some examples of language to try.

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3

How to ask good question s

Common pitfalls Eff ective inquiry

Start with yes-or-no questions. Start with open-ended questions that mini-mize preconceptions. (“How are things going on your end?” “What does your group see as the key opportunity in this space?”)

Continue asking overly general ques-tions (“What’s on your mind?”) that may invite long off -point responses.

As collaborations develop, ask questions that focus on specifi c issues but allow people plenty of room to elaborate. (“What do you know about x ?” “Can you explain how that works?”)

Assume that you’ve grasped what speakers intended.

Check your understanding by summarizing what you’re hearing and asking explicitly for corrections or missing elements. (“Does that sound right—am I missing anything?” “Can you help me fi ll in the gaps?”)

Assume the collaboration process will take care of itself.

Periodically take time to inquire into others’ experiences of the process or relationship. (“How do you think the project is going?” “What could we do to work together more eff ectively?”)

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4

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sses

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and

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stom

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stom

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who

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ant

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5

Gender Identity and Expression: A Glossary

PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERING LANGUAGE to describe who they are and how they want to label their identities. The terms below are frequently used, but we acknowledge that these and other defi nitions are constantly evolving. Further, it’s important to note that individuals know their own identity best and should always be consulted about how they’d like to be referred to. (For more, see the Human Rights Campaign’s glossary of terms.)

Cisgender: A gender identity that aligns with the sex assigned at birth.

Gender expression: The ways in which people—trans or not—choose to convey their gender identity through dress, verbal communication styles, and other outward behavior.

Gender fl uid: Refers to people who feel more male, more female, or some combination of the two at various times, and who therefore express their gender identity more dynamically over time.

Gender identity: How one understands one’s own gender, regardless of the sex assigned at birth.

Genderqueer: A gender identity and expression that are not tied to a tra-ditional male/female view of the gender spectrum. Those who identify as genderqueer may identify as men or women, as neither, or as some combi-nation of the two.

Trans: An umbrella term for cases in which gender does not align with societal expectations regarding the sex assigned at birth. Some people who fall under the umbrella decide to transition; others do not, because they don’t defi ne themselves according to the traditional male-female binary or because they have a more fl uid view of their identity over time.

Transgender: A gender identity that does not align with the sex assigned at birth. For example, a transgender woman is someone whose sex assigned at birth was male.

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The grass is always greener . . . Organizations are much more interested in external talent than in their own employees to fi ll vacancies.

Top channels for quality hires

48%

46%

40%

34%

28%

Employee referrals

Third-party websites or online job boards

Social or professional networks

Third-party recruiters or staffing firms

Internal hires

Source: LinkedIn, based on a 2017 survey of 3,973 talent-acquisition decision makers who work in corporate HR departments and are LinkedIn members.

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Organizing AI for scale AI-enabled companies divide key roles between a hub and spokes. A few tasks are always owned by the hub, and the spokes always own execution. The rest of the work falls into a gray area, and a fi rm’s individual characteris-tics determine where it should be done.

Spoke

Hub

Governing coalitionA team of business, IT, and analytics leaders that

share accountability for the AI transformation

HubA central group headedby a C-level analyticsexecutive who alignsstrategy

Responsibilities● Talent recruitment

and trainingstrategy

● Performancemanagement

● Partnershipswith providers ofdata and AIservices andsoftware

● AI standards,processes, policies

Gray areaWork that could be ownedby the hub or spokes orshared with IT

Responsibilities▲ Project direction,

delivery, changemanagement

▲ Data strategy,data architecture,code development

▲ User experience▲ IT infrastructure▲ Organizational

capabilityassessment,strategy, funding

SpokeA business unit, function,or geography, which assignsa manager to be the AIproduct owner and abusiness analyst to assisthim or her

Responsibilities■ Oversight of execution

teams■ Solution adoption■ Performance tracking

Execution teamsAssembled from the hub,spoke, and gray area forthe duration of the project

Key roles● Product owner▲ Analytics translator▲ Data scientist▲ Data engineer

▲ Data architect▲ Visualization specialist▲ UI designer● Business analyst

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Alarming forecast: current climate policies are grossly inadequate To hold global warming to 1.5° Celsius above preindustrial levels and prevent the worst impacts of climate change, the world must cut carbon emissions to zero by midcentury. Yet emissions are still rising, and under existing policies re-ductions won’t begin to approach what’s needed. If we stay on the current path, temperatures will probably increase by about 3° C, with catastrophic eff ects.

Historical Projected

1990–10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070

Emissions reductionrequired to limitwarming to 1.5° C

Emissions underexisting policies

Glo

bal c

arbo

n em

issi

ons

(gig

aton

s pe

r ye

ar)

Source: Climate Action Tracker.

Note: Bandwidths represent high and low emissions estimates.

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Rising temperatures, rising risks: fl ooding cities If the global temperature were to increase by . . .

+3.5° C

+3.0° C

+2.5° C

+2.0° C

+1.5° C

+1.0° C

1+ meters of sea-level rise by 2080

$11.7 trillion in flood-damage lossesper year from sea-level rise

$10.2 trillion in flood-damage lossesper year from sea-level rise

Source: World Resources Institute.

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Source: World Resources Institute.

Rising temperatures, rising risks: food shortages If the global temperature were to increase by . . .

+3.5° C

+3.0° C

+2.5° C

+2.0° C

+1.5° C

+1.0° C

Global food-supply disruptions

400 million-plus people exposedand vulnerable to crop-yield losses

7%–10% loss of rangelandlivestock globally

6% decline in global averagemaize crop yield

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Rising temperatures, rising risks: nature’s collapse If the global temperature were to increase by . . .

+3.5° C

+3.0° C

+2.5° C

+2.0° C

+1.4° C

+1.0° C

Permafrost collapse; rain forest dieback

18% fewer insects, 16% drop inplants, 8% decrease in vertebratesdue to significant range reductions

70%–90% decline in coral reef

Source: World Resources Institute.

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Rising temperatures, rising risks: heat waves If the global temperature were to increase by . . .

+3.5° C

+3.0° C

+2.5° C

+2.0° C

+1.5° C

+1.0° C

74% of the global population exposed to20+ days a year of deadly heat by 2100

54% of the global population exposed to20+ days a year of deadly heat by 2100

48% of the global population exposed to20+ days a year of deadly heat by 2100

Source: World Resources Institute.

Note: According to research published in Nature Climate Change, “deadly heat” is the thresh-old beyond which air temperatures, humidity, and other factors can be lethal.

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Rising temperatures, rising risks: water uncertainty If the global temperature were to increase by . . .

+3.5° C

+3.0° C

+2.5° C

+2.0° C

+1.5° C

+1.0° C

10-month droughts, on average

36% increase in frequencyof rainfall extremes over land

271 million people exposedto water scarcity

Source: World Resources Institute.

Note: According to the NOAA, “extreme rainfall” can be loosely defi ned as a month’s worth of rain for a given region falling in a single day.

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