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It’s Not “Time Management.” It’s Lean.

Markovitz Consulting

In the space of two weeks, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both ran articles on the productivity benefits of reduced work hours. Of course, software firm 37 Signals has been operating four-day work weeks over the summer since 2008. Of course, every situation is different and will require a different approach.

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Why New Leaders Should Be Wary of Quick Wins

Harvard Business

As soon as you step into a top position at a company that needs to significantly improve the way it operates, there’s pressure to get off to a quick start. HBR Staff/Clare Jackson/EyeEm/Getty Images. Yet the best way to succeed, paradoxically, is to slow things down. The next three tactics help to control the pace of interactions.

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The Best Companies Know How to Balance Strategy and Purpose

Harvard Business

It hardly mattered anymore if your pepper supply chain was the best designed and most efficiently run, if your customer base was elite, or if the quality of your pepper was second to none. Your purpose — preserving food — had been co-opted. All the strengths you had worked so hard to build no longer mattered.

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How I Led Change in the U.S. State Department Bureaucracy

Harvard Business

There was the woman who had a master’s in journalism and now managed global technology projects; the guy who handled multimillion dollar contracts during the day and was an astrophotographer at night; the pilot in the Air Force Reserve who regularly flew congressional delegations overseas. Repeating failure is bad.

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Holiday Human-Capital Culling Could Cost

Harmonious Workplaces

Efficiency in Recruitment Processes: During the holiday season, if the competition follows the pack and pulls back its efforts to recruit or move full-steam ahead on layoffs, your job postings could stand out more and attract a higher quantity of high-quality applicants. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29 (1), 6–33.

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Boards Should Take Responsibility for Cybersecurity. Here’s How to Do It

Harvard Business

After all, no company wants to become the next brand on the front page of the Wall Street Journal or have their executives testify in front of Congress. While security executives have a reputation for stymieing operations and product development with the burdens of technical operations, their role is actually to enable business.

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Large Employers Are Key to Reforming Health Care

Harvard Business

In a thoughtful review of the Affordable Care Act in The Journal of the American Medical Association , President Obama ends with a discussion of “lessons for future policy makers.” Virtuous cycles of increasing value are created as purchasers play the lead role in identifying the most efficient and effective providers.