Management gemsFind here some gems from our monitoring of the best publications on leadership and management

Has it ever happened to you to have a word at the tip of your tongue, or to not remember what someone said to you a few minutes earlier? These small glitches in our memory are very common and are nothing to worry about—even if they can be the cause of some frustrations. They are linked to the manner in which our brain stores and retrieves memorized information:

- To properly store information, the key consists in concentrating our attention. Most of the time, when we forget a piece of information, it is because we have processed it automatically, without paying attention to it, or because our attention was solicited elsewhere. All it takes, for example, is to think about what we have to do for the day or to receive a notification for our attention to be diverted. Our brain then assumes that the information to which we are not truly attentive is not sufficiently important to be memorized.

- As for the “word at the tip of your tongue”, it is due to the fact that the brain mistakenly activates the wrong neural network to retrieve the information. The more you attempt to find this missing word, the more you activate this wrong network. When this occurs, the solution is therefore to accept bringing your search to a momentary halt. This gives the appropriate neural network a chance to activate when you restart your search a few instants later.

Source: How your memory works — and why forgetting is totally OK, Lisa Genova, TED Membership, March 2021.

98% of companies have already been affected by a cybersecurity incident that initially arose within a partner organization. This risk grows as operations become digitalized and the interconnection between the systems of various stakeholders is enhanced: clients, distributors, partners, tier 1 and 2 suppliers, etc.

But how can you optimally counter the multiplicity of possible risks? Within the framework of a survey of best practices in the market, the experts at Boston Consulting Group have shared an approach for prioritizing efforts:

- Start by identifying the minimal level of information required to assess your suppliers’ level of exposure to cyber risks. Then, focus your analyses on those who appear to present the greatest danger of contamination.

- Practice different cyber-attack scenarios, in partnership with a representative sample of your suppliers, in order to document with as much precision as possible your principal risks and the possible options to counter them.

- Use this analysis to identify the protective actions to be undertaken as a priority, whether internally or with key suppliers and partners.

This approach enables you to reinforce your cybersecurity in a targeted and progressive manner: a far more effective method than trying from the outset to establish a global approach to be deployed across your entire range of suppliers.

Source: Is Your Supply Chain Cyber-Secure?, Kris Winkler, Colin Troha, Ben Aylor, Nadine Moore, Boston Consulting Group, October 2023.

Did you know? A study conducted on over 250 seminars in 10 countries showed that men were two and a half times more likely to ask questions at the end of a conference than women. A gap that can also be observed in meetings and other professional encounters. According to sociologists, this imbalance reflects persistent structural differences in educational patterns. Boys are encouraged to assert themselves and fill space very early, whereas girls are more invited to display their humility and integrate into the collective—at the cost of sometimes fading into the background. Even though society is evolving, many of us still have to deal with these cultural legacies. Fortunately, some very simple practices can contribute to restoring a balance:

- At the close of a presentation, give the floor for the first reaction to a woman. It has been demonstrated that this opens up other people’s voices, allowing everyone’s point of view to be heard and benefited from.

- In a meeting or seminar, ask everyone to first take a moment for individual reflection—for instance by recording their questions or comments on post-it notes or on a mobile app, then go around the table to invite each person to speak.

Source:  The Authority Gap, Mary Ann Sieghart, Doubleday, 2021.

According to the 2023 edition of Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Annual Report, 82% of executives consider that their employees will need new skills to prepare themselves for the generalization of artificial intelligence. Does this mean there should be a scramble for technical training? Nothing is less certain. The report insists first and foremost on the need to prepare employees to collaborate efficiently with an AI. To that end, the aptitudes to be reinforced are essentially cognitive and behavioral ones, with, by order of importance:

- analytical judgment (cited by 30% of executives) to determine in which situations it is beneficial to lean on an AI rather than on human abilities;

- cognitive flexibility (cited by 29% of executives) to refine the AI’s proposals and efficiently integrate them into one’s work;

- emotional intelligence (cited by 27% of executives), a capability that is complementary to AI, and which it can be valuable to mobilize depending on the nature of the task or the context.

Finally, 23% of executives cite intellectual curiosity, to know how to ask the AI the right questions, and 22% cite the detection of biases. A good starting point for adapting your training programs and refining the qualities to be prioritized when recruiting. 

Source: Will AI Fix Work?—2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report, Microsoft, May 2023.

We often think of the art of decision-making as a relatively linear analytical process. One would only need to define the problem, identify some options, assess them according to weighted criteria, and then select the best option. But is this really the case?

Reality proves far more complex. The authors of the book Both/And Thinking thus define paradoxes as “contradictory yet interdependent elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time”: two problems that appear antinomic, as solving one makes the other worse. The energy sector is an illustrative case in point: its companies are under pressure to, simultaneously, ensure growth and profitability and reduce their environmental footprint.

Some exhaust themselves, faced with what they perceive as paradoxical injunctions. Others succeed in developing what the authors call a “paradoxical mindset”. These people see paradoxes as invitations to be creative in order to overcome apparent contradictions; it energizes them. Studies have shown that recruiting people who have this vision of things, and training others to take on this mindset, enhances performance in periods of uncertainty. That is how Unilever was able to considerably increase its sales revenue, while also halving its environmental impact.

A new criteria to be integrated into your recruitment and training plans?

Source: Both/And Thinking, Wendy K. Smith, Marianne W. Lewis, Harvard Business Review Press, 2022.