How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership—starting with a golden circle and the question: “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers.

The Economics of Loyalty

Unless you know how much more valuable your top customers are, you are flying blind. It's impossible to know how much to invest in efforts to create and retain more of these customers.

Net Promoter® companies regularly survey their customers, asking them the “ultimate question,” which is typically: On a zero-to-10 scale, how likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague? Companies then sort their customers into promoters (9s and 10s), passives (7s and 8s), and detractors (everybody else). They then confirm what other companies have consistently found: Each category of customers exhibits significantly different patterns of behavior, with corresponding effects on profitability that can be quantified with some precision.

Forget the Pecking Order at Work

Organizations are often run according to "the superchicken model," where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn't what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion—built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help—that leads over time to great results.

How to Manage for Collective Creativity

What’s the secret to unlocking the creativity hidden inside your daily work, and giving every great idea a chance? Harvard professor Linda Hill, co-author of “Collective Genius,” has studied some of the world’s most creative companies to come up with a set of tools and tactics to keep great ideas flowing—from everyone in the company, not just the designated “creatives.”

How to Speak So That People Want to Listen

Have you ever felt like you're talking, but nobody is listening? Here's Julian Treasure to help. In this useful talk, the sound expert demonstrates the how-to's of powerful speaking—from some handy vocal exercises to tips on how to speak with empathy. A talk that might help the world sound more beautiful.

The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers

How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals—including embracing failure.