If we want to seriously address the climate crisis, then we need to encourage foolish business ideas.

When it comes to seemingly impossible problems like the climate crisis, Professor William Barnett says we need to reach for equally impossible solutions — ideas so crazy, they just might work. “Foolishness,” he says, “is the price of genius.”

A professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Barnett is equally interested in how organizations produce innovation. According to him, organizations need to embrace failure as a stepping stone to big breakthroughs and create cultures that encourage unconventional and even "foolish" ideas. “Ideas might well be foolish, but if they're right, they're going to be genius. Organizations that create lots of foolishness also create a lot of genius.”

In this episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society, Barnett unpacks how farfetched thinking could be the key to addressing climate change, and how organizations can foster the cultures necessary to fail forward and find innovative solutions.

Key Takeaways:

• Failure is a stepping stone to innovation: Each unsuccessful attempt provides an opportunity to learn, grow, and redirect.
• Foolishness is the price of genius: Organizations need to promote non-consensus thinking and risk-taking, even if that means pursuing ideas that initially seem "foolish."
• Minimize the effects of failure: Give crazy ideas a shot, but do so at a small scale to keep failures quick and inexpensive.

More Resources: 

William P. Barnett, The Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations at Stanford Graduate School of Business and professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

• The Red Queen Among Organizations: How Competitiveness Evolves, by William P. Barnett
• Voices of Stanford GSB faculty, William P. Barnett

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society.

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If we can manage our emotions about AI, then it can be a powerful decision-making tool. 

Artificial intelligence’s surge in power and accessibility has inspired polarized reactions. Some people are flocking to the technology with feverish excitement. Others can’t stay far enough away. Yet according to Kuang Xu, both of these responses might be the wrong ones.

"When people hear ‘AI,’ their brain kind of shuts down,” says Kuang, an associate professor of operations, information, and technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Whether someone feels exhilarated by the possibilities of AI or terrified by its uncertain impact, Kuang says these emotionally charged reactions are like “a fight or flight response,” inhibiting our ability to make good decisions. 

Yet when implemented in strategic ways, AI can enable leaders to make decisions that are driven by data. With just a few simple lines of code, data becomes a powerful tool for businesses to leverage. “What decision can you change if you had the information?” Kuang asks. “Remember, at the moment, AI or data science is all about information. At the end of the day, even in the best case, you have to take that information and do something about it.” 

It’s clear that artificial intelligence will integrate into every industry. Yet to harness its power, leaders need to make an emotional shift. They must, as this episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society explores, move away from the fear of the change AI will bring, and instead see AI for the job it can do: provide data so leaders can make more informed decisions.

Key Takeaways:

• Effects of emotional stress: Emotional stress clouds our decision making about how we can best implement this tool.
• AI is a Tool, not a god: Organizations need to rise above the narrative that AI is an all-knowing oracle and reframe it as a tool for targeted decision-making.
• Think of AI as an intern: The tool can carry out tasks, but we still want to double check its work. 

More Resources: 

Kuang Xu, Associate Professor of Operations, Information & Technology

Stanford GSB stories featuring Kuang Xu:

• Class Takeaways - Data Science and AI Strategy
• Is Your Business Ready to Jump Into A.I.? Read This First.
• Kuang Xu Voices

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society. Each episode features an interview with a Stanford GSB faculty member.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If we want to generate better ideas, then we need to get people back to the office.

Jonathan Levav, a professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, details his study of remote work and creativity. “Pairs that worked face-to-face generated 15 to 20% more ideas than pairs that worked on Zoom,” he notes. What’s more, in-person brainstorming helped people consider a wider and more diverse range of possibilities. “Working on Zoom was a double penalty. Fewer ideas — and a narrower set of ideas.”

Remote work may be the new normal in our post-pandemic world, but Levav cautions us from accepting the status quo — especially if we want to keep our creative edge. As this episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society. explores, our best ideas could still lie ahead of us — if we can all get in the same room.

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society. Each episode features an interview with a Stanford GSB faculty member. 

Key Takeaways: 

1. For hybrid work environments, managers should select “in-office” days based on tasks we perform better in person, such as collaboration and brainstorming.
2. More flexible schedules for remote and office work allow employees to bring their best selves and perform better at their jobs.  

More Resources: 

Listen to Jonathan Levav’s Webby-Award winning episode on Think Fast, Talk Smart: "Leading From Home: How to Create the Right Environment for Communication" on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Jonathan Levav, The King Philanthropies Professor of Marketing

Stanford GSB Insights featuring Levav's research:

• 7 Insights to Boost Creativity at Work
• Effective Recommendations Are Better Heard Than Seen
• Customer Psychology: Why Don’t People Buy Your Stuff?

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If we want to change power structures, then we need to understand the animal forces that drive our behavior.

As Stanford Graduate School of Business professor of organizational behavior Deborah H. Gruenfeld observes, wherever there are humans, there are hierarchies. “People have a tendency to form hierarchies almost instantly in all kinds of organizational settings, whether the task requires it or not,” she says.

Gruenfeld says our actions are still very much steered by primal drives. She unpacks this in the inaugural episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society.

“One of the ways in which we're like animals is that we need to organize ourselves in order to survive,” says Gruenfeld, who studies group dynamics and decision-making. “It’s a very basic instinct to create structures in groups that help members coordinate so they don't have to fight with one another.”

Gruenfeld’s insights open a discussion about how we can modify existing hierarchies to create relationships, organizations, and the society we want. 

As this episode of If/Then explores, if we want to change power structures, then we need to understand the animal forces that drive our behavior.

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society. Each episode features an interview with a Stanford GSB faculty member.

More Resources:

Acting with Power: Why We Are More Powerful Than We Believe, by Deborah H. Gruenfeld

Deborah H. Gruenfeld on Stanford GSB's podcast, Think Fast, Talk Smart, “How to Communicate Power” 

Deborah H. Gruenfeld on Stanford GSB's podcast, Grit & Growth, "The Psychology of Power and Influence"

Insights featuring research by Deborah H. Gruenfeld: 

• "We Don't Like Domineering Bosses. So Why Do We Put Up With Them?"
• Class Takeaways: Managing Successful Groups and Teams
• Diverse Teams Produce Better Decisions

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How do we get people back to the office? How and when can AI be a powerful decision-making tool? How will digital currencies transform payment systems?

On If/Then, experts from Stanford Graduate School of Business share their research findings on a range of topics that intersect with business, leadership, and society. We’ll tackle practical, cutting-edge insights that will help you manage better, lead more confidently, and understand pressing issues affecting our lives.

Join GSB senior editor and host Kevin Cool as we hear about the latest research in technology, economics, marketing, politics, and several other areas that intersect with business.

Season One drops with two episodes on January 24th and new episodes release every Wednesday.

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