If you are a manager and despair at the quality of people that fill your entry level positions, not their attitude, but their skills and basic education, prepare for it to get worse.
Perhaps instead of ranting and whining about America’s loss of global leadership we should look closer to home for the real cause—US education.
The ethnic groups with the worst outcomes in school are African-Americans and Hispanics. The achievement gaps between these groups and their white and Asian-American peers are already large in kindergarten and only grow as the school years pass. These are the youngsters least ready right now …read more

In celebration of their Centennial this year Harvard Business School added a discussion section to their website.  The current discussion is Leadership in the 21st Century.
“The Conversation is question- or topic-based dialogue between two conversation leads and our Centennial- site visitors.”

One of the current topic leaders is Nitin Nohria, who says, “Leaders (in business and government) have lost the public trust. … What has caused this loss in trust and how can it be best restored?”
The discussion engendered is intelligent, interesting, and well worth reading.
I find, looking at just the first part of the question, why did I lose trust, …read more

Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: stringbot
James Heskett is a Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus at Harvard Business School and posts some of the most intriguing research questions I see at HBS Working Knowledge (FREE registration).
This week is no exception.
“According to Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman, nearly all research techniques commonly used today probe humans only at their conscious level, though it is the subconscious level that really determines behavior.
Online forum OPEN for comment until June 26. Jim Heskett asks: What is your organization—and what are you—doing to bring more deep thinking into work and life?”
I hope you’ll take a moment and …read more