Occupy Wall Street is a “leaderless” movement that has spread across America. It’s a mixed group with legitimate grievances (why so many bail outs?) and nonsensical ones (“why aren’t we protecting Gia as a metaphor?”).
Yesterday, I wandered down to Liberty Park in New York City to talk to some of the protesters and see the movement first hand.
The first thing I noticed was the smell. The sectioned off protest area ringed with barricades and cops …

Entrepreneurship requires a certain degree of fortitude, focus, tenacity, and risk-taking. It requires, in our terms, pragmatic and proactive leadership. It’s not restricted to the stage of multi-national corporations or the platforms of politics. More often than not it takes it truest expression in the world of small business.
In the winter of 1978 Bicycle Habitat opened for business in Manhattan’s SoHo district with less than $5,000 in merchandise. At the time, the neighborhood was rough, …

Squalor, acrid smoke, moth-bitten second-hands suits, woefully hookers, overflowing dented garbage cans and massive $100 a month lofts in Soho.
Some of these things are still with us (not the apartments) but much has been replaced with swanky W hotels, hand tailored suits, sorted and recycled garbage, tiny $2,800 a month studio apartments in the East Village, no-smoking laws, and a day that begins punctually at 7:45. The imagineers at Disney have replaced the hookers …

The ILR Workplace Colloquium Series is held at The Cornell Club in New York City. Periodically we bring together practitioners, Cornell alumni, policymakers, and academics for an evening of good food, presentations, and open discussions on workplace topics.
A few months ago we had the pleasure of hosting Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner, and Rob Manfred, VP HR for MLB. They jointly discussed labor relations in sports. The talk was called, “Human Resource Practices and Industrial Relations …

We’re all over-loaded with information–even if it’s synthesized to one degree or another. The idea that analysis of data leads to optimal strategic decisions keeps the organizational appetite for new data sources strong. Managers are required to find new data, new methods of capturing it, and make decisions that are steeped in its ultimate analysis. When someone wants to challenge your position on a topic or a decision you may find them asking, “Well what …

1. We always focus on leadership, but Bret Simmon’s does a great job of understanding the importance of being a good follower. [Video]
2. As Tim Ferris explains, Edmund Wilson believed that productivity could soar–if we stopped trying please everyone all the time.
3. Hiring a “superstar” leader might seem like a good idea, but there are some problems as trizle.com reports.
4. The future of organizations may focus on innovation and, perhaps, community building with employees and …