In the past two weeks, I’ve published the first three instalments of my retrospective of the best articles of 2024, which were themed, Part 1: Creating value through people analytics, Part 2: Orchestrating the future of work, and Part 3: Enhancing employee experience and wellbeing. Thanks to the all of those who shared, commented on and reposted Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3, which have had over 100,000 reads between them. It is very much appreciated.
The fourth instalment, herein, has the theme: Developing leaders, culture and inclusion, and assembles my favourite resources on these topics from the last 12 months.
To recap, my 2024 retrospective will be published in five parts in the coming days and weeks, and organised into the following five themes:
- Part 1: Creating value through people analytics
- Part 2: Orchestrating the future of work
- Part 3: Enhancing employee experience and wellbeing
- Part 4: Developing leaders, culture and inclusion
- Part 5: Building the strategic HR function
I hope you enjoy reading the selections for 2024. If you do, please subscribe to my Data Driven HR newsletter, and tune in to the Digital HR Leaders podcast – especially this week’s episode with Stacia Sherman Garr and Dave Ulrich on the key priorities and opportunities for HR in 2025.
Join me for an Insight222 webinar on February 5 to discover they key themes shaping People Analytics in 2025.
If you want to learn how AI, close alignment with people strategy, and data democratisation, are enabling Leading Companies to drive business value with people analytics, register for the Insight222 People Analytics Trends Webinar. The webinar, which will take place on February 5, will be hosted by me and feature Naomi Verghese and Madhura Chakrabarti, PhD unpack the findings from the recently published 5th annual People Analytics Trend study. You can register for the webinar here – or by clicking the image below.
4. DEVELOPING LEADERS, CULTURE AND INCLUSION
ERIN MEYER – Build a Corporate Culture That Works
If you hire people whose personalities don’t align with your culture, no matter what else you get right, you are unlikely to get the desired behaviors.
Ever since Peter Drucker’s infamous assertion that “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” it has been widely acknowledged that managing corporate culture is the key to business success. Yet the link between ‘values’ and ‘behaviours’ is often stark. As INSEAD professor Erin Meyer asks in her Harvard Business Review article: “If culture eats strategy for breakfast, how should you be cooking it?” Erin blends in examples from the likes of Amazon, Netflix, Airbnb, Pixar and others and presents six guidelines to help managers who are confronting the challenges of culture building: (1) Build Your Culture Based on Real-World Dilemmas. (2) Move Your Culture from Abstraction to Action. (3) Paint Your Culture in Full Colour. (4) Hire the Right People, and They Will Build the Right Culture. (5) Make Sure that Culture Drives Strategy. (6) Don’t Be a Purist. An absolute must-read.
SPENCER HARRISON AND KRISTIE ROGERS – Building Culture From the Middle Out
The premise of a study by Spencer Harrison and Kristie Rogers is for a business to harness the power of culture, it needs managers and team leaders to go beyond believing that they are responsible for culture to actively building it. Their research finds that managers that successfully achieve this are able to link the ‘big-C’ culture of their organisation (e.g. the official set of values) with the ‘small-c’ culture that plays out in the narrower and vibrant daily patterns of interaction (see FIG 44). The article highlights four successful strategies: (1) Endorse big-C culture through celebration and preservation of select features. (2) Endorse big-C culture by learning from other managers. (3) Enrich small-c culture through cultural innovations. (4) Enrich small-c culture by empowering employees to innovate.
FIG 44: Endorse and Enrich Your Way to Corporate Culture (Source: Harrison and Rogers)
ANNA BINDER – Build Your Culture Like a Product
Anna Binder, Asana‘s Head of People, shares her step-by-step guide to intentionally building the company culture, which has helped Asana scale from 100 to over 2,000 employees during the last eight years. The article includes tips on building a people strategy from the ground-up, constructing a culture pyramid to supercharge your organisation (see FIG 45), how to bring conscious leadership to the executive suite, and building trust. A highly insightful and practical guide.
FIG 45: The pyramid of company culture (Source: Anna Binder)
MICHAEL ARENA, ANDRAS VICSEK, JOHN GOLDEN, AND SCOTT HINES – Cultivating Culture in a Hybrid Context
Because connections are more fragile in hybrid workplaces, it is increasingly important that managers understand the network dynamics of company culture.
Many companies are concerned about the impact of remote and hybrid work on their culture. In their article, Michael Arena , Andras Vicsek , John Golden, Ph.D. and Scott Hines, PhD, explore how cultural behaviours form and spread across organisations in three work modes: a physical environment, a remote environment, and a hybrid model. They find that prominent cultural behaviours tend to cluster in discernible patterns in each of these modes. The article discusses ways – and provides examples – on how to restore bridges between teams, harness influencers to facilitate change, engage exemplars to model desired behaviours, and reengage the hearts and minds of employees, to improve collaboration, wellbeing and outcomes. One example in the article describes how a large consumer products company launched a series of in-person events to restore bridging connections between their teams in parallel with a reengagement strategy to rebuild their employees’ sense of owning the company’s purpose. This enabled the company to increase connections by 37 percent and positive energy by 20 percent.
FIG 46: Shift of Positive Energy across Work Modes (Source: Arena et al)
McKINSEY – Go, teams: When teams get healthier, the whole organization benefits
Team effectiveness is less art, more science
A new McKinsey study identifies the elements of team effectiveness that have the most significant impact on team performance: trust, communication, innovative thinking and decision-making. The authors debunk several other myths about how teams operate, and highlight the importance of context and how it determines the behaviours that matter most for a team to function effectively. A framework is presented that categorises teams into three archetypes: cycling, relay and rowing teams, which also highlights the top performance drivers for each (see FIG 47). Finally, the article details four actions for leaders to help their teams succeed: (1) Take a hard look in the mirror. (2) Make sure the changes stick. (3) If you are a team leader, don’t stand in the way of progress. (4) Embed team effectiveness in the organization’s DNA. (Authors: Aaron De Smet, Gemma D’Auria, Liesje Meijknecht, Maitham Albaharna, Anaïs Fifer, and Kimberly Rubenstein, PhD)
FIG 47: Three archetypes of teams (Source: McKinsey)
AMY C. LEWIS, ANDREA DERLER, CUTHBERT CHOW, MANDA WINLAW, AND DANI HAIG – Designing Impactful Teams: Data-backed insights about effective team size
What does team size have to do with designing high-performing teams? That was the exam question, the Visier Inc.team of Andrea Derler, Ph.D., Cuthbert Chow, Manda Winlaw and Dani H. sought to answer in a collaborative study with Amy C. Lewis, PhD, Professor of Management at the College of Business at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Key findings include: (1) Most people work in teams of six to ten. (2) Team size varies by the nature of the work. (3) Smaller teams have more high performers. (4) Smaller teams have lower resignation rates (see FIG 48). The report has some helpful insights for those studying team effectiveness and involved in organisational design work.
FIG 48: Smaller teams have lower resignation rates (Source: Visier)
ROB CROSS AND KATHERYN BREKKEN | I4CP – The Team Network Effect™: How Precision Collaboration Unleashes Productivity
A study of 1,400 organisations on team effectiveness, led by Rob Cross and Katheryn Brekken, Ph.D. for The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), finds that 80% of teams fall short of reaching their full productivity potential due to corporate dysfunction. The study identifies six snares that stifle team performance (see FIG 49), and provides powerful examples including from Roche, which found that efforts to increase geographic and cross-functional collaboration across teams in 89 countries reaped a direct revenue impact of $500 million in less than two years.
FIG 49: How companies rank against the six dysfunctions that stifle team performance (Source: i4CP)
MICHAEL ARENA AND PHILIP ARKCOLL – When flatter isn’t better: The hidden cost of collaborative demand
In an effort to create flatter organizational structures, indiscriminately cutting managers without first assessing collaborative demand can have detrimental consequences.
In order to speed up decision making, companies like Meta and Amazon have cut managers as part of a ‘flatter is faster’ approach. The theory is that fewer managers means more speed, more agility, and more innovation. In their article, Michael Arena and Philip Arkcoll provide a counterpoint through Worklytics data showing that when managers are stretched thin—leading teams of seven or more— they encounter overwhelming workloads, rising burnout, and reduced ability to effectively support their teams (see FIG 50). To strike the right balance, Arena and Arkcoll advocate the use of data to assess collaborative demand and drive targeted actions. They provide guidance on (1) Optimising span of control , (2) Focusing on managerial overload, (3) Providing delegation strategies, and (4) Monitoring workloads.
FIG 50: Manager hours worked compared to team size (Source: Worklytics)
MICHAEL LUCA AND AMY EDMONDSON – Where Data-Driven Decision-Making Can Go Wrong
When making decisions (using data), managers should consider internal validity—whether an analysis accurately answers a question in the context in which it was studied. They should also consider external validity—the extent to which they can generalize results from one context to another.
Drawing on their research and work with companies, Michael Luca and Amy Edmondson present an approach that considers internal validity and external validity that leaders can apply to discussions of data to support better decision-making. This approach is designed to help leaders avoid five common pitfalls (see FIG 51) associated with data-driven decision-making.
FIG 51: How to avoid predictable errors (Source: Michael Luca and Amy Edmondson)
RASMUS HOUGAARD, JACQUELINE CARTER, AND ROB STEMBRIDGE – The Best Leaders Can’t Be Replaced by AI
Leaders who deepen their ability to lead with humanity will win at attracting, retaining, developing, and motivating top talent.
While there are some areas where AI is already surpassing or will surpass human capabilities, there are several it cannot replace. Based on their research into employees’ comfort with AI in management, as well as their decades of research on the qualities of effective leadership, Rasmus Hougaard, Jacqueline Carter, and Robert Stembridge identify the promise (and perils) of AI-enabled management (see FIG 52), as well as the three uniquely human capabilities leaders need to focus on honing, especially as AI begins to figure more in management: (1) awareness, (2) compassion, and (3) wisdom.
FIG 52: AI versus Human: A matric of leadership activities (Source: Potential Project)
ALLAN H. CHURCH, JAMES SCRIVANI, AND MARKUS GRAF – Unleashing The Power of Assessments for Leaders and their Organizations
Based on their experience of working with assessment tools in organisations such as PepsiCo and Novartis, Allan Church, Ph.D., Jim S. and Markus Graf present a three-step guide to building an effective, impactful and meaningful assessment system: (1) Focus Assessments on Future Capabilities Needed for Your Organisation. (2) Take a Multi-Trait, Multi-Method Approach to Assessment, aka Use Multiple Lenses. (3) Unlock the Value of Assessment Insights for Leaders, Teams, and the Organisation (see FIG 53).
FIG 53: The Three Levels of Assessment Insights (Source: Church et al)
NADJIA YOUSIF, ASHLEY DARTNELL, GRETCHEN MAY, AND ELIZABETH KNARR – Psychological Safety Levels the Playing Field for Employees
Two perspectives on psychological safety in the workplace. In the first article, Nadjia Yousif, Ashley Dartnell, Gretchen May, and Elizabeth Knarr present the findings of Boston Consulting Group (BCG)research, which finds how psychological safety benefits inclusion, reduces attrition in diverse groups and effectively acts as an equaliser – enabling diverse and disadvantaged employee groups to achieve the same levels of workplace satisfaction as their more advantaged colleagues. The study also highlights the direct relationship between empathetic leadership and feelings of psychological safety in the workforce, giving leaders a clear directive to be empathetic and thereby engender psychological safety.
FIG 54: Psychological safety has an outsize impact on retention for diversity groups (Source: BCG)
JULIE COFFMAN, ALEX NOETHER, BIANCA BAX, CASSY REICHERT, AND KRYSTLE JIANG – The Business of Belonging: Why making everyone feel included is smart strategy
Revealing data from a Bain survey of 6,000+ employees across four countries, which finds employees who have seen their companies intentionally invest in inclusion since 2020 are three times more likely to feel fully included than employees who have not seen such investment from their employers. Other findings include (1) Combining diversity and inclusion maximises a company’s capacity (by 4x) to innovate, and (2) Employees with inclusive leadership are 9x more likely to feel fully included at work (see FIG 55). (Authors: Julie Coffman, Alex Noether, Bianca Bax, Cassy Reichert, and Krystle Jiang).
FIG 55: Employees with inclusive leadership are 9x more likely to feel fully included at work (Source: Bain)
BRIAN ELLIOTT – How to Stand Up When It Comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The backlash against DEI is out of sync with the opinions held by the most important set of stakeholders: your employees.
In this powerful column for MIT Sloan Management Review, Brian Elliott tackles the growing backlash by some companies in the US on diversity, equity and inclusion. He highlights two dangers of backing away. First, the fact that DEI programs are actually getting more popular with employees, not less, and increasingly view it as a business topic rather than a political one. Second, capitulating on DEI commitments doesn’t settle the issue with employees or customers especially as research by Edelman finds that 76% of employees want companies to recommit not retreat. Elliott also provides guidance on three approaches to having real conversations on this topic, highlighting examples from his experience in leading teams at Google and Slack: (1) Let people voice their concerns about DEI programs. Don’t stifle the conversation or run away. (2) Use the words diversity, equity, and inclusion — not DEI. Explain what the words mean, correct misinformation, and tie them back to business results. (3) Keep in mind that memos don’t create trust; employee engagement does.
LORI NISHIURA MACKENZIE, SARAH A. SOULE, SHELLEY J CORRELL, AND MELISSA C. THOMAS HUNT – How DEI Can Survive This Era of Backlash
When they’re given adequate support — like protected time, advancement opportunities, leadership development, and compensation for their DEI work — ERG leaders can act as a strategic conduit between employees and organizational leaders.
Despite recent backlash against and cuts to organisational DEI initiatives, researchers from the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab – Lori Nishiura Mackenzie, Sarah Soule, Shelley J. Correll, and Melissa C. Thomas-Hunt – argue in their Harvard Business Review article that DEI isn’t dead in the U.S. Instead, they say it’s experiencing a period of what social movement scholars call “closed doors,” where the obvious route for change is no longer easily accessible. They recently convened a gathering of 14 chief diversity officers (CDOs) to unpack what’s happening in their world. In the article, they highlight the striking similarities between current DEI strategies and the tactics used by feminist movement builders during times of closed doors — and present four strategies for continuing the important work of DEI while it’s under attack: (1) Sustain networks of people engaged in DEI work. (2) Preserve the collective memory. (3) Reframe and rename the work for survival. (4) Nurture the collective identity within the DEI community.
SHUJAAT AHMAD – DEIB Is At A Crossroads—It’s Time for Bold Action and Clear Metrics
Given recent developments it’s reasonable to say that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) is at an existential crossroads. As Shujaat Ahmad writes in his excellent article for Round: “Boards, leadership teams, and investors hold the power to set the tone, shape the policies, and allocate the resources to support DEIB initiatives: for DEIB to work effectively, they must shift from well-intentioned wordsmiths to committed drivers that hold the organization accountable for outcomes and positive change.” Shujaat then unveils his blueprint to help leaders assess progress and drive meaningful change, clarifying the ‘why’ before diving into the ‘how’ covering measuring what matters and interventions (see FIG 56). For more from Shujaat, I recommend visiting Belong and Lead.
FIG 56: Source – Shujaat Ahmad
QUINETTA ROBERSON – How Integrating DEI Into Strategy Lifts Performance
By explicitly linking DEI goals to business outcomes, companies create a clear vision of how diversity adds value.
In her timely article Quinetta Roberson presents the findings of a study on diversity, equity and inclusion and company financial performance, and highlights the practices for achieving competitive advantage through DEI. These findings include that a bundled practice approach to DEI amplifies the performance effects of individual practices – see example in FIG 57. Quinetta also presents a three-point blueprint for meaningful action to DEI: (1) Strategically align DEI with business goals. (2) Systemically integrate DEI practices. (3) Make evidence-based improvements.
FIG 57: DEI practice bundles (Source: Quinetta Roberson)
McKINSEY AND LEANIN.ORG – Women in the Workplace: The 10th Anniversary Report
Organizational change is a marathon, not a sprint, and making meaningful strides for women requires both hope and resilience. When leaders create a compelling vision of what’s possible, workplaces are better equipped to drive and sustain progress.
Despite progress over the past decade, parity for all women in the workspace is almost 50 years away according to the 10th Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey and Leanin.Org. At the current trajectory, it will take 22 years for white women to achieve leadership parity—and more than twice as long for women of colour (see FIG 58). As ever, the report is an absorbing read with part 4, A Data-Driven Approach to Solutions, being required reading for people analytics professionals. In terms of implementing consistent processes, the report recommends four key building blocks: (1) making sure employees understand why a new practice is important; (2) teaching employees the skills they need to do their part; (3) putting mechanisms in place to support the practice; and (4) ensuring leaders role model the right behaviours. Finally, the report also provides guidance on tackling three areas that are especially important for advancing women and fostering inclusion: (1) De-biasing hiring and promotion; (2) Inspiring and equipping employees to curb bias and practice allyship; and (3) Unlocking the power of managers to influence careers and team culture. Kudos to the authors: Alexis Krivkovich, Emily Field, Lareina Yee, and Megan McConnell, with Hannah Smith.
FIG 58: It will take nearly 50 years to achieve gender parity for all women (Source: McKinsey)
ROUVEN KANITZ, MAX REINWALD, KATERINA GONZALEZ, ANNE BURMEISTER, YIFAN SONG, AND MARTIN HOEGL – 4 Ways Employees Respond to DEI Initiatives
In their article for Harvard Business Review, Rouven Kanitz Max Reinwald Katerina Gonzalez Anne Burmeister Yifan Song and Prof. Dr. Martin Hoegl present their research, which finds that employees respond to DEI initiatives in four ways (see FIG 59): excited supporters, calm compliers, torn shapers, and discontented opponents. The article outlines each of the four profiles, and provides guidance to managers on how they can use the typology to segment their employees, effectively understand the range of responses, and tailor specific interventions to address them.
FIG 59: The 4 Ways Employees Respond to DEI Initiatives (Source: Kanitz et al)
READ THE OTHER INSTALMENTS OF THE BEST ARTICLES OF 2024
Don’t forget to check out the four other editions of Data Driven HR Monthly, where I reveal my best articles of 2024:
- Part 1: Creating value through people analytics
- Part 2: Orchestrating the future of work
- Part 3: Enhancing employee experience and wellbeing
- Part 4: Developing leaders, culture and inclusion
- Part 5: Building the strategic HR function (available from Sunday, January 26)
THANK YOU
Thanks to all the authors and contributors featured in the best articles of 2024 as well as across the monthly collections from 2024 – see January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December – your passion, knowledge and expertise continues to inspire. Thanks also to my colleagues at Insight222, the guests and sponsors of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast in 2024 and the great many of you that share and engage with the content I share. It’s much appreciated. I wish you all well for a happy, healthy, and successful 2025.
Thank you too to the many people who shared and commented on the first two instalments of this series of retrospectives including: Alana Alencar, Al Dea, Raphael Palmeira, Linda Karlsson, Lina Hasselquist, David McLean, Sonia Mooney, Malgorzata Langlois, Lewis Garrad, Dave Millner, Anna A. Tavis, PhD, Lexy Martin, Gaurav Shah, Swechha Mohapatra (IHRP-SP, SHRM-SCP, CIPD), Irada Sadykhova, Jose Luis Chavez Vasquez, Danielle Farrell, MA, Amit Mohindra, John Healy, Sarah White, Nick Lynn, Jeff Wellstead , Catherine de la Poer, Olimpiusz Papiez, Holly Kortright (she-her), Philippa Penfold FCIPD, Irene Wong, Dave Ulrich, Sophia Houziaux, Sophia Huang, Ed.D., Torin Ellis, David van Lochem, David Balls (FCIPD), Hanadi El Sayyed, Natalie Wiseman Graham, Karen Powell, Madison Hanscom, Ph.D., Niladri Bihari Nayak ☁, Harshvardhan Maheshwari, Louis Gordon, Stephen Hickey, Michelle Lee 🌱, Roshaunda Green, MBA, CDSP, Phenom Certified Recruiter, Patrick Coolen, Gal Mozes, PhD, Anish Lalchandani, Rob Gilder, Chandresh Natu, Jacob Nielsen, Serena H. Huang, Ph.D., Joonghak Lee, Neeraj Tandon, Ashish Pant, Aashish Sharma, Kristin Saboe, Ph.D., Timo Tischer, Thomas Moeller Lybaek, Maria Alice Jovinski, Emanuele Magrone, Martha Curioni, Nicole Lettich, Evan Franz, MBA, Greg Pryor, Rupaparna Sarkar, Sarajit Poddar, Olivier Bougarel, Aurélie Crégut, Laurent Reich, Jaana Saramies 🔮, Andrew Spence, Nick Hudgell, Prabhakar Pandey, Ohad Geron, Ludek Stehlik, Ph.D., Marcela Mury, Giovanna Constant, Nuria Orce, Angie Sobyra, Jane Datta, David Meza, Steven Claes, Paola Alfaro Alpízar, Aditi Khairnar, Bharati Nayudu, Lucia Uribe, Dan George, Aravind Warrier, Sachin Sangade, David Simmonds FCIPD, James Taylor, Dan Lapporte, Sanja Licina, Ph.D., Meghan M. Biro, Jackson C. Trent, Sjoerd Gehring, Gianni Giacomelli, Dan Riley
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Green 🇺🇦 is a globally respected author, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As Managing Partner and Executive Director at Insight222, he has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which supports the advancement of people analytics in over 100 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222’s myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value was published in the summer of 2021.
