Michael Roberto

In contrast, a new study looks at how speaking up might have some beneficial effects for a person's career. However, drawing from theories of status attainment and the agency‐communion framework of interpersonal judgment, we have argued and shown that when it comes to social status, voice has positive implications for employees. In our two experiments, we found that employees who raised a concern or offered an opinion that challenged the views of a superior were ascribed higher social status than those who did not. The study does show, however, that others may appreciate someone who speaks up in a constructive and thoughtful manner, thereby actually helping an individual's career prospects.

Kellogg Insight has written an article about the research conducted by Joel Shapiro, Clinical Associate Professor and Executive Director for the Program on Data Analytics. The mere presence of outliers in customer experience data means that really good or bad things can happen to customers,” says Shapiro. Shapiro's point actually connects quite well with a technique employed by design thinking experts as they conduct qualitative/ethnographic research. Perhaps, if you were studying a project on grocery stores, you might study someone who buys fresh food daily at the store, and prepares home-cooked meals for his or her large family each day.

In, I write about how achieving some psychological distance from a problem can enhance our ability to develop creative solutions to perplexing problems. One can role play, walk a mile in someone else's shoes, imagine a situation several months or years in the future, or leverage travel experiences as a means of enhancing psychological distance. Steven Kachelmeier, Laura Wang, and Michael Williamson have written a paper titled, "Incentivizing the Creative Process: From Initial Quantity to Eventual Creativity. The scholars found that incentives did not generate a benefit initially, but incentives helped if people had an opportunity to take a break during the task.

My research, teaching, and consulting focuses on leadership, with a particular emphasis on decision-making and teams. My newest book, Unlocking Creativity, will be released on January 7, 2019 by Wiley. I have published two previous books based upon my research: Why Great Leaders Don't Take For An Answer (2nd edition, 2013), and Know What You Don't Know (2009).