Charter

What can managers do to create the conditions for their team members to be the most creative and high performing? Charter editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney reached out to Anne-Laure Le Cunff, PhD, a neuroscientist and author of Tiny Experiments, to find out. Read her advice, including on how to swap a linear mindset for an experimental one, how to create space for "social flow," and how to encourage structured risk-taking. Read Delaney's book briefing on Tiny Experiments here:

In this morning's Charter Pro Digest newsletter, Charter co-founder Erin Grau shared her top four takeaways from this year's Transform conference in Las Vegas: ?? CHRO roles are transforming through strategic AI integration. ?? We’re seeing the rise of the “chief work officer.” ?? Some companies are scaling back performance reviews and augmenting them with targeted, AI-enhanced feedback systems. ?? A new cause of employee burnout: AI. Read more about each of her takeaways, as well as choice quotes from the sessions she attended:

"Anti-worker and anti-diversity forces are ascendant and emboldened in the US, and the rise of AI threatens to increase employers’ and the wealthiest Americans’ leverage over labor," writes Charter EIC Kevin Delaney in an essay for The United State of Work. "But the situation is not stable, the forces are contrary, and a human-centric approach surely will retain its place as the smartest path to business success over time. Read his essay here:

With advancements in AI, "you can build talent development teams that may be more junior or emerging-level professionals who are putting out PhD-quality work with the augmentation of AI," predicts Taylor Bradley, head of talent strategy and developer success at AI startup Turing. More from Bradley on how AI will disrupt HR:

"The most striking immediate parallel is that the Reagan administration and the Trump administration both have come in with a strong sense of unions and workers being too powerful in one way or another and wanting to seize the initiative back," says Kim Phillips-Fein, a history professor at Columbia University specializing in 20th century American political economy and the history of labor and capitalism. We sat down with Phillips-Fein to learn about what the 1980s can teach us about our current moment. Read yesterday's Charter Briefing for more on the parallels between then an now, as well as what makes this current moment unique:

"We know about the lifetime value of a customer. Have you ever talked about the lifetime value of an employee?" Dr. Angela Jackson, author of "The Win-Win Workplace" and founder of Future Forward Strategies, told Charter. When you reframe that conversation, and start measuring the ROI of policies like flexible work, wellness programs, and DEI, she argues that business leaders will see investments in talent less like an expense and more like a revenue driver. She makes the case for continued investments in human-centered policies in a recent interview with Charter editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney:

With increasing scrutiny on DEI policies for US companies, some HR leaders at global companies are wondering how to maintain commitments to employees in international contexts even while adjusting policies to fend off attacks in the US. “How do we continue to operate globally with similar messages to employees, consistent messages…without seeming like we’re talking out of two sides of our mouth?" one CHRO asked Jena McGregor, editorial director and VP, content strategy, for Modern Executive Solutions, a global talent advisory firm that hosts global gatherings for a community of more than 300 CHROs. In a guest column for Charter, McGregor shares her advice for how to move forward. Read it here:

I'm hosting a live event Monday at 1pm EDT with Alex Bouaziz, the CEO of Deel, about the talent trends they're seeing globally, including: ?? The geography of hiring in the wake of tighter immigration and RTO mandates. ?? Why Gen Z saw the fastest salary growth in 2024—and what it means for employers. ?? The gaps and expectations of younger workers accustomed to remote work. ?? The imperatives for achieving high performance in distributed organizations. ?? How to train better bosses for a new workforce. Please join us to hear about the research and key takeaways you can put to use.

Listening is "a skill that can set you apart in a world where everyone is clamoring to be heard,” writes legendary college-basketball coach and Nike executive George Raveling in "What You're Made For. “It’s a skill that can open doors, build relationships, and lead to insights and opportunities that you might otherwise miss.” With March Madness kicking off soon, we turned to What You’re Made For by Raveling and Ryan Holiday for more on how to listen better as a leader. Read our book briefing for their best advice, including why to write down your listening-to-talking ratio, the questions to ask to listen and learn, nd how to process your meeting notes at the end of the day.

When it comes to DEI, employers “are threading a pretty difficult needle,” says Joelle Emerson, CEO and co-founder of Paradigm , a firm that provides services related to culture and inclusion. “You simultaneously want to reassure your employees, ‘We care about you. Our values have not changed,’ and you want to reduce risk, which may mean evolving some of your programs or how you talk about this stuff externally.” Read Emerson's advice on how to thread that needle in the latest edition of Charter's weekly newsletter: