Margaret Heffernan
TED Talks
United Kingdom
Contact Margaret
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Past articles by Margaret:
Many companies will face crises — here’s how they weather them
Chief executive and author Margaret Heffernan shares two dramatic examples of reversal and rebirth from Nokia and Barings. → Read More
Margaret Heffernan: Forget the pecking order at work
Organizations are often run according to "the superchicken model," where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn't what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion — built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help — that leads over time to great results. It's a… → Read More
Margaret Heffernan: The human skills we need in an unpredictable world
The more we rely on technology to make us efficient, the fewer skills we have to confront the unexpected, says writer and entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan. She shares why we need less tech and more messy human skills -- imagination, humility, bravery -- to solve problems in business, government and life in an unpredictable age. "We are brave enough to invent things we've never seen before," she… → Read More
Margaret Heffernan: The dangers of willful blindness
Gayla Benefield was just doing her job -- until she uncovered an awful secret about her hometown that meant its mortality rate was 80 times higher than anywhere else in the US. But when she tried to tell people about it, she learned an even more shocking truth: People didn't want to know. In a talk that's part history lesson, part call-to-action, Margaret Heffernan demonstrates the danger of… → Read More
What Execs Can Learn from Wells Fargo’s Downfall
What went wrong at Wells Fargo? You can blame the CEO and be grateful you don’t work for him. → Read More
Too Many Corporate Boards Fail to Protect Shareholders
Boards are too often packed with the great and the good who have joined just to be part of a select club. → Read More
How CEOs Can Easily End the Gender Wage Gap
Instead of agonizing about women’s confidence – just pay them better and guess what: their confidence will improve. → Read More
Striking the Right Chord: What R&D Execs Can Learn from Led Zeppelin
Any idiot can copy—but true artists transform. → Read More
Hiring Freeze: Many Companies Mistreat Their Job Applicants
in a business community that is increasingly transparent and connected, small things, like a thank you note, can have a huge impact. → Read More
Workers Unite: Everyone But the CEO Can Hook Up at the Office
In the top job, any whiff of favoritism or secrecy destroys trust. For Priceline's Darren Huston, any office affair would raise questions: what—or more importantly, who—did he and his partner talk about when they were alone together? → Read More
Why the Most Famous CEOs Are Often Wrong About the Future
The habit for grandiose predictions seems to be contagious. → Read More
Killer Instinct: How CEOs Can Prevent Mistakes That Land Them in Jail
The easy diagnosis is bad leadership–which is why so many people cheered when Peanut Corporation owner Stewart Parnell was sentenced as if he was a murderer. Nine people likely died because of his ... → Read More
Why This Latest Stock Market Crash Should Surprise No One
The Chinese, always adept imitators, have piled on property debt just like the West did all those years ago → Read More
Amazon’s Number One Business Blunder
Silicon Valley might like to imagine it’s just invented social capital but the truth is that highly creative companies the world over have banked on its value for centuries. Ocean Spray may be an o... → Read More
Margaret Heffernan: Why it's time to forget the pecking order at work
Organizations are often run according to “the superchicken model,” where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn’t what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion — built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help — that leads over time to great results. It's a… → Read More
Margaret Heffernan: Dare to disagree
Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but as Margaret Heffernan shows us, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counterintuitively) how the best partners aren’t echo chambers -- and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree. → Read More
The Secret Ingredient That Will Make Your Company Thrive
It's the mortar, not just the bricks, that makes a building robust. The mortar, in this context, is social capital: mutual reliance, an underlying sense of connectedness that builds trust. → Read More
The secret ingredient that makes some teams better than others
Culture defines any business, yet it's also one of the hardest things to manage. In this extract from her TED Book, Margaret Heffernan describes the important, often-overlooked element necessary to... → Read More
4 Ways to Make Successful Decisions
Decisions aren't knowledge - they're best guesses. So make sure you know what you're testing. → Read More
Suck It Up: James Dyson's Lessons in Perseverance
No overnight success, James Dyson spent 27 years in debt, legal wrangles and redesigns before his floor cleaner broke through. What kept him going? Fear of failure and a love of bringing ideas to life. → Read More