Consultancy Matters

Psychologist John Gottman can predict whether or not a married couple will be together five years later with startling 90 percent accuracy. How does he do it?

He watches them argue.

The ability to engage in healthy, productive debate is not only essential for ensuring a long marriage--it's also the key determinant of high performing teams.

A recently released six-year study cites the ability to manage conflicting tensions as the most critical predictor of top-team performance. Berkeley research shows teams that debate their ideas have 25 percent more ideas altogether and that companies like Pixar embrace healthy debate as a vital part of their performance (in its case to make better films).

If you're looking for reasons to make time in your busy schedule to keep learning, there's no shortage of possibilities. First and foremost, perhaps, is that you'll be in great company. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Oprah Winfrey all set aside dedicated time to learn new things each week. Look how far the practice has taken them.

But if you're looking for more scientific explanations of why the end of school shouldn't mean the end of learning, writer John Coleman is probably your man. He writes regularly for the HBR blogs on the subject of lifelong learning and its many benefits. One of his recent posts is a must read for those who suspect they should to make more time in their lives to nourish their brains, but still need a bit of a kick in the pants.

The contemporary business world lauds those who are seen as creative. Innovators such as Elon Musk and Jony Ive have become household names. Yet, for many of us, despite our best efforts to be recognized as creative thinkers, our suggestions in meetings are ignored and our pitches to bosses get rebuffed.

If your colleagues have already formed an opinion of you as technically competent but a little staid, it’s going to take a lot to change their minds and get them to listen — a situation that’s especially true for women, who, research suggests, are often unfairly viewed as less creative than men.