Magnetic North Pole Expedition: Introduction

This month: Microsoft Research on why AI’s gains stubbornly refuse to scale from individuals to teams, a peer-reviewed study in Administrative Sciences on the casual conversations hybrid work quietly strips out, CNBC on the executive burnout nobody at the top wants to name, Angela Duckworth at HBR’s Leadership Summit on why grit matters more in the AI era, and MIT Sloan Management Review on a practical way to defuse team friction before it hardens.

This month: Atlassian’s State of Teams 2026 on the coordination “tax” quietly draining the AI-era workplace, McKinsey on why simplifying the overloaded middle-manager role unlocks performance, Gallup’s three practical strategies for rebuilding engagement, MIT Sloan on why hybrid’s problems are really leadership problems, and Adam Grant’s conversation with NHL coach Jessica Campbell on giving tough feedback without breaking people.

This month: Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index on why AI’s payoff hinges on leadership, HBR on protecting trust as AI enters the workflow, McKinsey on building healthy teams, SHRM on why you can’t hire your way out of turnover, and Gartner’s 2026 leadership agenda for CHROs.

This month: Gallup on why the engagement crisis is really a management problem, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index on the AI productivity gap, Happily.ai on trust as a measurable early-warning system, DDI on the strain hitting your leadership bench, and Simon Sinek’s TED talk on the trust that underpins it all.