Stop Being a (Nice) Jerk!

Pop quiz: How often do you text while stuck in traffic? Or check email while sitting in a meeting?

We’re all, to some degree, guilty of multitasking.

While a lot has been written about the downsides of switching between different tasks, UVA Darden professor Jim Detert has another take: Multitasking in the workplace may be viewed as disrespectful, along with other behaviors such as being late, not really listening and exhibiting condescending body language.

He says these behaviors add up over time and can destroy relationships and hurt organizational culture. So, how can leaders model better choices?

Find out below in the latest round-up of insights from Darden professors, featured in top-tier publications:

Are You Being a Nice Jerk?

That may seem like an oxymoron but consider the following questions. In the past week or two, did you see anyone:

1. “Multitask” by looking at their phone or working on their computer while others were talking?

2. Show up late, or not at all, for meetings or events they’ve agreed to attend?

3. Interrupt or talk over someone else who was speaking?

4, Fail to show respect for what someone knows or how hard they’ve worked?

5. Display body language that conveys disinterest, disgust, or condescension?

6. Show favoritism to in-group members in ways that hurt those who were excluded?

If you answered “yes” to any of them, you likely encountered a “nice jerk” — someone who repeatedly shows disrespect in seemingly small ways that, individually and collectively, have a really negative impact on people and the organization’s culture, writes Jim Detert in MIT Sloan Management Review.

So what?

“I’d argue that the problems being caused by nice jerks are, in aggregate, likely greater than the harm caused by more obviously abusive behaviors — because these forms of disrespect are far more common and much less likely to be called out and stopped,” he says.

How can we change this dynamic? Read the full article for ideas on the three areas to evaluate and strategies for improvement.

Five Trends in AI and Data Science for 2025

“As data science and artificial intelligence become increasingly important to the global economy, it’s vital that leaders watch emerging AI trends,” write Tom Davenport and Randy Bean in MIT Sloan Management Review.

Based on Bean’s 2025 AI & Data Leadership Executive Benchmark Survey, conducted by his educational firm, Data & AI Leadership Exchange, and Davenport’s surveys on generative AI and data, technology leadership structures, and, most recently, agentic AI, the co-authors identify five AI trends that leaders should understand and monitor:

1. Leaders will grapple with both the promise and hype around agentic AI (the kind of AI that performs tasks independently). 

2. The time has come to measure results from generative AI experiments.

3. The reality about data-driven culture sets in.

4. Unstructured data is becoming important again.

5. Who should run data and AI? Expect a continued struggle.

Read the full article for their analysis, data and statistics.

The GenAI Focus Shifts to Innovation at Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive, the consumer products company that is also the world’s biggest toothpaste maker, has long gathered market research and used innovative analytics to make sense of its data. It has also been a regular user of analytical artificial intelligence — traditional machine learning — to inform areas such as product pricing, promotion and assortment, as well as marketing and media effectiveness.

And, like nearly every big company these days, it has embraced generative AI to enhance the productivity of its employees.

Writing in MIT Sloan Management Review, Tom Davenport and Randy Bean explore three areas where Colgate-Palmolive has derived value from the new technology:

1. Generative AI as a repository of market knowledge;

2. Generative AI to enhance innovation; and

3. The responsible democratization of AI.

Read more about how Colgate-Palmolive is using generative AI for the full innovation cycle, from synthesizing consumer insights and highlighting unmet consumer needs to suggesting new product concepts.