Masters of the Obvious – Harvard Business Online’s Bob Sutton

“…the answer with the biggest impact is often absurdly simple at first glance. For example, the most powerful personality variable for predicting performance is conscientiousness. Does the person usually do what he or she commits to do? Is he or she reliable and hardworking? When you look at research on decision making in meetings, a fascinating set of studies suggests that if you have people stand up rather than sit down, the meetings run about 35 percent shorter without any loss of decision quality. So: Hire people who do what they say, and don’t let them sit down! “

“… it is the meticulous implementation of a good idea-–rather than just having a great idea itself-–that matters for success.”