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The world is not just rapidly changing, it is being dramatically reshaped—it operates differently.  The implications for organizations and those who lead them are profound as new frameworks and metrics are now required to achieve both resilience and growth.

With this in mind, it is my sincere pleasure to share with you the 2016 HOW Report, an empirical analysis of how governance, culture and leadership influence behavior and impact performance in organizations around the globe.  The HOW Report’s findings were derived from a statistical analysis of data sets that capture the responses of over 16,000 employees across all levels in 17 countries, making this one of the most ambitious, long-term research projects in organizational effectiveness, behavior and leadership.  This is our second comprehensive study of how organizations really work, confirming and expanding upon our previous findings that purpose-inspired and values-based organizations experience great advantages in the marketplace, including the highest levels of resilience, employee loyalty, customer satisfaction, innovation and financial performance.

The adage that ‘what we measure is what we get’ remains valid.  That said, what we measure is a choice and therefore a window into what we value and, in turn, our values.  We have scaled up the ability to measure ‘how much’ – how much market share, revenue, profit, debt, page views and followers. As our world becomes more interdependent, it’s critical to be equally rigorous in developing a reliable method for measuring—how organizations operate and relate to society, and how their people behave and make decisions. 

We continue to be inspired by the potential of these ideas to meet the unique challenges and opportunities of our reshaped world, and it is our sincere hope that the 2016 HOW Report will help leaders take more certain and powerful steps toward success and significance.