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Is the future of concert venues more spheres? It seems so. Following on the success of Sphere in Las Vegas, plans are underway to bring a smaller-scale version to the National Harbor in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, announced on Sunday that the state and Prince George’s County are working with Sphere Entertainment Co. and Peterson Companies to develop a 6,000-seat sphere, its second venue in the U.S. “This will be one of the largest economic development projects in Prince George’s County history,” Moore said in a statement. “We’re excited for what this means for our people, and how it will showcase the best of wha…

Fast Company is extending its application deadline for Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026 to Friday, April 3 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. This marks the eighth year Fast Company will be recognizing companies and organizations from around the world that most effectively empower employees at all levels to improve processes, create new products, or invent whole new ways of doing business. In addition to ranking the world’s Best Workplaces for Innovators, we will also recognize companies in 19 different categories. What differentiates Best Workplaces for Innovators from existing best-places-to-work lists is that it goes beyond benefits, competitive compensation, a…

Every single day, the average working person plays many roles: sassy coworker, office comedian, and deadline stickler, to name a few. The labor doesn’t stop when one gets home—with new job titles coming into play, such as mom, brother, pet parent, and more. On Halloween, you get to choose which character you want to inhabit instead of having society dictate your role. This frivolity requires forward thinking and planning. If you find yourself running out of time, popular culture and a few easy-to-obtain items can come to the rescue. Here are nine easy costume ideas that range from classic to timely. The Louvre museum robbers This one is perfect for last-min…

Lauren Sánchez Bezos is great at being happy, so much so she is encouraging other to pursue unapologetic happiness too. But, unsurprisingly, those without private jets aren’t buying it. Over the weekend, The New York Times published a profile on Jeff Bezos’s new wife, Sánchez Bezos, offering a glimpse into the powerful couple’s daily life. Their mornings, for example, start of at their $230 million compound in Florida, where the couple crafts a gratitude list before kicking off their day. The story also dissects the couple’s dynamic—regular exercise and leaning on each other for advice—a blueprint for reaching happiness while enjoying the perks of wealth. As the …

Most adults are in the very early stages of grasping how to use artificial intelligence. The The Lego Group thinks that children need to build their own learning path to understand the fast-evolving technology. On Monday, the Danish toy maker debuted a new computer science and AI curriculum for K–8 classrooms, Lego’s first foray into AI that comes more than three years after the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. The “Lego Education Computer Science & AI” kits include Lego bricks and other interactive hardware components, as well as online education materials intended to take children from the beginning stages of AI literacy through hands-on experimentation. D…

America’s stance on gun rights has always been complicated. On the one hand, people fight vociferously for their Second Amendment rights. On the other, 47,000 people died due to gun-related injuries in 2023 alone. That uneasiness reaches beyond the right to bear arms. It’s increasingly affecting people’s ability to pursue a seemingly unrelated hobby: 3D printing. State lawmakers across the United States are debating—and in some cases nearing passage of—rules that would require 3D printers to include mandatory “print blocker” software. These systems would scan files and refuse jobs they think might produce firearm parts. Washington’s HB 2321 would require printers …

The Big Apple is taking on the companies behind Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, accusing them of “public nuisance” and spurring a youth mental health crisis in the city. In a 327-page lawsuit filed last week in the Southern District of New York, the city of New York—along with its school districts and health department—alleges that “gross negligence” on the part of Meta, Alphabet, Snap, and ByteDance has hooked kids on social media through “algorithms that wield user data as a weapon against children and fuel the addiction machine.” Over one-third of 13- to 17-year-olds report using one of these social media platforms “almost constantly” and …

Lay’s sells more than 200 flavors of potato chips across the globe. Only one of them puts a potato on the package. That’s because in many ways, the largest potato chip company in the world, Lay’s, is the embodiment of a modernist brand. Hear the word Lay’s and its red and yellow logo pops into your brain, quickly followed by a hallucinated blast of salt on your tongue. The logo is an abstract hero, associated with chips only through constant consumer exposure. But in Lay’s own market testing, it discovered a cost to this approach: Only 42% of people realized that Lay’s potato chips are made from potatoes. Now—as the long, liberal war on ultra-processed food has …

More than 1 million workers in America have been laid off so far in 2025, according to the latest tally of announced job cuts from the executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The jobs span nearly every major industry, but layoffs have hit tech and government jobs the hardest. Here’s what you need to know, and which tech companies have had the largest round of layoffs in 2025. 2025 layoff announcements surpass 1 million Nearly every week this year, there have been headlines about layoffs hitting America’s workers. The latest report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas adds up layoff announcements from U.S. employers through the end o…

Layoffs might make headlines, but the real measure is how leaders support the remaining employees. Layoffs are undeniably challenging for good reason. However, it’s what leaders do in the aftermath that determines whether a culture fractures or recovers. I’ve led workforce complex reductions at Amazon, Microsoft, startups, and PE-backed firms. While every situation was unique, the same pattern appeared each time. It wasn’t necessarily the layoff that broke the culture. It was the leadership response. Layoffs disrupt the culture and impact more than just headcount. I’ve watched talented, engaged employees turn quiet and withdrawn after layoffs. Not because they sto…

Planned layoffs have now reached their highest rate since 2009’s Great Recession. The data comes from Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ new layoffs report, which revealed that U.S.-based employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, marking the highest rate to start a year since 2009. Also notable, in the same month, just 5,306 planned hires were announced—the lowest total on record for January. According to the data, that means layoffs are up a staggering 118% from the same period a year ago, and 205% from December 2025. “Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” Andy Challenger, workpla…

Last year was a brutal one for layoffs, with large cuts coming from Amazon, UPS, Microsoft and Verizon. And as things get rolling for 2026, it’s looking like this year won’t be any less uncertain for workers. This week has seen a slew of sizable job cuts from a wide variety of companies. As of Thursday morning, more than 61,650 positions have been eliminated. The actual number is likely a fair bit higher as many of the companies announcing layoffs—such as Shopify, Expedia, and Vimeo—did not release the number of jobs that were impacted. Dow Inc. was the most recent well-known company to announce cuts. On Thursday, the chemical maker said it would do away with…

Le Creuset turned 100, and to celebrate, it released a new cookware collection in a hue inspired by its original color, Flame. Named Flamme Dorée, French for “golden flame,” the set includes round and oval dutch ovens, a braiser, and a saucepan in a rich orange gradient with a shimmering gold finish. Prices for the Flamme Dorée pieces range from $310 to $860, which is more expensive than its standard lines—especially premium prices for what the company is positioning as a special occasion product. The French cookware brand was first known for its orange enameled cast iron cocottes, and it now sells products in a range of more than 200 colors. Last year it par…

Around the globe, employers and employees are facing unprecedented situations. We’ve jumped from pandemic to geopolitical conflict, economic volatility to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. At this point, aliens could arrive on Earth tomorrow, and nobody would question it. With 89% of businesses having experienced multiple major challenges in recent years (according to a PwC report), we’re clearly leading through the age of constant disruption. When turbulence was rare and temporary, businesses could rely on stability and resilience to preserve productivity until it passed. But today’s challenges aren’t isolated. They’re common and relentless. When there’s n…

AI is radically changing the future of the workplace — from redefining jobs to fueling the rise of so-called “work slop.” Live on stage at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco, Box CEO Aaron Levie, LinkedIn’s Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman, and Meta’s Head of Business AI Clara Shih share their insider perspectives on AI optimism, uncertainty, and navigating this unprecedented era. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian and recorded live at the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Respon…

Innovation is important in every industry, whether creating and developing new products and services, or improving your workflow. There is no one right way to innovate, but there are wrong ways. It’s easy to get stuck in a line of thinking or trying to control the process, making it more complex than it needs to be. We asked our Fast Company Impact Council members what common mistakes companies make when trying to innovate, and an alternative way to think about innovation. Just like the creative process, our members had unique understandings of what not to do, and how to do a better job. We share 18 of those inspirational ideas here. 1. DON’T LAYER INNOVATION WORK ON …

Over the past few weeks, both Meta and Microsoft have announced that they will be conducting company wide performance-based layoffs. Meta even put a marketing spin on the practice of getting rid of employees based on poor performance, calling it “non-regrettable attrition.” On the surface this may make sense: leaders want to ensure every individual at the company is making an impact in some way and contributing to the bottom line. And here’s the biggest mistake that can occur during performance-based layoffs: deciding to embark on this process assuming that there are well-defined goals and metrics for individuals, and a clear understanding of what “good” versus “poor” per…

Most companies operate like one-sided cubes—what the world sees is curated and polished, but the rest remains hidden, even to the people inside. Strategy becomes surface-level. Teams chase goals without grounding. Leaders lead without alignment. In a world growing more complex and emotionally disoriented, that’s not just unsustainable—it’s dangerous. It’s time for a Strategy Renaissance. We need to move beyond sterile planning cycles and rediscover the human heart of strategy. In this new era of work, meaning isn’t a bonus feature—it’s your sharpest edge. The Great Divide Between Strategy and Meaning We have long treated strategy as the realm of numbers a…

In the past week, I had “conversations” with two leaders who talked too much. They were good people with interesting stories to share. But they went on for far too long while I just sat and listened. Characteristically, they asked few questions and, when they did, didn’t seem to be interested in my responses. These two leaders were engaged but seemingly not curious or fully present. These encounters crystallized something I’ve observed repeatedly in my decades of executive coaching: A damaging leadership blind spot is the simple inability to stop talking. I call this a “leadership trap” because it ensnares otherwise effective executives in a paradox: The same verb…

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Despite the popular image of a strong leader as one who makes bold decisions and sticks with them, great leadership actually requires adapting to changing circumstances. A course of action that seemed like a great idea on one day may be a clear losing proposition when additional information becomes available. A complexity with changing your mind as a leader is that your previous choices and plans affect a number of other people’s lives. People who work for you are currently working to implement the plan you laid out. Others, like clients or suppliers, may be planning future e…

In sports, time-outs are a strategic weapon. Super Bowl teams don’t just go full speed from kickoff until the clock runs out; they pause at the right moments to regroup, recalibrate, and regain momentum. In business, the same principle applies. High-performing teams know when to stop, reassess, and make adjustments before forging ahead. Yet, in our relentless, always-on work culture, calling a time-out can feel counterintuitive. Speed is glorified. We celebrate hustle. For many, Mark Zuckerberg’s motto, “Move fast and break things,” has been the dominant approach to innovating in the digital age. And now, with AI supercharging efficiency, the obsession with speed has …

Below, co-authors Suzy Burke, Rhett Power, and Ryan Berman share five key insights from their new book, Headamentals: How Leaders Can Crack Negative Self-Talk. Suzy, president and co-founder of the leadership consultancy Accountability Inc., is an organizational psychologist and seasoned executive with an exceptional track record in a diverse array of businesses, from a Fortune 20 technology company to a highly successful beverage start-up. She is also a National Institute of Mental Health scholar and member of the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches Agency. Rhett is the CEO and co-founder of Accountability Inc. and was named the #1 Thought Leader on Entrepreneurship b…

A new business infrastructure is emerging with enormous potential impact but almost no conscious design. In this new world, algorithms negotiate with algorithms, making decisions that shape markets, determine the course of careers, and decide whether companies succeed or fail. Humans, meanwhile, risk being left to watch from the sidelines. On LinkedIn, posts written by AI models are liked by bots and commented on by AI assistants. In recruiting, candidates use AI to draft résumés while companies use AI to evaluate them. In procurement, some organizations are already using AI to draft requests for proposals, or RFPs—detailed documents that invite vendors to bid on supp…

Some leadership lessons only come the hard way. Brené Brown reflects on the skills she wishes she had built sooner—and why they matter more than ever. View the full article