Business
Building a Culture of Experimentation (via Harvard Business Review)
- “For every experiment that succeeds, nearly 10 don’t — and in the eyes of many organizations that emphasize efficiency, predictability, and ‘winning,’ those failures are wasteful.”
- Many companies are reluctant to spend resources on experiments, but the gains reaped by the companies that have done so give others courage to follow suit.
- Maintain a central repository of experiments (descriptions, success/failure, iterations, final decisions) so everyone can learn.
- “How willing are you to be confronted every day by how wrong you are? And how much autonomy are you willing to give to the people who work for you? And if the answer is that you don’t like to be proven wrong and don’t want employees to decide the future of your products, it’s not going to work. You will never reap the full benefits of experimentation.”
Your Employees Are More Loyal Than You Think (via Harvard Business Review)
- Make your recruiting models more attractive to women, who tend to stay at firms longer than men
- People are moving between locations less frequently
- Review compensation bands; following industry norms may not be sufficient. The industries with the highest turnover pay the least.
- There are studies that refute the notion of the job-hopping millenial. Be open to the idea that this generation prefers to be loyal to one company.
The Coronavirus Crisis Doesn’t Have to Lead to Layoffs (via Harvard Business Review)
- Communicate openly
- Share the plan
- Ask your employees for ideas
- Review all options
- Have “ice in the belly” (a Swedish phrase for being calm in a crisis)
Career
Making Mentorship a Career Effort (via Harvard Business Review)
1:1 mentorship is still useful, but this author approaches mentorship from a group perspective. The three groups are launch (getting you started in your career with early wins), cruise (different mix of people to ensure progress continues), and boost (another mix to keep you from plateauing).
Craft a Career That Reflects Your Character (via Harvard Business Review)
- Cognitive crafting — recognize that work is an opportunity for character development
- Task crafting — construct your day to be an influence for good
- Relational crafting — build networks of friends and peers
Communication
4 Quick Tips to Improve Your Business Writing (via Harvard Business Review)
- Lead with the most important information
- Use active voice
- Avoid jargon
- Know what your readers care about
Virtual Meetings Don’t Have to Be a Bore (via Harvard Business Review)
- Make it personal — encourage camera use, join early to chat up people, smile
- Convey warmth and presence — look at the camera when speaking
- Get used to delayed feedback
- Make it interactive — use chat or breakout rooms
Several Simple Hand Signals for Video-Based Collaboration (via Sterling Jackson)
- Raise fingers for determining who talks next
- Make a “C” to ask for clarification or to comment
- Make a triangle (delta) to change topics
- Thumbs-up or finger wiggle to express approval
- Temperature check with flattened hand raised/lowered
- Roman-style voting (thumb up, down, side)
Leadership
Our book club discussed productivity during hypergrowth, organization risk, and succession planning.
A Guide to Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers (via Harvard Business Review)
- Common challenges: lack of face-to-face supervision, lack of access to information, social isolation, distractions at home
- Things managers can do: establish structured daily check-ins, provide several communication tech options, provide opportunities for remote social interaction, provide encouragement and emotional support
From Peacetime to Wartime (via Software Lead Weekly)
How you lead in times of calm and stability are different than when there’s a crisis. What underlies both styles is trust. “The thing a crisis needs the most in order to effectively work it is organizational trust. Leaders must be trusted. Employees must be trusted to act. Trust is the resource you have been building as a peacetime leader–to act during a crisis you dip into that reserve.”
Process
Procrastinate Much? Manage Your Emotions, Not Your Time (via Adam Grant)
Neurotic perfectionists worry about other people’s standards. If they struggle, they procrastinate: “I’m not good enough.” Productive perfectionists aim for their own high standards. If they miss, they try again: “I’m only human.”
Slow Down to Make Better Decisions in a Crisis (via Harvard Business Review)
Humans are hard-wired to pay attention to threats, and we have difficulty understanding exponential impacts. When the threat is unclear and there’s no obvious action to take, people choose any action over inaction. Slow down, assess the information, and react logically.
Avoid the Pitfalls of A/B Testing (via Harvard Business Review)
- Look beyond the average, especially if you have a small number of large clients or superusers
- Customers are connected, meaning you can’t necessarily segment people the get treatment vs. control like in a clinical setting
- Don’t focus solely on the short term; let experiments run longer
Security
Will Coronavirus Lead to More Cyber Attacks? (via Harvard Business Review)
Hackers love to take advantage of a crisis. For employees: be on guard for phishing emails, practice good cyber-hygiene, only use trusted Wi-Fi access points, and report lost/stolen devices immediately. For employers: set up remote access now, advice people that confidential information should be treated with care, remind people to not use personal laptops for work, and have people update emergency contacts.
Society
What Democracy’s History Tells Us about It’s Future (via Harvard Business Review)
At least for the US, our trend doesn’t look promising. It’s less about what the governed want and more about what the governing want. Things used to be more about equity (e.g., there were progressive Republicans and Democrats). Another interesting point is that some of the public goods –libraries, schools, healthcare providers, churches, media, etc. — have been forced to switch to a business model, meaning they can only survive if they make a profit.