Business
3 Things You’re Getting Wrong About Organizational Change (via Harvard Business Review)
- “Follow best practices” becomes “share your failures”
- “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” becomes “fix it anyway”
- “Control your assets” becomes “share your assets”
Run Your Business So You’ll Never Need Layoffs (via Harvard Business Review)
I’ve read countless articles that explain how short-sighted layoffs are. The people cut don’t like it, the people remaining are anxious, the productivity drops, and the cost to restaff later in time and expenses is significant. This article has examples where “leaders treat their employees like trusted partners, not like hired hands. They share information. They foster participative management. In a crisis, they turn to their employees for innovative ways to survive.”
How to Negotiate — Virtually (via Harvard Business Review)
- When planning… 1) assign clear roles to your team, 2) specify how your team will chat with each other, 3) keep chatting brief, 4) video is best, 5) keep it short and sweet.
- When leading… 1) connect at the outset, 2) clarify constraints and assumptions, 3) hide your self-view.
Building a Transparent Supply Chain (via Harvard Business Review)
This article makes the case of how supply chain management can benefit from distributed ledger technology via blockchain. By having all parties (e.g., bank, supplier, retailer) aware of the events in a confidential and integrity-based way, errors can be reduced and efficiency improved.
The Case for a Chief of Staff (via Harvard Business Review)
Militaries and governments have had this position for centuries. This is more than an executive assistant. They’re more of a partner or extension of the CEO.
Career
Millennials, Gen Z, and Generational Anxiety [podcast] (via Harvard Business Review)
- “I want to be a CEO of a publicly traded company. [Why?] To prove that I’m successful. [Prove to whom?]”
- For GenX… Because there was no social media, no university pitch competition, no obsession with entrepreneurship or creating the next big startup, no LinkedIn or TED talks, we had less pressure to be awesome. Less economic pressure and social pressure means we had more time to find our ways in our careers.
- Millennials have decreased confidence in public institutions, but increased confidence in safety net programs (SSI, food stamps)
- We’ve done everything we were supposed to do (go to college, have the right resume) and now we don’t get the benefits.
- People who become entrepreneurs often come from wealthy families or have less student debt.
- Having debt makes people more risk averse about job changes.
- MBAs are not as valuable as they once were.
Exploration-Personalization-Connection. My Method for Finding a Great Job. (via Software Lead Weekly)
- Explore: meetups, “best places to work”, logo boards of who’s who
- Personalize by reaching out on LinkedIn; it’s okay to apply for a job that isn’t posted
Culture
How Organizations Can Support the Mental Health of Black Employees (via Harvard Business Review)
- Acknowledge that racism impacts Black staff emotionally, mentally, and physically
- Bring in experts that are trained to deal with racial trauma; inclusion training comes later
- Make sure your EAP has counselors who have experience working with Black clients and who understand racism
- Have your statement of support particularly call out Black people, as that’s where the healing needs to start first
- Commit to being an anti-racist organization
Leadership
Psychological Safety In The Workplace – An Integrative Framework (via Viktor Cessan)
Psychological safety means different things to different people. The author shares a framework of parts needed for this kind of safety based on system to individual, and external to internal.
Managers, Encourage Your Team to Take Time Off (via Harvard Business Review)
- Provide clarity about the current policy and return-to-work procedures
- Redefine vacations given how we can’t really do vacation and recreation like normal
- Demonstrate care for people who’s home responsibilities are likely increased now
- Model behaviors; what you do matters more than what you say
- Change durations by taking shorter breaks more often
- Activate a team to help take up your duties while you rest
3 Myths That Stop People from Asking for Help at Work (via Harvard Business Review)
- Asking for help makes you look bad; this matters less than you think, and others may think better of you for it
- If I do ask for help, I’ll be rejected; people are more willing than you give them credit
- Even if someone agrees to help, they won’t enjoy doing so; you can’t get in everyone’s head to know their intent
- There are emotional and social benefits of giving and receiving help.
This week our book club discussed performance management systems and career levels.
Feeling Uncomfortable with Reentry? You’re on the Right Track. (via Harvard Business Review)
- Performance management: The reflex is to exert greater control, but the solution is more flexibility.
- Communication: Overcommunication is encouraged, but less is more.
- Effective leadership: To be tough, you must first get soft.
Begin with Trust (via Harvard Business Review)
- “Your job as a leader is to create the conditions for your people to fully realize their own capacity and power.”
- The trust triangle: authenticity, empathy, and logic. If one of these starts to wobble, trust is at risk. (Everyone has a wobble.)
- To work on empathy, try putting your devices away during meetings.
- To work on logic, learn from others and reveal you don’t have all the answers. Don’t tell a winding story; start with the headline.
- To work on authenticity, recognize that diverse teams have less common information readily available to them to use in collective decision making.
- If you don’t trust yourself, why should anyone else?
Process
When More Information Leads to More Uncertainty (via Harvard Business Review)
- “Feeling uncertain is not a natural state of being for us — it signals to the brain that things are not right. The brain then seeks out information to resolve the uncertainty. This desire for resolution is why feelings of uncertainty lead us to process information more systematically and deeply in the hope of finding answers.”
- Probability uncertainty — we can’t ascertain the risk level. Comply with expert recommendations, and empathize that everyone is at risk.
- Ambiguity uncertainty — imprecise, conflicting, or insufficient information. Triangulate different sources that converge, and know when to stop searching for clarity.
- Complexity uncertainty — understanding a complex issue. Turn to experts for simplification, and recognize things can’t always be resolved and focus your energy elsewhere.
50 Ideas That Changed My Life (via Software Lead Weekly)
A collection of ideas, laws, adages, and observations that are good to have in your back pocket.