Business
Learning from the Future (via Harvard Business Review)
When we have not analogies to the past, it’s difficult to figure out how things will play out in the future. Where does “good judgment” come from? Business schools use case teaching to provide scenarios so students can learn the patterns and tools. Other useful tools are backcasting, contingency planning, tabletop exercises, forecasting, horizon scanning, scenario planning, trend analysis, and war gaming.
Coaching
How to Mentor Someone Who Has Manipulative Tendencies (via Harvard Business Review)
- Consider organizational factors (silos, cultures that prize secrecy or individualistic results)
- Present the data; talk to the facts
- Explore marginalizing dynamics (people that are often excluded or feel insignificant will use manipulation to get what they need)
- Express support and agree on commitments
Culture
Helping Your Team Heal (via Harvard Business Review)
- From Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, acceptance. Everyone goes through the stages at different rates, and some may not experience all stages. You need to meet people where they are.
- There are three groups of people dealing with the pandemic: 1) “worried well” — not personally affected but missing typical life events, 2) “affected” — sick themselves or know others that are, 3) bereaved — experienced the loss of a loved one because of COVID-19.
- There’s a sixth stage: finding meaning. It’s not sufficient to be “done” grieving once you’ve reached acceptance. You also need to move on.
Don’t Work on Vacation. Seriously. (via Harvard Business Review)
Research has shown that working on weekends, holidays, or paid time off can impact intrinsic motivation. Our brains have difficulty processing the conflict of working during leisure time. To address this, be honest with yourself about when you’re in “work time” vs “non-work time.”
How to Create a Workplace that Actually Inspires Passion (via Harvard Business Review)
- Build systems for experimentation that help learners discover their particular domain
- Create connections between workers.
- Frame a powerful question around a sense of purpose
- Prioritize performance trajectories
Leaderhip
Our book club started chapter four, which is about driving results collaboratively. We learned what didn’t work for the author at Google and Apple, as well as about the first two stages of getting stuff done: listen, clarify.
5 Tips for Managing an Underperformer — Remotely (via Harvard Business Review)
- Revisit your expectations
- Learn more about them
- Help them learn how to improve their own performance.
- Level with them and be specific.
- Stay in close enough contact.
Technology
A Better Way to Onboard AI (via Harvard Business Review)
AI adoption can take several phases. First is as an assistant, helping with repetitive tasks (e.g., autocomplete). Second is as a monitor, working along side people as they work with large quantities of data (e.g., fraud detection). Third as a coach, giving more short- and medium-term feedback to individuals. Fourth as a teammate, working alongside individuals; however, there is a predilection toward trained bias and not being able to prove how AI arrived at a specific decision.