February 15, 2021

Professional Development – 2021 – Week 7

Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54585499@N04/

Business

The Most Pressing People Questions Facing Companies Today (via Harvard Business Review)

  1. How do you balance your human workforce with automation?
  2. What are your plans for remote work?
  3. How are you helping ensure employee mental health?
  4. How are you engaging your stakeholders?
  5. Are you pursuing a purpose that supports society?

Want More Loyal Customers? Offer a Community, Not Rewards. (via Harvard Business Review)

I think I can get behind this idea, given most people are onto the idea of rewards being a gimmick (or a way to siphon more data at no cost to the company). Communities are a win-win.

Culture

WFH Is Corroding Our Trust in Each Other (via Harvard Business Review)

  • “Predictability is the foundation of trust.”
  • Monitoring isn’t the answer
  • “The best way to create lasting change is through repeated, small, reinforcing steps.”
  • Don’t just communicate when things change; sometimes knowing that things are in a steady state is useful
  • Building trust is not a one-size-fits-all approach; don’t assume what works for you will work for everyone

Volunteer Programs That Employees Can Get Excited About (via Harvard Business Review)

  • People that volunteer tend to be better citizens at work — helping others, voicing ideas, etc.
  • Pitfalls… copying others, prioritizing pet projects, making volunteering mandatory (tends to lead to insincere ingratiation to the higher-ups)
  • Prioritize the balance of impact and meaning
  • Get input from employees and upper management

Process

How to Stop Overthinking Everything (via Harvard Business Review)

  • Perfectionism becomes an issue because of all-or-nothing thinking; focus more on increments, like “What’s the next thing I can do to move this closer to the goal?”
  • Not all problems are huge; use something like the 10/10/10 test — how will I feel about this decision 10 weeks, 10 months, and 10 years from now?
  • Trust your intuition more
  • The more decisions you make, the more fatigued you become; find ways to shortcut choices
  • Add some creative constraints, because work will fill the space you give it; for example, give yourself deadlines when not external ones are present

Software development

A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms (Part 10)

This week our book club discussed graph algorithms.