Communication
How to talk about climate change so people actually care (via TED)
- Use plain, obvious, neutral language so that people understand. Ex: pollution blanket instead of climate change.
- Focus on the individuals, not the issues. “Awakenings are personal, locally relevant.”
- Show it’s an issue for “people like me” (e.g., background, accent), as humans are social creatures.
Blogumentation (via Software Lead Weekly)
Closer to the prime of my software development career, I did this as well. The way I handle this now is to write Confluence (internal) docs.
“Asynchronous” Working in 2021 (via Software Lead Weekly)
I think this is more of a testament to technology maturing so that everything doesn’t have to be a meeting. The same goes for email, which is also asynchronous but highly interrupting. My advice is to ask yourself (your team, etc.) whether your communication scheme works, or would benefit from change. You may gain some benefits by async’ing all the things, but you lose human elements as well. Be intentional.
Persuading the Unpersuadable (via Harvard Business Review)
- Arrogant? Let them recognize gaps in their own understanding.
- Stubborn? Ask them questions instead of giving answers.
- Narcissistic? Appeal to their desire to be admired.
- Disagreeable? Stand up to them instead of backing down.
Culture
Designing the Hybrid Office (via Harvard Business Review)
A new version of the office will be a place for connection and unstructured collaboration, not just for work.
Treat Your Onboarding Process Like Your Build System (via Software Lead Weekly)
This skews heavily toward tech-only companies, but there are many principles that still apply. Having things written down, reviewed frequently, and executed consistently is quite powerful.
Danish
- at lægge beslag på — to take up time, money, or space; lit: to put fittings on
- til punkt og prikke — very accurately (in English, to the letter); lit: to point and dot
- at give en tand til — to give a little extra; lit: to give a tooth to
Ethics
Algorithmic Nudges Don’t Have to Be Unethical (via Harvard Business Review)
‘“Nudging” — the strategy of changing users’ behavior based on how apparently free choices are presented to them — has come a long way since the concept was popularized byUniversity of Chicago economist Richard Thaler and Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein in 2008. With so much data about individual users and with the AI to process it, companies are increasingly using algorithms to manage and control individuals — and in particular, employees. This has implications for workers’ privacy and has been deemed by some to be manipulation. The author outlines three ways ways that companies can take advantage of these strategies while staying within ethical bounds: Creating win-win situations, sharing information about data practices, and being transparent about the algorithms themselves.’
Leadership
What Good Leaders Do When Replacing Bad Leaders (via Harvard Business Review)
You don’t automatically become a good leader merely by taking over for a bad one.
- Acknowledge contributions of the previous leader
- Create space for forgiveness
- Seek to understand what your employees need now
How One Company Worked to Root Out Bias from Performance Reviews (via Harvard Business Review)
Four categories of bias were described, and the approach had the company train people to spot them. The two actions here were (1) making ratings backed by at least three pieces of evidence, and (2) training people to spot examples of bias in feedback.
6 Leadership Paradoxes for the Post-Pandemic Era (via Harvard Business Review)
- Strategic executor — vision + translation into actions
- Humble hero — acknowledge unknowns + make bold decisions
- Tech-savvy humanist — understand tech’s leverage + empathy and authenticity toward others
- Traditioned innovator — guard purpose and values + try out new things and learn from failures
- High-integrity politician — collaborate, negotiate, partner + establish and maintain trust
- Globally-minded localist — understand global insights and impacts + understand local preferences and ecosystems
Process
Asynchronous communication was supposed to make us more efficient. In some ways it has, but in many other ways it hasn’t. The author makes the case for systems better designed for this workflow rather than the crude general tool of email or Slack. There are also ways to design better systems to focus more on how the work gets managed.
The Feynman Technique Can Help You Remember Everything You Read (via Software Lead Weekly)
This reminds me of the KAFE (knowledge, actual practice, fluency, and efficacy) model I learned from The Agile Coaching DNA. Most people stop at “K”. It turns out I was basically following this approach with my book summaries: (1) pick a book, (2) pretend you are explaining it to a 12-year-old, (3) identify knowledge gaps and reread, (4) simplify your explanation. My process involves typing (physical reinforcement) up my notes, organizing them, rereading them for accuracy, and giving an executive summary.
Technology
Why AI That Teaches Itself to Achieve a Goal Is the Next Big Thing (via Harvard Business Review)
Reinforcement learning is what my company (Lirio) uses. ‘a mature machine learning technology that’s good at optimizing tasks in which an agent takes a series of actions over time, where each action is informed by the outcome of the previous ones, and where you can’t find a “right” answer the way you can with a prediction. It’s a powerful technology, but most companies don’t know how or when to apply it. The authors argue that reinforcement learning algorithms are good at automating and optimizing in situations dynamic situations with nuances that would be too hard to describe with formulas and rules.’