Business
How Nonprofits Can Encourage Donors to Give More (via HBR)
- Introduce a “fun” choice between tip jars (e.g., cats/dogs)
- Use nouns over verbs — “become a donor” vs “donate today”
- Use second person plural — “we need your help” vs “every dollar counts”
Career
How to Succeed Quickly in a New Role (via HBR)
It seems the root issue is that people in new roles think they need to shine by themselves. Instead, the article suggests that building strong internal networks to help them learn and get things done is more effective. Know where you add value where you fall short, and how you can help others fill gaps. Look for these four types of people — central connectors (hubs of hub-and-spoke), boundary spanners (connecting silos), energizers (passion + enthusiasm), and resistors (naysayers).
Decision Making
Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making (via HBR)
Make processes by including diverse perspectives, clarify decision rights (RACI), match the cadence of decisions to the pace of learning, and encourage candid, robust conflict in service of a better experience for the customer.
Teams
When Autonomy Helps Team Performance — and When It Doesn’t (via HBR)
Teams do well when they are (1) assigned a project but have autonomy to pick who works on it, (2) assigned a team but have autonomy to pick what they work on. Don’t just give blanket autonomy — give them some constraint. Some randomness is also welcome to break up people who like to work with others like them (or their friends).