Career
Starting a New Job as a Mid-Career Professional (via HBR)
- Build relationships — be curious about others, respect the history of what already exists
- Dig deep into the business — learn the company and the culture (the article had several good questions)
- Understand how others perceive your job — you may need to spend time aligning others
- Learn dependencies — who needs something from you, and who do you need things from
- Give yourself time
Dansk
Danish Verb Inversions (via Danish Mastery)
There are certain conditions where a clause’s subject and verb invert.
Management
Managers Can’t Do It All (via HBR)
- Even though managers thrived in hierarchical workforces, they are still needed but for different reasons (prioritize, nurture culture, support work/life balance, connect others, build relationships).
- Four major business movements… process reengineering (1990-2000s), digitization (2010-2015), agile (2015-current), flexible work (2020-current).
- We’re moving from manager to people leader, shifting from “me” to “we”, from task overseer to performance coach, and from static/physical to fluid/digital.
- The article describes how Telstra split the manager role in two: a leader of people vs. a leader of work.
How to Ask Whether an Employee Is Happy at Work (via HBR)
This article has several example questions managers can have with their reports along with tips for active listening.
Managing conflict
When Crisis Management Becomes Conflict Management (via HBR)
With the common enemy (pandemic) subsiding, psychological splitting (with us vs. against us) has been a coping mechanism for tolerating unbearable emotions. For leaders it’s important to (1) identify splitting triggers in themselves, spotting this behavior on their teams, and spending time reuniting and reintegrating relationships.
Negotiation
Persuading Your Team to Embrace Change (via HBR)
- Foot in the door — try a small change, and subsequent changes should be easier
- Door in the face — ask for too much at first, so that a smaller request will seem more reasonable
How to Respond to an Unreasonable Request (via HBR)
- Assess the relationship
- Be curious
- Raise awareness for the other person
- Be clear on your boundaries
- Offer alternative solutions
- Let the other person know what would work next time
Society
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again (via Houston Miller)
- The causes…
- The main reason things have been getting faster since 1880 is the central, relentless pursuit around the organizing principle of economic growth.
- Cause 1: the increase in speed, switching, and filtering
- Cause 2: the crippling of our flow states
- Cause 3: the rise of physical and mental exhaustion
- Cause 4: the collapse of sustained reading
- Cause 5: the disruption of mind-wandering
- Cause 6: the rise of technology that can track and manipulate you
- Cause 7: the rise of cruel optimism
- Cause 8: the surge in stress that triggers vigilance
- Cause 9: the deterioration of our diets
- Cause 10: the rise in pollution
- Cause 11: the rise of ADHD and our response to it
- Cause 12: the psychological and physical confinement of our children
- Some solutions…
- Get involved with community action groups (found on the website)
- Eliminate surveillance capitalism
- Implement a 4-day work week
- Let kids play freely
Tools
My company uses Confluence for some internal content management. This course (although it’s a bit dated, from five years ago) explains macros and best practices for organizing content, as well as tools available to space (i.e., Confluence sub-areas) administrators.