May 23, 2022

Professional Development – 2022 – Week 21

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

Change management

Democratizing Transformation (via HBR)

This post explains five phases of digital transformation maturity — ranging from silos to digital natives. It comes down to looking for bottlenecks and inefficiencies to help you learn where to focus your efforts.

Collaboration

How the Best Teams Keep Good Ideas Alive (via HBR)

The tables toward the end of this article describe the different tactics for bringing ideas to light (amplifying, developing, legitimizing, emphasizing, issue-raising) as well as typical resistance questions and how to redirect them.

Employee retention

3 Strategies for Managing an Understaffed Team (via HBR)

  1. Rethink project calendars. Do you need to meet as frequently? Can timelines be extended? Can you delay projects so you’re working on fewer things
  2. Prioritize core client needs. Giving everybody a sliver of your time usually means a poor experience for everyone. Can you delay things or check in less frequently?
  3. Find quick interventions. Look for low hanging fruit to save time, especially around time-consuming manual tasks.

How to Re-Engage a Dissatisfied Employee (via HBR)

  • Money and perks are a short-term solution
  • Aim for work-life alignment, not work-life balance
  • Find out what drives them, and reshape their jobs together
  • Engage them in the recruiting process
  • Connect their work to the larger picture

Interviews

38 Smart Questions to Ask in a Job Interview (via HBR)

  • During an interview you have two goals: (1) see if the company is a good fit, (2) prove that you’re a good fit for this opportunity.
  • Try to personalize the questions such that the hiring manager begins to see you in the role (e.g., “what would my first day look like in this role?”).
  • Build off previous parts of the interview to make it sound like a continuous conversation.
  • The article also lists 38 questions you can ask, categorized by what you’re trying to learn.

Management

How to Help an Employee Who Struggles with Time Management (via HBR)

  • Acknowledge your own emotions to pinpoint what’s causing you stress.
  • Assess whether you have some role to play in the other person’s behavior.
  • Communicate what you need.
  • Be more hands-on at the start to build momentum.
  • Appreciate progress.

Strategy

Think You Have a Great Idea? Ask These 6 Questions to Gain Perspective. (via HBR)

  1. What stands out to you?
  2. What’s missing?
  3. What would our critics say?
  4. What would our premortem reveal?
  5. What would someone on the frontlines who doesn’t have our context say?
  6. How would our competitors celebrate if we were successful?

Technology

Why Build in Web3 (via HBR)

Web3 is one of those topics that seems interesting on paper. There are interesting technical capabilities and benefits from moving power from tech giants to individuals. However, in its current form, it’s rife with abuse, scams, and volatility. My hunch is that technology is not to blame: Humans at-scale suck.