Culture
Work Is Not Your Family (via TED)
- Work and family are different entities with different goals, expectations and responsibilities, and therefore should be separated and boundaried.
- To where maybe we land into a workplace and we hear “we’re like family” and our brain just triggers into “give it everything no matter what.” We sacrifice our boundaries, our time, our relationships, and we start living life in these big swings of overworking to burnout. And maybe we rationally know that it’s not the healthiest pattern in our life, but we feel stuck.
- First, when you find yourself wanting to say “we’re like family” around work or organizations, try to get clearer in your communication and use language that has better boundaries.
- Why is it that we think we can grow or develop our mental health when most of us don’t have the tools or education to do so?
Economics
Visualizing the Rise of Global Economic Uncertainty (via HBR)
The five major shocks: Brexit vote, Trump elected, tariffs by the US and China, COVID-19, invasion of Ukraine. To weather such uncertainty, pay more attention to geopolitics, be willing to pay for flexibility so you can change course, and invest in contingency plans.
Hiring
When Hiring, Prioritize Assignments Over Interviews (via HBR)
The authors were fairly quick to claim that most of the ways we evaluate candidates– interviews, personality assessments, previous work experience, bot screening — don’t work. (It sounds a little bit like cherry-picking to me.) Their solution is to have some minimally demonstratable project they can complete. This could work in some instances, but would be difficult or impractical in others. The authors claim that simulations/VR would address this. Personally I don’t think there’s a silver bullet. I’ve seen great people get hired with 30 minutes of just talking shop, and other people go through rounds of interviews just to end up being underperformers.
Influence
The Psychological Mind Tricks That Actually Work (via Lifehacker)
- Create a debt so others feel obligated to return the favor (norm of reciprocity)
- Mirror people’s behaviors (chameleon effect)
- Over-ask and then come back with a lesser ask (door in the face technique)
- Repeat yourself (repetition bias / illusory truth effect)
- Imply scarcity, as we value things that are more rare (FOMO)
- Speak with confidence, try not to hedge
- Use people’s names (cocktail party effect)
- Be present by showing up (affinity)
- Describe others in the terms you want to be described by (spontaneous trait transference)
- Use subliminal touching to imbue warmth
Meetings
3 Types of Meetings — and How to Do Each One Well (via HBR)
- Transactional gatherings to get things done. Use cloud-based tools to share documents, make sure each person can be seen, have the host look out for signals of participation.
- Relational gatherings to strengthen connections. Have clear objectives, having structured activities, include a mix of people across functions/levels/locations.
- Adaptive gatherings to address complex topics. Create a malleable environment distinct from regular meetings, create a sense of safety, have release valves to dissolve tensions.
Motivating employees
Job Insecurity Harms Both Employees and Employers (via HBR)
It can have a temporary boost on productivity, but ultimately it’s cruel and doesn’t have good long-term impacts on the individual or the organization. People are more likely to not follow rules and spend more energy on impression management (i.e., selling themselves) than doing things that would be otherwise more valuable to the org.
Organizational culture
Don’t Let Cynicism Undermine Your Workplace (via HBR)
“When we look at the world through a cynical lens, people appear to be out for themselves, acts of kindness hide ulterior motives, and trusting others makes you a sucker.” We assume people cheat, we strike first before getting struck ourselves, and mistakenly believe we’re socially smarter. Policies that breed cynicism: zero-sum leadership and overmanaging. To escape, redirect the culture toward collaboration and model trust.