Welcome
Thanks for reading my latest collection of stuff that interests my work at the office.
Please share with others if you feel there is value.
INDUCTION
Let The Story Tellers Be Free
Whenever a new team member joins our team, the second part of their induction program (after pointing out the bathroom and coffee machine) is to immerse them in the company's history.
I tell them the stories I know. I introduce them to others who can tell more stories. The keepers of the legends in any team are treasures. And what they share is gold.
The pre-history of the company and the stories around the team emphasises the culture. It explains the 'why'. It provides context.
I remember when our company took over another back in 2002, the Managing Director visited the newly acquired company's founder at his home on the Gold Coast. He spent three days there with him, extracting every bit of history to get a quality insight about the new acquisition.
There are reasons why a company is performing as it is, and it is important to know those reasons.
It’s a case study. The case study is the heart of any curriculum.
Through a case study, the work becomes meaningful. It helps define the context and the environment.
It doesn’t mean that it can’t be adjusted.
For new team members, knowing the company's history provides guidelines. They won't be working in a complete vacuum.
And when new team members become familiar with the historical context of the role, they then have a shared memory with others. Things, events, and facts all become part of an agreed view of the world. And so engagement with others is productive.
Having a historical concept supplies a solid reference point.
Workplace Culture
Generation Z in the Workplace
Gen Z are changing workplace culture. Gen Z is defined as the 72 million people born between 1997 and 2012, or as anyone too young to remember Sept. 11.
Gen Zers are not afraid to speak out. At a supplement company, a Gen Z worker questioned why she would be expected to clock in for a standard eight-hour day when she might get through her to-do list by the afternoon.
While millennials started work during and after the financial crisis, they felt lucky to land any type of work, and believe in the "hustle". Gen Zers, meanwhile, are starting their careers at a new moment of crisis — in the midst of a pandemic that has upended the hours, places and ways we’re able to work.
Many Gen Zers are wanting jobs that will indefinitely stay remote.
New York Times
Questions
The Mastery of Asking a Question
A beautiful question is an ambitious yet actionable question that can begin to shift the way we think about something - and may serve as a catalyst to bring about change.
Problem-Solving
What Are We Ignoring?
We should make it a habit to always ask what is not in the picture. This doesn’t come naturally.
During World War II, mathematician Abraham Wald was asked to help the Royal Air Force find the areas on their planes that were most often hit by bullets so they could cover them with more armour. He retrieved the data showing the hits on all the planes that returned to base. But instead of counting the bullet holes on the returned planes, he recommended armouring the spots where none of the planes had taken any hits. The RAF forgot to take into account what was not there to see. All the planes that didn’t make it back. The RAF fell for a common error in thinking called survivorship bias. The other planes didn’t make it back because they were hit where they should have had extra protection, like the fuel tank. The returning planes could only show what was less relevant.
Quote
Halloween is all about flipping stuff on its head and getting weird, right?
Randoms
Hack your brain for productivity. - an app to support your work focus, called Centered
Great YouTube video about Cognitive Biases
Rebranding
Meta
Very risky move by Mark Zuckerberg, as is any rebranding move. The rebrand here though seems to be in the image of Zuckerberg’s personal brand. And yet people who use Facebook are mainly there to update their grandparents and keep in touch with friends from Primary School. I’m sure none of this is part of the Zuckerberg personal brand. If it was, he wouldn’t cut his hair like that.
I think he’s on his own with whatever virtual universe is being proposed here.