No One (Ehem… Everyone) Saw This Coming

No One (Ehem… Everyone) Saw This Coming

I would bet that the number of times this feedback has been given worldwide in 2023 was over a million. Over a million times. No doubt. In fact, this feedback has been so boilerplate that some Creatives in Ireland built a site dedicated to the feedback they’ve received over the years. You might find it interesting – Creative Catharsis.

Learning: If you want better than boilerplate Creative, avoid boilerplate feedback.

References and Resources

Creative Catharsis; Type: Website

Does this resonate with you? Have you ever received or given feedback along these lines? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

How to Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss at Work

How to Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss at Work

Ok, this is not about how to Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss at work. I barely know what that means. But we do live in a world where John Oliver can get the Putekeke to win New Zealand’s Bird of the Century, and the word ‘Rizz’ won the 2023 Oxford Word of the Year. It’s a strange, engaging, and sometimes funny world. It’s time to feel sorry for Grammarly because it threw up all over this post.

Learning: The best way to look at these kinds of events/changes is through the eyes of a curious child. If you can do that, and then you realize you are actually an adult – you can’t help but be amused (and more curious).

References and Resources

With a boost from John Oliver, pūteketeke soars to first in New Zealand bird contest by Joe Hernandez/NPR; Type: Article

Rizz, the word of the year, explained by Constance Grady/Vox; Type: Article

Gen Z is not a Monolith by the Marketoonist; Type: Cartoon/Article

Does this resonate with you? Do you envision a world where ‘Rizz,’ ‘Mid,’ and ‘Lit’ are commonly used in the office? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

It’s all Fun and Games…Until Someone Dies

It’s all Fun and Games…Until Someone Dies

There is a growing trend of converting stand-up meetings into plank meetings. It has been proven to reduce meeting times, which makes sense. I may be the only one out there, but combining a meeting with exercise will only result in me not talking. Either because I’m dead or because I can’t talk/breathe/think (trying to prevent my own death). It’s an interesting concept to keep meetings brief, but the truth is that this incentivizes not raising issues because, well…death (or the avoidance of death) will always be the greater concern.

Disclaimer: To our knowledge, no one has died in a plank meeting. We just don’t want to be the first. That’s not the way to go out.

Learning: Get in shape.

References and Resources

Daily plank meeting by William Liu; Type: Article

Does this resonate with you? What are your thoughts on “The plank meeting”? Have you ever had one of these? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Start, Continue – How to Get Behind on Your Work

Start, Continue – How to Get Behind on Your Work

One of the best ways to prevent burnout is the Stop-Start-Continue exercise. In short, you would regularly review your work to determine what you should Stop doing, what you should Start doing, and what you should Continue doing. If you are taking on new work, you can’t just slide that into the margins of your already busy day.

Learning: Yes, saying “No” is hard, but to do great work and not burn yourself out – you must learn to say “No.”

References and Resources

Start, Stop, Continue: How to implement this retrospective model by Madeline Miles/Better Up; Type: Article

Does this resonate with you? How do you balance your work to get your best personal end product? We’d love to hear from you.

The Future of Childhood Arguments

The Future of Childhood Arguments

This is ridiculous, I know. But how AI (Artificial Intelligence) will change our kids’ childhood experiences is terrifying and exciting to think about. The internet was one thing, and VR was an entirely different thing. But AI advancements in all areas of life are happening at lightning speed, and what that means for lived and worked experiences is, well, terrifying and exciting…and most certainly, unknown.

Learning: AI is changing (or about to change) everything – it’s probably best to learn as much as possible while we can.

References and Resources

The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman; Type: Book

Does this resonate with you? How has AI changed your work and/or life? Or how do you see it changing your work and/or life? We’d love to hear from you.

Fixed Mindset – For the Win

Fixed Mindset – For the Win

I am a huge fan of Carol Dweck, and you can too. The opposite of a Fixed Mindset is a Growth Mindset – and it’s what, it seems, every company is looking for in their candidate pool. Job Posting after Job Posting will include a Growth Mindset or some variation of it as a requirement. A Growth Mindset is one that is flexible and willing to learn, and it’s what we all should aim for because we are not dead.

Learning: No one is too old to learn. I admire someone willing to learn continually at any career stage.

References and Resources

Mindset: How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential by Dr. Carol Dweck; Type: Book

What habits help you ensure a Growth Mindset? We’d love to hear from you.

And You Get A Meeting

And You Get A Meeting

We all know this person. We might even be this person. If you know someone who constantly schedules meetings for things that can easily be handled over email – please send them this link.

This is a particularly vanilla perspective, as most people wouldn’t say they love meetings. And yet, according to Microsoft, from 2020-2022, we saw an increase of 3x in time spent in meetings. We can stop this trend by adding some scrutiny around meetings.

Learning: Let’s make it okay to say “NO” to meeting invites that don’t have agendas and/or pre-reads. Agendas and Pre-reads help in 2 ways: 1) They provide a clear structure and mandate prep work by the meeting scheduler, and 2) Your audience can fully participate: Introverts, for example, think to speak and need time to process information.

References and Resources

The No. 1 workplace distraction that kills productivity, according to Microsoft by Morgan Smith/CNBC; Type: Article

Will AI Fix Work? by Microsoft WorkLab; Type: Annual Report

Does this resonate with you? Have you figured out how to handle the onslaught of perpetual meetings? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

You Can Lead A Horse To…

You Can Lead A Horse To…

The phrase “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink” isn’t strictly a business phrase – it dates back to the 12th century but does seem to get used often. It is usually intended to mean that you can’t force someone to do something they don’t want to do. As a leader, if you are struggling with individuals on the team refusing the water, the best option is to start drinking the water yourself. I’m blowing up this metaphor, but hopefully, you get this idea. This assumes that what y’all are trying to do is aligned with the core values of the Organization and the individuals.

Conclusion: If you want someone on your team to do something, you must be willing to do it yourself.

References and Resources

You can lead a horse to water by Grammarist; Type: Article

Does this resonate with you? Have you ever experienced this level of resistance to something? We’d love to hear from you.

Note: Header Image provided by AI (Adobe Firefly)

Some Things Aren’t Better With More Drums

Some Things Aren’t Better With More Drums

True Story. We had a Company All-Hands somewhere in Las Vegas, and every employee was handed a bongo drum on the morning of the second day. The goal was to learn a beat and play in some synchronized fashion – I think this was to teach us that we all play a part in the symphony of our Company’s success. However, about 2 minutes in, you could see that loud banging was probably not what most people needed at that moment. A nap and some ibuprofen were probably better suited for them. However, everyone survived, and we had a great year, so maybe the bongos worked.

Challenge: Don’t drink at Company events; if you do – drink…it…slowly. You never know what the next morning’s team-building activity might be.

Does this resonate with you? Have you ever been involved in some team-building activities that probably weren’t the best ideas in hindsight? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Never Look Them in the Eyes

Never Look Them in the Eyes

There are so many presentation mistakes that can happen. In my experience, I had the slides on an auto-timer somehow (flipping one slide to the next every 15 seconds), rendering my clicker thingy useless, and it felt like I was wrestling a bear on stage. My talk track and slides were out of sync the entire presentation. At one point, I even said, “This is just like my nightmare last night…(looked down)…except I have clothes on…so that’s good.” So believe me when I say this: if you present – know your content because you never know what can happen. Do not read your slides, and don’t make people read lengthy ones, either. If you need help, please pick up any book from Garr Reynolds or Nancy Duarte.

Learning: If you are assigned to present to others (and need a slide deck), know your slides and content well enough not to read off them.

Does this resonate with you? Have you ever fallen asleep at a presentation (or wish you had)? If so, we’d love to hear from you.