Category: culture

Breadcrumbs

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Last week, Facebook announced its cryptocurrency Libra. The next day, The Verge’s Casey Newton released the second part of his report on Facebook moderators, those who are supposed to solve Facebook’s problem with toxic content.

This is a company that for a long time has been misaligned. While preaching connection and innovation, the platform is generating far more problems for society and communities than it is solving. The leadership is failing to address such disasters, dodging bullets and any sort of responsibilities, while focusing on metrics that very little have to do with “bringing the world closer together”.

There’s an important lesson here.

You can be successful, rich, important even by creating a product that gives a sounding board to 3,000,000 pieces of toxic content every day. That manipulates democracy and facilitates genocide. That steps on basic human rights and gives away users’ data for illegal purposes.

But at the end of the day, what do you want to leave behind?

Informing change

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When a decision is made to leverage emotions, the stage is set for heated and emotional discussions.

A tragedy happens, and it is the duty of those who inform the public to report it. Yet there are at least two level of discretion.

The first one regards the elements that complete the information. Would a written report be enough? Should it include a picture? Should it include graphic imagery? As a thumbnail, perhaps? An audio file capturing the very tragic moments? A video? A dispairing interview?

The second one regards the context we provide for the information. Was that a tragic isolated event? Was that part of broader topic? Are there policies in place that led to this? Are the ties clear? Is there people to blame? Are there other events that are related? Did this ever happen before?

There’s a race to the bottom in news organisations, one that is driven by the fear of being left behind. And so, if my competitors are doing something that drives traffic, so should I. The problem with this is that it makes the (almost) totality of the public discourse trivial, instinctual, emotional. It does so news after news, in a continuous cycle of resentment, repulsion and frustration. For the most part, it leaves all of us at a superficial level.

That’s not how change is informed.

Listening and asking

Fabrizio4 Comments

Two strong recommendations if you are into podcasts and leadership.

The Look and Sound of Leadership, by Tom Henschel.

Coaching for Leaders, by Dave Stachowiak.

They ship respectively monthly and weekly, and they are full of interesting insights and suggestions on how to be a modern leader.

If you want to start from somewhere, this one is a beautiful conversation about how poor we are at listening and what we can achieve by improving such basic skill.

In average, a person would speak about 150 words a minute. Yet in their mind, they can think up to 900 words a minute. If we stop at hearing the first thing a person says, there’s a huge chance we do not really hear what they wanted to actually express.

Oscar Trimboli

We have all had that feeling of not being able to sufficiently elaborate on our thoughts. We can get better at capturing our ideas, and still the role of the listener, particularly when in a position of power, is enabling our ability to clarify what we want to express and make us say it out loud.

And as a complement on the topic, this other one episode goes into some details about what we can do to facilitate and stimulate conversations. The key is being able to formulate good, open questions that give the other space to reflect and open up.

I hope you enjoy.

Patience

Fabrizio1 Comment

Despite common belief, patience is not a passive quality.

Patience means being committed. Devotion and dedication are necessary to stay in a situation long enough, to make the uncomfortable feel comfortable, to push away the instict of moving on to something else that might look more appealing in the moment. A patient person might look like somebody who has given up, and yet deep down they are decisively in.

Patience also means being aware. Knowing what is going on, proactively seeking for signals, interpreting the situation and learning from it. It is more than merely waiting, as it involves a conscious cognitive work aimed at collecting information about one’s sorroundings in order to effectively understand.

If you look at patience through this lens, then it should be easy to understand how crucial it can be in business and, more generally, in life.

Beyond up and more

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Is up the only way? Is more the only mean to advance?

Certainly, that is the popular view. When you are with a company, you figure what your next step would be in terms of career advancement and salary increase. Companies tend to reward with promotions and bigger paychecks their best performers or people with long tenure. They apply a one-size-fits-all measure that gets along well with the broadest culture, and yet might end up disappointing everyone involved.

Unfortunately, many organizations still offer only one way “up”. Become a manager, even if your strengths aren’t in management. Some people who aren’t really cut out to be managers may do an OK job, but they may never feel quite right managing.

It’s the Manager, by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter

There are terrific opportunities to improve this view of the work environment (and of society at large). Just imagine.

You have done a terrific job lately, I am proud of you as you have achieved this and that, and it’s important to the organisation because of that and this. As I know you had to work some extra hours to achieve that, I suggest you take two weeks off and take your family somewhere for a relaxing holiday. We are happy to pay you normal salary while you’re away, and cover the cost of the flight.

The way you have contributed to taking this team to the next level is really outstanding. In particular, I noticed you have done this with that project, and that with this person. You have mentioned during one of our conversation you’d wanted to complete your Master’s Degree you had to abandon to support your family. We’d be happy to cover the cost of your enrollment at University X for the completion of your studies.

You have been essential in closing this customer. Without you, we would have missed the opportunity to discuss the importance of Y, that eventually turned out to be crucial in convicing them. Thanks for the additional research you put into the case. I know that your true passion is in people’s development, though. I have discussed with the head of HR, and they are happy to take you in their team and mentor you on this new path. What do you think?

This does require extra effort, the effort put into knowing team members‘ strengths, wants, needs, ambitions, passions. You should really start today.