Category: business

Quiet Quitting

by live an untethered life, posted in business
Photo by Belle Co on Pexels.com

This sounds like a relatively new phenomena where employees simply do the bare minimum. But the quitting part sounds like employees are not fulfilling their job description or their objectives. Quiet Quitting Employees (QQE’s) are not actually quitting anything it seems.

Instead, this describes a lack of engagement with their organization. This issue sounds like the same issue organizations faced for generations.

Back in the day, the solution we told our children was to follow their bliss as suggested by Joseph Campbell. Before this concept, those in HR departments recommended Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where self-actualization was rated the top need. And even before this Jung suggested individuation which is to self-realize with the aim of moving toward psychological wholeness.

At least to me, QEE does not sound like a new problem. But there have been various new causes such as COVID which broke apart the social structures of countless organizations.

For 2023, here are the top five methods to increase employee engagement by increasing:

  1. Efficiency. Better technology and project management can reduce wasted time which increases frustration.
  2. Communication. Not more communication, but information that can draw staff in further.
  3. Recognition. This captures the standard advice of catching the employee doing something good.
  4. Work Flexibility. Virtual work is the way to go COVID. Employee expectation now includes the partial ability to work at home.
  5. Intrinsic Motivation. The above extrinsic motivators work towards the gold standard of intrinsic motivation.

Have a great 2023 Everyone!

Living la Covida Loca in the office

by live an untethered life, posted in business, Legal, Uncategorized
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Now that office and home blurred into this wonderous mix of continuous office work and housework, one might wonder about what the future might hold. Here is a helpful list

  1. We have learned how to zoom and Microsoft teams. All those meetings that could have been an email have been revealed for what they truly are. Little black holes where not even the truest wisdom could possibly escape. You will be emboldened with this newfound knowledge.
  2. Housing prices went through roof. The fear of missing out drove so many into purchasing something they may not live long enough to pay off the mortgage and regret. As Thoreau said, it wasn’t so much that they got the house as the house got them. You will have to downsize your home office to make room for your adult children boomeranging back.
  3. All the introverts became ecstatic at being forced to binge watch to their hearts content. They are now dreading having to work socialize once again. I’m just saying this because a friend told me. But with all those shows, now you have something to talk about.
  4. A lot of people went out and got COVID-19 support pets. We already had two golden retrievers before all this happened. I did splurge and got one more koi for the pond out back. The little guy has taken refuge in the pond filter for the last couple of months. Like everyone in their home. He will not be happy come fall when everyone comes back in the aquarium to overwinter. Look into automatic feeders. For the pets, not your children.
  5. Time will tell if we see a lot of COVID-19 children. If anything, there might be a pullback since few people are entering into new relationships. There may be less tension in the air since people have a reason not to keep entering the dating scene. Few people really regret binge watching. It’s more of a humble brag when they do mention it.
  6. Putting in an automatic reply that you are on vacation will change. For the office, go to voice mail and email. For the rest of family, you will have to rely upon sticky notes on your door and auto reply on text, in case that is the only way your children now interact with you.
  7. For the office, divert incoming work to a trained associate. For the home, divert laundry to a trained child and just be prepared to live with the results.
  8. For the smaller office, just ensure automatic payments are going for various repetitive expenses. For the home, arrange for a once-a-week delivery of frozen easily microwavable foodstuffs. And a bottle of chewable vitamins since healthy and microwaveable are rarely in the same sentence on the wrapping.
  9. Now that the pandemic existential crisis is coming to an end, and the climate existential crisis never left and is picking up speed, the next crisis will be what to wear to work. Now that employers might have this expectation you have to return to a place of employment
  10. If you picked up the COVID 20 pounds, then maybe the only things that still fit are shoes and hats. Everything in between became a distant memory.  You will have to remember the fun you used to have going to the mall to shop aimlessly. You have been given a renewed purpose!

Keep living the Covida Loca!

Speak up for yourself!

by live an untethered life, posted in business, Untethered Mind

pexels-photo-206784 monkeesInteresting TED talk by Adam Galinsky. Sometimes you don’t speak up when you should, and speak up when you shouldn’t. This force to speak up arises from moral conviction.

He suggests that the range of times that you can appropriately speak up can depend upon the amount of power you have in a particular situation.

You can expand the range of times you should speak up by increasing the amount of power you have.

This power can be increased by

  1. advocating on behalf of others
  2. possessing some particular expertise
  3. obtaining social support and allies

Once you have at least one of these, then speak with conviction and passion.

As an irrelevant aside, this sort of reminded me of the precautionary poem by Yeats, The Second Coming:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity”

 

So, Be Best, not worst.

 

motivation management personaldevelopment business leadership

Sell me this pen!

by live an untethered life, posted in business

pexels-photo-261450 penI thought this an amazing example of establishing need for a product. Spoiler alert. In the Wolf of Wall Street, DiCaprio asks someone to sell him a pen. The person answering takes the pen and asks DiCaprio to write down his name. This created a need, albeit somewhat artificial.

During an interview, you might be asked a similar type of question. Some people simply discuss the value attributes of the pen. Shiny, easy to hold. Others ask questions as to what the interviewer might look for in a pen. What did they like about the last pen they had? Others identify a problem, as above, and show how the pen solves the problem. The solution based approach.

There appears to be one more step beyond that. In Shiller’s book, Narrative Economics, he discusses how the first solution based approach is analytic self-referencing. Why you need the pen to write your name. He suggests a narrative self-referencing and narrative transportation approach. This suggests telling the interviewer to imagine themselves taking this pen and signing a multi-billion dollar contract.

Perhaps a bit delusional, but impactful all the same.

A suggestion to raise yourself above the pack.

#management #personaldevelopment #business #leader #innovation #marketing

Guiding Principles

by live an untethered life, posted in business

pexels-photo-1736222 compassDoes a company need guiding principles? I volunteered to have a look at some of ours to see if I could condense them somewhat. Which of course led to the first question; What do they accomplish?

Principles reflect your vision, mission, strategic interests, and core values and constitute a broad philosophy that guides an organization. They become part of the brand, which includes everything you say or do.

So guiding principles should then imbue everything you say or do. This includes the type of deals you construct, the people you hire, the person you want to become.

#management #leadership #business #motivation #culture #competencies  #personaldevelopment

MURF to the Rescue!

by live an untethered life, posted in business

IMG_5236 mrfHere I am at Winnipeg’s new Material Recovery Facility, or MURF, wearing all of the necessary Personal Protective Equipment or PPE. I’m the one wearing the white hard hat and orange vest. This was all part of the field tour for the Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba Board that I sit on.

At the end of the tour we can see how the various items are bailed up and ready to be sent out. The recovery rate is improving, but still a portion ends up in the landfill.

We still need a major emphasis on the reduce, reuse part, and then we finally recycle.

#business #motivation #innovation #recycling #sustainability #environment #ecofriendly

Curmudgeon

by live an untethered life, posted in business, Untethered Mind

close up of computer keyboard

We were talking about Microsoft office today. Our teams website pushes out a fair bit of notifications on various matters of interest. However, some include things like there are brownies in the staff room. Now, I signed up for the brownie notifications. Others don’t care about who’s child just won best in whatever category.

I asked our IT department if they could include a curmudgeon button for those that don’t want to hear about things.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Chasing Inspiration

by live an untethered life, posted in business, Untethered Mind

No alternative text description for this image

 

Do you ever wonder where the inspiration for innovation comes from? It can be like chasing a 6 month old puppy in the park. It’s better for them to come to you. I suggest bacon treats in your pocket.

Dogs are great. Our office has a welcome dog policy. We have two golden retrievers, McGuire and Seamus. They constantly remind me how to facilitate inspiration.

Do you ever walk into the kitchen, and forget why you went in there?

McGuire and Seamus experience life like that. Every change is new and exciting all the time. It’s transcendence.

Coping skill, when you enter the kitchen, just keep moving, and you will pass by whatever it was that you were thinking about and the thought process will be rebooted.

 

life business innovation entrepreneurship mindfulness motivation personaldevelopment creativity personalbranding

Items found in a toxic work culture. 

by live an untethered life, posted in business

image-1Handy list of items found in a toxic work culture.

The organization ignores the healthy basics. Instead of healthy snacks, the vending machines are filled with sugar, salt, surgery salt, solidified fats and over-the-counter stay-awake medications

The company implies the need to be constantly on line. Perhaps they hand out those little rechargeable battery packs as bonus gifts so your phone can always be fully charged.

The company does not mandate any time off. Employee of the month photos show sallowed faces, and instead of listing how many days without injury, employers list the number of days a staff has gone without a vacation.

The company opposes flexible work arrangements since the attitude appears to that freedom is slavery.

The top management possess the complete works of Franz Kafka, George Orwell and that dystopian one by William Golding.

The company maintains a great benefit plan, but it only covers over the counter products such as Red Bull and Rolaids.

You look up the LOA policy and it only refers to lots of aggression.

If you have one or more of these items in your workplace, then perhaps consider changing the culture or finding a new one.

#business  #life #motivation #personaldevelopment#leadership #personalbranding