‘Psychologically safe’ environment

Encouraging people to be curious generates workplace improvements.

When we are curious, we view tough situations more creatively. Studies have found that curiosity is associated with less defensive reactions to stress and less aggressive reactions to provocation.

Curiosity encourages members of a group to put themselves in one another’s shoes and take an interest in one another’s ideas rather than focus only on their own perspective.

Thus, conflicts are less heated, and groups achieve better results.

Some managers accept or create unreasonable expectations on performance without checking in with their workers, thus causing stress.

A good manager should talk to their employees and ensure expectations are well thought out and feasible before being defined.

Some leaders get too deep in the details around how the actual work gets implemented, but implementation belongs to the employee.

Provide accessible and regular oversight for the work to be produced—but don’t micromanage our produce it yourself.

• Work together, complement each other, and function as a team.
• Able to operate on and enable environments that are more dynamic, team-centric, and connected.
• Lead and build teams and partner with the broader ecosystems, keep people connected and engaged, and drive a culture of innovation, learning, and continuous improvement.
• Lead a workforce that includes contractors, the contingent workforce, and crowd talent.
• Understand how different business functions, industries, and technologies come together to form solutions.
• Comfortable and competent with risk-taking.

Millennials expect to be developed via opportunities, mentoring, and stretch assignments. However that is hard to come by in top-heavy companies. 

Most millennials think their roles provide little development while most companies report they have excellent or adequate programs for Millennials.

...is a foundational proposition or assumption that stands alone. We cannot deduce first principles from any other proposition or assumption.

Reasoning by first principles removes the impurity of assumptions and conventions. What remains is the essentials. 

If we never learn to take something apart, test the assumptions, and reconstruct it, we end up trapped in what other people tell us.

We remain trapped in the way things have always been done. When the environment changes, we just continue as if things were the same.

Start at the endpoint: What is the outcome you want and why? Leave the team some flexibility to develop the best way to get there.

Without a clear sense of what the team needs to accomplish and how a successful outcome will be defined, it's impossible to assemble the right group of people to get there.

Look at the workflow and resources available to help you understand the scope of the project and what support the team will need to be successful.

Important questions to keep in mind: Is your organization prepared to support the team in its objectives? Will they have the right tools and resources to complete their tasks? How will you measure their efficiency during the process and monitor it for improvement? 

Social connection makes hope possible. This is the message in the film based on the life of 13-year-old William Kamkwamba. The story plays off in Malawi during a famine caused by a series of natural disasters.

William's family cannot afford for him to continue with school, and William is forbidden to return. But William sneaks back into school and gets permission to continue using the school's library. He develops strong ties with his science teacher, librarian, family, friends, and fellow villagers.

He ultimately discovers how wind energy can bring water to his village and save them from perishing.

The Farewell is about a first-generation Chinese immigrant, Billi. She wants to visit her dying grandmother, Nai-Nai, in China, to say goodbye.

Nai-Nai is unaware of the seriousness of her illness while the family believes it is kinder to keep her illness a secret and make her happy. Conflict ensues as Billi wants to tell Nai-Nai the truth. This is a tale of how people express love differently and the quiet wisdom and positive outlook of Nai-Nai.

Narcissists believe they're unique and superior, while humble leaders know they're flawed. 

The humble narcissist has grand ambitions but doesn't feel entitled to them. He is also willing to acknowledge his weaknesses and learn from his mistakes.

We're all drawn to someone who shows confidence - that is the reason that narcissists are more likely to be promoted or get elected to political office. But on its own, narcissism is dangerous. It tends to promote overconfidence and it dismisses the criticism.

Adding humility to narcissism prevents capriciousness and complacency. It helps you remember that you’re human.

• Performance transparency: it starts with making goals public and cascading those goals  in a way that is tailored to individuals at all levels of the organization.
• Knowledge sharing: critical to scaling best practices across (and up and down) organizations.
• Employee involvement: frontline employees are closest to the work and typically have the richest insights on how their work can be done better. Capturing their perspectives is critical.

• The wheel and the axle didn't suddenly spring up, but were a gradual, phased invention, starting with rollers that reduced friction on the ground, and helped the Egyptians and Mesopotamians move heavy objects.
• The oldest discovered axle was found inside a potter’s wheel in a miniature, toy-like form in Mesopotamia. The fact that the center of the wheel is stationary as compared to the circumference is in fact the greatest mechanical insight ever known.
• Combining the wheel with an axle was genius, leading to the invention of the wagon and other transport vehicles.

• The name given to the first full-size wheel, according to paleolinguits, was ‘Kweklos’ which meant ‘to turn’.
• The time of this invention is said to be about 5400 years ago, though the exact location of the invention varies from Russia to Slovenia.
• The inventor was a genius in the conception and craft, as he was able to solve engineering, design and woodworking problems to scale up a toy into a full-size wagon.
• It had a profound effect on the productivity of farmers, and it even helped populations move towards other places that were not close to the river and were thus unexploited.