Working in an office to learning at a university campus.Your brain automatically switches to a ‘work mode’ when you're surrounded by colleagues who are hard at work. The smell of ink from the printer, the silent tapping on the keyboards, the quiet chatter in the coffee room, all of that truly helps. It's the atmosphere of the place that puts you in the working mood and raises your productivity.

The Campus Analogy

While many people love the flexibility that remote work brings, for others the loss of an office environment and the social contact it provides can be a major blow.Not having a routine where you get up, leave the house, and socialize and interact with other people throughout the day can massively <a href="http://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220616-is-remote-work-worse-for-wellbeing-than-people-think">affect your mental health</a>. Not to leave your house for long periods of time isn't good for you.

In Favor Of Commuting To Office Daily

Companies need to create a culture of communication and flexibility to meet employees’ needs. For those businesses requiring people to work remotely, that includes creating more opportunities for staff to connect via company-wide socials, regular check-ins from line managers and turning video calling into the default mode of catching up rather than email.It encourages employees to stay connected and helps reduce loneliness and fatigue.

What Companies Can Do

In a survey of full-time remote workers, two thirds are concerned about missing out on development opportunities by being based at home.Only 40% of UK workers surveyed by employment and HR specialists are confident that office-based and home-based staff will be rewarded equally in the next 12 months.

Office Equals The Work Mode

Offices come with multiple benefits, including enabling colleagues to feed off each other's energy.Having an office space where you have good light and a good environment can just make you feel a little inspired, and enables you to be a bit more brave.

An Ode To The Office

<a href="https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/workforce/hopes-and-fears-2022.html">11% of US workers would prefer to work full-time in the office, and 62% said they’d like to spend at least some</a> time there. More than half (51%) of managers are also confident their <a href="https://www.goodhire.com/resources/articles/the-great-return-manager-survey/">employees would be keen to return to the office full-time</a>.The motivations may vary – some long for the sociability of the office, while others prefer a clear boundary between work and home. Companies will need to work out how to accommodate the needs of people who want to be in offices as well as those who don’t, as they map out their post-pandemic working models.

The Hidden Story: People Want To Come To Office

The loudest voices may be remote-work advocates, but plenty of other people can’t get back to the office fast enough.

remotework

Remote Work

career

Career

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

business

Business

The people who hate working from home

Good food is most often, simple food. Some of the best cuisine in the world is a matter of three or four good, fresh ingredients.Basic Kitchen Ingredients<ul><li>Shallots - Use for sauces, dressings, and sauté items.</li><li>Butter - In a professional kitchen, it’s almost always the first and last thing in the pan.</li><li>Roasted garlic. Sliver it for pasta. Smash it with the flat but don’t put it through a press.</li><li>Chiffonaded parsley for garnish. </li><li>Stock is the backbone of good cooking.</li><li>Demi-glaze</li><li>Cervil, basil tops, chive sticks, mint tops, etc.</li></ul>

How to cook like a professional

<ul><li>Your chances of seeing a return on your investment are about one in five. </li><li>Some people go into the restaurant business because of ego. Friends encourage you into it because you’re good at hosting dinner parties.</li><li>The most dangerous is getting into the business for love. </li></ul> Smart restaurant owners know from the start what they want. They are capable of doing well, and know how much it will cost them at the outset. They also have a fixed idea of how long they’re willing to lose money before they pull the plug.

Smart restaurant ownership

Professional level cooking is not all about the best recipe or the most innovative presentation. Instead, it is “economy of movement, nice technique and, most important, speed.” Line cooking is the real business of preparing food. It is more about consistency, mindless unvarying repetition. Chefs need the line cook to execute unquestionably without challenge.

Good line cooking

They are “lazy, undisciplined and, worst of all, high-maintenance lot, annoyingly opinionated, possessed of egos requiring constant stroking and tune-ups, and, as members of a privileged and wealthy population, unused to the kind of ‘disrespect’ a busy chief is inclined to dish out.” That is why non-Americans become well paid and sought after by other chefs. They’ve worked their way up from the bottom and know what it’s like to scrape out plates and haul garbage out to the curb.

Bourdain’s opinion of American cooks

<ul><li>When to Eat Out: Tuesday is a great day to eat out. The chef is well-rested after a Sunday or Monday off.</li><li>Be polite to your waiter or waitress: “he could save your life with a raised eyebrow or sigh.”</li><li>The brunch menu is usually made of “old nasty odds and ends”</li><li>Bread has likely been recycled from someone else’s table.</li><li>Good restaurants are clean, cooks and waiters well-groomed, dining room is busy.</li><li>The scrap ends of sirloin that have been pushed constantly to the back of the pile are served to people who want their meats cooked “well done”.</li></ul>

Tips On Eating Out

<ol><li>Artists are an "annoying, high-maintenance minority." Their efforts, convinced of their own genius, are often less satisfying to the majority of dinner customers.</li><li>Exiles want to work a normal 9-to-5 or are refugees who prefer work to poverty.</li><li>Mercenaries are people who do it for cash and do it well. Cooking is a craft, and expertly practising your craft is noble, honourable, and satisfying.</li></ol>

The three groups of line cooks

Runners dress like waiters and are paid out of the house payroll, but their loyalty lies with the chef and the kitchen. This person has dedication and speed, can quickly gauge what’s going on, can carry multiple plates and remember position numbers.A night porter has to clean the restaurant after service, take out the garbage, clean and scrub the insides of the ovens, and hose down the kitchen.

Restaurant roles

<ul><li>Be fully committed.</li><li>Learn Spanish. The backbone of your staff will be speaking this language.</li><li>Don’t steal.</li><li>Always be on time.</li><li>Never make excuses or blame others.</li><li>Lazy, sloppy and slow are bad.</li><li>Assume the worst. Be amused by what you see and suspect.</li><li>Avoid restaurants where the owner’s name is over the door.</li><li>Think about your resume</li><li>Read</li><li>Have a sense of humour.</li></ul>

How to become a chef

<ul><li>A decent chef’s knife</li><li>A flexible boning knife. Get one made by Global.</li><li>Pairing knife</li><li>Offset serrated knife</li><li>Plastic Squeeze Bottle</li><li>Toothpicks</li><li>“A thin metal ring, or cut-down section of PVC pipe about an inch and a half tall and laying inches across for pretentious food presentation.</li><li>Pastry bag</li><li>Mandolin</li><li>Pots and pans</li><li>Stockpots, saucepans, and thick-bottomed sauté pans are nice to have</li><li>Ensure they’re heavyweight</li><li>Never wash a non-stick sauté pan. Wipe it clean after each use. Don’t scratch the surface. Use a wooden spoon or non-metallic spatula.</li></ul>

Essential kitchen tools

A cook’s station and its condition is in a state of readiness. If you let your miss-emplace run down, get dirty and disorganised, you’ll quickly become overwhelmed. A typical mise-en-place contains:<ul><li>Kosher or sea salt</li><li>Crushed black peppercorns</li><li>Ground white pepper</li><li>Fresh breadcrumbs</li><li>Chiffonade parsley</li><li>Blended oil in a wine bottle </li><li>Extra virgin olive oil</li><li>White wine</li><li>Brandy</li><li>Chervil tops in ice water for garnish</li><li>Chive sticks or chopped chives</li><li>Tomato concasse</li><li>Caramelized apple sections</li><li>Garlic confit</li><li>Chopped or slivered garlic</li><li>Chopped shallots</li><li>Softened butter</li><li>Favourite ladles, spoons, tongs, pans, pots</li></ul>

Mise-en-place is a cook’s workstation

Kitchen Confidential is an insider’s look into the life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain.

After twenty-five years of 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine', chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain has decided to tell all. From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny.

food

Food

books

Books

Anthony Bourdain

Kitchen Confidential

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

A meeting without contextual structure leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. One generic meeting format is a surefire recipe for ineffective meetings.Without context, some team members will believe that the meeting should have been shorter and focused on tactical day-to-day issues, while others will be upset that the meeting didn’t allow enough time to have a thorough strategic discussion. You cannot satisfy both at the same time. We must be disciplined to structure our meetings with the purpose to cater towards a specific business need.

Providing Context with Structure

Upward of 30% of our time at work is spent in meetings. That’s a significant chunk of time, but it shouldn’t be too alarming.After all, meetings are vitally important to the success of any organization. Presidents and their cabinet members decide whether or not to go to war in meetings. CEOs and their board of directors choose whether to expand into new markets or shut down a regional branch in meetings. Meetings are the lifeblood of every organization.Yet the paradox of meetings is that we generally don’t like them. In fact, some of us despise them.

Meetings: The Necessary Evil

The hook is the first key to injecting drama into a meeting. As the leader of the meeting, it behooves you to ensure that you set up the meeting within the first 10 minutes such that your team understands and appreciates what is at stake.You may need to illustrate the consequences of a bad decision, highlight a competitive threat, appeal to the meeting participants’ commitment to a larger mission, or remind them of the impact their decision has on their clients, employees, or society at large.

Injecting Drama: The Hook

The daily check-in is a 5-minute standing meeting where the team gets together in the morning to clarify the actions they intend to take that day. It provides a forum for ensuring nothing falls through the cracks and the team is informed and aligned with what everyone else is doing. You will be amazed by how just 5 minutes in the morning will drastically reduce the number of superfluous emails between team members sent throughout the day.The rules for the Daily Check-In are simple. 5 minutes. Standing. Everyday.

The Daily Five Minute Check-In

Meetings are the nexus of all business decisions and activities. We need to remember that meetings are human. They require a personal touch. Rigid rules and agendas will never solve our meeting dilemma. Leaning out the process by eliminating the number of meetings we have won’t help either. Reducing the amount of face to face communication only guarantees more confusion and lack of clarity.It’s with the help of drama and context that leaders stand to reclaim a productive meeting culture.

The Bottom Line

The Weekly Tactical is analogous to a weekly staff meeting, but the focus is more disciplined. The Weekly Tactical is focused exclusively on tactical issues of immediate concern.The rules for the Weekly Tactical are as follows: Everyone always attends. It is facilitated with a sense of discipline and structural consistency.

The Weekly Tactical

Lightning Round: A quick, around-the-table reporting session in which everyone communicates their two or three priorities of the week. Each person is given 60 seconds.Progress Review: Next, the group should routinely review the reports on critical business information or metrics. This should take no longer than five minutes.Real-Time Agenda: The agenda for a Weekly Tactical should NOT be set before the meeting, but only after the lightning round and progress review have taken place.

The Three Components Of The Weekly Tactical Meeting

It’s where the executive team grapples with complex and critical issues that will fundamentally influence the direction of the business.The length of the Monthly Strategic will vary depending on the topics addressed. But the rule of thumb says that it will require at least two hours, and should not cover more than two topics.This type of meeting requires a prepared agenda and upfront research or preparation by the team members. It is imperative that the leader mines for conflict in these meetings and that the team engages in constructive debate as they work to arrive at the best solution.

The Monthly Strategic

We can sit at attention silently for hours in a dark theatre, but somehow can’t make it through a 30-minute project status meeting without checking our email. What’s the key difference? Drama.Drama is the driving engine of every movie. Over the years, screenwriters have mastered the art of conflict to draw you in and keep you entertained.

Allowing For Drama

An effective Quarterly Offsite Review is an opportunity for executives to step away from the immediate issues that normally command their attention, and free them to review the business from a more holistic, long-term perspective.In these offsite meetings, the team may review their strategic direction in light of their competition or industry trends. They may evaluate the strength of their own team or the strength of their organization with a personnel review.

The Quarterly Offsite Review

<ul><li>Too many meetings are just plain boring. They’re tedious and uninspired.</li><li>The leader is too focused on agendas and ending on time to notice a lack of engagement.</li><li>Most meetings have an aftertaste of being drained.</li><li>The worst part of participating in a mind numbing meeting is the lack of a commensurate return. This contempt festers when we invest time and energy into an activity that drives insufficient clarity or resolution.</li></ul>

Meetings Are Boring And Ineffective

An intelligent group of diverse people will seldom agree on issues that matter. It’s natural and productive for disagreement to unfold. Working to resolve those differences and compromise on a unique solution is interesting, productive, and fun.When you avoid these disagreements and stifle debate, you bury resentment and frustration that will fester and manifest itself in other forms of unproductive personal conflict, or politics. You have deprived your team of actively engaging in the meeting and working towards a better solution.As a leader, you must have the courage to mine for conflict.

Mine for Conflict

Sometimes the group in attendance will be reluctant to challenge each other in active debate. One tactic you can use to mine for conflict in this situation is to give real time permission. At the start of the meeting, a leader may announce that the topic is expected to drive conflict, and that meeting members are encouraged to debate and challenge one another.Acknowledging the discomfort associated with conflict, while still challenging the group with your expectation up front, is a great way to diffuse tension and set the meeting up for a healthy and engaging debate.

Give Real-Time Permission

Casey McDaniel had never been so nervous in his life. In just ten minutes, The Meeting, as it would forever be known, would begin. Casey had every reason to believe that his performance over the next two hours would determine the fate of his career, his financial future, and the company he had built from scratch. “How could my life have unraveled so quickly?” he wondered. In his latest page-turning work of business fiction, best-selling author Patrick Lencioni provides readers with another powerful and thought-provoking book, this one centered around a cure for the most painful yet underestimated problem of modern business: bad meetings. And what he suggests is both simple and revolutionary. Casey McDaniel, the founder and CEO of Yip Software, is in the midst of a problem he created, but one he doesn’t know how to solve. And he doesn’t know where or who to turn to for advice. His staff can’t help him; they’re as dumbfounded as he is by their tortuous meetings. Then an unlikely advisor, Will Peterson, enters Casey’s world. When he proposes an unconventional, even radical, approach to solving the meeting problem, Casey is just desperate enough to listen. As in his other books, Lencioni provides a framework for his groundbreaking model, and makes it applicable to the real world. Death by Meeting is nothing short of a blueprint for leaders who want to eliminate waste and frustration among their teams, and create environments of engagement and passion.

productivity

Productivity

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

A straightforward framework for creating engaging and exciting business meetings Casey McDaniel had never been so nervous in his life. In just ten minutes, The Meeting, as it would forever be known, would begin. Casey had every reason to believe that his performance over the next two hours would determine the fate of his career, his financial future, and the company he had built from scratch. “How could my life have unraveled so quickly?” he wondered. In his latest page-turning work of business fiction, best-selling author Patrick Lencioni provides readers with another powerful and thought-provoking book, this one centered around a cure for the most painful yet underestimated problem of modern business: bad meetings. And what he suggests is both simple and revolutionary. Casey McDaniel, the founder and CEO of Yip Software, is in the midst of a problem he created, but one he doesn’t know how to solve. And he doesn’t know where or who to turn to for advice. His staff can’t help him; they’re as dumbfounded as he is by their tortuous meetings. Then an unlikely advisor, Will Peterson, enters Casey’s world. When he proposes an unconventional, even radical, approach to solving the meeting problem, Casey is just desperate enough to listen. As in his other books, Lencioni provides a framework for his groundbreaking model, and makes it applicable to the real world. Death by Meeting is nothing short of a blueprint for leaders who want to eliminate waste and frustration among their teams and create environments of engagement and passion.

Patrick M. Lencioni is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Patrick M. Lencioni has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Patrick M. Lencioni's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Patrick M. Lencioni

Death by Meeting

Managers struggle with strategic planning — to the extent that some experts claim that there’s no such thing. Actually, strategic planning is a very useful part of the toolkit, provided you can avoid the stumbling blocks. <ul><li>The key is to recognize that a strategic plan is not a to-do list but rather a set of ideas that you will certainly change. </li><li>Given that, it’s important to build change into the process. </li><li>Finally, don’t tie your strategic plan too closely to your budget.</li></ul>

Strategic Planning: Key Takeaways

You need to not only accept volatility but also recognize your inability to come up with the perfect plan. Change your strategy mindset.Even if we thought we’d found the perfect plan, it wouldn’t be the answer for very long. The business’s circumstances are changing so fast.

Stumbling Block 1: Unrealistic Expectations

Strategic planning won’t disappear anytime soon. It’s a way of shaping how to negotiate a changing future. Everyone needs that.A strategic plan is also not a set-and-execute document. Developing it involves a responsive process of continual anticipation. It’s a way to contemplate changing circumstances. Without a plan, you lack preparedness.So, your strategic plan will be “wrong.” That’s ok. Go ahead and make one anyway.

A Plan Is Important Even If We Deviate From It

Don’t get stymied by overemphasizing “planning” in your company’s strategy development.Strategic planning is a way of making sense of an uncertain future. That’s not to say the future will turn out exactly as planned. Nor does it mean no plan at all since even an often-changing plan produces preparedness.

Stumbling Block 2: Wrong Model

Budgeting takes place within the context set by the strategic plan. The point at which the budget is set is the same point at which executive and shareholder expectations are put in place. Now circumstances change. And in a flexible planning environment, so does the strategic plan. Loosen the coupling between budget and plan.

Stumbling Block 3: Budget Override

Strategic planning has been branded a “big lie.” One reason is that what really unfolds for an organization is not the same as what was articulated in the strategic plan to begin with. The result “emerges.” In other words, the plan needs updating as time progresses.Another criticism is that what takes place in “strategic” planning isn’t “strategy” at all. Business-as-usual takes over and the creative thinking behind bold business moves becomes sidelined. For these and other reasons strategic planning has long been scheduled for a big “fall.” That prediction was made nearly 30 years ago.

A Big Lie All Along

Managers struggle with strategic planning — to the extent that some experts claim that there’s no such thing. Actually, strategic planning is a very useful part of the toolkit, provided you can avoid the stumbling blocks. The key is to recognize that a strategic plan is not a to-do list but rather a set of ideas that you will certainly change. Given that, it’s important to build change into the process. Finally, don’t tie your strategic plan too closely to your budget.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

strategy

Strategy

3 Stumbling Blocks Of Strategic Planning

While from home has plenty of advantages, it can also get lonely at times. Sometimes we need to be surrounded by like-minded people and have a sense of collaboration that comes from working in a shared space.  In-person coworking sprints could make all the difference.

In-person coworking sprints

Coworking spaces are projected to exceed 40,000 by 2024. <ul><li>Location. Choose a coworking space in your vicinity that makes for an easy commute.</li><li>Amenities. Choose a coworking space that offers everything you need, such as easy access to printers, top-speed WiFi, and charging ports for maximum productivity.</li><li>Facilities. Beyond aesthetics, practicality such as a community kitchen, meeting spaces, shared spaces, and booths for taking calls should be your priority.</li><li>Extra perks. A Gym, patios, and complimentary drinks often come as part of the package. Ensure to check these out before you commit.</li><li>Cost.</li></ul>

What to look for in a coworking space

There are 1.08 million workers taking advantage of coworking spaces within the U.S. Benefits include:<ul><li>The change in scenery and routine can make you happier. If your workdays at home are blending together, consider changing your workspace for a couple of days.</li><li>You can explore new surroundings and meet new people to find new ideas you might not have received from your own professional network.</li><li>It becomes easier to hold yourself accountable.</li><li>Mundane tasks are no longer an issue.</li><li>Well-designed coworking spaces will result in higher productivity and greater satisfaction.</li></ul>

The benefits of coworking spaces

A coworking space is a perfect way to break up the monotony that happens from time to time.

If you’re looking to work somewhere besides your cramped home or structured office, search for these things.


The people who hate working from home

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Death by Meeting

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

3 Stumbling Blocks Of Strategic Planning

CURATED BY

The people who hate working from home

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Death by Meeting

It's time to Read like a Pro.

3 Stumbling Blocks Of Strategic Planning

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.