Identity foreclosure happens when you settle prematurely on a sense of who you are and close your mind to alternative selves. You think you know who you are, but you have not even explored your options yet.

Identity Foreclosure

Why are humans so slow to react to looming crises, like a forewarned pandemic or a warming planet? It's because we're reluctant to rethink, say organizational psychologist Adam Grant. From a near-disastrous hike on Panama's highest mountain to courageously joining his high school's diving team, Grant borrows examples from his own life to illustrate how tunnel vision around our goals, habits and identities can find us stuck on a narrow path. Drawing on his research, he shares counterintuitive insights on how to broaden your focus and remain open to opportunities for rethinking. (If you think you know something about frogs, watch until the end and get ready to think again.) Adam hosts the TED Audio Collective podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant--a show that takes you inside the minds of some of the world's most unusual professionals to discover the keys to a better work life. Listen to WorkLife with Adam Grant wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the TED Audio Collective: https://www.youtube.com/TEDAudioCollective Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. Become a TED Member: http://ted.com/membership Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

problemsolving

Problem Solving

videos

Videos

Why are humans so slow to react to looming crises, like a forewarned pandemic or a warming planet? It's because we're reluctant to rethink, say organizational psychologist Adam Grant. From a near-disastrous hike on Panama's highest mountain to courageously joining his high school's diving team, Grant borrows examples from his own life to illustrate how tunnel vision around our goals, habits and identities can find us stuck on a narrow path. Drawing on his research, he shares counterintuitive insights on how to broaden your focus and remain open to opportunities for rethinking. (If you think you know something about frogs, watch until the end and get ready to think again.)

Adam hosts the TED Audio Collective podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant--a show that takes you inside the minds of some of the world's most unusual professionals to discover the keys to a better work life. Listen to WorkLife with Adam Grant wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the TED Audio Collective: https://www.youtube.com/TEDAudioCollective 

Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. 

Become a TED Member: http://ted.com/membership
Follow TED on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TEDTalks
Like TED on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TED
Subscribe to our channel: http://youtube.com/TED

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com

Adam Grant: What frogs in hot water can teach us about thinking again | TED

The PARA system is a new method for organizing your digital files. It was developed by Tiago Forte, author of the book ‘Building a Second Brain’. PARA stands for <ul><li>Projects: a series of tasks linked to a goal, with a deadline.</li><li>Areas: a sphere of activity with a standard to be maintained over time.</li><li>Resources: a topic or theme of ongoing interest.</li><li>Archive: inactive items from the other three categories.</li></ul> Feeling overwhelmed by your organisational systems on your computer all comes down to folders. The PARA system helps your workflow by organising and stacking folders in a particular way.

The PARA system

As an exercise, create four folders on your computer and number them. <ol><li>Projects and Pending: This is where your projects live. It could be clients, team initiatives, or divided sections of your workload.</li><li>Areas of Interest: This is a pile of things that never end, such as an infinitely-expanding folder called "Photos" or hobbies.</li><li>Research Material. These are worth keeping, such as articles to "read later", resources, or "important discoveries."</li><li>Archives. The stuff you're not currently using but want to keep around.</li></ol>

Applying PARA

<ul><li>The way you ingest information might change. You'll see materials, digital and others, less as loose elements and more as items that can be used and filed.</li><li>The way you plot your projects and structure your days might change. Your project folders will be prepped, waiting for you to dive in.</li><li>Adhering to this system can give you a refreshing sense of direction.</li></ul>

What PARA means for you

productivity

Productivity

business

Business

The P.A.R.A. system and the importance of folders - RescueTime Blog

Transparency is indispensable for understanding business processes and developing opportunities for improvement. Companies increasingly look to automate areas. But getting a clear picture of service processes is a challenge, such as measuring capacity, accuracy, how long it takes to execute when they're functioning and diagnosing breakdowns and bottlenecks. The traditional approach is inefficient. But a new approach called process insights has shown promise. It connects technology tools and analytics in a three-stage process that delivers insight in a transparent, consistent and objective way.

A clear picture of service processes

Many new digital tools help companies to monitor how work is done. AI, machine learning, and computer vision are new tools that enable observation and help analyse with granularity. Companies can test historical assumptions and hypotheses before committing resources to create solutions. They can then revisit these later to gain further insights.

The process insights approach

Process insights will capture the activities by using tools to record them while it is being performed. This data collection allows for quick diagnoses and documentation and enables a company to automate the start and endpoint for the process. The process insights approach serves three purposes.<ol><li>It gives a proof point so that decision-makers don't use a gut feel.</li><li>It reveals process information that leaders lack. ("We don't know how long it really takes.")</li><li>It is a litmus test to validate the expected gains of an approach.</li></ol>

Capture, diagnose, analyze, improve

Many companies think technology is a solution, but it's not in itself. When used with a process insights approach, tech solutions assist with gathering information and analysis on a different level. Digital technologies enable fine-tuning in implementation. When monitoring and data gathering is running in the background, it can be targeted at specific activities while respecting the user's privacy.

Technology enabled, not technology driven

An Asia telcos wanted to expand its robotic process automation program and automate a huge percentage of process work. The company wanted to equip every employee with a robot assistant. At first, the company could not find a way to capture more than $5 million out of a $40 million savings opportunity it had identified. They could not see how to automate the smaller, fragmented processes. The company scaled up the RPA program. The insights from the exercise showed they could realize a 90% savings opportunity, and they discovered twice as many processes with automation potential.

Example of process insights

The process insights approach supports short-term and longer-term, more strategic benefits. <ul><li>Companies can gain a clear view of work that has strategic value. The discovery can reveal the complexity of processes and can influence decisions about outsourcing, automating or reconfiguring processes.</li><li>Process insights can uncover metrics for ways of working, which can help in better decision making.</li><li>Companies can evaluate the impact of process improvement and automation efforts.</li></ul>

Process insights' longer-term payoff

Companies can start by considering three questions:<ol><li>What important capabilities do we want to build?</li><li>What skills and resources do we have to support the process?</li><li>What practical matters must we settle—such as software requirements?</li></ol>

How to get started

<ul><li>Start with a hypothesis-driven approach regarding where to unlock value.</li><li>Select the right tool for the job. Identify a suite of technologies that can help you manage operations holistically.</li><li>Embed the technology in an overarching delivery mechanism. It is most valuable when embedded into an existing initiative, such as automation.</li><li>Use process insights to augment—not replace—subject matter expertise. The approach and technologies of process insights should not substitute the knowledge and intuition of employees and specialists but validate assumptions and uncover insights.</li></ul>

Create the right assumptions and intent

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

How good are your internal operations—really?

In Treatise on Rhetoric, Aristotle set to figure out how to use rhetoric to persuade someone. According to Aristotle, there are three types of persuasive speech.<ol><li>Forensic, or judicial rhetoric. It establishes facts and judgements about the past.</li><li>Epideictic, or demonstrative, rhetoric. Proclamation about the present situation, like wedding speeches.</li><li>Deliberative rhetoric or symbouleutikon. It encourages change by talking about a possible future. For example, Martin Luther King Jr's dream was that the nation won't be judged by the colour of their skin.</li></ol>

How to get what you want using words

Aristotle describes three persuasive appeals:<ol><li>Ethos. How you convince and audience of your credibility.</li><li>Logos is logic and reason using rhetorical devices such as analogies, examples, and citations of research. Structure and content are also important.</li><li>Pathos is neither good nor bad but may be irrational and unpredictable, such as advertising. For example, beauty products promise to lessen our physical insecurities; Cars make us feel powerful.</li></ol> Knowing which rhetorical appeal to use depends on your audience and purpose.

Good deliverable rhetoric

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-use-rhetoric-to-get-what-you-want-camille-a-langston How do you get what you want, using just your words? Aristotle set out to answer exactly that question over two thousand years ago with a treatise on rhetoric. Camille A. Langston describes the fundamentals of deliberative rhetoric and shares some tips for appealing to an audience’s ethos, logos, and pathos in your next speech. Lesson by Camille A. Langston, animation by TOGETHER.

communication

Communication

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-use-rhetoric-to-get-what-you-want-camille-a-langston

How do you get what you want, using just your words? Aristotle set out to answer exactly that question over two thousand years ago with a treatise on rhetoric. Camille A. Langston describes the fundamentals of deliberative rhetoric and shares some tips for appealing to an audience’s ethos, logos, and pathos in your next speech. 

Lesson by Camille A. Langston, animation by TOGETHER.

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TED-Ed

How to use rhetoric to get what you want - Camille A. Langston

Offering employees the tools and motivation to create ideas is the key to an innovative organization.Most organizations recognize the importance of encouraging innovation. Good ideas can streamline production processes, help save money and open up potential new markets. Yet despite the compelling evidence, it’s not always obvious what steps are needed to integrate innovative practices and thinking across an organization.

The key to an innovative organization

There are three key processes necessary to build an Innovation Engine into any organization: Creation, Integration, and Reframing.Integration and reframing are about changing mindsets and implementing innovations across an organization. These will be dealt with more fully in subsequent articles. Creation is focused on the act of generating the ideas needed for innovation to take place. But it is also about making sure those ideas are being created throughout an organization, particularly by frontline workers.

A blueprint for innovation

Offering employees the tools and motivation to create ideas is the key to an innovative organisation.

creativity

Creativity

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Innovation Is Everyone’s Business

Take a minute: look at your goals, look at your performance, see if your behaviour matches your goals.

<ol><li>One minute goal setting</li><li>One minute praising</li><li>One minute reprimand</li></ol> One minute does not mean an exact time but rather that it is easy and does not need to take up too much time.

3 Tools for effective management

The One Minute Manager makes it clear<ul><li>what the employee's responsibilities are,</li><li>what they're accountable for.</li></ul>Once understood, each goal is recorded on a single page. The goal and its performance standard should consist of one or two paragraphs that can be read in a minute. The employees should have access to assist with aligning themselves with their goals.

One minute goal setting

Employees know how they're doing when a manager clearly communicates this to them. When a manager sees you doing something right, he tells you exactly what you did right and shares how good he feels about what you did. The key is to act immediately and not wait for appraisals.  This technique will help the employee to understand what specific behaviour is required. It will accelerate the learning process and improvements.

One minute praising

When a manager sees you making a mistake, the reprimand does not exceed a minute. The manager is specific about what you did wrong. He shares how he feels - frustrated or annoyed - and when the reprimand is over, it is over. The manager never attacks a persons value, only reprimands the behaviour. Acting quickly prevents disasters and encourages success.

One minute reprimand

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

career

Career

teamwork

Teamwork

How to Manage a Hybrid Team

Details a simple, yet effective management system based on three fundamental strategies for earning raises, promotions, and power in business

books

Books

The blockbuster #1 national bestselling phenomenon is back... not that it ever really went away. An easily-read story which quickly demonstrates three very practical management techniques, it also includes information on several studies in medicine and in the behavioral sciences, which help readers understand why these apparently simple methods work so well with so many people. The book is brief, the language is simple, and best of all...it works.

Kenneth H. Blanchard is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Kenneth H. Blanchard 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. Kenneth H. Blanchard's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Kenneth H. Blanchard

Spencer Johnson, M.D. left behind a medical career to write short books about life. The most famous was “Who Moved My Cheese?" published in 1998. The book became a publishing phenomenon and a workplace manual. Over 50 million copies of Spencer Johnson’s books are in use worldwide in 47 languages.Dr. Johnson's education included a psychology degree from the University of Southern California, a M.D. from the Royal College of Surgeons and medical clerkships at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic.

Spencer Johnson

The One Minute Manager

In life, there's a pause between the incident and the response, where you have a chance to decide how you will behave in a difficult situation. We can call the space between stimulus and response "the Gap." It's what you do in the Gap that determines who you are and where you go.

The Gap 

Gaps offer excellent opportunities to learn, especially when we don't have time to deliberate, when we're not our best, when we don't have any willpower. We may feel justified to behave in a way that the situation dictates. At that moment, we can choose to compose ourselves. We can do what Epictetus says: "Always conduct yourself as though you are at a formal dinner."

It's what you do in the gap

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

The Gap: The Surprising Truth About Freedom of Choice

Research reveals that how people feel while waiting is more important than how long they wait. 
Everyone stands in line in the physical world. It is a way to deal with high demand. Online lines serve the same purpose, given the technical challenges of peak website traffic. By understanding queue psychology, you can ensure a positive experience for your customers.

A positive queuing experience

In the 1950s New York City, the problem was waiting in line for the elevators of the city's new skyscrapers. But building managers soon realised the problem wasn't the waiting time - it was the perceived waiting time.
The solution was to add floor indicators showing people the elevator's progress and adding floor-to-ceiling mirrors near the elevators to distract and occupy people. Similar solutions are found in airports, doctor's waiting rooms and supermarkets.

Queuing: The perceived waiting time is the culprit

<ol>
<li>Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time. Find creative ways to engage your customers.</li>
<li>People want to get started. Ensure that your customer feels like they've started. E.g. add a progress bar on the online queuing page.</li>
<li>Uncertain waits feel longer. Give an estimated waiting time. Err on the side of overestimation.</li>
<li>Unexplained waits feel longer. Provide clear explanations.</li>
<li>Unfair waits are longer. Treat customers on a first-in, first-out basis.</li>
<li>Anything that can cause anxiety makes waits feel longer. Keep a fair, one line queue to prevent repeated anxiety about choosing the "right line".</li>
</ol>

Six queuing principles

Understanding queuing psychology is crucial to giving customers a positive user experience. Discover 6 revealing rules of queuing experiences [+ INFOGRAPHIC].

The Psychology of Queuing Revealed in 6 Simple Rules

"If you set your bar at amazing, it’s awfully difficult to start."

Learning from others is great. But comparing your current situation to someone who is already successful can often make you feel like you lack the required resources to get started at all.

Learning Vs Comparing

Great gear can make your life much easier on the road, but it’s not required.
You don’t need new cooking bowls to start eating healthy. And you don’t need a new backpack to start traveling.

What Is Optimal Vs What Is Needed

Claiming that you need to learn more or to get more organized can often be an excuse that prevents you from moving forward on the stuff that actually matters.

Avoiding By Optimizing

When you have a goal - whether it's starting a business or eating healthier or traveling the world - it's easy to look at someone who is already doing it and then try to reverse engineer their strategy. In some cases, this is really useful.

habits

Habits

startup

Startups

The Power of Imperfect Starts

Our brains must make sense of the confusing world around us by processing a never-ending stream of information. Ideally, our brains would analyze everything thoroughly. However, they cannot, because it is too impractical.
<ul>
<li>Thinking takes time, and our decisions must often be fast. You must immediately know to cross a road quickly, when you hear a car rapidly approaching.</li>
<li>Thinking also uses energy and our brains have only a limited supply. Analyzing everything would quickly deplete our energy stores. These limitations represent a thinking problem: Our brains simply do not have enough resources to understand the world without taking some mental shortcuts.</li>
</ul>

The thinking problem

We experience and interpret the world around us based on what we already know, even though sometimes what we know is flawed. Our brains find shortcuts to overcome the thinking problem by relying on thoughts already stored in our minds, called schemas. Schemas do the processing for the brain, like auto-fill, but for thinking.
Using schemas is more efficient than analyzing every aspect of every moment. They allow our brains to process more information with less effort, saving brain power for other important thinking and problem-solving.

Our smart, lazy brains

<ul>
<li>Schemas are the building blocks of our knowledge about the world. Our brains rely on different types of schemas to understand different types of situations.</li>
<li>Schemas are like books in your mind telling you what different objects are and what they do. A bird schema, for example, might say that birds are “small animals,” “have wings” and “can fly.” Together, all the objects you know form a collection of books that fill the shelves of a library in your mind.</li>
<li>Our brains trust what these books or schemas tell us when we try to understand objects in our environment. </li>
</ul>

Our brains as libraries

Whether our judgments are accurate depends on the schemas or books available in our mental libraries.
When our brains try to understand unfamiliar objects, they must rely on a schema for a different but similar object because the correct schema is unavailable. If the object and chosen schema closely match, our brains effortlessly – but inaccurately – assume the two objects are the same.

Adam Grant: What frogs in hot water can teach us about thinking again | TED

The P.A.R.A. system and the importance of folders - RescueTime Blog

How good are your internal operations—really?

How to use rhetoric to get what you want - Camille A. Langston

Innovation Is Everyone’s Business

Bentley X.