FieldNotes
Our daily Field Notes email is just the kind of jumpstart you need. A fast read. Maybe less than a minute. Because sometimes it just takes one insight to change the trajectory of the day.
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What Does It Really Mean to Be Productive
Striving to be as productive as possible is something nearly everyone attempts to do. Yet, it’s not actually clear what it means to be productive. Are we talking about efficiency, effectiveness, the number of tasks completed, the feeling we did the best we possibly could, or all of the above? It would seem that the
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Expand the Set of Options to Produce Higher-Quality Decisions
If you want to improve your skill at making higher-quality decisions, your best bet is to focus on generating more options. Research for over three decades confirms that generating more viable options when making a decision substantially increases the likelihood of finding a great one. The best decision-makers don’t settle for a small set or…
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Clarifying Next Steps Before the Meeting Ends
What a difference such a simple best practice can make when it is instituted and incorporated across an organization. In some workplaces, a poster with the words NEXT STEPS? is on the wall of every meeting or conference room. Reminders help with creating a new norm for the group. As it turns out, common sense,…
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Does Your Team Take and Enjoy Its Own Medicine?
In the best organizations, it is expected that every team member partakes in the enterprise’s products, services, or advice. When team members are personally engaged with what the enterprise offers, sells, or promotes to others, pride swells, commitment hardens, and innovation soars. Good leaders encourage this connection and promote the idea that experiencing what the
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With Some Help, You Can Find Your Fatal Flaws During Practice
Tom Brady was renowned in the NFL for paying practice squad players if they intercepted him. Most quarterbacks resent it when second-string players intercept them in practice. But Brady wanted to avoid mistakes in the game, so he needed the practice players to not only imitate the opposition, but also to raise his game by playing for
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Confirming That People Care About You Before Performance
There is a superpower understood and held dear by performers in every field and endeavor. One act that even the most accomplished performers go out of their way to do prior to competing on a large stage. This secret ingredient gives them a boost of confidence, relaxes their state of mind, reminds them of what…
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Treating Decisions as Mysteries
Treating decisions as mysteries to untangle promotes an investigatory mindset where the only good course of action is to remain deeply issue-centered. Exploring issues through appreciative inquiry requires reflection and normally involves comparison between the decision-makers. As the group pieces together the clues, they agree as to what is fact and what is speculation. This…
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In Large Groups, Someone Will Always Be Offended
Audiences, even those of colleagues across the same organization, engage content differently than they used to. Strongly held social, political, and personal beliefs color what is heard and how people react. In large group settings, some audience members are on high alert, looking for comments that might be offensive or off-putting. Others over-interpret what leaders say and
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An Organization’s Collective Networks Can Help Eliminate Bad Hires
We can never learn or know too much about the people we interview to join our team and organization. People know more about themselves than we can ever know. The same is true for the organization where they currently work. Those who work directly with the candidate know the person’s real strengths and weaknesses better…
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Reactively Retaining Top Talent Can Create a Real Mess
The best retention strategy is ongoing and begins way before anyone threatens to leave. Of course, it begins by keeping pace with competitive compensation and benefits, but it doesn’t rely on those ingredients to keep people satisfied and in their seats. What retains talent is well-known but often underplayed in organizations. People want to be…