Watch Of The Week


 

What Makes Us Feel Good About Our Work? – Watch of the Week

What Makes Us Feel Good About Our Work from Dan Ariely

Quick Summary: Well, motivation is not just about money.  And it’s not about enjoying the work you do either.  Dan Ariely walks through experiment results that show how important it is that people feel a sense of purpose in what they do.

Length of video:  20.26 mins

Favourite Quote:

3 Lessons from the  What Makes Us Feel Good About Our Work Video:

  1. If people don’t feel a sense of appreciation for what they do, their motivation levels drop.  This drop in motivation is the same even if they really loved doing the work that they failed to get appreciation for.
  2. People need to feel like they are making progress.  That feeling of making progress contributes to the level of motivation to continue.  The experiment that Ariely conducts was based on building lego models.  One group built one model after another using new bricks each time.  The second group had to do the same but watch each model being dismantled and reuse the same bricks.  The results are pretty conclusive.
  3. The less instruction or help a person gets in completing a task, the higher the level of pride they have in it.  (Listen carefully micro managers!)

My Personal Takeaway:  If people get motivation from money or just enjoying what they do, why does anyone climb mountains?  As Ariely rightly says, read any book about mountain climbing and it will be about cold, misery and pain.  Yet mountain climbers generally  do it again and again.

Motivation can be found even when the obvious contributors – money and enjoyment – are nowhere to be found.

Who would I recommend this video to:  The manager who is looking at his well paid team that are doing interesting work and wondering why they are not motivated.

What Is Leadership? – Watch of the Week

What Is Leadership from Captain David Marquet

One Sentence Summary

David Marquet, a retired Captain of a US Navy nuclear submarine says that great leaders don’t give orders, they give their people control.

Length of video

9.37 mins

Favourite Quote

What is leadership

3 Lessons from the What is Leadership

  1. Great leaders don’t give orders, they move the authority to where the information is.  It makes for a better decision by someone that knows the subject, avoids delay and makes everyone feel like they matter.
  2. If you want other people to think, don’t give them instruction, give them intent.  When people stop asking permission, instead the state their intent the psychological ownership moves to them.
  3. For people to take the control, they need technical competence and organisational clarity.

My Personal Takeaway

Relinquishing control will be hardest on you, the leader.  You will fail and doubt yourself but you need to believe and persevere.

Who would I recommend this video to

Any leader that is struggling to change their ways.  If a senior military man can implement this culture on a military submarine, anyone can.

Find more from David Marquet

I can also recommend David’s number one best selling book Turn the Ship Around ! A True Story of Building Leaders by Breaking Rules.

 

Just wanted to let you know

NewHire365 will earn a small commission if you buy through these links.  This adds no cost to you but helps keep the lights on at NewHire365 HQ. It’s also worth noting that I do not recommended anything that I haven’t read and enjoyed.

Watch of the Week – How To Run A Company With (Almost) No Rules

How To Run A Company With (Almost) No Rules from Ricardo Semler

Quick Summary: What would happen if you took every standard practice in business – board meetings, setting salaries, paying expenses, 40 hour weeks – and turned it on its head?

Ricardo Semler did that with a company worth hundreds of millions and employing thousands of people.  But he is not jumping on the current trend of ‘disrupting the work status quo’ led by Zappos and Medium.  He started doing this 30 years ago.  The results are amazing.

Length of video:  21.42 mins

 

Favourite Quote :

How to run a company with (almost) no ru

 

 

3 Lessons from the Video:

  1. Ask 3 ‘whys’ in a row.  One ‘why’ is easy.  You can normally find the second.  But the third ‘why’ will really tell you what you are doing it for.
  2. Think of all the things at work that make it feel like a Boarding School.  ‘This is when you arrive.’  ‘This is what you wear’.  ‘This is what you say and don’t say’  Start stripping them away one by one and see what happens.
  3. Start thinking what it could look like and don’t restrict your thinking by ways we have always done things.

 

 

My Personal Takeaway:  Where did all these standard ways of working we diligently adhere to come from?  Who said they were right?  Challenge everything.  Ask why.  Have some fun!

 

 

Who would I recommend this video to:  The leader who is hitting a brick wall with a problem.  Teams who need to start thinking more creatively.  ANYONE in education.  Listen to Ricardo speak about the schools he has set up with the same mentality.  I want my kids to go there!

 

Watch of the Week – Six Questions You Need To Ask Yourself Everyday

Six Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Everyday from Dr Marshall Goldsmith

 

One Sentence Summary:   Everyone should take responsibility for their own success and happiness and that includes your employees.

 

Length of video:  25.02 mins

Favourite Quote:

Six Questions You Need To Ask Yourself Everyday

 

 

3 Lessons from the Video:

  1. Why don’t people implement things they learn from training or coaching?  The key variable to successful change is not the programme – it’s the person.
  2. 100% of dialogue around employee engagement is what is the company going to do to engage the employee and 0% to do with what employees are going to do to engage themselves.  But think about it.  Two employees – same job, same pay, some employee engagement programme – but one is happy and one is not.  The difference is not on the outside, it’s on the inside.
  3. Traditional employee engagement surveys ask passive questions.   Do you have clear goals? Do you have meaning in your work?  Do you have a best friend at work?  If your employees answer negatively to these questions, they will generally blame the environment.  If you ask them active questions – did I do my best to be happy?  Did I do my best to find meaning?  Build positive relationships? – suddenly they are taking some ownership for themselves.

 

My Personal Takeaway:  Take responsibility for becoming the person you want to be .  And encourage others to take responsibility to do the same.

Dr Goldsmith identifies six questions to ask yourself everyday to ensure you are doing everything you can to do be at your best.  I’ll be trying them!

 

Who would I recommend this video to:
The manager who has a team that expect him to bring all the joy and happiness into the workplace.
The leader that wants to look at employee engagement in a new way.
The individual that is striving to be the best person they can be but needs help to keep them focussed.

 

Watch Of The Week: Who’s Sinking Your Boat Summary

Employee Engagement – Who’s Sinking Your Boat from Bob Kelleher

 Who’s Sinking Your Boat Summary in one sentence: In a short animated video of words, pictures and numbers you have the definitive proof that employee engagement really matters.

Length of video:  4.16 mins

Favourite Quote:

who's sinking your boat summary

3 Lessons from the Video:

  1. Engaged employees result in successful companies (and there are big numbers to back this up)
  2. If you were relying on your team to row a boat together, you would get rid of the poor performers
  3. Improving ‘trust in management’ is the number one way you can improve employee engagement

My Personal Takeaway:  Now, I don’t need convincing on this stuff.  But the image of the boat, its crew and what makes it sink reminded me that engaged employees are nice to haves, they are essential.

Who would I recommend this video to:
The HR Manager that wants to share how important employee engagement is with the department heads to get them to on board.

The Director to convince the Finance Director to invest more in their employees

The new manager that has heard the term ’employee engagement’ but secretly doesn’t know what the big deal is.

Watch of the Week: David Logan on Tribal Leadership Summary

A 30 Second Tribal Leadership Summary: Did you know you are part of a tribe?  In fact you are probably in several.  Humans naturally form tribes – at work, school, through our passions and beliefs.  By understanding the culture of the tribes we can help lead  each other to become better individuals.

Length of video:  16.39 mins

Favourite Quote:

3 Lessons from the Video:

  1. Tribes are naturally occurring.  Everyone is in a number of tribes.  Not all tribes are the same.  What makes the difference is the culture.
  2. There are five stages of a tribe.  As a tribal leader you want to nudge your tribes up the stages.  These stages are
    • Life sucks
    • My life sucks
    • I’m great (and you’re not)
    • We’re great
    • Life is great
  3. People only understand one stage up and down to where they are.  Therefore you need to be aware of that when communicating with them

My Personal Takeaway:  You can’t take people from thinking life sucks to believing life is great overnight.  There are stages of progression.

I think a lot of people will recognise the ‘I’m great’ tribes in their organisations.  David Logan does a great job of defining the difference between this stage (where everyone is out for themselves) and the one above it where people feel like they are in something together.

Who would I recommend this video to:  The manager who is scratching his head trying to figure out how to improve the culture in his business.  This video gives a really clear way of recognising the stages so he can see where he is starting and where he needs to get to.