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Bo Adams

A strategy for thriving in uncertainty - Bain Brief - Bain & Company - 0 views

www.bain.com/...r-thriving-in-uncertainty.aspx

strategy uncertainty innovation #MustRead

shared by Bo Adams on 21 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Bo Adams on 21 Jan 16
     
    HT Brett Jacobsen Very valuable read for thinking about one's own company/school strategy, as well as frameworks for helping and consulting others. 
Nicole Martin

Why Curiosity Matters - 1 views

hbr.org/curiosity

shared by Nicole Martin on 14 Sep 18 - No Cached
  • And socially curious employees are better than others at resolving conflicts with colleagues, more likely to receive social support, and more effective at building connections, trust, and commitment on their teams. People or groups high in both dimensions are more innovative and creative.
  • joyous exploration, deprivation sensitivity, stress tolerance, and social curiosity—improve work outcomes.
  • joyous exploration has the strongest link with the experience of intense positive emotions. Stress tolerance has the strongest link with satisfying the need to feel competent, autonomous, and that one belongs. Social curiosity has the strongest link with being a kind, generous, modest person.
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  • deprivation sensitivity—recognizing a gap in knowledge the filling of which offers relief. This type of curiosity doesn’t necessarily feel good, but people who experience it work relentlessly to solve problems.
  • joyous exploration—being consumed with wonder about the fascinating features of the world. This is a pleasurable state; people in it seem to possess a joie de vivre.
  • social curiosity—talking, listening, and observing others to learn what they are thinking and doing. Human beings are inherently social animals, and the most effective and efficient way to determine whether someone is friend or foe is to gain information. Some may even snoop, eavesdrop, or gossip to do so.
  • stress tolerance—a willingness to accept and even harness the anxiety associated with novelty. People lacking this ability see information gaps, experience wonder, and are interested in others but are unlikely to step forward and explore.
  • thrill seeking—being willing to take physical, social, and financial risks to acquire varied, complex, and intense experiences. For people with this capacity, the anxiety of confronting novelty is something to be amplified, not reduced.
  • we all seek the sweet spot between two deeply uncomfortable states: understimulation (coping with tasks, people, or situations that lack sufficient novelty, complexity, uncertainty, or conflict) and overstimulation.
  • people become curious upon realizing that they lack desired knowledge; this creates an aversive feeling of uncertainty, which compels them to uncover the missing information.
  • nstead of asking, “How curious are you?” we can ask, “How are you curious?”
  • But maintaining a sense of wonder is crucial to creativity and innovation. The most effective leaders look for ways to nurture their employees’ curiosity to fuel learning and discovery.
  • How can organizations help people make the leap from curious to competent?
  • by providing the right types of stretch assignments and job rotations.
  • complexity and breadth of the opportunities they’d been given,
  • It enhances intelligence
  • It increases perseverance, or grit
  • And curiosity propels us toward deeper engagement, superior performance, and more-meaningful goals
  • The ProblemLeaders say they value employees who question or explore things, but research shows that they largely suppress curiosity, out of fear that it will increase risk and undermine efficiency.Why This MattersCuriosity improves engagement and collaboration. Curious people make better choices, improve their company’s performance, and help their company adapt to uncertain market conditions and external pressures.The RemedyLeaders should encourage curiosity in themselves and others by making small changes to the design of their organization and the ways they manage their employees. Five strategies can guide them.
  • leaders can encourage curiosity
  • when our curiosity is triggered, we are less likely to fall prey to confirmation bias (looking for information that supports our beliefs rather than for evidence suggesting we are wrong) and to stereotyping people (making broad judgments, such as that women or minorities don’t make good leaders). Curiosity has these positive effects because it leads us to generate alternatives.
  • My own research confirms that encouraging people to be curious generates workplace improvements.
  • What is one topic or activity you are curious about today? What is one thing you usually take for granted that you want to ask about? Please make sure you ask a few ‘Why questions’ as you engage in your work throughout the day. Please set aside a few minutes to identify how you’ll approach your work today with these questions in mind.”
  • “What is one topic or activity you’ll engage in today? What is one thing you usually work on or do that you’ll also complete today? Please make sure you think about this as you engage in your work throughout the day. Please set aside a few minutes to identify how you’ll approach your work today with these questions in mind.”
  • 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. That causes them to work together more effectively and smoothly: Conflicts are less heated, and groups achieve better results.
  • he groups whose curiosity had been heightened performed better than the control groups because they shared information more openly and listened more carefully.
  • Hire for curiosity.
  • “Have you ever found yourself unable to stop learning something you’ve never encountered before? Why? What kept you persistent?”
  • most people perform at their best not because they’re specialists but because their deep skill is accompanied by an intellectual curiosity that leads them to ask questions, explore, and collaborate.
  • “What is the one thing I should do to make things better for you?”
  • hen we demonstrate curiosity about others by asking questions, people like us more and view us as more competent, and the heightened trust makes our relationships more interesting and intimate.
  • But focusing on learning is generally more beneficial to us and our organizations,
  • A body of research demonstrates that framing work around learning goals (developing competence, acquiring skills, mastering new situations, and so on) rather than performance goals (hitting targets, proving our competence, impressing others) boosts motivation. And when motivated by learning goals, we acquire more-diverse skills, do better at work, get higher grades in college, do better on problem-solving tasks, and receive higher ratings after training. Unfortunately, organizations often prioritize performance goals.
  • rewarding people not only for their performance but for the learning needed to get there.
  • Leaders can also stress the value of learning by reacting positively to ideas that may be mediocre in themselves but could be springboards to better ones.
  • Organizations can foster curiosity by giving employees time and resources to explore their interests.
  • Employees can also broaden their interests by broadening their networks. Curious people often end up being star performers thanks to their diverse networks,
  • Leaders can also boost employees’ curiosity by carefully designing their teams.
  • What if…?” and “How might we…?”
  • To encourage curiosity, leaders should also teach employees how to ask good questions.
  • Organizing “Why?” days, when employees are encouraged to ask that question if facing a challenge, can go a long way toward fostering curiosity.
  • 5 Whys
  • Bo Adams on 14 Sep 18
     
    HT Nicole Martin
Meghan Cureton

School of the Future: Initiative > Expertise - Basecamp - 0 views

basecampschool.com/...future-initiative-gt-expertise

School Change #mvifishares transformation PBL initiative

shared by Meghan Cureton on 27 Mar 19 - No Cached
  • Department-based faculty tell kids what they’re supposed to study, then use grades to signal how far they are from “expertise.”
  • That design principle may be great for teachers who return to school year after year (and therefore become more and more “expert”). But what about the students? They graduate into an increasingly VUCA world.
  • But what if departments shifted focus from expertise to initiative?
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  • In an age of accelerations, expertise may still matter, but initiative matters even more. Schools of the Future will design accordingly.
Meghan Cureton

5 Mindsets to Bring Positive Change Across Society - 1 views

singularityhub.com/...5-mindsets-for-human-progress

#MustRead transformation mindset idiploma

shared by Meghan Cureton on 21 Sep 17 - No Cached
  • Stimulating positive change at civilization level also requires certain mindsets and ways of thinking.
  • Here are five mindsets that will allow us to leave a positive mark on humanity. Curiosity and Critical Thinking
  • It is by channeling a child-like sense of awe about the world that we can truly imagine something even better. That can be coupled with questioning how we do things in today’s world instead of accepting them as they are.
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  • Asking questions—and asking good ones—is the foundation of critical thinking.
  • It takes powerful curiosity, critical thinking, and imagination to envision radical alternatives to how we do things in today’s world and then be inspired to execute them.
  • Intelligent Optimism
  • being optimistic about the future based on reason and evidence.
  • How can our youth grow up believing they can have a positive impact on the world if the news is suggesting otherwise?
  • Risk-taking
  • being a strategic risk-taker is a valuable lifelong skill of its own.
  • embracing uncertainty, stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and doing something that fulfills your life or company’s grand mission
  • embracing failure and re-defining failed attempts as temporary setbacks
  • Moonshot Thinking
  • Moonshot thinking allows for radical, daring, and disruptive ideas as opposed to incremental improvements
  • Cosmic Perspective
  • Having a cosmic perspective shifts the ambitions and priorities we set for ourselves to those that matter from a grand perspective. As a species, we become more purpose-driven.
  • It’s all about having a positive impact on the world
  • It’s not just about creating a product or generating profits, but also about solving a problem and having a positive impact on human lives.
  • It’s about asking the right questions, being intelligently optimistic about the future, taking a risk with a moonshot, and maintaining a cosmic perspective.
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