October 2023 - on bullshit, being human, managing less, and what zoom calls do to your brain
Issue #57
I know this newsletter reaches a lot of managers and business owners. So, I’m going to say this first before proceeding with the usual links: whether it’s Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, mass shootings, massive firings in some industries, the war in Ukraine, or the war in the Middle East… it is reasonable to expect that any, some or all of these events -and others- have impacted and still impact the minds and hearts of the people in your charge at work.
I invite you (and keep in mind that I am not beyond imploring or begging) that you do not turn a blind eye to how your people are affected, and that how they are affected impacts their ability to perform. I’m inviting you to be human. Being human to another human being is not a sign of weakness nor does it entail a loss of power.
And why should you? Well, because they are human. They’re not things.
Call me a master of the obvious and I will say that there is enough evidence to show that managers and business owners often override this with the doctrine of some dead economist to the effect that “everyone is looking for their self-interest” or “employees have contractual obligations”.
That, by the way, is eons away from the other discourse they hold for the gallery: “We’re a family”, “people are our most important asset”, and -wait for it- “We’re all in this together”.
Again, why should you? Well, because you are human too. As managers and business owners, we work with people, not through people. We work with what’s there - now. And that changes from day to day as people have successes, are tired, have children, are worried, navigate grief, move from one city to another, go back to school, etc. It also changes based on what is going on in their environments, close and remote.
Over the years I found that the best teachers and the best managers and business owners all work from the same premise: you teach/manage the people in front of you. Not the ones you wish you had, but the ones you have, the ones that are there.
And not only are they different from one another in abilities and readiness, but they are also different from one day to the next. That is who you work with. Every day.
People are struggling. There is a lot going on and they carry quite a bit from the recent past.
On the odd chance that you feel this might be too touchy-feely for you, I will say this: Emotions exist. They affect what we think about and how we think. The reasonable thing to do is to acknowledge emotions and work with them. To dismiss them altogether is, well, irrational.
So the invitation is: be human to your fellow human beings, in difficult times and always.
I know you can. I trust you will.
The theory that in the past men were hunters and women were not isn’t supported by the available evidence - Scientific American
Claudia Goldin, a Harvard professor, was awarded the economics Nobel for advancing the world’s understanding of women’s progress in the workforce. Today, women in the United States make a little over 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. Read Goldin’s “A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter”.
Survey: 73 percent of HR leaders surveyed report difficulty enticing workers to return to the office. Getting workers to return to the office was the second most difficult objective respondents reported, exceeded only by finding qualified workers. 71 percent of respondents from organizations that are mandating their on-site work policy reported difficulty retaining workers; that's compared to 46 percent that give workers a choice of where to work.
Bartelby of The Economist suggests that you should be a minus-minded manager. This echoes a piece I shared in a previous issue of the newsletter: If “less is more”, why do we overdo so much?
University of Oxford Carissa Veliz wonders what Socrates can teach us about AI: “In contrast to Socrates, large language models don't know what they don’t know. These systems are not built to be truth-tracking. They are not based on empirical evidence or logic. They make statistical guesses that are very often wrong.” She says it has a lot to do with bullshit.
“Business is business. Work is work. No need to get personal.” And yet you could be working next to Mark Rothko, Margaret Atwood, or Robert Martiensen.
When Yale neuroscientist Joy Hirsch used sophisticated imaging tools to track in real time the brain activity of two people engaged in conversation, she discovered an intricate choreography of neural activity in areas of the brain that govern social interactions. When she performed similar experiments with two people talking on Zoom, she observed a much different neurological landscape.
November is upon us. A month of remembrance and thanksgiving.
I’m grateful you’re here. I hope our monthly encounter provides food for thought. Thank you for your comments and suggestions.
See you next month!