We’ve all at least known, if not actually been, a disgruntled former employee. Disgruntled former employees (DFE’s, for short), are often problematic in the eyes of management. After all, they’re often the loudest, most publicly opposed to leadership. They’re completely unhampered by any societal obligations to their now-ex-coworkers, and unless […]
Category: culture building
Don’t Break Belonging
If you’re a leader seeking to build belonging in your organization or team or loose confederation of monster hunters or whatever, you’ve got to build trust. Trust, interestingly enough, is measured by its weakest facet. This means you can have all the credibility in the world, but if you don’t […]
Arbitrary Dates
Happy 2022, everyone. You might find today to be a momentous occasion, as it’s the start of a new calendar year. After all, we’ve created parades, funding and budget cycles, national holidays, and a bunch of other cultural norms around this day. So if that’s your jam, ride that inspiration […]
The Privilege of Looking Away
It’s often somewhat uncomfortable to come to terms with privilege, especially if there are ways that you’re underprivileged. So you might want to look away from something that makes you feel uncomfortable, like poverty in India, or the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, or the femicide of a young, white woman […]
Shipping Expectations
My wife was told her package was late, and she was pleasantly surprised when it came a few days prior to when she was expecting it. It was still later than initially planned, but quicker than her most recent expectations. I ordered something online and was told due to warehouse […]
Doing Things Differently
There’s a cost to doing things differently, as by definition, you’re diverging from the norm.People aren’t hesitant around change and uncertainty, and the more innovative and radical you are, the most hesitancy there will be. But what might be the opportunity cost of doing things the same way as you’ve […]
Clay Softener
Polymer clay is a clay that requires baking to harden. However, if you leave it out for a long time with baking, it can get brittle and much harder to work with. There is also a clay softener that allows you to restore the brittle clay and make it more […]
Cavities
Running a team or an organization is difficult. Often there will be many small problems that get ignored or pushed to the side in the pursuit of the greater goal. And while this is understandable, you don’t want to let these issues fester. Especially if they’re things that don’t often […]
Pass It Forward
Especially in hierarchies, it’s easy to pass things forward. Whether it’s being treated humanely or being treated poorly, we usually model what we’ve seen and then others model that behavior as well. But if you were treated poorly, you can always choose to stop the cycle of abuse and follow […]
Fatigued
When we’re exhausted, it’s easy to want to give things up. And honestly, we probably should. It’s unsustainable to continue on things forever, especially if they’re sunk costs holding you back rather than things that give you joy. However, even when fatigued, there are probably things we shouldn’t be willing […]