When I was a young banker, our bank’s business development leader announced a citywide blitz. All commercial lenders and business development professionals were commanded to go from business-to-business to promote the services of our bank. Calling on perfect strangers unannounced was very unsettling for me. Fortunately, our leader wisely decided to send us out in pairs. My partner and I ...
Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician who implemented hand washing procedures for doctors at Vienna General Hospital. This new practice decreased the incidence of maternal death from 18% to 2%. Sadly, the medical community was offended to be told that a gentlemen’s hands could possibly carry disease. Doctors unanimously continued their deathly procedures. Unfortunately, many great findings are ignored ...
With remote work so prevalent, some companies now use electronic monitoring to determine how much time employees spend working. One field study, discussed in Harvard Business Review, concludes that the use of electronic monitoring is backfiring. The researchers learned that when electronic monitoring was used, workers tended to put less effort into their work. They also determined that productivity ...
Coca Cola Consolidated in Charlotte, North Carolina knew Covid was taking a toll on its employees, so they researched ways to help. Their research discovered that many of their employees had spouses who lost jobs due to the pandemic. Coca Cola decided to put these spouses on Coca Cola’s payroll until they could return to work. This amazing act of ...
Multitasking is a badge of honor for many. But according to Earl Miller, a neuroscience professor at MIT, “You can’t multitask.” Our brains are hard-wired to only do one cognitively demanding activity at a time. In a Wall Street Journal article, Miller says what we actually are doing is task-shifting, jumping from one task to another. In fact, juggling tasks ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
