" In-Flight Purchases Depend on What Your Neighbor Does "

Buying Behaviour

" In-Flight Purchases Depend on What Your Neighbor Does "

Research Finding :
Seeing someone buy something makes us more likely to do the same.

Sample Segment :
  Analyzing data on in-flight purchases to understand social effects in purchase behavior, it was found that m when passengers see someone next to them make a purchase, they’re 30% more likely, on average, to buy something themselves !

This did not hold true if they saw a purchase by someone sitting behind them or diagonally in front of them.

And the likelihood that a passenger will buy something DOUBLES,  if the person making a purchase next to them is someone they KNOW.
Reason :
Friends and peers have a lot of sway over what we buy and when we buy it .

Research Conducted by :
 Pedro M. Gardete at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

( Research Finding ) What makes, a Good Day at office / workplace ?

( Research Finding  )  What makes, a Good Day at office / workplace ?

The most common event that triggered  most people's best days on the job was - MAKING PROGRESS in their work.
The event that triggered their worst days was experiencing a setback. This is the 'progress principle'  made visible !

If a person is motivated and happy at the end of the workday, it's a good bet that he or she made some progress , on some aspect !

 If the person drags out of the office disengaged and joyless, a setback is most likely to blame.

 In addition, triggers  called  ' inhibitors'  and toxins  ,  were found to be  rare -  on great days of work.

Sample Size :
According to almost 12,000 diary entries by over 200 people on project teams  . All these professionals were asked to keep a daily diary and record their day's experience and events ( and how they reacted to those events ) for 60 days .

Research Conducted by : 
 Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer on HBR . org

Lateral Thinking " We Underestimate Our Own Ability to Generate Ideas "

Lateral Thinking
" We Underestimate Our Own Ability to Generate Ideas "

Research Finding :

People consistently underestimate the number of creative ideas they can come up with .

Sample Size & Experiment :
Step 1 :
In a study they conducted, 24 students were given 10 minutes to think of dishes to serve at a festival dinner.
Step 2 :
Next, the students had to predict how many more ideas they could generate if they kept going for 10 more minutes.
Step 3 :
Then they were asked to try to generate ideas for another 10 minutes.
Finding :
On average, they predicted they could generate around 10 new ideas if they persisted — but they were actually able to come up with around 15 !!
Several similar follow-up studies produced the same result !

The researchers also found that the ideas generated while persisting were, on average, rated more creative than those generated initially.

Conclusion drawn :
The authors say that we underestimate the benefits of persistence because creative challenges feel difficult !

Research Conducted by :
Brian J. Lucas of the Booth School of Business and Loran Nordgren of the Kellogg School of Management

" What should you do - if a Recruiter Is trying to poach One of Your Employees ? "

( HR challenges )
" What should you do - if a Recruiter Is trying to poach One of Your Employees ? "
If you have smart, talented people on your team, chances are they’ll get calls from recruiters ! It is inevitable, now or in future .

How should you respond when a competitor is wooing one of your employees?
First, watch for signs that someone is thinking of leaving.
If a team member is turned down for a promotion or has a project postponed, he might be more receptive to recruiters.
If you learn that a valuable employee is considering her options, take action.
What to do :
Have a frank conversation about what the person is thinking, and ask if there are simple things you can do to help her reconsider.
(Offering new challenges? Helping her join a board?).
What not to do : counter offer and its counter effects
And DON'T jump to a counteroffer !
People leave because they’re unhappy, so a counteroffer means you’re paying more , to keep an unhappy worker !
But even if someone does leave the company, keep it in perspective. For, sometimes people just need to move on ! "
Courtesy : HBR

" How Artists Can Collaborate With Less Creative Peers"

Management Tip - Team Work
" How Artists Can Collaborate With Less Creative Peers"
When creative projects struggle, a lack of good ideas is rarely the problem. Usually the issue is with incorporating the various ideas into the output.
Team members who think of themselves as " ARTISTS ", have a greater tendency to reject others’ creative ideas, but even artists need to be open to suggestions from others. Here’s how to do it:

(1) Think of others’ input as general inspiration rather than as a challenge to your vision !
Consider new ideas an opportunity to build on your thinking.
(2) Maintain an unemotional demeanor during collaborations.
Reacting less in the moment helps you maintain a less hostile tone.
(3) Delay responding to new ideas.
If your knee-jerk response to new ideas is rejecting them, give yourself time to think through an idea’s merits before making a decision about it.
(4) Think of projects as learning opportunities, not products.
Instead of focusing on getting every detail right, focus on a project’s useful takeaways.
Courtesy : HBR

10 rules of team management

1. Bring up problems (regarding tasks or relationships) when they arise. Don’t expect them to go away; instead, name the elephant in the room.
2. Take ownership and follow through on problems.
3. Don’t let things fall through the cracks. Even if the next step is someone else’s responsibility, stay in touch until it’s done.
4. Tell people what you need. Don’t expect them to guess.
5. When responding to someone’s request, always explain why you are doing what you are doing, especially when you have to say no.
6. When asking for something, always explain why you are making the request. This allows the person to come up with an alternative solution if what you are asking for isn’t possible.
7. If you need training or tools in order to be successful, ask for them.
8. Take risks, but inform key people so that they don’t get blindsided. Analyze the risks, identify the unexpected consequences, and plan for them.
9. Think Center-wide. When your actions diverge from usual practice, always ask, “What impact will this have on the team?”
10. Start each meeting with individuals sharing “what I did this week that constituted excellent customer service.”

" Reasons why , you should create rules for your team "

" Reasons why , you should create rules for your team "

(1) Reconciling personality and style differences isn’t the only reason to create rules of conduct (though it’s a big one).

(2)If you’re leading a cross-unit team, you’ll need to blend the different approaches.

(3)If you’ve added new people to a team, you’ll have to take their perspectives into account !

(4)If you’re managing two teams that must collaborate to achieve larger goals, you’ll have to establish a third, overarching set of rules.

You get the picture: Any time you bring people together, you have to create explicit rules of conduct—or the work will suffer !

Rules that evolve from unstructured teams / groups

Rules of conduct will form and evolve whether you talk about them or not.

 Without deliberate conversations, you’ll find that unproductive rules crop up as people mimic what you and other influential team members do in practice.

 If you, the leader, routinely show up five minutes late for meetings, lateness becomes the norm, overriding any notion that punctuality is important.

 Rules also evolve according to what you reward.
Courtesy : HBR

" Create Rules for How Your Team Will Collaborate ! "

" Create Rules for How Your Team Will Collaborate ! "
It’s easy to assume that everyone knows how to work on a team, but most people have individual styles and preferences.

What if one person thinks a 9:00 start time means 9:03 and someone else thinks it means 8:55? To avoid these common frustrations, create rules of conduct for your team’s collaboration. Rules help clarify how you will collectively make decisions, keep everyone informed, and run meetings.
To start, find or create a boiler-plate framework with basic rules for respect, trust, meetings, decision making, and more.

Discuss the rules with your team and agree on which ones you’ll follow. REVIEW the rules periodically to keep them RELEVANT and quash undesirable behaviors that have emerged.

In addition, conduct a " cultural audit" of your team by asking about the unwritten rules a new team member would need to know. Then create one combined set of rules that everyone will follow.
Courtesy : HBR