A Little Meditating Helps You Make Better Business Decisions

January 23, 2014

A Little Meditating Helps You Make Better Business Decisions

Research participants who had spent just 15 minutes in “mindfulness” meditation, focusing on their breathing, were 77% more likely than others to resist what’s known as the “sunk-cost bias,” the tendency to stick with a less-than-optimal strategy merely because a lot of money has been sunk into it, says a team led by Andrew C. Hafenbrack of Insead business school in France. In a fictional scenario, the participants had to decide whether to buy a highly efficient $10,000 machine shortly after spending $200,000 on equipment that was much less efficient (and couldn’t be sold). Meditation’s impact on the sunk-cost bias may have to do with its ability to improve mood and decrease people’s focus on the future and past, the researchers suggest.

SOURCE: Debiasing the Mind Through Meditation: Mindfulness and the Sunk-Cost Bias

It’s Not Too Late to Reinvent Yourself

January 23, 2014

It’s Not Too Late to Reinvent Yourself

Professional reinvention is different later in your career. Over-50 professionals who hope to make a transition should consider these tips:
Overqualified? Own it.
 Instead of ducking the issue, lead with it. Having been a manager, you understand the pressures and frustrations your potential employer faces, so you can be an even better employee.

Social media is no longer optional. 
If you don’t have a presence on basic sites like LinkedIn or Twitter, you’re likely to be dismissed as a Luddite. Your social presence is increasingly viewed as a proxy for staying current professionally.

Connect with your past.
 Some of the most valuable professional opportunities come from people we’ve lost touch with. In the years since you last communicated, your “dormant ties” have connected with new people and gathered new knowledge. Your history and shared experience makes it more comfortable to reconnect; reach out and reintroduce yourself.


Adapted from “How to Reinvent Yourself After 50” by Dorie Clark.

Pursue Your Own Growth Opportunities

December 04, 2013

Pursue Your Own Growth Opportunities

Many managers find that their current roles afford little opportunity to explore or develop. If you’re ambitious, but your current position offers few growth opportunities, look beyond your main business area. 

Sign up for a project or initiative that cuts across your organization’s divisions, hierarchical levels, and functional specialties. The big-picture perspective, fresh skills, and new connections that such projects can bring are well worth your time.

 If no suitable project is available, look for roles outside your organization that allow you to practice new skills and raise your profile. Consider teaching an adult education class, volunteering to speak at a conference, contributing to a blog, or attending professional gatherings to meet with people from different companies. 
These activities will build your skills and reputation, increasing your chances of joining strategic initiatives inside your organization.

Adapted from “Six Ways to Grow Your Job,” by Herminia Ibarra.

Choice Overload does not lead to better choices !

Consumer Behaviour . 
Choice Overload does not lead to better choices ! 


December 04, 2013

Don’t Give Consumers Too Many Visual Choices
Research Finding : 
Online shoppers love seeing images of products, but when the number of choices is high, visuals become confusing and presentation of the options in TEXT FORM  helps consumers make better decisions.  
A high number of visual options can also prompt consumers to give up trying to choose ! 
Asked to select among 27 types of crackers, participants in an experiment were 5 times more likely to pick “none of the above” if the choices were presented visually rather than in WORDS. 
Reason ?/ 
Text prompts a slower, more systematic mental-processing style, the researchers say.
Research Conducted by :   Claudia Townsend of the University of Miami and Barbara E. Kahn of The Wharton School.
SOURCE: The “Visual Preference Heuristic”: The Influence of Visual versus Verbal Depiction on Assortment Processing, Perceived Variety, and Choice Overload

It’s Actually Helpful to Criticize Ideas When You’re Brainstorming

12 Sept 2019 Thu 
It’s Actually Helpful to Criticize Ideas When You’re Brainstorming
You’ve probably heard that when you’re brainstorming, criticizing others’ ideas will kill creativity and enthusiasm. But the truth is, when done right, criticism can encourage collaboration and help your team get to better ideas. Here’s how. If you see a weakness in something a colleague has proposed, don’t simply say, “This will never work.” Acknowledge their idea, explain the problem with it, and then propose an improvement. Someone else should do the same for your suggestion, and then another colleague should do the same for theirs. Similarly, when you like someone’s idea, don’t just say, “Great suggestion!” and take it as-is. Look for ways to collectively build on the idea and make it even better. This kind of constructive interaction can create a deep cycle of critical feedback that leads to breakthroughs.
 That’s why you’re brainstorming, after all — to get to great ideas together.
This tip is adapted from “Why Criticism Is Good for Creativity,” by Roberto Verganti and Don Norman 

Make Mundane Tasks More Motivating for Employees

13 Sept 2019 Fri 

Make Mundane Tasks More Motivating for Employees

Companies often try to inspire employees with lofty mission statements. 
But if the tasks your employees do every day feel meaningless, those lofty messages can backfire and actually lead to disengagement. Fortunately, research shows that even mundane tasks can feel meaningful if they are clustered with other tasks. 

For example, a hospital administrator whose job involves organizing patient records might not always feel that she’s helping people live healthier lives. But if she thinks about how this task helps nurses and doctors treat patients, she might see that she is supporting the hospital’s mission. Managers should help employees understand how the tasks they don’t always enjoy are connected to the company’s purpose. 

If one employee thinks responding to client emails quickly is a waste of time, for instance, point out how those emails, when combined with data analysis and report writing, play an important role in solving clients’ pressing concerns.

This tip is adapted from “How to Make Even the Most Mundane Tasks More Motivating,” by Jaewon Yoon et al.

Use Note-Taking Apps to Prioritize

December 17, 2013

Use Note-Taking Apps to Prioritize

With the remarkable retrieval capacity of digital note-taking apps, you can always find (and remember) your records of important conversations and meetings. Better still, thoughtfully organizing your notes will help you focus on your top priorities and drive your energies toward your most important work. In Evernote ( OneNote, Springpad, and SimpleNote are other popular apps), create notebooks that are as broad as possible while still reflecting specific projects and responsibilities; rather than "XYZ account," for example, use "Key Industries" or "West Coast Prospects." Evernote automatically organizes notebooks alphabetically, but any notebooks that have names beginning with punctuation or symbols ("!ManagementTips") show up at the top of the list, followed by names beginning with numbers. Use this to your advantage: name notebooks to keep key priorities, projects, and responsibilities on top so that you’ll see and think about them every day.

Adapted from Work Smarter With Evernote by Alexandra Samuel.