Tuesday 15 August 2017

Fast Company/Rick Wartzman: Peter Drucker has some sage Advice For How Execs Should Respond To Charlottesville

Fast Company

Peter Drucker has some sage Advice For How Execs Should Respond To Charlottesville

Decades ago, the management guru offered a great example of how corporate execs should take on Nazis and white supremacists: Speak out and don’t equivocate.



By Rick Wartzman4 minute Read

Peter Drucker has been celebrated as “the man who invented management.” In the wake of what unfolded over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, now is the time for corporate leaders to remember why he invented the discipline of management in the first place: to prevent the Nazis and other like-minded groups from ever rising again.
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Before Drucker published Concept of the Corporation, The Practice of Management, The Effective Executive and more than two dozen other books that generations of businesspeople have used to shape and steer their enterprises, the Austrian-born writer, professor, and consultant found himself in Hitler’s crosshairs.

Drucker had penned two monographs—one on a Jewish-born political philosopher named Friedrich Julius Stahl and another titled “The Jewish Question in Germany”—that were burned and banned by the Nazis. By 1934, Drucker had fled Germany, where he’d been teaching and working as a newspaper reporter. He first made his way to England, and eventually settled in the United States.

Over the next 60 years, before he died in 2005 at the age of 95, Drucker advised countless executives on how to more effectively run their companies. Among them were some of the most famous names in the history of business: Charlie Wilson of General Motors, IBM’s Thomas Watson Jr., Citibank’s Walter Wriston, Intel’s Andy Grove, Coca-Cola’s Donald Keough, A.G. Lafley of Procter & Gamble.

Along the way, however, Drucker never lost sight of his real aim: not to help companies make more money (although he recognized that without turning a steady profit, it was impossible to be sustainable) but to encourage business to fulfill its role as a leading institution of society.

Drucker knew firsthand, after all, what happens when our institutions don’t act as unflinching protectors of our most basic values: “Terror,” as he put it, is apt fill the void.

“To make our institutions perform responsibly,” Drucker asserted in his 1973 masterpiece Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, is “the only safeguard of freedom and dignity.”
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These words took on fresh urgency after another key institution—the presidency—failed to denounce in the strongest terms the horde of Nazis, white supremacists, and pro-Confederates who descended on Charlottesville to trumpet their hate, resulting in injury and death.

Not surprisingly, the decidedly mealymouthed response from the normally blunt Donald Trump—in which he condemned the violence and bigotry “on many sides”—only emboldened the racists, anti-Semites, and xenophobes who are an essential part of his political base. “There was virtually no counter-signaling of us at all,” noted the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website. “Really, really good. God bless him.”

In all of this, Drucker would have discerned one aspect of an extremely disturbing pattern: a nod and wink from a man who rode into the nation’s highest office by playing on “the despair of the masses” (or at least those of the white working class); by promising them “a miracle . . . which belies the evidence of one’s reason” (like the return of their old manufacturing and coal jobs); and by creating “demonic enemies” for them to rail against (whether Muslims or Mexican immigrants, or his African-American predecessor in the Oval Office). Tellingly, each of these quotations is from The End of Economic Man, Drucker’s 1939 book about the origins of fascism in Europe.

Indeed, if there had been any lingering doubts about how the Trump presidency threatens America, his conduct over the weekend should leave none.

Which brings us back to the obligation of business—which, Drucker reminded us, “is one of the very few institutions . . . that is not nationalistic in its worldview” and, at its best, “brings together” all kinds of people and “unites them in a common purpose.”

As we witness the dismantling of the sacred institution that Trump now occupies (and, for the most part, the abdication of another—Congress), it is more important than ever that the corporate community take responsibility.
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To be sure, a number of businesses in downtown Charlottesville did hang signs in their doors and windows that read, “If Equality and Diversity Aren’t for You, Then Neither Are We.” Airbnb is to be applauded for canceling the accounts of those linked to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. And on Monday, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier stepped down from a Trump advisory council on manufacturing. “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” Frazier said.

This is the moment for other top executives to be resolute, as well. Speak out against Trump’s position. Don’t equivocate. If you serve on a White House panel, resign like Frazier did. If you’re asked to meet with this president, decline.

Do this for the good of your company. As Drucker declared, “Management has a self-interest in a healthy society.” Mainly, though, do it because it’s the right thing to do.

In his autobiography, Drucker recounted how he had written his essay on Friedrich Julius Stahl as “a frontal attack on Nazism.” And while it had no huge impact, despite being censored by the state, “it made it crystal-clear where I stood,” he wrote, “and I knew I had to make sure for my own sake that I would be counted.”

“The greatest sin,” Drucker added, “may be the . . . sin of indifference.”

Business—perhaps the last best institution we have—must not stand indifferent now.
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This story reflects the views of this author, but not necessarily the editorial position of Fast Company.

Rick Wartzman is director of the KH Moon Center for a Functioning Society at the Drucker Institute and the author of four books, including his latest, The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America. He also hosts The Bottom Line, a podcast on the intersection of business and society.

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    08.15.17 8:01 am most creative people

Casper Hopes To Make Waves With Its New Mattress
Today, Casper Labs launches the Wave, a mattress that accommodates your shoulders and hips for more optimal spinal alignment. And it’s comfortable as heck.
1/6 [Photo: courtesy of Casper]

By Elizabeth Segran6 minute Read

In 2014, Casper made a splash in the $14 billion mattress industry with its mail-order mattresses. From the beginning, the startup took a minimalistic approach to product design. In an industry where consumers are pelted with many complicated choices–memory foam? box spring? water bed?–Casper launched a single mattress that its designers believed would cater to the widest range of consumers.
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Jeff Chapin, one of Casper’s founders and the brand’s chief design officer, has been central to this simple, curated approach to product. Having spent a decade at Ideo, Chapin wants to use design to streamline the decision-making process for customers. Still, he believes that there is room for another mattress option within the Casper stable.

Over the last year, Chapin been leading a team of researchers, designers, and engineers at Casper Labs, the brand’s 5,000-square-foot R&D facility in San Francisco, as they developed an entirely new mattress. The Wave mattress stands out from existing products in the marketplace because it uses different materials along the length of the mattress to better accommodate the human body’s physiology. It will be marketed as a premium product, with a price tag roughly double that of the original Casper mattress; a regular queen-size Casper mattress is $950, while the same size Wave costs $1850.

Related: Why Casper Is The $750 Million Startup That Just Can’t Rest

“Our shoulders and hips are the heaviest parts of our body,” says Chapin, describing how the materials in the bed change as you go from the head to the torso to the legs, something that few other mattress brands have attempted. “We had a breakthrough when we decided we could change the surface of the mattress to better cradle and support these parts of the body. This would have the effect of aligning the spine.

When you lie on a flat surface, your spine curves, since your shoulders and your butt jut out compared to your legs, torso, and head. The Wave has a layer of softer memory foam around your shoulders and bottom area that allow these parts of the body to sink in, ensuring the spine remains straight. Underneath this accommodating top layer there is a firmer latex layer that ensures that your entire body remains supported.
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[Photo: courtesy of Casper]
It was hard for me to wrap my head around this concept until I had a chance to test it out. I slept on the Wave for four nights and found it a fascinating, unusual experience. Just as Chapin said, my hips sank into the bed deeper than the rest of my body, which made me feel–for a split second–like I was off balance or unsteady. But once I got used to it, it was clear that my spine seemed straighter no matter what position I rolled into. Research shows that most people start off their night sleeping in one position, but rearrange themselves over the course of the night.

I felt very rested each morning after I slept on the Wave. I attributed this to several things.

First, I seemed to be able to sleep longer, since I didn’t feel uncomfortable lying on my back or side for seven hours. (One night I slept over nine hours, partly because I didn’t feel too stiff or achey to stay in bed–a regular problem for me).

Second, one interesting side effect of my hip area sinking in lower than usual is that my legs were at an incline, which was particularly relaxing after long days of walking, since generally my legs get a bit swollen if I’ve been on my feet for too much time.

Finally, the top layer that engulfed my body seemed to absorb any movement my husband made on his side of the bed.

Chapin explains that his team dug through millions of data points to develop this bed largely through Casper Labs, which has benefited from the $170 million infusion of funding that Casper received in June. The round was led by Target, and brought Casper’s investment coffers to $900 million.
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Casper Labs employs a range of approaches to create new products. First, it examines and tests the latest high tech materials like weightless flo foam, a velvety material that appears to melt away upon touch, like cotton candy. This creates a comforting sensation for the sleeper.

Second, Casper Labs prototypes mattresses, then observes how humans interact with and sleep on these test beds in a climate-controlled bedroom. This is how Casper discovered that individuals create unique sleep climates around themselves because they release different amounts of moisture. (Based on this insight, Casper has determined that the key factor to a comfortable sheets and comforters is not regulating temperature, which is industry practice, but regulating humidity.)

Finally, Casper has recruited 20,000 loyal fans who are keen to provide insights. They each get an at-home kit that includes devices that capture data about their body and ambient temperature, humidity, and movement, allowing them to track their own sleep.

“At first, we wanted to keep all the gory details about our testing processes out of the consumer’s sight, since we thought it might be too much unnecessary details,” Chapin says. “But we’re finding that people are interested in the science of sleep and are fascinated by their own sleeping habits. So we’re slowly lifting the veil and allowing people to see the work that we’re doing.” Casper’s blog now contains charts about everything from sleeping positions to nocturnal body temperatures to canine sleep habits, to satisfy even the nerdiest amateur sleep scientist.

The Casper Wave [Photo: courtesy of Casper]
In early August, Casper Labs developed a high-tech humidity-fighting duvet, which it is crowdfunding via Kickstarter. The Wave is the second product to come out of the lab, but Chapin says that there are more products to come. Together with his team, Chapin is helping Casper become known not only for its approach to selling beds, but also for finding radical solutions for better sleep. In doing so, they are keeping up with their larger competitors, such as Serta, which is investing $65 million in its Atlanta headquarters, which will contain an elaborate sleep testing facility.

When it come to the pricing, Chapin explains that the Wave was particularly expensive to make and manufacture. The company spared no expense, bringing in materials from Belgium, Germany, and Korea that contain the latest polymer technology that are more resilient, springing back faster upon touch and thereby providing better support. The Wave was also more costly to build since mattress factories aren’t equipped to churn out such a complex design, so Casper had to work with their suppliers on new production lines.
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“With this mattress, we were definitely focused on designing the best product that we could, rather than the most cost-efficient,” Chapin explains, describing how this new product is different from the original Casper mattress. “If between five and 10 percent of our mattress sales are from the Wave, that will be a success.”

As Chapin and his team conducted consumer research as while working on the Wave, he discovered that there is a small sliver of people who will pay almost anything for a high-quality mattress. This group includes people who have incapacitating back or spinal issues and must spend money on chiropractors, massages, or doctors to tackle their issues. A bed that costs several thousands of dollars seems like a small expense in comparison. One woman he met was a firefighter who had a history of back issues that made it hard for her to do her job and had spent upwards of $5,000 on her previous mattresses.

“Mattresses companies can charge ludicrous prices for beds tailored to people with back problems,” Chapin says. “Our starting price is meant to be competitive with other high-end ergonomic mattresses, but as we continue working through our supply chain we are going to find ways to drive down the cost.”

One approach to driving down cost will be to buy materials for the Wave in bulk, as Casper continues to scale as a company. At some point, Casper may even own its own factories, allowing it to more efficiently produce mattresses.

“We want to serve people like this firefighter who really depend on having a good mattress to have a good quality of life,” he says.
About the author

Elizabeth Segran, Ph.D., is a staff writer at Fast Company. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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    08.14.17

Never Say These 11 Things During A Job Interview (Unless You Don’t Want The Job)
Don’t ever say, “My last boss was terrible.”
Never Say These 11 Things During A Job Interview (Unless You Don’t Want The Job)
[Source illustration: drante/iStock]

By Lillian Childress— Glassdoor4 minute Read

The hiring manager has already sifted through resumes and decided that they want to meet you. Now it’s your turn to make an impression. And, unfortunately for you, every sentence you utter during the job interview is going to be a part of that impression. The best way to prepare for potential embarrassment? Know what’s off limits.
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Avoid these 11 statements next time you’re up for a job, and you’ll be well on your way to wowing your interviewer.
“That’s A Great Question!”

While this phrase may be a great addition to social conversations, it’s not something an interviewer needs to hear. Instead of sounding surprised that the recruiter asked a question, remember that you’ve prepared for this interview. Plus, the questions they ask are almost always from a preset list. Playing the game of flattering your interviewer is tricky, and should be used sparingly. Get straight down to answering their questions.

Related: These Are The Worst Answers To The Most Common Job Interview Questions
“What Is The Title Of The Role, Again?”

Any questions showing your lack of research into the company, the job description, or the industry itself show that you haven’t adequately prepared. Preparing for a job interview is like preparing for a final exam–you need to know your stuff. There’s no doubt it’s important to ask your interviewer questions, but the questions you ask should be targeted toward information you can’t find online: what the company culture is like, how the values of the company play out in day-to-day business, etc.
“I’ve Actually Never Done This Type Of Job Before, But . . . “

If you have a lack of experience, your resume will show it. There’s no need to further underscore your lack of qualifications. In fact, the interview is your chance to creatively connect the dots between your resume and your decision to apply for the job. It’s where you’re able to tell the interviewer why you’ll be a perfect fit for the job, even if that’s not what it looks like on paper.
“I Really Can’t Imagine Anyone More Qualified Than Me”

Self-aggrandizing during an interview only serves to hurt you in the end. Since you haven’t seen the resumes of the other applicants, there’s no use in overtly comparing yourself to them. What’s important to learn is the art of the subtle comparison. “We all have room for improvement, so be honest with yourself: How would an interviewer see you as compared to other candidates?” writes personal brand expert Brenda Bence. The key is being able to talk about the things that make you special–not just saying that you’re special.
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Related: Three Pieces Of Job Interview Advice You Should Ignore
“My Last Boss Was Terrible”

Absolutely no griping about your last company allowed, unless there’s some really special circumstance. Complaining about how you didn’t get along in your last work environment is detrimental on two levels. First, it shows your lack of ability to cope with a challenging situation and move past it. Second, the last thing your interviewer wants is for you to be talking trash about their company or employees in the future. Obviously, it’s important to talk about past challenges you’ve faced on the job–but critically evaluate, don’t complain.
“This Will Be A Great Stepping Stone To My Next Career Move”

While this may be the exact reason you want this job, it’s not a savvy move to share with the interviewer. Hiring managers are generally looking for someone who will display a long-term commitment to the company. Instead, career expert Lynn Williams recommends asking questions about your opportunities for advancement in the company. This shows, according to her, “that you mean to stay with the company and let them benefit from your developing skills, knowledge, and maturity. You’re not just showing commitment, but long-term commitment.”
“I Don’t Know”

There’s always a better way to respond to a question you’re unsure of than saying, “I don’t know.” Of course, it’s always important to be humble and not make up what you’re not sure of, but this is where your communication skills come into play.

Related: 5 Ways Introverts Can Prepare For Job Interviews
“I Don’t Have Any Questions For You”

Having questions prepared for your interviewer is almost as important as being able to answer the questions they throw at you. The questions you ask are an opportunity to display the deep knowledge you have of the company.
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“That’s A Really Nice Watch You Have On!”

Attempts to flatter your interviewer will most likely fall short–especially in relation to appearance or material possessions. If you really must compliment the interviewer, make it related to something you know they’ve done in the business, or even talk about a move the company made that you admired.
“Um, So, Like, I Really, Um . . . “

As in any situation where you want to sound confident, intelligent, and collected: Cut the filler words. This is also another reason to practice what you’re going to say out loud, beforehand, so you’re not searching for your words when you’re in the real interview.
“Do People Generally Like Working Here?”

Don’t try to beat around the bush. Ask specific questions about company culture and team morale, and be direct. The best way to get the down low on what’s happening in an office is to talk to current or former employees there.

This article originally appeared on Glassdoor and is reprinted with permission.

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    08.08.17

How Shondaland Built A Creative Work Culture With Play-Doh, Treadmills, And Bakeoffs
What it’s like to work at Shonda Rhimes’s production company slash media brand.
How Shondaland Built A Creative Work Culture With Play-Doh, Treadmills, And Bakeoffs
With Shondaland.com, Shonda Rhimes wants to “revive a role-model culture.” [Photo: JUCO; Set Design: Dane Johnson; Stylist: Dana Asher Levine; Hair: Verlyn Antoine; Makeup: Cathy Highland]

By Nicole LaPortelong Read

“Culture is very important to me,” Shonda Rhimes says. She’s talking about Shondaland, her television production company turned media empire that these days doesn’t just produce shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder, but is an online hub that reflects the empowered and inclusive message of Rhimes’s shows. One of the first pieces that appeared in the Shondaland newsletter, which debuted in the spring and has served as a lead-up to the upcoming launch of Shondaland.com, was an interview that Rhimes did with congresswoman and resistance hero Maxine Waters, whom Rhimes called “the fierce political queen on Twitter.” (The term that could also be applied to Rhimes, who has over 1.5 million followers).
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Shondaland, which is profiled along with Rhimes in the September cover story of Fast Company, has been around since the dawn of Grey’s, now in its 13th season. But as the company has grown—it now has nearly 30 employees and six shows in some state of production—and moved beyond just a TV production pod based at ABC. Betsy Beers, Rhimes’s long-time producing partner, refers to it as a “state of mind.” What she means is that Shondaland is a place that “takes care of other people and makes a home for people who are curious and energetic and passionate, and who want to laugh and have a good time, but who are also just really interested in making the world better.

“It sounds like such a silly thing to say,” she goes on, “but I think we do spend a lot of time talking about sharing and not bullying and standing up for what you believe in and taking care of each other.”

Not just in terms of content. Recently, Rhimes and Beers renegotiated their deal with ABC so that Shondaland operates more autonomously. “Now, we’re our own separate entity,” says Rhimes, who notes that ABC still provides funding. “That was a big change.” Part of Rhimes’s impetus was to focus more on those around her. Coming off a publicity tour for her memoir Year of Yes, she says, “I was sick of myself in every way. I didn’t want to talk about myself. I didn’t want to be worrying about what’s best for me in the business. How can I do something better for everybody else? Like, I don’t need anything. There’s nothing that I need. I don’t need more attention. I don’t need more money. I don’t need anything. So what can I do for the people who work for us? How can we make their lives better? How do we make a better work environment? Why don’t we write a parental leave policy that’s awesome, so that if any woman or man in this company has a kid, they get to feel like, ‘Oh, wait. My company cares about me.'”

Related: Shonda Rhimes Sparks A Movement

From the beginning, Rhimes and Beers have worked to make Shondaland a unique workplace. One where employees are encouraged to bring their kids to work (there’s a nursery) and that places an emphasis on creativity and diversity. “I looked around the other day and I was like, it is mostly women,” Rhimes says. “I think we have two executives who are men, and a couple of assistants who are men, but it’s pretty much all women of every ethnicity. I looked around and I was like, ‘This is amazing.'”
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Shondaland is also a place that rewards loyal workers by promoting from within and does its best to respect a work-life balance. Since writing her memoir Year of Yes, about her journey saying “yes” to things like playtime with her kids, Rhimes has instituted policies like no emails after 7 p.m. or on weekends. “It’s about building a company where people feel like they are invested and have a stake in it,” Rhimes says, “versus feeling like they’re doing a job every day. I want people to be happy when they go to work.”

Rhines, Beers, and other Shondaland writers and executives, recently talked to Fast Company about how and why Shondaland doesn’t feel like your typical Hollywood TV company.
1. Jerks Need Not Apply

Nearly every startup CEO will tell you that they have a “no assholes” policy. But at Shondaland, it’s a mandate that’s strictly enforced—potential new hires are even given background checks. The rule went into effect following PR calamities that Rhimes went through in the early days on Grey’s with stars Isaiah Washington and Katherine Heigl (both left the show). But it’s in keeping with a tradition that has always been true at Shondaland: Trusted colleagues should be rewarded, not shown the door.  When new positions at the company open up, usually someone from within the company is elevated. Writers jump from show to show, or go on to create their own Shondaland series. Peter Nowalk, a Scandal writer, created How to Get Away With Murder. And Paul Davies, another Scandal alumnus, is behind the upcoming legal drama For the People. The result is a tight-knit community of individuals steeped in Rhimes’s worldview and approach to storytelling.

Shonda Rhimes: “I think what happened is we worked with people that we really liked. A lot of times what happens in the television industry is people fire writers like crazy. And I felt like, if I’ve taken all this time to get these people to understand the inside of my brain, then I need to invest in them. So that’s really how it started in my mind. So writers who were on Grey’s, some of them went off to Private Practice with me, and some of them went off to Scandal.

“We wanted to keep people in the family. Do they want to do something new? Well, let’s keep taking them with us. And then, as we were starting to grow people, like, the woman (Stacy McKee) who’s writing the Grey’s spinoff was the assistant on the pilot of Grey’s Anatomy.

“The idea is that we’re growing people and keeping them involved, from line producers to directors to cameramen. That is important. First of all, they’ve learned the ways, they know our ways. Everyone has a shorthand. It’s easier in that sense. But I also feel like you reward the people who are sticking with you, and you give them opportunities. Why shouldn’t we make it a priority to bring up the younger people who have been working their butts off? Why do they get shunted to the side because somebody else has a fancier resume?”
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Dan Bucatinsky (former Grey’s writer; actor on Scandal): “Shonda definitely likes the talent that she supports. She keeps it in the family. She likes the way they tell stories, writers will often be on multiple Shondaland shows. I think that’s true of the actors, as well. Paul Adelstein was on Private Practice and Scandal. Jeff Perry was on Grey’s and Scandal. Shonda’s not just loyal, but she likes to build this feeling of—in a very Desilu (Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball’s production company), Lucy and Ricky kind of way. She’s building her own studio, which in a sense is like building a repertory company in summer theater. It all goes back to: Let me get a troupe of creative people together and become a rep company and we’ll make multiple shows and act in them and write them and perform them.”

Linda Lowy (Shondaland casting director): “We like to cross-pollinate. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s like our traveling ensemble of people, and why not drag them with us? I like to drag people with me.”
2. Bring Your Play-Doh to Work

Rhimes describes Shondaland as a place where writers and executives, including her, plop down on sofas to brainstorm and problem-solve. There’s a fluidity to the environment. There’s also an emphasis on creativity, not just in plot points or the kinds of shows that are written, but in the writing and thinking process itself. Nowhere is this more true that in the Grey’s writer’s room, which Rhimes says “feels like kindergarten.”

DB: “Until Grey’s, I’d never been in a writers room where people were so actively being creative in other ways while we were breaking story. People were doing paint-by-numbers and putting together Play-Doh sculptures and doing 1,000-piece puzzles while we were trying to break a story.”

SR: “It’s a room full of people who need something to do with their hands. It started as a group of people who . . . we put a treadmill in there, and everybody made sure they had a run on it, like, while they pitched. It’s that kind of room. It’s a highly competitive room, and the art projects were highly competitive art projects. When I was there, we used to have a bake-off every year, where we competed about our baked goods. It was intense.”

Peter Nowalk: “At Grey’s, I became obsessed with paint-by-numbers, like, the kids’ ones. Stacy McKee, the show runner, was very craft-oriented. There’s something about preoccupying your mind with something simple while you’re being creative. So rather than all of us just staring at each other across a boardroom table being like, What do you think should happen? For me, it would free up the creative side of my brain when it was busy doing something else. It’s why people go for walks or take a shower.
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“In the Murder room, we have no tables. We sit around couches. There are snacks and a bar cart on Friday. Some people doodle and draw. It’s a lot of time in the room with people staring at a board. You need things to energize you.”
3. Understand Your Leader’s Brain

A strong work culture is also a unified work culture. At Shondaland, this means that everyone, as Rhimes says, “understands the inside of my brain.” Or in the case of Beers, share the same brain. This common sensibility is ingrained in people, especially writers on Rhimes’s shows, whose job it is to effectively channel Rhimes’s approach to character and storytelling. But even beyond the shows, this shared mission keeps everyone on the same page as the company expands into new areas.

Paul Davies: “I think of it as Shondaland University. There’s a contingent of folks who have attended, because they came here as assistants and they’ve come through it. It’s just being here and spending time around Shonda and listening to her and seeing what she responds to, watching her writing—she rewrites a lot of stuff. It’s just that education by experience.”

SR: “Grey’s, for a long time, was a show that I was still rewriting and going to the writers room on. But we just brought back my old head writer, Krista Vernoff, from seven years ago. She’s going to run things. It’s the first time I’ve really ceded control. And I’m a control freak. But it’s just, I trust her as a writer, in the sense that she and I will think about the same things. I’ll go, ‘What’s going on?’ And she’ll say something, and I’ll be like, ‘I was thinking about that a month ago.’ So it feels really good. I’ll still be there as a person who’s at every table read and talking to the actors, but I’ve ceded the writers room to somebody else, and that’s exciting.”

Betsy Beers: “We share the same brain is the best way, I think, to say it. We tend to be able to, at this point, sort of intuitively fill the gaps that are left. I still believe that my job is to create an environment for Shonda where she can do the best work she possibly can. I feel that way about creators of all our shows. That’s what a producer does. My job is to create the space and give the input to do whatever the hell it is she needs to make the work as good as it can be.”
4. Put Your iPhone Down

In Year of Yes, Rhimes, a self-described workaholic, writes about learning to embrace downtime and playtime with her children, who typically demand it when she’s walking out the door to work. She finds that usually her kids just need 15 minutes—that’s it—and that if she actually sits down and focuses on them, everyone walks away feeling happier. Even more, Rhimes walks away feeling more creative and productive when she turns to work. The realization led her to change the bottom of her email signature so that it reads: “Please note: I will not engage in work emails after 7 pm or on weekends. IF I AM YOUR BOSS, MAY I SUGGEST: PUT DOWN YOUR PHONE.”
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Rhimes writes, “I know now that this downtime is helping to relight that little spark inside, it’s helping my creativity and in the long run helping me tell the stories my work needs me to tell. I give myself permission to view this downtime as essential. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to feel like I deserve any time to replenish the well when I know everyone else is working hard, too.”

LL: “When I first got the thing about ‘no emails after 7’ and ‘if you work for me, you should put down your pencil,’ I was like, Oh, right. I don’t think you want me to do that. Because then we won’t have any actors for tomorrow. But I liked the idea of it. Listen, Shonda’s plate is super full and she’s got three children. My kids are grown. I can work a little later than 7. That’s fine. But my staff always brings that up to me. They’ll be like, ‘Remember what Shonda said about after 7? We gotta go home.'”
About the author

Nicole LaPorte is an LA-based writer for Fast Company who writes about where technology and entertainment intersect. She previously was a columnist for The New York Times and a staff writer for Newsweek/The Daily Beast and Variety.

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    08.03.17

The Future Has Arrived And It’s . . . A Self-Driving Car That Gives You A Spa Treatment?
The new Mercedes S-Class has some impressive self-driving technology, but the real feature is what it does for you in the driver’s seat.
The Future Has Arrived And It’s . . . A Self-Driving Car That Gives You A Spa Treatment?
“The exercises for the face are especially helpful because they make you smile and that stimulates happy feelings.” [Photo: courtesy Mercedes-Benz]

By Jaclyn Trop4 minute Read

“Activate the pelvis,” a disembodied voice commands through the car’s audio system. “Tense your buttock muscles.”
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It’s an unusual request from a car, but this isn’t any old sedan. This is the car of the future: The latest version of Mercedes-Benz’s six-figure flagship S-Class sedan, a plush, luxurious ride that the company also claims to be the most advanced self-driving vehicle currently on the market. Though it can’t fully drive itself, the company claims that because its computerized assistance lets the car focus on the driving, it frees you up to take part in a series of pre-programmed, mood-altering activities involving music, exercise, massage, and heat–and even aromatherapy.

As the car steers itself down a long stretch of highway, the voice–the standard GPS robotic woman’s tone–guides me through a range of seated ergonomic routines, from backside clenches to shoulder rolls to facial muscle exercises. “The exercises for the face are especially helpful because they make you smile and that stimulates happy feelings,” Daniel Mücke, head of Mercedes’s spa-like “Energizing Comfort” program, says from the seat beside me. “The body is made to move, and if you are driving for five hours, you are not moving,” Mücke says.

“Let’s say you’re angry or nervous, the Wellbeing setting should definitely calm you down.” [Photo: courtesy Mercedes-Benz]
He scrolls through the interface and, on this slightly overcast day in July, selects the system’s Warmth mode. A jumble of yellow and orange lines flicker across the pair of 12.3-inch high-resolution display screens in front of us, mimicking the color and movement of a crackling fire. “You can use this one especially in winter for a cozy mood,” he says. Then the climate control system kicks in, strategically dispelling warm air throughout the cabin. “It’s not blown directly into your face,” Mücke explains. “Instead, the heat is on the surfaces, like the panels, steering wheel, and seats–with one push of the button.”

Mercedes’s Energizing Comfort program offers a glimpse of what we might expect once cars finally forego their steering wheels and shuttle us from point A to point B all on their own. As autonomous technology gets its sea legs, and more cars like the S-class are able to change lanes and steer around corners without help from the driver, the next question automotive engineers and designers must address is how people will spend their driving time once they no longer need to focus their attention on the road. Mercedes’s solution–a suite of software programs the company says are designed to promote feelings such as vitality, joy, and comfort using the sedan’s climate, audio, ambient lighting, massage, and “fragrance atomizing” systems–can address a range of ailments, from removing your road rage to massaging your backside to reminding you to smile.

“Let’s say you’re angry or nervous,” Mücke says, searching the menu. “The Wellbeing setting should definitely calm you down.” He pushes a button, and the cabin fills with slower music and a pink-and-purple light show. The seats initiate a gentle massage that feels like being in the pedicure chair at a nail salon. An atomizer in the glove compartment houses a scent cartridge and can put out a complimentary odor (you pick one scent–citrus, floral, leaves, and so on–when you purchase the car, but you can always buy more).

“The body is made to move, and if you are driving for five hours, you are not moving.” [Photo: courtesy Mercedes-Benz]
After a long day of test drives, my energy begins to flag, and Mücke suggests the Vitality setting. Designed to keep you awake and engaged, the system cues the upbeat music (it quickly scans and classifies songs from your library based on their beats per minute), cools the seats, and turns up the intensity on the massage. Meanwhile, the screens give away to a gradation of reds, “a power and passion color,” Mücke says. Though, as he concedes, “the meaning of the color red is culturally independent. It’s hard to find one color with the same meaning all over the world.”

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What if you don’t need an attitude adjustment at all? The system is prepared for that, too. When you’re already feeling good, it will encourage you to stay that way, via the Joy mode’s coffee house-style music “that’s not too fast or loud,” unobtrusive massage, and yellow palette evocative of sunshine to stimulate positive thinking. “As long as I’m in a comfortable situation,” Mücke says, “this is the right program to keep me in the mood.”

Right now, drivers need to be self-aware enough to know what kind of mood they’re in and which mental state they want to achieve. But the next challenge for Mücke is to create a system that automates even the function of knowing one’s own self, and instead can read your physiological and psychological measurements, much the way a wearable device tracks your steps and sleep cycles, to tell you what you need. If the system detects high blood pressure, for example, the car would queue up slow music and soothing lights, which would definitely relax you and definitely not make your blood pressure increase even more. “That would be the next big step,” he says. “We still need a few years to get to that point.”

Though Mercedes’s sedan represents a significant step forward in driverless technology–and future models may even be capable of reading your mind and body, as Mücke hypothesizes–cars have still not advanced to the point where you can catch up on sleep while the vehicle makes all of the driving decisions for you. Fortunately, the car also retains its analog comforts of generations yore. If you truly need to relax and the fragrance program won’t cut it, assign someone else the driver’s seat, climb into the back, and rest your head on the fluffy pillows sewn into the back seats. It’s the best spot for a nap, I can attest.

Jaclyn Trop is a Los Angeles-based freelance reporter covering cars.

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    08.01.17 work smart

What Happened When I Replied “Call Me” To Every Email I Got For A Week
After forcing himself to become more “phone-prone,” this CEO finds that empathy sometimes equals efficiency.
What Happened When I Replied “Call Me” To Every Email I Got For A Week
[Photo: Flickr user M. Accarino]

By Allen Gannett4 minute Read

The sound of descending chimes. Funky MIDI elevator music. Ughhhhhh–why is my phone ringing? Can’t they just text!?
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Like many people, the phone is a tool of last resort. I’d rather text or Slack or email or carrier pigeon. But I’ve noticed that many of the most successful, productive people I’ve met are what you might call “phone-prone.” If you send them a text, they call you instead of texting back. Email them? Get a call back.

Maybe this wasn’t a coincidence. I decided it was time to test my beliefs. But first, I decided to email two “phone-prone” people–Krista Smith, the West Coast editor of Vanity Fair, and Eric Kuhn, a former L.A. talent agent and a cofounder of Layer3 TV–for some advice. Within minutes I got an email back, “Call me.”

Related: A Short Guide To Phone Calls For People Who Grew Up Texting

“I think it’s about intonation, and that so much is confused in an email about what someone’s implying,” Smith pointed out, a factor that both agreed helps generate empathy. Kuhn told me, “It’s a much more real and civilized conversation on the phone, because you’re able to express emotion and hear the person’s voice and understand what’s happening.” Fair enough, but both Smith and Kuhn assured me that these more human interactions would also make things faster.

So at their encouraging, I devised a really simple plan: First, whenever someone emailed or texted me, I would suggest we jump on a call. Second, I kept a running “call list” of all the people I’d need to get in touch with over the course of my workweek. Whenever I had a free minute, I’d call the next person on it. Here’s how things went.
The Upsides

In that week, I had fulfilling conversations that wouldn’t have been possible through typing alone. I helped one of my customers solve a thorny issue and ended up reassuring him about some of his career worries. I’d never have heard the stress in his voice by emailing. In another case, I caught up with a CEO friend, and after answering her main question, we went back and forth on other things, including a thoughtful conversation about her business model.
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What I found was that particularly for more nuanced discussions, the phone saved me time because neither of us had to be overly verbose to give context. Simply hearing somebody’s tone, as Smith had pointed out, made it easier to understand where someone stood and react accordingly. Quicker access to empathy really did lead to more efficiency.

Related: Why It’s So Hard To Detect Emotions In Emails And Texts
The Downsides

There were obvious drawbacks, too, though. In addition to having to use actual emotions instead of emojis, I would often miss people when I tried to reach them. Phone-tag time can add up–but then again, you have to wait for the other person to respond in any form asynchronous communication. In fact, I found that I would often get calls back sooner than responses to emails. I think this is partly just because we’re all deluged in emails, but non-spam phone calls are increasingly rare. So the less people use the phone for ordinary work-related conversations, the more useful it may even become.

So while I placed more calls over the course of the week than actually led to live phone conversations, the dozen or so that I did have not only saved me time but also gave me a better sense of purpose and humanity. That doesn’t sound like a productivity booster, but in retrospect it was: I was able to help people–more often and more quickly–in a way I couldn’t through sterile emails. And in the cases of talking to customers, calling helped me build better relationships for my business.
What I’m Sticking With

My call list isn’t going anywhere. I’ve been able to turn walks to work and Ubers to meetings into productive time. This had a secondary benefit that my future self will be grateful for: I was no longer looking down at my phone, straining my neck.

In fact, I’ve now absorbed my call list into my to-do list. Alongside reminders to send out proposals and organize internal meetings, I have notes on whom to call, what the call is about, and how we got connected in the first place: “Call Jim about career advice, introduced via LinkedIn.” This helps me break out of just defaulting to email, and remember all the other modes of communication I might be forgetting.
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The phone may not be the newest collaboration tool out there, but I was surprised at how effective I found it after a week of forcing myself to become more “phone-prone.” Sure, I couldn’t express myself using virtual smiley faces that way, but I was able to be more authentic–which doesn’t just lead to better relationships, but can help you tap into them more productively, too.

Allen Gannett is the CEO of TrackMaven, a content and social marketing analytics company. He is based in Washington, DC, and can be followed on Twitter at @Allen or on LinkedIn.

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    08.05.17 career evolution

This Three-Word Phrase Is Subtly Undermining Your Authority
Sounding confident, transparent, and truthful doesn’t require any prefaces.
This Three-Word Phrase Is Subtly Undermining Your Authority
[Photo: Alfred Gescheidt/Getty Images]

By Judith Humphrey4 minute Read

You don’t need to be told why it matters to be transparent and honest at work–that much is a given. So is the overall usefulness of expressing yourself clearly, confidently, and with as few filler words as possible. But in the effort to do that, many of us fall back on common expressions that might sound totally fine in social situations but can do some quiet damage in the workplace. One of them is “I’m sorry.” Another is “to be honest.”
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The latter turn of phrase–and versions of it, like “honestly,” “frankly,” “if I can be honest with you,” or “let me be frank”–is easy to resort to when you want to cut through the crap, come clean, or offer your unvarnished opinion. But these expressions also tend to attach themselves to–and subtly encourage–certain messages that are either better left unsaid or ought to be rephrased. Here are times when “to be honest” can make you sound less authoritative around the office.

Related: Six Words And Phrases That Make Everyone Hate Working With You
It Signals You’re About To Spill The Beans

We often use the expression “to be honest” as a tip-off that we’re sharing confidential information. Suppose your boss is speaking to a team member and says, “To be honest, we’re going to have to let Jim go next quarter.” The first three words alert the listener to the fact that sensitive intel is on its way.

Likewise, a recruiter might tell a candidate, “To be honest, there are 10 other applicants the client is considering.” Or the head of a department might say, “To be honest with you, management has started discussing the possibility of layoffs.”

There are times when you and your boss or colleagues really do need to talk about something confidentially together. But those conversations shouldn’t need to be prefaced this way. If you really want someone to keep a discussion under wraps, come right out and say so: “I’d prefer you keep this to yourself because  . . .”–and always give a reason. This way the other person understands why you’re asking them to keep quiet about the subject and consciously choose whether to agree to that.

But prefacing something you’re about to say with “to be honest” sweeps away any prospect of mutually agreeing to discuss sensitive information–because watch out, here it comes! Leaders, effective managers, and people you can actually trust around the office are more discreet than this. They aren’t gossips. They are truthful as a matter of habit, not just for certain behind-the-scenes moments when they unilaterally choose to divulge secretive intel. That aboveboard mentality is what gives them their authority, after all.
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Related: Four Times You Shouldn’t Apologize (Including When It’s Your Fault
It Precedes Criticism

Another reason not to use “to be honest” is that it’s frequently a tip-off that you’re about to attack someone. The same way you might unthinkingly use the expression to make illicit information licit, there’s a risk you’ll resort to it in order to clear the way for criticism you probably shouldn’t share. You’ve likely experienced this. When someone says “to be honest,” they often lower their voice, lean in closer, and tell it like it is.

A colleague might remark, “To be honest, Jessica kind of sucks at her job and we usually have to pick up the pieces for her.” Or a project team member may say, “Honestly, we have enough people on the project team right now–we really don’t need another person.” Or a boss might state, “Can I be frank? Your presentation to the client didn’t really work. That’s why we didn’t get the business.”

Sometimes negative feedback is useful and necessary, but this is one of the worst ways to deliver it; you first need to prepare somebody to receive constructive criticism. This way you can have a productive conversation about how you want them to improve. But beginning with “to be honest” is like a slap in the face, and what follows is likely to feel abrupt and hurtful rather than constructive.
It Can Undercut What You’ve Already Said

A third (and possibly the main) reason to avoid this expression is because it usually just diminishes the importance of whatever you’ve said already. It’s an instant cheapener.

You may toss in “to be honest” to buy time while you’re thinking, just like any other filler word or expression like, “um” or “you know.” Or maybe you believe it adds sincerity or warmth to your conversation. But there’s an unmistakable undertow to it: as soon as you hear somebody say, “to be honest,” your mind flashes back to what was just said. You sit up, take notice, and half-consciously wonder whether their preceding statements were less than honest–should you discount or ignore them?
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Maybe your manager is critiquing a slide deck you’ve put together. “I like what you’ve done to improve your presentation,” she says. “You’ve reduced the number of slides and sharpened the messaging. But to be honest, you need to bring more focus to your central point.” Right away, her “to be honest” gives more weight to the criticism that follows and reduces the power of the compliments that precede it. It saps her own words of their authority!

If she’d just left that phrase out, her comments would be positive on balance, and you’d already be thinking about how to improve that central point–not wondering whether your boss meant what she said, or even whether you can take her at her word next time.
About the author

Judith Humphrey is founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Humphrey Group, a premier leadership communications firm headquartered in Toronto. She is a communications expert whose business teaches global clients how to communicate as confident, compelling leaders.

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    08.07.17 future of philanthropy

Specialized Has A Plan To Use Bicycling To Help Manage ADHD In Schools
Riding for Focus is based on the bike company’s founder’s experiences using biking to help clear his mind, an experience the company is now bringing to schools around the country.
Specialized Has A Plan To Use Bicycling To Help Manage ADHD In Schools
“While we started looking at the benefits for kids with ADHD academically, physically, and wellness-wise, it turns out that this actually benefits all kids.”[Photo: Goodby Silverstein & Partners and the Specialized Foundation]

By Ben Paynter4 minute Read

Mike Sinyard found a way to conquer his ADHD. Then he built a multi-million dollar company around it. As the legend goes, Sinyard, the founder and chairman of Specialized Bicycle Components, used to have trouble concentrating and focusing on tasks but found that bicycling regularly seemed to somehow diffuse those symptoms. Over the last three and a half decades his improved attention and clarity—and of course his passion for the sport—have propelled Specialized toward an estimated $500 million in annual sales.
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To continue growing, Specialized needs to draw more young riders into that sport. But within the company, there’s been worry about what else happens if they don’t. Today, many kids with ADHD are being treated pharmacologically without much thought to whether physical activity might be another outlet: Nearly 11% of school-aged children are now diagnosed with ADHD, a 41% increase over the last decade. Since 2007, there’s been a 26% jump the prescription rate for treatment.

So in 2015, Specialized launched the Specialized Foundation, a nonprofit that donates bikes, helmets, and service gear to middle schools for use in P.E. classes through a program called Riding For Focus. In July, that foundation announced a major expansion: It’s moving into 20 new schools this fall to reach a total of 36 schools in more than a dozen states, including California, Texas, Louisiana, and New York.

As the program’s name suggests, the goal is to give Sinyard’s theory—that pedaling might have some mental payoff—a real road test. Shortly after launching, the foundation partnered with Central Michigan University to develop a protocol that schools are using to track the scholastic impact on their kids. Last year, it made $400,000 in contributions to schools and medical research.

While the foundation hasn’t published formal studies, Ted Theocheung, the foundation’s CEO, says that early results show that bicycling may improve the intellectual performance of all students, not just those with ADHD. At current Riding For Focus schools, students who rode three days a week for 20 minutes in a targeted heart-rate zone for six weeks straight are seeing improvement on standardized math and English tests taken after that exercise period, compared to others doing traditional P.E. activities like running, or calisthenics. “While we started looking at the benefits for kids with ADHD academically, physically, and wellness-wise, it turns out that this actually benefits all kids, although it is most noticeable in kids with ADHD,” says Theocheung,

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Company execs likely weren’t surprised. The work that eventually begot the foundation started years ago with similar promise. In 2012, Specialized partnered with RTSG Neuroscience Consultants, a research firm, to track what would happen to the mental acuity of about 50 kids at two middle schools in Natick, Massachusetts if given the chance to bike outside for 30 minutes every day before school for roughly one month.

According to a subsequent white paper, after one ride, those with ADHD performed performing more accurately than their non-participating peers on a so-called “executive function” tests of working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control. (Again, it’s light on statistics.) After the program, nearly all participants reported feeling more positive, emotionally centered, and did better on a long term memory test compared to their non-cycling cohorts.

The response time for answering questions slowed down, which may be another good thing: Researchers posited that it meant there was more deliberation, instead of impulsivity. And almost everyone lost weight: Kids shrunk about a half-inch around the waistline.

Riding For Focus complies with National Association and Physical Education standards so that any school can plug into their core curriculum. Topics covered include basic bike maintenance and inspection, riding skills and signaling training, and rules for group and road riding so those who venture off campus will stay safe.

“If you think of it like an engine analogy, the more cylinders firing or the more your brain is warmed up, and the more information the brain is able to retain.” [Photo: courtesy Specialized]
The next step is to figure out what’s really happening inside participants’ heads. To do that, Specialized has formed a partnership with Stanford’s Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, which is using a portable brain imaging process called functional near-infrared spectrometry (fNIRS)—basically, it involves flashing probes strapped to a lightweight cap—to allow researchers to more closely monitor mental functions during riding, something CT and fMRI machines aren’t good at. (Those require patients to lie down and stay motionless instead.) The goal is to map how different riding locales, intensities, and durations affect the activity in regions associated with strong memory, sustained attention, and focus-driven thinking, and eventually compare that to other sports.

To be fair, plenty of research has shown that exercising before test taking correlates with academic performance, and that exercising outside may boost scores even more. Yet the foundation has an early theory about why riding could work best: It requires both balance and constantly looking for potential hazards that might knock you off the bike as you move forward at a faster than usual rate of speed. “If you think of it like an engine analogy, the more cylinders firing or the more your brain is warmed up, and the more information the brain is able to retain,” says Theocheung.
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Specialized wants to reach 200 schools by 2020. To do so, it’s soliciting for matching grants from community groups—the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation, for instance, just backed two Bay Area schools—and will partner with other retailers if necessary to make up any product shortfalls. It generally gives about 30 bikes per school, but when one school in Virginia recently needed 50 for kids, the foundation enlisted competitor Giant bicycles to cover the difference.

The question of whether those riders may stick to it already seems answerable. “There’s no kid sitting there saying. ‘I want to do 10 more minutes of jumping jacks.’ They do want to ride longer,” adds Theocheung. “So I think that’s going to be the magical piece in our equation.”
About the author

Ben Paynter is a senior writer at Fast Company covering social impact, the future of philanthropy, and innovative food companies. His work has appeared in Wired, Bloomberg Businessweek, and the New York Times, among other places.

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    08.08.17

Why Do Some Children Learn To Lie Faster Than Others?
Lessons from observing a crucial developmental milestone.
Why Do Some Children Learn To Lie Faster Than Others?
[Photo: Flickr user Vito Fun]

By Gail Heyman4 minute Read

For the liar, telling a lie has obvious costs. Keeping track of the lies one tells and trying to maintain the plausibility of a fictional narrative as real-world events intrude is mentally taxing. The fear of getting caught is a constant source of anxiety, and when it happens, the damage to one’s reputation can be lasting. For the people who are lied to the costs of lying are also clear: Lies undermine relationships, organizations, and institutions.
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However, the ability to lie and engage in other forms of deception is also a source of great social power, as it allows people to shape interactions in ways that serve their interests: They can evade responsibility for their misdeeds, take credit for accomplishments that are not really theirs, and rally friends and allies to the cause. As such, it’s an important step in a child’s development and there are cognitive building blocks that must be in place in order to successfully lie.

One way research psychologists have sought to understand the reasoning behind the choice to lie versus tell the truth is to go back to when we first learn this skill in childhood. In some studies, researchers ask children to play a game in which they can obtain a material reward by lying. In other studies children are faced with social situations in which the more polite course of action involves lying instead of telling the truth. For example, an experimenter will offer an undesirable gift such as a bar of soap and ask the child whether he or she likes it. Yet another method is to ask parents to keep a written record of the lies that their children tell.

In our recent study, my colleagues and I sought to understand children’s thinking processes when they were first figuring out how to deceive other people, which for most children is around age three and a half. We were interested in the possibility that certain types of social experiences might speed up this developmental timeline.
Watching Children Discover How To Deceive

We invited young children to play a simple game they could win only by deceiving their opponent: Children who told the truth won treats for the experimenter and those who lied won treats for themselves.

In this game, the child hides a treat in one of two cups while an experimenter covers her eyes. The experimenter then opens her eyes and asks the child where the treat is hidden, and the child responds by indicating one of the two cups. If the child indicates the correct cup, the experimenter wins the treat, and if the child indicates the incorrect one, the child wins the treat.

Children played 10 rounds of this game each day for 10 consecutive days. This method of closely observing children over a short period of time allows for fine-grained tracking of behavioral changes, so researchers can observe the process of development as it unfolds.
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We tested children around the time of their third birthday, which is before children typically know how to deceive. We found that, as expected, when children first started playing the game most of them made no effort to deceive, and lost to the experimenter every time. However, within the next few sessions most children discovered how to deceive in order to win the game–and after their initial discovery they used deception consistently.
Just One Developmental Milestone

Not all children figured out how to deceive at the same rate. At one extreme, some figured it out on the first day; at the other extreme, some were consistently losing the game even at the end of the 10 days.

We discovered that the rate at which individual children learned to deceive was related to certain cognitive skills. One of these skills—what psychologists call theory of mind—is the ability to understand that others don’t necessarily know what you know. This skill is needed because when children lie they intentionally communicate information that differs from what they themselves believe. Another one of these skills, cognitive control, allows people to stop themselves from blurting out the truth when they try to lie. The children who figured out how to deceive the most quickly had the highest levels of both of these skills.

Our findings suggest that competitive games can help children gain the insight that deception can be used as a strategy for personal gain—once they have the underlying cognitive skills to figure this out.

It’s important to keep in mind that the initial discovery of deception is not an endpoint. Rather, it’s the first step in a long developmental trajectory. After this discovery, children typically learn when to deceive, but in doing so they must sort through a confusing array of messages about the morality of deception. They usually also learn more about how to deceive. Young children often inadvertently give away the truth when they try to dupe others, and they must learn to control their words, facial expressions, and body language to be convincing.

As they develop, children often learn how to employ more nuanced forms of manipulation, such as using flattery as a means to curry favor, steering conversations away from uncomfortable topics, and presenting information selectively to create a desired impression. By mastering these skills, they gain the power to help shape social narratives in ways that can have far-reaching consequences for themselves and for others.
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Gail Heyman is professor of Psychology, University of California, San Diego. This essay originally appeared at The Conversation.



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    08.11.17 world changing ideas

This Simple Box Serves Up Running Water And Clean Electricity In Remote Locations
Off Grid Box can be a lifeline in rural communities, but its current business model makes it more a novelty than a global solution. Now it’s time to a way to get the device to scale.
This Simple Box Serves Up Running Water And Clean Electricity In Remote Locations
“We’re looking for the next system to scale.” [Photo: Off Grid Box]

By Ben Schiller2 minute Read

Off Grid Box, an Italian startup, was founded to bring clean water and renewable energy to the millions of the people in the world who still live without. The box itself is a simple container, measuring six by six by six feet. With solar panels on top and water treatment inside, it can help remote communities with both off-grid energy and easily accessible filtered water. Founder and CEO Emiliano Cecchini has sold a few of the units, but he worries he’s not yet found the formula to take his invention to scale.
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After three years on the market, Off Grid Box is a trusted enough product that 28 individuals and organizations have bought the container at $15,000 and up. Half the units went to nonprofits in Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Colombia, and elsewhere; another half to “cool guys that had a camper in the middle of nowhere, who want to be green, cool, resilient,” says Cecchini. One washed away to the Pacific Ocean: a unit that sat on the shore of Bantayan Island, in the Philippines, until it was caught by a 2014 typhoon.

“It’s not easy to find the right financing strategy, mentors, and accelerator programs.” [Photo: Off Grid Box]
But Cecchini, who is Italian, doesn’t feel the startup is yet at a point where it can ramp up sales and production, and get itself on stable financial footing. Selling one unit at a time isn’t particularly profitable (including after-sales) and it doesn’t get enough Off Grid Boxes out there in the world. “We’re looking for the next system to scale,” he says. “The idea came three years ago and, yeah, we’re kind of struggling to make it bigger. Back in Italy, it’s not easy to find the right financing strategy, mentors, and accelerator programs.”

Off Grid Box was recently selected for the 2017 cohort of the Mass Challenge accelerator program, in Boston, where Cecchini will hone a new business model. Instead of selling units to cool guys and NGOs, it now plans to install them where they are needed and then charge end-customers for access. For a few cents a day, people will able access clean water and clean power at a station continually attended by local people. “The new model is pay-as-you-go micro-payments, local contractors, and local empowerment,” Cecchini says.

The new business model is getting a thorough test in Rwanda, where the startup plans to install units in 18 villages. The government has commissioned 14 contractors to work on rural electrification, and Off Grid Box is partnered with three of them so far, Cecchini says. By 2020, it hopes to be serving 420,000 end-customers.

“The new model is pay-as-you-go micro-payments, local contractors, and local empowerment.” [Image: Off Grid Box]
Inside the container is a five-stage micro-filtration tank that takes in dirty water and produces an odorless, transparent, bacteria-free drinkable water, Cecchini says. A family of four pays 12 U.S. cents (100 Rwandan Francs) to fill up with enough water for the day. At the same time, each unit has solar panels sufficient to allow 300 families battery packs subsidized by the startup. These hold enough power to run three LED lights for four hours and to charge two mobile phones.

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While in the U.S., Cecchini is signing up impact investors and donors, who can monitor their projects remotely and online. Each installation costs about $15,000–which comes out of a joint financing pool. He thinks the units can generate 10% profitability and that there will be further revenue opportunities to grow the business in the future. Ideally, the boxes will become community hubs, with Wi-Fi and associated commercial activity. “Once we add connectivity and we have people attending all day, we have a strong financial business model. The Wi-Fi opens up services that could be backed by venture capital.”
About the author

Ben Schiller is a New York staff writer for Fast Company. Previously, he edited a European management magazine and was a reporter in San Francisco, Prague, and Brussels.

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