EX Leadership Newsletter - January 2023
Systems Thinking - Mattering - Abolish Meetings! - Attrition - Generations & Skills - Change Mastery
Welcome to my January newsletter (a short collection of the most interesting EX articles I’ve come across over the last months). As always, let me know what you make of them:
Actually, there’s a bit of a theme to this edition. That’s because the first two articles are both about systems thinking (something I’m very interested in):
In this HBR article Ludmila Praslova identifies the problem of trying to fix issues like burnout or bullying by focusing on individual behaviours and not the context. I like the discussion of super-biases and mental shortcuts.
Alec Levenson has written a two-part series on systems diagnosis tools and techniques. I like his coaching guidelines such as: “Focus on perennial problems”; “Check for unintended consequences”; and “Look for root causes."
Next up, I just really like this article by Zach Mercurio on “mattering”. His definition is “the belief that we’re significant to the world around us.” Zach explains why it’s important for your experience at work and how you can foster it. Here’s the link.
Shopify made a big noise when it announced it was going meeting-less. I really don’t like meetings (this will surprise no-one!) so I was interested to learn what’s involved. The truth is more interesting and complex than the headline suggests. Click here for a great write up by Becky Kane.
I liked this article by Ben Zweig on employee attrition risk at 3- and 12-months’ service. Getting to your first anniversary really matters. I’m working with several companies at the moment to understand why that doesn’t happen often enough.
My LI feed is full of long lists of new year trends and priorities. So I appreciated the simplicity of this one by Lynda Gratton as she identifies only two: 1) Check your assumptions about different generations in the workplace so you can bring people together; and 2) Improve your understanding of how human skills and new technologies intersect.
The final article is a WTW one, summarising our new research into change leadership in high-performance companies. It answers the question: “What sets these Change Masters apart when it comes to employee experience?” The link asks you to complete a form; if that’s too much faff, let me know and I will email you the report. :-)
I will assume you’re grateful that I haven’t mentioned Chat GPT even once. (Of course, this edition could have been written by a bot; how would you tell?)
Skynet and I hope all the articles are useful. Let me know!
Nick
Systems thinking > individual solutions. Couldn't agree more. Too many leaders are quick to blame "lazy" employees instead of taking a hard look at the work environments that have lead to mass disengagement in their workforce.
Thanks for the Async Newsletter shoutout! :)