Saturday Odd Bits Roundup: Mind Food For A Downturn
by Miki Saxon
I’ll bet you don’t know as much as you think about what’s really happening when someone screws up. This article from the archives of The New Yorker about implicit and explicit learning and the difference between choking and panic. It’s the kind of information that isn’t used constantly, but will help you understand and solve the really sticky people problems that flare up when someone fails.
“Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct.”
Surprise! It’s the shaping up to be a very tough year; one in which you have the choice between hunkering down, laying off, wimping out and whining about it or grabbing opportunity, taking calculated risks and going for the brass ring. Newspapers are facing a double whammy. They were already under siege before the crash, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a choice—and if they do we all do.
“In truth, all our staff losses are in part an inability of management to identify and pursue new product opportunities, and in part an internal aversion to change.”
Finally, an interview with Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search products and user experience at Google, about innovation, downturns and healthy internal competition.
“The other groups at Google aren’t willing to accept that the only people who get to have fun and be innovative are the product managers and the engineers. It’s innovation envy. So what happens is, the Human Relations department wants to be innovative. They want to build HR policies like no one’s ever had before. Some of these people want to build facilities like no one’s ever had before. The finance team wants to bring the company public in a way that no one ever has before.”
I hope this information helps you lose the fear, sets your eyes on that brass ring, and sparks your own innovative ideas.
The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll miss, but you’ll still be miles ahead of the folks hiding down in their bunker.
Image credit: flickr
