These three Ted Talks are sure to cover any struggles you may be having throughout the week. All talks can just as easily apply to your workplace as they can to your personal life. Packed full of real-life examples and science-backed experiments, these talks will help you to take control of your life and how you interact with others. I included the link below so feel free to pull up the Ted Talks and follow along with my notes!
To help the way you think of the world and your workplace...
The Happy Secret To Better Work
https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en
This Ted Talk breaks down the constructs society has created for people in order for them to feel successful and happy. Analyzing human-made constructs and breaking them down to learn your motivations and purpose, can help you define for yourself what makes you happy and successful. This Ted Talk is the perfect watch for some Monday motivation to frame your week.
Medical students' syndrome (also known as second-year syndrome or intern's syndrome) is a condition frequently reported in medical students, who perceive themselves to be experiencing the symptoms of a disease that they are studying. The condition is associated with the fear of contracting the disease in question.
How to change the lens you see the world through
Exercise
Meditation
Random acts of kindness: This may mean making the effort to send one positive email thanking those who have helped you or noticing something that is being done well.
“Reverse your formula of happiness and success”
If you’re the boss and can’t seem to come up with the right ways to motivate your employees...
The Puzzle of Motivation
The Candle Experiment: The key is to overcome what’s called functional fixedness. You see the box and only see it as something to hold the tacks. Yet, it can also have this other function as a platform for the candle.
Power of Incentives: If you want people to perform better, you reward them, right? (bonus, commission, etc..) False. These contingent motivators work in some circumstances but for a lot of tasks, they don't work or do harm.
“There’s a mismatch between what science knows and what business does”
Extrinsic rewards no longer work and often do harm.
Right-brained, creative conceptual tasks: Those problems don't have a clear set of rules and one solution. The solution is non-obvious. Everyone is dealing with their own version of the candle problem.
“As long as the task involved only mechanical skill, bonuses worked as they would be expected; the higher the pay, the better the performance. But once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward led to poorer performance.”
New Approach for businesses is based on intrinsic motivation. This approach has three elements. These three elements are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Management is not natural, someone invented it. If you want engagement, self-direction works better.
Paying people adequately and fairly and giving them autonomy
FedEx Days: You have to deliver something overnight
“Go for the next 24 hours and work on anything you want” Then present to the team the next day.
Google’s 20% time working on anything you want
Autonomy over tasks, team, and time.
Half the new products at Google are invented during this 20% time
ROWE: people don't have schedules. They show up when they want. They just have to get their work done. How, when, where you do it is optional. What happens? Almost across the board productivity goes up, worker engagement goes up, worker satisfaction goes up, turnover goes down.
For the employee who doesn't feel heard...
How to speak up for yourself
https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_galinsky_how_to_speak_up_for_yourself
Can I correct my boss when they make a mistake? Can I challenge my co-worker when they step on my toes? Can I challenge a friend when they make an insensitive joke? Can I share my insecurities?
Each of us has a range of acceptable behavior.
Staying within your range when you are rewarded and when you step outside that range, you get punished. This punishment can come in many forms such as getting dismissed, demeaned or even ostracized.
Your power and how it affects your range
When you have power, you have a lot of leeway on how to behave/ your range is large. When you lack power, you have no range. When range narrows you find yourself in The Low Power Double Bind.
The Low Power Double Bind: If we don’t speak up we go unnoticed. If we do speak up, we get rejected. Essentially, you lack power.
How do you expand your range?
1. You seem powerful in your own eyes (expand your own range)
2. You seem powerful in the eyes of others (they grant you wider range)
Tools that will lower your risk of speaking up:
1. Advocate for others or The “Mama Bear Effect”: discovering your own voice through speaking up for others
2. Perspective Taking: simply looking at the world through the eyes of another person. This allows you to be ambitious and assertive, but still likable.
3. Signal Flexibility: when you give people a choice among options, it lowers their defenses and they are more likely to accept your offer.
Leave a comment below of your thoughts on the Ted Talks and how it helped you. Also, feel free to share this blog with your friends or coworkers with the same internal struggles as you. We would love to hear from you your suggestions on other Ted Talks to watch! Comment below!
