Ways of Ignorance, Fun, and Change
Hi Friends-
A few things that caught and held my attention this week:
The Way of Ignorance. There are countless approaches to management and team effectiveness consulting. Ignorance may be one the best. Edgar Schein dedicates a full principle to “accessing ignorance” in his Process Consultation Revisited. As did one of my NYU Organizational Behavior mentors, who based his approach on ethnographic methods. Ultimately, if you want to be of any help, you have to listen and observe first. Then, ask honest questions.
Further Adventures in SEO. Michael Carychao turned me to Frase.io. It's a wild piece of software that dissects content based on its SEO ranking and compares it to the top 20 or pages with similar keywords. Between Frase and this article, it's painfully clear, I've been doing everything wrong. Ignorance appears less helpful here.
Team Effectiveness? Group dynamics? Team Building!! Speaking of SEO, most of the group consulting work I do doesn't seem to have strong SEO vibes. Outside of academics, few people are searching for "group dynamics." But countless teams are looking for team building. Sadly, many team-building efforts are woefully misguided. Teams rarely bond and become more effective because of the "off-site" that had an escape room followed by a happy hour. Fun is essential and valuable, but it's no magic bullet for addressing team challenges.
Games and Team Dynamics. Speaking of fun, Super Mario 3D World delivers. Teamwork is in low demand, but team joy is off the charts. In contrast, Overcooked demands a high level of attention, coordination, and communication right out of the gates. That said, Super Mario 3D World's game feel is in a league of its own.
Old and new "change-the-world" efforts. I'm doing a small project with the Fetzer Institute, which has an inspiring "theory of change." Meanwhile, my fiancée is a lead product designer at Amplitude, which has a radically different approach. I love considering how these approaches could be mutually supportive.
Thanks for reading!
If you know someone who might find these briefs interesting, please forward along. It's a surprisingly big help.
I also post shorter content on IG and longer content on my website.
Warmly,
Jacob