Selected writing on technology, organisations, and the space between them.
Employee satisfaction surveys tell you how people feel about ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini. Not whether they're changing how your workforce thinks. Six dimensions that capture what AI is actually doing to your people.
Read the full post at beòIn 2020, my research tested whether intense social media use affects attention. The Stroop task found nothing. But a measurement validity finding changed everything.
Read the full post at beòSelf-reported social media frequency matched actual iPhone data. But a widely-used smartphone scale didn't. The measurement validity findings behind beò's approach.
Read the full post at beòMany years ago I had the fortunate experience of working with a hyper-productive and wonderfully lovely team of about 100 people. The first thing that happened was the leaders of the group asked the people to choose their working hours.
Immediately this group of people had a puzzle to solve. The puzzle had one specific outcome: what times will we be working from tomorrow onwards? There were constraints. Every two weeks everyone had to share their work and plan together between 9am and 5pm. Some wanted flexible hours. Most wanted to work with other people. As the conversations flowed people started discussing their personal needs. Long commutes, picking up kids, rush hour traffic, prayer needs, health problems.
As humanity and empathy emerged, deep thought and dialogue became infectious. They decided they'd rather work together all the time if they could. The most popular vote was 10am until 6pm. Management accepted. This acceptance initiated the building of trust. It paid off in later iterations when the teams would help each other get stories over the line. It gave everyone permission to ask for what they needed to do the job.
So I ask you: ditch the theories for a moment, stop looking for methods, and know you cannot force people to change. Try a single, simple act of leadership instead.
Some volunteers arrived in a small village in Africa. Their aim? To tackle the childhood malnutrition that besieged the area. Others had been before them. People who lectured, people who taught, people who tried their best to get the villagers to do things their way. But the people resisted and no-one knew why.
A smart young volunteer observed that a few of the local babies seemed well fed. She proceeded to learn the language and communicate with the families. As trust grew, she discovered they would take a local insect and grind it into the milk. The village knew this form of protein was edible, yet deemed it beneath them.
With the volunteer's help, the mothers of the well-fed children stood up and told their neighbours what they had done. Some courageous first followers tried in secret. Soon the village had much less problems with malnutrition.
I love this story because it shows how simply taking time to see, and being open to the unthinkable, can make the difference. Even in our world, it is just better to do things with the people involved. Not to them. Be open. Be courageous.