#71: On feedback, asking good questions, and what happens in the moments before impact.
It's a special Sunday edition of The World's Best Newsletter and I imagine you are like this:
Obviously.
In this edition #71:
1. How to ask great questions
2. Surely, it must be an algorithm?
3. What it's like before the moment of impact
4. Book recommendation: Make Trouble
5. There is no “technology industry”
6. Racial profiling enters our national consciousness
7. Quote of the week: Feedback
1. How to ask great questions
This HBR article from Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John was shared by my ride-or-die colleague, the Budapest-bound Kristin Farwell.
Litigators, journalists, and doctors are taught to ask questions as an essential part of their training, but few executives think of questioning as a skill that can be honed. Some hold back because they're egocentric, apathetic, overconfident, or nervous. But, the power of good questioning can unlock learning + interpersonal bonding. Some tips:
Ask more questions - in general - and favor the power of follow-up questions
Open-ended questions reveal more, but don't work in a tense negotiation, or w/ someone who is trying to dodge or lie
Ask tough questions first during tense encounters, open with less sensitive questions to build relationships
I found this fascinating as well:
...people are less likely to lie if questioners make pessimistic assumptions (“This business will need some new equipment soon, correct?”) rather than optimistic ones (“The equipment is in good working order, right?”).
Read the full piece, it's helpful - and a great suggestion. Thanks Kristin.
2. Surely, it must be an algorithm?
I found a recent exchange fascinating on LinkedIn. A male colleague I only know through social media asked the question:
Is it just me, is it a rising number women's voices on this platform, is it an algorithm somewhere?
He'd tagged a number of prominent female voices (including Beth Comstock, Brene Brown, etc). I was tagged as well, which initially flattered me, but then I saw that caveat question at the end of his post.
Is it an algorithm somewhere?
I was struck by the default assumption that a rise in women's voices could only be attributed to someone behind the scenes at LinkedIn tweaking an algorithm. A conscious change in the platform of the medium he was using to elevate female voices. A trick. A gimmick.
"Witchcraft" as my friend rightfully mused.
I didn't care at first. Then, "wait... what?"
Not furious at him, rather, but at the blindspot.
Taking a deep breath, I replied:
Not an algorithm - you just happen to follow amazing women in business. There's quite a few of us in the real world :)
I sent him a note too thanking him for the inclusion. There's no intention here to call out the poster individually. To be honest, my ego was the first part of me to be ignited thanks to the inclusion next to luminaries like Beth, Brene, and many others.
My intention instead is for us to use this as a kind of reminder, at a macro level, of the dynamics at play affecting the women's movement.
A reminder that "default" for many is a male voice. That visibility of women matters because it forces others to redefine their deep-seated definition of what "normal" is.
When anyone sees an influx of female voices, the reaction we want is "just another day in the world of business."
Not "what witchcraft is this!?"
3. What it's like before the moment of impact
Ronan Farrow (the celebrated journalist whose articles in The New Yorker helped to uncover the Weinstein scandal) recently gave a commencement address to Loyola Marymount University’s Class of 2018.
In it, he talks about "what it’s like trying to do work you believe in *before* the moment of impact."
...I wish I could tell you I was confident. That I was sure of myself. That I didn’t care, or I said 'to hell with it...'
But the real version of this was that I was heartbroken, and I was scared, and I had no idea if I was doing the right thing...
...in the moment, you don’t know how important a story is going to be. In the moment, you don’t know if you’re fighting because you’re right, or if you’re fighting because your ego, and your desire to win, and your notion of yourself as the hero in your own story are clouding your judgment.
You can have a feeling. You can have an instinct. You can have a gut reaction: a little inner voice that tells you what to do. But you can’t be sure....
Right now, we are surrounded by a culture that tells us to take the easy way out. That tries to tip the scales in favor of getting paid rather than protesting. That tells us to kill the story instead of poking the bear...… You will face a moment in your career where you have absolutely no idea what to do. Where it will be totally unclear to you what the right thing is for you, for your family, for your community.
And I hope that in that moment you’ll be generous with yourself, but trust that inner voice. Because more than ever we need people to be guided by their own senses of principle — and not the whims of a culture that prizes ambition, and sensationalism, and celebrity, and vulgarity, and doing whatever it takes to win."
Thanks to my friend Shawna for the recommendation that I read the full article.
4. Book recommendation: Make Trouble
Make Trouble "from Cecile Richards—president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund for more than a decade, daughter of the late Governor Ann Richards, featured speaker at the Women’s March on Washington, and a “heroine of the resistance” (Vogue)—comes a story about learning to lead and make change, based on a lifetime of fighting for women’s rights and social justice."
That's the official "about" shpiel, but personally, I walked away inspired, energized, and a little smarter about how to galvanize others to action. Great for active citizens, great for marketers.
5. There is no “technology industry”
Anil Dash makes a compelling argument against one-size-fits-all attitudes towards "the tech industry" (from both regulatory, media, and consumer POV) in this post from Aug 2016
He says:
"There’s no way to put all these different kinds of products and services into any one coherent bucket now that they encompass the entire world of business."
Re Uber:
It's easiest to understand Uber as a machine for converting publicly-planned metropolitan transportation networks into privately-controlled automated dispatch systems; the fact that an app is used to achieve that transition is almost incidental to the overarching goal of owning a market. And what does a company like Uber have in common with a social platform like Pinterest, except that both employ some coders who know how to make iPhone apps? Precious little.
His solution is how we talk to each other, to lawmakers, and to the media:
"more precise language about the companies that are shaping our society. Rather than accepting that a company like Facebook, which knows more about our personal lives than any entity that’s ever existed, is simply “tech”, we should talk about it as an information broker, as an agent of government surveillance, as a media publisher, as a producer of unmanned drones, or in any other specific description that will assign appropriate accountability and context to their actions."
Read more.
6. Racial profiling enters our national consciousness
Look at this (absurd) trend, illustrated below:
(And the list doesn't even include the Lake Merrit BBQ incident.)
From this NYT article, these interactions:
... happen while black people are going about their everyday lives, only to be interrupted by someone calling the police for the thinnest of suspicions.
In the past month, more than a handful of such interactions have attracted widespread attention on social media — and, in turn, in national outlets like The Times, CNN and The Washington Post.
Said Paul Butler, a Georgetown University law professor,
“It’s humiliating and aggravating and upsetting, but the idea that it’s national news is unexpected.”
The ability to record these interactions on our smartphones makes these news stories more available, and the prevalence of social media means they can quickly go viral. Because of this, something new enters our national consciousness in a way it never has in the past.
It's fascinating - and it's critical to shining light on an absolutely ridiculous problem for the first time.
7. Quote of the week: Feedback
"Feedback is like a gift. You thank the giver, then take it home, and depending on if you like the gift or not, you store in the closet or you display it on the coffee table."
The hilarious Britta Schellenberg, VP Corporate Marketing of Brightcove, in this post.
Have a great week ahead
Katie
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