Most Popular Editorials: How did the patriarchy start -- and will evolution get rid of it?

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How did the patriarchy start -- and will evolution get rid of it? Not all human societies throughout history have been patriarchal. Continued here

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How Your Phone Can Help You Set Better Habits We often blame tech for our worst habits, like distraction or bad spelling. But our phones, computers and gadgets can just as easily help us build good habits — if we understand how habits work and the right technology to use. It can even help us break bad habits if we use our devices to create new ones to replace those we want to eliminate. As Charles Duhigg points out in The Power of Habit, a habit “loop” is made up of three pieces: the cue or trigger (whatever prompts you to engage in your habit), the routine (the habit itself), and the reward (the payoff that rewards and reinforces your habit.) You can use your devices — along with the apps they offer — to help you with each of these components. Continued here

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Autofocus: The Productivity System That Treats Your To-Do List Like a River In one of the emails Oliver Burkeman, author of Time Management for Mortals, sent out to his subscribers, he talked about how we typically treat our to-do lists like buckets that we need to empty every day.  Continued here

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'It feels like fresh air to my ears': can brown noise really help you concentrate? There's a new buzz on TikTok - well, not a buzz exactly. It's more of a hum, maybe waves crashing, a purring fan or steady, heavy rain. To me, it sounds like an empty aeroplane, cruising peacefully at altitude. It's brown noise, a close cousin of the better-known white noise, and TikTok users, particularly the platform's ADHD community, are all over it: there are 85.3m views for the #brownnoise hashtag. Continued here

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Alone at the Edge of the World - The Atavist Magazine Susie Goodall wanted to circumnavigate the globe in her sailboat without stopping. She didn’t bargain for what everyone else wanted. Continued here

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Why Therapy Is Broken An hour a week in a shrink’s office is increasingly treated as a prerequisite for a healthy, happy life. There, we imagine, friends learn new coping skills and enemies realize the errors of their ways. Everyone is “healed.” Therapy has been marketed as a panacea for all kinds of issues, from fixing a bad personality to ending racism. Refusing to seek treatment becomes a red flag, while fluency in “therapy-speak” is all but mandatory. Professional help has even infiltrated our leisure hours: Reality TV shows like Couples Therapy, podcasts from This Is Dating to Where Should We Begin?, and “therapy in a box” card games, some actually designed by psychoanalysts, abound. Continued here

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Want to Change a Habit? How I Stopped Drinking Over 100 Ounces of Diet Soda a Day (for 40 Years and Started Drinking Water Instead) We are what we do, and habits underlie most of our behaviors -- so much so that at least one study shows we tend to mistake the reasons for doing certain things, attributing a cause and effect explanation for our actions. Continued here

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A Psychologist Offers 3 Strategies To Stop A Gaslighter In Their Tracks If you find yourself asking these questions, you may be the victim of gaslighting. Gaslighting is a manipulative tactic used by people to gain control in relationships. By causing someone to question their sense of judgment and reality, gaslighting undermines victims’ sense of agency and righteousness. Continued here

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How Being Kind at Work (to Others and Yourself) Can Combat Burnout Work burnout can take many forms: a general lack of enthusiasm for your work, cynicism about your co-workers, or the general fatigue associated with showing up every day to a job that has overworked you to the point of exhaustion. Depending on how bad the situation is, solutions can range from leaving the company altogether to finding ways to establish firmer boundaries between work and home. Before making a drastic change, though, a few small changes might have a bigger impact than you’d expect: As research is showing, small acts of compassion to yourself or your co-workers can actually help reduce feelings of burnout. Continued here

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If God Is Dead, Your Time Is Everything At a recent conference on belief and unbelief hosted by the journal Salmagundi, the novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson confessed to knowing some good people who are atheists, but lamented that she has yet to hear “the good Atheist position articulated.” She explained, “I cannot engage with an atheism that does not express itself.” Continued here

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Inside the lucrative world of pet influencers Like so many other pet owners, Charles Lever gave his dog a voice. He adopted an American pit bull terrier named Tatum in 2016 and started narrating Tatum’s inner monologue as the pair went on adventures together. What was he thinking as he explored the backyard, or dug his holes, or chased his tail? In Lever's imagination, Tatum's voice is nasally and high in the throat — it brings to mind Jamie Kennedy, or one of Snow White's seven dwarves. He recorded videos of Tatum, added in his annotation, and Snapchatted the results to the rest of his family. These were the humble beginnings of one of the most famous dogs in the world. Continued here

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5 Best Stretches to Get Rid of Sciatica Hip and Lower Back Pain If you’ve ever suffered from sciatica, you have probably tried just about anything to rid yourself of symptoms. In this article, I will provide an overview of sciatica and outline some of the best exercises to address this debilitating condition. Continued here

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How our eyes can change colour throughout our lives The first pictures of the new-born baby that flashed up on our family chat showed a charming, surprised-looking face with wide, slate-grey eyes – similar in shape to his father's brown eyes, but closer in colour to his mother's green. By his second birthday, however, the pictures revealed he had become a happy toddler with eyes the same dark brown shade as his father's, with all trace of the dark grey of those early photographs gone. Continued here

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Want to Raise Inspired Kids? A Navy SEAL Commander Says Teach Them These 10 Things A few years ago, a retired Navy SEAL commander named Bill McRaven gave the graduation speech at the University of Texas. Parents listened, and his words went viral--exactly the kind of advice that I include in my free ebook, How to Raise Successful Kids (7th Edition), which you can download here. Continued here

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The 4-7-8 method that could help you sleep | CNN Falling asleep or coming down from anxiety might never be as easy as 1-2-3, but some experts believe a different set of numbers - 4-7-8 - comes much closer to doing the trick. Continued here

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17 Ways To Be More Positive, According to Psychologists Since getting engaged mid-pandemic, I’ve been on a perpetual hunt for a sparkly white dress that I may never wear to the bachelorette party I may never have. Even with all the positive vaccine developments, I warn myself not to get my hopes up…then continue scrolling in pursuit of that perfect LWD to hang in my closet until TBD. Continued here

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Coolio Was More Than "Gangsta's Paradise" The hip-hop classic was both 1995’s biggest song and its most acclaimed, but it was neither the rapper’s first hit nor his last. Continued here

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These Maldives resorts are leading the charge on sustainability Several Maldivian resorts are leading the pack on innovative sustainability actions that are helping to minimize impact -- while proving that luxury and sustainability can go hand in hand. Continued here

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Kyoto Wants You Back, but It Has Some Polite Suggestions The city, one of Japan's most-visited before the pandemic, desperately needs tourism's money, but it would like to avoid the excesses of Instagram-driven itineraries. Continued here

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How to Win Arguments Without Making Enemies When confronted with a contrary opinion, unsophisticated people tend attack the other person's credibility (e.g., "Marketing doesn't know crap about selling"). This never wins an argument; at best, it devolves into mutual name-calling. Continued here

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Here's What Successful People Do When They're Feeling Unhappy at Work (Hint: It's Not 'Stick It Out') However, when those days start blending together, and you notice your energy for work dwindling week after week, you may start realizing that it's not just an "off" month--you're unhappy at work.  Continued here

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How to Effectively Build Pre-Work into Meetings It’s no secret that the term “pre-work” inspires groans, eye-rolls, and even — during that all-too-familiar moment of realization that you haven’t done the pre-work — a sense of impending doom. Because of this, and because pre-work so often goes undone, many executives have given up on the practice. It doesn’t have to be this way. By embedding pre-work into meetings and carving out the first five to 20 minutes to have participants silently review a thoughtfully prepared, action-oriented document, leaders can reimagine not just the concept of pre-work, but the very nature of how teams gather. The author presents five tips for adopting the practice. Continued here

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4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Scientific Management In 1878, a machinist at a Pennsylvania steelworks noticed that his crew was producing much less than he thought they could. With stopwatches and time-motion studies, Frederick Winslow Taylor ran experiments to find the optimal way to make the most steel with lower labor costs. It was the birth of a management theory, called scientific management or Taylorism. Continued here

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Is Your Leadership Development Program Undermining Your DEI Goals? A major reason for stalled progress in leadership representation is the inequitable way leadership development opportunities are allocated in many organizations. When informal means are used to select employees for opportunities like mentorship, leadership coaching, or other high-potential programs it’s all too likely that our biases about who has potential (according to research: tall, attractive, white men) come into play. Since leadership development opportunities tend to beget other opportunities, the problem of inequitable selection compounds over time. The authors offer four strategies to create more equitable programs. Continued here

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How Parents Can Promote Resilience in the Family Business Parents in a family business often want to know how they can prepare their children for the problems they will inevitably face when they transition into leadership roles within the company. The concern is both for the continuation of the family legacy through the business, as well as for the success of the next generation member as an individual. The most important thing parents can do to promote competence and resilience in the next generation is to provide opportunities for kids to develop an internal locus of control — a belief that they can control what happens in their lives; not that their lives are controlled by external forces. For next generation members to understand that they can control their own outcomes, parents need to 1) promote active experimentation, 2) embrace failure, 3) ask kids to identify multiple solutions to a problem, and 4) avoid micromanagement. A reduced emphasis on telling and a greater focus on providing learning experiences can make all the difference. Continued here

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The Curse of the Strong U.S. Economy With GDP contracting in the first half of the year and a cratering stock market, it may seem surprising to describe the U.S. economy as “strong.” While the haze of macroeconomic data is exceptionally contradictory, the current reality is that highly profitable firms are employing a record number of workers and paying them rising wages. This would all be good news if it didn’t stoke the fire of inflation. In fighting inflation, the Fed is now much more accepting of the risk of causing a recession. When recession looms, the reaction from executives is often to retreat behind the moat, pull up the drawbridge by cutting orders, production, investment, and the workforce, all with an aim to fortify the balance sheet with liquidity to ride out the storm. But this alone would be a wasted opportunity to improve competitive position at a time when rivals will be distracted. Continued here

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Research: Men Are Worse Allies Than They Think A new study reveals a persistent gap between men and women in their perceptions of how men are truly showing up — or not — in the workplace. This gendered disparity was magnified when survey participants were asked about many of the salient micro-behaviors aligned with allyship for gender equity. Men are also more likely to view themselves and other men as active allies and advocates than women do, but men who participate in allyship programs appear to be more aware of what real allyship action looks like and are more likely to report taking actions to mitigate gender inequity. Continued here

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The Power of Work Friends Despite claiming “people are our greatest asset,” too many executives still expect employees to leave their personal lives at the door when they come to work. Yet Gallup data shows that having a best friend at work is strongly linked to business outcomes, including improvements in profitability, safety, inventory control, and employee retention. And Gallup’s latest findings show that since the start of the pandemic, having a best friend at work has an even greater impact on important outcomes — like workers’ likelihood to recommend their workplace, intent to leave, and overall satisfaction. With the unavoidable increase in remote and hybrid work, best friends at work have become lifelines who provide crucial social connection, collaboration, and support for each other during times of change. The author offers four ways managers can create and maintain a friendship-friendly workplace that delivers measurable results. Continued here

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Talking About Burnout Is Still Taboo at Work Burnout is on the rise: Google searches for the phrase “burnout symptoms” hit an all-time high in May 2022. To address this, the authors have designed a series of 18 questions, tied the six causes of burnout, that managers can use to spark a dialogue with their team. They also offer guidance on how to conduct the conversation. Continued here

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I just learned I only have months to live. This is what I want to say. - The Boston Globe I've been a journalist for more than 60 years. So after doctors delivered the news, I sat down to do what came naturally, if painfully: Write this story. Continued here

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Anticipating the Future for Growth and Innovation: Companies in Asia Pacific and Beyond Are Building Prescience into Their Plans - SPONSORED CONTENT FROM SAP The global business environment has become more complex and interconnected over time, meaning that organizations have to continually reassess everything from supply chains to remote work to sustainability, taking into account which areas are working well and which need to be transformed. The Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated this shift, forcing companies to adapt to fast-changing circumstances, revealing the risks of being slow, or unable, to adapt—and showing how organizations that are prepared for change can capitalize on new opportunities. Yet many organizations feel somewhat—but not very—confident in their current preparedness for dealing with unexpected change. Continued here

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Choosing the Right Platform for Your Brand ^ R2205B To meet customers where they are, you can't beat selling on e-commerce juggernaut Amazon--or can you? This issue's Spotlight package examines the myriad ways companies are using digital platforms to sell their products, interact with consumers, and create more value. In "Should Your Company Sell on Amazon?," Ayelet Israeli, Len Schlesinger, Matt Higgins, and Sabir Semerkant explore the benefits and the costs of selling on the world's largest e-commerce site. The article's scorecard will help companies determine whether or not Amazon makes sense for their brand. Companies that choose to proceed with Amazon will find guidance on optimizing their presence there. Companies that want to sidestep digital aggregators like Amazon may consider building brand flagship platforms instead. More than just direct sales channels, these platforms provide a mix of specialized products, services, and content by involving participants--consumers and third-party businesses--in the value creation process. In "Building Your Own Brand Platform," authors Julian R.K. Wichmann, Nico Wiegand, and Werner J. Reinartz introduce the four types of platforms and outline the risks and opportunities of each. Finally, Wharton professor Thomas S. Robertson explores the rise of livestream commerce in "Selling on TikTok and Taobao," explaining why both consumers and companies are drawn to the format. The article offers guidance for brands ready to start experimenting with livestream, including which type of platform to choose and how to measure their efforts. Continued here

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The Chair of Illycaff In the 1990s most coffee beans were still commodity products, cheaply priced, undifferentiated by quality, often blended, and sold through an exchange. Suppliers were underpaid not only because they sat at the bottom of the value chain but also because margins were very thin. Francesco Illy founded his eponymous coffee company in 1933 with higher ambitions, intending to create an institution respected for both its products and its contributions to society. His son, Ernesto, and grandson, Andrea, pressed on in that tradition—first by implementing better quality-management systems and pioneering direct trade with growers, and then by adopting their new production model at scale. The idea was to incentivize farmers to cultivate more-flavorful beans, thereby generating bigger profits to be shared among all stakeholders and reinvested in further improvement and growth: a virtuous circle of increasing returns. Over the past two decades illy has been accomplishing what it set out to do. Its annual revenue is currently €500 million, with earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation of nearly €60 million and a compound annual growth rate of 10%. And it pays its growers an average of 30% more than market price for coffee beans and is consistently recognized as one of the world’s most socially responsible companies. Continued here

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Building Your Own Brand Platform Some branded product companies are sidestepping digital aggregators like Amazon and Google Shopping and instead building their own brand flagship platforms. These platforms are more than just a direct sales channel. They provide a mix of specialized products, services, and content by involving participants—consumers and third-party businesses—in the value creation process, as both receivers and providers of value. Continued here

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It's Time for the U.S. to Tackle Patent Trolls Patent trolls are a major economic problem in the U.S., slowing growth and innovation, and costing companies time and money. Director of the USPTO, Kathi Vidal, also has an opportunity to take immediate action that will substantially improve how our patent system functions and advance U.S. innovation. It involves repealing a rule instituted by their predecessor that made it harder for firms being sued by patent trolls to take advantage of special expert judges. Continued here

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How Your Company Can Encourage Innovation from All Employees Frontline employees often contribute the best ideas for process improvement, as Toyota and other companies have often found.  In this article, the authors show how the kaizen approach to process improvement used at manufacturing companies can be translated to the context of knowledge work, where it can help companies identify opportunities for automating knowledge work.  It revolves around the creation of an ideas platform and development toolkit that employees can share and experiment with. Accounting giant PwC has found that adopting this approach and providing extra recognition and rewards for participation on the platform has helped employees to realize over 7 million hours savings in work time. Continued here

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What Makes a Great Leader? Tomorrow’s leaders master three key roles — architect, bridger, and catalyst, or ABCs — to access the talent and tools they need to drive innovation and impact. As architects, they build the culture and capabilities for co-creation. As bridgers, they curate and enable networks of talent inside and outside their organizations to co-create. And as catalysts, they lead beyond their organizational boundaries to energize and activate co-creation across entire ecosystems. These ABCs require leaders to stop relying on formal authority as their source of power and shift to a style that enables diverse talent to collaborate, experiment, and learn together — a challenging yet essential personal transformation. Continued here

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What Role Should Business Play in Society? Companies talk the talk of creating stakeholder value, but most don’t walk the talk. In this article, the author outlines two major reasons why — an insular financial sector and stock buybacks — and describes a new model for a truly symbiotic relationship among business, government, and citizens. For this model to succeed, business and government in particular need to address three key questions: What should we create? How should we evaluate social impact? And how should we share? Continued here

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Trust: The Currency of Innovation - SPONSORED CONTENT FROM Mastercard Trust can be defined in a variety of ways, but when it comes to innovation, it may be best described as belief in the reliability and soundness of a new idea brought to market. Organizations have been increasing their focus on innovation since the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic tested not only how well they could adapt, but also how well they could maintain the trust of customers and employees suddenly worried they could jeopardize their health by simply entering a store or workplace. In the newest Business Innovators Index survey from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, 58% of executives say their organization now ranks innovation as a high priority, up from 54% in 2020 and 47% when the research was first launched in 2019. And 82% say high levels of customer trust make it easier to innovate. Continued here

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Is Bad Onboarding Stifling Your New Senior Leaders? Onboarding is traditionally an exercise in orienting new employees to the status quo: the existing people, rules, culture, norms, processes, procedures, and behaviors that they will need to be successful in their new job. But leaders today are brought into organizations to create change. The typical orientation process can stifle the new leader’s innovative spirit. To set up a new leader to create change, build their onboarding process around a specific near-term challenge, customize it around a particular question, or ask them to regularly report critical observations of what they learn to a group of stakeholders. Continued here

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12 Default Microsoft Excel Settings You Should Change With her B.S. in Information Technology, Sandy worked for many years in the IT industry as a Project Manager, Department Manager, and PMO Lead. She learned how technology can enrich both professional and personal lives by using the right tools. And, she has shared those suggestions and how-tos on many websites over time. With thousands of articles under her belt, Sandy strives to help others use technology to their advantage. Read more... Continued here

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Biden's big new student loan forgiveness plan, explained President Joe Biden announced his administration’s long-awaited student loan forgiveness plan Wednesday, saying it will forgive $10,000 in student loans for borrowers who earned less than $125,000 during the pandemic. People who received Pell Grants, grants to low-income students, while they were enrolled in college will be eligible to have $20,000 in debt forgiven. Continued here

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A neurotech company wants to use eye tracking to prevent injuries Chelsea Lane was the head performance therapist with the Golden State Warriors when she first started checking her athletes with a product from NeuroSync, a neurotechnology company making a tool that tracks eye movements to understand brain health. Lane initially used it as part of the team’s concussion protocols. But when she moved to the Atlanta Hawks in 2018, she started using the information in another way: to try and understand how well her athletes were sleeping.  Continued here

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Is 'reverse catfishing' really a thing? My friend Daisy asked for some help with setting up her Hinge profile the other week. “Are there too many pictures of me with a drink – do I look like an alcoholic?”, she asked, sliding her phone over to me and our other friend, Holly. “No,” Holly said, wrinkling her nose. “But it’s too normal.” Continued here

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A Teacher Who Joined OnlyFans to Support Her Family Was Fired For about six years, Sarah Juree worked full-time as a teacher in South Bend, Indiana, as part of the Department of Defense STARBASE educational program, which introduces Grade 5 students to science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM. But the single mother of twins said she was unable to support her family on the modest salary of $55,000 per year, especially as the cost of living continues to rise across the U.S.  Continued here

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Tua Tagovailoa and the NFL's Horrible Handling of Head Injuries The Miami Dolphins quarterback suffered a brutal concussion on Thursday, but he never should have been playing in that game at all. Now, it’s time for answers from his team and a league that was supposed to protect him. Continued here

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The magic of summer hoops, starring Trae Young, LeBron James and Paolo Banchero I AM SOMEONE WHO GREW UP in a city without an NBA team. A city with a rich basketball history propelled by local legends. People who starred in high school, and maybe played for a college team that you could watch on ESPN from time to time. Guys who came home in the summer and played in summer leagues and tournaments that captivated young, aspiring players who hoped to one day do the same. Continued here

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I broke the Jeffrey Dahmer story in 1991. Here's what the Netflix series got wrong Anne E Schwartz was working as a crime reporter when a police source told her about human body parts found in Dahmer’s apartment. Three decades later, she tells Bevan Hurley what viewers should know when watching Netflix’s dramatisation of the case Continued here

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The 13 best co-op management games to sink hours and hours into Many games are huge. Others are endless. Some are so exciting that they swallow our news feeds whole. That’s where Polygon’s What to Play comes in: We curate the best, most innovative, and most intriguing games on every platform, so you can spend less time searching, and more time playing. Continued here

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The Pandemic Has Dealt a Blow to Gender Balance At the time, the senior HR leader was working for a multinational company that was divesting its Asian business. When it became clear that Covid-19 posed a serious threat to Asia’s economy, the company accelerated those plans, laying off 60 percent of its corporate employees – most of whom were women working in Asia, Jolanda says. She was one of them. Continued here

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To Improve Your Team, First Work on Yourself If a team is not working well together, it’s highly likely that each person is contributing to the difficulty in some way. The odds of improving the team dynamic in a meaningful and sustainable will be higher if everyone — including the leader — learns to master three foundational capabilities: internal self-awareness, external self-awareness, and personal accountability. Internal self-awareness involves understanding your feelings, beliefs, and values, and how they impact your reactions. If you find yourself in an emotionally-charged situation, ask: What are my core values, and how might they be impacting my reactions? What are the facts vs. my interpretations? Next, consider the impact you may be having on your teammates. This is external self-awareness. One way to start is to observe others during discussions. Did someone raise their voice? Stop talking? Smile? You can collect some valuable information this way — but it also leaves room for misinterpretation. A more direct approach is to ask teammates for specific, straightforward feedback: What am I doing in meetings that is helpful? What am I doing that is not helpful? Lastly, to be personally accountable, practice assessing how you are contributing to the problem and make a conscious choice about how to react to improve the team’s outcomes. Changing how we process information and respond requires not just learning these new skills, but also demonstrating them long enough to form new habits. Continued here

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The Secrets of Great Teamwork Over the years, as teams have grown more diverse, dispersed, digital, and dynamic, collaboration has become more complex. But though teams face new challenges, their success still depends on a core set of fundamentals. As J. Richard Hackman, who began researching teams in the 1970s, discovered, what matters most isn’t the personalities or behavior of the team members; it’s whether a team has a compelling direction, a strong structure, and a supportive context. In their own research, Haas and Mortensen have found that teams need those three “enabling conditions” now more than ever. But their work also revealed that today’s teams are especially prone to two corrosive problems: “us versus them” thinking and incomplete information. Overcoming those pitfalls requires a new enabling condition: a shared mindset. Continued here

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How to Survive a Recession and Thrive Afterward According to an analysis led by Ranjay Gulati, during the recessions of 1980, 1990, and 2000, 17% of the 4,700 public companies studied fared very badly: They went bankrupt, went private, or were acquired. But just as striking, 9% of the companies flourished, outperforming competitors by at least 10% in sales and profits growth. Continued here

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The Psychological Toll of Being the Only Woman of Color at Work Systemic bias and discrimination at work can take a mental health toll on women of color. And due to a variety of factors, including a lack of mental health providers of color, women of color aren’t getting the mental health help they need. It’s a crisis where individual women of color begin blaming themselves for systemic bias. The author spoke with Danielle Jenkins Henry, licensed marriage family therapist associate (LMFTA) and founder of a psychotherapy practice for Black women, who offers four ways for women of color to take care of their mental health first and foremost. Continued here

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To Avoid DEI Backlash, Focus on Changing Systems -- Not People The enemy of well-intentioned DEI initiatives is backlash — and not just from people from privileged groups. Backlash from all directions is often due to DEI initiatives being framed as solutions to individual problems to be fixed rather than to correct for systemic issues at play in an organization. To reframe the conversation the author recommends five steps to implement in your DEI strategy: 1) Collect data to diagnose specific inequities in your organization, 2) communicate about initiatives using a systems-focused framing, 3) as change-making efforts begin, appeal to “fairness,” 4) clearly lay out expectations for change alongside resources and support, 5) sustain momentum by affirming effort and celebrating wins. Continued here