OG Tuesday Issue #106

According to the Progress Principle, progress fuels even more progress, creating an infinite loop of positivity anyone would be happy to get stuck in.

All the more reason to track your progress on the job or toward any other goals with project management tools like Nifty.  These tools will remind you how far you’ve come and how much you’ve done when the negative or anxious voice inside starts telling dramatic lies. (I’ve done nothing! I will never accomplish anything, etc.)

Here are a few different ways you can track and measure your progress and be inspired by yourself:  

The key to a successful engagement strategy is…

Empowering Managers and senior execs is the key to a successful engagement strategy aligned with business goals and objectives.

Learn how HRs can influence managers and leaders to drive employee engagement by fostering a culture of recognition that leads to the overall growth of employees and building highly engaged and productive teams.

On Thursday, Oct 6 from 1:00-1:30 PM ET, you can join this free webinar to learn:

• Who owns the Employee Engagement Flag?
• Influence and support managers to drive engagement initiatives.
• Connecting work with the long-term vision to help employees find meaning in their work.

Register free for the webinar

The poet Carl Sandburg wrote this beautiful yet practical advice about time:

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”

Spending your time more strategically and more thoughtfully cannot actually create more time, but it can optimize the value you harvest from your limited hours.

Head over to HBR to use a research-backed assessment tool that will help you analyze your time expenditure and redirect it toward high-value tasks.

Beat Zoom Fatigue With Team Retreats

The zoom fatigue is real 😩 — luckily, we have the perfect remedy…TeamOut!

TeamOut is an online platform where you can easily book a team retreat so you can build stronger relationships with your work fam.

They provide curated retreat properties as well as concierge and event planning services, so you can focus on enjoying some quality time with your teammates.

The best part is you’ll stay at unique venues that are always within 30 minutes of an airport, so you’ll never deal with tricky and long routes.

Book Your Team’s Next Adventure

Naturally, when we think about how we think, we’re really only covering our active thought processes. What about thoughts that are too fast and automatic to notice, the thoughts most of us don’t even realize we’re having?

We can overcome those cognitive biases by committing to detecting them, examining them, and then thinking beyond the limits they place on our decisions.

Here are three common cognitive biases to be on the lookout for:

1) The Complexity Bias. 

We’re limited by this bias when we approach our goals in needlessly complicated and unsustainable ways instead of favoring simple, direct approaches. 

• Example: Attempting to uphold an intricate and expensive daily juicing regime vs. deciding to eat two more servings of fruit or vegetables each day.
• Break beyond it: Consider what you want to accomplish and take immediate action; do the next right and simple thing. Start simple, see what happens, and slowly increase the complexity of habits, if needed, over time.

2) The Zero Risk Bias 

We’re limited by this bias when we take irrational and extreme actions to minimize potential negatives at the expense of potential positives. 

• Example: Accepting a startup investment of $1 million dollars that can be in your bank account tomorrow instead of spending the next few months pursuing an investment of $10 million.
• Break beyond it: When you’re facing a risk-laden decision, take a moment to question the impact of your emotions—your fear of potential consequences. If your mental scale is one-sided, remember to weigh the potential negative against the potential positive.

3) The Availability Bias

We’re limited by this bias when we believe memories, situations, and examples that come easily to mind are also more common, likely, or valid. 

• Example: Assuming that, because two of our friends dislike the same movie, that most people in general also dislike it.

Break beyond it: While the Availability Bias does represent a limited thought process, the conclusions that result from it may be correct and sometimes enable quick decision-making. Simply remembering that this bias exists and questioning your initial assumptions can help you enhance your fact-based decision making.

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