Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 14

Most tweetchats (Twitter conversations) are uninspiring. Not this one, that I want to share with you. You will read about the changes in our emotional states that are happening because of the lockdowns. And you will see the same strains echoing in what Twitter discovered by analysing billions of tweets from 2016-2019. There is a tribute to Sir Ken Robinson. But before that let me ask you …

1. Why don’t facts change our mind?

Stress and spicy food cause stomach ulcers, right? No they don’t. But enough people still blame ulcers on the wrong reasons. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall found in 1982 that the bacteria helicobacter pylori, causes stomach inflammations and ulcers. They shared the Nobel Prize in 2005 for their discovery.Organization Psychologist Adam Grant says:

The MBTI is astrology for nerds. Say it with me again: personality types are a myth, traits are on a continuum, and the major dimensions include extrovert-introvert, agreeable-disagreeable, reactive-stable, open-traditional, conscientious-spontaneous.

Now to introduce you to #lrnchat on Twitter. Look for the hashtag #lrnchat on Twitter and discover why it tickled my curiosity. Here is what happened. At 6:00 am last Friday, I was reading stuff on Twitter and found this tweet chat, and I was hooked even though I was late to the party. According to my friend Kavi Arasu, the timings are 6.00-7.00 am IST every Friday (Mar-Nov). 5.00-6.00 am (Nov-Mar). Join Twitter on Friday and look for the hashtag #lrnchatWhy do we not change our mind even when faced with facts?

1. There is safety in numbers. That is just what happened when Pythagoras said that the earth was spherical
2. Many practitioners don’t read. Many proudly announce, ‘I am a practical person. The last book I read was in college.’
3. People who sell snake oil often rely on finding a large well-known organisation to sell their stuff to. Then tell someone gullible, ‘X organisation is using it’.

Check the scientific studies and evidence. Remember, spicy food and stress are not the causes of stomach ulcers. If facts don’t help us change our mind, what does? Leave a comment below.

2. The First Career Transition - why it matters

Being a team leader very often means transitioning from being an individual contributor to a people manager’s role. That often comes with a salary bump and a career path that gets more attention everywhere. Doing well as an individual contributor has no bearing on how well the person does as a people manager.Being a people manager is the first taste of discretionary power one experiences very early in career. It is the first taste of responsibility for the success of others beyond one’s own self. It is the first opportunity to help and coach others to scale up and reach the desired goals. The leader’s role is to help the team achieve synergy not just remain the sum total of everyone’s results.Read about the first big career transition and the 3 shifts every people manager must be trained to manage <Read this>The podcast talks about the role of a boss

3. Three Emotional Priorities

Parents who have been home with their children have had to juggle work, restless children trying to do their classes on video and then the household chores. The result is a shift in the emotional imperatives that affect consumers’ choices. The three shifts are:

1. Guilt free “me time” to indulge myself
2. Being positive, optimistic and resilient.
3. Be myself. Be authentic. '“I don’t want to live up to others’ expectations.”

Bosses must shift their focus from productivity to mental well being of their employees. Set aside time to talk to everyone to understand what they are grappling with. That means building a sense of psychological safety where the other person is not afraid of being judged. Read about the 3 shifts hereWhat do I miss most about the lockdown? I crave to be with my friends and colleagues, do you?What do these shifts mean for brands <read here>

4. Cultural Insights from Twitter

The emotional shifts that are showing up seem to be validated by the conversations happening on Twitter. From January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2019, billions of Tweets were analysed to uncover the most-used hashtags, then mapped to cluster themes of conversation. Some quick trends

• Shift from body image to mental health and whole body wellness
• Curiosity about matters of spirituality, nature & the cosmos
• One planet view of the world. Sustainability, ethics and clean corporations.
• Creativity is social currency. Line between personal passion and profession is blurred. Video-centric communities are on the rise
• Virtual reality and augmented reality are changing industry, commerce, entertainment and creation.
• My identity, my rules. There are new communities and expressions of fandom; gender equality and acceptance. Represent “me” in culture, appearance, identity and beliefs.

Read more <click here>

Sir Ken Robinson - a tribute

Sir Ken Robinson passed away on Aug 21, 2020. I first learned about his work through his TED talk - Do Schools Kill Creativity That talk has been watched 66 MILLION times - more than any talk ever. (I may have contributed to a million views myself!). The core idea he speaks about

• Children are not afraid of being wrong until adults stigmatise mistakes and ‘educate people out of their creativity’
• There is a hierarchy of subjects with Math on top. The most useful subjects for work in the industrialised world seems to be at the top (think Science and Math). Drama and dance are at the bottom. Math is important but so is dance, said Sir Ken Robinson.
• Don’t let academic ability define ‘intelligence’.

Rest in Peace. We have a lot of work to do to rethink education. Which of his ideas resonated with your own experience? Don't miss the story about Death Valley. You will get goose bumps.https://youtu.be/wX78iKhInscIf you want to reach me, email me at abhijitbhaduri@live.com