Granted

Granted, by Adam Grant, is a newsletter focused on psychology, work, and broader societal issues. It covers themes such as the impact of astrology, email etiquette, toxic positivity, leadership, book recommendations, the concept of hidden potential, and the importance of generosity and kindness. Grant explores scientific insights, offers advice for personal and professional growth, and challenges common beliefs and practices.

Psychology Workplace Culture Leadership and Management Personal Development Communication Strategies Scientific Criticism Book Recommendations Educational Practices Societal Issues

The hottest Substack posts of Granted

And their main takeaways

GRANTED: You’re stressed because you care—and you might be working too much

19 implied HN points • 05 Jul 20
🏥 Health & Wellness Stress management Work-life balance Resilience Future of work
  1. Reframing stress as a challenge rather than a hindrance can improve job performance and health.
  2. Working less can help avoid burnout by promoting quality over quantity and recognizing the importance of rest for meaningful goals.
  3. Requiring college degrees in job postings can disadvantage those who acquire skills through alternative routes, particularly people of color.

GRANTED: The real reason you procrastinate

19 implied HN points • 10 Mar 20
🏥 Health & Wellness Procrastination Emotions Productivity Burnout Self-compassion
  1. Procrastination is often driven by the desire to avoid negative emotions like anxiety and boredom, not laziness.
  2. Showing compassion towards yourself can help reduce procrastination by acknowledging that it's a common human experience.
  3. Effective strategies to combat procrastination include creating a 'to-don't' list, scheduling tasks like meetings, and facing tasks you fear but are worth pursuing.

GRANTED: Becoming a thinker and a lifelong reader

19 implied HN points • 04 Oct 19
🚌 Education Reading Thinking Experience
  1. Encourage kids to love reading by making books a part of your life - read in front of them, discuss books, visit libraries, and give books as gifts.
  2. Humility is key - arrogance stems from ignorance and unwavering conviction, while humility turns evidence and experience into wisdom.
  3. Prior experience is not a reliable predictor of job success - focus on knowledge, skill, and motivation rather than requiring specific experience.
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GRANTED: Having more thoughtful arguments and being a more thoughtful mentee

19 implied HN points • 04 Aug 19
🚌 Education Self-Improvement Mentorship Data interpretation Diversity Resilience
  1. Strive to be better, not the best. The competition should be with your past and future self.
  2. Data doesn't really talk, people interpret it. Question the competence and integrity of data interpreters.
  3. To be a good mentee, value mentor's time, seek clear guidance, be open to ideas and reflect on your progress.

GRANTED: Your stress probably isn't burnout and your professional decline probably isn't imminent

19 implied HN points • 02 Jul 19
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Professional development Mindfulness Company Culture Strengths
  1. Burnout is not the same as stress. Feeling overwhelmed can be healthy but burnout is persistent emotional exhaustion.
  2. Your professional peak relies more on acquired wisdom than innate intelligence. Investing in the next generation is valuable.
  3. Empathy in company culture is crucial. Developing empathy is a soft skill that can be learned through genuine care and effort.

GRANTED: The value of going outdoors, outside your expertise, and to the outsiders inside your team

19 implied HN points • 03 Mar 19
💼 Business Productivity Leadership Remote work Communication Company Culture
  1. Spending time outdoors has benefits like increased test scores for kids in Finland and lower mental health disorders for adults near green spaces
  2. Hiring versatile individuals who excel in at least one area can lead to more innovation in companies
  3. Creating a sense of belonging for remote workers is important for their well-being and productivity

GRANTED: What psychological safety is not and why we choose the wrong careers

19 implied HN points • 02 Feb 19
💼 Business Career Choices Psychological safety Productivity
  1. When making career choices, prioritize who you want to become over what you want to achieve.
  2. Psychological safety in organizations is not about being relaxed, comfortable, or nice - it's about fostering a culture of respect, trust, and openness.
  3. To boost happiness, consider spending money to save time and making time-saving habits like canceling a meeting each week.

GRANTED: When to trust your gut and how to get people to embrace change

19 implied HN points • 29 Nov 18
💼 Business Leadership Decision-making Company Culture Empathy Personal Development
  1. Hire based on motivation and ability to learn rather than talent or credentials to be future-ready.
  2. Trust your gut only in predictable environments with regular practice and immediate feedback; if not, gather evidence to test your intuition.
  3. Encourage employees to speak up by rewarding them for raising problems, concerns, suggestions, and solutions to foster a positive company culture.

GRANTED: What to add to your goals and the best new fall books to read

19 implied HN points • 09 Sep 17
🚌 Education Learning Books Networking Questions Growth
  1. Life is full of contradictory ideas, so consider when each perspective is true rather than trying to find the one true answer.
  2. When setting goals, also consider setting anti-goals to ensure you avoid certain outcomes.
  3. Networking can be important, but it's equally crucial to achieve great things that help you naturally build your network.

GRANTED: Bouncing back from failure and the problem with hiring ninjas

19 implied HN points • 06 May 17
💼 Business Professional development Company Culture Resilience Communication
  1. Character is revealed by how you treat those with less power, not how many powerful people you impress
  2. Face-to-face requests are more successful than emails; asking 6 people in person can be as effective as emailing 200
  3. Resilience after failure often comes from understanding that failures are often due to the situation, not individual shortcomings

GRANTED: Why Willpower Doesn’t Get Drained and Instagram is a Hufflepuff

19 implied HN points • 04 Dec 16
  1. Building trust is crucial for team performance as it shifts the focus from individual agendas to collective goals.
  2. Willpower may not be a finite resource, and persistence is more about motivation than willpower.
  3. Analyzing company cultures by aligning them with Harry Potter houses can be a fun and insightful exercise.

GRANTED: Making small talk less painful, plus my favorite books to read this fall

19 implied HN points • 05 Sep 16
📚 Literature Books Authors Reading Conversations Classics
  1. 1. Danish schools have a tradition where students share problems and help each other each week, showing empathy and happiness.
  2. 2. Hiring people who have faced failure can lead to success in bold endeavors, as seen in Amazon's strategy for its grocery delivery service.
  3. 3. Putting on a 'happy mask' at work can be draining, and being told to be happy doesn't necessarily make people feel upbeat.

GRANTED: What we get wrong about gratitude and why good storytellers are happier

19 implied HN points • 06 Aug 16
🚌 Education Writing Communication Interviewing Creativity Research
  1. Good storytellers are happier in life and in love. Storytelling can impact health, satisfaction, and attractiveness.
  2. Expressing gratitude should focus on what others have given, not what you've received.
  3. Great listeners are like trampolines, bouncing ideas off one another. Effective listening involves more than just nodding and smiling.

GRANTED: Revamping the election, bouncing back from failure, and why you shouldn't be yourself

19 implied HN points • 05 Jun 16
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Election Resilience Candidates Authenticity
  1. Resilience is not just about achieving things, but also about surviving and evolving as a person.
  2. Teaching children to learn from failure is more important than just having a growth mindset.
  3. Being yourself may not always be the best advice; it's more beneficial to focus on presenting yourself sincerely to others.

Monday September 08, 2014

19 implied HN points • 08 Sep 14
🚌 Education Psychology Parenting Behavioral Economics
  1. Adam Grant's newsletter focuses on interesting content related to work and behavior.
  2. Articles cover topics like procrastination, creative pairs, and the power of doodling.
  3. Adam Grant shares insights on raising a moral child, standing up for colleagues, and email etiquette.

GRANTED: The costs of convenience and the benefits of humility

0 implied HN points • 31 Mar 18
🏥 Health & Wellness Mindfulness Memory Self-awareness Behavioral Science
  1. Choosing convenience always may mean missing out on the meaningful struggles that give life depth and value.
  2. Taking a break in a quiet space post-learning can boost memory recall significantly, showing that memory consolidation happens during wakeful rest.
  3. In the modern era, one's reputation as a trustworthy source is becoming more crucial than the sheer accumulation of knowledge.

GRANTED: A better way to end workplace harassment and how to handle not-so-happy holidays

0 implied HN points • 12 Dec 17
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health
  1. Be open to considering advice even if you don't follow it. Showing that you've thought about it is important.
  2. Resilience can be built by taking on challenging projects. They help us practice for emotional or unexpected challenges.
  3. To effectively address sexual harassment in the workplace, promoting more women into leadership roles is more impactful than training programs.

GRANTED: How we really learn and why we should all be more like Goldilocks

0 implied HN points • 04 Jun 17
🚌 Education Learning Self-Improvement Resilience Teaching Research
  1. Beware of self-help books focusing on power and networking as they might create a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.
  2. Learning from behaviors that go against your values can be valuable in understanding and defending against manipulation.
  3. Engaging multiple senses in learning is more effective than relying on a single 'learning style', according to scientists.

GRANTED: Why I don’t vote and you should confess your mistakes to your coworkers

0 implied HN points • 02 Oct 16
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Voting Education Leadership Students
  1. Many biases can be categorized into four groups - too much information, not enough meaning, the need to act fast, and the need to decide what to remember.
  2. Confessing mistakes at work can create a culture where it's safe to take risks and learn from failures.
  3. Experiencing recessions while in college can lead to less narcissism and more job satisfaction in the long run.

GRANTED: Cat videos, honest men, and what your inbox says about you

0 implied HN points • 01 May 16
🎭️ Culture Psychology Work Leadership Writing Emotions
  1. Princeton Psychology Professor outlined failures to provide perspective to others, showing the value of sharing setbacks alongside successes.
  2. Watching cat videos at work may improve productivity according to a study where participants worked longer after watching funny clips.
  3. Unhappiness at work isn't linked to email volume but to the timing of when emails are sent, and delays in responses can impact team morale.

GRANTED: Why I’m Always Late and the Joy of Missing Out

0 implied HN points • 10 Oct 15
🎭️ Culture Mindfulness Gender Equality Decision-making Self-Improvement
  1. Pre-Crastination is completing trivial tasks urgently for a false sense of accomplishment, a different way of irrational behavior compared to procrastination.
  2. Being constantly late might be due to a 'tyrannical monkey' living in our brains, according to a humorous post from Wait But Why.
  3. There are common cognitive biases that can affect our decision-making, highlighting the importance of understanding our mental stumbling blocks.

GRANTED: August 2015 newsletter on work and psychology

0 implied HN points • 15 Aug 15
🎭️ Culture Work Psychology Friendships Creativity Mentorship
  1. Personality traits like being an ambivert can have a significant impact on social interactions and energy levels.
  2. The quantity of friendships in your 20s and the quality of friendships in your 30s can predict well-being in later life.
  3. Cooperative behavior in kindergarten can predict future success like graduating from college and having a stable job at 25.

GRANTED: April 2015 edition

0 implied HN points • 11 Apr 15
🚌 Education Creativity Self-awareness Performance reviews
  1. The creative process can be painful, but understanding it helps reconcile contradictions in creative people.
  2. Seeking self-awareness is more beneficial than chasing self-esteem; tips to break through self-delusion are provided.
  3. Reinventing performance reviews by simplifying them can make work life better and efficient.

GRANTED: November newsletter on work and psychology

0 implied HN points • 12 Nov 14
🏥 Health & Wellness Psychology Work Empathy Public Speaking Friendship
  1. The Benjamin Franklin Effect describes how someone turned a hater into a fan through giving, backed by psychological research.
  2. Social media affects our friendships and social interactions, impacting how many true friends we can have.
  3. Empathy is a crucial quality often misunderstood by leaders, leading to broken relationships and communication breakdowns.