The hottest Workplace dynamics Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

It's not enough to be right

Pedram's Data Based • 27 implied HN points • 04 Dec 24
💼 Business Career growth Organizational Change Leadership skills Workplace dynamics Effectiveness
  1. Being right is important, but it's not enough to make meaningful changes in an organization. You need to focus on effectiveness and how your ideas help the business.
  2. Career growth is about understanding the needs of the organization and showing how you can make a bigger impact. Instead of just seeking promotion, think about why the organization would promote you.
  3. Ownership is about being responsible for the success of projects, not just delegating tasks. Building trust and influence is key, as soft skills often matter just as much as technical skills.

Incivility: Dunkin' Donuts edition

Disaffected Newsletter • 2138 implied HN points • 20 Jul 24
🎭️ Culture Social Behavior Workplace dynamics Public spaces Service Industry Generational differences
  1. Incivility in service industries is becoming more common. Many service workers seem to have bad attitudes, which affects customer experiences.
  2. Customers often feel like they have to tiptoe around service staff, even when they are polite and friendly. This leads to a frustrating situation for everyone.
  3. Mistakes happen, but how workers respond to those mistakes makes a big difference. Poor customer service can often feel like a personal attack on the customer.

How to get funding from deluded, self-congratulatory investors

Penelope Trunk's Substack • 419 implied HN points • 21 Apr 24
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Investment Gender Equality Networking Workplace dynamics
  1. Having a male co-founder can improve a female founder's odds of raising funding due to biases in the investment industry.
  2. Focusing on showcasing a reckless passion and working long hours can help female founders combat gender biases when pitching to investors.
  3. Building a network of male connections can be essential for female founders in navigating the challenges of the venture capital landscape.

TBM 273: Transition and Reflection

The Beautiful Mess • 1057 implied HN points • 18 Feb 24
💼 Business Leadership Workplace dynamics
  1. Humans shape environments, and environments shape humans -- there's no dichotomy. This insight helps in understanding complexity and progress.
  2. Self-awareness and understanding others' beliefs are crucial at work -- it minimizes clashes and can lead to better teamwork and company growth.
  3. Seek coherence across different areas of work -- aligning various frames and systems is essential for company success.
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Friday Thread: How do you find a satisfying work "why"?

The Recovering Academic • 554 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Workplace dynamics Identity Purpose Professional development
  1. When searching for satisfying work, it's common to grapple with questions of identity, purpose, and personal values.
  2. Finding an employer or work environment that aligns with your 'why' can be challenging, even if you know your purpose.
  3. Balancing personal authenticity and branding in professional life is a complex puzzle that many individuals struggle to solve.

TBM 272: The Biggest Opportunity (Part 2)

The Beautiful Mess • 661 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
💼 Business Management Workplace dynamics Career development Company Culture Productivity
  1. Skilled pragmatists in companies can represent a major opportunity for improvement. They are reliable and capable but may not go above and beyond due to skepticism about the value of extra effort.
  2. When trying to improve behaviors in a team, it is crucial to be specific about the desired actions and outcomes. Vague terms like 'drive' or 'passion' can lead to misunderstandings.
  3. Listening to individuals in different categories can provide valuable insights for understanding motivations and barriers to certain behaviors in a team. Embracing diversity in perspectives is key to achieving more together.

TBM 276: Leverage Distribution

The Beautiful Mess • 542 implied HN points • 08 Mar 24
💼 Business Workplace dynamics
  1. Team effectiveness involves imagining a team's energy investment as a distribution across leverage, showcasing why small improvements can significantly impact team efficacy.
  2. Teams can have significant differences in the allocation of energy towards high-leverage work, affecting long-term impact and team dynamics.
  3. Challenges faced by a team, when accumulated, can significantly impact overall team performance, highlighting the importance of fostering conditions for positive outcomes.

All About Career History Interviews

Tech and Tea • 295 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
💼 Business Career development Interviewing Communication Skills Workplace dynamics Recruitment
  1. Career history interviews provide valuable insights into a candidate's learning capacity, adaptability, and mindset over time, beyond just current abilities.
  2. In a career history interview, ask structured questions for each job/project to understand achievements, challenges faced, relationships, and reasons for leaving.
  3. Look for communication style and red flags like poor communication, lack of awareness, and negativity during career history interviews to assess candidate suitability.

Open Thread: The American Job Search

The Recovering Academic • 336 implied HN points • 11 Aug 23
💼 Business Job Market Networking Career development Employment Trends Workplace dynamics
  1. Networking is crucial in the job search process, building relationships can open doors that skill acquisition or a polished resume cannot.
  2. The American job market is tough, especially without relevant industry experience, it's essential to show yourself compassion during this challenging time.
  3. The idea of meritocracy in the workplace faces challenges, where personal connections sometimes matter more than hard work alone.

How to ascend progressive organizations

Becoming Noble • 338 implied HN points • 29 Dec 22
🎭️ Culture Workplace dynamics Social relationships
  1. Be clear on why you're at work: earn money, build a career, provide for your family - not to convert others politically.
  2. Understand your woke colleagues: they can be extreme but can also be good-natured. Forge genuine relationships and avoid unnecessary conflicts.
  3. Focus on being virtuous, charming, and skilled at your job. Avoid confrontations, be irreplaceable, and be prepared to switch tactics if confronted about woke issues.

On The Fear Culture

Castalia • 259 implied HN points • 27 May 23
🎭️ Culture Workplace dynamics Psychology Societal norms Hierarchy
  1. In many workplaces, fear drives people's actions more than money. People often act scared to maintain their status and avoid losing prestige.
  2. The culture of fear in organizations can lead to conformity and a lack of courage among employees. This leaves many feeling hollow and unable to stand up for their values.
  3. When organizations face crises, their true fragility is revealed. Those who have climbed the corporate ladder through fear often struggle to uphold their institutions' values when challenged.

Life, the UX-verse and Everything

Far From the Valley • 359 implied HN points • 12 Jan 23
🎭️ Culture Workplace dynamics
  1. Work environments can sometimes undermine an individual's efforts and focus on trivial matters over substantial contributions.
  2. Corporate environments may prioritize appearance and perceptions over the actual quality of work, leading to a sense of demoralization.
  3. Despite entering the field with a desire to make a positive impact, many individuals in the UX industry face disappointment due to leadership priorities and the lack of value placed on meaningful work.

You Seem Too High in Openness!

Optima & Outliers • 19 HN points • 14 Jun 24
💼 Business Hiring practices Employee performance Workplace dynamics Talent Acquisition
  1. Personality tests can offer useful insights into hiring, helping to predict how someone might behave in a job. However, they should be used alongside other evaluations, not as the only tool.
  2. It's essential to match job requirements with specific personality traits. For instance, some roles may require traits like agreeableness, while others might benefit from someone who's more assertive.
  3. Not all positive traits are good for every role. Too much of a good trait can become a weakness in different contexts, so interviewers should look for a balance of traits rather than just high scores.

People Won't Work! | #225

Boundless by Paul Millerd • 283 implied HN points • 03 Jun 23
🎭️ Culture Workplace dynamics Personal Growth Life philosophy Well-being Family Dynamics
  1. Some people are not working much at their jobs but are still considered high performers.
  2. Remote work has given people the opportunity to prioritize rest and other activities over traditional work structures.
  3. Good work that is fulfilling and meaningful is important to find, even if it means deviating from the traditional 9-5 work model.

Are LGBTQ Activists Just Nasty People?

Anxiety Addiction & Ascension • 138 implied HN points • 11 Jul 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Gender identity Activism Culture Workplace dynamics Social Issues
  1. LGBTQ activists can be perceived as intolerant and aggressive when enforcing their beliefs on others in professional settings.
  2. The narrative points out the manipulation and power strategies employed by some activists in the LGBTQ community.
  3. The story highlights the increasing polarization and challenges in maintaining tolerance towards diverse perspectives in modern society.

'Luckily, we love tedious work'

imperfect offerings • 119 implied HN points • 24 Aug 23
🚌 Education Workplace dynamics Artificial Intelligence Humanities Critical Thinking
  1. Generative AI may impact the job market, emphasizing marketization over addressing economic and social challenges.
  2. Artificial intelligences may free humans from tedious tasks, but can also lead to uncreative and repetitive work.
  3. AI technologies are evolving, but their impact on graduate job market transformation may not align with initial expectations.

Appreciation is scarce

Connecting Dots • 2 HN points • 02 Sep 24
🎭️ Culture Appreciation Community Value Creation Workplace dynamics Human condition
  1. Appreciation is hard to come by in our work and lives. Many people feel unrecognized for their efforts, especially in the workplace.
  2. Creating value for others is important but can be challenging. It often requires understanding their needs and finding ways to meet them.
  3. We should think of appreciation as a long-term goal, like charging a battery. By focusing on the positives we've achieved and building supportive communities, we can keep ourselves motivated.

The Dialectic of Quiet Quitters and LinkedIn Lunatics

The 21st Century Proletarian • 99 implied HN points • 28 May 23
🎭️ Culture Workplace dynamics Social Behavior
  1. The modern working world is divided between LinkedIn Lunatics (hustle culture enthusiasts) and quiet quitters (disengaged workers), who both suffer personal alienation and economic insecurities.
  2. Both the Lunatics and the quitters lack class consciousness, focusing on individual coping mechanisms instead of collective action for better worker rights.
  3. The emergence of empowered workers through neoliberalism emphasizes optimizing employability and personal control within the capitalist system, impacting how individuals find purpose and meaning in their work.

"A Problem With Authority"—The Person You Think You Are Punching May Not Exist

72 Degrees North • 59 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
💼 Business Management Workplace dynamics Corporate culture Bureaucracy Hierarchy
  1. There may not be people who inherently have a problem with authority, it could be a construct created by workplace environments.
  2. Disobeying authority doesn't necessarily stem from resistance to orders, but could be rooted in impatience, arrogance, or ego.
  3. Corporate hierarchy and authority can sometimes be arbitrary and driven by societal norms rather than individual merit or charisma.

Building a Conflict-Resilient Team

PeopleStorming • 79 implied HN points • 11 Jul 23
💼 Business Conflict resolution Team Management Leadership Workplace dynamics Professional development
  1. Building a conflict-resilient team involves empowering leaders to foster a positive work environment.
  2. Addressing conflicts constructively and with a long-term perspective can improve the overall work environment.
  3. Recruiting everyone in the team to actively participate in resolving conflicts is key, and principles like showing empathy and encouraging open communication play a vital role.

Compromise is the only way to make hybrid stick

Make Work Better • 157 implied HN points • 05 May 23
💼 Business Workplace dynamics Remote work Corporate culture AI Impact
  1. Compromise is essential to make hybrid work successfully in organizations.
  2. Stricter office time policies are being implemented by some organizations to foster teamwork and connectedness among employees.
  3. Younger workers may be facing challenges with remote work, such as lack of feedback and understanding workplace norms.

The Heron

Banana Peel Pirouette • 59 implied HN points • 28 Sep 23
🎭️ Culture Personal Stories Social Issues Workplace dynamics Friendship Life Changes
  1. The story involves a detailed recounting of a chaotic night at a craft beer and sandwich shop, highlighting the challenges of dealing with demanding customers and managing work responsibilities.
  2. The protagonist navigates personal struggles, including a strained relationship, job changes, and financial difficulties, showcasing the complexities of balancing work and personal life.
  3. The narrative touches on themes of workplace dynamics, loyalty, and growth, as the protagonist reflects on past experiences and transitions to a new bartending job while adjusting to life changes.

The Donkey, Fox, Sheep, & Owl | LSW#43

The Leading Sapiens Weekly • 30 implied HN points • 15 Feb 24
💼 Business Workplace dynamics Leadership Organizational Behavior Career development Human Resources
  1. Everyone has some level of political awareness in the workplace, but it varies in understanding and application.
  2. Reading involves understanding the external world and organization, while carrying focuses on ethical behavior versus manipulation.
  3. Owls are wise in politics, balancing awareness, integrity, and interpersonal skills.

Burning Time

The Radar • 19 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
💼 Business Management Leadership Workplace dynamics Time management
  1. Unpaid time theft from employees is normalized in business culture, but it's essentially stealing from them.
  2. Leaders need to proactively manage and respect their employees' time to avoid burnout and ensure mutual respect.
  3. Time is a valuable asset for everyone, not just senior leaders, and should be honored and acknowledged in all aspects of work.