Category Archives: External links

#185 Being likable and memorable

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The protagonist in the movie The Hunger Games is heading for an event where only one person will return alive. She receives two important bits of advice which seemingly have nothing to do with defending herself in a fight:

  • Be likable.
  • Be memorable.

The movie is well made and seems horrifyingly real. For many co-workers, and perhaps even you, every day seems like the Hunger Games. No one dies, but the psychological bruises accumulate on a daily basis. While it is important to have tangible skills to survive and excel in the modern workplace, most people are in the survival mode. There is no energy left to be likable or be memorable.

The armchair psychologist will observe that it is not reasonable to expect those in the first level of Maslow’s hierarchy to behave as if they are in the fourth or fifth level. Is that true because the data tells us so? Or is it true because that has become the Golem effect?

If even faced by the most catastrophic event of your life, why is it so hard to try and be likable and memorable? I don’t claim it is easy, I am just curious.

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#184 Barriers to engagement

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As Benjamin Franklin has said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

You get excited by the possibilities and reach out your co-workers to involve them in your ideas. You are stunned and frustrated by the stonewalling and resistance. Then you are overcome by curiosity, after all, it is highly unlikely that Ben was wrong. Besides, it makes perfect sense.

Then it dawns on you to ask whether Ben ever explained how to involve him. You look at the diverse stakeholders in your workplace, wonder how you will figure out how to involve each and every one of them, and think to yourself, “this is a lot of work.”

Fortunately for us, the steps to involve and engage have been documented for us (here is one example, here is another). Yes, it is all about managing change.

The key point here is, involvement for involvement’s sake is a waste of time. There is a business goal in the workplace, make that your end game and involve/engage your co-workers towards that end. This will work best when it is not be about you or your ego, and when you are open to ideas that will achieve business goals faster, cheaper, and better.

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