LoST KiD ™

Sadly, in business, we all have them: Enemies. Rivals. Adversaries. Foes. They say bad things about us behind our back. They prevent us from succeeding in our work. Or they ignore us, in acts of passive aggression. Whichever M.O. they choose, they make our lives more difficult and decidedly less pleasant. You know who they are. Have a few names in mind? Here’s a bit of advice that will most likely surprise you: What's the quickest way to get one of these archenemies to like you? Answer: Get him to do you a small favor. Let me explain. It sounds counter-intuitive but it can be easily explained by what social psychologists call “Cognitive Dissonance Theory.” The theory maintains that we all try to maintain consistency in our attitudes and behaviors. When we do a person a favor (the behavior), we tend to like him more as a result (the attitude). This phenomenon is also known as "The Ben Franklin Effect." Franklin wrote in his autobiography, "Enemies who do you one favor...

Imagine this scenario: One of your team members has saved the company a significant amount of money with a process she spent weeks creating. It's right before the winter holidays, so you decide to reward her with a turkey that she and her family can enjoy for dinner one night. You make a big deal of presenting the turkey to her. She smiles and shyly accepts the gift, quickly putting it in the office refrigerator. You feel good because you rewarded her efforts, and she seemed to be happy about the recognition. But is she? Things aren't always as they appear. You didn't take the time to find out whether or not she likes turkey, so you didn't discover that she's a vegetarian. And you didn't consider that she commutes to the office one hour by train - so by the time she gets that frozen turkey home to give away to friends, it will be a drippy, soggy mess. Have you ever wondered why the rewards you offer don't seem to be received very well? We often hear from bus...

Have you ever thought about the role that language plays in your corporate culture, your family's culture, or even your regional culture? We develop language shortcuts that are meaningful so that we don't have to keep explaining certain things. We develop common understanding because of the common language we share. Even though we may speak arabic with others, the arabic we use depends on where we live and the culture in which we operate. I remember when I was talking with a person from England like 2 years ago I had to explain why we use the words and phrases we do. Anyone who has ever studied a language other than their native language has had to struggle with the impossibility of translating idiomatic phrases. What is the language of your organization's culture? Many industries have a myriad of acronyms that are completely foreign to outsiders. When I worked in the offshore industry we had countless acronyms and one of our trainers made a project of having people in hi...