In this month's "Granted" newsletter, Adam Grant brings us articles about: the important of "deep fun" for an engaged work environment, new thinking on the importance of will power, why you should deliver bad news first, why people really quit their jobs and key trait that Einstein, da Vinci and Steve Jobs had in common. Click on each article title to read more. You can subscribe to the "Granted" newsletter here.
Granted: February 2018
We spend a quarter of our lives at work. It’s time to make all that time worth our time. So I’m launching WorkLife, a new podcast with TED. In each episode, I’ll take you inside the minds of some fascinating people in some truly unconventional places.
They’ve all mastered something I wish everyone else could know—from an award-winning room of TV writers who do creativity under the gun to a basketball team that beats the odds by building a culture of humility. Click here to listen to the trailer, then subscribe below to be the first to listen when it debuts on February 28th.
The best places to work don't need ping-pong and foosball tables; playing games is shallow fun. You want deep fun: working with people who stretch your thinking to solve problems that are novel, hard, and important. 2. Why Willpower Is Overrated A key to self-control: structuring your life so you don't have to use self-control. Good habits let you rely less on willpower.
3. Why You Should Always Deliver the Bad News First When we're giving feedback, we deliver the good news before the bad news, but receivers prefer the opposite. Choose the sequence that lifts people up instead of bringing them down. 4. Force Overtime? Or Go for the Win?
The Eagles won the Super Bowl with some gutsy play-calling. (“Touchdown catch, Nick Foles” is a sentence I never thought I’d hear.) Two days earlier, a team of behavioral scientists foreshadowed why that’s exactly what the evidence favors. If your decisions are motivated by the fear of losing, you’re less likely to win. In the long run, the riskiest way to live is to never take a risk.
From My Desk:
5. Why People Really Quit Their Jobs New data on how great managers keep their people: (1) design meaningful projects, (2) invite employees to use their strengths, and (3) help them move forward at work without taking steps backward at home.
My chat with Walter Isaacson about how a key to creativity is curiosity across disciplines. You don't have to master every subject, but you can appreciate the beauty of it. When Einstein was struggling with calculus, he took out his violin and played Mozart.
If you have any burning questions that you’d love to see us explore in WorkLife, feel free to submit them here (newsletter@adamgrant.net) , then subscribe here to follow along with new episodes as they're released.
I'll be back answering more questions from Wondering next month.
Cheers, Adam
Author of ORIGINALS and GIVE AND TAKE, coauthor of OPTION B, and Wharton professor.
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