Smarter, Faster, Better

MOTIVATION
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> Prerequisite to motivation is believing we have the authority over our actions and surroundings
> More likely to complete difficult tasks if posed as decisions rather than commands
    >> Easy way to get people/you to do stuff. CREATE A CHOICE. ANY CHOICE. 
> Locus of control 
> Unexpected compliments to people make them believe in themselves
> Make a chore into a meaningful decision, and motivation will find you. 
> Congratulate people for self-motivation 

TEAMS
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> Project Oxygen by People Analytics
    >> A good manager is a 
        1. Good coach 
        2. Empowers and does not micromanage 
        3. Expresses interest and concerns over subordinate's success and well-being 
        4. result-oriented
        5. Listens and shares information 
        6. Helps with career development 
        7. has clear vision and strategy 
        8. Has technical expertise 
> Successor was Project Aristotle. 
    >> All ideas are explored, regardless of team dynamics and validity of idea at first glance. 
    >> Sense of togetherness when encouraging people to take a chance. 
    >> But how do you convince people to feel safe while also encouraging them to be willing to disagree? 
        >>> Let everyone speak roughly the same amount - equal distribution in conversational turn-taking 
        >>> High social sensitivity - knew how team members felt; test using Reading the mind in the eyes test
        >>> Best way to promote psychological safety in a team is demonstration by a team leader
            !!! Show each of them I'm treating them different
            !!! Show EVERYONE I'm treating them different 
    >> HOW a team works is more important than WHO the team has 
    >> 5 Key norms 
        1. Believe that the work is important 
        2. Feel that their work is personally meaningful 
        3. Need clear goals and defined roles 
        4. Need to know that they can depend on one another 
        5. Psychological safety 
    >> How do team leaders do these?
        1. Do not interrupt. 
        2. Summarize and repeat
        3. Should admit what they don't know 
        4. Shouldn't end meeting until everyone has spoken once 
        5. Encourage people to express frustration. 
        6. Encourage people to respond in non-judgemental ways 
        7. Call out intergroup conflicts and resolve using open discussion
    >> A team becomes the amplification of its internal culture, for better or for worse 
        >>> Psychological safety might be less efficient in the short term, but more effective in the long run
        >>> When we express concern vocally and show them we care, we have a stronger bond, rather than pretending everything's okay

FOCUS 
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> Cognitive tunneling - a mental glitch that occurs when our brains are forced to transition abruptly from RELAXED AUTOMATION to PANICKED ATTENTION
    >> Avoid by creating LOTS of "mental models" and imaginary scenarios so you can handle it when it happens IRL 
    >> Will help avoid information overload too 
> Have a healthy load of projects (not too much, not too less, perhaps about 5 at a time). Choose wisely
    >> Choose projects that do not leverage on existing knowledge but force you to seek out new colleagues and pick up new abilities 
    >> Exposed to emerging markets, learned something from the smart ones (junior AND senior), and could later claim ownership of ideas by being present in a room when it was born 
    >> Obsessed about the world, and would try and explain it to themselves and their colleagues as they went about their day 
    >> INTERVIEW PROTIP: Narrative sayers = habit of imagining and connecting the dots 
> "You can't delegate thinking." !!!

GOAL SETTING 
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> High need for CLOSURE can be dangerous, as they are less likely to reconsider bad decisions 
> SMART systems force people to translate vague aspirations into concrete plans 
    >> But make sure the plans are worth pursuing in the first place. 
> Complement with STRETCH goals 
//Aside: Proximal goals

MANAGING OTHERS
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> Lean manufacturing
    >> Every person in an organization has the right to be the company's top expert in something  
    >> GM + Toyota = NUMMI case 
> Company models 
    1. Star culture 
        - hire superstars from elite unis, give them a huge amount of autonomy 
        - conventional wisdom: safest bet 
    2. Engineering Culture 
        - Focused on solving tech problems, similar background/mindset 
        - future stars
    3. Bureaucracy 
        - the thick rank of middle managers
    4. Autocracy 
        - all the rules, laws, goals and shiz point to the will of ONE person
    5. Commitment culture 
        - Believe that getting the culture right was more important than rolling out the best product 
        * ZERO failures
        * FASTEST to go public 
        * Highest profitability
        * LEANER
        * SLow hiring rate, employees excel at self-direction 
        * Cares about welfare and happiness of employees first, rather than money 
        "Good employees are usually the hardest assets to find. When everyone sticks around, you have a pretty strong advantage."
> Agile Software Development 
    >> Collaboration 
    >> Frequent testing 
    >> Rapid iteration 
    >> Pushing decision making to whoever was closest to the problem 
    "What is the point of hiring smart people, if you don't empower them to fix what is broken?"
    * Anyone closest to the problem was considered the expert
    * But anyone, regardless of rank, was encouraged to make suggestions
> A culture of commitment and trust isn't a magic bullet. It won't sell a bad idea. But it'll make sure the environment is there when a great idea comes along. 
    >> There are good reasons do NOT decentralize authority. 
        >>> Risks involved 
        >>> In the long run, the benefits outweigh the costs. 
//Oh, I'm glad I caught you on your way to lunch. - feels important and lives up to it 
        
DECISION MAKING
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> Losing isn't necessarily a loss. It's an experiment. 
> Probabilistic thinking. UCB Statistics course for people. Teaching people the basics boosts their performance. 
> "Probabilities are the closest thing to fortune-telling. Bue, you have to be strong enough to live with what they tell you might occur." - Howard
> ??? Bayes' Rule
    >> Base rate
    >> Adjust according to observations
    >> BUT have to start with the 
> Engineering Design Process thrives on data - and is good for making decisions
> Imagine multiple futures

INNOVATION
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> Resistance is inevitable 
> Take proven, conventional ideas and transfer it to new fields
> Innovation brokers, intellectual middlemen - creativity as an import-export business
> Take stuff from your OWN life and solve the problems
    >> Often in an emotional state during the click. 
    >> Creative desperation 
> When you solve the "Big problem" in a project, the tension disappears and everyone starts thinking along the same lines. BAD. 
    >> Strong ideas, even the bad ones, do this when they are rooted strong. DETACHMENT REQUIRED.
> Fostering Creativity 
    1. Pay attention to how things make you feel 
    2. Panic and desperation is good for creativity sometimes 
    3. Critical to maintaining distance from what you create, so you don't get consumed by your idea
> Feeling scared is a good sign
> Come up with ANY idea and test it. 

ABSORBING DATA
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> Start manipulating information painfully by hand - healthy DISFLUENCY 
> There's a difference between finding an answer and understanding what it means 
> Quality of decisions go up as more info comes in, and then it dips at a point. Info overload. 
> Winnowing, scaffolding - mind palaces. 
> Disfluency gets rid of information blindness
> Initial framing changes decisions reaaaallly well 
> Give people new decision-making process to improve absorption AND creativity