How to ‘get off’ at work

Hello and welcome to work.

I had the honor of writing a FT obituary last week to Jane GardamThe English novelist, who was one of my favorite writers.

Thinking about how to talk or write about a life, in the round is always a challenge. And he made me think: What is the workplace in our lives and those of our family and friends? Our careers can play a very important role in the development and maintenance of our identity (and our lifestyle, let’s be honest ). Is the old saying really true that no one goes to his grave wishing to have spent more time in the office? Eager to listen to their experiences and ideas: Isabel.berwick@ft.com.

PD, the Editor of Obituarios de Largo Data of the economist, Ann Wroe, writes the best “lives”. His recent book, Roads, Explore the search for our souls: What makes us unique to each of us?

Stay reading to obtain a new perspective on the role of questions at work and in our lives, and in office therapy I advise a new manager in search of professional development.

Do not hug the uncertainty, overcome the

I think we are all fed up with the brilliant main speaker/Coach-Y/Workfluencer exhortations to “embrace uncertainty.” (I may have been guilty of saying this myself ). It is a useless statement because it is only declaring the obvious; Certainly for anyone who manages or leads in the volatile era of geopolitics (and also workplaces) at this time.

But, as humans, we find difficult uncertainty: we are wired to “try to dissipate the doubt, look for the comforting rock bed of certainty.” So: What can we do in your place? That is the starting point for Elizabeth Weingarten‘The new book, How to fall in love with questions: a new way of prospering in times of uncertainty.

Elizabeth is a behavioral journalist and scientific, and begins her book with a definition based on uncertainty research: “A sense of doubt that stops or delays progress.” Once we have understood this, we can start thinking about how to overcome it. “It is often about addressing uncertainty with curiosity instead of fear, converting that feeling of helplessness and atmosphere that many of us feel, in power,” he told me.

Get “take off” In general, his approach is about doing, then living with the right question for us. We just need to live with one question at a time, and we don’t even have to answer it. (In fact, it is preferable not to hurry to conclusions and binary decisions).

Elizabeth’s inspiration size, in part, of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (I bet you did not expect that class level in this newsletter ). In 1903, he wrote to a younger poet, advising him to look for answers to the great questions of life was not the priority. Instead, “try to love The questions in themselvesas closed rooms. ”

I like the idea that simply finding the right question for our individual situation, and then addressing that, and living with it, gives leaders to the agency at a time when they could be treating simultaneously with (outside my head) interruptions of AI, economic recessions and the effects of taging of political decisions in the US.

Elizabeth gave me ways to rethink the common questions that could be useful to work readers. The key is to address its situation with curiosity, instead of fear and defensive:

When taking risks in an uncertain context, “what happens if we try this and it doesn’t work?” It becomes ‘what possibilities could arise if we try this?’ And if he is thinking about his own leadership approach, rethinking ‘Am I a manager good enough?’ as “how could I begin to identify my strengths and weaknesses so that it can grow?”

Finding the right question for your own situation is the key , Elizabeth told me. Not doing so can be harmful to how you manage your team. “When we are dealing with a sense of fear and threat, if we do not work through that, we could transmit it to the people we work with.” Being more aware of the great questions we face as managers and leaders, ultimately, in Elizabeth’s opinion, “it can actually lead people through uncertainty.”

If you think this sounds too “delicate” for your leadership tastes, don’t be fooled. Elizabeth does not have time for “the charlatans of certainty”, the people who promise definitive responses if registered and follow their course/system/strict yoga practice. We all know that fast and easy answers do not work. But we yearn for them anyway.

• In one word: We do not need “unique” systems to overcome our natural disgust due to uncertainty. Ask a big and relevant question and follow it works much better.

• You want more? I enjoyed watching Elizabeth Weingarten In conversation with Heather Havrilesky (author of the column of the best council in the world, Ask Polly).

Office therapy

The problem: I have been promoted and now a small team, but I have not received management training. I will not get any. What free, or almost free and globally relevant resources for a manager for beginners/self -taught can you recommend?

Isabel Council: This question was sent after a recent work bulletin stressed that, worldwide, only 44 percent of managers said They had received any training. What I suggested is below; Their ideas are very welcome, they send them and I will build a list of resources here and on LinkedIn: Isabel.berwick@ft.com.

*Podcasts I Calify: Fixable By Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, anything for Adam Grant [and his newsletter] and the Chirred races Podcast, in addition to the latter, has free race and management/self -management resources on its website. There is also the Ft working it podcast file: 150 episodes, with many experts who offer management wisdom .

*Amy Edmondson in Harvard is a great writer on management and leadership, and her work in Psychological security It is really important. LinkedIn has an Amy course, and the social media platform has some good learning resources in general, including a New manager certificate.

*In that note, the digital version of the Harvard Business Review It is a great resource, and not expensive.

Insights in the workplace of the US

The AI ​​tools are saving us time, but they are also generating a new problem in the workplace: people who throw away notes generated by the colleagues, creating more work for them .

Kevin Delaney, editor in chief of LetterThe research and research company of the future of work told me that it has experienced this, even with a contact that asked him to review a strategy note of 1,200 words that was clearly written by Genai. Kevin spent time writing an exhaustive response, to which the person never responded. Rude .

Kevin and his colleague Jacob Clemente suggest Standards in the workplace To avoid annoying co -workers when using chatgpt and other AI tools. The most important thing: don’t be the AI ​​intermediary. Just select the best ideas you generate, and when you send them to your colleagues for review, add your own thoughts and evaluations about each one.

Five main stories of the world of work

1. Slaughter and May makes the Junior lawyer pay £ 150,000: The United Kingdom’s law firm has been made public with its decision not to increase wages for newly qualified lawyers, a sign that the talent war in the sector may be cooling, writes Suzi Ring.

2. The arms hiring career is a great disaster for all: The hiring of AI began with employers who seek more efficiency and justice, then the candidates countered with applications promoted by AI, and now everything is a disaster. Sarah O’Connor examines the sad scene and suggests solutions.

3. The emergence of single parents by choice: As more women who have good careers, they choose to have children without a partner, Kate Hodge speaks with “solo parents” about the challenges of keeping working and family life together.

4. Will Wifi work in training? Henry Mance tries to understand why we still can’t get a good wifi on a train: it is expensive and difficult to implement at scale, although there is an element of “be careful with what we want” (looking at it, 5g in the London Metro ).

5. Can you direct a company like a perfect free market? Inside Corp. I cannot believe that I have not read about this before: a large Japanese company executes all its workplace as a free market, using an internal currency called Will. Revealing reports of Harry Dempsey and David Keohane.

One more thing. . .

The cardinals are in Rome so that the conclave chooses a new Pope. According PoliticalSome voters for the first time have been taking guidance: “How crazy that it may seem, some of the 133 high -ranking clergymen who will enter the Sistine Chapel when the conclave begins on Wednesday have looked at the film Ralph Fiennes, titled of Justo Practice Conclave – For advice “. If it is good enough for the cardinals.

View from the top (floor)

As I did not get any excellent photo of IT readers this week*, I will have to please my love for the roof terraces. Last week, I went to the London office of KKR, the private capital group, for a roof reception. We were celebrating the beneficial organization Keepwhich is associated with commercial schools and mentors to equip young people with communication and trust skills. A great cause, and a great sunset .

*Send me your view from your desk. Or do you have an exceptional outdoor space at work? If your photo is published in Work It, I will send you a “lucky sauce” of new management and leadership books: Isabel.berwick@ft.com.