I belong to a small cohort of people who like the same things, listen to the same music, read and share the same damn articles. How do I get new information? Where do I go to find new ideas?
Good questions.
Groupthink is toxic but tough to avoid. At the beginning of my freelance career, I tried to be like Groucho Marx. I refused to join any club that would have me. But now I’ve fallen into a community where almost everybody thinks like one another — even if they say they don’t.
What’s even more complicated is that I like and support most of those opinions and ideas in my community. But it’s hard to tell where my ideas start and others begin.
Also, I’m looking for what’s new and next. Unfortunately, most of us are looking for what’s new and next in the same places — Tier 1&2 media sites, popular podcasts, industry publications, and the same old academics — and from each other. When I look back at the ideas being shared among my peers, we’ve all become a copy of a copy of a copy.
If my goal is to help people fix work in 2020, I’ve got to find new sources of material and inspiration. That means getting off websites where people tell me to “work human” and “have empathy” and finding places where they’re having fresh and raw conversations about sourcing, recruiting, hiring, onboarding, compensation, benefits, diversity, inclusion, equity, belonging, employee experience, succession planning, offboarding, and all the disparate pieces of the employment lifecycle.
Where are those sites? What do you read?
It’s been over six years since we started talking about working human and treating people with empathy. If I read another blog post about the benefits of sleep or the need to be a compassionate leader, I’m going to lose it. And if I read one more post about the “real things you need to do” to be a true business partner, I’m going to get angry.
Nobody wants that, do they? Nah. So help me out and share some fresh ideas in 2020, please? Thank you. I’ll try to do the same.
Laurie
Happy New Year.
I am finding that the intersection of work, politics, and culture provides some interesting material. I have been listening to the Pivot podcast from Kara Swisher and Scot Galloway and the Recode/Decode podcast from Kara Swisher. Both of these podcasts address a lot of interesting workplace issues like the abuse of contract workers, privacy, and what is the societal role of big tech.
I know that the Fox News crowd may have their feathers ruffled with calling out the hypocrisy prevalent in the workplace. That said, many of us will find it refreshing and much needed.
I love finding ideas and influence from industries outside of where I operate.