Friday Faves is our weekly blog series highlighting a few select pieces from the REG team’s reading lists. You can catch up on past Friday Faves on the archive. 

Much anew about ‘nudging’

Anne says: It’s likely you’ve read Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, first published in 2008 by Harvard professor Cass Sunstein and University of Chicago professor Richard Thaler. The theories underpinning nudging inform many behavioural insights and economic principles. If you’re not familiar with it, don’t worry, there’s a new edition out, with an update – the authors are calling it the Final Edition.

This article is an interview with the authors by McKinsey and includes a couple of short video nugget style explanations. Maybe start with the videos (I did), it nudged me to read the article further and pay attention to particular aspects.

The contextual positioning, what isn’t a nudge, makes me wonder why we use these strategies?

“A tax isn’t a nudge. A subsidy isn’t a nudge. A mandate isn’t a nudge. And a ban isn’t a nudge. A warning is a nudge.”

And then there’s sludge – processes that create barriers to decision-making.

The use or role of technology in decision-making, as a nudge mechanism is commonly used – most fitness apps or wearables use some kind of nudge architecture within their apps. But of course, marketing deploys nudge strategies to push their products. However, that’s almost too simple, the authors are more focused on methods for reducing sludge within organisations. It reminds me that the design principles for process related apps or internal collaboration, communications or learning strategies could be enhanced with a more nudge, less sludge approach!

I have this book on my To Read List – in fact, reading this article, then writing about it, has nudged me to make sure I reread it with a new lens on the technology influences, paying attention to some of that sludge!

Read: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/much-anew-about-nudging

The endless digital workday

Jakkii says: This was a great read on asynchronous workplaces, traditionally more the bastion of global teams and organisations but something we’re seeing explored more and more in terms of flexibility and the hybrid workplace. What does it mean to work and work together when you’re not only not co-located, you don’t work at the same time?

I’ll leave it to you to read the article to explore the data they looked at and what they found from it, but they did also share four key lessons for managers:

  • Making time to be together

  • Not forcing overlap

  • Not micromanaging schedules

  • Letting people log off

They also suggest creating a digital charter that is, in effect, a living document, changing and evolving with the team as you learn and grow.

It isn’t always easy to work asynchronously, but with shared understanding of expectations, agreed guidelines, a solid team culture and clear communication, for many tasks and many work types you can make asynchronous teamwork only work for you, too. If you’d like to talk more about distributed teams and asynchronous work, get in touch! We’d love to chat with you.

Read: https://hbr.org/2021/08/the-endless-digital-workday

At home

Jakkii says: Whether you’re in lockdown, under restrictions or just minimising your outings and movements, here’s another short list of things to do at home to keep you occupied while you’re staying safe and staying well. Hang in there!

Friday Fives

Hybrid workplace and the future of work

Remote work and the digital workplace

Communication, collaboration, engagement, and culture

Community management, moderation and misinformation

Privacy and data

Big Tech, tech and regulation

Social media

Extras

This is interesting: The surprising benefits of talking to strangers

Things that make you go hmmm: He thought he could outfox the gig economy. He was wrong

Space: For hackers, space is the final frontier

Podcast: Building successful hybrid teams

Friday playlist: This week, travel from your couch with this Made in Colombia playlist


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