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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.
April Fool’s is upon us once again
Jakkii says: Happy April Fool’s Day!
In a group of social media and community managers I’m in, this tweet sparked an interesting bit of debate between those who think there’s no such thing as a good April Fool’s joke, and those who think they’re great (or, at least, that they can be, when done well). It’s an interesting conundrum for a brand/business – get involved and lean into the risk, or just avoid it altogether?
Like anything, I don’t think there’s one right answer, and in each case you’d need to consider your business, your customers and audience, and whether the joke is goodnatured or whether it’s punching down or is otherwise potentially offensive (which, it could be argued, would not constitute a joke in the first place). Of course, these are also things to think about any time you’re creating and posting content, especially if it veers into the ‘jokey’ space.
For those that do wade into the day, or like seeing what companies are doing today, Mumbrella has a brief round-up of some of this year’s April Fool’s Day posts, which you can check out at the link below. I think they all fairly fit the brief of being lighthearted and aiming for fun – and a couple of them are products I suspect at least some people would actually buy!
A couple of my favourites are SEEK’s news office on Mars (as seen in the pic above), and RedBalloon’s Pawsome Pet Experiences (below). Visiting their website from the link, I scrolled through the list and moved my cursor over the ‘shop all animal experiences’ button, which prompted a big red pop up to tell me I’d been had by an April Fool’s Day joke. A shame, really, because ‘puppergliding’ sounded kind of fun!
Did you see any great April Fool’s Day posts today? Send them my way! I’d love to check them out.
Read: https://mumbrella.com.au/april-fools-day-2022-round-up-here-we-go-again-731149
The neuroscience of trust
Jakkii says: This article is a few years old now, but in the current climate of much more widespread remote work and the uptake of hybrid work environments, it seems as relevant as ever. Trust is critical in remote, hybrid and asynchronous workplaces and it is as much a widespread cultural issue as it is a team-based and leadership issue.
The author discusses why it’s meaningful, including some statistics, and gives a brief overview of ‘what’s happening in the brain’ (i.e., the neuroscience). The piece then goes on to look at how to manage for trust, providing a framework for managers to create and maintain high-trust environments. This includes:
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Recognising excellence;
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Inducing “challenge stress”;
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Giving people discretion in how they do their work;
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Enabling job crafting;
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Sharing information broadly;
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Intentionally building relationships;
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Facilitating whole-person growth; and
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Showing vulnerability.
It’s a great read, and I think it offers some useful guidance for managers who want to build trust within their teams and with their employees. What do you think? Let me know in the comments or on social media.
Read: https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-neuroscience-of-trust
Friday Five
Five links you might find interesting this week:
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The bizarre story of how a hardcore Texas leftist became a frontline Putin propagandist
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Researchers develop acoustic wireless charging technique capable of charging electronic implants
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Love and logins: Who gets custody of passwords in a breakup?
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Russia’s diabolical new approach to spreading misinformation
Sydney Business Insights – The Future, This Week Podcast
From our colleagues at the University of Sydney Business School, this week podcast hosts Dr Sandra Peter and Professor Kai Riemer discuss the issue of the world’s leading suppliers of neon are in Ukraine, and that threatens to make the ongoing microchip shortage even worse.
Listen: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/neon-and-chip-shortages/
