1: Imagine participating in a stressful group task where we compete with strangers in a mock job interview and tests of cognitive ability. The study maximizes two aspects of stress: the pressure to perform and the threat of being compared with others, Kelly McGonigal shares in The Upside of Stress.
Immediately afterward, we play the Trust Game. We are given $100. The other player, a total stranger, is given zero dollars. If … continue reading
1: Imagine participating in a stressful group task where we compete with strangers in a mock job interview and tests of cognitive ability. The study maximizes two aspects of stress: the pressure to perform and the threat of being compared with others, Kelly McGonigal shares in The Upside of Stress.
Immediately afterward, we play the Trust Game. We are given $100. The other player, a total stranger, is … continue reading
1: We’ve got it all wrong.
We’ve been taught that stress is bad for us.
This belief is harmful, Kelly McGonigal argues in The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It: “The best way to manage stress isn’t to reduce or avoid it, but rather to rethink and even embrace it.”
The fight-or-flight survival instinct is part of our stress … continue reading
1: What gets measured gets done.
Last Friday we looked at the benefits of radical transparency. At PCI, we are big believers in metrics. We believe in sharing financial and other operational information with our associates unless there is a business reason not to.
One of the key metric we report on each quarter is the number of gratis publications our associates have given away.
What?!?
Yes. Each day … continue reading
We are living longer. A lot longer. Worldwide, the average lifespan is now 71.6 years. Infant mortality is down. Way down. Everywhere across the world, writes Steven Pinker in Enlightenment Now.
Which brings up two questions:
1: Is the increase in life expectancy due mostly to the reduction in infant mortality?
No.
Those of us who survive the difficulties of childbirth and childhood live longer than our … continue reading
1: Consider this fact: Well into the 19th century, in Sweden, one of the world’s wealthiest countries, between a quarter and a third of all children died before their fifth birthday. And, in some years the death toll was close to 40%, Steven Pinker shares in his powerful book Enlightenment Now.
This week we are continuing our review of the incredible progress human beings have made following the Industrial … continue reading
1: Quick question: What do you think is the life expectancy for the average person alive in the world today?
“Bear in mind,” Steven Pinker writes in his brilliant book Enlightenment Now, “the global average is dragged down by the premature deaths from hunger and disease in the populous countries in the developing world, particularly by the deaths of infants, who mix a lot of zeroes into the average.”… continue reading
Many people are convinced we live in the worst of times.
Writing in 2018, Harvard Professor and Enlightenment Now author Steven Pinker wrote: “At the time of this writing, my country is led by people with a dark vision of the current moment: ‘mothers and children trapped in poverty . . . an education system which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge . . . and the crime, and the gangs, and … continue reading
1: At PCI, transparency is the default setting.
We share the prior day’s revenue, contract signings, project starts, and Net Promoter Score (NPS) every day at our daily, all-operations huddle and on our Intranet.
Everyone in the company has access.
We share our Year-to-Date Income Statement at our Quarterly Business Meeting which includes all of our associates.
Each quarter we also present our 10-year vision, 3-year picture, 1-year plan, and … continue reading
1: We think the choices we make each day are the result of well-considered decisions.
The science tells us otherwise. “A Duke University researcher found that more than 40 percent of the actions people performed each day weren’t actual decisions, but habits,” writes Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit.
“At one point, we all consciously decided how much to eat and what to focus on when we got to the … continue reading
