Hello and welcome to this special edition of The Switchboard. Typically, I feature interviews and best practices. Recently, I’ve been saving great posts from others that I’d like to share.
Once upon a time, a Switchboard Exchange was the central place where telephone calls were connected and information flowed. Similarly, this edition is filled with content that crossed my path and captured my curiosity. I wanted to share these highlights with you in a unique format from my typical edition.
Below are the three themes I focus on in this edition. Learn more in the posts and takeaways.
I never knew the story behind the unintentional invention of Oyster Sauce. It was refreshing to read about this perceived failure transformed into success.
👏 Takeaways: Think differently about making a “mistake.” It may lead in an inspiring direction. Choose your reaction. Learn from The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders.
🚢 Dickie Bush: Make Decisions Easier
Dickie talks about digital writing and personal progress. His newsletter,
When I first got to Amsterdam, I had an environment shock. Suddenly, everything I had once had on autopilot now required a decision: Where I would work...Where I would exercise....Where I would get coffee
And I spent my first two weeks here making them time and time again. 14 days in, it felt like I hadn’t accomplished a single lick of work. Why?
On their own, each of these trivial decisions doesn’t seem like much. But added together, they sucked up all of my cognitive bandwidth.
Unfortunately, most people (my former self included) spend their entire lives this way. They only unlock 20% of their potential because these repeated decisions hog 80% of their brain space. Luckily, I’d built this “decision-eliminating muscle” in the past. So now I’ve settled in and returned to operating with efficiency."
👏 Takeaways: Find the decisions that make your life easier and lean into them.
Stop saying: "How can I improve?” It doesn't work. Instead say this: Giving feedback is scary. Your colleagues don't want to offend you.
To receive valuable feedback, ask narrow questions: • What's one thing I can do to support you? • How can this deliverable be 10% better? • What would make you “love” it instead of just “like” it? • What is confusing about my idea? • Was I saying “like” too much in the meeting?
This gives your team permission to give you honest feedback.
👏 Takeaways: Focus on the specific. Ask better questions to be a better professional.
One of my favorite practices that we did at one of my last companies was to have new, senior hires do a 30-day presentation. The goal was to soak up their "new person eyes" before they lost their fresh perspective.
They would share their observations about their role, their thoughts about what was better/worse than what we said while interviewing them, and any observations about the company or leadership team.
I learned so much from each one, and it always gave me something new to think about or reinforced something I had forgotten.
👏 Takeaways: Reflecting on experiences at set intervals of time can help colleagues.
Nir is a writer, advisor, former VP Audiobooks at Spotify and Co-Founder of Anchor, a podcast platform acquired by Spotify.
When my startup’s team was perhaps only six or seven people, we came up with an idea we called Bowl Talk.
The concept was simple. We had a bowl placed in the office, where anyone could write conversation starters on a sticky note. These ranged from “If you could only eat one fruit for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?” to “Would you rather go 100 years into the past or 100 years into the future?”
Every Friday afternoon, the whole team would stop working and sit in our common area. There was only one rule: Inspired by the prompts, we had to talk to one another for 30 minutes. If there was a lull in the conversation, we’d pull another sticky note and read it out loud.
👏 Takeaways: Ask deep questions to get to know your colleagues. Listen to better understand their stories.
Robin is a facilitator and coach for :healthcare, public health, nonprofits, and government.”
When I facilitate a retreat or offsite, my favorite tool to bring is a bowl of tiny giraffes.
I work with a lot of teams that have great norms. They're generally polite and well-intentioned.
Sometimes, that also means that it's hard to surface disagreements. That it's hard for someone to say the thing that no one else in the room is saying. That it's hard for someone to raise a point that they expect will be unpopular.
So my favorite tool is this bowl of tiny giraffes. At just over an inch tall each, they have an impact well beyond their size.
Richard is Worldwide Head of EPIC @ Amazon Web Services and Founder of EQ@Amazon.
At Amazon, each of us is expected to be a leader, so why not be an inspiring one? The cool thing is that everyone can make a difference. You may not change an entire org of thousands, but you can certainly make an impact on your team and your colleagues. You all have a sphere of influence, and you can maximize your impact within that sphere. Once you do, there is a good chance your sphere will grow. I've seen it happen over and over.
Just look at what's happened with the EQ@Amazon Affinity Group. It started with a couple of people (me and David Murray) sharing EQ skills with their colleagues and friends. Now it's a community of practice that has trained over 300,000 Amazonians. And beyond that, the effort evolved into the EPIC program that has brought social-emotional leadership skills to over 45,000 AWS customers and counting, helping them be more innovative, higher-performing, and more human-centered.
👏 Takeaways: Take culture seriously. Dream big about the ways it can transform your career and your colleagues, even if it’s not something you focus on full-time, you can make an impact.
Suzanne is Head of Colleague Engagement at the LEGO Group.
It's Play Day! A day that's unique to the LEGO Group where we all down tools and spend time together focusing on play. What a special place to work!
Me preparing my OOO autoreply for today… 💭✍🏻
👏 Takeaways: Make time to be creative and space to think. Have fun with your out of office!
A Poll for Your Thoughts
That’s it for the first full edition of The Switchboard Exchange. What did you think? I appreciate your advice: should I publish a future edition like this? Vote below within the week.
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If you have a recent post that’s captured your curiosity, nominate it for a future feature. You’ll receive recognition in that edition. Reply to this email or message me.
Thanks for tuning into this edition of The Switchboard. I appreciate you letting me know if this article resonated — give it a heart, comment below or share it on LinkedIn. Since this content came from LinkedIn, I’m also sharing it via a special edition newsletter there. Signing off for this edition. — Julia
