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THE ONE THING

1. A Phrase That You Should Always Question as a Leader

The phrase “because that’s the way we’ve always done it” is a red flag when analyzing business processes.

Here’s a classic story about monkeys that explains why.

As part of an experiment, researchers placed five monkeys in a large cage. A ladder stood in the middle of the cage, and a banana hung from the ceiling, floating just above the ladder.

When one monkey attempted to climb up, the researchers sprayed all the monkeys with ice-cold water. This discouraged the monkeys, but one of them would try to climb after a few minutes.

Again, the researchers would spray all of them to prevent them from reaching the banana.

After a few attempts, the researchers started noticing that every time a monkey would climb up, the other four monkeys would physically pull it down to avoid getting sprayed.

Eventually, all five monkeys would stop climbing.

The researchers then stopped spraying the monkeys and replaced one with a new monkey that had never been sprayed before. Naturally, the new monkey tried climbing up the ladder, but the others pulled it down.

The new monkey eventually stopped climbing and started joining in this new norm of pulling other monkeys down, although it had no idea why it was doing so.

The researchers gradually replaced all the old monkeys with new ones until they were left with five monkeys pulling each other down (even though none of them had ever been sprayed with cold water).

Why?

“Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

The takeaway

There are actually two takeaways for leaders. The first is to always question why relevant business processes are done a certain way within your organization. And the second is, don’t fear the ladder.

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FUNNY MEMES

3. How Meetings Affect Your Day

This meme is quite popular because many relate to it:

And here’s another one:

Having a meeting in the middle of your workday could significantly decrease the productivity of your entire day.

The takeaway

If possible, encourage having one meeting-free day per week so that you and your team members can focus on work without getting distracted.

THE 80/20

4. An 80/20 Tip You Can Apply Today

Here’s a low-effort, high-impact tip you can use with your team today:

• What: Set clear deadlines for your team’s tasks to increase the chance that they’ll get done

• Why: Tasks that have specific deadlines associated with them develop a sense of urgency and avoid Parkinson’s Law

• Example: “Please send this to me by Wed, Jan 9 at 4 pm US ET” is more effective than “Please send this to me in the next few days.”