• A REMINDER OF KEY BUSINESS ARENAS WHICH NEED PERIODIC REVIEW & UPDATE TO ENSURE OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE AND PROTECTION:  Clarity in Goals, Objectives & financial expectations, with Consensus among partners & key team; Accounting & Administrative Controls; Risk management; Technology infrastructure & Cybersecurity; Operational Effectiveness (remembering the Murphy’s Law that if anything can go wrong, it will, and that there often seems no time to do it right, but always find  time to do it over…).  DCG can help optimize productivity, profitability, stability, and achievement of Goals.

 

  • PROCRASTINATION CAN BE DETRIMENTAL TO PRODUCTIVITY, BUT ISN’T NECESSARILY A BAD THING. For many procrastinators, the pressure of a task they put off can cause a brain shift into stress mode and impact performance, like missing deadlines. But when tasks can be perceived and pursued as just a series of ‘manageable steps,’ it can make procrastination an ‘emotional regulation problem’ instead of a pressuring time management problem. Over 40% of anyone’s average workday has been measured as based on habitual actions which rely solely on willpower to complete, so which people turn to phones or other excuses for quick dopamine hits. But other strategies – like quick walks or even just standing & stretching for short periods – can re-energize stamina, converting procrastination into the natural rhythms of the brain, and benefiting productivity. An interesting perspective: https://www.success.com/can-procrastination-boost-productivity-creativity/ 

 

  • LATEST RESEARCH STUDIES ON COFFEE GIVE VERY MIXED RESULTS. The seemingly good news: (1) Some compounds can reduce inflammation and cell damage caused by the chemical process of oxidation; (2) One study of 46,000 adults found that participants drinking 1 to 3 cups daily, as long as with less than a teaspoon of cream or half-teaspoon of sugar, were 15% less likely to die during the next decade than those who consumed none.  (3) Parkinson’s patients who consumed coffee regularly progressed more slowly than those who abstained; (4) post-menopausal women who claimed to drink 3 or 4 cups daily were significantly less likely to develop breast or liver cancer than women who said they drank up to two cups. On the other hand, the bad news: (5) Ingesting more than 400 milligrams daily (an espresso contains around 60) led to headaches, nervousness, irritability, muscle tremors, insomnia, anxiety and increased blood pressure.  [ECONOMIST]

 

  • NEARLY SEVEN-IN-TEN COMPANIES NOW USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS FOR WORK, but 75% of workers don’t believe their employers strongly support A.I. use, supply tools, training, or clear workplace guides. Latest survey of over a thousand senior business & technology execs found only 14% have aligned their workforce, technology and growth goals, with nearly half reporting that “most of their employees are resistant or even openly hostile to A.I.” (Highest levels of preparedness were in banking financial services and insurance sectors; lowest were in healthcare). The key barriers to A.I. adoption are: (1) organizational change management, (2) lack of employee trust in artificial intelligence, and (3) workforce skills gaps (reported as challenges by 60%). “In general, employers don’t understand workers’ A.I.-related training needs, and lack knowledge of how to implement training programs, which can hinder them from creating robust upskilling plans, and result in struggling with the transformation, just expecting works to proactively adapt to A.I.”  [HRDIVE.COM]

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

  •  “The notion that women are more talkative than men has become a pervasive fixture in gender difference arguments.” Latest analysis of over 630,000 ambient audio recordings by 2,200 participants did confirm this – finding, on average, 18% more overall words spoken by women per day.  However, for women aged 25 to 64, the excess was only 12%.  Strangely, overall average for both was around 13,000 words daily, but with wide variation of between 100 and 120,000 words spoken.  
  •  Notice that songs are getting shorter? Hits from the 70s & 80s were six or seven minutes long (like Hey Jude, Hotel California). By 1990, they average Billboard Hot 100 were down to 3½ minutes, and Spotify says that half of songs this summer will be below 3 minutes. Why? The economics of streaming – artists are paid each time played, as long as a listener tunes in for at least 30 seconds. So shorter the song = more streams, and music-makers now focus on brief intros with early chorus. Shortest so far on Billboard is 34 seconds.  [ECONOMIST]
  •  “The material we put in our stomachs contributes to misery for many. Soft drinks corrode the stomach lining, Chinese food is loaded with MSG, high fat diets can be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long-term harm caused by germs in our drinking water. But there is one thing that may be the most dangerous of all — Wedding Cake…”  [ANON]