Work clubs say productivity improves when you have a buddy. This has become a problem from remote workers, who miss the interactions of nearby co-workers in the office. There is a new trend of ventures coming into fruition: transforming remote work into a group activity. Many people get more work accomplished where there is no distraction at home, but feel more motivated in the workplace surrounded by peers. Start-ups like Focusmate are trying to solve this problem. This start-up features fifty minute video sessions with randomly assigned partners. For $4 a month, users have unlimited access to the program, which can be an asset for people with deficit hyperactivity disorder. Read More >>
Category Archives: Lifestyles
Ready For Meat Grown From Animal Cells? A Startup Plans A Pilot Facility
Memphis Meats, a California based company, plans to build a pilot production facility to grow meat from animal cells. They have funds raised from high-profile investors including Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Kimbal Musk, as well as two giant players in the animal protein and feed space: Cargill and Tyson Foods. The company says its latest funding round has brought in $161 million in new investment. Memphis Meats is still technically made from animals, but helps fight against the environmental impact of livestock agriculture. Read More >>
Your Work Friends and Enemies are Affecting your Performance
Conflict may appear to be two-sided, but this is not usually true. The basis of most conflict at work is tryadic: when there are three parties involved. The third party is often the key to relieving tension and restoring balance. When employees feel socially balanced at work, they tend to perform better. Researchers from Northwestern University, Harvard Business School, and University of California teamed up to discover how social triangles change over time. They ruled relationships into four categories: a friend of a friend is a friend, a friend of an enemy is an enemy, an enemy of an enemy is a friend, and an enemy of a friend is an enemy. If all four rules are satisfied in a tryad, the tryad is balanced. There are two possibilities for this, which are when all three people like each other, and when two friends have a mutual enemy. Balanced relationships are important because employees tend to make better and more profitable decisions than when they are in an unbalanced situation. Read More >>
Why Your Next Brainstorm Should Begin with an Embarrassing Story
New research from the Kellogg school shows that embarrassment can be a gateway to creativity. It turns out that holding cringe-worthy anecdotes back creates an unintentional barrier of self-censorship. “When you have a brainstorming session, what you’re hoping is that people are putting out any idea, without regard to any judgment or evaluation,” says Leigh Thompson, a professor of management and organizations at Kellogg and author of Creativity Conspiracy: The New Rules of Breakthrough Collaboration. Sharing embarrassing stories is also a good way for groups to break the ice, as it creates a humorous space where people are allowed to feel vulnerable. This is opposed to traditional ice-breakers where people share their accomplishments. Adding this sense of pride inevitable turns ice-breakers into a competition. Bragging about one’s accomplishments may be a confidence boost, but it results in a hindering of innovative thinking. Instead of closing people off from each-other, reinforcing funny or embarrassing stories can lead to trust and better performance. Read More >>
In Bed, Bath, or the Bus: The Secret to Solving your Problems
Brainstorming is a task that many people find difficulty in. Humans tend to hit mental blocks when it comes to problem-solving. According to Professor Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, taking breaks from wicked problems could be the key in finding solutions. The idea is that ‘Eureka!’ moments cannot be forced, and many breakthroughs are found while tapping into one’s creativity. According to the Three B’s of Creativity, the best way to receive a solution from out-of the blue, is by being in bed, bath, or on the bus. Dreaming, relaxing, and following routine leads the mind to wander, and gives rise to insight previously not thought of. Read More >>
1st project with limited parking outside downtown
“We want our residents to see life from their doorstep, not stuck behind a windshield,” said Jeff Berens, who founded the San Francisco-based firm Culdesac alongside Ryan Johnson with $10 million in venture capital. The residential township in Tempe, which will be spread across 16 acres near Apache Boulevard and River Road, that is expected to open in 2020 will be the first apartment that will have no car parking for residents in the US. It will be opened to renters from Smith-Martin light-rail stop in fall 2020 and The $140 million worth project will have scooters, bicycles and some ride-sharing cars and also plans to offer residents of the 636 apartment’s deals on light rail, buses, and rides with Uber or Lyft in order to promote carpooling and usage of public transport in order to mitigate traffic. the developers believe that the Millenials will welcome this move as they are less careless and they are the generation that will choose to not own cars and would want to save on transportation costs. The Tempe city officials waived its parking requirements in order to accommodate the development project. The Review panel plans to vote on a zoning map amendment and development plan review for the first phase of the project in December. Read More>>
The science behind collective intelligence
A study carried on 19.9 million scientific papers and 2.1 million patents generated over 5 decades shows that teams produce more work than individuals do and the teams are getting bigger over time, It was further observed that these teams produced work that was more often cited than the work of an individual. It is strange that the team have a combined level of intelligence known as collective intelligence which is not really the sum of all intellects on the team. A study on collective was carried out on various teams by involving the members in solving visual puzzles, brainstorming and other exercises. It was concluded that teams performed better when the members were more perceptive to their teammate’s feelings and opinions, It also suggests that with more women on the team the success rate improved because woman are more perceptive and when turns were given to all the members to speak out rather than being dominated, teams performed significantly better. Thus it becomes imperial that a manager assembles and handles his team in order to reap the benefits of all the individual talents. Read More>>
5 Habits that make you a successful Entrepreneur
There is no defined path to be a successful Entrepreneur and no one has ever done it the same way twice. Every entrepreneur has to make his own tough decisions and set their priorities. But, there are certain things if unchecked leads to a definite failure no matter the hard work or clever strategies followed. The serial entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson who has succeeded in diverse fields shared his five-part formula for success irrespective of the business.
- Create something that is useful and would benefit society as a whole.
- Keep your brands pitch dead simple.
- Put yourself out there for the world to see and potentially laugh at.
- Adapt to social media marketting.
- Genuinely Believe and love what you do. Read More>>
Friction is essential!
“The lion that is desperate for the meal is going to be a lot more focused and smarter than the one that isn’t worried,” says Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Farm. The above statement is a counter-argument to the advantages of the services offered by Epic Entrepreneur House in San Diego, At Epic we can see aspiring entrepreneurs working on ideas that could disrupt industries without being distracted. Here dry-erase boards line all the walls of the house and also an in house chef prepares all the meals. The prearranged social events make it possible that the friends of all those in EPIC visit them regularly. The dangerous road that was once walked alone by founders many years ago is now completely paved and lit up, this includes outsourcing of various supplementary tasks easier and with websites providing info on almost everything an entrepreneur needs such as how to pitch, what to wear and how to find VC’s makes it possible that one can start a bussiness all by himself. However, This is not welcomed by many experienced startup founders. Read More>>
What Is a Design-Centric Culture?
Large Organisations that have put design at the centre of the enterprise are undergoing major shift with respect to design, The shift is not with respect to the aesthetics but rather on the application of design principles to the approach employes take to solve a problem. This modified approach comes as a response to the complexity faced by industries in integrating the software to the hardware and also in trying to make the users experience a simple and comfortable one. Design Thinking basically emphasizes on these factors;
- Focusing on the emotional experience of the user.
- Creating alternate models to examine the complicated problems.
- Using prototyping to obtain other potential solutions.
- Leveraging failure as learning and as a cost for innovation.
- Show thoughtful self-control.Read More>>
InnoTrepTech 