Civility

March 21, 2021

Never Let Them See You Sweat

Emotions do not start and stop. Emotions are continuous interpretations of our world. In the 1970s Walter Mischel’s studies demonstrated our ability to control our impulses has a huge impact on our entire life. Children who were able to postpone gratification of one marshmallow for the reward of two marshmallows if they could wait fifteen minutes scored 200 points higher on their SATs a decade later. Self-control allows us to make responsible choices when faced with other appealing short-term options. Trying to hide your feelings from someone is called expressive suppression. Studies show suppression is distracting because it requires having […]
February 14, 2021

Validate Your Fatigued Workforce

Pandemic fatigue is upon us as we start our second year of working and living under the cloud of COVID-19. Many companies that have survived are focused on doing the work. Focused may be the wrong term since lack of focus is one result of the fatigue. The pandemic has muddied work boundaries.  Workweeks and workloads have increased as have employees struggling with anxiety, depression, and burnout. Gallup’s recent report, Employee Burnout: Causes and Cures demonstrated workweeks that average more than 50 hours significantly increase burnout, and there is another substantial rise in burnout at 60 hours. A study by […]
January 8, 2021

Keys to Behavior Change

Desired change means it is something people want to do. This is Fogg Maxim #1: Help people do what they already want to do. Understanding Behavior Design is the first step to achieving any desired change. BJ Fogg, PhD, explains Behavior Design in his book Tiny Habits as B=MAP; Behavior equals Motivation, Ability and Prompt. These three elements must happen at the same moment for the behavior to occur. We often rely on motivation or willpower to make changes. The behavior will not last unless the task is easy enough and has a prompt. Fogg uses the terms ability and […]
October 13, 2020

Always On, Exhausted, Getting Out

One in four women are considering leaving work or reducing their career. Many women feel they are doing it all, but not doing any of it very well. Pressures created by the pandemic are causing women to experience certain challenges more than men. These include worrying their performance is being judged because of caregiving responsibilities, feeling the need to be available to work at all hours, feeling blind-sided by decisions that affect their daily work routine, housework and caregiving responsibilities and discomfort in sharing their challenges at work.  Women with children under 10 years old are most likely to leave […]