Halloween week sounds like a perfect week to donate blood and it is even more so now, thanks to a Central Coast company.

Scarecrow Vampire Fangs have partnered with Vitalant to give blood donors timely thank you gift. All blood donors who give now through Oct. 31 will receive a pair of customizable costume vampire fangs. Scarecrow Vampire Fangs has supplied costume fangs to such movies as Bram Stokers Dracula, Interview with a Vampire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Blade, among others.

Donors can give at the following donation centers and community blood drives:

San Luis Obispo Donation Center 4119 Broad St. #100, San Luis Obispo

Santa Maria Donation Center 1770 S. Broadway, Santa Maria

Los Osos Community Blood Driveat the Grocery Outlet, Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 1 to 6 p.m., 1130 Los Osos Valley Rd.

Arroyo Grande High School Community Blood Drive, Thursday, Oct. 29, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., 495 Valley Rd., Arroyo Grande

Allan Hancock College Community Blood Drive, Thursday, Oct. 29, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 800 S. College, Santa Maria

Oasis Senior Center Community Blood Drive,Saturday, Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 420 Soares Ave., Santa Maria

Canceled Blood Drives Continue During Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, canceled high school and college blood drives make it challenging to maintain a sufficient blood supply for cancer patients and others in need.

Blood donors are increasingly needed at donation centers and community blood drives to make up the shortfall from canceled school blood drives, said Mona Kleman, Senior Manager of Donor Recruitment at Vitalant. Having a great community partner like Scarecrow Vampire Fangs makes donating fun. Were not vampires. But we do need your blood to help save lives.

Vitalant needs to collect over 300 units per day to meet the needs of local patients along the Central Coast.

All Blood Donations are Tested for COVID-19 Antibodies

Vitalant continues to test blood donations for COVID-19 antibodies to find potential donors who could give convalescent plasma in the future. Donors whose blood tests positive for antibodies can help a COVID-19 patient with their plasma, while their other blood components could help a cancer patient, trauma victim or someone with another serious medical condition. Testing positive for antibodies also puts donors on a unique track to donate convalescent plasma regularly and join others as part of the COVID Rescue Team to help even more COVID-19 patients.

How to Donate Blood

To learn more and schedule an appointment to give, visit vitalant.org or call 877-25- VITAL(877-258-4825).

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Scary Good Motivation to Give Blood This Week Atascadero News - The Atascadero News

Bobby Ray Parks Jr.s always strives to be a winner, just like National Basketball Association (NBA) star LeBron James.

Parks, a versatile player like his late father Bobby Ray Sr., is a huge fan of the four-time NBA Most Valuable Player and would like to emulate the LA Lakers aces leadership style for the still undefeated TNT Tropang Giga in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup.

I am definitely a huge fan of LeBron [James] and how he approaches the game. He is one of the greatest minds to play the game, Parks, the Asean Basketball League Most Valuable Player, told BusinessMirror in an online chat.

But the son of the seven-time PBA best import clarified it isnt all about Jamess stats that he admires, but the motivation and desire to win the championship.

I want to give TNT the championship, the way James led his former teamsCleveland and Miamiand recently the Los Angeles Lakers to winning a title, he said.

Its not only about scoring, its about making the right play. Not only that Im inspired by him but also trying to bring back a championship to TNT, said the former NBA D-League (Texas Legends) Parks, noting it wont be easy as the goal comes with a lot of sacrifices.

All I came here to do is to try and help my teammates because they are truly a hard-working and talented group, he said. I just want to make their jobs easier.

And with the way he is playingaverages of 23 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.2 steals after four gameseverythings on track for Parks and TNT, who are a win away from advancing to the quarterfinals.

Parks knows his role, more so his responsibilities.

I definitely have a chip on my shoulder and have a lot to prove. The past few games were just a result of the teams success, he said. By sharing the ball, it found its own energy and it got to the person who was either open or had the best shot possible.

Parks is also glad his teammates and coaches are helping him to find his touch and do better inside the court.

I can do a lot better, and my coaches and teammates are helping me figure out how could I get better on offense and defense, he said. We are still hungry and like I said, more adjustments in order to improve. Our goal is to win the championship.

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Parks draws motivation from LBJ, wants to bring TNT back to throne | Josef Ramos - Business Mirror

Wednesday, October 28th 2020, 12:35 pm

By: CBS News

This election, polls show young people are more motivated than ever to vote.

According to U.S. Census data, only 46% of young people (18- to 29-year-olds) voted in the last presidential election, far lower than any other age group, but this year, a Harvard poll found 63% of young people say they will definitely be voting.

Alyssa Canty does outreach to first-time voters for the non-partisan group Common Cause.

Theyre definitely activated, they definitely enjoy, like, voting early, or either voting by mail, so I think we will definitely see decent turnout, but it may not just be, like, on Election Day, she said.

Imani Bennett, 19, just cast her ballot for the first time.

Im voting, Im really making a difference, my voice will be heard, she said.

The sophomore at Spelman College in Georgia said she sees too many important issues to sit on the sidelines.

Democracy protection, voting rights, healthcare is also important because Im almost, like, an adult in the workforce, Bennett said.

Olivia Siebert, 19, in Madison, Wisconsin, considers voting a responsibility.

My parents raised me that voting is important, and I personally believe that voting is a really important way to exercise your rights within our democracy, she said.

Young people are choosing between the two oldest candidates to ever lead the Democratic and Republican tickets. Bennett and Siebert both expressed that the youth vote seems overlooked.

Politicians are telling us what our needs are, and they arent listening to what we say our needs are, Bennett said.

I think that dismissing young people is a big mistake, I think that we have a lot to offer. It will be our turn and our country soon enough, Siebert said.

The new generation of first-time voters are hoping their turnout numbers this election will make history.

The Harvard poll also found that the economy is the number one issue for young voters.

See the article here:
Poll Shows First-Time Voters Motivated To Vote In 2020 - news9.com KWTV

People and journalist stand near the scene of the knife attack at the Notre Dame church, in Nice, France, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. An attacker armed with a knife killed three people at a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice, the third attack in two months in France. (AP)

There is a problem with the old liberal/secular maxim that terror has no religion. The problem is that it is a lie. All too often, exactly the opposite is true. The terror is committed in the name of religion.

One example of the hollowness of the terror-has-no-religion approach is Thursdays attack in the French city of Nice where one person was beheaded and others were reported killed and injured. According to the local mayor, the suspect was apprehended by the police. As he was being taken into custody, he shouted Allah-U-Akbar.

France has suffered egregiously at the hands of terrorists. Beheadings, mass shootings, car attacks, knife attacks --- all of these have become distressingly common. After the last terror attacks, the French President announced a crackdown on Islamist extremism. This was met with a movement in the Muslim world (and trended on Twitter here too) to boycott France and French products.Sadly some influential Muslims supported this movement.

Only a buffoon could take the line that a country should not take steps to protect its people and to fight terror. To see this as anti-Muslim prejudice is just silly or willfully blind.

ALSO READ | The Taste with Vir: Borat, Giuliani and Trumps idea of filth

So, why do so many liberals say that terror has no religion? Well, I think the sentiment springs from a noble motive. Because so much of the terror that makes headlines around the world is conducted by Islamists, liberals hope to avert the rise of anti-Muslim feeling by claiming that the actions of the terrorists were not motivated by religion.

But it is hard to argue that a man who beheads innocent people and shouts Allah-U-Akbar is not motivated by religion. And it is stupid to claim that Islam had nothing to do with his actions when the attacker himself has no hesitation in declaring that he is fighting for an Islamist cause.

To say, as some liberals do, that terrorists are psychopaths and would commit violent acts even if they were not motivated by religion is specious. There are just too many examples of perfectly non-violent people being led to believe in an extreme form of religious violence and then, turning to murder and terror.

So the time has come (if it had not already come decades ago) to junk that old lie. Because terror does have a religion. It is not always the same religion or the same faith. Terrorists have disparate identities, religions and beliefs. But lets not deny that terrorism is often conducted in the name of religion.

I still dont understand why some liberals think that accepting this is so difficult. We accept it with other kinds of violence. When a communal riot takes place, do we deny that the mayhem is undertaken in the name of religion? When a man is lynched on bogus charges of slaughtering a cow, do we deny that the victim was Muslim or that the attackers were motivated by their Hindu beliefs?

ALSO READ | The Taste With Vir: The interfaith Tanishq ad cant survive in the India we have created

So why should terrorism be different? It has a religion: always speak its name, no matter what that religion is. The mistake many liberals make is to believe that people are stupid and will be easily misled. They think that if they admit that some terrorists are Islamist fundamentalists, we will turn against every Muslim.

In fact we hear of religious violence all the time --- riots, lynchings etc. --- but we do not conclude that everyone who shares the religion of those who conducted the violence is to blame.

We are logical enough to make such basic distinctions. We also realize that fundamentalists are only too willing to also attack their own communities.

Gandhiji was assassinated by a Hindu. That does not make all Hindus evil. In the Middle East, more Muslims die every week at the hands of other Muslims than have died in France all of this year. We dont deny that the murderers were fundamentalists --- or that they claimed to be acting in the name of their religion.

But by adopting this terrorism-has-no-religion position, we do damage to the communities we seek to protect. By obscuring a terrorists motives (say, Islamic fundamentalism), we indirectly link him to the millions of innocent Muslims who are as horrified by what he has done. In the process, we leave the door open to charges of pseudo-secularism and appeasement.

The truth is that people have killed in the name of religion for centuries. The Crusades are just one example of religious violence. The endless battles in the Middle Ages between Catholics and Protestants were conducted in the name of religion. Yes, Islam has a violent history and perhaps, a violent present.

But so what? It does not follow that 99 per cent of the worlds Muslims are violent or that the overwhelming majority of them support, let alone endorse, fundamentalism or violence in the name of their religion. They are as horrified and helpless as the rest of us.Only a bigot would seek to link them with the actions of Islamists.

Islamist violence is one of the greatest problems faced by the world today. Isis, Al Qaeda, the Hizbul Mujahideen and hundreds of terror groups claim to act in the name of Islam. It is correct to say that they have interpreted Islam to suit their own purposes and, in the process, perverted and distorted it.

But it is wrong --- and foolish to say that Islamist terror is not about a version of Islam. Instead of falling back on weak-kneed, caricature secular responses, it is time for all of us, Hindus, Christians, Muslims and everyone else alike, to admit that the world must fight the menace of Islamism without being restrained by any mistaken notion of political correctness.

Our hearts go out to the people of France. Their battle against terror is our battle. It is the worlds battle. Terror, whether in the name of religion or anything else, must be fought without restraint or reservation.

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The Taste with Vir: Its stupid to say the terror attack in France was not motivated by religion - Hindustan Times

It is hard to look ahead when we are trying to survive the present. It is hard to imagine standing outside in the refreshing summer rain when it is cold and windy outside. It is hard to think about what the world could - and more importantly should - be like when we eventually emerge from the all-encompassing cocoon that has enveloped the world in 2020. However, if we want to have a say in what that new world will be like, we need to have an idea of what it is that we want.

Postalgia sets in when we lose faith in the future and start to believe the here and now is as good as it gets. Postalgia is dangerous in that it is essentially nihilist. If you or your team, employees or customers believe that tomorrow will be no better or worse than today, there is no point in planning for the future, and no point in planning or living for anything other than short-term amusement.

As such, societies plagued with postalgia turn to escapism be that through substance abuse, protests and riots, doom scrolling on social media or virtual reality rather than focusing on conscious future plans for progress.

In other words, postalgia sets in when we lose our purpose and no longer see anything worth progressing towards.

In order to break this cycle of the endless treadmill of the infinite now Flux Trends has teamed up with The Enrichment Project to put together an Open Session on 25 November 2020 for businesses, teams, entrepreneurs and leaders to help you overcome the inertia of postalgia in your organisation and your own life as a leader and look to the future with purpose.

To do this Bronwyn Williams from Flux Trends will talk you and your teams through the trends affecting employee and customer mindsets, team cultures, leadership motivation and organisational innovation for good and for ill. Richard Wright of The Enrichment Project will explain the lessons he has learned, working with organisations all over the world, about how to find and harness the power of purpose even in the darkest and most tumultuous of times to turn trends and inspiration into action with purposeful direction.

In the talk you will learn:

The choice is ours. Postalgia or purpose? Which do you choose?

Who is this session for?

Business leaders, HR professionals, entrepreneurs, marketers, team leaders, managers and anyone looking for inspiration on how to turn current trends into purposeful strategy.

Who are you hosts?

Click here for more on Bronwyn.

Event details Time: 4-5pm Date: Wednesday, 25 November 2020 Address: In the comfort of your home

***SPECIAL DISCOUNT for Bizcommunity readers. When booking your seat below, quote the code: BIZBRONWYN ***

This will be a Zoom webinar. Once you have booked your ticket, you will receive an email to register for this webinar. After you register, you will receive an email from Zoom with the webinar link and password.

If you are interested in booking this virtual trend briefing for your team or clients please contact Bethea Clayton on az.oc.sdnertxulf@detcennoc or +27764539405.

A special thanks to our sponsor

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Virtual open session: From postalgia to purpose - How to motivate your team and turn trends into purposeful strategic direction in a world in flux -...

Because of the lack of competitive golf due to the coronavirus pandemic, Lee was having a "tough time" adjusting to life without the ability to "continuously do well" in the sport.

And ahead of the showdown with two of the world's 10 best golfers, Lee again sought advice from Song-Hee.

"She told me that I did well in everything I can do, so just show everything I had in the playoff. I think that helped me to get comfortable."

After winning the ANA Inspiration thanks to a six-foot birdie on the first playoff hole while her competitors floundered, the 29-year-old Lee's emotion wasn't immediately one of elation. In fact Lees reveals she "didn't feel anything."

"Instead, I thought about the hard times I've been through," she explained. "I was happy, but I recalled memories of the tough times more than the happiness of winning. It was my first time crying after winning.

'It's crazy!' Until a month and a half ago, I told her [Song-Hee] that I don't want to play golf because I was too exhausted.

"Even just a month-and-a-half ago, you used to say this. This is impossible!' She couldn't believe it as well. I changed in a month! I changed after struggling for three years, not playing well, so she said: 'This is really crazy! You're mad!'"

Prior to the ANA Inspiration, Lee's last win on the LPGA Tour had come at the Kia Classic in 2017. Since that win, she had finished in the top 10 just five times.

According to Lee, she didn't prepare "anything differently" for her ANA Inspiration win.

"It is a major competition, but for me it was more of a testing opportunity to show what I had practiced with Song-Hee. It is a major, but I participated as if it's not a major. I think I participated to test my shots."

Lee's preparations were also unsettled when her usual caddie, Duncan French, discovered he wouldn't be able to obtain a visa to travel to the US from his native New Zealand.

While she used the expertise of caddie Matt Gelczis -- who joined her by jumping into the iconic Poppie's Pond as is customary after winning the ANA Inspiration -- Lee still leant on French's advice from afar.

"He contacted me after the second round. He told me that I was doing well and gave me a lot of advice. I told him I'd like for him to get here ASAP. I kept telling him: 'I wish you were here; when will you get here?'"

Looking back on the ANA Inspiration, Lee thinks her play initially had suffered by her getting ahead of herself.

"Until the secod round ... I tended to focus more on the score than what I had practiced. I think I was getting eager to win."

But having spoken to Song-Hee back in South Korea, she was able to relax more and play her natural game which enabled her to have the excellent final day.

When she started the final day two shots behind Korda and Henderson, the South Korean also felt as if the pressure was off. While others faltered, Lee chipped in a remarkable three times during her final round, including on the final hole to qualify for the three-way playoff.

Her final hole chip didn't come without controversy though.

While usually the 18th green would be surrounded by onlooking fans, with people prohibited from attending because of the coronavirus pandemic, a large blue wall took the place of those spectators instead.

Lee's approach to the final green would have normally sailed into the water over the green, but instead, she purposely played her shot off the wall so that it stopped just a few feet off the putting surface.

She chipped in from there, qualifying her for the playoff. And Lee says that hitting the ball against that wall was something that she practiced after seeing other players do it.

"I think every player used that wall. I had heard that you can get a drop when the ball lands near the wall. All the players that I played with in the first and second round were hitting the ball towards the wall, so I thought I could do it as well."

Even after Lee had chipped in to cap a final-round 67 and give her the clubhouse lead, Korda had still yet to finish the final hole. Despite having finished so strongly, Lee was convinced she'd end up in second place.

"Going into the 18th hole, I set my mind to at least finish second or third. I hit an eagle at the 18th hole, but I still didn't expect to win, because I thought Korda was going to finish with a birdie without a doubt.

"I was thinking that finishing second is still a good result. Because Korda can hit long-range, I expected her to easily hit a birdie."

But Korda had to settle for par on the par-five 18th, forcing the playoff. For Lee, the playoff was where she thrived.

"Actually, I was more comfortable in the playoff than the rest of the final round. In fact, I think I showed all the performance I had at the playoff. I did a comfortable swing that I couldn't do during the final round. I was just more comfortable in general."

Now Lee is gearing up for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania, the season's third major championship. She has twice finished in the top 10 at the tournament, most recently in 2019.

And having won the first major of her career, Lee has regained her passion for the game.

"I think I gained more confidence after winning. Also, I'm enjoying golf now. I think it [the win] turned everything opposite. I think I kind of know how to play golf now. Prior to this, I didn't know how and what to do, but now I have the feeling I know what to do."

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Mirim Lee admits she 'had no motivation to play golf' before winning her debut major - CNN International

[This is the sixth installment in a monthly series on management issues in the time of COVID-19.]

We recently asked 600 CEOs: What is keeping you awake at night during this global pandemic? A major and multifaceted concern that emerged is how to keep employees motivated when their world is crashing around them. The circumstances of work have become more difficult. Their responses included:

Meanwhile, cost-cutting, uncertainty, and the necessities of social distancing attenuate or alter the traditional organizational levers. Several CEOs observed:

On the positive side of the spectrum, CEOs report that their teams are eager to be motivated, to find meaning at work during this crisis.

Research by Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria and colleagues suggests that people are guided by four basic emotional needs, or drives, that are the product of our common evolutionary heritage. These four drivesthe ABCD of human motivationare:

The extent to which a job satisfies these four drives accounts for a large portion of how much an individual is motivated in their work. While improving the fulfillment of any one drive enhances employee motivation somewhat, the key to a major employee-motivation advantage relative to other companies comes from improving all four drives in concert.

To some extent this is because of the balance required between two pairs of drives.

The drives to acquire and to bond are in tension with each other because the first is competitive and the second cooperative. A major part of management is to keep these two drives in healthy balance, for example by giving rewards for both individual and team performance. Without direct oversight, Relationships can all too readily slide into cutthroat competition or totally collusive bonding. Either extreme will harm the firm's performance.

Less obviously, the drives to comprehend and to defend are also on opposite ends of the spectrum. Learning requires openness, the willingness to fail and lose, to move into unknown territory. This is the very opposite of the drive to defend territory and status. Both of these drives, likewise, can go to extremes. On the one hand, an individual or organization could become so intoxicated with experimentation and learning for its own sake that they have no strategy. On the other hand, one becomes so determined to hold on to territory and advantage that they resist change and even information.

Organizations can balance these drives by allocating rewards and resources for both traditional performance and for learning activities.

The four drives themselves, fundamental to human psychology, have not changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has not altered these dynamics as much as it has intensified or complicated them:

A big question remains. What can organizations and team leaders do to increase fulfillment of each of the four drives? The graphic below displays the four-drive ecosystem.

The four-drive ecosystem

On the organizational level this drive is usually met through the compensation and rewards system. Best practices include:

Pay as well as competitors. There can be exceptions; the need to acquire applies to intangibles as well. Organizations with good reputations may be able to attract talent at a discount; the reverse may be true for stigmatized organizations. Likewise, investments in employees long-term prospects via continuing education/development or ownership options may allow for a discount in pay.

Sharply differentiate good performance from average and poor performance. This should be based on metrics that are clearly tied to the companys mission. Note that we say performance, and not performers. Performance may be based on factors besides the talent and motivation of the individual in question, such as job or market conditions. A person may perform well in some aspects of the job but not in others. Avoid creating a system that plays favorites or denies people the opportunity to improve.

Tie rewards clearly to performance. Ideally, this should be done at both the individual and group (organization and/or team) level. This requires deciding what performance metrics are truly important and being consistent in their application. There is no point to encourage senior employees to mentor juniors, for example, but only reward them for time spent with clients.

These practices are possible regardless of the amount of resources available, with the possible exception of the first.

Managers work within this system and their team members understand that they are constrained by it. Managers who succeed at meeting their team members drive to acquire:

Be exceedingly clear on metrics and priorities. People are stretched to the limit: Dont demand busywork or needless perfectionism.

During this pandemic managers may be the only witnesses of extraordinary efforts employees are making to stay focused and productive. Sincere, informed acknowledgement of these efforts can go a long way. Recognize outstanding accomplishments during meetings or some other way.

For example, gifts and services are appreciated by people more than ever before. Gifts of consumable items are actually valued these days! A fruit basket looks pretty exciting. Especially good are rewards that will ease workers daily strainsdeliveries, dog-walking, online entertainment or classes for children. With so many companies in flux, it may be possible to get good discounts or in-kind exchanges of items that team members would appreciate. Gift certificates for takeout to local restaurants, personalized miniature embroideries, and online classes in yoga (for adults) and improv (for kids) are only some of the creative rewards managers have given their teams.

Celebrate not only splashy wins but the steadfast, regular business-as-usual activities that are now being accomplished under extraordinary circumstances. Everyone on your team can now add the line during a global pandemic to their list of job duties. Acknowledge that! At the same time, be authentic and dont condescend.

Dont be afraid to give course corrections when necessary. In the words of CEO coach Sabina Nawaz, Small and frequent performance guidance circumvents major corrections down the road and allows everyone to stay in sync despite distance and daily change.

On the organizational level, this drive is usually satisfied through company culture. Best practices include:

Foster mutual reliance and friendship among coworkers. Much has been written about how to manage remote teams and encourage collegiality. Teams that have only recently gone remote because of the pandemic have a few differences. On the upside, they have already built relationships and can leverage those. On the downside, the distance from colleagues and work friends is experienced as a possibly demotivating loss.

Value collaboration and teamwork. There is also the issue that over the next 18 to 24 months some people will return to the office while others continue working from home; this can lead to rival subcultures. Onboarding and integrating new employees is also especially difficult. The major issue with remote workers and motivation appears to be feeling isolated and second-class relative to the onsite workers.

Encourage sharing of best practices. Encourage employees to tell you what they are doing well and how they are lifehacking. Share best practices and praise them.

Managers who meet their teams bonding needs:

Start meetings with a check-in or opening ritual before diving into business.

Think about creative bonding experiencesan online talent show? Recipe contest? Game night? Show-and-tell of each team members favorite piece of art or travel souvenir? These might even be ways for team members to show new skills or facets of their personality.

Zoom fatigue is real. Not all bonding has to be in the moment. Take advantage of asynchronous communication with a page or Slack channel for sharing recipes, articles, and snapshots.

The leveling effect of remote work may make this a good time for cross-team collaboration, assignment rotations, or peer mentorship opportunities. The fact that sales was on the third floor and R&D on the second isnt quite as relevant as it once was.

On the organizational level, this drive is usually satisfied through job design. Best practices include designing jobs that comprise distinct and important roles, have meaning, and foster a sense of contribution to the organization.

This does not mean all jobs must be knowledge work, or that employees must work at the peak of their intellectual or creative capacity to be fulfilled in this drive. There are two main ways that the drive to comprehend is satisfied on the job. The first is through whatever opportunities for learning, problem-solving, and creativity exist in the job itself. The second is through understanding the role and value of the job within the organization. This understanding can transform even mundane jobs.

The many unknowns of the pandemic mean that peoples overall need for comprehension and control is severely stymied. Organizations that can satisfy this drive for their employees will find them highly motivated in return. People are desperate for a chance to feel in control, as if they are making a difference.

Managers meet the drive to comprehend by:

Do office hours on videoconferencing to replace the informal conversations you once had in the office. This will encourage people to come forth with questions, and with observations and suggestions that might not seem important enough for a full meeting.

Job design may have to take a back seat to immediate needs at this moment because some companies may not be able to perform all of their usual functions, and others may be in all-hands-on-deck mode. At the same time, the crisis brings the opportunity to interrogate business practices. Managers should continually connect their employees efforts to the organizations higher-level goals. If they are not able to do this they need to be having conversations with their own bosses. This may be a good time as well to [Challenge] employees to think more broadly about how they could contribute to making a difference for coworkers, customers, and investors.

Providing employees with opportunities for continuing education can be highly motivating. At the moment, experts, educators, and entertainers are releasing a great deal of content online due to public events being cancelled. Furloughed or underutilized employees, especially, should be empowered to do continuing educationin things they are interested in, regardless of its apparent relevance to their jobs. Organizations will need creativity in the coming months and years, and the most reliable recipe for it is to collide one way of thinking or body of knowledge up against another. Sign your best salesperson up for those violin-making classes!

Nawaz also recommends:

Stay ahead of the game by inviting problems, not just solutions. Our previous rules of engagement have gone by the wayside, so no one has definitive solutions. Invite your team to come to you with problems, even if they dont yet have solutions. Consider saying, In our current world, we all have questions, few people have answers. If you see signs of trouble, issues that arent visible to me, dont wait to come to me until you have an accompanying solution. Bring me your early indicators and together well devise experiments to tackle the challenge. Explicitly signaling you want to know about budding problems will enable greater periscopic vision and access to broader sets of solutions.

The drive to defend, though primitiveits rooted in the basic fight-or-flight responseis nonetheless complicated. Animals are concerned only with mine and might. For humans, the defense drive is combined with a sense of justice or fairness. The desire to have something valuablea well-paying job with a good title, sayis the drive to acquire. The drive to defend is the desire to be known to have deserved the job and gotten it fairly, and to believe that the job will not be capriciously taken away. When this drive is negatively affected, people become fearful, resentful, and disengaged.

On the organizational level, this drive is usually satisfied through performance management and resource allocation systems. Best practices: Processes must be transparent and fair, and their transparency and fairness must be communicated to employees.

Managers who meet the defend drive well:

Overcommunicate. Even without economic turmoil remote workers can develop negative attribution tendencies, such as assuming they were left off an email chain because they are being eased out when in fact a simple error might be to blame.

Creating a psychologically safe environment does not mean compromising on performance. Instead, it means acknowledging that mistakes are inevitable, especially in times of learning and transition, and that success consists of surfacing errors and learning from them. Make a clear distinction between mistakes and malfeasance. Allow time for team members to process losses with new technology and altered ways of doing things. Encourage them when necessary. Typing is faster than writing, but not when youre first learning.

Normalize asking for help. Offer help before it is asked for.

If resources need to be cut, be clear about why. Let employees know that it is acceptable to be frustrated or upset; those emotions are entirely valid. This does not mean condoning unprofessionalism or abuse by any stretchit means not putting the emotional burden on them to make you feel better about it. Explain the business case, give them time to process.

When employees report even a slight enhancement in the fulfillment of any of the four drives, their overall motivation shows a corresponding improvement; however, major advances relative to other companies come from the aggregate effect on all four drives. This effect occurs not just because more drives are being met but because actions taken on several fronts seem to reinforce one another. The holistic approach is worth more than the sum of its constituent parts, even though working on each part adds something.

When these actions come through one personthe manager or team leadersome integration automatically takes place. A course correction serves to hone the competitive edge (acquire), while improving understanding (comprehend), and, if it is delivered in a helpful and respectful way, strengthens the relationship between manager and employee (bond).

Please look to your managers: Do they have what they need to lead and manage? Are they leading, managing, and motivating their employees during these difficult times?

Boris Groysberg is the Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Robin Abrahams is a research associate at HBS.

[Image: RyanJLane]

Read more from the original source:
Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated - Harvard Business School Working Knowledge - Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

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John thinks he knows the formula for losing weight: increase his exercise and quit the peanut M&Ms. He has a strong incentive to get fitat 72 and about to retire, he wants not only to have more energy to play pickleball and travel, but also to reduce his blood pressure medication. But for some reason, John cant stay in the right headspace to actually make the change. On a recent episode of How To!, Katy Milkman, a behavioral economist at the University of Pennsylvania and host of the podcast Choiceology, shares the science behind why we hold ourselves back from making real change and, moreover, how we can engineer our way into healthier, happier lives. With the right set up, the most difficult thingslike losing weightmay be easier andmore enjoyable than we thought. This transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Charles Duhigg: Katy, what was your path to studying how people change their behaviors? Katy Milkman: My passion was engineering, but I found myself outside of the classroom wondering about self-control problems that I had and that my friends had. I was always curiouswhy we can solve very sophisticated problems and build bridges effectively, but we cant solve our own very simple problems?

I had issues trying to get myself to the gym at the end of a long day. I was a very competitive tennis player in high school and college, but I quit the varsity tennis team halfway through college. I still really wanted to stay in shape, but I struggled to find ways to get myself to the gym at the end of a long day of classes because I was tired. All I really wanted to do was lie down on the couch and watch TV or curl up with a good book. I realized maybe I can solve both of these problems in the very same way. So I concocted a scheme where I allowed myself only to enjoy those kinds of indulgencesspecifically I got really into audio novelswhen I was exercising. I would come home from a long day and I would find myself looking forward to a workout because I was gonna get to find out what happens next in my latest novel. Time flew when I was at the gym. It was really fun to workout. I call that temptation bundling and Ive studied it and showed that its not just meit can be useful for other people as well.

Charles: John, what do you feel like youre struggling with the most when it comes to weight loss? Is there something you could apply this idea of temptation bundling to?

John: Right now I find that one of my challenges is my wife, my second marriage. With the pandemic, my wife has been cooking cakes, so Im not watching my meals and Im eating unhealthy snacks or too much or the wrong food. If theres sugary things in the house, then thats where I migrate. The other day, for instance, our daughter-in-law brought us food from the store and at the last minute my wife says, Oh, get a big jar of peanut M&Ms.

Charles: Oh no.

John: They sit there on the counter. Since last Saturday Ive done great because I visualized that my wife had sneezed in the container! I thought, Oh no way am I going to have a handful of those now. And then last night I just had to have a handful of peanut M&Ms. If they hadnt been there, I never wouldve thought of that.

Katy: Food is a tough one. When I use it in temptation bundling, its usually the temptation component. What you can do is find a way to ensure that for every meal you have options ready that you are going to enjoy even if they arent peanut M&Ms. Another big thing to think about is restricting your access to that unhealthy food. It sounds like your environment is filled with temptations if youve got these peanut M&Ms on the counter and your wife is baking cakes. I think you need to work with your wife on creating that environment in your home so that you purge the unhealthy snacks as much as possible or put them in a locked cabinet that shes got the combination for, so if she doesnt want to restrict herself, theres a way to restrict you at least.

Charles: If you went to your wife and you said, Honey, I love you. But I dont love the fact that there are cakes around me. Can we take all the sweets and put them in a locked cabinet? And you have the key. How do you think shed react to that?

John: In general, I think shed be supportive. We dated in high school, went our separate ways, then got back together 40 years later. In some ways, its a perpetual honeymoon, but in a couple of ways, there are some challenges in our relationship. Shes more in the camp of we are who we are and we cant change. And Im more in the camp of Oh, we can always change. Thats what life is all about. And we kind of butt heads over that sometimes. When it gets distilled down to talking about eating, if I want to pay a lot of attention to the food I eat, she sees it as obsessing. I know she feels hurt if I dont want to eat whatever she cooks, so I havent actually talked to her about some of these things. But I absolutely need to do that. I will actually. I will commit to doing that.

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Charles: Katy, what John is saying makes sensethe things that we struggle with are so influenced by the people around us and in their attitudes to the change that were trying to create. What do we know about the science behind this?

Katy: Absolutely. Its so social. We have a lot of evidence supporting everything you just said the people around us are a huge contributor to our behavior. So if everybody around you starts eating more, youre much more likely to do the same and vice versa. John, if your wife decided she wanted to cut back, you would be likely to eat a little bit less and lose a little bit more. Trying to get on the same page is going to be really valuable for your success. With my dad, for example, Ive been very worried about his physical activity levels, so I convinced him to buy a Fitbit, which I also have. We have the ability to see each others stepsand he knows Im watching. In fact, he confessed to me that his steps werent uploading and he spent 2 hours on the phone with Fitbit support because he was so upset that I would think he hadnt walked enough that day.

Often a big opportunity is to figure out a third-party perspective on any kind of disagreement youre currently having with your partner. How would another person see this conflict and what would they think? This can help relieve some of the emotional tension. Maybe see if your wife would be open to thinking about your desire to lose weight from a third-party perspective. [Especially as you approach your retirement], this moment can feel like a breaking point from normal moments. Ive done research on the moments when people are more likely to try to make a change in their lives, and what weve found is the start of a new era, the start of your retirement years, the start of a new decade, even something as trivial as the start of a new week, help us step back and think big picture. What are our goals? That motivates us to start new projects and feel more separated from our past failings. For example, I had always wanted to write a book and just hadnt gotten up the nerve to do it. At the same time, my husband and I had been thinking about moving. We had a young son. We were ready to be out of an apartment and into a house. The day that we signed and became owners of a new house is the day that I sent out emails to agents and started the book-writing process. I just finished writing a book called How to Change. So the new house was the thing that pushed me over. It was a new era.

Charles: Okay, but what happens when the fresh start doesnt work so smoothly?

Katy: Yes, youre going to slip up. Nobodys perfect. One risk when you make plans to change like this is something called the what-the-hell effect. (I love that theres an academic term called the what-the-hell effect.) A challenge with this kind of rigid plan is youll never actually live up to all of your objectives. A big problem can be when you slip up saying, Oh, what the hell, I give up. If you have a plan for the day and you eat a cinnamon bun for breakfast because your wife just made a beautiful cinnamon bun, then you say, Oh, what the hell? Let me just have a steak and fries and pie for lunch. So when you have a plan you also have to think what will happen when you slip off track. What will you do? How will you get back on track? How will you forgive yourself? And how do you avoid slipping off track all the time and being too forgiving? Theres a sort of tightrope you have to walk. But if you can make progress for a month, even when you lose motivation little, you probably wont fall all the way off the wagon because you do build some habits. In my studies, about 30 percent of the behaviors we start doing for a month around, say, exercise, tend to stickeven if all of the tricks weve been using to put those good behaviors in place are pulled away. Habit can be really helpful.

Just one last thing to keep in mind is something called a commitment device. There are actually a couple of different websites you can use where you can put money down that youll forfeitor even send to a charity you hateif you fail to achieve some stated goal. Nike has made the Just Do It model such a part of our culture. But the research so consistently shows that its just not that easy. Our motivation does wax and wane. We need these systems. You have to recognize that it wont be easy to just do it. Willpower is hard. When you see that temptation, you reach for it. So the more you can do to structure the choices to help yourself, the better.

John: That might actually work. If I was going to commit $500 to Donald Trumps campaign, I think I would lose the weight in two days.

To hear Katy help John find the words to convince his wife to stop baking so many sweets, listen to the episode by clicking the player below or subscribing to How To! with Charles Duhigg wherever you get your podcasts.

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This Clever Technique Will Help You Lose Weight and Stay Fit - Slate

"Black women are aware that we can be the deciding factor this election," said Glynda C. Carr, President and CEO of Higher Heights Leadership Fund (Higher Heights). "We understand that this is the most consequential election of our time, for our communities, and for our country, and we know that we must vote as though our lives depended on it because they do."

Top factors energizing Black women to vote include protecting democracy and racial justice, with the majority of respondents attributing racism as the one main issue keeping them up at night. Black women also prioritized addressing the coronavirus crisis, affordable healthcare, and the economy as important issues to their demographic and to the overall Black community as they prepare to cast their ballots.

Some key findings from the poll include:

These findings are based on a survey of 506 likely 2020 Black women voters nationwide conducted between September 30 and October 4, 2020.

Read the full report of the poll results here.

About Higher HeightsHigher Heights is the only national organization exclusively dedicated to harnessing, organizing and mobilizing Black women's political power to elect Black women, influence leadership and advance progressive policy.

Through two entities, Higher Heights Leadership Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization and its sister organization Higher Heights for America, a national 501(c)(4) organization,, Higher Heights is investing in a long-term strategy to analyze, expand and support a Black women's leadership pipeline at all levels and strengthen their civic participation beyond Election Day.

For additional information, please visit blackwomenvote.com. Follow the #BlackWomenVoteconversation at @HigherHeights.

Contact: [emailprotected]

SOURCE Higher Heights for America

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New Higher Heights National Poll: Black Women More Motivated to Vote than Ever Before, Fully Grasp Political Power to Shift Election Results -...

Darrion Eichelberger and Richard Gladden had stepped away from a career in law enforcement for two different reasons. However, both rejoined the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department shortly after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers. The two men saw issues like a lack of minority officers, accountability and perspective that they intend to address with a return to the force.

Eichelberger left CMPD in 2019 after eight years, where he worked in both the transportation and central divisions. He wanted to try something new. Eichelberger got his commercial drivers license and spent five months as a truck driver for Oliver Paving Company Inc.

At the time, I felt like I did everything I wanted to do with the department, he said.

When Floyds murder sparked riots and protests across the country, Eichelberger returned to CMPD with the hope of shedding a positive light on a profession hes loved his entire life.

I saw one as a kid and was like, oh man, thats pretty cool, he recalled. When cops came into my neighborhood, my friends were told to run. I would run up to the car and ask for a sticker. At the time, I didnt realize they werent there to have fun.

Eichelberger isnt oblivious to law enforcements reputation in Black communities. Thats why he wants to educate officers new and old on how to communicate with citizens they dont usually interact with. He especially would like to mentor younger officers to see why they joined the police department.

Thats something I have to do, I have to get into a car with these guys and pick their brains, Eichelberger said. You might want to have your heart right before you get out on the road.

Now at 33, Eichelberger encourages youth to go into law enforcement, but only if they have an open mind. He didnt choose a career in law enforcement to change how Black officers were perceived by the public. Its a mindset that keeps him open-minded and willing to tackle a litany of issues.

Everybody has a different culture, and I think its good for people to still show that, he shared, but I tell guys to not get wrapped in their own thing because other people are looking at you.

As of June 25, 2019, CMPD employed 1,850 sworn officers. Of those, according to CMPD data, only 398 of them were Black. The majority of the police force was made up of White officers, accounting for 1,422 sworn officers.

We got to do better recruiting more minorities, said Richard Gladden, who exited CMPD in 2019. He had spent three years in the departments north division.

Gladden believes people are scared to join law enforcement because they are concerned about public opinion.

If we recruit better, I think we all could see possible change here in the future, he said.

Gladden was 26 when he left CMPD to take care of his newborn daughter and young son. He worked third shift, and his kids were usually asleep by the time he got home.

I took a step back to make sure my family was fine, he said.

The Charlotte native was working as an executive protection officer for Truist Financial when George Floyd was killed.

It completely disgusted me watching him lying on the ground and obviously saying he cant breathe and going limp. The whole time you see that White police officer staring at the camera with no emotion on his face, Gladden said.

He says he was torn as a Black man who loved his profession as a police officer.

This guy is painting the profession that I love in a negative light, and hes also killing somebody that looks like me that could be my brother, uncle or family member.

On June 5 two weeks after Floyd was killed Gladden reapplied to join CMPD. While he knew the Minneapolis officers were wrong for what they did, he wanted to prove that all cops werent like them.

Growing up in west Charlotte, he remembered how it felt when law enforcement didnt treat everyone fairly who they swore to serve and protect.

I know there are racist cops and people, but its not like that in all of law enforcement, the 27-year-old said.

He felt an obligation to go out in the community and show that there are officers of all colors, genders, races and ethnicities working together to build relationships within the community, lower crime rates and stop senseless murders of youth.

Gladden likes to have a why before he takes action. Right now, his why is to educate the community about ways to hold law enforcement accountable, while still serving residents of all races and ethnicities fairly.

My goal right now is to get back out here and influence as many people as I can, Gladden said. We are all human beings.

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Why George Floyd's death motivated these former officers to rejoin CMPD - Qcity metro