NYT: “In February 2020, in the midst of a vitriolic presidential election, an idealistic group of donors from across the ideological spectrum met to plan an ambitious new project. They called themselves the New Pluralists and pledged to spend a whopping $100 million over the next decade to fight polarization by funding face-to-face interactions among Americans across political, racial and religious divides. Fixing what is broken in American democracy requires more than changing voter ID laws or the shape of our congressional districts, they argued. It requires forging deep personal connections that will change hearts and minds and ultimately American culture itself. Their experiment rests on a basic idea: Far too many Americans lack the skills, the opportunity and even the inclination to work together across lines of difference toward a common goal. Part of the solution, these donors believe, is embracing a very old idea that has fallen out of fashion: pluralism…a big question remains: Can a group of wealthy donors change American culture from above? How exactly does that work? If you are trying to change a law, you hire a lobbyist. To change American culture, whom do you hire?”
WSJ has suggestions on how to stay healthy while working from home. Among them: “Combine meeting and walking. If you don’t need to be on camera, or need to take only minimal notes, go for a walk during the call. I’ve found that these meetings often allow me to be more creative—and make a stronger personal connection—than what happens on a video call, perhaps because it is easier to focus on the substance of a conversation without the distractions of screen sharing or on-screen appearance.”
Aaron De Smet: “Deliberate calm is a personal tool kit to help leaders learn, change, and adapt when it’s the most important and hardest. It draws on a number of related concepts: self-awareness, situational awareness, emotional self-regulation, and emotional intelligence. It puts them all together and combines it with creativity, adaptability, and learning agility in a very simple, practical way of figuring out when I need to change and how I need to change. It helps me change how I see and behave in the world, it helps me unlearn my old habits and reactions, and it helps me invent the new ones that are going to serve me well for the challenge or opportunity in front of me.”
McKinsey on PEs recruiting chief performance officers (CPOs): “A great CPO contributes to diligence and the creation of an investment thesis in critical ways. They assess whether C-suite leaders have the capabilities to deliver on the deal thesis, as well as whether the workforce has the scale or depth of skill required. They identify cultural issues that could provoke problems, such as a talent exodus or work slowdown, and flag inefficiencies throughout the organizational structure. CPOs are experts in organizational change, deploying people analytics that make understanding talent as data-driven as any other business metric, and creating collaborative networks of chief human resources officers (CHROs) across a firm’s portfolio companies.”
Alan Mulally: “Who you are as a person is going to have more to do with your success in whatever you’re choosing to do than anything else.” [via Shane Parish]
