In this month's "Granted" newsletter, Adam Grant brings us thought provoking articles about: proven strategies for brainstorming, how to empathize appropriately, and how to deal with difficult people in you personal and professional life. Click on each article title to read more. You can subscribe to the "Granted" newsletter here.
GRANTED November 2017:
Great mentors don’t tell you what to think. They teach you how to think. Here are some of the articles that have shaped the way I think this month:
1. Research: For Better Brainstorming, Tell an Embarrassing Story After brainstorming groups introduced themselves with embarrassing stories, they generated 26% more ideas and had 15% more variety. 2. Why We Should All Stop Saying "I Know Exactly How You Feel" When someone is suffering, avoid saying "I know how you feel." We don't—and we should focus on their experience, not ours. 3. Why We Contradict Ourselves and Confound Each Other Nobel Prize winner Danny Kahneman explains that overconfidence is a failure of imagination. If you want to improve your judgment, practice the art of imagining alternatives to your expectations. 4. A Stanford Psychologist On the Art of Avoiding Assholes "One of the simplest—but admittedly hardest—things you can do is learn to not give a shit."
From My Desk:
5. Kids, Would You Please Start Fighting? Too many parents teach kids to stay silent when they disagree. I object. Silence disrespects our ability to have a civil argument and it disrespects the value of your views. “Let’s agree to disagree” shouldn’t end a discussion. It should start a new conversation, where the goal of understanding each other supersedes the goal of persuading each other.
Here are some of the questions you asked last month—click any question for my response, plus my favorite resources on 10 other topics you raised:
How can you find inner peace as a restless high achiever?
What are your suggestions for fighting past "Imposter Syndrome"?
Should we trust the results of studies with only a few hundred people?
Submit your own questions to wondering@adamgrant.net. Include your first name and city, or ask to be anonymous, and I'll pick a few next month to answer here.
Submit a Question
Cheers, Adam
Adam Grant, Ph.D. Author of ORIGINALS and GIVE AND TAKE, coauthor of OPTION B, and Wharton professor.