We’re winding down the year and discovering everything old is new again: memos people actually read, a semi-private place in which to read them, and the timelessness of intrinsic motivation. Humans, they’re just like us! 

All Hands Off Deck

The statistician and artist Edward Tufte wrote a famous takedown of PowerPoint, in which he compares slideware to communist reeducation campaigns. Most of us instinctively recoil from PowerPoint, but Tufte gives the feeling some logic. Slide templates, he says, “weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis.” Yikes.

As it turns out, PowerPoint haters have another formidable weapon — Jeff Bezos. The Amazon CEO forbids slides and advocates for a 30-minute (yes, you read that right) “silent start” to meetings. Rather than facing a slide deck, Amazon employees encounter a long-form narrative memo at the top of every meeting, which they first read in silence, together, and then use to structure meaningful internal discussion. 

Bezos is less strident than Tufte, but his reasons are similar. Slides, he says, are designed to persuade whereas the purpose of most meetings should be to find the truth. "PowerPoint," Bezos said in a recent podcast, "is easy for the author and hard for the audience. And a memo is the opposite." 

Another reason for the silent start? Most of us don’t have the time or motivation to thoroughly read a memo in advance, but much like any first year college student in their 8am comp class, we’re happy to attempt a time-wasting bluff. Amazon’s silent half-hour gives attendees the time to think deeply about the matter at hand, which ultimately saves time for everyone involved. 

– Inc.

Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry? 

If you’re a manager, you may not be able to buy your way out of employee malaise. In fact, there is data to suggest that promotions and higher salaries might actually have a negative effect on employee turnover. 

Psychologist and writer Daniel Goleman argues for dropping the traditional model of employee engagement — the biannual promotion and the yearly raise — in favor of thinking more deeply about intrinsic motivation. What is the work that the people around you find inherently satisfying and how can you make space for that? 

One idea is the “lattice approach”: actively looking for work that people “can take on at their level or lower that provide them with critical growth, skill development, networking and exposure to mentors that can ultimately boost their career.” This way of thinking is a good match for younger workers who are, Goleman says, “champions of purposeful work.” 

As Goleman points out, it’s human nature to want to learn, and most orgs haven’t made sufficient appeal to people’s deeper needs around learning and purpose. The human brain, after all, is hard-wired for curiosity and meaning. 

– Korn Ferry 

Cubicles? Bah, Humbug!

The first chapter of A Christmas Carol describes Bob Cratchit as working in “a little cell” or “a sort of tank” in full view of that timeless icon of the micromanager, Ebenezer Scrooge. Fabric walls and a vinyl desk may not a cubicle make — it’s the spirit of the thing. 

Dear reader, the office cube is back. (If the works of Charles Dickens are any indication, it never left.) With employees returning to the office, many orgs are seeing demand for quiet and privacy. But whether the cube actually offers such a luxury remains an open question. In this paean to the cube from the NYTimes, a VP at Steelcase describes a cube with 54” walls as offering “sitting privacy.” Why not just give up and call them “stalls”? 

Still, some workers see a benefit. Cubicles are, by some estimations, a distant second place in the race for worst office design. The champion? You guessed it – the open office (though both hot desking and hotel desking are putting up a fight). And at least a cubicle allows for a jot of personalization.

This article has all sorts of pictures of people’s cubes, some of which it suggests are Insta-worthy. But we’re stuck on one in which a logistics expert sits in a cube he’s covered in stickers of wood paneling and gazes at a photo of an open window. He even has a voice-activated space heater that looks kind of like a real stove. Treat yourself, Bob Cratchit, throw another lump of coal on the fire! 

– NYT 🎁

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YESTERYEAR TECH OF THE WEEK

Not just 1, 2, or 3, but … version 4.0!

That’s a wrap for 2023, see you in January!

– The EiT crew at Status Hero 🫡