Communication
Sarah Shuel
Change: Alter, Transform and Switch; To Become ...

: to make different in some particular : ALTER

: to make radically different : TRANSFORM

: to make a shift from one to another : SWITCH

: to become different

Ahh yes: “Alter, transform and switch, to become different’’.....these words resonate a lot in FIG’s evolution, we’re excited about a little bit of change (and a little apprehensive if we’re being honest!).

Change: Alter, Transform and Switch; To Become Different
Communication
Sarah Shuel
Technology Addiction: Yes, It's a Thing...

In her Wall Street Journal article: Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine, Dr, Lembke, a Stamford University professor and psychiatrist, talks about the scientific biological effects of addictions to our devices. It’s real folks. This is not FIG banging the drum of putting down our phones or any other technological apparatus and talking or connecting with our fellow human beings. No. This is concrete, physiological, measurable, science based fact that continuously interacting with our high-tech electronic leashes, gaming apparatuses and social media actually, physically, alters our brains to crave more of it, thereby de-incentivising us to engage with others on a human level.

Gasp, shock and awe!

Technology Addiction: Yes, It's a Thing...
Communication
Sarah Shuel
Mistakes: Perfectly Human

Mistakes. We all make them, we’re human beings and by definition 99.9% imperfect (with apologies to those of you who think otherwise), which results in, guess what? Mistakes (we make them hourly at FIG)! That gaffes, miscalculations and oversights are a part of our collective experience on this earth. Why (on earth!) is it so hard to admit to making mistakes, take responsibility for these human aberrations and move on after making a miscalculation or error? Hmmmm?

Mistakes: Perfectly Human
Communication
Sarah Shuel
Habits: The Good, The Bad, and the Intangible

We all have habits - some serve us well and some get in our way…...Google states: “A habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” Establishing a habit usually takes about two weeks to become routine and is subsequently supported and reinforced by practicing it daily.

Habits: The Good, The Bad, and the Intangible
Communication
Sarah Shuel
Life Happens

Ever had a “Monday” on any day of the week? Ever had your day perfectly planned, scheduled and organized only to have all your intended “to-do’s”: meetings, calls, oh yeah, actual “work,” utterly blown up by an unexpected interruption, complication, interference? Ever had someone insert themselves into your day with their drama, troubles or lack of planning (real or self-inflicted), requiring you to shelve your carefully laid out day(s) and requiring you to stop whatever you’re doing for their fire drill?

Yeah, us too.

Life Happens

social media

The Quest for Perfection; The Downfall of Communication

The Quest for Perfection; The Downfall of Communication

Hello again and happy Thursday!

We’re hoping you had a chance to listen to the conversation we offered last week for your listening pleasure, and thought we’d highlight some of the (we think!) key takeaways from the broadcast. Alex Cullimore, Cristina Amigoni and I examined, in depth, the concepts of meaningful conversation and connection, the fears involved in making us shy away from communicating intentionally, and the tools we have currently at our disposal that facilitate our avoidance - and there are a TON of them! In 2021, we find ourselves in a world, loaded with technology created to help us to facilitate communication more easily and more fluidly, at least conceptually. However we find that the platforms, apps, emails, texting, social media et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, in addition to being convenient and relatively quick and easy, have also had the (we’re sure!) unintended consequence of helping us avoid the, sometimes terrifying, prospect of actually having conversations and allowing us to avoid the very same. Throughout the podcast, I also found myself coming back again and again to the idea of the expectation of perfection.

Perfection, (defined by Dictionary.com as a quality, trait, or feature of the highest degree of excellence), is an impossible standard to strive for, (vastly overstating the obvious, but just sayin’). Perfection is the opposite of the human experience and our authentic selves. Human beings are messy and imperfect, but these are also the traits that make humanity beautiful. This crusade towards perfection is yet another reason we see a breakdown in communication between the five generations and amongst ourselves in the workplace and humans in general. Why is the quest for perfection a piece of this dysfunction? How can we overcome a trend that has slowly been bred by technology into our habits as human beings? We invite you to read on…...

May We Have Your Attention: The Attention Economy

May We Have Your Attention: The Attention Economy

Shifting a bit from “words we throw around a lot,” this week, there was an article written in the Sunday Review section of the New York Times, February 7th, 2021, by a man named Charlie Warzel that really got our attention as it relates to FIG. Warzel talks about his interview with Michael Goldhaber, who, in the 1980s, “outlined the demands of living in an attention economy, describing an ennui that didn’t yet exist but now feels familiar to anyone who makes a living online….. “His epiphany was this: One of the most finite resources in the world is human attention. To describe its scarcity, he latched onto what was then an obscure term, coined by a psychologist, Herbert A. Simon: ‘the attention economy.’” We’re really and truly sorry to disabuse you of the notion that we are able to multitask effectively. Sadly, study after study proves otherwise. “When you pay attention to one thing, you ignore something else.” Goldhaber prophesied.

So! May we beg your attention for the next few minutes?

Deconstructing Entitlement

Deconstructing Entitlement

Entitlement - it’s a loaded word and one we’d like to highlight as it seems to be thrown around a lot these days, particularly aimed at the younger generations. What exactly does it mean? In business, culturally, and societally?

Dictionary.com defines “entitled” as: “to give (a person or thing) a title, right, or claim to something.”

We’d like to focus this week on what’s “right” and who’s to say what’s right or wrong, particularly in the workforce.

Why Do We Think We Know Everything?

Why Do We Think We Know Everything?

There’s an interesting and slightly alarming sociological trend, which has slowly and not very quietly begun to emerge in the past 10 years: we think we know everything. We argue, and sometimes rail, against scientists, doctors, professors, political officials (no, I’m not going THAT particular rabbit hole!), clergy, journalists etc. People who have toiled, often for decades to become experts in their chosen fields, and who have years of study, research, institutional knowledge, historical knowledge and involvement in their area of expertise. However, if they aren’t saying something that comports with each of our own world views, they are suddenly stupid, whackjobs, and idiots. SO, why do we think we know more than they do?