There’s been a lot of articles floating around on how to navigate the waters of this big, bad business world. In case you missed it (ICYMI!) here is a recap of the ones that caught our eye this week we thought you would like to read.
Robots: The jobs that are least vulnerable to automation tend to be held by women
Intelligent machines might be taking over in the not-too-distant future! If you followed the HitchBOT story this week, you might know what I’m talking about!
An article published in The Atlantic this week picks apart a new study conducted by two Oxford researches analyzing what sort of jobs are susceptible to job automation. The study surveyed the skills required for over 700 different occupations, and found that 47% of today’s jobs will be automated in the next coming decades, and the majority of those jobs are held by men.
What are intelligent machines good at, you ask? Typically they excel in jobs that require physical exertion (think construction workers), perception (think truck drivers) and manipulation. The article states, “Many occupations that might appear to require experience and judgment—such as commodity traders—are being outdone by increasingly sophisticated machine-learning programs capable of quickly teasing subtle patterns out of large volumes of data.”
On the flip side, intelligent machines do not perform well in chaotic environments where they have to read and make decisions based emotion.
Read the full article, and check out the study, for more insights and observations.
How to hold a meeting people want to attend
There are few things more miserable than having to attend a poorly organized, pointless meeting. They are the worst. Not to mention, an estimated $37 billion is wasted every year on unproductive meetings. Your time is valuable and it shouldn’t be wasted sitting in meeting rooms or dialing into conference calls, listening to meaningless chatter. Fortunately for us, the good people over at The Muse put together a great list of four ways to start a meeting that will grab people’s attention. The list includes:
- Tell everyone what the meeting is about
- Encourage positivity
- Share a surprising statistic or poignant quote
- Tell a story
While the list might seem a little obvious, how often are these tips actually executed in the meetings you attend? Read the full article for some more great advice!
Building a transparent company culture
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is building a transparent company culture. Building transparency and trust takes work, but it seems to really pay off. Employees with greater access to information are better equipped to contribute to the business and make more informed decisions. This week, Mashable organized a list of 5 tips for building transparency into your company culture. Check out the list below, and read the article for some great examples, resources and advice!
- Have an open, anonymous message board for questions that you address at weekly all-hands
- Connect with execs through collaboration tools like Slack
- Write down values, paint them on the wall and evangelize them in a fun way
- Trust your team