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3 posts from January 2017

Is there a movement I can join to ban election polling, or at least its reporting?

We won't know if a ban on reporting election polls will increase turnout until we try. 

Apophenia: Put an End to Reporting on Election Polls, 2016-Nov-10 by danah boyd

...there’s a more insidious problem with the polling data that is often unacknowledged. Everyone and their mother wants to collect data from the public. And the public is tired of being asked, which they perceive as being nagged. In swing states, registered voters were overwhelmed with calls from real pollsters, fake pollsters, political campaigns, fundraising groups, special interest groups, and their neighbors. We know that people often lie to pollsters (confirmation bias), but when people don’t trust information collection processes, normal respondent bias becomes downright deceptive. You cannot collect reasonable data when the public doesn’t believe in the data collection project And political pollsters have pretty much killed off their ability to do reasonable polling because they’ve undermined trust. It’s like what happens when you plant the same crop over and over again until the land can no longer sustain that crop.

Election polling is dead, and we need to accept that.


The team that hangs out together, succeeds together

How have we missed this discovery about teamwork? Learning about "social physics" will dramatically change my plans. It's not easy but it's crucial. I guess most people ignore it because it's NOT a simple answer. Sigh. 

Digital Tonto: The New Science Of Efficient Organizations, 2014-Mar-5 by Greg Satell

[Alex]Pentland’s researchhas found that the most important predictor of success in a group is the amount—not the content—of social interaction. It is exposure to peer activity that drives learning and changes in behavior.

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Managing through role models at Starbucks

The right culture is driven by the company's strategy and is communicated by role models. 

HBR Blog: How Starbucks's Culture Brings Its Strategy to Life, 2016-Dec-30 by Paul Leinwand and Varya Davidson

You should identify a few positive attributes within your culture that are connected directly to your identity and the specific capabilities that are driving success in your business, double down on them and find ways to accelerate and extend them throughout the organization. Empower the critical few managers and employees who personify the best behaviors and can help you bring them to the forefront. ...

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