Inspiring Workplaces 
The Way Work Ought to Be!

#1,022 - May 22, 2024

It's time for another pomegranate-infused edition of random musings and ideas! 

• According to research cited in Yesware, sales e-mails generate up to 46% higher response rates when humor is included in the message. 

• Put a sign on an empty chair in your meetings labelled "CULTURE" or "CUSTOMER" to remind everyone of the importance of including your culture and/or customer in every meeting discussion.

• Here's a great meeting conversation starter: If you could magically infuse your team with three qualities, what would they be and why?

• Ernest Hemingway would always start a paragraph before he finished writing for the day so he wouldn't face a blank page the next morning. What can you do to bridge the end of the day to the start of the following day, so you begin the next day with some momentum? 

• Research from the University of Tubingen in Germany found that when people laugh at someone a different part of their brain lights up than when they laugh with someone and they found people experience very different social consequences when they laugh at people vs laughing with people! (It reminds me of the old saying, "Laughing at yourself can lengthen your life; laughing at someone else can shorten it!")  

• A study cited in a podcast by the brilliant Grammar Girl (thank you Waldo Berg for sending this to me) revealed that effective, more influential leaders are far more likely to use plural pronouns such 'we,' 'our,' and 'they' vs singular first person pronouns such as 'I,' 'me,' and 'my.' So, if you want to be seen as a leader on your team and exert more positive influence, be aware of how using plural pronouns can help you come across as more inclusive.