This week we start with a thoughtful and thought-provoking piece re: the future of Silicon Valley, as viewed through both business and societal lenses. This leads us into a series of articles looking at the role for-profit companies have as stewards of responsible capitalism, what that means for them, their employees and the communities in which they do business and what the future holds. Other reading and listening focuses on how to strategically foster and evolve our professional development and career crafting. There are perspectives on how to effectively cultivate a career “serendipity mindset,” as well as reflections on how luck can and does play a role in our professional lives. Finally, we get a robust vision of future communication tech or “multidimensional collaboratories” (I don’t make these words up), as well as a look into how Dropbox and Gitlab are imagining the future of work and what that may portend for other companies.
As always, happy reading and listening! Please stay safe and look out for your families and your community.
Articles
What’s Next for Silicon Valley? “…It’s clear the typical tech business templates of the past couple of decades are no longer going to cut it — from either a business or societal perspective — for companies who plan to be around, let alone thrive, 20 years from now…What then will the tech business models of the future look like?”
THE JUST 100: Companies Leading the New Era of Responsible Capitalism. “For our [Forbes’] fourth annual Just 100, our partner Just Capital polled more than 110,000 people on the most critical aspects of corporate behavior. Just Capital then objectively graded America’s largest public companies on how they served five critical stakeholders…The result: the top publicly traded corporations turning the daunting challenges of 2020 into lasting, positive change.”
Business Roundtable Commits to Break Down Barriers to Economic Opportunity. “This report provides Business Roundtable’s next set of recommendations, focused on six key themes: Employment, Finance, Education, Health, Housing and the Justice System. Although racial bias impacts Americans of color across the socioeconomic divide, we have focused our efforts – as large employers – on addressing the economic opportunity gap, including disparities in access to good jobs, financial resources and quality education and healthcare.”
How the B Corporation movement is remaking business. “After a summer where two new B Corporations went public, a new book outlines the growth of the responsible capitalism certification movement.”
Take Ownership of Your Future Self. “Embrace uncertainty and change. Embrace learning and failure. Never be defined by ‘now.’ Engage in deliberate practice so that over time, you’ll grow into your own ever-evolving story. Take action, and invest in building your future identity.”
How to Reimagine the Second Half of Your Career. “…Being forever employable means you’ve got to be intentional about where you’re going, and you’ve got to be prepared to act — immediately and without hesitation — when the right opportunity presents itself. With a foundation in your expertise, a thorough and current understanding of your domain and an ever-growing network to lean on you can guarantee the next job will find you.”
How to Create Your Own Career Luck. “…We can all do a better job of creating unexpected opportunities and connecting the dots with others so that they can help us or we can help them. With a serendipity mindset, every interaction might open a new path — for finding love, meeting an investor, making a friend, forging a new interest, or landing a new job.”
The Next Generation of Office Communication Tech. “Longer term, companies will use mixed reality to create conditions for remote collaboration and innovation that are as good as, or even better than, in person…[The following are] three key areas where we see early versions of what could be called multidimensional ‘collaboratories’ that are improving knowledge worker productivity and collaboration.”
Dropbox is making its workforce ‘virtual first.’ Here’s what that means. “The company’s nearly 3,000 employees will continue to work remotely most of the time, but will occasionally go into the office for more collaborative and team-building work. To help facilitate this, the company will revamp its offices, turning them into what it calls ‘Dropbox Studios.'”
GitLab’s radical vision for the future of work. “As 2020’s experiment with working from home turns into something more permanent, Gitlab – the world’s largest all-remote company – offers a glimpse of what’s ahead, for better or worse.”
TED Talks/Podcasts
TED 2020: What Role Does Luck Play In Your Life? “Chance plays a far bigger role in life than we’re willing to admit, says psychologist Barry Schwartz. Of course, working hard and following the rules can get you far — but the rest could boil down to simple good fortune. Schwartz examines the overlooked link between luck, merit and success, offering an intriguing solution to equalize opportunity.”
No Stupid Questions: Two excellent questions are covered in this episode: “1) Are You a Maximizer or a Satisficer?; and 2) What is the best question you’ve ever been asked in a job interview?”
Blog Posts
Psyche: How to foster ‘shoshin.’ “It’s easy for the mind to become closed to new ideas. Cultivating a beginner’s mind helps us rediscover the joy of learning.”
Farnam Street: Being Smart is Not Enough. “When hiring a team, we tend to favor the geniuses who hatch innovative ideas, but overlook the butterflies, the crucial ones who share and implement them. Here’s why it’s important to be both smart AND social.“
Arts, Music & Culture Corner
“‘Rich people leave, artists and queerdos return’: is San Francisco’s tech exodus real or a fantasy? Widespread adoption of remote work amid Covid could reshape a city that has become unaffordable.”
“In Dark Times, I Sought Out the Turmoil of Caravaggio’s Paintings. The work the artist made near the end of his life changed my understanding of both beauty and suffering.”“Nick Dangerfield: ‘I want to create a sound that provides the strong feeling of presence, as if the musician is in your room.’ Oda brings live music to your home with highly-engineered speakers and exclusive performances.”
Reflections
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
― Rumi
“The unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity.”
― Alexander Fleming
