Here's your weekly dose of TA. Enjoy.
- July 24-28, 10 20-minute power social sessions. What?! Sprout Social is offering ten short sessions on topics such as Next Gen Storytelling: Creating Personal Connections through Social Technology, Game Day Engagement: Remaining Agile During High-Profile Events, and Now Trending: Integrating New Social Platform Functionality Into Your Strategy. Learn more and register. Free.
- Creating a Social Media Policy, a free webinar, will take place Thursday, August 3, 1:00-2:00 pm. Participants will leave with clear guidance to protect their nonprofit from damaging mistakes. They'll learn the steps needed to create a policy including ensuring all are on board.
- The webinar Challenges and Opportunities to Build a Chesapeake Regional Food System is scheduled for Tuesday, September 12, 1:00-2:00 pm. The webinar is sponsored by CFN and Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc. and features Joseph Tassone and Greg Bowen. Free.
- What's the link between generosity and happiness? The authorizes of the new study A neural link between generosity and happiness (PDF) summarize:
Participants promised to spend money over the next 4 weeks either on others (experimental group) or on themselves (control group). Here, we report that, compared to controls, participants in the experimental group make more generous choices in an independent decision-making task and show stronger increases in self-reported happiness.
All well and good, of course. But perhaps even better for nonprofits and governments requiring volunteers or other help, the researchers also write:
Our results demonstrate that a public pledge can be used as commitment strategy motivating commitment-consistent generous behaviour, which not only has an impact on generous decision making, but also on happiness.
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Interestingly, changes in happiness were driven by the commitment to be generous as such, independent of the absolute monetary amount spent on others. - Good to know: See an Incorrect Google Result? Here’s How to Fix It.
- Google Spent 2 Years Studying 180 Teams. The Most Successful Ones Shared These 5 Traits. So not much of a surprise but this section, in particular, resonates:
We've all been in meetings and, due to the fear of seeming incompetent, have held back questions or ideas. I get it. It's unnerving to feel like you're in an environment where everything you do or say is under a microscope.
Now to create teams with these traits.
But imagine a different setting. A situation in which everyone is safe to take risks, voice their opinions, and ask judgment-free questions. A culture where managers provide air cover and create safe zones so employees can let down their guard. That's psychological safety.
