The Help People Actually Want

Ben Garrett

Nesting Parties are the New Baby Shower

a man and woman play fighting with cleaning supplies in a living room

Raise your hand if you like doing chores around the house. Yeah, not that many hands up. You aren't alone and expecting parents are starting a new trend to deal with drudgery: Nesting Parties. Nesting parties are a baby shower replacement/compliment that has seen a huge increase in popularity over the past few years. Basically, expecting parents invite friends and family over to their house en masse and work through a collective to-do list of chores to get the home ready for baby. It's a wonderful way to enjoy each other's company and demonstrate real care. What is perhaps most fascinating about it is that it exists as a new trend. A few generations ago, daily life would have probably looked very similar to this event with family, friends, and neighbors chipping in to help each other around the house. It points innovators towards something that is enduring about being human: people are looking for a village of care.  

Mentorship Reveals a Hidden Curriculum

a young man giving a drug prevention presentation to a group of students

Speaking of communities of care, a recent study by Emory Professor Jillian Grennan shows how a community of care at work can drive innovation. Dr. Grennan showed how a small group of mentors can lead younger employees to significantly expand their level of invention creation and do so in ways that create enduring changes for their success. There are many smart insights in the report, but a key one was that mentorship within an organization gives mentees access to the "hidden curriculum" of an org: what are the specific mechanics of driving innovation "here". Making this invisible set of facts visible to newer employers saves them years of time in figuring it out and allows them to significantly speed up their innovation success cycles. 

AI Fuels Productivity and Burnout

an illustration of a woman with five arms with a different kind of tool in each hand

Let's wrap with another fascinating recent report. HBR recently published a study on what generative AI does within a medium-sized tech company over 8 months. Employees became more productive, successfully stretched into areas where their skills were initially low, and worked harder. Eventually, these employees developed cognitive fatigue, started making poor decisions, and burned out, creating turnover. This raises interesting questions about how to manage an AI-enabled workforce and is a unique entry into a conversation that is typically focused on what the technology can do, how to use it, and who it is going to replace. It seems like the more pressing conversation is how to effectively channel the creativity of early adopters for the benefit of an organization and those innovators.