The Best of This Week

Communicate Empathy and Authority in Times of Crisis

How leaders communicate during a crisis can dissipate employee anxiety and help teams become more connected and productive. Nancy Duarte presents five communication techniques to build trust with, connect with, and motivate employees during high-pressure times.

A Behavioral Scientist’s Guide to Getting Through COVID-19 Chaos

Accept it? Find a distraction? We can’t overcome rational fears borne of a global pandemic using either technique alone, but a combination of these strategies can help us get through distressing times. Behavioral scientist Matt Wallaert discusses two recent studies and explains how to apply their findings to get through the chaos in a healthy way.

Deliver Value and Delight Customers With Data Wrapping

Companies seeking to distinguish themselves from the competition can “wrap” their products with data analytics features and experiences that increase profitability and delight customers. Four design characteristics make data wrapping unique.

Training and Running AI at Scale — With Reduced Carbon Emissions

Powering AI operations at scale requires a huge amount of electricity and results in significant carbon emissions. A recent paper published by MIT researchers outlines the “once-for-all” network — a new method for training and running a neural network that produces a tiny fraction of the carbon emissions generated by the techniques typically used today.

Build Teams With Diverse Expertise for Better AI Systems

Computer scientists often play the lead role in AI development, but systems that actually get the job done are built by better-rounded teams with a diversity of expertise. English and other humanities majors contribute a valuable perspective, but “hire English majors” is too generic to be useful advice. Joseph Byrum details how managers can hire, train, and integrate diverse thinkers into AI teams.

What Else We’re Reading This Week:

• The kinetic leader: Deloitte presents new findings from its 2020 Global Technology Leadership Study
• To best support employees, lead with “we” and “us”
• Why it’s important to ignore “productivity propaganda”

Quote of the Week:

“In these anxious times, when loss is all around, leaders must do more than peddle the illusion that putting up a fight with tips and tech — the ammunition of the virtual workplace — will eventually bring us back to normal.… We can’t fight our way back to normal right now.”

— Gianpiero Petriglieri, associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD, in “Your People Need Care, Not a Battle Cry”

The Best of This Week