The Best of This Week

How to Move Beyond Semantics When Discussing Racism

Even the terms diversity and inclusion can mean different things to different people, so companies’ efforts to dismantle racist systems can devolve into petty battles over language. Here are three key steps to help businesses move beyond semantics.

Women Are Leaving the U.S. Job Market at an Alarming Pace

In September, more women left the U.S. labor force than the total number of jobs the country added, deepening what’s been called “the first female recession.” The return of children to the classroom, whether in-person or virtual, has taken an uneven toll on families, leaving many women to consider leaving their jobs entirely to meet child care needs.

Five Strategies to Share Meaningful Data Insights

Communication expert and MIT SMR columnist Nancy Duarte shows us that subtle additions to visual presentations like charts and graphs can feed your audience insights without adding to their cognitive load. You don’t have to be a professional designer to incorporate these five specific annotation strategies.

Working From Home, Forever

After experimenting with distributed work for the past two years, this spring Twitter became the first major U.S. company to publicly announce its permanent work-from-home plans. Twitter’s significant head start in optimizing work-from-anywhere practices has already familiarized the company with the pitfalls and advantages of allowing employees to choose where they want to work.

Combating Weight Bias in the Workplace

Being overweight is a highly stigmatized characteristic that many people must contend with in their daily lives — including in the workplace. Implicit bias and discrimination can result in opportunity costs for potential hires and the companies that pass them over for employment, and they can lead to subpar customer service. Managers can combat weight discrimination within their own workplaces with these three steps.

What Else We’re Reading This Week

• Companies can use an array of tactics to make sure that their data products inspire action and create value
• Meet the customer service agents who pay to talk to you
• Companies can deliver services more efficiently as modular tasks that can be shifted among global teams and locations
• Virtual learning is sparking optimism about revitalizing endangered languages

Quote of the Week:

“Good governance requires balance and adjustment, and when done well, it can fuel digital innovation without compromising security.”

— Gregory Vial, assistant professor of IT at HEC Montréal, in “Data Governance in the 21st-Century Organization”

The Best of This Week