Hot Topic Friday: Nov 8

Happy Friday! Here are my Nov. 8 Hot Topics and how they relate to advancing culture or leadership.

Hot Topic 1: How Is Your Nunchi?

What It’s About: The Korean word “nunchi”— translates to “eye-measure.” Hong has written a wonderful article on this important element in the Korean culture. She notes: “Nunchi is the art of sensing what people are thinking and feeling, and responding appropriately. It’s speed-reading a room with the emphasis on the collective, not on specific individuals. It might be the most important word I ever learned... ‘Half of social life is nunchi.’ You need nunchi to get along with people, to get what you want out of people in a purely pragmatic sense and to protect yourself from danger.”

Why It’s Important: The most wonderful thing about diversity, inclusion, and all related notions are the unique angles of learning and thinking expressed through others. For example, I’m not sure we would use “eye measure” as a term in North America. However, learning about nunchi opens up an entirely new window into human dynamics. It literally makes us see differently. And when we learn how quick nunchi impacts our ability to read a situation, the takeaway is very powerful. It’s another reason to avoid being on an electronic device during a meeting. It slows one’s nunchi down dramatically. We miss so much. I’m going to be working on my nunchi here on out.

One Millennial Response: I appreciate learning this and can immediately see how nunchi would be an extremely valuable skill to continue building. I mean, how many times have you heard someone skoff at another’s inability to “read the room?” This seems similar, and of course when you have the awareness to sense what’s going on, then react appropriately, you’re an even better team member.

Hot Topic 2: How About a Decency Quotient?

Source: Fast Company.

What It's About: Ajay Banga, the CEO of Mastercard, has increased the company’s stock price more than 13-fold since taking on the role in July 2010. According to the article, his Decency Quotient (DQ) is a vital part of their culture. So what’s Decency Quotient? Fast Company quotes Banga saying, “You can’t win as a company by standing on someone else’s shoulders and beating their head in. That to me is not winning, that’s just crude schoolyard bullying. And right now we have a lot of crude schoolyard bullying going on. We need to find that decency inside ourselves and start talking about how we can all do this together.”

Why It’s Important: The more CEOs that stand up and declare that profit, purpose and decency are connected and imperative to defining success, the more progress we will all make. Competition can be a wonderful thing when we are chasing “goodness,” and the betterment of all. The article reports that this past August, the heads of the world’s biggest businesses signed a new statement of purpose saying they would lead their companies to benefit customers, employees, suppliers, and community; not just shareholders. For too long, the mantra of increasing shareholder value at any cost, without paying sufficient attention to the entire ecosystem, has given rise to a very narrow definition of getting results. Leaders like Banga are challenging that in the best way.

One Millennial Response: It’s great to see companies profiting while also investing in ideas like the Decency Quotient. Personally, I’m equipped to deal with the idea that sometimes not all is fair between office walls, shareholders may remain a primary focus, and people won’t always treat me as I want to be treated. I think we should all expect a version of that, however, if companies like Mastercard can prove results grow 13-fold with an emphasis on DQ too, then that’s an equation proving awesome culture equals impressive growth.

My Weekly Wine Recommendation (Thanks to Vivino):

World’s End Rocksteady Proprietary Reserve 2014.

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[Picture and ratings provided by Vivino].

And finally! Here’s Cecil’s Bleat of the Week!

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“It’s incumbent on good public servants to maintain their voices and originality of thinking.” - Ronan Farrow.

Bye for now!

— Lorne Rubis

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Happy Friday! Here are my Nov. 8 Hot Topics and how they relate to advancing culture or leadership.

Hot Topic 1: How Is Your Nunchi?

Hot Topic 2: How About a Decency Quotient?

And finally! Here’s Cecil’s Bleat of the Week!

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