Big Think

What is "umwelt" and how can it make you a better leader? It’s easy to mistake our own reality for the *only* reality. Umwelt is the idea that we don’t experience the world as it truly is – we experience our own private version of it. As a leader, understanding and applying umwelt can improve collaboration, engagement, and communication. Here’s how: 1. Remember the Individual: Acknowledge various drivers (such as career growth, work-life balance, or creative freedom) and tailor support to each person's motivations. 2. Connect the Dots: People pay attention to what’s relevant to their world — make connections that resonate widely and show them why the subject matters to them. 3. Know Your Audience: Tailor messaging to speak to each group's unique world. A toy ad for toddlers differs from one for teens; likewise, content on Snapchat needs to fit that audience better than LinkedIn. Understanding Umwelt can help us better connect, motivate, and communicate with others by seeing things from their perspective.

Michael Watkins is on fire right now. Check out his Big Think Interview on Youtube to see why.

In Big Think Business Issue #10, Semyon Dukach of One Way Ventures shares insights for startup founders, navigating the co-founder dynamic, and recruiting self-driven managers to scale successfully. Check it out!

These 3 biases are fueling the surge of conspiratorial thinking. Featuring: Brian Klaas, PhD

We're looking for talented freelance writers to pitch and contribute feature articles to the Freethink publication. If you're passionate about exploring the intersection of tech, business, and society, we want to hear from you. Reach out with your ideas here: https://lnkd.in/eNx5dprv

Your brain is wired to repeat the familiar. Change this wiring, and it will change your life. Explore more of our work with Unlikely Collaborators through our shared hub, Perception Box: https://lnkd.in/gQruQBDi

Scientific studies of the power of character strengths are relatively new, but the impact of character strengths is something that people have known about for a long time. Yale professor Laurie Santos says: “The best way to figure out your signature strengths, honestly, is just to look at a big list of the 24 character strengths. Read through them and see which ones kind of pop out for you. If you wanna do it a little bit more systematically, there's a fantastic survey that you can take, a much more well-validated psychometric survey, on the VIA Character Strengths website. You can kind of go through and answer these questions, and it will [rank] a list of your 24 strengths in the order that they resonate for you. So you can do it the more systematic way, or you can do it the quick and dirty way.” What matters is (1) discovering your character strengths and (2) engaging them in every facet of your life to improve your sense of meaning, happiness, and even your performance at work (a nice side effect of character strength engagement is that it’s often a path to more money). So, which strengths are resonating most with you? Resources: Full interview with Dr. Laurie Santos: https://lnkd.in/gx75Nyz3 The character strengths survey: https://lnkd.in/eZm82UC

Watch the full conversation with Yuval Noah Harari now: https://lnkd.in/gwtkJTFa

Autism advocate Kaelynn Partlow on how an official diagnosis changed how she perceives herself. Explore more of our work with Unlikely Collaborators through our shared hub, Perception Box: https://lnkd.in/gQruQBDi

What’s the biggest problem with AI? Yuval Noah Harari argues it’s not the power of AI, but our lack of understanding and attention. This could be the biggest tech revolution in history—and it’s moving incredibly fast. Are we ready? Catch the full conversation with Yuval Noah Harari, founder of Sapienship, on October 18th.