Undisruptable

Knowing when to trust people is near top of the list of business skills. And all the liar-detection tips you read in self-help books are just wrong.

Plus the 4 coronavirus management cliches that need to go in the bin right now.

Learning about your clients' businesses is a valuable education tool as you try to skill up to survive the post-virus wasteland.

My real-life teenage crime exploits, and how Black Lives Matter has taught me that I need to do a whole  lot better.

I thought I was a nice, non-racist guy, and not part of the problem.

Turns out: I am.

Some thoughts on what average white folk can do to help.

All links are in the original article here.

The things that happen when you take plausible-sounding business advice from people who ... haven't actually run a business themselves.

It turns out much of the stuff you learned in business school is wrong.

Because business school is all about Mr Spock logic and the fantasy that you can do a spreadsheet model to accurately predict people’s behaviour.

This week I co-interviewed Ogilvy UK Vice-Chairman Rory Sutherland, behavioural economist and author of Alchemy. He and his team study how customers really behave when it's time to pull out their wallets. 

It’s essential knowledge for anyone who needs to change human behavior. And that’s really all business is about. Getting customers, staff, investors and the rest to change their behavior is the hardest thing there is. If you can do that, you win, because everything else is just admin. 

Here's what we've experienced a bit recently: someone on a salary, who works for an organisation with a multi-billion dollar balance sheet, asking a modest family-owned company in an industry they know to be on its knees, to work for free.

Taking advantage of suppliers and staff under these conditions is just  looting. Your small, dirty wins will be cancelled out many times over  long term by your damaged reputation.

Here's what to do about it.

Read it here.

You under-value your abilities because you assume everyone has them. That is very far from the case.

Why not take those miraculous skills and use them somewhere they'll get noticed?

This week we look at why career-change people are more interesting and valuable.

Just in case your own industry has ceased to exist.

Time for a break from virus advice, let’s look at what we business people can learn from the world’s favourite blond-mulleted, tattoo-eyelinered, polygamous, murder-conspiring tiger farmer, Joe Exotic.

What is it about the Tiger King? It’s a feel-good show, in the sense that no matter how low your self-worth, you can safely say: every single person on this show is worse than me.

Feeling better already? Let's learn some vital business lessons from Joe's adventures.

The human touch. You don't know how important it is until it's taken away.

This week we look at how tech disruption has conspired to turn your business into a vending machine. And how to stop it.

Plus: why Zoom will never deliver an inspiring message, and how Apple depends on low-tech strategy to remain massively profitable.

Full story here https://ianwhitworth.net/the-war-on-the-human-touch/