WB Reading List: Avoiding Self-sabotage, Gen Z Priorities, and Change (again)

Fixing a Self-Sabotaging Team by N. Anand and Jean-Louis Barsoux

Have you ever been the scapegoat for a team’s disfunction? Have you and other team members assigned a characteristic to one team member making them responsible for the team’s issues? We all have. Here is why and how we can avoid it.

Takeaways: “Teams under pressure often fall back on dysfunctional coping mechanisms that are deeply rooted in human evolutionary psychology. The group works like a pack, instinctively looking for ways to alleviate its members’ collective anxiety. It might unconsciously ascribe an unwanted role, such as scapegoat or savior, to one or more members and lapse into skewed interactions—for example, directing its energy toward fighting a common enemy, whether real or perceived, rather than advancing its actual mission.”

Survey: Employer Stability Tops Gen Z Search Priorities by Kathy Gurchieck

This SHRM article is a good reminder that in recruitment we must meet people where they are and in people management we must understand our audiences (regardless of generation). Risk of layoffs, pay, and benefits are all topics that can be addressed in the recruitment process.

Takeaways: “Students also have high salary expectations, although that varies by gender and field of study. Engineering students had the highest salary expectations among the Class of 2023, while female students overall expect a $6,200 lower average salary than their male counterparts.

Other surveys also noted this trend. 2022 survey findings released by Otta, a London-based job search platform, found women in non-senior software engineering, data and product roles set minimum salary requirements of 19 percent to 20 percent less than men, Forbes reported. Minimum salary expectations were somewhat better for marketing and HR positions, but women in those fields set their minimum salary requirements 7 percent to 10 percent lower than men.

‘That's why salary transparency around [pay] ranges are so important, because it's the first step in re-educating everybody on what's reasonable, so both men and women have a better picture’ of the pay range of a position, Cruzvergara told SHRM Online.”

ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government, and Our Community by Jeffrey M. Hiatt

This is the Prosci adopted model for change developed by Jeffrey Hiatt. This model, like any change framework, is not a panacea. It won’t work perfectly in any situation, but this is a great guide to help leader be certain they aren’t forgetting anything as they move through a change initiative.

Takeaways: “Successful change, at its core, is rooted in something much simpler. How to facilitate change with one person.”