What Tech Startups Should Be Doing Next
@jessicalawrence #startnext
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@jessicalawrence #startnext
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tech and tech workforce development.
Hello!
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Work
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WORK
@jessicalawrence #startnext
(one of our most poorly designed products)
Work!
It has a lot of negative side
effects
It’s outdated.
It’s functionality doesn’t meet
the users’ needs.
No one really likes it.
It’s inefficient.
Engaged 13%
Disengaged 87%
@jessicalawrence #startnextSource: Gallup
Only 20% of people can say they like what they do every day.
Source: Wellbeing by Tom Rath
@jessicalawrence #startnext
4%
Burned Out 96%
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Source: Harvard Medical School
Photo Illustration by 731
45 million Americans
live below the poverty line
Bad bosses Useless meetings Sorry son, just need to hit send… You want me to pump where?
Work vs. Wellbeing
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Source: http://mywhisperedcolors.tumblr.com/
@jessicalawrence #startnext
CHANGE!
?@jessicalawrence
#startnext
TRUST
@jessicalawrence #startnext
WELLBEING = HUMAN RIGHT
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Results Only Work Environment:
Wherever Whenever As long as the work gets done
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Engagement Wellbeing Creativity Effectiveness
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Startups
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Every company began as a startup.
Every company began as a startup.
Every company began as a startup.
Every company began as a startup.
Every company began as a startup.
Every company began as a startup.
Every company began as a startup. Every company began as a startup. Every company began as a startup. Every company began as a startup. Every company began as a startup.
Values@jessicalawrence
#startnext
Innovative Products Innovative Companies
?
@jessicalawrence #startnext
wellbeing
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Start here. @jessicalawrence #startnext
fear
scarcity competition urgency
machine envy
data obsession
values-behavior gap @jessicalawrence #startnext
fear
scarcity competition urgency
machine envy
data obsession
values-behavior gap @jessicalawrence #startnext
fear
competition urgency
machine envy
data obsession
values-behavior gap @jessicalawrence #startnext
scarcity
“The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.”
- Andrew Carnegie
@jessicalawrence #startnext
fear
scarcity competition
machine envy
data obsession
values-behavior gap @jessicalawrence #startnext
urgency
fear
scarcity competition urgency
machine envy
data obsession
values-behavior gap @jessicalawrence #startnext
Machine Human
Straightforward Complicated
Unemotional Emotional
Consistent & predictable Inconsistent & unpredictable
Consistent productivity Variable productivity
Consistent efficiency Variable efficiency
Interchangeable Parts Not so much
@jessicalawrence #startnext
fear
scarcity competition urgency
machine envy
data obsession
values-behavior gap @jessicalawrence #startnext
Quantified (everything)
What’s the ROI of this
wellbeing program?
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Jerk?…OK! Unethical?…OK!
Overworked?…OK!
@jessicalawrence #startnext
We use quantitative measures to excuse behavior that is
qualitatively destructive.
fear
scarcity competition urgency
machine envy
data obsession
values-behavior gap @jessicalawrence #startnext
Values Behavior
@jessicalawrence #startnext
''We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate
abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness and arrogance don't belong here.''
From Enron’s Vision & Values
@jessicalawrence #startnext
behavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehavior
behavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehavior
behavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehaviorbehavior behaviorbehavior behavior behaviorbehavior
scarcity competition urgency
machine envy
data obsession
values-behavior gap
fear
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Retirement?
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
workwork
@jessicalawrence #startnext
7 Principals 1.Work and life are not separate
2.Business is personal
3.Human first
4.Wellbeing isn’t a perk
5.Explore the unquantified life
6.Know your own way
7.Practice presence @jessicalawrence #startnext
life work
#1
@jessicalawrence #startnext
lifework
family
sleepeat
learnplay
#1 cont.
@jessicalawrence #startnext
7 Principals 1.Work and life are not separate
2.Business is personal 3.Human first
4.Wellbeing isn’t a perk
5.Explore the unquantified life
6.Know your own way
7.Practice presence @jessicalawrence #startnext
Business is human. And personal.
#2
@jessicalawrence #startnext
7 Principals 1.Work and life are not separate
2.Business is personal
3.Human first 4.Wellbeing isn’t a perk
5.Explore the unquantified life
6.Know your own way
7.Practice presence @jessicalawrence #startnext
Human FIRST What do we need to thrive? What does wellbeing look like?
#3
@jessicalawrence #startnext
@jessicalawrence #startnext
#3 cont.
7 Principals 1.Work and life are not separate
2.Business is personal
3.Human first
4.Wellbeing isn’t a perk 5.Explore the unquantified life
6.Know your own way
7.Practice presence @jessicalawrence #startnext
wellbeing = perk
wellbeing = human right
@jessicalawrence #startnext
#4
P E R M A
Positive Emotion
Engagement
Relationships
Meaning
Accomplishment
Martin Seligman’s model of wellbeing…
@jessicalawrence #startnext
#4 cont.
7 Principals 1.Work and life are not separate
2.Business is personal
3.Human first
4.Wellbeing isn’t a perk
5.Explore the unquantified life 6.Know your own way
7.Practice presence @jessicalawrence #startnext
Explore the UNQUANTIFIED life.
#5
@jessicalawrence #startnext
“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
@jessicalawrence #startnext
- Robert F. Kennedy
#5 cont
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Our goal should not be to become more like machines,
but to become more like ourselves.
7 Principals 1.Work and life are not separate
2.Business is personal
3.Human first
4.Wellbeing isn’t a perk
5.Explore the unquantified life
6.Know your own way 7.Practice presence @jessicalawrence
#startnext
#6
@jessicalawrence #startnext
know your own way
#6 cont.
@jessicalawrence #startnext
#6 cont.
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Heroes to match
your values
#6 cont.
@jessicalawrence #startnext
Kindness =DISRUPTION
#6 cont.
@jessicalawrence #startnext
#6 cont.
Carol Dweck Martin Seligman
Parker Palmer Susan Cain Tina Roth Eisenberg
#6 cont.
#6 cont.
@jessicalawrence #startnext
#6 cont.
#6 cont.
@jessicalawrence #startnext
7 Principals 1.Work and life are not separate
2.Business is personal
3.Human first
4.Wellbeing isn’t a perk
5.Explore the unquantified life
6.Know your own way
7.Practice presence @jessicalawrence #startnext
“…that know my presence as something far different than my performance.”
- Courtney E. Martin
Photo by Johanna Loock
#7 cont.
@jessicalawrence #startnext
- Evgeny Morozov, The New Republic
“Hopefully, these movements will then articulate alternative practices, instructions, and designs. If it takes an act of unplugging to figure out how to do it, let’s disconnect indeed. But let us not do it for the sake of reconnecting on the very same terms as before”
How we work isn’t a law of nature.
We have the power to CHANGE
them.
And that is what tech startups
should be doing next.
Jessica Lawrence
#startnext @jessicalawrence
Thank You