RWL Newsletter #91
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! Fall is truly upon us now, it seems. It's too cold to kayak most mornings, but the plus side of that is the cold keeps the mosquitos and horse flies to a minimum, so my wife and I are heading back into the woods for long morning walks. UNH has a beautiful area called College Woods that we love to walk our dog in.
No particular theme this week: design, personality, and drugs - oh my! Have a great weekend!
Read
What: FastCompany, How Gillette designed a Razor for Men Who Can't Shave Themselves
https://www.fastcompany.com/90232951/how-gillette-designed-a-razor-for-men-who-cant-shave-themselves
Why: Since coming to UNH, I've had an opportunity to work closely with researchers working on issues around disability. I've also been working on the periphery of the nursing home industry. Even though this isn't my specialty, I've come to appreciate how important it is to design for these populations. This is a great story about design and reflects how important it is to get close to the people you serve. There is a broader management lesson here, too, of course. All good design requires getting close to the people you serve.
Watch
What: The New Yorker, The Enduring Allure of the Personality Quiz
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-enduring-allure-of-the-personality-quiz
Why: I am a fan of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), but I agree it has low validity and, in my experience low reliability (I've taken it a bunch of times and gotten different answers). And yet I like it and think of myself in terms of it (ENFP). I've also taken the Big Five, the DISC, and a few others, but I always come back to the MBTI. I use all of these in my org behavior class (and I've written about these here before). I think these are all useful as a starting point for discussion. There's a zillion of these things, as this video talks about. I do think we have a fundamental need to classify, and an undying interest in looking at ourselves. The thing I took away from this video is the way that online personality tests are being used as ploys for marketers to gather data about you. That's an interesting twist worth thinking about.
Listen
What: Tim Ferriss, Michael Pollan — Exploring The New Science of Psychedelics (#313)
https://tim.blog/2018/05/06/michael-pollan-how-to-change-your-mind/
Why: I have read several of Pollan's books on food and loved them. The Omnivore's Dilemma and Cooked are excellent and I highly recommend them. Pollan has now written a book about the growing study of therapeutic use of psychedelics. When I first heard this was a growing field, I was somewhat turned off, to be honest. It sounded like a quackery was being dressed up as science so that people who happened to be into a particular drug experience could justify their recreational use. I'm a child of the 80's and the Just Say No movement, so I've got a bit of that running in the background, too. But listening to Pollan's serious exploration and discussion of the therapeutic use of these drugs has opened my mind to the possibility. I'm still skeptical, but if these drugs can be used to treat recalcitrant behavioral health issues, it's worth further exploration.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau