The Delicate Dynamics of Challenging a Superior | Benjamin Laker

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The Delicate Dynamics of Challenging a Superior | Benjamin Laker     Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.The act of challenging a superior necessitates more than just raising one’s voice; it involves understanding, navigating, and engaging in the subtle yet complex dance of power dynamics, diplomacy, and mutual respect. Approaching someone above you in the professional hierarchy requires a delicate balance and a deep understanding of both the person and the situation. Continued here

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Roxane Gay on Loving vs. Being in Love and the Mark of a Soul Mate     “It isn’t perfect, not at all. It doesn’t need to be. It is, simply, what fills you up.” Continued here

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How AI Will Transform Project Management     Only 35% of projects today are completed successfully. One reason for this disappointing rate is the low level of maturity of technologies available for project management. This is about to change. Researchers, startups, and innovating organizations, are beginning to apply AI, machine learning, and other advanced technologies to project management, and by 2030 the field will undergo major shifts. Technology will soon improve project selection and prioritization, monitor progress, speed up reporting, and facilitate testing. Project managers, aided by virtual project assistants, will find their roles more focused on coaching and stakeholder management than on administration and manual tasks. The author show how organizations that want to reap the benefits of project management technologies should begin today by gathering and cleaning project data, preparing their people, and dedicating the resources necessary to drive this transformation. Continued here

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Why Conflicting Ideas Can Make Your Strategy Stronger     In a volatile, uncertain world, successful strategies are those conceived as portfolios of options rather than as roadmaps. But to successfully create and communicate such strategies, managers must embrace incompatible and misaligned ideas, communicate multiple and conflicting narratives, and share ideas as they think of them as opposed to the traditional sequence of thinking then sharing. To enable this, leaders need to foster a culture in which people can disagree without being punished for it. Continued here

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The acute suicide crisis among veterinarians: 'You're always going to be failing somebody'     Last summer, a 36-year-old veterinarian named Andrea Kelly stopped by a Québec horse stable to check on a pair of one-month-old foals, and had a friendly visit with the farm's staff. Three days later, she was dead. Kelly's death by suicide made headlines in Canada and elsewhere, sparking stories about the alarming mental health crisis in the veterinary community.In 2021, 33-year-old Australian vet Sophie Putland died by suicide in Melbourne. Another Melbourne-based vet, Flynn Hargreaves, was just 27 when he took his life in 2018. In 2014, a Bronx, New York, veterinarian named Shirley Koshi died of an apparent suicide after months of being harassed and bullied by a pet owner. Later that same year, Sophia Yin, a pioneering animal behaviourist and renowned expert in the veterinary community, died by suicide at 48. Continued here

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An expert's guide to the best pizza in NYC     Whether it's a quick lunch, an after-school snack, a destination dining experience or a late-night soak-up, pizza powers New York City. No city has slice or pie culture quite like it, and no visit is complete without it. A bragging right and backbone of identity born of late 19th- and early 20th-Century Italian immigration, pizza and New York's ties run deep. But all pizza is not created equal. And $1 slices do not epiphanies make. The city's "best pizza" is as important an opinion as it gets around here. Arguably the five boroughs' most famous slice, Joe's, is the baseline. Criteria for judging? A near-equal sauce-to-cheese ratio and a flavourful crust (no "gum line" – undercooked dough between the crust and toppings) with an undercarriage that never fully cracks when folded. Greatpizza can be an adventure and tell a story, but ultimately, the best pizza is one you're thinking about having again before the one you're eating that moment disappears.  Continued here

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The greatest reality TV show never made     It started with an advert. In 2002, a new British reality TV show was about to be launched. The prize? £100,000. The concept? Unclear. The wannabe contestants? People who thought of themselves as "characterful, resourceful and energetic". All they knew was that they would have to give up their lives for a whole year. They didn't even know what channel the secret show was going to be on, but that didn't matter. Hundreds applied.More like this: - What Swedish reality TV can teach us- 12 of the best TV shows this October- The show that changed sex forever Continued here

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Your immune system makes its own antiviral drug - and it's likely one of the most ancient     My laboratory studies a protein that makes these natural antiviral molecules. Far from a modern human invention, nature evolved cells to make their own “drugs” as the earliest defense against viruses. Viruses have no independent life cycle – they are completely dependent on the cells they infect to supply all the chemical building blocks needed to replicate themselves. Once inside a cell, the virus hijacks its machinery and turns it into a factory to make hundreds of new viruses. Continued here

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Comets 101 - everything you need to know about the snow cones of space     When you hear the word comet, you might imagine a bright streak moving across the sky. You may have a family member who saw a comet before you were born, or you may have seen one yourself when comet Nishimura passed by Earth in September 2023. But what are these special celestial objects made of? Where do they come from, and why do they have such long tails?As a planetarium director, I spend most of my time getting people excited about and interested in space. Nothing piques people’s interest in Earth’s place in the universe quite like comets. They’re unpredictable, and they often go undetected until they get close to the Sun. I still get excited when one comes into view. Continued here

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What is seawater intrusion? A hydrogeologist explains the shifting balance between fresh and salt water at the coast     Seawater intrusion is the movement of saline water from the ocean or estuaries into freshwater systems. The seawater that has crept up the Mississippi River in the summer and early fall of 2023 is a reminder that coastal communities teeter in a fragile land-sea balance. Fresh water is essential for drinking, irrigation and healthy ecosystems. When seawater moves inland, the salt it contains can wreak havoc on farmlands, ecosystems, lives and livelihoods. Continued here

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Israel has no good options for dealing with Hamas' hostage-taking in Gaza     Hamas, the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group that mounted a deadly surprise attack on Israel that has killed – at last count – at least 1,200 Israelis, has captured what are estimated to be 150 hostages. Brought back to Gaza, those hostages include children, members of the military and the elderly. Most are civilians captured from the towns bordering Gaza. President Joe Biden revealed on Oct. 10, 2023, that some are Americans. Hamas has said that every time Israel strikes a Gaza home “without warning,” a hostage will be killed, and that execution would be recorded and the recording played for the public.The Conversation asked James Forest, a University of Massachusetts Lowell expert on international security, to help readers understand the dynamics of this hostage crisis. Continued here

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Why the crisis in Israel is putting pressure on GOP to act over vacant House speaker role     In the wake of the Hamas surprise attacks on Israel, and that country’s resulting heavy military response, calls for Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to pick a new speaker quickly have grown, including from GOP members themselves. The absence of a speaker may slow or limit any aid the U.S. could provide to Israel.The Conversation U.S. asked congressional scholar Laura Blessing, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute, to explain what a major crisis abroad has to do with internal divisions within one U.S. political party. Continued here

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New treaty to protect the world's oceans may hurt vulnerable African fisheries     Following two decades of fierce negotiations, over 60 countries recently signed a UN Ocean Treaty to conserve biodiversity on the high seas. The “high seas” are all ocean areas which aren’t under a specific country’s direct ownership or regulation. They make up two-thirds of Earth’s oceans, providing 90% of the habitat available for life. Continued here

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Israel-Gaza conflict: how could it change the Middle East's political landscape? Expert Q&A     The surprise attack by Hamas launched on Israel on October 7 has already led to thousands of deaths in both Israel and Gaza, and sparked concerns that the conflict could escalate across the Middle East. An expert in the politics and relations of this region, Simon Mabon, explains how all the key players are likely to view this dramatic escalation in violence.Just before the attack by Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman had talked of progress on a “historic peace deal” between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Is such an agreement dead in the water now? Continued here

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Male domestic workers in South Africa - study sheds light on the experiences of Malawian and Zimbabwean migrants     University of Johannesburg provides support as an endorsing partner of The Conversation AFRICA.An estimated 800,000 people work as domestic workers in South Africa. Most are black women from marginalised backgrounds. It’s therefore not surprising that the bulk of the literature about domestic work focuses on females performing cleaning, cooking and care work. What’s missing in debates about domestic workers’ job-related experiences and relationships with their employers is the experiences of men performing domestic work, a job traditionally linked to femininity. Continued here

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The Black Book is a gritty new thriller that raises the bar for Nollywood     Nigerian thriller The Black Book has been in the headlines for reportedly topping global figures at streaming service Netflix, with 5.6 million viewers in its first two days. Does it live up to the hype?In my view, as a critic, scholar and teacher of Nigerian film and storytelling, the short answer is yes. Directed and co-written by newcomer Editi Effiong, The Black Book emerges as a significant film that establishes a new milestone for Nollywood, the ever-evolving Nigerian film industry. Continued here

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Rising oil prices, surging inflation: The Arab embargo 50 years ago weaponized oil to inflict economic trauma - sound familiar?     Fellow in Energy and Global Oil, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University Fifty years ago, a secret deal among Arab governments triggered one of the most traumatic economic crises to afflict the United States and other big oil importers. Continued here

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Here's what's driving the record autumn heat (it's not just carbon emissions)     Climate scientists have detected a striking jump in global temperatures during 2023. September was 1.75°C above Earth’s pre-industrial average temperature and a whole half-degree celsius warmer than the previous hottest September. These observations have been variously described as “shocking”, “mind-blowing” and “gobsmacking” by leading scientists. So what’s behind them? Continued here

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The afterglow of an explosive collision between giant planets may have been detected in a far-off star system     The afterglow of a massive collision between two giant planets may have been detected for the first time. The wreckage of the collision could eventually cool and form an entirely new planet. If the observation is confirmed, it provides an amazing opportunity to watch the birth of a new world in real time and open a window into how planets form.In December 2021, astronomers watching an otherwise unremarkable sun-like star saw it begin to flicker. For a few months, the visible light (the light we can see with our eyes) from this star continued to change. At times it would almost disappear, before returning to its previous brightness. Continued here

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How morbid curiosity can lead people to conspiracy theories     From blood-harvesting Satanists who stealthily run the world to shapeshifting alien lizards invading the world, conspiracy theories often offer alternative explanations of unsettling events. They all centre on a proposal that a malicious group of people is behind strange or political happenings. Conspiracy theories have another thing in common - they go against mainstream explanations and lack concrete evidence. If the drive to seek out conspiracy theories is motivated by a desire to identify and understand potential threats, then we should expect interest in conspiracy theories to be linked with higher morbid curiosity. Continued here

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Why 'toxic masculinity' isn't a useful term for understanding all of the ways to be a man     There seem to be as many interpretations of what “toxic masculinity” means as there are uses of the term.Some believe it’s a way to criticise what they see as specific negative behaviour and attitudes often associated with men. Others, such as broadcaster Piers Morgan, claim that media interest in toxic masculinity is part of a “woke culture” that aims to emasculate men. Others believe toxic masculinity is a fundamental part of manhood. Continued here

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How collective memories fuel conflicts     When a group of youths attacked shops and buildings in Tallinn, Estonia, on the evening of April 26, 2007, it sparked two days of civil unrest. This resulted in the death of a young man, injuries to 100 people, including 13 police officers, and the arrest of over 1,000 people. The unrest was due to a disagreement between two communities – ethnic Estonians and ethnic Russians – over how they should remember the events of the second world war and the Soviet period. These disagreements stemmed from contentious “collective memories” of events and narratives. Continued here

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Expanding London's Ulez has sparked fractious debate - psychologists explain how it can be de-escalated     Drivers of the most polluting vehicles are now charged £12.50 a day (or more for heavier vehicles) to drive within London’s M25 orbital motorway, following an expansion to the city’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in August 2023. Something had to be done. A report published by the Greater London Authority earlier in the year found that every London borough exceeds the World Health Organization’s limits for toxic air pollution. Continued here

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How to read Haruki Murakami in English the Japanese way - in four steps     With more than 40 years of writing to choose from, it’s difficult to know where to begin when reading Haruki Murakami. Earlier this year in Japan, he published his 15th novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, though the release date for an English translation has not yet been announced. While Murakami first gained attention in the English-reading world with the translation of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle in 1997, his writing career began almost two decades earlier with the publication of Hear The Wind Sing and Pinball (1973). These first two novels were not widely available in English until 2015, and consequently, Japanese and English readers have read Murakami in quite different contexts and chronologies. Continued here