ConceptsNest

  A Story: In the 1920s, a German professor named Eugen Herrigel moved to Japan to teach philosophy at a university in a city called Sendai, near Tokyo. To deepen his understanding of Japanese culture, Herrigel began training in Kyudo, the Japanese martial art of archery. He was taught by a legendary archer named Awa Kenzo. Kenzo was convinced that beginners should master the fundamentals of archery before attempting to shoot at a real target, and he took this method to the extreme. For the first four years of his training, Herrigel was only allowed to shoot at a roll of straw just seven feet away. When Herrigel complained of the incredibly slow pace, his teacher replied: When he was finally permitted to shoot at more distant targets, Herrigel’s performance was dismal. The arrows flew off course and he became more discouraged with each wayward shot . During a particularly humbling session, Herrigel stated that his problem must be poor aim. Kenzo, however, looked at his student and re

Everything we do (thinking and doing) occupies some bandwidth. Some things occupy a little and others a lot. Examples of things that occupy a little, for most people, are walking, drumming your fingers, or tapping your foot, and things that we are expert at because we have done them often. Examples of things that occupy a lot are talking, listening to information, doing anything we have to concentrate hard on, doing things that we are not expert in because we have not done them before. Driving a car is a good way to envisage this. When we were learning to drive, we had to concentrate extremely hard . We would not have been able to hold a conversation while driving. Almost all our attention was involved in trying to drive. Now that we are an expert , we do not usually have to use so much of our attention. Of course, we still must use a fair amount, but we could also have a conversation while driving. But then, every now and then while we are driving along, something happens that mean

In response to the uncertainties presented by Covid-19, many companies and universities have asked their employees to work remotely. The new policies leave many employees — and their managers — separated from each other for the first time.  Common Behavioural Challenges of Remote Workforces Managers first ought to understand factors that can make remote work especially demanding. Both managers and their employees often express concerns about the lack of face-to-face interaction. Supervisors worry that employees will not work as hard or as efficiently (though research indicates otherwise, at least for some types of jobs).   Many employees, on the other hand, struggle with reduced access to managerial support and communication . Challenges inherent in remote work include: A)      Lack of access to information:   Newly remote workers are often surprised by the added time and effort needed to locate information from colleagues