BR#12: Work Culture & Practice

Productivity:

Over the years, working with people in markets from across Europe, North America and Australia has changed my perception of what it means to be productive.

It’s really interesting to see how different cultures think differently about work. And those differences have forced me to challenge my own perceptions about how you need to work in order to be productive.

Let’s take some examples:

People in the US, in my experience, are the true workaholics of the Western world. And there definitely seems to be a perception among Americans that that is a key reason why they have the world’s strongest economy, but is it?

If you look at GDP per capita (which is a lot more telling because it accounts for population size as well), the US actually comes in 7th Globally according to 2022 data. Still very strong, but not the best, and also very close to, and in some cases, trailing some key markets in Northern Europe.

When you look at the work culture in Nordic markets, they are just incredibly different when compared with the US. They have perhaps the most generous and progressive policies related to work/life balance (i.e paid time off, parental leave, etc) anywhere in the world.

...and their economies are booming. In contrast, you can look at countries in Eastern Europe where people do have a hard worker mentality and the situation doesn’t look nearly as bright.

So is working long hours really a determining factor of productivity? Or is having a sustainable balance and avoiding burnout a better practice?

Creativity:

Years ago I was listening to a commencement speech by Neil Gaiman (best-selling author who's had many of his works adapted for the big screen and streaming).

Something he said really stuck with me: "I got good at writing by writing."

It seems obvious in hindsight, but back then, when he said "I got good at writing by ..." I expected him to finish with "reading".

Sure it's important to research, see what else is out there, and learn from others.

But it's only when you start practicing that you can start to develop your own unique voice, your way of saying or doing things. Theory can only take you so far. If you want to get good at something, practice while you learn. There’s no use doing those things in a sequence.

Mindset:

I’ll wrap up with something I’ve been thinking about for the past couple of weeks. It’s quite difficult, while working on a rather demanding set of tasks (which I usually am), to dedicate enough time to writing a newsletter each week on three different topics and ensuring that I’m saying something meaningful about all three.

And sometimes, I do feel like some of what I write isn’t really useful enough to publish. So starting next week, I’m going to change the format a bit: the topics will be the same, but I won’t try to cover all three topics each week necessarily. I’ll focus on the one(s) that I’ve been actively thinking about where I have something that’s hopefully worth sharing.

P.S. Do you have feedback about this newsletter or how I could make it better? I’d love to hear it! Feel free to message me on LinkedIn or email to tell me more.