Lecture 1 Introduction
What are two qualities that made teams successful in the marshmallow tower activity?
1. having everyone involved
2. planning beforehand
3. communication
4. psychological safety
5. assigning tasks
6. experimentation
7. timing
8. wise use of resources
__________ is a strong predictor of job performance in sales roles, while it is less predictive in IT jobs.
Extraversion
One day, John sees an elderly neighbour struggling to carry groceries. He offers to help without hesitation. When she thanks him, he shrugs it off, saying, "I just like helping."
Is John's motivation intrinsic or extrinsic? What is his motivation?
Intrinsic motivation: desire to help others, strong morality, respect for elders etc.
Psychological research suggests that the best teams encourage mistakes and multiple attempts to improve results. This concept, which reduces fear of failure, is called _______?
psychological safety
A small business founder reads about a millionaire who dropped out of university and became successful. They also decide to drop out, believing it will guarantee success. What research limitation does this illustrate?
Survivorship bias
Name two problems with the Myers-Briggs
1. The Myers-Briggs is not reliable: 50% of people who take it again 5 weeks later get a different outcome
2. The Myers-Briggs is not valid: Few, if any, relationships between “type” and workplace outcomes
3. Creates bi-modality
4. creates false opposites
What was the Hanoi Rat Debacle used as an example for?
How money as a motivator can backfire
You are in a group with people you've never met doing an RSM260 game assignment. Someone suggests creating a Jeopardy game. You hate Jeopardy, but you agree: "Omg! What a great idea!"
What poor decision-making mistake are you making?
Groupthink
What are the three factors necessary for causation?
1. Correlation
2. Temporal Antecedence (the cause occurs before the effect)
3. No third factor driving both (omitted variable)
You are attending a networking event, it is packed with people and you do not know anyone there, you have not been to one before and have no idea what to do.
This scenario is an example of what type of situation?
Ambiguous (no clear/obvious way to behave)
Could also be considered a “weak” situation
A mid-sized tech company is planning to launch an AI-powered productivity app, their goal is:
"We will develop, test, and launch our AI-powered productivity app worldwide within three weeks, achieving 10 million downloads in the first week while maintaining a 4.9-star rating on all app stores."
Which letter of "SMART" goals is violated?
A: achievable
During a performance review, Sarah's boss starts with the positives. "Sarah, you have good attention to detail and you are very organized. I also appreciate how you consistently meet deadlines." Then the boss says, "One area for improvement would be communication."
How could this boss improve their feedback to affect Sarah's mood less?
Use the magic 5:1 ratio of positive to negative comments.