By John Coleman for Harvard Business Review

Curiosity is critical to professional success. A curious mind will spot and solve problems, while being unafraid to try something new. It will seek out the insights of others, and open itself to expanded thinking. A curious person will never succumb to apathy, instead pushing consistently for growth, innovation, and improvement. Anyone seeking to build a successful career must embrace curiosity. 

But curiosity isn’t just essential to professional advancement — it’s central to crafting purpose and meaning at work. We all want to feel that our work is meaningful, and we all have an opportunity to make it so. But it takes curiosity — about ourselves, our work, and the people we work with — to unlock deeper purpose each day.

In my book, the HBR Guide to Crafting Your Purpose, I outline four essential ways in which any person can better pursue professional purpose: craft your work, make work a craft, connect work to service, and invest in positive relationships. Engaging in these four simple practices makes any job more meaningful. But each of us must embrace curiosity to fully mine these practices for meaning.  

Craft Your Work 

One of the best ways to enhance the meaning you get from work is through job crafting — the art of making small changes to your work life to turn the job you have into the job you want. The idea is that by making small changes to your work, you can tailor it to your unique passions, personality, and interests in a way that maximizes its meaning to you and others. My favorite example is Curtis Jenkins, a Dallas bus driver who managed to revolutionize his position to create what reporters called a “yellow bus utopia” while changing hundreds of lives.  

Curiosity is a necessary pre-condition for job crafting. It starts with a self-evaluation. Ask yourself questions such as what am I good at (really)? What do I love to do? What makes me happy on the job? A thoughtful self-understanding explored deeply and with an open-mind can provide the foundation upon which job-crafting is built.  

Then, apply this self-awareness to the job:  

• What elements of my job could I tweak to be more meaningful for me and more impactful for others?  
• Can what I currently do be done differently?  
• Is my job, as structured, solving the most important problems — for the organization and those we serve — in the best ways?  

To get started on this practice, make a list of the core people you serve in your work, then list the outcomes of your job that help to serve them well. Then reflect on your current tasks and see if there are ways in which you could serve those people as well or better by doing your work differently. You may find ways in which to craft your work that are both better for them and more meaningful for you. 

Make Work a Craft 

The second way to make work more meaningful is to make it a craft. For much of history, people would often practice professions inter-generationally. Trades like farming, carpentry, and cobblery might pass generation to generation in a family. And often a person would painstakingly perfect the craft over a lifetime. This quest for perfection and constant improvement created the most memorable achievements in history — from the murals of the Sistine Chapel to breakthroughs in genetics and the elegant simplicity of the original Mac.  

This commitment to craftsmanship offers a sense of purpose in and of itself. As I explain in my book, we all gain meaning from work well done. There’s intrinsic motivation and purpose in knowing that we’ve put our best efforts into something, that we’ve honed a craft in a way that challenges us. 

But how can we find opportunities for craft in our modern jobs? After all, building financial models or leading a team in a factory can feel a bit distant from Michelangelo’s historic masterworks or the genius of Steve Jobs. But craft is not about historical impact. It’s about self-improvement and a quest to push the limits of our own performance — to take on new challenges and achieve something hard and unique. When I was an analyst at McKinsey, this looked like building beautiful Excel models with elegant formulas that could last clients years. I did this whether the partners noticed or not because I took pride in challenging and improving myself. In your job, it’s something else. Curiosity can unlock it.  

Ask yourself:  

• What are the core elements of your job that require excellence?  
• What skills do you need to perform that job well?  
• What are one or two areas you can focus on now to make a craft, and how can you improve day-by-day until you do those things better than anyone else and to the best of your ability?  

To begin, pick one area of your work you’d like to try to hone and perfect. Make this something you enjoy that is important to your job. Then assess the 5-10 ways you could make it better and begin working to improve them and challenge yourself. Keep notes each day or save old versions sequentially so you can see your improvement over time. 

Connect Work to Service 

There’s almost nothing in life that improves our sense of well-being and purpose like service to others. Numerous studies have shown that acts of service have an immediate impact on happiness and fulfillment. And in my own life, I’ve rarely felt as purposeful as when building a Habitat for Humanity home with colleagues, serving in a soup kitchen, or reading to kids at a local school. 

Service doesn’t have to be confined to volunteer work in a community, however. As I’ve outlined in a previous article, there are at least six opportunities to serve others in any job: clients or customers, colleagues, capital, community, partners, and people we love. Knowing this and seeking opportunities for service in each of these areas can bring meaning to work.  

But identifying the people we serve and ways to serve them requires deep-seeded curiosity. Consider these questions:  

• Who are my clients?  
• What do they need?  
• What are the key obstacles to their well-being that I’m helping to overcome in my work, and how can I do it better?  
• Which colleagues need my help the most?  
• How can I effectively offer that with no expectation of return?  
• Which two or three people could I best serve today? 

These questions, founded in curiosity, are at the heart of service to others. Pick two of the six areas you like above — colleagues and customers for example. Think of 2-3 individuals in each of those two groups you could serve better and spend the next month trying to really understand them, and ways to use your work to serve them well.  

Invest in Positive Relationships 

In social science literature, perhaps nothing is as central to happiness as meaningful positive relationships with others. Such relationships are essential to Martin Seligman’s PERMA framework for flourishing and the findings of the Harvard Grant Study that “Happiness is love.” And those findings are echoed in the works of many others. 

Relationships aren’t confined to our personal lives. Each workday we spend more than 8 hours with work colleagues, whether remotely or in person. And trying to navigate work in the absence of meaningful relationships is a recipe for disappointment. Positive relationships at work can help us to flourish, can make others happy, and can create extraordinary corporate cultures.  

At work, as at home, relationships rest on empathy and curiosity. We can’t have a relationship of mutual care and respect with someone if we don’t display a genuine curiosity for that person. Ask:  

• Who are they?  
• What matters to them?  
• What are their anxieties and fears, passions, and purpose?  
• On any given day, how are they feeling?  
• What are they interested in intellectually?  

Constantly approaching others with curiosity will naturally build your own empathy and show those people you care — creating meaningful relationships in the process. When you are interacting with work colleagues over the next month or two, consciously make a game of trying to know them better. Ask more questions than you answer. And carve out time for conversations and interactions with your colleagues that don’t just accomplish your work tasks but (in a professional way) enhance the relationship you have with them. Improving your work relationships will make you and those around you happier, and it will probably make you more productive as well. 

Curiosity is undoubtedly essential to professional success, but it’s also at the heart of purpose. Living with greater curiosity at work can help us to craft jobs and professional environments that help us and others flourish. 

John Coleman is the author of the HBR Guide to Crafting Your Purpose. Subscribe to his free newsletter, On Purpose, follow him on Twitter @johnwcoleman, or contact him at johnwilliamcoleman.com.

HABITAT Magazine

The co-op board at Castle Village was forced to raise maintenance by 19% and levy two assessments.

When its 65-foot-tall retaining wall collapsed onto the Henry Hudson Parkway in 2005, shareholders in the Castle Village co-op were on the hook for $27 million in repairs. That trauma is ancient history, but today those shareholders are faced with rising costs that are less dramatic but possibly even more devastating. And they’re emblematic of the pressures that are squeezing co-ops and condos across the city.

Early this year the Castle Village co-op board raised everyone’s monthly maintenance fee by a whopping 19%, according to documents seen by Crain’s. That increase is just the start. There’s also an ongoing assessment to rebuild the co-op’s reserve fund, and in January comes a “special assessment” that’s planned to last four years. For some shareholders, the cost of living in the co-op has jumped by 50% in the past year.

But their plight is hardly unique. Owing to rising costs for repairs, insurance, energy, property taxes and compliance with a host of local laws, co-op and condo boards across the city are forcing neighbors to swallow huge cost-of-living increases. Data from research firm Miller Samuel show that monthly operating costs for co-ops have jumped by 53% since the start of 2020 and by 51% at condominiums. That’s more than double the accumulated rate of inflation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Castle Village’s energy costs doubled last year, to $1.6 million, because the price of oil soared after Russia invaded Ukraine. Insurance costs for all co-ops and condos erupted after an apartment building on the Florida coast collapsed two years ago. Adding to the financial burden, the city’s Facade Inspection and Safety Program requires the inspection and repair of facades every five years, and Local Law 97 of the city’s ambitious Climate Mobilization Act will require a reduction of building carbon emissions beginning next year, a potentially costly mandate for a small percentage of buildings. To top it off, higher interest rates mean higher borrowing costs.

“The cost of everything has gone up,” says Mary Ann Rothman, executive director of the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums, which represents about 1,000 buildings.

One thing is certain. As those costs go up, co-op and condo boards cannot stand still. Budgets must be balanced. And the only ways to do that are to cut expenses, increase maintenance, levy assessments, take on added debt — or some combination of the four. Aware of this math, some boards are raising maintenance fees by 6% to 12% annually. The norm used to be 3% or even less.

Castle Village’s board president, Andrew Ditton, realizes the steep maintenance increase and assessments are asking a lot of his neighbors. But previous boards put off essential repairs because the co-op’s bank account was emptied by the cost of fixing the collapsed retaining wall two decades ago. Now, the bill for everything else that needs fixing at the 85-year-old co-op is due.

“The good news,” Ditton says, “is we’re way more than halfway done with everything we need to do.” The bad news for other co-ops and condos is that expenses are sure to keep going in one direction: straight up.

BY KELLY NAULT AND ANDY YAP for FORTUNE

Nothing is more annoying than someone bragging about their success. Right? Not necessarily so, according to new research conducted at INSEAD. When bosses brag, it can inspire their reports to put more effort into their own work. Specifically, when bosses, whom employees regard as role models, brag about their work accomplishments, their subordinates report feeling more inspired and motivated.

However, it’s entirely another story when we hear our peers at work brag–their accomplishments threaten our ego. If they managed to achieve that success, why haven’t we? It is triggering.

When a role model mentions one of their achievements, we tend to appraise it differently. Their higher rank in the organization makes us think that they have earned their success. When they share work-relevant positive stories about themselves, this information becomes a roadmap for people who aspire to achieve similar success. Our findings are in line with recent research showing that observers are much more receptive to self-promotion when it is framed as a journey toward achieving success rather than mere bragging about end results.

Bragging is in the eye of the beholder

The benefits of self-promotion can be seen in various spheres. For instance, social media influencers can garner likes, comments, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars with a single self-promoting post.

In the past, much of the research about self-promotion focused on what self-promoters stand to gain or lose. For instance, does bragging help when pitching to investors? (Answer: Yes, you should do it.) In our research, we looked at the affective and emotional impact of self-promotion on those who witness it.

We ran nine experimental studies involving some 2,600 participants in the U.S., U.K., and Singapore. Work was always the supplied context of our experiments. Across studies, subordinates reported feeling hopeful and inspired when they observed a superior engaging in self-promotion. However, when their own peers (or subordinates) bragged in the exact same way, we observed no such aspirational effect. In this case, our results align with research that found self-promoters were perceived as arrogant (perhaps highly competent, but mostly arrogant).

In some of our studies, we asked participants to describe real-life instances where they witnessed self-promotion at work. In other studies, we asked them to consider how they would feel in various hypothetical situations. For example, in one study, participants watched a 20-second video in which a “colleague” explained how she had been selected to lead an important project.

Overall, we used various techniques to create personally relevant and believable experimental scenarios. Then we measured the observers’ reactions: Did they feel positive, enthusiastic, or excited–or did they feel threatened, angry, or annoyed? And to what extent?

Inspiring others to work toward their future selves

Our data established a first condition: For bragging to boost motivation, the role model must be admired and respected by the observer. It was also critical that those higher in the hierarchy talked about a success that observers could imagine achieving themselves one day.

For instance, in an experiment, the self-promoter said that he had landed a prized job because he had spent his childhood in Japan–a condition essentially impossible to replicate for participants. Therefore, they felt considerably less inspired than other participants who were told that the promotion was a reward for having met sales goals six months in a row.

The achievement also needs to be directly relevant to the observers’ own professional life. For example, participants were left uninspired when the self-promoter bragged about adding a new Rolex watch to his collection. Although the collection of expensive watches implied material success, it wasn’t relevant to observers when it came to furthering their own goals.

Interestingly, our research didn’t reveal any gender or race effect. That is, whether the braggart was of the same gender or same race as the observer didn’t influence our results. The aspirational effect remained consistent. The age or level of education of the participants also didn’t matter.

However, other research on role models has shown that we are more motivated by the achievements of people we can identify with. For instance, using female role models in advertisements for a female-only software coding bootcamp increased the take-up rate in Latin America. When young Latinas were shown proof that the tech industry wasn’t closed off to them, it boosted their motivation to give this career a try.

To inspire your team, tell them about achievements that are in the realm of the possible for your reports. Success should be due to factors under the control of most people, such as effort, as opposed to luck or personal circumstances that can’t be replicated. Include actionable steps that create a roadmap for how to achieve similar success.

It’s essential that you don’t brag about things that your subordinates could never achieve due to obvious constraints, like resources. Avoid repeating yourself. Telling the story once will do.

It’s official: Whether it’s over a chat at the water cooler or on social media, if you’re a team leader, don’t hesitate to share positive things about yourself when your reports are around. It might just give them the boost they need to achieve their own goals.

Kelly Nault is an assistant professor of human resources and organizational behavior at IE Business School. Andy Yap is an associate professor of organizational behavior and academic director at INSEAD Centre for Organisational Research.

How the AI revolution is different: It threatens white-collar workers

By Megan Cerullo for CBS News

The emergence of artificial intelligence like ChatGPT has aroused fears of these tools replacing people in a range of professions, from coders to truck drivers. Although such concerns tend to ignore technology’s potential to create jobs, new forms of AI do pose a risk to some workers, new research from Indeed suggests: white-collar workers.

“Surprisingly enough, knowledge workers are facing the highest level of exposure here, which is quite different with what we’ve seen with other revolutions,” Gudell said. “With automation, often it was manual labor that was replaced,” Svenja Gudell, chief economist at the job-search platform, told CBS MoneyWatch. 

Unlike previous cycles of technical innovation, in-person, often low-wage jobs that rely heavily on humans being physically present are likely to be the the most resilient to encroaching AI, she added.

“Driving cars still currently takes a person. Or child care. We probably wouldn’t give our kids over to the robots quite yet,” she said. Gudell added that “We’ll see the destruction of some jobs but also the creation of others along way. The human element still carries a lot of weight in these jobs — you really can’t do without it.”

What jobs are most at risk?

Among the openings currently on Indeed, software and coding jobs are the most exposed to replacement by AI, the firm found in a its analysis. That’s because so-called generative AI was determined to be adept at performing 95% of the skills these jobs require. 

In addition to software development, information technology, mathematics, information design, legal and accounting positions are also among the more exposed professions.

By contrast, truck and taxi driver jobs are least exposed to AI, which could only adequately perform about 30% of the necessary skills, according to Indeed. Other jobs that are relatively insulated against AI include cleaning and sanitation as well as beauty and wellness jobs, in part because they are least likely to be performed remotely. 

Another key takeway, according to Indeed: The more suitable a job is to remote work, the higher its potential exposure is to generative AI-driven change. 

“A lot of in-person jobs heavily rely on that human element. You might mix in parts of generative AI there, but at the end of the day a nurse still needs to be present to stick the needle in the patient’s arm to draw blood. With sales reps, a lot of in-person communication happens when talking to clients,” Gudell said.

To be sure, AI is unlikely ever to fully replace humans even in areas where the technology excels. But it may supplant some workers whose jobs are rote and who don’t employ AI to make them more productive. 

“It could mean you as an employee can use these tools and focus on higher productivity-level skills on the job. From the employer perspective, instead of hiring 15 copy editors, you might employ five because generative AI carries the load,” Gudell said. 

Of all the vacant positions on its platform, Indeed said that 20% are highly exposed to generative AI. Just over 45% are moderately exposed, and 35% are minimally exposed, the firm found.

Still, it is likely premature for workers in highly exposed occupations to overhaul their careers based solely on the potential threat of AI, according to Indeed. 

“It’s too early to switch to another job because we are still in the beginning days of this technological advancement,” Gudell said. “We will see what it means for jobs of the future, to see how it will be translated to everyday actions on job.”

By Tim Maurer for Harvard Business Review

On May 7, 2021, a fateful Friday morning, Colonial Pipeline, the company running a critical fuel supply conduit for the eastern United States, experienced a ransomware attack. Unknown to the government, the company decided to shut down pipeline operations as they tried to determine what had happened and how bad the damage was. This move had severe consequences, transforming a cyber incident into a broader crisis within a few short days. Several thousand gas stations ran out of fuel and gas prices increased to their highest levels in nearly a decade.

The halt of operations disrupted fuel supply chains, leading to panic buying and subsequent shortages at gas stations across multiple states. Reports of long lines and soaring prices at gas pumps illustrated the real-world implications of cyber threats, underscoring the interdependence of our physical and digital infrastructures. It also reinforced the public’s run on gas stations.

In response to the escalating situation, the U.S. government took a series of decisive actions.

To calm the public’s reaction, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, and the Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, addressed the American public from the White House podium on May 11, 2021. The press briefing room is a small room in the West Wing brimming with about 50 reporters, television cameras running in the rear. This is where media outlets gather to hold the U.S. government accountable for the American public by asking piercing questions of the most important issues that day — forming a formidable stage where essentially the entire world tunes in. The two secretaries outlined what the government was doing to mitigate the impact of the ransomware attack. They also appealed to the American public that “there should be no cause for hoarding gasoline, especially in light of the fact that the pipeline should be substantially operational by the end of this week and over the weekend.”

Lasting Implications

The geopolitical implications of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack were profound. In its aftermath, President Biden engaged directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, underscoring the severity of the incident. This crisis also underscored the urgent need for more robust cybersecurity measures, particularly for critical infrastructure like Colonial Pipeline. It served as a stark reminder that cyber threats are not confined to the digital world; they can quickly spill over, causing widespread disruption and societal impact. Ultimately, the Colonial Pipeline incident was a watershed moment.

This single incident is still having ripple effects today, redefining the roles that CEOs and industry leaders play, and will shape how we think about cybersecurity for years to come. It also points to some important questions business leaders need to ask themselves and highlights how a cyber incident can escalate quickly to a national security crisis requiring the attention of the U.S. president. Just imagine what could have happened if another, similarly impactful ransomware attack would have occurred in the U.S. in late February or early March 2022, only days after Russian troops further invaded Ukraine.

One ripple effect is how CEOs are thinking about their roles and responsibilities. The CEO of Colonial Pipeline, Joseph Blount, told members of Congress that paying the roughly $4.3 million in Bitcoin as ransom was “the hardest decision made in my 39 years in the energy industry.” Whether to pay the hackers and further fuel the criminal cycle of ransom demands or risk significant disruption or even bankruptcy is an impossible choice.

CEOs have clearly taken notice. Few would enjoy the Road to Canossa to Washington and being in the Congressional and media spotlight. What have we learned from this and other key incidents over the past two years? Here are six recommendations for CEOs:

1. Be careful how you communicate with the public.

A run on banks is the classic example how the public’s reaction and group psychology can make a crisis worse. The run on toilet paper during the Covid-19 pandemic and the run on gas stations following the ransomware attack highlight that this problem is not limited to financial institutions.

Being careful how and what you communicate to the public does not mean avoiding communications with the public; on the contrary, it is a necessity. However, companies need to take a thoughtful approach. As the Colonial Pipeline incident illustrates, this includes companies that rarely have to engage with the public as part of their day-to-day operations but may need to unexpectedly from one day to the next.

2. Coordinate with the government.

Colonial Pipeline’s decision to shut off its pipeline system needed to happen fast, but there was arguably enough time to consult with U.S. government experts. Taking the pipeline system offline meant that, regardless of whether it was infected, it would take days to restart, disrupting the actual fuel supply with all of its consequences that required government action. Coordination with the government is key to avoid a crisis becoming worse unintentionally.

3. Know whom to contact.

To make informed decisions quickly and coordinate with the right people, CEOs need to know who in the government is the right contact. Contacting NATO or the military, as some anecdotes over the years suggest, is not the right answer.

With that said, sometimes the government doesn’t make it easy for external parties to identify the appropriate person or agency, so the government has a responsibility to provide clarity.

4. Have a plan in place and exercise it.

This is perhaps the most crucial point as it provides a vehicle for accomplishing the others. In addition to developing and having a plan — ideally overseen by the CEO — the plan should be practiced at least once a year. Regular tabletop exercises will help company leadership and staff to build the “muscle memory” needed to respond effectively in a real crisis.

5. Know your networks.

A CEO should ideally have a high-level understanding of how a company’s business IT networks and operational technology (OT) networks interact. If systems are air-gapped, there is no need to shut down the OT network if the compromise is limited to the IT network.

With that said, the ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline has demonstrated that even the paralysis of business IT networks can have significant impacts. If a company can no longer issue invoices, does not know who its customers are, or how to contact them, the actual impact can be as disruptive as actually bringing production to a halt. For any reader who has been stranded at an airport because an airline’s IT system was suffering an outage, you have experienced the disruptive impact first-hand.

6. Be humble and seek expert assistance.

Cybersecurity is a broad term covering a highly complex problem set. While there are commonalities and some software is used across sectors, the cybersecurity of pipelines is vastly different from cybersecurity in the context of the financial sector, hospitals, schools, or railways. One key insight after years of cyber incidents spanning sectors is to acknowledge the limits of everyone’s knowledge, including cybersecurity experts’ knowledge. CEOs should therefore not hesitate to seek help from outside a company to help develop, test, or refine a plan or review existing processes and policies.

Beyond these high-level recommendations, there are plenty of other resources, including guides and checklists for CEOs, board members, and CISOs that are more detailed. The U.S. government, namely its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), also provides Stopransomware.gov and Shields Up as resources designed for companies to use depending on their level of cybersecurity maturity.

Business Leaders as Guardians of Trust

Beyond strengthening a company’s cybersecurity out of self-interest and to avoid a national security crisis, business leaders also play a bigger role and can be considered guardians of trust in technology overall. Fundamentally, cybersecurity revolves around trust. Ransomware and numerous other cyberattacks exploit this trust. They leverage instances where someone clicks on an untrustworthy link, downloads an attachment from an unknown email address, or receives a malicious software update.

This principle extends to a company’s trust in the technology underlying its systems, drawing geopolitics back into the discussion. The role of Chinese companies with respect to the 5G network has been a central topic for several years now. It marked the beginning of a broader debate about how to consider risk when investing in, purchasing, and using technologies. The U.S. government’s concerns over some technologies emanating from the People’s Republic of China are well known. Simultaneously, in Brussels and other European capitals, an active debate is underway about “de-risking,” influenced by the lessons learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Europe’s dependence.

Business leaders are at the center of this debate because they are the most important guardians of trust in technology. What technology companies decide to invest in and how they weigh cost against other benefits such as greater security and trust will determine a society’s overall resilience at large.

A Self-Check for CEOs

Many have warned over the years of the growing cyber threats and some have offered thoughtful advice for how to strengthen an organization’s protection and resilience. Three questions can help determine whether enough has been done complementing the aforementioned recommendations:

• Have you participated in a cyber tabletop exercise recently?
• Do you have the contact information of your chief information security officer saved somewhere other than your work phone or computer? (Remember, if your company’s networks suffer a ransomware attack, your work devices may be inaccessible.)
• Do you know your point of contact in government in case of a cybersecurity incident?

If the answer is “no” to any of these, then reading this article will hopefully inspire some follow-up action — it will help better protect your organization and may prevent a future national security crisis.

The answer isn’t more time or efficiency, but managing your natural tendencies.

By Michael Wiederman, Ph.D. For Psychology Today

Do you feel as though you don’t have enough time to get everything done? It’s natural to think, “If I just had a little more time, or had less to do, or could get caught up, it wouldn’t be a problem.” Because time is the one “thing” that everyone has the same amount of, regardless of wealth or status, what varies is how much is expected (or demanded) from each of us during a designated span of time. Because time itself cannot be managed, it comes down to what you do in that designated span of time (behavior management), and this is where psychology comes into play. A suite of psychological phenomena work in concert to undermine our sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with our time management.

Beware of Task Completion Bias

Let’s start with considering the large set of possible behaviors during our hypothetical span of time. We have our presumed large to-do list of things that need to get done now, soon, or at some future point. What do you tackle first? Chances are, smaller, easier tasks rise to the top. After all, you may be able to knock off the list several tasks in a relatively short period of time, so why not get those out of the way?

Psychologists refer to this tendency as task completion bias. Uncompleted tasks create psychological discomfort, and completing task provides relief, as well as a sense of accomplishment and a little hit of neurotransmitters that are reinforcing. It’s like scratching an instant lottery ticket and scoring a small prize – not going to change your life but provides a jolt of pleasure for the moment. So what’s the harm in starting with small tasks?

Much has been written about the daily flood of email, text, and other instant messages experienced by most people who work in offices. Responding to messages is just one example of small tasks that seem as though they have to be done, but a common and never-ending one. When you prioritize small tasks, the larger ones are delayed, sometimes indefinitely if there are no deadlines. The small tasks frequently seem urgent, and grab your attention, yet it is the larger tasks that are typically the most important for your success and satisfaction (though less urgent until a deadline looms).

The result is that we often fail to achieve the goals that most align with our values and sense of meaningful work (and recognition). Stuck on the treadmill of task completion bias, when the deadline for a larger, more complex task is soon approaching, we experience increased stress and the sense that there is never enough time.

Multitasking and the Enemy of Deep Work

The most important aspects of our work frequently require sustained attention or thought, which psychologists refer to as deep work. However, when stressed by too much to do, it is easy to be lured into multitasking. Unfortunately, a growing body of research consistently demonstrates the inefficiency and increased experience of stress that multitasking engenders. Perhaps even more troubling is that frequent multitasking and focusing our attention on small tasks trains the brain to function accordingly, making deep work more difficult over time.

Enter the Planning Fallacy

In addition to task completion bias and multitasking, other psychological factors may undermine prioritizing and successfully completing our important tasks. One is the human tendency to be overly optimistic in estimating how much time we have to work on something, as well as how long a task will take, a phenomenon psychologists refer to as the planning fallacy.

How many hours do you have to get work done at your job? A likely reply is “8 hours.” However, we know from experience that there will be interruptions, distractions, needed breaks, and so forth. Of the actual available work time, how much would you have available to work on something you prioritize? Whatever you answer, it is very likely too generous. One reason is that we tend to underestimate the nonproductive factors just mentioned, as well as unanticipated tasks and problems that pop up over the course of the day. And we tend to underestimate how long something will take to get done for the same reasons.

What Can You Do?

1. Start each day articulating the truly important things(s) to get done that day. Ask yourself, “If I could only work on one thing today, what should it be?” In this context, how do you define “important”? Consider nontraditional definitions such as, “most personally or professionally meaningful,” or “most likely to bring a sense of relief or a reduction in anxiety,” or “having the largest or longest lasting impact.”
2. Break down larger tasks into defined achievable steps. Instead of planning time to “work on X,” specify a goal that can be identified as having been achieved. This way you are using task completion bias to your advantage. Reward yourself for completing that daily step.
3. Avoid the lure of multitasking and getting pulled into distractions and task completion bias. Schedule and protect blocks of time set aside for specific deep work, and alter your surroundings to minimize distractions and interruptions. This may include a sign on your door or cubicle, wearing headphones, and setting auto-replies that indicate when others might be able to expect a response to their messages.
4. Fight the planning fallacy. Estimate how much time you have for working on your designated task today, and how long it will take. Then cut the first one in half and double the second estimate. These revised estimates will not feel realistic, but track your actual experience during the course of the day and compare. Another fruitful strategy is to imagine that a coworker has the same designated task, and perform both estimates for that other person. These may still be overly optimistic, but they tend to be less so than personal estimates.
5. Anticipate interruptions and delays, and form simply behavioral responses. Psychologists refer to these little plans as implementation intentions, and they are highly effective at facilitating goal achievement. For example, “If a coworker interrupts my scheduled time to work on my priority task, I will explain and ask that we set a time to resume whatever they brought up.” Or, “While working on X, I will turn off my device notifications and not look at messages.”

In the end, time management is not an all-or-nothing, or one-magic-strategy type of problem to be solved. Instead, like our other behaviors and life experiences, it is an ongoing dilemma to be managed. The process starts with raising awareness of your own tendencies, and experimenting with what works best for you. Hopefully the few psychological phenomena and strategies introduced here provide a fruitful starting place on your time management professional development path.

By Bill Morris for HABITAT Magazine

The other shoe has finally dropped. After issuing a first round of rules late last year on how co-op and condo boards can comply with Local Law 97, the city has now released a second round of proposed rules. The new rules will be welcome news to boards that are worried about the high cost of reducing their buildings’ carbon emissions under the law’s prescribed caps — and the stiff fines they will face for failing to comply, beginning next year.

Most notably, the new rules clarify what constitutes a “good faith” effort by building owners — and how the Department of Buildings (DOB) will use it to mitigate fines for non-compliant buildings. The rules, available here, cover the first compliance period, which runs from 2024 to 2029. The city council is expected to approve final rules by the end of the year.

“The new rules are good news on a number of levels,” says William McCracken, a partner at the law firm Moritt Hock & Hamroff. “First, now we know what we have to do. And second, the criteria for getting fines mitigated are achievable. You don’t have to spend seven figures; you don’t have to replace your boiler right now. But you’re going to have to hire consultants to put together a solid plan showing that you’re making a good faith effort to reduce your carbon emissions.”

The definition of a “good faith” is complex. First, boards must prove that they have complied with laws that require energy and water usage benchmarking (Local Law 85), energy audits and retro-commissioning work (Local Law 87), and lighting upgrades and submetering (Local Law 88). If those criteria are met, the board must also meet at least one of an additional six criteria. They include: securing permits from the DOB for retrofit work that is sufficient to meet 2024 carbon caps, but is not yet complete; signing contracts with Con Edison for electric service and panel upgrades that are sufficient to support building-wide electrification; submitting a plan for zero carbon emissions by 2050.

This last option relieves boards of penalties until 2026, but in exchange prohibits the use of renewable energy credits (RECs) during the first compliance period. Those credits allow building owners to purchase energy from renewable sources and send it into the grid. Critics feared that unlimited use of RECs would allow building owners to buy their way into compliance with Local Law 97 without actually reducing their building’s carbon emissions. This compromise attempts to address those concerns. 

There’s also good news on the funding front. The city estimates that the federal Inflation Reduction Act makes available $625 million in tax credits and subsidies that buildings will be able to use to comply with Local Law 97. The New York State Public Service Commission recently directed utilities and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to propose a total of $5 billion in programs across the state in 2025-2030; the city will seek to collaborate with NYSERDA, Con Edison, and National Grid to align those programs to support buildings that have to do significant work to comply with Local Law 97, especially in disadvantaged communities where compliance is lagging. Additionally, the city will seek to develop a federal grant proposal targeting the $40 billion allocated for financing support or credit enhancement for eligible clean-energy projects. That funding will be available for Local Law 97 compliance projects, particularly for buildings that struggle to access market-rate loans.

Finally, while the new rules don’t change the fines for noncompliance, they do offer the possibility of a “mediated resolution” between a board and the DOB when good faith compliance efforts fall short.

The new rules are open for public comment leading up to a public hearing at 11 a.m. on Oct. 24.

By Carol Ott for Habitat Magazine

It’s a tricky dilemma for co-op and condo boards. A healthy reserve fund has always been a high priority, and in the wake of the Florida condominium collapse, lenders are scrutinizing those funds like never before. Yet a primary means for replenishing reserves — a flip tax on apartment sales — usually requires approval by a two-thirds super majority of shareholders or unit-owners, a dauntingly high bar.

Case in point: the board at a 118-unit co-op on Madison Avenue tried to pass a flip tax, also known as a transfer fee, four times without success. One of the main reasons the board continued to fail, says president Kathy Kahng, was the makeup of the building’s residents. More than half of the apartments were studios, and the average shareholder stayed about five years.

“If you know you’re only going to be here for a couple of years, what do you care about a transfer fee?” Kahng says. “Residents said, ‘Just charge me the assessment. I’m not voting for a transfer fee. I’m moving soon.’”

But in 2018, a confluence of events encouraged the board to try again. These included a mandatory building facade project growing in scope; more studio apartment owners buying neighboring apartments and combining them with their own, thus becoming more invested in the co-op’s long-term prospects; and the anticipation of an upcoming million-dollar elevator modernization project.

“We sent out letters, held meetings, knocked on doors and all that stuff,” Kahng recalls. But at the annual meeting the vote fell slightly short of the two-thirds of shares necessary for approval. With that result, the board changed its strategy. “We decided to focus on the 25 or 30 apartments that didn’t vote,” Kahng says

The board crafted a new message that carried a stick and a carrot. It told the shareholders that it was going to have to impose a hefty assessment to pay for the facade and elevator work, but if it could secure the votes of a few more apartments to approve the flip tax, the board would be able to reduce the assessment by 25%.

By Kelly Richardson for The Orange County Register

A longtime piece of civil code that kept many HOAs in California from governing via email has been upended by an appellate court ruling.

Within the Davis-Stirling Act, there is the “Open Meeting Act,” which contains requirements regarding transparency in HOA government.

For years, many HOA lawyers have discouraged client boards from deliberating HOA issues via email because it seemed to violate the Open Meeting Act.

Civil Code Section 4910 specifically bars taking action outside of board meetings except for emergencies, and bars conducting meetings via electronic mail. This seemed to also ban board email discussions. Now much of that has changed.

On Aug. 25, 2023, an appellate court in San Diego County upheld a trial court’s decision in favor of Alta Del Mar Coastal Collection Community Association, which was sued by two property owners who alleged that business conveyed by the board using emails violated the Open Meeting Act.

The court ruled that exchanging emails is outside the Civil Code 4090’s definition of a board meeting since the definition includes in-person or teleconference gatherings, and because the directors were not “congregating” when they sent the emails.

The court further ruled that discussing HOA business via email is not barred under Civil Code 4910’s prohibition of taking action outside of board meetings and that action, which means voting, is different.

Despite the ruling, HOA boards and managers should avoid email deliberations for several reasons.

First, this case presents a new interpretation of the term “board meeting.” The subject also could be taken up by the state Supreme Court, which could weaken or overrule the appellate court decision.

Second, email deliberations are not subject to member review, and such emails are not included in the documents, which homeowners may request to review. Consequently, the board’s transparency suffers, as it could prove all too easy to pre-discuss matters on upcoming agendas. Homeowners will trust the board more if they know the board has the discipline to wait until meetings to discuss things.

Third, emails are evidence. Emails are not privileged unless legal counsel is involved. They can be forced to be disclosed by a subpoena or litigation disclosure demand. Emails, unlike oral remarks, are a permanent record of what someone says. Therefore, directors must be far more restrained in their written comments – what would a judge or jury say if they read that email?

Fourth, and not least, do directors want to be on duty 24 hours, 7 days a week? Strict compliance with the Open Meeting Act helps to protect directors’ off-duty time. I often receive emails from client directors feeling intimidated or even harassed by other directors who bombard their board colleagues with email suggestions, ideas and opinions at all hours.

Often clients tell me they minimize open meeting discussions due to member disruption. My response is that the HOA needs to get its meetings in order, and should avoid the temptation to avoid open discussion.

This new judicial interpretation should not encourage opening the floodgates for boards to discuss anything and everything by email and then wait for the formality of a board vote in the board meeting. Consider using email only to relay information and not to relay opinions, saving the discussions for the board meeting.

Kelly G. Richardson, Esq. is a Fellow of the College of Community Association Lawyers and Partner of Richardson Ober LLP, a California law firm known for community association advice. Submit column questions to kelly@roattorneys.com.

Free Online Resource Helps Candidates Successfully Prepare For The CMCA Exam

By Madeline Hay, CAMICB’s Manager of Exam Administration

Underscoring a quarter century of commitment to professionalism and excellence in community association management, CAMICB is excited to continue to celebrate the organization’s 25^th Anniversary with the launch of a free, interactive online CMCA Exam Preparation e-Learning course. 

The three-hour course, featuring a series of eight modules, is divided into two components. The first component features four learning modules focused on creating an examination review and preparation plan. The second component includes three scenario-based learning modules that are designed to put several of the knowledge areas tested on the CMCA examination in context using real-life scenarios. The three modules address knowledge areas that are challenging for many CMCA candidates: Risk Management & Insurance; Financial Controls; and Governance, Legal & Ethical Conduct.  A final module is intended to offer some perspective on the exam preparation process and next steps.

Said Chair of the CAMICB Board of Commissioners Drew Mulhare, CMCA, AMS, LSM, PCAM, “CAMICB is always working to identify new tools to help CMCA candidates succeed on the exam. We’re excited to launch the CMCA Exam Prep e-Learning course – a free resource intended to put candidates on the path to the CMCA credential.”

The Course Modules

The exam preparation modules offer constructive test taking tips, discuss the composition of examination questions, give preparation advice, and provide an interactive self-assessment tool to help a candidate develop a study plan specific to that candidate’s needs and goals. The content-based modules ask the candidate to solve problems and answer questions using downloadable sample documents. 

Each module takes approximately 10-25 minutes to complete. The course is designed to accommodate busy schedules and to allow candidates to work at their own pace, so they may stop and resume the modules as their schedule permits. Below is a brief description of the different modules and what candidates can expect.

Module 1: An Introduction

Learn what it takes to pass the CMCA exam. Get advice from working CMCAs about what worked for them as they were preparing for the test – and what didn’t. Find out some common misconceptions about the CMCA exam and uncover the key for understanding how to approach the exam questions.

Module 2: Devising a Study Plan, Part 1 – Prioritizing Topics 

Discover how to establish and follow a solid study routine that’s tailored to your experience level. Get an in-depth look at the topic areas covered on the test and participate in a self-assessment exercise to determine which topics should be prioritized in your study plan. 

Module 3: Devising a Study Plan, Part 2 – Strategies and Tips 

Find out how to put your study plan into action. Learn practical tips and tricks to make the most of your prep time and take a closer look at some of the study resources available to you. 

A recent course participant shared, “The study resources provided in the CMCA exam prep course are excellent. It gave me a much better understanding of what material to really focus on.”

Module 4: Test-Taking Strategies

Learn how to maximize your potential on exam day. Find out how taking practice tests can improve your performance on the exam, get some guidance on strategies to overcome test anxiety, and see what to expect when you go to the testing center. 

Modules 5 and 6 use real-life scenarios that help you learn from detailed feedback. They also make use of downloadable sample files including Lakeside Terrace’s insurance declaration and financial documents to inform your decisions. 

Said one course participant, “For me, the CMCA exam prep course was so much more effective than simply reading different texts.”

Module 5: Risk Management & Insurance – Refresher Content 

Apply your knowledge of risk management and insurance topics by putting yourself in the shoes of the community association manager for Lakeside Terrace Condominiums. 

Module 6: Financial Controls – Refresher Content 

Revisit your role as Lakeside Terrace’s community association manager as you encounter some scenarios that test key knowledge about financial controls.

Module 7: Governance, Legal & Ethical Conduct – Refresher Content

Another real-life scenario allows you to visit Willow Grove Estates, where you have been hired as the association’s first community manager. 

Module 8: Looking Back and Looking Forward

An opportunity to recall what you’ve learned and consider what you want to keep working on. 

At CAMICB, we’re committed to offering a combination of study tools to enhance candidate performance.  Therefore, we encourage exam candidates to develop a personal study plan incorporating a wide range of resources and reference materials. CMCA preparatory materials are all available online – most at no cost – to managers employed anywhere in the world. We’re thrilled to add our newest offering, the CMCA Exam Prep E-Learning Course, to our portfolio of resources. 

Earning and maintaining this internationally-recognized credential propels a manager’s career forward, allowing for more advanced career opportunities and salaries that, on average, are 20 percent higher than non-credentialed managers. To get started and to learn more about the CMCA Exam Prep E-Learning course, visit www.camicb.org.