Rodrigo Vargas – WithinManagement.com

August 24, 2023August 24, 2023

6 Practical Tips to Increase the Effectiveness of Corporate Training

Training, in addition to its original function of developing employees’ skills, works as an excellent motivation tool, and is one of the pillars of the formation of Organizational Culture. Therefore, we must give it attention, trying to do it in the best possible way; mainly, because teaching adults (andragogy) is not the same as teaching children (pedagogy), with basic differences, such as the ones I describe below:

Teacher/student relationship: while in pedagogy teaching is centered on the teacher, in andragogy it is centered on the student.
Reasons for learning: while pedagogy follows a certain standardized curriculum, adults learn what they really need to know, with a hands-on approach to solving certain problems.
Learning orientation: children learn by subjects; adults learn by competences.

These differences require different approaches for teaching professionals, and for this very reason, the tips that we will see are even more important. So, below are some tips to increase the use and efficiency of corporate training. Continue reading “6 Practical Tips to Increase the Effectiveness of Corporate Training”

December 4, 2020December 4, 2020

How to Scare Away a Customer

How to scare away a customer? Simple. Make mistakes, and waste every opportunity to correct the mistake and surprise the customer. Yes, making mistakes is human, and it can happen. But, obviously, this can harm your customer, generating discontent. However, more often than not, it will not be the error itself that will determine the customer’s frustration, but rather the Organization’s (and the people who represent it) attitude towards this error. Often, the way in which the Organization corrects the error, may even increase customer loyalty, if Continue reading “How to Scare Away a Customer”

September 21, 2020September 21, 2020

The Long Tail Strategy

Chris Anderson was born in London, but as a child he moved to the United States, where he graduated in Physics. He started his career as editor of the scientific magazines Nature and Science. In 1994, he started working as an editor for The Economist magazine, where he stayed until 2001, when, then, he started working for Wired magazine, where he stayed until 2012. While he was editor of Wired, he wrote his famous article “The Long Tail” that gave rise to his bestseller The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, published in 2006.

In summary, the author’s thinking unveils a new Continue reading “The Long Tail Strategy”

August 23, 2020August 23, 2020

Policy for the Use of Smartphones in Organizations

The use of smartphones became increasingly popular, according to the 29th edition of the Annual Survey of the Use of IT, from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, and coordinated by Prof. Fernando S. Meirelles, the number of smartphones in use in Brazil reached 220 million in May 2018. In addition to the obvious communication facilities, this also brings an alert situation for Organizations, due to possible indiscriminate uses by some people, such as, diversion of attention during meetings, or distractions during working hours caused by unproductive browsing, in addition, of course, to information security problems, arising from the incredible ease of filming and photographing.

Interested and curious about the subject, I searched for some research on smartphone usage policies in Organizations. As I didn’t find them, I decided to do a search myself through the Brazilian plant management portal GestaoIndustrial.com. Responses were obtained from 18/04/2018 to 01/06/2018, totaling 164 respondents. See the following results. Continue reading “Policy for the Use of Smartphones in Organizations”

August 5, 2020August 5, 2020

The Importance of Ethics in Organizations

Albert Camus, French philosopher and writer, said that a man without ethics is like a wild animal loose in the world. In Organizations, there is a growing concern about the ethical stance of its employees (and it must be), because the damage caused by the lack of ethics in business can simply destroy a company’s reputation, and even close its doors. Continue reading “The Importance of Ethics in Organizations”

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020

Generations Over Time

“Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”

George Orwell – British writer, best known for his book “1984”.

Defining Periods

When it comes to defining the period of generations, there is no absolute consensus. For example, the Merrriam-Webster dictionary defines generation Y somewhat loosely, as that of those born between the 1980s and 1990s. The Gallup research institute defines generation Y as that of those born between 1980 and 1996 (reference: Millennial Banking Customers: Two Myths, One Fact), while the global consultancy EY defines the period from 1981 to 1996 (reference: Americas retail report: Redefining loyalty for retail), which is the same period adopted by the Pew Research Center (reference: Defining generations: Where Millennials end and post-Millennials begin). However, another great social and market research consultancy, Australian McCrindle, defined Generation Y as being born between the years 1980 and 1994 (reference: Generations Defined), this period being the one we adopted here, as it represents better the next generation (Z), who was born in the personal computer environment. Continue reading “Generations Over Time”

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020

15 Questions to Ask in Your Job Interview.

15 Questions to Ask in Your Job Interview. The moment of the interview is, without a doubt, a crucial moment, where you have to demonstrate your skills, give confidence to those who interview you, but, at the same time, try to understand the characteristics and peculiarities of the new opportunity. To facilitate this moment, I list, next, 15 questions that can help you understand some of these most important aspects. Continue reading “15 Questions to Ask in Your Job Interview.”

May 13, 2020May 13, 2020

Discipline is Freedom!

Renato Russo, lead singer of the Brazilian band Legião Urbana, wrote, in the last verse of the lyrics of the song “Há Tempos”, the following words: “Discipline is freedom, Compassion is strength, Being kind is having courage” – a free translation from the original in Portuguese: Disciplina é liberdade, Compaixão é fortaleza, Ter bondade é ter coragem. Continue reading “Discipline is Freedom!”

March 17, 2020April 13, 2020

The Pygmalion Effect on the Workplace

The Pygmalion Effect and Its Impact on Work

Pygmalion is a character in one of the books of the mythological work Metamorphoses, by the poet of ancient Rome, Ovid. Pygmalion was a king of Cyprus and a sculptor, and, disappointed with women, had decided to be celibate. However, after sculpting a statue of a woman he considered ideal, he fell in love with her, wishing she had life. The goddess Aphrodite then granted his request. In the previous figure, you can see the work of the French artist, Étienne Maurice Falconet, depicting Pigmalyon and the statue.

The Pygmalion effect is the phenomenon in which, a higher expectation in relation to someone’s performance, effectively leads to better performance; and the inverse is also true. The Pygmalion effect is the result of Continue reading “The Pygmalion Effect on the Workplace”

January 29, 2020April 13, 2020

The Peter Principle and How to Avoid Failed Promotions

The Peter Principle is a concept that says that, in a hierarchical system, every employee tends to be promoted until he reaches his level of incompetence, and was created by Canadian educator Laurence J. Peter, author of the book entitled The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong, published in 1969, co-authored with Raymond Hull. Continue reading “The Peter Principle and How to Avoid Failed Promotions”

December 11, 2019April 13, 2020

The Dunning-Kruger Effect and The Impostor Syndrome

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” This is a phrase from the character Touchstone, from playwright Willian Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” and it represents very well two concepts of psychology which we can find, of course, in the corporate world: the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and Impostor Syndrome.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a concept derived from the study “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments“, published in 1999, by two Cornell University professors and psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, which says Continue reading “The Dunning-Kruger Effect and The Impostor Syndrome”

Author: Rodrigo Vargas