Latest news with #JenniferMoss
Globe and Mail
18-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
How cutting down on meetings and ‘intentional serendipity' can improve your team's cohesion
Question: I feel like my team isn't clicking the way we should be. We went through some changes this past year, including a couple of layoffs and a move back into the office three days a week. Now, no one seems very happy to be here. As a team leader, how can I encourage more motivation and cohesion? We asked Jennifer Moss, international speaker, co-founder of the Work Better Institute and author of Why Are We Here?, to tackle this one: This is happening all over the place right now. It is very much what I'm hearing from a lot of leaders. When we have been given agency to do things in a certain way and then it is clawed back, our instinct as humans is to hold on to that sense of freedom, even at personal cost. We can be emotionally resistant and it is often subconscious. It's important for leaders to understand and validate that resistance. I think that we need to have more conversations about it with our teams. Maybe you're not working fully remote anymore, but are there other things that could increase your flexibility? Maybe it's not where you work, but how you want to work. Are there ways to job craft? To use more of your strengths so that you're working on what you love to do? The happier people are at work, the more they are going to get along with other people. Return to office mandates can actually reduce team cohesion and reduce community. Everyone is saying remote work is creating this loneliness epidemic. I say it's time poverty that is creating the loneliness epidemic. Microsoft reported that there was a 252 per cent increase in time spent in meetings for the average Teams user between February 2020 and February 2022. A 2023 survey by Slack found that more than two hours a day in meetings starts to decrease productivity. Let's think about how we can increase time wealth. Figure out how to cut down on meeting fatigue and how to create intentional serendipity. We used to have rituals. People thought it was forced fun; they would roll their eyes and say now I have to go into the break room and have this terrible slab cake and celebrate four birthdays. But what happened is it created these ad-hoc chats about the movie we saw last week, and that increased our connectivity with people. Now there's none of that. There are ways to slowly build morale. Maybe it's 20 minutes once a week of having lunch together. Great research out of Cornell University found that employees having lunch together changed retention, improved well-being and decreased safety risks. Leaders also need to celebrate more of the small wins every week. We need to get people feeling like, 'Today I did a good thing, this week I did a good thing, this month I did good thing.' And if you are going around and saying, 'This is a cool thing that my team did,' you are also protecting your team from layoffs because you're giving them visibility to the rest of the organization. That provides psychological safety and creates loyalty. The spillover is more cohesion, because when people are feeling good, they tend to be nicer to other people. 'I felt like a hamster on a wheel': Why some millennials are choosing micro-retirement According to Sumana Jeddy, a Calgary-based work wellness coach for large enterprises, micro-retirement is a 'strategic, intentional break' that helps individuals with recovery over a health issue or a significant personal experience; it can also redirect personal ambitions. Instead of waiting until 65 to stop working, micro-retirees are taking an extended work break in their 30s or 40s. They do whatever they can to recover and refocus over a three or four-year time period, then return refreshed to the same or a different job with some newly acquired skills and experience. Working long hours can change our brain – and not in a good way, study shows Previous research has found correlations between working long hours and other negative health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, burnout, anxiety and depression, but the researcher says this is the first study to observe physical changes to the brain. 'Our study extends this understanding by providing novel neurobiological evidence that chronic overwork directly correlates with structural changes in brain regions that control cognitive and emotional functions,' says Wanhyung Lee, a researcher in the department of preventive medicine at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea. These women are leading in male-dominated industries – and they're hiring all-women teams Annastacia Plaskos shadowed a contractor for several years before she felt she had the skills to set out on her own. Then, she launched Fix It Females, a home renovation business that does everything from house painting to drywalling to building. The business rapidly grew from three to nearly 40 employees within a few years – all of them women. 'For me, showing other women you can do this, that it is possible [is important],' she says. 'You can make the same amount of money that a male can in this industry. It is doable.'
Fast Company
11-06-2025
- General
- Fast Company
5 ways to rewire your brain for happiness
The United States ranks 24th out of 100 on the list of happiest countries, according to the latest World Happiness Report. Being in the top 25% seems fair when you consider everything that's happening in the world, but the stats aren't great when you look at the happiness of people aged 30 and younger. In this demographic, the U.S. falls to number 62 on the list. 'It's unsettling, because it was always youth that pulled the happiness levels up on these scales,' says Jennifer Moss, author of Unlocking Happiness at Work: How a Data-driven Happiness Strategy Fuels Purpose, Passion and Performance. 'They're the ones that are supposed to be the hopeful, pushing-back-against-the-status-quo generation. Right now, they're struggling, and I think this is the canary in the coal mine.' Still, the report found a lot of good in the world. Participants were asked 'Have you helped a stranger or someone you didn't know who needed help in the past month?' Seventy-one percent of Americans said 'yes.' That seems like a reason for hope, right? 'In reality, we're actually more prosocial than we've ever been,' says Moss. 'We just hear about how awful and terrible and unhappy the world is.'
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pladis launches accelerator programme for food tech start-ups
UK-based snacks manufacturer Pladis has launched an accelerator programme aimed at supporting early-stage companies both locally and internationally. Pladis, the owner of the McVitie's biscuit brand, said that the initiative will support start-ups in food tech, health, and sustainability, tackling consumer trends like the ageing global population and rising demand for sustainable food sourcing. Pladis chief research & development officer Jennifer Moss said the move aims to bring 'transformative change' in the target sectors. Established in 2016 and owned by Turkish conglomerate Yildiz Holding, Pladis said it wants to apply its experience in entrepreneurship and growth to mentor and support start-ups. Participants will receive guidance from the company's senior leadership team in areas such as global expansion, product design, branding and commercialising breakthrough ideas. 'We are a young company ourselves and our leadership team has experience in scaling a global business and bringing to market innovative products' Moss said, adding that 'the people running this programme were the people who were integral in making our business what it is today'. Start-ups participating in the programme will have the chance to pilot projects or co-develop solutions with Pladis, gaining 'real-world validation and market exposure'. The programme targets start-ups pioneering innovations in three areas. The first area is personalised nutrition for over-50s and younger generations, focusing on functional and fortified snacks tailored to the dietary needs of consumers aged 50 and above, as well as essential nutrition for children's growth and development. The second area is advancing functional foods, which includes innovations such as functional snacks, nutraceuticals, and AI-driven product development aimed at enhancing beauty, wellness, and overall well-being. The third area is future ingredients, which could involve precision fermentation, upcycled ingredients, and plant-based products. Applications for the accelerator programme open on 18 March and close on 31 May, with final selections announced by 30 June. Last month, Pladis CEO Salman Amin departed the company with immediate effect, due to 'personal reasons'. In his absence, Sridhar Ramamurthy, CFO, and Tim Brett, managing director for Europe and developing markets, have temporarily assumed oversight of the business. Pladis also owns brands including Jacob's, Carr's, and Go Ahead. "Pladis launches accelerator programme for food tech start-ups " was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
