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The Boring Internet

Is it just me, or did the internet become less exciting lately?

In the Summer of 2008, the internet suddenly became real. I was on a ferry crossing Lake Constance towards Germany for an extended camping weekend with people I’d never seen before in my life. All I knew about them was their voices. I was exhilarated and nervous.

They had one thing in common: They all played games in the same, what was then called «clan». The group was formed in 1999, mainly communicating via a forum and a TeamSpeak server. I joined in 2005.

It was a time before big social media platforms devoured our attention. In hindsight, a more innocent, wild, and naïve time as well.

But there I was, on this campsite, 17 years old and surrounded by people who suddenly became faces. It was a thrilling moment. I still am in regular contact with some of them. They became friends beyond gaming; we grew up together. Virtual sandbox buddies.

Today, forums and TeamSpeak have been crushed by Discord, messenger apps, and social media. The internet has crept into every crevice of our lives, yet it feels smaller and less exciting than ever.

Passive Consumption

Risking to sound like a boomer: I think the internet was a better place a decade ago.

It’s a bold claim, but here’s my argument: The algorithmic curation of any content makes everything boring eventually. There are two routes charted by the algorithms that end up at the ultimate boredom station.

First, let’s look at the user’s perspective. While algorithmic curation may improve the experience at first, it will finally lead to a state where you get more and more of the same. You might even enjoy that, but the joy you get from discovery fades fast.

To feel any kind of satisfaction or reward, you have to put a certain amount of effort into it. But algorithms relieve us of that effort, casually serving us what they think we might enjoy based on the past. And so we spend more and more time on these platforms to find the next big dopamine hit we’ll never achieve because we didn’t put in any effort.

It’s beneficial for the companies running these platforms but not so much for us.

The second perspective is the one from the creators. As algorithms dominate the distribution of content, creators have to bend themselves to their will (which is ultimately the will of the companies creating the algos).

So, to gain any kind of larger following, a monetisable audience, you have to play the game. Which means that more and more content seems the same. The most wonderful illustration of this phenomenon provides YouTube thumbnails.

More of the same: A collection of YouTube thumbnails.

Okay, admittedly, this sounds a bit too fatalistic, and plenty are out there creating unique things. Yet, when did you last open a social media platform and feel excited about anything you saw?

There was a time when Twitter and Facebook were my main sources of news and entertainment. I killed both accounts within the last twelve months. They felt neither social anymore nor did they provide any kind of value to my life. It became an ever more passive consumption than true interaction. (And in the case of Twitter, I couldn’t continue to support this out-of-control dumpster fire by a right-wing loon.) I don’t miss them one bit.

And as I feel rather similarly about Threads or Instagram, I try to cut time spent there to a minimum. Funny enough, it wasn’t a time limiter that helped to reduce my usage but simply deleting them from my phone’s homescreen. No temptation; prohibiting muscle memory to simply tap the icons.

No Pleasant Place

As I wrote in a previous newsletter, 2024, so far, has been a year of focus, reduction, or maybe even retreat to a selected few things.

I began supporting people on platforms like Patreon; entering smaller but real communities on Discord servers or WhatsApp groups where genuine interaction still occurs. I browse directly to websites instead of routing via social media. Sometimes, it even feels a bit like 2008 again.

But ultimately, I can’t stop feeling a slight disillusion with the state of the internet. Once I perceived it as a tool to connect with likeminded people and share ideas. And to some extent, it still is, but the dominating part today is passive consumption of algo-pleasing content, AI-generated bullshit, and advertising spam.

It’s neither a particularly interesting nor pleasant place to be.

Vapor Hypes

Despite all that, simply logging off is also not an option. Too intertwined is the internet already with our lives. But a more reflected, critical use might just be the right prescription—both individually and as a society.

Because if we’re honest: What’s left of the latest internet and technology hypes? Crypto? NFTs? Metaverse? Nothing really… And aside from useful niche applications like medicine, where’s the actual value of large language models in everyday lives?

Silicon Valley is frantically searching for the next big thing and failing. And just maybe, that’s not a bad thing if we collectively move away from this infested hyper-growth, «move fast and break things» mindset.

No Subsidies for Profit-Driven Publishers

Switzerland‘s news publishers demand further subsidies. It‘s a terrible idea. A rant.

It’s been two years since I said goodbye to my career in professional journalism. While the change wasn’t easy, settling into a new environment, I have zero regrets today.

A couple of days ago, I ran into a former colleague. When I asked how he was doing, he said, «You made the right decision…»

The media industry is in worse shape than ever. Multiple media outlets (legacy and digital) stumbled over toxic management and sexual harassment allegations. And, of course, there were layoffs.

The largest publisher, Tamedia (part of TX Group), announced it would cut 90 editorial jobs. Towards the audience, it laughably sold the cuts as «Setting the course for independent quality journalism».

Question: How big can the cognitive dissonance get?

Answer: Yes. But don’t worry; new lows will be coming.

Oh, and it’s worth noting that the TX Group continuously paid dividends to its shareholders: 65,7 million for 2023, for example. Stephanie Vonarburg, vice president of union Syndicom, states: «Over the past 15 years, the shareholders of the TX Group, owner of Tamedia, have siphoned off more than 670 million in dividends from a profit of 2.2 billion.»

Simultaneously, the publisher association «Verband Schweizer Medien» had the balls to call for expanded state subsidies.

Pardon my French, but: Are you fucking kidding me? Sorry, there will be more swearing.

We talk about the same publishers that first missed digitalisation, then bought back the digital marketplaces for an insane amount of money, cannibalised their products with free and cheap platforms, and cut costs on every corner to a degree where they have normalised a work environment with overtime, burnout, and abuse of power.

Without self-exploitation, the newspapers and online platforms would be half-empty.

We talk about the same publishers that for years attacked the publicly funded broadcaster SRG, undermining its justified status while crying «Free market! Free market!» and conveniently helping the far-right in launching political maneuvres against the institution.

Now, they beg for subsidies with one hand while the other lines the pockets of their millionaire and billionaire owners.

I feel sorry for the journalists who are still trapped in this system. Because they love their work. Because this job is without alternative for them.

And yes, some of them are still defending the publishers, blind to the fact that they don’t give a fuck about journalism and its vital function. It’s all about the bottom line, the profit, the bonuses. Numbers before people.

I’m all for a robust subsidy scheme for journalism. Especially a start-up fund to give some leeway for new ideas and brands. Unfortunately, we’re years away from finding a solution.

But dumping money in this rotten conglomerate of few publishers is by far the worst way. No subsidies for for-profit media organisations. Plain and simple.

Okay, what can we do in the meantime? Support the hell out of new media companies, especially local ones like «Hauptstadt» or «Tsüri». There, you know that your money is ending up in journalism.

Focus

What I've been up to in the last couple of months.

It was undoubtedly quiet here in the last couple of months. In fact, I haven’t written a single word for this small newsletter since November 2023. For mainly three reasons.

I. Work

After half-heartedly justifying reducing my workload to 80% to accommodate private projects, I ramped up my degree again to full-time. On the one hand, the financial hit was too big, and on the other, the first half of 2024 was—thankfully—intense and busy at Zeilenwerk. And it doesn’t slow down either.

II. Negative White

While the digital realm always interests me, my true passion—especially regarding writing—remains with music. I have invested a significant portion of my free time (around 8 hours per week) in my music newsletter/blog, Negative White.

After the shutdown in 2020, I found the drive and energy again. Still, most of all, I enjoy experimenting with the so-called «creator economy» again and thinking holistically about the brand, platform, and product.

And it’s always nice to see that the work pays off: Negative White recently achieved the magic number of 1000 subscribers.

III. Reduce & Focus

Lastly, 2024 has been dominated by focus through reduction. After deleting Twitter last year, I finally cut ties with Facebook. I haven’t missed it one bit.

I also drastically reduced my suite of tools and subscriptions (to save money and simplify my productivity system). So, goodbye Spotify, Netflix, Disney+, Adobe, ChatGPT, Midjourney, et al.

This digital decluttering worked wonders—much like deleting LinkedIn, Instagram, and Threads from my phone’s home screen. I spend significantly less time mindlessly scrolling through them and just open them with intention and purpose.


While my attention was lying with other things than DigitalMind, I nevertheless felt this nagging in my head that I should write something here again. But what?

Now, working in a new industry and the diametrically different environment of a self-organised company, the topics I wrote about previously aren’t as close to my daily work as before in a large corporate construct. And writing something just for consistency’s sake seems unfair: I’d be stealing your precious time.

But a recent LinkedIn post by my former colleague and friend Vinzenz Greiner about the «Consistency Trap» put my mind a bit at ease:

«The problem with all the consistency in our lives is that we lose sight of the goal. Consistency as a self-serving phenomenon. Routine as an obsessive neurosis. Habit as a burden.»

Amen.

So, no, I won’t announce a new format or frequency of posts here. I have enough consistency obligations with Negative White with weekly formats. If you’re interested in music and regular content, that’s the place you wanna be.

However, there are some things on my mind I plan to explore here in the near future. For example, my growing sense of disillusion or detachment with the web—something I already delved deeper into in relation to culture and music.

Algorithm Culture
An exploration of culture and its consumption in the age of algorithm, AI-generated content, and digital conformism.

And with that, I wish you an inspiring Saturday. Until the next time.

I've Been Tracking My Mood For The Past 3 Months. Here's What I Learned.

Tracking my mood every day had a significant impact on my life. I share some lessons learned and provide recommendations if you want to try it yourself.

Back in July, I stumbled upon a YouTube video about a concept called «Mood Tracking». The idea is straightforward: You create a particular scale, e.g. 1-5, that signifies your mood. Each day, you reflect on what happened, write it down and classify your mood through your scale. It's just a more numbers-focused approach to journaling.

On August 3, I started to implement the system, tracking the following metrics alongside a description of what happened on each day:

  • Creative Hours: The time I spent working—either professionally or for private projects.
  • Mood: With a scale from 1 (very bad) to 5 (very good)
  • Sleep Hours: Tracked through my smartwatch

To ensure that I stick to tracking, I also implemented a daily task in my calendar. And I've been able to track consistently except for two days during a festival.

Example excerpt of my Mood Tracking database in Notion.
Example excerpt of my Mood Tracking database in Notion—with creative hours, mood, and sleep hours.

What I Wanted To Explore

As I saw Mood Tracking as an experiment, I wrote down some questions I wanted to answer during the tracking period.

  • What's my mood in general, and how is it affected?
  • Is there a relationship between my sleep and my mood?
  • Is there a connection between my creative hours and my mood?
  • Is my perceived feeling of productivity influencing my mood?

In hindsight, writing down these questions as areas to explore proved essential. But more on that in a bit.

Lessons Learned

I don't want to fool you: Pinpointing my mood with one number was the hardest challenge. Often, my mood significantly changed during the day: something good happening, something terrible happening. And there's also the question: How do you even define mood?

Also, tracking the mood at a specific moment creates an inherent bias. And it's tricky to detach yourself from what you're feeling right now. Therefore, the number was always some estimation to me.

Further, classifying the metric «Creative Hours» has been challenging, especially because «creative» already frames the activity. Is participating in a video call creative? The answer is probably: It depends. And not everything I do at work is considered creative but productive. In hindsight, I would exchange «creative» with something broader like «productive» or «focused work».

And last but not least, despite my daily reminder, sticking to the schedule has also been tricky. My goal was to track every day at 5 p.m.; however, I did it often later or even the next morning.

Now, let's dive into the statistics:

Chart of the traced metrics: creative hours, mood, and sleep hours.

Over the past three months, my mood had an average of 3.5, signifying a slight tendency to be in a good mood. I mostly switched between 3 and 4, only occasionally feeling extremes in both ways.

Regarding my research questions, I couldn't find any apparent relationship between the amount of sleep and my mood. Rationally thinking, not getting enough sleep would lead to more severe mood swings. However, I did not track that aspect.

The relationship between the problematic «creative hours» and my mood is more complicated. Whenever I did nothing creative or productive, my mood was often lower. Conversely, I tracked high moods without any evident creative or productive work. Nevertheless, one or two focused daily tasks made me feel that I've accomplished something of substance and are reliable recipes for an improved mood.

The Highs And Lows

I also analysed the extremes, the days with a mood of 1, 2, and 5. 

On the very low end, I find August 23, when I suddenly felt severe chest pain and had to do an emergency check-up (all went well, and the pain is long gone). Or October 1, when my grandmother died. 

These are obvious and explicable results. But I also see that problems at work significantly impacted my mood, as well as some long travel days.

Example of a bad mood day.
Example of a bad mood day.

On the high end, surprisingly, it was primarily days off from work: The anniversary of my first date with my girlfriend, my birthday, a fun weekend in the mountains. But also the company retreat or days with good, productive meetings at work.

Example of a great mood day.
Example of a great mood day.

Now, should it be concerning that only a few workdays led to a high mood? No, I don't think so. Firstly, because the tracking should be more reliable. Secondly, because also only a fraction of work-related incidents have led to a bad mood.

Creating A Valuable Habit

Despite having fewer concrete learnings than I hoped for, setting research questions and the prospect of being able to illustrate certain aspects of the tracking helped create a valuable habit.

I took a couple of shots at journaling in the past, but it never stuck. Now, I've engrained the mood tracking in my daily habit and will continue it.

The habit had a significant and positive impact on my life: I have a vessel to put down my thoughts in writing, prompting me to reflect on a regular basis. After finishing every entry, I always felt relief when it was a bad mood day, or even more uplifted because I again realised what a great day it had been.

Adjustments Moving Ahead

However, I've made some adjustments to the system: I have ditched the «creative hours» metric altogether. I thought about replacing it but ultimately decided against it since it didn't bring me any value so far.

I opt to keep the sleep hours to further explore the relationship between sleep and mood over a more extended period and experiment with different amounts of sleep.

The new thing I added to the system is a column for gratitude. Every day, I want to describe what «I am grateful for» briefly because there's scientific evidence of the positive impact of practising gratitude.

Find Your Own System

If you've always wanted to try journaling but never could create a habit like me, I highly recommend the framework of mood tracking. Despite not being a numbers guy, it's still intriguing to dig around regularly and discover patterns.

Setting up and implementing your personalised system is quite easy:

  • Think about metrics that interest you.
  • Base your metric decision on questions you want to explore and write them down.
  • Choose a suitable tool like a spreadsheet or prepare a notebook (I used a Notion database).
  • Find a convenient slot (about 15 minutes) in your daily schedule and set a reminder.
  • Don't worry about a few missed trackings, late entries, or not writing a lot down—done is better than perfect.

Twitter Postmortem: Or A Slow Goodbye From Big Social Media

I feel exhausted by social media.

I deleted my Twitter account after 12 years—and it felt great.

Twitter has been an essential gateway for me into journalism. I remember that back in the day, it used to be a common thing to network: «Hey, I'm Janosch, we follow each other.» The platform has also been a reliable news feed, carefully curated by following established journalists and sources from around the globe.

But no more. 

While Elon Musk continues displaying examples of terrible leadership, peddling conspiracy theories, and enabling more and more extremist views and hate speech, it's time to leave. There's less value found on this platform, now called X, after the worst rebranding in recent history, and therefore even fewer reasons to justify staying.


Deleting my Twitter account prompted me to reflect on my relationship and history with social media platforms. Broadly, I can identify three distinct stages.

Stage I – Experiments

It started in the messy days of the internet with decoupled experiences from Habbo Hotel and MSN Messenger to gaming-related apps like Xfire, TeamSpeak, and forums. The first service I used resembling today's platforms was Netlog, soon consumed by the growing giant Facebook.

Those years, probably the first decade of the 21st century, were exciting. Driven by curiosity and definitely a healthy portion of naïvety, I dove into every possible network. 

Data security concerns? Just didn't exist. Oversharing? Constantly.

Stage II – Purpose

Later, as a young journalist, social media platforms played a significant role. They were a necessary tool for sourcing and telling stories. 

My accounts mostly became professional tools rather than personal spaces, and for the most part, I curated content carefully. They also became more of a broadcasting channel than a place for discussion.

Stage III – Exhaustion

Fast-forward a couple of years to 2023. My circumstances have changed: No longer working in the media industry, the big social media platforms are no longer necessary to thrive. 

And I feel exhausted.

My Facebook feed is a neverending stream of stupid jokes, and LinkedIn's algorithm boosts fake hustle gurus. Today, I hardly find any joy in Instagram anymore. I mostly use it to send silly Reels to a handful of friends and post for my music blog, Negative White. 

Mastodon, where I had an account since 2016, isn't my cup of tea. I deleted TikTok and BeReal again.

Just YouTube has always been a constant; however, it's not a social experience to me but an entertainment and learning platform. And now, with Twitter done and dusted, maybe Bluesky will create a new news feed for me.


What defines a social media experience? Is it simply the digital extension of an analogue relationship or the random connection with strangers?

For a long time, there was this fear of missing out. You know the drill: You're missing out if you're not on Facebook. If you're not on Instagram, you're missing out.

Today, I hardly find any clear value in social media platforms. Using them gets more and more exhausting and too time-consuming for little reward. Did they change, or did I?

My digital social life has mostly returned to where it started: A handful of group chats on different messengers and a few Slack and Discord servers.

Charlie Warzel wrote it best in «The Atlantic»:

The internet has never felt more dense, yet there seem to be fewer reliable avenues to find a signal in all the noise. One-stop information destinations such as Facebook or Twitter are a thing of the past. The global town square—once the aspirational destination that social media platforms would offer to all of us—lies in ruins, its architecture choked by the vines and tangled vegetation of a wild informational jungle. This may be for the best in the long run, although the immediate effect for those of us still glued to these ailing platforms is one of complete chaos.

What Happens When You Neglect Reflection?

Some lessons we can learn from a crisis at one of YouTube's biggest tech channels.

Do you check YouTube for reviews before you buy a tech gadget? If yes, the probability is high that you've stumbled upon a video by Linus Media Group.

Linus Media Group (LMG), a Canadian company founded by Linus Sebastian, runs multiple channels like Linus Tech Tips, TechLinked, or MacAddress. Their reach is enormous: Their main channel, Linus Tech Tips, has over 10 million subscribers. Overall, the company racked up billions of views.

They are a significant influence in the tech space. And they found themselves suddenly in a lot of trouble. In the following post, I will briefly summarise what happened and follow up with some lessons we can take away from LMG's example.

Warning Signs

Shortly before all hell broke loose at LMG, I watched a video called «What's It Like to Work For Linus?». My inner alarms immediately went off. A fraction of the more than 100 employees were featured; however, their statements were jarring. They unanimously complained about the workload and the quantity-over-quality-mentality. Some even stated that they are rarely proud of a project.

On the one hand, kudos to LMG for uploading such self-critical content. Imagine a traditional media company would ever do that. On the other hand, these warning signs would soon develop into a full-blown crisis.

The Crisis

It all started when a fellow tech YouTuber, GamersNexus, known for his meticulous approach, laid bare the company's shortcomings, constant mistakes, and several other critical behaviours. The backlash towards LMG was severe; the first response was emotional and destructive, then coordinated and corporate-worthy.

As an immediate action, LMG stopped all publishing for over a week to focus on reflection, new processes, and other adjustments. They now transparently communicated all they have worked on in the publishing hiatus.

I must also mention that a former employee has reported sexual harassment and general sexist behaviour at LMG. The company has responded by starting an external investigation into the allegations. There has not yet been an update.

What Can We Learn From This Story?

Time will tell whether the guardrails and processes that LMG has introduced will improve its work. However, there are already essential takeaways from this significant incident—even without having a deeper insight into the company's inner workings.

I. Reflection is essential

The team's statements in the video indicate a severe lack of opportunity for retrospectives and reflections. The productivity rush became too overwhelming as the company grew from a few dozen employees to a big corporation. Significantly, when scaling up, there always needs to be moments of pause to ask critical questions:

  • Are we satisfied with the quality of our product?
  • What are the employee's concerns?
  • Where do our processes and guidelines fall short?

II. Invest in Culture

The culture is the foundation of a company's resilience and sustainable success. Culture enables or prevents toxicity and psychological safety, and it has a significant impact on employee engagement, productivity, and innovation.

LMG, as part of the creator economy, is highly susceptible to getting driven by arbitrary numbers, likes, views, and upload schedules. It can create an unhealthy hustle culture that not only prevents reflection but incentives something Simon Sinek calls «ethical fading».

Ultimately, the leadership has a critical role in shaping a trusting culture and has to collaborate with the team to set realistic goals that address quality and business viability.

III. Communication is critical

Communication, at least from an outside perspective, seems to be an issue at LMG. The first response was highly emotional and dismissive of the criticism. Further examples of such external communication can be found on numerous occasions.

Both the examples of external communication and the suggestion that internal concerns, although publicly stated by employees, were not heard or not addressed quickly enough indicate problems in this area.

Communication, followed by proper action, is essential in building trust, the most valuable currency any media outlet has: Say what you do and do what you say.


As a regular viewer of LMG's content, I hope they can resolve the issues. But for the most part, it is fascinating to dive into their specific example as they display classic corporate behaviour alongside more transparency often found in the so-called «new media industry». LMG's statements and plans might be polished and curated, but it's a rare case that a company pulls back the curtain as far.

Ultimately, the crisis at LMG proves that cultural issues are not only common at old corporations, but they also plague the new generations of organisations.

Why Trust Is Crucial For Leadership

Trust is one of the foundational aspects of human collaboration. Here's why it matters for leaders.

Trust is a fundamental element of all aspects of life and is especially relevant for leadership. Trusting relationships between leaders and employees foster high-performing teams, while those who lack trust will struggle to collaborate and innovate.

In this post, I will explore why trust is essential for leadership and how it can be built.

Building a Foundation of Trust

Jessy got the assignment from their boss—let's call him Steve—to do market research for a new product. Over the next couple of months, they read reports and analyses, conducted interviews, monitored competitors, and much more to finally synthesise all their findings in a comprehensive study to present.

Steve is satisfied. However, he tasks an external company to verify the results without telling Jessy. But obviously, Jessy eventually hears about Steve's decision.

Try empathising with Jessy. How would you feel in that situation? Are you angry? Or can you understand Steve's decision? Do you feel trusted?


Trust is the foundation of all relationships and is especially important for leaders. It's one of their most crucial tasks to ensure an environment that nurtures the genuine connection between people—and trust is the main component for those connections.

As humans, we are naturally dependent on a trusting environment. We're social animals, relying on a group to protect us from outside threats. Michael Tomasello even argues that Homo sapiens is an "ultra-social animal" in the European Journal of Social Psychology: "Our own view is that humans set off down their ultra-social, cooperative pathway when some changes in ecological conditions forced them to become obligate collaborative foragers."

Tomasello further explains that "interdependence of the human variety led humans to put their heads together in acts of shared intentionality in which they acted on and understood the world together as a kind of plural subject. Individuals came to feel commitments and obligations toward one another as they worked together."

Belonging to a trusting group lies deeply rooted in the human essence. And although we do not depend on the group anymore for our basic survival, this primal instinct still applies to our lives—and especially impacts the way companies and leaders have to create their environment. Building a foundation of trust is the leadership's responsibility who has the means and leverage to achieve meaningful changes in the company's culture.

However, trust doesn't emerge overnight. In fact, the phrase "trust me" uttered by someone you don't know or trust might make you even more suspicious. Building trust takes time, persistence, and intrinsic motivation on the leader's part.

The Components Of Trust

We're inclined to look for easy recipes to build trust, a simple checklist we can work through, and the job's done. But trust and relationships don't work that way. They're constantly changing and need to be worked on because if the work stops, they fall apart and eventually break.

However, a long history of research around trust lets you break it down into three components: competence, honesty, and benevolence.

Let's apply this to the fictional protagonists above. If Steve were a trusting leader, he would show the three components of trust:

  • Competence: trust in someone's abilities
    Steve believes Jessy can do proper market research.
  • Honesty (or integrity): trust that someone keeps their promises
    Steve doesn't blindsight Jessy about the external verification.
  • Benevolence: trust that someone has your best interest at heart
    Steve explains why and how Jessy might benefit from the external verification.

To state the obvious: The feelings of competence, honesty, and benevolence apply to both sides of the relationship.

Leaders Need To Act First

The distinction between personal relationships and professional ones between leaders and employees is the difference in power. As leaders are inherently more powerful in an organisation, it's up to them to take the first step.

Simply said: Check your actions against the three components of trust. As a leader, you may also have to take a leap of faith by blindly trusting at first to gain experience and adjust your actions later accordingly.

Additionally, Paul J. Zak found that the following actions also help stimulate the brain chemical oxytocin, which is relevant for building trust:

  • Recognise excellence
    "Recognition has the largest effect on trust when it occurs immediately after a goal has been met, when it comes from peers, and when it's tangible, unexpected, personal, and public."
  • Induce challenge stress
    "When a manager assigns a team a difficult but achievable job, the moderate stress of the task releases neurochemicals, including oxytocin and adrenocorticotropin, that intensify people's focus and strengthen social connections."
  • Give people discretion in how they work
    "Once employees have been trained, allow them, whenever possible, to manage people and execute projects in their own way."
  • Enable job crafting
    "When companies trust employees to choose which projects they'll work on, people focus their energies on what they care about most."
  • Share information broadly
    "Uncertainty about the company's direction leads to chronic stress, which inhibits the release of oxytocin and undermines teamwork."
  • Intentionally build relationships
    "Help people build social connections by sponsoring lunches, after-work parties, and team-building activities."
  • Facilitate whole-person growth
    "Numerous studies show that acquiring new work skills isn't enough; if you're not growing as a human being, your performance will suffer."
  • Show vulnerability
    "Leaders in high-trust workplaces ask for help from colleagues instead of just telling them to do things."

Trust's Impact On The Bottom Line

Besides its fundamental benefits to the company culture, a high-trusting environment significantly impacts business success. As Zak's research found, people in high-trust companies outperform peers in low-trust settings in any critical metric:

  • 74% less stress
  • 106% more energy at work
  • 50% higher productivity
  • 13% fewer sick days
  • 76% more engagement
  • 29% more satisfaction with their lives
  • 40% less burnout

It's hardly a wild guess that these metrics lower a company's costly turnover rate. Adding in the higher productivity, it's clear that organisations with a trusting environment will outperform those with less trust.

Trust is by no means a vanity metric but a relevant driver of success and, therefore, must be a top priority for any leadership position.

4 Ways To Foster Collaboration In Your Team

Collaboration is essential for the success of any team. It allows members to share ideas, combine their expertise, and work towards a shared goal.

In today's fast-paced and competitive business environment, fostering collaboration in your team is more important than ever. And although digital tools might help to create collaboration more effectively and even asynchronously, the basis remains a human effort in building trusting relationships and culture.

There are many steps leaders can take if collaboration is a priority. However, the foundation isn't built overnight. It requires culture, communication, goals, and opportunities. Here are my recommendations for tackling each of these aspects.

Build a positive and inclusive team culture.

Culture is at the heart of any organisation. It influences the environment that a team finds and, therefore, significantly impacts behaviours and decision-making. For example, in a toxic culture, people are more prone to avoid responsibility and pointing fingers and are generally less engaged.

So a positive and inclusive team culture is an essential component of collaboration. Leadership has to create an atmosphere where every team member feels valued and respected and where different perspectives and ideas are welcomed. In short: They have to ensure psychological safety.

Some of the potential actions a leader can take:

  1. Establish clear values and expectations for behaviour within the team to create a sense of shared purpose and ensure everyone is on the same page regarding how they should treat each other and work together.
  2. Encourage open communication and dialogue among team members to create a sense of trust and inclusion within the team.
  3. Provide opportunities to get to know each other personally as it builds stronger relationships and a sense of camaraderie within the team.
  4. Offer support and resources for team members to grow and develop to demonstrate a sense of investment in each other's success and a sense of belonging within the team.
  5. Lead by example and show vulnerability to prove to the other team members that you want a safe environment to share ideas, disagree, and grow.

Encourage open communication and dialogue among team members.

While culture is at the heart of collaboration, effective communication is crucial to business success. Unfortunately, we've all experienced miscommunication ruining an initially great idea or project.

Therefore, great collaboration requires open and honest communication among team members. Encourage your team to share their ideas, thoughts, and concerns—even if it means you may face pushback.

Some of the potential actions a leader can take:

  1. Create a safe and supportive environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. It can involve setting ground rules for communication, like respecting each other's opinions and avoiding judgment or criticism.
  2. Encourage active listening and responsiveness among team members, which includes asking questions, seeking clarification, and providing feedback respectfully and constructively.
  3. Provide opportunities to have regular, open discussions about their work and ideas. You need to carve out dedicated time for team meetings or retrospectives.
  4. Be open and transparent in your own communication with team members. Sharing information about the team's goals, progress, and challenges and being open to feedback and suggestions from team members is essential.

Establish clear goals and expectations for your team.

Having a clear understanding of what your team is working towards can help to foster collaboration. When everyone knows the end goal, the team can work together and achieve it more effectively.

Some of the potential actions a leader can take:

  1. Implement a structured approach to goal-setting and expectation management. One potential framework might be Objectives & Key Results (OKR), which fosters self-leadership and agency.
  2. Ensure the team's goals are SMART, so specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound to reduce the amount of uncertainty and different interpretations.
  3. Communicate the goals and expectations regularly. Goals and expectations should always be clearly stated, even in writing. It's also helpful to have frequent discussions to understand the goals and expectations to align everybody in the team.
  4. Monitor progress towards the goals and provide feedback and support to team members. Whether you're applying a framework like OKR or not, regular check-ins to discuss progress, challenges, and successes are vital for collaboration to improve constantly.
  5. Celebrate successes and achievements along the way. We tend to spend too much time on failures and miss out on adequately recognising our achievements. Carve out some time to celebrate success, as it's an important motivator.

Create opportunities for team members to work together.

Even with culture, goals, and communication all set, there must be appropriate opportunities for team members to collaborate, even more so if you're trying to break silos between different departments and teams.

While forcing teams and people to collaborate is risky, some nudging might be advised. However, it's also important not to judge success and productivity after the first trial in collaboration as the people require time to adjust and build trust.

Some of the potential actions a leader can take:

  1. Assign team members to work on projects that require collaboration (for example, with other teams). It provides a natural opportunity for team members to work together and coordinate their efforts.
  2. Encourage team members to seek out opportunities for collaboration on their own. It means you have to provide resources and support to identify those areas and communicate the added value of cooperation.
  3. Provide tools and resources to collaborate effectively. It could mean implementing technology solutions (such as collaboration software) that make it easier for team members to share ideas, documents, and other resources but also frameworks and templates for collaborative workshops and meetings.
  4. Recognise and reward collaboration. No matter the outcome of a specific collaborative effort, you should recognise collaboration to encourage it even more.
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Team Canvas is a tool that proved to be especially helpful in laying the foundation for an open and collaborative team culture.

If you want to know more about the tool or need a facilitator, reach out for a first conversation: janoschtroehler.com