Knowledge Empowers: Recent Episodes
Kat, Baruš & Koláč
Want to understand where to fit in corporation and learn how to navigate within? Listen to 3 corporate professionals Katarina a.k.a. Kat, Barbara a.k.a. Baruš, Matej a.k.a. Koláč - who share their knowledge and experience.
We publish new episodes every Monday. You can also watch us on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDX7bAJgql8OHCN-qbILv2g Our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/knowledge-empowers
In this episode, we delve into the topic of hosting foreign colleagues on a business trip in your country, using Stereotype content model.
We delve into the world of meetings and the intricate dynamics of cultural differences on business trips. Join us as we explore the challenges faced by international teams, share personal anecdotes, and offer practical tips for fostering effective collaboration across borders.
You can find our podcast on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BU23IBjnpvsxXJdNiWlxh Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowledge-empowers/id1557801107 Other platforms - https://anchor.fm/knowledgeempowers
You can find our podcast on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BU23IBjnpvsxXJdNiWlxh Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowledge-empowers/id1557801107 Other platforms - https://anchor.fm/knowledgeempowers
You can find our podcast on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BU23IBjnpvsxXJdNiWlxh Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowledge-empowers/id1557801107 Other platforms - https://anchor.fm/knowledgeempowers
You can find our podcast on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BU23IBjnpvsxXJdNiWlxh Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowledge-empowers/id1557801107 Other platforms - https://anchor.fm/knowledgeempowers
You can find our podcast on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BU23IBjnpvsxXJdNiWlxh Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowledge-empowers/id1557801107 Other platforms - https://anchor.fm/knowledgeempowers
You can find our podcast on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BU23IBjnpvsxXJdNiWlxh Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowledge-empowers/id1557801107 Other platforms - https://anchor.fm/knowledgeempowers
A well-written business justification can mean the difference between a project's success and failure. Join us as we explore the key components that should be included in every business justification.
In today's world, making a business case for any significant investment or decision is crucial. In this episode, we will share our experience with the different types of business justification.
In this podcast episode, we go through the reasons behind changing the name of our podcast from "Knowledge Empowers" to "Corporate Beyond Stories" and what other updates you can look forward to.
Let's set on a path of self-fulfilling prophecies and explore the concept of Life Scripts in Transactional Analysis, a psychoanalytic theory that examines how our early life experiences shape our beliefs and behaviours about ourselves.
From Parent-Child dynamics to Adult-Adult interactions, this video will explore how different how the Adult ego states can be used to improve communication and relationships with others, as it enables us to respond to situations in a calm and objective manner.
In this podcast episode, we explore the concept of transactional analysis, a theory of personality and communication that examines the interactions between individuals. We discuss the three ego states, transactional patterns, and how understanding these concepts can improve communication and relationships.
In this episode we share what languages we speak and how we got to get to learn them. Towards the end of the episode, Kat recommends few smartphone applications that boost your language learning efficiency.
What is ideation and how to conduct one? Our guest, Jakub Misun, share's his work experience in the area of ideation and brainstorming.
Ideation related recommendations:
- https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methodology/overview
- https://www.ibm.com/design/thinking/
- https://www.ideou.com/pages/design-thinking
Why hours are not used for workload estimation in Scrum? Why there are separate meetings involving whole team just to estimate the effort for the upcoming sprint? Jakub, certified Scrum Master will reveal answers all these questions and more.
Book recommendation: The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind
What is retrospective and how is it practiced in a Scrum team? Jakub, certified Scrum Master, explains his approach to retrospective meetings and even retrospective practices outside Agile project management.
Have you ever been interested in a job of a Scrum Master? Wondered what they do all day or how they look at Agile project management? In this episode we interview one and provide you answers to these and many other questions.
Book recommendation
Great ScrumMaster, The: #ScrumMasterWay (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn)): Sochova, Zuzana: 9780134657110: Amazon.com: Books
So your project is finished. What are the actions that you need to do at the close of project?
https://theconversation.com/ - The world’s leading publisher of research-based news and analysis coming out of unique collaboration between academics and journalists.
Let's deep dive on strategies to manage risk in project management, namely: risk acceptance, risk transference, risk avoidance and risk reduction.
Prevention is better than cure and this is true in Project Management as well. In this episode we discuss how to prepare for risks ahead of you.
Impact of us getting angry in our professional life is often damaging. Our guest speaker, Peter, will explain what can we do in work to minimize the impact of this fundamental emotion.
Jaak Panksepp lectures on emotions in animals, humans | Cornell Chronicle
You can find our podcast on:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BU23IBjnpvsxXJdNiWlxh
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowledge-empowers/id1557801107
Other platforms - https://anchor.fm/knowledgeempowers
Happy Holidays from Knowledge Empowers Podcast Team! Barus shares a holiday related fun fact with you and Kat sends out Christmas greetings in Korean.
Have you ever been stressed because you had to give a presentation in front of a larger crowd? Our guest speaker, Peter, will introduce how to calibrate emotions and in this episode we will specifically look at stress and anxiety.
Your body language may shape who you are | Amy Cuddy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc
There are few practices across different project management methodologies that are widely used in corporations and not only during project management. We talk about three of these: Dot-voting, Retrospective and Mood Marbles.
Book recommendation: Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide: All-in-one Guide for Professional Scrum Master (PSM 1) Certificate Assessment Preparation https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Narrative-Exam-Guide-All/dp/1521475466/
Requirements, Product Owners, SLAs and DOUs... Do you know these terms? If you work on a project or about to, you might need learn the meaning of these basic terms.
Stand-in's, clean desk policies, disaster plans and separation of duties. What are these and how do business controls influence you as a junior employee?
Stress and anxiety are part of normal workday. But how can you prevent a burnout before it's too late?
Resources:
• Amy Cuddy - Your body language shapes who you are: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are
• Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Goleman Bantam Press (1999) – book
• Jane McGonigal - Resilience: https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life
Withdrawal or Inner Emptiness are just 2 of 6 later stages of burnout that we talk about this episode.
How does it look when burnout starts? Denial of Emerging Problems or The compulsion to prove your worth are just couple of the 6 phases we talk about in this episode. Do they sound familiar to you?
We've been hearing a lot about burnout and many people seem to go through it but what is an actual definition of burnout?
Kat talks about a criminal event that directly affected her life and how she deals with sadness, hate, anger and frustration.
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An article about the event: https://spectator.sme.sk/c/23032146/two-people-dead-after-a-shooting-in-central-bratislava.html
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In case of advice needed we recommend iN Poradna: https://www.inporadna.sk/ who is providing support and social, psychological and legal counselling for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in areas related to their sexual orientation and gender identity.
We often blame circumstances or even other people when we feel angry, sad, anxious, etc. But what is the true origin of emotions?
It is not often that we connect emotion of disgust with a professional environment. Yet there are definitely places you need to avoid it. Listen to find out more.
The skill of storytelling helps us to translate our thoughts, ideas and experience into stories. Through stories we connect with people around us. Listen to this episode to discover how you can build up your storytelling skills.
Would it surprise you that surprise as an emotion doesn't get much attention in a workplace? No wonder it is often not manged well.
Is anger good or bad? The answer might surprise you. Listen to our "angry" stories and find out how to manage this emotion.
Are you dreading speaking in public or your next interview? No matter what you're afraid of, fear can be a crippling emotion. Let's look at how to handle feelings of fear in daily situations.
How would you get the best of out of major changes in your life and work? Virginia Satir thought of this challenge and created a model that was designed to help people improve the way they cope with unexpected change.
To increase your work performance you can build a relationship with your manager. They are not the only ones managing your relationship though. You should be managing your manager as well. But how would you go about it?
Is it acceptable to not to come to meetings? Do you need to respond to each single meeting invitation? What is necessary information that should meeting invitation body hold? We go through these and many other rules of meeting etiquette.
Did you know there are different types of meetings? Do you know which kinds you attend and what is their purpose?
How to make listening active and what are the different stages of moving from passive listening to active one?
Ignoring problems can be damaging, yet we often choose to minimize them or discount them completely. What are the different stages of discounting and what can we do about it?
You can find our podcast on:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BU23IBjnpvsxXJdNiWlxh
Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/knowledge-empowers/id1557801107
Other platforms - https://anchor.fm/knowledgeempowers
We invited two guests that are currently studying in university to share with us their experience on working in a corporation as an intern.
Have you ever tried to solve a problem, but to no avail. It's possible that you only got rid of one of the symptoms of the problem. We go through a scenario that showcases use of 5 Whys analysis to dicover a root cause of a problem and find a potential solution that works.
There are 5 ways we consciously or unconsciosly manage conflict - accommodating, avoiding, compromising, competing, collaboration - and we explain them through examples.
Do you know there are several types of conflict? Which ones are common in a workplace and what dangers it brings if you can't differentiate between them?
How to deal with your least favourite coworker becoming your manager? How to handle rumours in a workplace? What to do when you get fired during trial period without an explanation?
6 Thinking Hats provide a means for groups to plan thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way, and in doing so to think together more effectively.
There is a concept of 30-60-90 planning tool. How does it translate for newcomers? What should a new hire expect and aim for in first 90 days in a new company.
We continue to describe and explore first three months in corporate world. Now, we focus on a period of second month, between 30th and 60th days.
In corporate world, you will meet with various people with diverse background, thinking and expressing themselves. In this episode we focus on how to support this diversity and avoid excluding members of your social groups because of inappropriate labeling and language.
Together with Tokyo BTM, Andrew and Meng, we are discovering how inclusion in Japan looks like, focusing specifically on LGBTI groups in Tokyo's corporations.
Tokyo BTM Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TokyoBTM
A relationship between mentor - mentee is an important one, because each of you are learning from the other person. It's more than teaching, it's more than being a "go-to" person.
Other comments, notes, links, etc.
Spoiling a talent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrbduHoYp98
Mentor - teacher difference https://flashpoint.columbiacollege.edu/2019/01/17/what-is-the-difference-between-teacher-and-mentor/
Human is an social animal - social learning https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2014.00058/full
We continue on the topic of misbehaviors, now targeting specifically helplessness. What is natural for us and how to overcome if someone we know reached this stage?
Theory of contra-freeloading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElZzxdmiKtk
Douglas McGregor Theory X&Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK8-LhqF4N0
Dan Ariely: Frogs and Cranes https://ideas.ted.com/why-were-so-attached-to-our-own-creations-even-when-theyre-ugly/
Endowment effect https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/cake-can-teach-us-about-marketing-and-psychology-5518674b4053
What makes us feel good about work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aH2Ppjpcho
Story on co-creating solutions https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/280575
Was your Valentine very successful wink wink? Have you thought about aftermath? Here is some knowledge on how to have sex with your partner(s) safely.
What do you know of St. Valentine and his celebration? Let us surprise you.
List of Valentines: https://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php
Average spending - some say it's even over 160$ https://trulyexperiences.com/blog/valentines-day-gifts-spending/
Our sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2
https://www.history.com/news/6-surprising-facts-about-st-valentine
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Valentine
This time, we've looked into unhealthy and unhelpful immature behavior, which we do as adults. The theory was developed by Rudolf Dreikurs.
What Are the Four Goals of Misbehavior?
What is Learned Helplessness?
In this podcast we are talking more deeply about social responsibility of a business. Does your company has one? What is it? Are you chipping in? Listen to hear more.
Seth Godin: This is marketing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHubyKHmP-U
The social responsibility of business | Alex Edmans - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5KZhm19EO0
How does culture impacts us? How does technology? One way how to look on the impact is through the lenses of generations. Listen to our guest LaToya to explain more.
When emotions kick in and we feel stressed, our communication type switches. Based on theory of Virginia Satir, we know of 4 types: placater, blamer, computer and distractor. Listen to find out more.
Parenting is a challenge and a life goal at the same time. We enquired Zuzanna, our special guest, about what it's like to be a parent. Hear from her some lessons regarding kids and snails while working from home (WFH).
A lot of people have tendency to use New Year as a new beginning and set resolutions. Is it effective? We recommend to build habits instead.
As holidays are aproaching we are taking 2 weeks long break to enjoy Christmas cheer. Happy holidays!
Christmas are coming. What do we know about this world-wide phenomenon and rituals connected to it? In this episode we focus on origins of Christmas customs in Slovakia and we talk about our relationship with this important holidays.
This time, we've looked into barriers in empathy. How to overcome our bias or prejudice, break the ice and listen to one another?
Additional mentions:
The Red Queen Hypothesis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHZtJBC1hvo
Audio book from Matt Ridley - "The red queen" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrJ9riKQ6H0
Book from Kim Scott - Just Work: Get Sh*t Done, Fast and Fair https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAh2lBU3xI4
Story about Daryl Davis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLtp13Rw8Kc
How to build up empathy from your side?
https://www.nytimes.com/guides/year-of-living-better/how-to-be-more-empathetic
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/six_habits_of_highly_empathic_people1
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy
Are we born as empathetic beings or is empathy a skill that we can learn? In this podcast episode, Kolac will explain what is empathy how we gain it and how it differs from sympathy.
In this episode three professionals with working experience in corporations look at weaknesses and changes that schools would need to make to better prepare young people for work and life.
How does the youngest generation who experienced regime change on November 17th 1989 remember it? As citizens of Slovakia (and former Czechoslovakia) we have had chance to witness transition from communism to democracy and in today's episode we will share our view on these two political systems not just in our country but others as well (e.g. China).
In this episode Kat continues to share her experience as a people manager, she explains what are some unpopular tasks and chores managers have on their plate regularly and also delves into a topic of unspoken health issues managers face.
Is the career path of a manager right for you? In this episode Kat will share her experience and stories of being a manager in a corporation and talk about motivation and challenges on the path towards this job position.
Have you noticed the Facebook black-out? Did it affect you? In this episode we talk about how social media impact our behaviour and communication, how it transformed over the years, to what extent social media and other companies collect our personal information nowadays, targetted advertising and would we decide to get rid of Facebook if we could.
What is purpose of controlling our emotions? What happens if we don't learn about them? In this episode we cover topics such as emotional self awareness, self regulating, motivation for raising your emotional intelligence & SCARF model, discovering triggers, physical reactions to feelings and emotions inside of us, transferring of emotions to others and how our mental health influences emotions.
What is the difference between feelings and emotions? Is it possible to control our feelings? If so, how? In this episode we answer these questions and talk about what is emotional intelligence a.k.a. IE and why should we learn more about it.
Books by Paul Ekman
TV show about emotions and micro expressions "Lie to me"
In this episode we talk about what pets we've owned so far, for what reasons, Koláč shares how dogs as pets influence chemicals in our brains and Kat shares how she and her husband care for and live with their pet Corgi.
In this episode we look at generation gaps and try to define the term. Baruš shares the differences between values of generation of parents and their kids in China, Kat tells us a story about how she experienced a feeling of age difference between her and her co-worker for the first time, Koláč explores why older people are resisting learning and not easily changing their views and finally we talk about importance of age diversity and support of mothers in a workplace.
In this episode we talk about why women are not as represented in the leadership ranks as much as their male counterparts.
In this podcast episode we discuss LGBTI groups in Slovakia and other countries, what are the laws and rights LGBTI communities are fighting for and what challenges gays, lesbians, trans-gender, bisexual and intersexual people have to go through.
In this podcast episode we talk about different kinds of people with disabilities, what challenges they go through and give some examples of how employees and employers need to adjust around colleagues with disabilities.
What is diversity? How much does it influence us? In this episode we talk about diversity in general being discriminated and diversity in nationality.
Do you know the ways to motivate yourself? Is it possible to "generate" motivation in others or do they need to find it in themselves? In this podcast episode will answer these questions and few more as well.
All leaders know it is important to develop talent that you have in your team. But what are some ways to spoil it? What to avoid when we don't want to be counterproductive when growing skills and knowledge of our teammates?
In this podcast episode we talk our experience and significance of volunteering and helping out others.
Kat and our guest Michal, both experienced interviewers, will explain how they like to do a job interview and what they like to avoid when interviewing potential candidates.
What's the difference between influence and manipulation? Do we choose our influencers or is it out of our control? What kind of people have the biggest impact on us?
In this episode, with our guest Michal, we look at the current situation at the job market, what candidates expect compared to what are employer's expectations, how to adjust your CV or resume. Additionally we discuss emotions while job hunting, being overqualified for a job position and we name the forbidden questions during an interview. Michal, as a former interviewer, also share his unique view on being an interviewee.
Do you know how or when to ask for a salary raise? In this episode we talk about how much you should ask for, how much salary influences our motivation or when is the right time frame to ask for a pay raise if your are a newcomer. Kat, as a former manager, also shares different approaches to salary raise discussion with your leadership, impact of changing companies and factors managers need to consider when looking at increasing employees' salary.
COVID-19 changed lives of many people around the world. In this episode we share our stories on how Coronavirus influenced our lives in Slovakia and China.
Do you know signs of toxicity in a workplace and what impact does it have? How would you deal with it? This time we share with you our experience with toxicity, how it influences whole teams or even leadership and what specific actions we took to make our environment less toxic. We also talk a bit about being toxic versus not being in a good mood and what can you do if other people find you toxic.
This time we share with you few stories and some tips & tricks we do to practice what we've learned. Matej talks about 4 learning styles and how teaching influences your learning.
Links: Honey and Mumford's learning styles https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2020/10/honey-and-mumford/
In this episode we talk about difference between procrastination and laziness, how it relates to our emotions and EQ, then we share importance of defocus, plus what do we do to avoid procrastination and improve our time management.
In this podcast episode we cover how to mindfully manage your daily schedule, workload excess, identifying priorities, Pareto Principle, focus and distractions in work.
How would you tell your co-worker they smell? In this episode we share how to give "negative" feedback effectively, we go into SARAH model, Kubler-Ross grief cycle and SCARF model.
The Five Stages of Grief
We discuss how feedback influences our emotions, types of feedback and why it's better not to use the Sandwich Technique.
How onboarding new employees changed during Covid? How would you onboard a new colleague that lives in a different location? We discuss all these challenges plus a couple more which are interviewing potential candidates and how we build relationships remotely.
We discuss strategies on what to do when your intended brand is different from perceived brand. In addition we go through some general brand killers including breaches of common business etiquette rules. And at the end we touch upon how others can help you to figure out and evolve your own personal brand.
What does personal brand mean? How to build it and how not to?
Names we mentioned:
Simon Sinek https://simonsinek.com/
Adam Grant https://www.adamgrant.net/
Patrick Lencioni https://www.tablegroup.com/pat/
What is resilience, what types of resilience do we have and how to grow it?
Links:
What Is The Secret Of Happiness? (YT video by School of life)
The game that can give you 10 extra years of life (TEDGlobal talk by Jane McGonigal)
The SuperBetter gamified framework
What is work-life balance, what it is not and how do we strive for it?
Links
To have or not to have New year’s resolution? (article)
Video: Psychiatrist Max Kašparů (available in Czech language)
Feel the Fear . . . and Do It Anyway Paperback by Susan Jeffers (Amazon)
In this podcast we share our stories of how we became financially independent and how we manage our personal finaces.
In this podcast we share few tips and tricks to make your work from home more efficient and bareable.
In the second podcast we discuss a new European law that allows to digitally disconnect from work without facing negative repercussions.
‘Right to disconnect’ article: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20210114IPR95618/right-to-disconnect-should-be-an-eu-wide-fundamental-right-meps-say
Kat, Baruš and Koláč talk about working with colleagues of different countries and cultures and share few tips to make your work with such colleagues a bit smoother.