Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #96
Time for a birthday break and a birthday fundraiser
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. I write this weekly newsletter so subscribers can see some of the things I’m writing and sharing without depending on social media algorithms to show them to you. Each week I’ll share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and important information about privacy, security, and legal tech.
You can find out all about me here - Mike McBride Online.
First, the announcement. I’m taking next week off from the blogs for the most part, spending some time in nature with my wife leading up to my birthday on July 4th. (Yes, a birthday on a holiday is a pretty fantastic thing.) There won’t be a newsletter next Friday. No fear, I’ll be back after the July 4th holiday and we’ll catch up.
Secondly, I wanted to share the Facebook fundraiser that I do every year for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
https://www.facebook.com/donate/830578018659526/
As many of you know, I am a survivor of a suicide attempt and an advocate for mental health, and I use my birthday every year to help raise funds for AFSP. This year, I'm especially concerned for the lives of so many different groups that have seen the risks increase in the last few years. LGBTQ folks, veterans, first responders, healthcare workers, tech workers who've been laid off, like me, etc.
I can't fix all of that but I'm doing what I can by trying to raise money and awareness of what small steps we can all take to help in our little circles and communities. Funding programs and research is part of that, and I hope you'll consider helping me celebrate my birthday by donating.
If you’re not a Facebook user, I understand. If you still want to participate, feel free to find a suicide prevention resource near you, donate, and then simply let me know so I can say thank you. If you’d like to add to my personal fundraiser but don’t want to log in to Facebook to do it, you can also Venmo me (Michael-McBride-190) and I’ll make the donation for you.
Now on to this week’s thought-provoking things!
Careers and the Workplace
Linked - You don't have a culture problem, you have a management problem
Culture is not happening to your organization. Culture is what you make as a group. If things are not getting done, communication is poor, employees lack direction, etc. the office culture may be partly to blame, but the fix mostly involves creating a different one, through better management. Nothing else is going to fix it. Being in the office three days a week, open office plans, more meetings, etc.
None of it matters if your managers don't know how to manage. If they don't, there's your culture.
This is something that should have gone away as a topic of conversation years ago - Managers: Don't Confuse Busyness with Productivity
I don’t normally suggest only reading the headline of any article, and I’m still not going to suggest you stop at the headline for this one, but it does say a lot:
What side of this argument are you on? - Notes or No Notes During an Interview?
Training and Development
Learning Legal Tech - The Struggle for Attorneys
Imagine a day when technologists, lawyers, and vendors could have easy conversations about eDiscovery because they all have a deep understanding of the technology and tools involved. We don't see it often, and that causes some real problems as we see from some of the cases we all read about. Maybe someday.
If you're interested in learning more about Craig's course, he provides the 617-page Electronic Evidence Workbook for free on his website. Again, you could do a lot worse than getting some of Craig's knowledge for free.
Communication Skills for Leaders - I don’t care if your team is remote, hybrid, or back in an office, you still need better communication.
Mental Health in the Workplace
Before you head out on that vacation - Tips for preventing pre and post holiday stress at work - though I will point out that the workplace could be doing a lot more to alleviate this at a systemic level.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
Microsoft says M365 June outages were DDoS attacks - This is scary given how many businesses depend on M365 to be available.
Speaking of M365 - this week’s M365 newsletter was all about meeting transcripts.
Technology, I believe, is going to make the idea of “hours” being a unit of pay outdated sometime soon. (If AI can write most of those briefs and do research for you, firms will need to reconsider it at least.) Maybe that’ll help with this too - Law Firms Must Normalize Working Parenthood to Retain Talent
June’s Notable Cases and Events in E-Discovery
Ed makes a compelling case, but what do you think? Is the Internet already broken?
This is a good time for all of us to reconsider how we share data, who we share it with, and the process of cleaning up after data has been transferred. MoveIT is not the only data transfer service, they're just the one who got breached this month. Next month it could be the one we use. Take steps now to limit the damage that could be done.
That’s all folks. If you found something interesting in this week’s newsletter, please share it with your friends. It’s the best way to help support the effort I put in each week to share this with you.
Great article. You are so right about Craig Ball's evidence workbook!