A five-year study found that employee emotions significantly impact a company’s success. Interestingly, when an employee makes a mistake and isn’t punished, they tend to perform better. A company wants its employees to try, experiment, and succeed, but it is hard for the company to grow if employees are blamed when they make mistakes or fail. Over time, the company can unintentionally become a bureaucracy, which discourages employees from working effectively. Conversely, when employees and the company work together toward the same goal, great success follows. We mistakenly believe that giving employees monetary bonuses will motivate them. However, more factors can encourage people than just money. Not only is money a limited motivator, but it is also costly compared to its effectiveness. When a company becomes an unpleasant place to work, managers, employees, shareholders, and customers all become unhappy. But when it becomes a good place to work, everyone is happy. There’s no ambiguou...
Since 2008, the US CDC has published annual flu reports aimed at preventing the spread of influenza nationwide. Researchers took two weeks to compile data on each flu outbreak by calculating the number of cases and generating a report. Meanwhile, the flu had already spread across the country. Google addressed this issue by analyzing search query statistics. However, an error emerged in 2013 when the flu vaccine became scarce, prompting the media to publish numerous flu-related articles that further distorted the situation by conflating the search terms for flu patients. In other words, accurate data analysis depends on the ability to interpret quality, untainted data and its context. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”