So long, computer science - Chaos Studies is the hot new college degree | Project Managers, Focus on Outcomes — Not Deliverables | It’s Time to Define Your Company’s Principles

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So long, computer science — Chaos Studies is the hot new college degree - Business Insider

Will Shortz always knew he wanted to make puzzles. He made his first puzzle at age 9, sold his first puzzle professionally at 14, and became a regular contributor to the Dell Puzzle Magazine at 16.

Once in college at Indiana University, Shortz completed all the major requirements for a degree in economics. But in his junior year, he decided to pivot. "I remember joking about majoring in puzzles as a kid, never imagining that such a thing was possible until my mom discovered the individualized major program," Shortz said. So instead of settling for a degree that was adjacent to his goals, he created his own: enigmatology.

Shortz has also been a poster child for the build-your-own-major movement: the idea that a unique degree can lead to success. But while self-made majors have been around since the 1960s, we're currently experiencing a resurgence. Between 2019 and 2021, there was a 3% increase in the number of students graduating with individualized studies degrees. And 19% more students graduated with interdisciplinary degrees in the 2020-2021 academic year than did a decade ago, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. With majors like Chaos, Human Computer Interaction, and Architecture and Food Theory, students aren't just crafting these degrees for fun. Where customized majors used to be about specialization, today, for many young people, forging a unique educational route is about adapting to a constantly transforming job market.

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Project Managers, Focus on Outcomes — Not Deliverables - Harvard Business Review

If you’ve ever developed a product, you’ve almost certainly been derailed by scope creep. Features multiply, priorities blur, and schedules and budgets suffer. As a leader, how can you recognize scope creep and realign your team? Shift the focus from “what” you’re building (the deliverables) to “why” you’re building it (the outcomes). In this article, I’ll explain how you can keep your team’s efforts aligned with the genuine needs of your audience.

Organizations typically spend hundreds of hours defining scope for projects and initiatives. This is essential for determining resource allocation, budgets, and timelines. But “scope” is a dangerous word. It can be used to mean either specific deliverables or broader outcomes and teams usually default to zeroing in on the deliverables — checking them off generates a sense of fast progress. But this hyper focus on tactics versus end goals also creates an endless expansion of activities that disrupt both schedules and investments. I’ve seen this occur in almost every client engagement at my company, which designs strategies to help organizations differentiate across competitive landscapes. The executive leaders and their teams spend inordinate amounts of time and energy debating various project tactics, while consistently disregarding, undermining, or even failing to consider the larger outcomes they want to achieve. How can such a habitual problem be effectively addressed?

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It’s Time to Define Your Company’s Principles - Harvard Business Review

Companies need to develop strong guiding principles that go beyond generic mission statements and values, the authors argue. Well-articulated principles can provide direction for difficult decisions, especially in times of disruption. They should offer behavioral guardrails and be distinctive to the company, open to debate, transferable across the organization, and integral to its mission. Some strong principles include “Focus on the user and all else will follow” (Google), “Privacy is a fundamental human right” (Apple), and “We won’t release a product until we would use it ourselves” (Tableau Software). The authors recommend that leaders begin by identifying what makes the company unique and involving employees at all levels. When communicating decisions, they should reference principles to demonstrate their relevance. Over time, principles can shape company culture and empower employees to make decisions that align with corporate strategy. In this era of complexity and uncertainty, well-defined principles can provide much-needed clarity and direction.

Corporate principles are distinct from mission, vision, and value statements. They guide decision-making, especially during crucible moments, and help companies explain their choices to key stakeholders.

To craft principles for your organization, identify its unique qualities. Draw insights from pivotal company decisions. Involve employees in drafting and refining principles, and align them with goals, key metrics, and budgets.

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What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently - Harvard Business Review

As “doer-sellers,” professional services partners are responsible for not just delivering services but also the entire business-development process. As “rainmakers,” they must build awareness of their expertise in the market to generate demand, identify and close new client business, deliver the work to the client, and then renew and expand the relationship over time.

But there is a growing problem with this long-standing practice: Clients are much less loyal to firms and partners than they once were. Competition for business among professional services firms is intensifying, which has cast in sharp relief the troubling gap in the ability of high performers and core performers to bring in work.

In this article, the authors identify five statistically determined profiles that professional services partners fall into, only one of which is correlated with positive performance, and they lay out the three key behaviors of a successful business-development approach: (1) building connected networks of colleagues and clients, (2) creating value through collaboration, and (3) committing to a proactive and consistent business-development routine.

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