Lee Granas' Company for Productivity

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 22:18:57 +0000

Lee Granas' Company for Productivity Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/25/2020 - 16:18

Tom Kertscher

Lee Granas (EPOBio, Hist’01) is the co-founder of focused, a San Francisco-based company providing space for people seeking distraction-free work. WIRED called the company “the latest productivity solution to come out of Silicon Valley.”

At focused, clients attend a 2.5-hour small-group session, which starts with a one-on-one goal-setting meeting and a brief meditation practice. Then, it’s time to get to work on the project or task at hand. The cost: $40. With any luck, at the end of 2.5 hours, their work is done.

Granas previously worked for a productivity app called Workflowy and the National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human Project. She also helped create an online “atlas of human emotions” for The Dalai Lama.

Here she talks about what makes focused work and what it takes to get unstuck during a project.

What is it about life today that creates the need for focused?

Our modern world continually chases our attention. It’s no surprise how we are unintentionally pulled to our phones, yet it is often a surprise how fractured our attention is even at our computers. When our clients turn off Slack, messenger apps and email they are often amazed at how much they can get done. We help you reclaim your intention and become productive in a more conscious and satisfying way.

Is your service effective because it puts a person, physically and mentally, in a different place?

Absolutely. Many of our clients normally work from home or cafés. They find that coming into our space provides a different type of supported container, allowing them to get more done. They also can tackle harder and more complex work that they might avoid or distract from on their own. Our space is like a refuge from the modern world and feels like a retreat center in the middle of a city.

That being said, we are currently piloting remote sessions via video-chat. We are adding components to help create a supportive environment even from your home.

Can you share a success story about someone who just couldn’t complete a task until coming to focused?

One woman always wanted to apply to an artist residency program, but she had been putting it off for months. Every time she tried to work on the application on her own, she became intimidated and found ways to distract herself. When she came to focused, the structure and support allowed her to finish and submit the entire application.

Often we help our clients with their fears, which allows them to get unblocked and complete hard tasks. Other clients use focused to work on novels or screenplays that they can never make time for during a busy week.

What do you do when you get stuck and just can’t get something done?

Usually there is an underlying emotion when you are stuck. Perhaps there is fear, or perfectionism, or a deeper reason why the task is challenging. If you can identify that emotion, it can often help you get unblocked. We have found, unexpectedly, that compassion for a hard task is usually more powerful and effective than extra discipline.

Milwaukee journalist Tom Kertscher was a 35-year newspaper reporter, finishing that career at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Now a freelance writer, his work includes fact-check reporting for PolitiFact and sports reporting for Associated Press. His reporting on Steven Avery was featured in Making a Murderer. Kertscher is the author of sports books on Brett Favre and Al McGuire. Follow him at TomKertscher.com and on Twitter: @KertscherNews and @KertscherSports.

Photo courtesy Lee Granas

Lee Granas is the co-founder of focused, a San Francisco-based company providing space for people seeking distraction-free work.

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Workplace Bias

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Workplace Bias Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/17/2018 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

Stefanie Johnson, an associate professor of management in CU’s Leeds School of Business, studies unconscious bias in leadership. Here she discusses strategies for mitigating bias, her White House appearance and a joint project with her biologist husband.

How did the subject of bias first draw your interest?

In my Ph.D. program, I wanted to study a mainstream business topic, leadership. One of my first studies showed gender bias. I found some things that predicted leadership success for men predicted the opposite for women. I wanted to figure out what was causing this difference. I found the demands for a successful woman leader are greater than for a man. A woman has to demonstrate all the same levels of confidence, strength and assertiveness as a man while simultaneously maintaining her feminine gender role. So, she still has to be sensitive, caring and empathetic.

Who’s an example of a female leader who deals with criticisms?

Hillary Clinton. People say she’s too masculine with her pantsuits, for example. Hillary is super smart, but she’s just not very likeable. That’s what I found in my study — women have to be both likeable and effective in order to be successful. If people don’t like you, you’re never going to make it to the top.

What classes are you teaching?

I teach “Critical Leadership Skills” and a class called “Women in Business.”

How do students respond when they learn about unconscious bias?

My students for the most part are open to hearing about bias; they just don’t want to believe it’s true. In fact, when you tell women and minorities there is bias against them, it actually hurts their self-esteem. It’s worse to admit you’re being discriminated against because of your race or gender, because you can never change that. But after the #MeToo movement, people’s consciousness is raised. Clearly there’s not equality if sexual harassment is so rampant in organizations.

How does unconscious bias affect our leadership in a workplace?

Our leaders still look a lot like prototype leaders. Ninety percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are white men. There’s more CEOs named John and David than there are women in the S&P 500. It’s going to take purposeful effort to change the way things are.

Is there a way to combat bias when hiring?

I advocate for blinding, which is taking names off résumés. If you do that, you’re more likely to have more women and minorities appear in your hiring pool. I recommend setting targets for diversity and measuring your progress. If you’re not benchmarking against what the best companies are doing, you’re falling behind.

What advice do you give minorities seeking leadership positions?

Following on Sheryl Sandberg’s advice, you have to apply. No one is going to force you to do it, and women and minorities only tend to apply if they think they have 100 percent of the qualifications. You just have to put yourself out there.

You spoke in the White House in 2016 at a diversity summit. What was that like?

It was awesome. People were there primarily from Fortune 500 companies. One of the things I talked about is the idea of two in the pool: If you interview one woman or one minority, they’re never going to be hired. You shouldn’t bother interviewing just one woman or minority. You might as well do zero or include at least two.

Your husband, Pieter Johnson, also works at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ, as a biology professor. Talk about the project you worked on together.

We published a paper on the toxoplasma gondii parasite and its relation to entrepreneurship. Toxoplasma is the cat parasite that causes mice to act riskier if they get it. Humans carry it — 20 percent of the U.S. population — but people don’t often study the effects on humans. We collected data from 2,000 students and found business students were significantly more likely to have toxoplasma, particularly entrepreneurship students. Then we went to entrepreneur events and swabbed their saliva along with others who were in the same place but weren’t entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs were significantly more likely to have toxoplasma. We’ve decided that toxoplasma makes you more likely to be an entrepreneur!

Condensed and edited.

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

Stefanie Johnson discusses strategies for mitigating bias, her White House appearance and a joint project with her biologist husband.

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