Discussion Questions Week of 8/9

Response to #1

In “How To Create a Culture Manifesto for Your Organization (And Why It’s a Good Idea)” by Mollie West, an organizational designer at IDEO, the article examines how companies such as Method Products, Etsy, and Warby Parker create a sense of belonging within their organization. The piece points out the fact that mission statements often focus solely on external goals. Instead of only focusing on the internal environment, West states that an organization should look inward to develop a culture manifesto. West does a fantastic job at illustrating the idea that not everything has to be structured because each employee has a personality that helps compose organizational culture. Companies like Etsy and Warby Parker recognized this. They both had all of their employees at one time or another discuss their views on what makes the company special and come up with catchphrases. West sees this as a critical step towards creating a workplace culture that contains efficiency and happiness. West then goes on to give a list of steps that organizations can take to accomplish this.

West is specifically targeting business owners of various organizations, including but not speaking to HR. She addresses her audience as a sort of business entity, including nonprofits and B corps. I find this interesting because often people address a company as “the organization”, or “(company name)”, but West recognizes that business owners drive the organizational culture and, in turn, realize that they have a significant amount of pull when it comes to creating company culture. I also think that instead of addressing HR, she is addressing influential individuals. She recognizes that HR does not create a company culture, as HR often instills fear in employees because they are scared to show their personalities or quirkiness, in my opinion. Therefore, her target audience is business leaders/owners who actively seek advice on creating a positive workplace. 

West starts off her argument by proposing why a company should consider going beyond a mission statement. After that, she uses a strategy that is referenced as the rule of 3. Although I have often seen it in business presentations/PowerPoints, it was pleasing to see it written out in this article. The rule is if you include three examples of something, it is more satisfying and has a better effect on the audience. She uses Method Products, Etsy, and Warby Parker as her three success stories.  The stories contained anecdotes about activities or events that transpired that created an environment at each of the three organizations.

West’s use of lists also is beneficial to the reader because it lays out clearly what needs to occur to mimic the workplace environments that Etsy, Method Products, and Warby Parker have. This is effective because oftentimes, business leaders/owners do not have time to read through long paragraphs. They want something short and sweet, with evidence to back up their point. West provides just this in the article and conveys her point brilliantly to the business leaders of the world.   

Response to #2

I want to discuss the issue surrounding underrepresentation of women in STEM, why it is important that everyone in business understands the reasons why it occurs, and why it needs to change. I am not completely sure yet, as I am still thinking of how I want to write my paper, but I think that it would be best if addressed to people who just read for their own personal amusement. Basically, people who read the NYT , Forbes, or The Economist as these people are interested in the world of business and enjoy reading about new information or facts surrounding various topics. I think that the kind of text that these readers would most often read is an article in a news source or like in a magazine. Often, these readers engage in these articles on a daily or weekly basis, depending on whether or not it is a daily news source like the NYT or something that gets sent out on a weekly or monthly basis, like certain magazines.

If it were something like a scholarly article, the source would have to be extremely specific. In this case, however, including lots of studies and evidence to back up claims, I can focus less on incorporating all of the evidence and instead focus on the points that my sources make. I think this is a huge benefit of formatting my paper like an article in a magazine or newspaper.

Although less detail is required in this format, there is often still a level of formality when writing within them. It also depends on the author. They could be writing more of a conversational piece, or an informative, more formal piece. I believe that I would take more of a formal approach in my project.

The length of text for my paper would most likely take up one to two pages, just as many stories cover in magazines. I think I could convey my thoughts on the subject I am covering in this length. Although the subject could stretch on for hundreds of pages, I think that since my audience would be a reader who is interested on a variety of subjects, it would be best to keep the paper at a two-page maximum length. As a result, the reading time would depend on the reader, but most likely be a 5-to-10-minute article. I think this would be a good length and time because anything over 15 minutes in my opinion gets boring and the reader wants to move on, especially when they are not directly involved in learning more about the subject. If it were in a scholarly journal on the other hand, this paper would be around 30-40 pages and would take an hour to read.

Although most magazines use interviews as their main source of evidence, I still believe that it would be appropriate to include some evidence linked to scholarly articles, as long as it does not go too in-depth to where the reader cannot follow the subject. I would want to use various articles including firsthand accounts like my TED speeches, interviews used from Forbes, along with some of the scholarly articles that I pulled. I think this would be beneficial as firsthand accounts pair well with scholarly articles whose authors are well respected individuals and experts in their respective fields. Also, in magazines or in articles like the NYT, the citations are directly in the text, instead of after. I would plan on following this format so that the reader understands where each claim/evidence comes from.

I am not completely sure on my paper yet, but writing out a response to this helped me figure out some direction to it. I hope to further plan it out in the coming days and create a draft that helps me illustrate the points and ideas that I want to convey to my audience.