Year-end review | From these 10 stories, I talk about my cognitive gains this year

The year-end review no longer focuses only on macro data and performance, but analyzes the stories and phenomena around us through 10 small stories. Although these stories are small, they can touch upon many essential issues and allow us to re-examine various phenomena in the workplace.

I plan to do a year-end review in a different way. No macro interpretation, no data listing, but 10 small stories.

These things that happen around us, although small, can involve many essential issues.

01

I was chatting with a friend, and he said that there is a "way of survival" for managers of large companies, which is completely different from the value system I advocate, but the effect is particularly good!

This way of survival can be summed up in three words: make friends.

To extend this further: be willing to sacrifice the interests of your team and business to help yourself accumulate personal connections.

Such managers can use the resources of large companies to maintain their own circles and make connections that were previously out of their reach.

The essence is that this is an exchange.

The cost is the company's resources, and the beneficiary is the manager himself. This is obviously a violation of company regulations, abuse of power, abuse of power for personal gain, and corruption and bribery, but it is difficult to find convincing evidence.

For example, if you want to build a relationship with a certain company or a certain boss, do a favor, and make the other party grateful to you, you can plan a project around this goal. When you set up the project, you can say that it is for the purpose of improving certain business indicators, and finally choose this solution, and that's it.

It's hard to find out, there's no evidence.

This kind of "way of survival" manager has one characteristic:

I have basically no outstanding performance, but I have always been doing well. I always receive high-paying offers from big companies, I have stocks in many companies, and I also have many powerful friends.

It means everything except grades.

02

I took a day-long class with dozens of students and learned things that I would not be able to learn in the company.

Their portraits are of small business owners aged 40-50 from third-tier and lower cities, including supermarket owners, building material sellers, beauty salon owners, and so on.

The impression they left on me: they are more sincere than shrewd, serious and don't seek shortcuts, no longer young but with a strong thirst for knowledge. If I hadn't communicated with them face to face, I would probably never understand them.

Because employees of large companies are all top talents with high incomes, academic qualifications and vision, this group of people is not included in the analysis reports that they are good at writing.

I have already imagined how happy the top talents are when they self-righteously apply various models and underlying logic to this group and come to logically self-consistent conclusions.

Most people live in their own circle, but they think that this is the whole world.

03

I have a good friend for many years who was previously in charge of a product at ByteDance. He is absolutely capable, but ultimately did not get particularly good business results.

Because of his poor collaboration, his colleagues don't like him.

Afterwards, he reflected that he always used his strength to crush others, only focused on the matter itself, and did not care about other people's feelings.

For example, when a colleague expresses his opinion in a meeting but his argument is not solid, he will stand up and use particularly precise expressions and rigorous logic to tell everyone that the other party is wrong and he is right.

He is always so ruthless that everyone around him is offended. No one will support him and some even set traps for him.

There is a trust formula: Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Selfishness

This friend has no problems with "credibility" and "reliability" because he speaks the truth, expresses himself professionally and clearly, and does what he says.

But it performs poorly in terms of "intimacy" and "selfishness".

Having strong business skills does not mean you can achieve corresponding results in the company. You must not only be able to do things, but also be a good person.

04

When watching "DuKu 2300", there is a section where Lao Liu and Wang Junyu discuss the design of the DuKu App. Although it is short but interesting, it is also a typical case.

Wang Junyu said that there was a heated discussion at the time about whether the reading mode of the Duku App should be horizontal or vertical swiping.

At first, he thought that vertical swipe had less resistance, which made it more comfortable and efficient for users. But Lao Liu thought that horizontal swipe had pauses, which could control the rhythm of reading articles.

Why do I think this dialogue is so good?

Making a good product is not just about the interaction, but it tests how we understand the product and how we understand the users.

Of course, vertical swiping is more efficient, as Douyin has already proven. But the scenario is different. This is reading on a mobile phone, and for books like Duku, the reading experience is more important than efficiency.

This is making a choice. There is no absolute right or wrong in choosing A or B, but it will tell users who this product welcomes more.

05

I read "Redefining Team" again and found an interesting point: most interviews are a waste of time.

Because 99.4% of the time is spent on confirming the interviewer's first 10-second impression, whether it is good or bad. Psychologists call this phenomenon confirmation bias.

The above is the original words from the book, I translated it into human language.

The first 10 seconds after the interviewer sees the job applicant, they have a preset impression of him/her, such as being smart and friendly, or being stubborn and a little dull.

During the rest of the interview, all the interviewer's questions are intended to confirm that his impression from the previous 10 seconds is correct.

If you think about it, it's probably like this.

06

When I was at NetEase, an operations colleague made requests to the designers.

The designer asked: Where should this page be placed? The operator said: Open NetEase News and I will tell you.

The designer said: Oh, never mind, I didn’t install NetEase News.

Later, at Kuaishou, the company held an anniversary event in the industrial park, and all the participants were internal employees.

An employee came over and asked: How do I get this?

The staff said: Just scan the code with Kuaishou.

The employee said: Can I scan it with WeChat? I don’t have Kuaishou installed.

Nothing to say, they're all idiots.

07

To report to your boss more effectively, you should take the initiative to cater to your boss's habits.

Some bosses like visualization, so you can write a PPT and put pictures in it. Some bosses like to read documents, so you can write the document as a paper and make a good argument.

But some bosses like to check their Moments...

So we can see this phenomenon: when doing any project, you have to accompany it with a good-looking poster and post it on WeChat Moments for your boss to see.

The criterion for measuring effectiveness is whether the boss likes it.

08

When I first started my business, in order to save costs, I borrowed an old friend’s workstation and worked in their company.

To what extent does your old friend always scold his subordinates?

Every time this subordinate said something or wrote something in a document, he would find many faults with it, criticize him, and even make personal attacks.

When I first started working, I was also scolded by my boss in this way , every word he said was a scolding. As a result, I was trained to speak directly to the point, without foreplay or transition.

Looking back now, I am very grateful to this boss.

My logic and expression skills were developed in this unfair environment , which helps with speaking and writing.

09

I am used to keeping unhappy things to myself. Speaking them out not only affects other people's mood, but also makes myself feel disgusted again.

I just experienced this recently. Two weeks ago, I wrote an article on my WeChat public account, recounting all the unhappy things. The process was very uncomfortable, as I had to recall and list a lot of details. After I finished writing it, I no longer wanted to read or discuss it.

This incident showed my cowardice and emotionality. After magnifying it, I can see it clearly.

I don't like confrontation and always avoid conflicts, even if I am right or even if I will suffer losses.

When I got home in the evening, the first issue of "Reading Library" in 2024 arrived. The second article was a conversation between Lao Liu and Dou Wentao.

There is a paragraph saying that they are both from Hebei, and that people from Hebei are not ostentatious or talkative. The original words are: do everything possible to protect the peace of your own little world.

I totally agree. I am from Hebei and have the same personality. Everyone has their own way of doing things. As long as they are consistent and not twisted, there will be no problem. When people reach middle age, they see themselves more and more clearly and become indifferent.

10

At an offline salon, I heard a sharing that touched me. The speaker was the director of online takeaway experience at Haidilao. He had two feelings:

1. Haidilao treats users as individuals, not as numbers

When viewed as people, we focus on the individual and our goal is to serve every living person well.

For example, if a customer likes to eat peanuts, the waiter will continue to refill the peanuts for this table; if someone proposes at Haidilao and the waiter discovers it in advance, the waiter will help design the proposal process.

When looking at numbers, what matters is the overall effect; personal experience is not important.

Take Baidu as an example. It only sees users as numbers and has no insight into user needs. Instead, it brute-forces traffic and looks at conversions.

This model works for some business types, but not for others. For example, community products that require nurturing are completely useless.

2. Haidilao does not look at the rate of negative reviews, but the number of negative reviews

The negative review rate is 1%, which is a very low number and acceptable. But if the total number of reviews is large, for example, there are 10,000 reviews, then there will be 100 negative reviews.

For offline service industries, this scale is unacceptable and there must be something wrong.

Haidilao will keep an eye on the number of negative reviews, visit each customer one by one and resolve the issues.

There are many negative examples. Many Internet companies only look at the accuracy of the strategy and ignore the magnitude of accidental injuries.

For large companies, even a 2% accidental loss can hurt tens of thousands of users, including top core users, so the impact of loss is even greater.

For a company that only looks at rates and not numbers, no one will care about these.

Author: Han Xu

Source: WeChat public account @Operation Dog Work Diary