A Simple Yet Powerful Strategy To Respect Working Hours

Read time: 3.5 minutes

Hello everyone!

Last week, I attended the CISO Forum Canada in Toronto and had a blast.

Mahdi and his team did a great job bringing together new talents, students and cybersecurity executives under the same roof.

It was an excellent opportunity to network on so many levels.

For students, they have a chance to talk with CISOs and other execs, ask questions and interact in an informal environment. 

For execs, we had the chance to listen to different perspectives and what we can do better to support them to thrive. 

It was a fantastic example that there is no such thing as a “cyber talent gap.” I posted on LinkedIn about it, and I understand that we must stop looking at the same place and expand our horizons.

We need to do a better job of attracting and empowering women. Ultimately, we must convert this male-dominated industry into a field where women can succeed equally. 

We need to embrace neurodivergent individuals and leverage the unique perspective that they can bring.

Remembering that we are in Black History Month, we really must do something to fight the systemic racism that only allowed 9% of cybersecurity professionals to be black.

As I said on LinkedIn, there is no talent gap. What exists is a roadblock that only favors a tiny group of people.

Let’s change this.

With gratitude, 🙏🏼

Eder

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The step of the week 👣

Respecting working hours: how to schedule emails ⏰

Let’s face it. Very few people are good at setting boundaries between work hours and private time. 

After COVID, this became even worse, and not surprisingly, the number of individuals suffering from burnout is at a staggering peak. 

One of the causes is the never-ending flow of emails arriving in people’s mailboxes. 

It’s 7pm. Dinner is late, and you think, “I will reply to this email now while I am waiting so my team can start working on it tomorrow morning on their own time.” Please don’t. Just don’t.

People, in general, have poor attention management skills. That email will generate an alert, and the “unread count” on the app email icon can trigger a lot of individuals to open the message.

Plus, it is an email from their boss (or some team member in need). Senders usually underestimate the importance the recipient will give to the message. Recipients do the opposite. Everyone is looking to shine and have an edge to grow, and a “fast reply” can be a way they think to show dedication. 

This creates an unhealthy culture and leads to exhaustion and lower productivity. Some studies suggest that this also affects even their families.

What can you do then? 

First, balance your wellness dimensions and find time to unplug from work. 

Second, if you are writing a message to someone outside their working hours, leverage the scheduling functionality of email platforms.

Here are the links with detailed information on how to do that on the most common platforms:

• Google WorkSpace / Gmail
• Microsoft Outlook
• Apple Mail

My favourites for the week

🤖 AI platform – OpenAI video generator Sora

Last week, OpenAI released Sora, a generative AI model that creates video from text. The graphics are amazing and shows how fast AI is evolving.

This release has yet to be opened to the general public. It is focused on a select group of researchers looking for problems with the model and artists exploring the creative potential.

🍿 Documentary – The Greatest Night in Pop

On January 28, 1985, the top talent in the pop music industry got together to make a record dedicated to alleviating the hunger that was devastating Africa. 

The rest is history. The Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night in Pop” brings back this nostalgic event and is an inspiration on so many levels.

Beyond its music relevance, recording “We Are The World” in the way it was done is a project management masterpiece.

The most extraordinary talents on both sides of the studio came together to create this anthem. 

It is a look at how greatness is created.

📰 News – Air Canada chatbot misleading information 

A so-called “hallucination” in AI jargon was the focus this week. 

Air Canada chatbot provided wrong information to a customer. When he discovered the information was inaccurate, he fought and ultimately won in Court. 

When reading the article on Forbes, a few aspects caught my attention:

• Air Canada tried to justify that they are not liable for the information on their website and that the chatbot is a separate “legal entity.” 🤔
• This case sets a binding precedent to hold organizations accountable for the information their chatbots – or any other AI – provide to their customers.
• It is also an alert for companies to the potential risks that AI introduces. 

Quote of the week

If you want to change your story, change your actions first. When we choose to act a certain way, our mind can’t help but rework our narrative to make those actions become coherent. We become what we do.

The Practice, By Seth Godin

Rediscovered using Readwise, my favorite app to revisit my highlights and remember what I read.

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