Assignment

Option 1- Corporate Culture (Zappos)

https://www.thebalance.com/zappos-company-culture-1918813

Read the article, take a look at Zappos corporate culture ideas, and then give us your ideas on how the Ops Center (Serco@Fairoaks Fairfax VA) can develop and/or reinforce company culture and what you would like to see.

Think about our Culture here at the Ops Center and answer the following:

1. Do you like/agree with Zappos style of corporate culture? Would you like to work there?

2. Give some examples and discuss what you think our corporate culture is, and what you feel works and doesn't work

3. Give 2 ideas for how to improve our corporate culture

4. Is corporate culture important to you? Why or why not?

Option 2- Freakonomics Podcast

http://www.wnyc.org/story/why-my-life-so-hard/

Listen to the podcast "Why Is My Life So Hard" in the link provided. Answer the following questions.

"Most of us feel we face more headwinds than everyone else-which breeds resentment. We also undervalue our tailwinds-which leaves us ungrateful and unhappy. Gilovich and Davidai recently published a paper called "The Headwinds/Tailwinds Asymmetry." It is an experimental research; it has the amazing capacity to make you feel both much better about your life-and much worse. Gilovichwanted to try to get a handle on how or why it's so easy for people to feel that life has made things harder for them than it has for other people and at the same time, try to understand why it might be hard for people to be as grateful as perhaps we should."

1. Spotlight Effect, Hot Hands Fallacy, Bias Blind Spot, and Self-Handicapping are concepts explained in the podcast, can you see yourself in these? Explain.

2. What are you grateful for besides the common threads you heard on the Podcast. What are the "invisibles" that you are grateful for?

3. What is the hedonic treadmill? Do you feel this concept at our workplace? Do you feel that working here provides the satisfaction to feel good? If so what are the qualities that render that feeling? If you do not, what are some things you would like to happen that might allow you have a more positive outlook?

4. Do you place more emphasis on the headwinds you face - the barriers and obstacles and difficulties - than your tailwinds - like a free society and good health and so on? Do you place different emphasis in different situations such as work, Family, community? Why?

5. How do you feel the idea of headwinds and tailwinds play into the conversation about privilege vs. discrimination, or lack of opportunity as discussed in the podcast? Do you agree with this idea?