Roman Krznaric

Have we all been duped by the Myers-Briggs test?

Roman Krznaric — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:56:33 +0000

INFP? ISTJ? You’ve probably taken a personality test at some point. But here’s the bad news: even the most popular tests, such as Myers-Briggs (MBTI), are not to be trusted. Retake a Myers-Briggs test after just a five week gap and there is a 50% chance you’ll be put into a different personality category. In this article at Fortune Magazine, I reveal the shocking truth about personality tests.

Four Ways to Rethink ‘Having It All’ (Without Leaning In)

Roman Krznaric — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:28:31 +0000

Here’s an article I just wrote for the Wall Street Journal on the dilemmas of balancing work and family life. Is Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, author of Leaning In, right to think that women can ‘have it all’ if only they really believe in themselves? My approach is not to answer the question ‘Is it possible to have it all?’ but to put it under the microscope and rethink it. (And this is an issue for men too…)

Six Ways to Stop Worrying and Find Work You Love

Roman Krznaric — Fri, 03 May 2013 09:08:48 +0000

To celebrate the launch of the US edition of my book How to Find Fulfilling Work, I’ve written a short essay that draws out what I think are the most important, useful and hopefully inspiring ideas within its pages. It’s called Six Ways to Stop Worrying and Find Work You Love, and is published by the good folk at YES! Magazine. Please share it around with the dissatisfied workers of the world.

There is also an excellent overview of the book at Brain Picker, the brainchild of the remarkable curator of interestingness Maria Popova.

How to Find Fulfilling Work is dedicated to the late and great oral historian Studs Terkel. Here is my tribute to him, and his extraordinary 1974 book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.

The Human Zoo: The tyranny of group-don’t-think

Roman Krznaric — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:00:24 +0000

There’s a fascinating new BBC Radio 4 series called The Human Zoo, looking at the ins and outs of who we really are – are we led by the head or the heart? what are the quirks and qualities that drive human behaviour? Episode 4 focuses on why human beings find it so difficult to admit when they are wrong, especially when they are part of groups. I’ve contributed some thoughts to the programme on The Tyranny of Group-Don’t-Think, which you’ll find in written form below…

‘I’ve got something to tell you – I’ve made a mistake.’ Why do these words feel so hard to say? At home, at work, in the news, in parliament, we humans are notoriously bad at owning up when we get it wrong.

In 1610, when Galileo pointed out to the Catholic Church that the Earth revolved around the sun, and not vice-versa, rather than admit their error they put him on trial for heresy. It took them two hundred years to officially recognise that he was right and that therefore…they were wrong.

The Church no doubt worried that owning up to the error would undermine its authority. But it also faced the follies of group denial. If the Pope had admitted to the mistake, it would have undermined his personal power. Equally, if one of his Cardinals had secretly agreed with Galileo, it’s unlikely he’d have raised his voice for fear of the papal wrath. Dominant personalities in groups too often crowd out rational discussion, making others feel inclined to go with the flow rather than to disagree.

So jump from the 17th century into the 21st. Why, in the course of our daily lives, are we so reluctant to admit to our mistakes? It’s usually because we think it will make us look foolish or incompetent. At work, if we happen to make a clanging error, most of us will do our very best to cover it up or shift the blame to someone else. We overshoot the project budget, so we tell the boss that it was the accountant’s fault. The product we design fails to take off, so we argue that it wasn’t marketed properly.

That’s personal denial for you. Shift to a group situation, and the dynamics become more complicated. If you admit to a shoddy product design, and you were working as part of a team, then your admission of error implicates the whole group. That’s a fast way to lose friends, so the chances are you’ll keep quiet.

What’s more, groups have a tendency to cling even to dangerously false beliefs. The Wall Street bankers who fuelled the 2008 financial collapse were driven by the promise of profits to keep telling each other that the sub-prime mortgage lending market was sound. Many eventually came to believe their own story. That kind of groupthink – or rather group-don’t-think – can destroy people’s lives.

The curious thing is that we actually often respect people who have the courage to admit that they have made a mistake. Their display of vulnerability comes across not as weakness, but as a sign of strength and openness to learning. During the Great Depression, the economist John Maynard Keynes was criticised for changing his views on monetary policy. He came right back with the reply, ‘When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?’ That, in my book, is a response we should admire.

Listen to the Human Zoo Episode 4 on BBC Radio 4 – my bit starts at 23.00 min.

Who Are You Trying to Impress? How to Escape Status Anxiety

Roman Krznaric — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:05:17 +0000

In the eighteenth century, the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau warned against ‘the universal desire for reputation’. And yet so often we seek to be admired by others, pursuing careers and lifestyles that offer the lures of social status. In this article in Psychology Today magazine, I put the idea of status under the spotlight, and ask whether we should really put so much effort into caring about it.

Five Ways to Make Work Matter Again – Without Changing Jobs

Roman Krznaric — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:20:02 +0000

Finding fulfilling work isn’t always about making a drastic career change. In this article for the Wall Street Journal, I suggest five ways to make your existing job more meaningful and stimulating – with a little help from John Maynard Keynes, E. F. Schumacher and Brené Brown.

Working from home: the five golden rules

Roman Krznaric — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:08:47 +0000

Yahoo’s new boss, Marissa Mayer, has just issued an edict banning her employees from working at home. In this article in today’s Guardian, I give my response, suggesting five ways to become an expert homeworker (and keep bosses like Mayer happy as well).

Valentine’s Day Video: The Six Varieties of Love

Roman Krznaric — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:18:11 +0000

The Ancient Greeks would have considered us modern creatures incredibly unsophisticated in the way we talk about love. We tend to use a single word to cover so many different kinds of relationships and emotions. On Valentine’s Day you may well whisper ‘I love you’ to your soulmate over a candlelit meal, but then the next morning casually sign an email ‘lots of love’. The Greeks would have been shocked at the crudeness of our expression, because they identified six different varieties of love. What were the Greek loves? And how might they revolutionise the way we think about love today? Find out in this video on The Six Varieties of Love, which is based on the chapter on love in my book The Wonderbox. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sherlock Holmes and the lost history of empathy

Roman Krznaric — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:38:22 +0000

Here’s a new podcast from the rather wonderful Aeon Magazine, in which philosopher Jules Evans explores the theme of empathy. I kick off by talking about the history of empathy, tracing the concept from Adam Smith’s ideas in the 18th century and through developments in child psychology over the past hundred years. Then comes Maria Konnikova, who makes the case that Sherlock Holmes was a master of the art of empathy, based on her new book Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. Finally there is novelist Tobias Jones, who discusses his attempts to create an empathic community at his home in Somerset.

12-Step Guide to Career Change in 2013

Roman Krznaric — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:28:10 +0000

Do you want to break free and pursue new career ambitions? Then take a look at my 12-Step Guide to Career Change in 2013, which appears in today’s Guardian newspaper.

The article is based on my book How to Find Fulfilling Work, now available in Korean! (you can also read it in Spanish, Catalan, Dutch, Portuguese and German)