Quick Reminder: Self Assessments due Friday! Let me know if you have any questions.

“The Halo/Horns Effect is a type of cognitive bias where a person’s impression of another can substantially influence one’s thoughts and feelings about that person. Psychologist Edward Thorndike first wrote about the Halo Effect in 1920. Thorndike performed a simple study in which he asked two high-ranking officers to evaluate their soldiers on physical qualities such as neatness, and mental qualities like intellect and leadership. The results of the study showed that if a soldier was rated high in one area, he also tended to be rated highly in all other areas.”

I know that in interviews, I’ve sometimes fallen prey to this psychological effect. It’s easy to assume that someone who is dressed sharply is automatically more intelligent, and let that weigh more heavily in how I assess their answers. In other words, it’s the misconception that if someone is good at A (dressing) they must also be good at B and C (performance/punctuality etc).

But this concept can be applied to all areas of business. In management, a supervisor may see an enthusiastic employee and rate them higher in performance because of it. In brainstorming, a leader may favor an idea from one of their high performing employees over one of their low performing ones.(But not here of course!)

It’s important to be aware of the horns and halo state of mind when forming any thought or opinion really, as it can creep up in the workplace, in politics, and even in the dating scene. When decision making, be sure that every idea stands on its own merit, and is free of the horns and halo biases.  

I found an interesting blog about an abstract analogy for removing the distraction and clutter in our lives to better reach your goals. If you’ve ever used a smart phone, or a website, you’re using a user interface. If done well, this interface has been designed to help you do what you want: check your messages, read an article, find information, get stuff done, etc. Our lives have interfaces too -- we just don’t often think about it. And just like with badly designed websites, a bad interface for your life can be frustrating, grating, full of friction and confusion. Here are some examples of how to redesign your life’s interface:

1.) Life’s popup boxes: When you work, are there a dozen things trying to get your attention? Email, phone messages, social media, blogs, news, other favorite websites … while you’re trying to get an important task done? These are like popup boxes asking you to subscribe, that get in the way of your reading. You can redesign it so that you have only the task in front of you, no popups or distractions.

2.) Simplify the steps: If you want to work out regularly, how many steps does it take before you can actually do the first exercise? For many people, they have to get their gym clothes together into a bag, close down a computer, drive to a gym, check into the gym, change, find an available spot in the gym, then do the workout. That’s like if you wanted to send an email message but had to click through seven different pages to get to the send message screen. Instead, think about simplifying it so you can get right to the task -- get down on the floor and do some pushups and planks, have a chin-up bar near your bathroom so you can do some every time you pass, go outside during a work break and walk quickly for 10 minutes, several times a day. You can look at other things in your life that take too many steps to accomplish a goal, and remove steps.

3.) Make your important goals be easy to find. One frustration on websites is when the thing that matters most is buried in a hard-to-find page, not easy to find. With a good user interface, the most important goals are front and center, obvious and easy. But in our lives, we make the least important things easiest to find and do (TV, Facebook, distraction, junk food), while the most important things are hidden behind layers of distraction (your most important project, exercise, eating healthy, spending time with loved ones). What if we put these important things in front of the rest? Bury Facebook and other distractions, and have the important project be the only thing that shows when you open your computer. Get rid of junk food and have your healthy options be out in the open for when you get hungry. Put the TV in the closet, and have dumbbells there instead. To spend time with loved ones, put the activity that you want to do with them just inside the front door when you get home -- put the book you want to read with your kids, or the basketball you want to play with them, just inside the door. Or put the coffee cups you want to use with your significant other as you talk and have coffee together, in the middle of the living room.

4.) Beautiful design. When an app or website looks beautiful, it’s not just for the sake of gloss and glamor. It’s to create a mood, an experience, a feeling of delight or peace. Each action with a good app or website should give you an experience you enjoy, rather than a feeling of clunkiness or frustration. The same can be true of your life -- remove distraction and clutter, and find ways to bring peace and delight to your life.

With the NBA Draft happening last Thursday night, my mind is still fully in Sacramento Kings mode. As a long-suffering Kings fan, there have been far more down years than even mediocre years, let alone good years. The epic Vlade Divac, Chris Webber, Doug Christie, Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic team of the late 90's and early 00's shaped my childhood and the playoff games my dad and I attended together will probably always be my favorite sports memories.

Since that legendary team broke up, it's been a decade of false starts, bad hires, and terrible draft selections. The Kings have been a laughingstock of the NBA (deservedly so, unfortunately) for much of the past decade, so Thursday night's draft was a very welcomed change of pace for Kings fans. 

I could go on and on about how amazing it was that the Kings took former Kentucky Wildcat () Point Guard, De'Aaron Fox, at #5, or how Vlade (now Kings General Manager) made great moves trading back in the draft from #10 to add the #15 and #20 picks, but that would bore most of you. What's most awesome for a Kings fan today is that the national media is universally praising the Kings for a great draft night. 

To go from an organization that is the butt of all the jokes to an organization that is finally being looked at as competent and united with a clear vision for the future is no small achievement. It's further proof that a sound strategy and a competent vision for the years ahead is the difference between success and failure - in life, in business, and in sports.

Like the Kings the past 10 years, there are many companies (looking at you, Uber) that can have temporary success and look great from the outside, but have a weak vision for the future and questionable leadership, which leaves the internal foundation weak and unstable. We're fortunate here to have a senior leadership team that has a plan and a very clear vision for us as a company, and us individually. That's something that is hard to truly appreciate until you've been on the other side of it.

In basketball terms, SlideBelts is far more like the San Antonio Spurs of the ratchet belt world, and that's a VERY good thing. (But still always, Go Kings!)