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As researchers approach the front doors of Oxfords new Life and Mind Building (LaMB), theyre greeted with a towering concrete facade, rendered with a rippling surface effect. What first appears to be a mere stylistic choice actually encodes something more special: Each of the concretes waves and dips is derived from the brain scan of an Oxford researcher. Designed by the architecture firm NBBJ, the LaMB is a massive, 269,000-square-foot space that brings together two departments: experimental psychology, which studies the human brain and how it operates; and biology, which encompasses both zoology (animal studies) and plant sciences. When it opened last October after four years of construction, it became the largest facility on the historic universitys campus. [Photo: Ty Cole/NBBJ] The LaMBs facade is visually striking, but it also embodies a few clever ways that NBBJ is reimagining what a university lab building can be. The structure is built to account for the natural path of the sun, capture energy using solar panels, and use advanced cladding technology to lessen its environmental impact. In short, its a vision of a lab thats better for both its staffers and the planet. [Photo: Ty Cole/NBBJ] A brain wave hidden in plain sight When visitors look up at the LaMB, theyre literally observing someones positive thoughteven if they dont know it. Darius Umrigar, a principal architect at NBBJ and the lead project designer of LaMB, says one of his teams main priorities was to design with longevity in mind, given that Oxford itself is nearly 1,000 years old. That meant choosing durable materials (concrete, stone, and metal) to make up the facade. At the same time, they wanted to ensure that the building would have aesthetic interest and fit within the existing campus. [Photo: Richard Chivers/NBBJ] The solution would need to be a design that works with the buildings thick concrete exterior and can withstand the environment for decades. [Photo: Richard Chivers/NBBJ] During that process, we talked to the head of experimental psychology, Umrigar says. They do a lot of brain scanning, both voluntarily and in terms of their approach to research and treatment. When we were considering the design, we were looking at how it would weather well and maintain its beauty without needing to be maintained. They wanted a texture for the buildings cladding that wasnt just flat concrete, he adds. Through this discussion, one student volunteered her own brain scan to serve as the basis of a potential decorative feature. That student was Sage Boettcher, whos now a career development research fellow in the department of experimental psychology. A scan of her brain was taken while she actively envisioned the future of the LaMB lab. From there, the NBBJ team isolated a two-second blip of the recording, resulting in a distinct sinusoidal wave pattern of dips and curves. Those rippling gestures were then carved into various stone slabs, which appear at intervals across the buildings exterior. What we try to do with NBBJ is to not leave a legacy that dates the building, but look at using materials in the truest form and balance that with the budget we’ve got to work with, Umrigar says. I think the harmony of simple, quality materials that will weather well and stand the test of time is certainly the key to success. [Photo: Richard Chivers/NBBJ] Labs are a major energy suckthe LaMB uses clever design to combat that The LaMBs facade is designed to be beautifu, but it also serves a greater purpose for the environment. Traditionally, labs are a major energy suck. According to a 2019 study, the combined emissions of hospitals and labs account for 4.4% of the worlds total greenhouse gas emissions. (For context, the study found that labs at Harvard accounted for nearly 44% of the universitys energy use, yet only 20% of its total space.) According to the engineering consultancy Hoare Lea, which worked with NBBJ on the LaMB, labs are typically expected to consume three to five times as much energy as a traditional office. Some estimates put that figure even higher, at around a factor of 10. [Photo: Richard Chivers/NBBJ] The main reason labs drain so much energy is their intense climate control demands. Maintaining the integrity of the many experiments that take place every day means labs need 24/7 systems keeping their air filtered, moving at the correct volume, and tuned to specific humidity and temperature settings. All of these demands equal major energy inputsand, ultimately, high operational costs. One of the biggest ways that lab buildings can conserve energy, Umrigar says, is by simply preventing air from leaking out. For the NBBJ team, that meant creating an airtight cladding system. The final design includes an outer layer of precast concrete panels, a thick internal layer of thermal insulation, triple-glazed windows, and precision detailing to ensure that every nook and cranny is sealed against the outside world. [Photo: Richard Chivers/NBBJ] The LaMB is also carefully situated to maximize natural sunlight. A central atrium cutout allows in soft daylight without overheating the building, while harsher light is captured via a series of roof-mounted solar panels. Inside, air source heat pumps and adaptive ventilation (which uses special sensors to determine how and when to circulate air) cut down even further on wasted energy. In all, these clever design tactics mean that the LaMB emits about 40% less carbon than it would at baseline. It’s a great achievement for a very large lab building, and certainly probably pushing the boundaries of what the university has been able to do for science buildings of this type in the past, Umrigar says. It sets a new benchmark, I would say, not only for Oxford, but for many other universities looking to develop a research facility.
Category:
E-Commerce
Kim (not her real name) is a scientist and tenured faculty member at a high-profile university. For years, she steadily moved up the hierarchy, yet no one could point to what she accomplished. She kept transferring from role to role, not because she succeeded. In fact, it was the opposite. Kim wasnt delivering measurable results, and no one liked working with her. She occupied an uncomfortable middle ground: not unsuccessful enough for the university to dismiss her, but no longer effective enough to stay. They transferred her to a newly created role. It came with bigger, but opaque responsibilities. The result looked like a promotion, but functioned as avoidance. I study and speak about high achievers in the workplace, including in my recent book, The Success Factor, and have observed this problem resurface, leading to the departure of top performers. What happened to Kim is what I call promotion by failure. Its the practice of moving an underperforming or difficult employee into a higher status role, often with increased influence and reduced accountability, to avoid directly addressing the poor performance. Ultimately, this isnt just a performance issueits a leadership and systems failure. Achieving promotion by failure When companies reassign, elevate, or create new positions for under-performing employees, this misaligned intervention sends an alarming signal with reverberating negative ripple effects on teams and the entire organization. The displacement strategy removes the bad employee from immediate friction but ignores the root cause. Sadly, the underperforming employee will eventually repeat their behavior in a new role. But promotion by failure doesnt help anyone. Its not a developmental rotation, and it doesnt provide a stretch assignment to the troubled employee. What it does do is reward poor behavior without consequence and leaves a trail of damage and mistrust in its wake. Reasons for this lack of accountability can be structural, psychological, or legal in nature. We typically see this to be more prevalent in large bureaucratic systems, organizations with weak performance management, and cultures that avoid conflict. Letting someone go may open a company up to litigation, especially if theres a lack of clear performance metrics. As a result, they end up shuffling the employee around so they can make sure that they dont do too much damage. Organizations then repeat the cycle until the employee leaves on their own, or the issues escalate to the point where companies cannot ignore the issue. Weak leaders share blame in fueling promotion by failure. They are often conflict-avoidant and worry that any potential grievances will damage their reputation. Theyve also convinced themselves that the role wasnt the right fit for the individual or have overestimated the power of a new role for the individual, instead of addressing their capability gaps. Why high performers leave when this happens Ultimately, while they might have avoided conflict by promoting a weak performer, there are unintended negative consequences. Top performers, in particular, can become disillusioned, which leads to employee disengagement, lack of innovation, and retention issues. High performers value competence, clarity, and fairness. Promotion by failure violates all three. It signals that results dont matter, negative behavior has no consequence, and excellence is optional. This causes your top performers to be disenfranchised, cynical, and disengaged. And when they feel all those things, eventually they leave the organization. As a result, organizations dont only end up losing their best talent, but also their trust. And when these people leave, who remains? Those who operate by smoke and mirrors rather than achieve results. The organizational cost that leaders underestimate Its not just poor leadership. Theres a tangible organizational cost and messaging when you reward poor performance. Erosion of performance culture: High performers have the image that optics trump output, and that they dont reward consistent results as much as visibility or tenure. It also sends a signal that performance standards vary depending on who the company is evaluating. Loss of institutional credibility: When communication about merit conflicts with reality, employees no longer trust promotion or role assignment decisions. Employees respond to leaders explanations with silence, rather than buy-in. Increased attrition among top talent: High performers leave due to neglect. The strongest contributors leave quietly, without waiting for counteroffers. The exit interviews raise red flags of poor leadership rather than workload or salary. Normalization of mediocrity: Instead of rewarding high performance and productivity, average becomes the acceptable norm, which stunts innovation. Feedback and brainstorming sessions shift from improvement to reassurance, while the company treats excellence as optional rather than expected. Succession pipelines filled with the wrong people: If you ever wondered why certain people are in leadership roles, its because in some institutions, promotion is about loyalty rather than capability. Companies fill those roles with people who create the least resistance. What senior leaders need to do If youre a leader who is committed to excellence, its time to address this overlooked (yet undeniable) reality. Address performance early and directly: Make feedback specific and behavior-based, not tied to outcomes or personality. Give ideas on how to improve performance and communication. Separate compassion from avoidance: There is no way around it. Difficult conversations need to happen despite discomfort, not when your top performers leave en masse. Its necessary for leaders to pair, not substitute, their support with accountability. Create consequences that dont rely on relocation: You should not reward poor performance. If someone is unfit for the role, think about reducing or redesigning their leadership role. Their compensation, scope, or authority changes should reflect performance realities, not wish lists. Invest in real development or make hard exit decisions: Measure progress based on pre-agreed milestones. If improvement doesnt happen, act decisively rather than extending the process indefinitely. Audit roles that exist without outcomes: Do an inventory of the leadership roles and flag those positions without clear deliverables. If necessary, redesign or eliminate them, and align titles and influence with measurable contributions. The mistake you accept becomes the new standard. Promotion by failure is rarely about one person. It mirrors what leaders tolerate, reward, and avoid. Ending promotion by failure is not about being harsher. Its about being honest, accountable, and fair. Its time to stop using title inflation as conflict management.
Category:
E-Commerce
A new book by a former Deloitte executive turned workplace well-being expert argues exactly that In her new book Hope Is the Strategy, Jen Fisher, an expert on workplace well-being and human sustainability, makes a clear and timely case that hope isn’t a soft skill or a leadership afterthought; it’s a practical, learnable approach to navigating uncertainty and building healthier, more resilient organizations. In the following excerpt, Fisher draws on her personal experience grappling with burnout, as well as her research on well-being, leadership, and corporate culture, to reframe hope as something we can all learn and implement for ourselves and those we work with. We’ve long misunderstood hope in the workplace. We’ve treated it as wishful thinkinga nice-to-have feeling that emerges when things are going well. But research from psychologist C.R. Snyder reveals something far more powerful: Hope is a cognitive process with three essential components: goals (what we want to achieve), pathways (our ability to identify routes to those goals), and agency (our belief that we can pursue those paths). This isn’t passive optimism; it’s an active strategy for navigating uncertainty and driving meaningful change. After my own experience with burnout, I discovered that hope isn’t what you turn to after strength failshope is the strength we’ve been looking for all along. It’s not the light at the end of the tunnel; it’s the torch we need to lead others through it. And when organizations embed hope into their leadership practices and culture, they unlock something remarkable: the capacity to transform not just how people feel about work, but what they can actually accomplish together. As more organizations prioritize helping their employees become healthier, more skilled for the future, and connected to a sense of purpose and belonging, they have an opportunity to instill hope in leadership and encourage it in workers. A roadmap for the future A leader who has hope can map out a path for an employee, offering a solid roadmap rather than an empty promise. They might say, “I can’t promise you complete job security, but I can provide you with the skills that will make you attractive in the job market.” That, in turn, helps foster hope in the worker, because they know that they’ll have more tools in their success toolkit, no matter what the future holds. That’s not just a win for the individual, but for the group. An organization (of any typeit could also be a community, or a family) filled with people tapped into their meaning and purpose is stronger than one made up of disengaged, unhealthy, and unhappy people. In fact, hope is a strategy for a variety of prevalent workplace problems: It can improve mental well-being and stress management; it can drive action and reduce catastrophic thinking; and it can help overcome the disengagement crisis at work. What’s more, hope will support our transition to a more human-centered workplace as AI takes on the more mundane, tactical aspects of work. Creating new ripples from leadership on down is possibleand as with the negative ones, it starts with modeling behaviors to set the tone for your team and your peers. That is, modeling the sustainable work behaviors and values that will drive purpose and well-being. Here are four examples: 1. Get clear on what your own boundaries are If you’re following someone else’s vision of success instead of your own, you’re going to end up miserable and probably burned out. So take that PTOreally. The company will not crumble without you. And don’t answer that email at midnightreply in the morning, during work hours. A leader who actually sets healthy boundaries and lives by them gives employees permission to do the same. As I reevaluated the role that work played in my life, I set my own new boundaries. I got clear on what my definition of success was, instead of allowing the external world to define that for me. And I brought hope into my life: I started each day with a set of “what if” questions, looking at the day ahead through the lens of possibility: What if this goes right? What if I do things this way? Then I’d end each day with reflection: How did it go? It helped me to see challenges as an opportunity for change. Here are some other daily practices I put in place, all of which I still follow today: Treat sleep as a nonnegotiable. I protect my eight hours like the business asset it actually is, recognizing that sleep isn’t a luxury but the foundation that makes everything else possible. Schedule humanity into the calendar. Not vague “personal time” but specific blocks for connections that make me human: dinner with my husband, phone calls with friends, reading fiction that has nothing to do with work. Incorporate daily recovery rituals. Three-minute breathing breaks between meetings, a proper lunch away from my desk, a brief walk outside to reset my nervous systemthese small moments of renewal prevent depletion from accumulating. Defend the calendar against the tyranny of urgency. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, exercise, and sleep aren’t just activities to fit around “real work”they comprise the immovable infrastructure that sustains my performance. Everything else has to work around them, not the other way around. 2. Embrace the unknown When we temporarily suspend our need for certainty, a different kind of productivity emerges. I call these my Possibility Days: Once a week, I grant myself permission to coexist with uncertainty. Instead of trying to control outcomes, I deliberately seek experiences with unknown results. I have conversations without preparing talking points. I explore ideas that seem impractical. I follow curiosity down rabbit holes without worrying where they lead. My most innovative solutions and deepest insights almost always trace back to these deliberate ventures into possibility thinking. 3. Walk the walk The old ways of leading through power and control are giving way to something more human, more hopeful, and more whole. The future of leadership isn’t just about what we doit’s about how we show up, how we hold space for both struggle and possibility, and how we cultivate well-being as a vital way of being. There’s this old thinking that we should check our feelings or emotions at work. It’s basically telling people: Don’t show up as who you truly are. When leaders normalize having no energy, no life, no nothing beyond work, it becomes not just accepted but expected. Emotions, whether they’re positive or negative, are really a sign of the things we care aboutand when we’re told not to bring emotions into the workplace, it stunts creativity, growth, innovation, connection, and understanding. The answer is simple: Show your emotions. Your employees look to you to set the pace, tone, and stakes of the team and the work being done. Be vulnerable and authentic about when you’ve made a mistake, when you said one thing and you did another, when you screwed up. Your actions show themthat decisions to support their own health and well-being and career growth aren’t going to be viewed negatively or make it seem like they’re less committed to their work. 4. Build teams grounded in trust True organizational and individual success depends on teams built on mutual trustteams that prioritize deep relationships alongside personal well-being. Trust-based teams require leaders who actively invite people to show up authentically and provide genuine support when they do. This means fostering psychological safety where team members feel confident giving honest feedback, taking calculated risks, learning from missteps, and growing from challenges rather than facing punishment for them. Organizations with the strongest well-being cultures maintain ongoing dialogue between leaders and team members. Within trust-based environments, people develop a growth-oriented perspective. Colleagues treat each other with genuine care and respect, creating workplaces rooted in kindness. This positive energy extends far beyond individual teams, helping organizations attract diverse talent, improve retention, spark innovation, and build lasting resilience.
Category:
E-Commerce
EVs hit a new milestone: In December, buyers in Europe registered more electric cars than gas cars for the first time. EV registrations hit 217,898 in the EU last monthup 50% year-over-year from 2024. Sales of gas cars, on the other hand, dropped nearly 20% to 216,492. The same trend played out in the larger region, including the UK and other non-EU countries like Iceland. Car buyers have more electric options in Europe than in the U.S., from tiny urban EVs like the $10,000 Fiat Topolino to Chinese cars like the BYD Dolphin. “We’re actually seeing this trend globally, although the U.S. is a different story: as the availability and quality of EVs goes up, sales have been going up as well,” says Ilaria Mazzocco, who studies electric vehicle markets at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. “There’s a story that some of the major OEMs have been pushing that there’s no demand for EVs. But when you look at the numbers…it turns out there’s a lot of latent demand.” Some automakers are doing better than others. Teslas market share dropped around 38% last year in Europe as buyers reacted to Elon Musk’s politics. BYD tripled its market share over the same period. EVs made up 17.4% of car sales in the EU last year, around twice the rate in the U.S. That’s still well behind Norway (not part of the EU), where a staggering 96% of all registrations were fully battery-electric in 2025. Hybrid cars are still more popular than pure electric vehicles in the EU, with 34.5% of market share. Diesel cars, which used to dominate in Europe, now only have around 9% of market share. It’s not clear exactly what will happen next as the EU may weaken its EV policy. The bloc had targeted an end to new fossil-fueled cars by 2035; in a proposal in December, it suggested cutting vehicle emissions by 90% instead, leaving more room for hybrid cars. Some of the growth also will depend on how willing European countries are to continue letting cheap Chinese EVs on the market. Still, steep growth in EVs is likely to continue.
Category:
E-Commerce
TikToks U.S. operations are now managed by a new American joint venture, ending a long-standing debate over whether the app would be permanently banned in the United States. The good news for TikTok users is that this deal guarantees that the app will continue to operate within Americas borders. But theres some bad news, too. Successive U.S. administrationsboth Bidens and Trump’sargued that TikTok posed a national security threat to America and its citizens, partly because of the data the app collected about them. While all social media apps collect data about their users, officials argued that TikToks data collection was a danger (while, say, Facebooks was not) because the worlds most popular short-form video app was owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. The ironic thing is that TikTok will actually collect more data about them now than it did under ByteDance ownership. The company’s new mostly American ownersLarry Ellison’s Oracle, private equity company Silver Lake, and the Emirati investment company MGXmade this clear in a recent update to TikToks privacy policy and its terms of service. If this new data collection unnerves you, there are some things you can do to mitigate it. How to stop TikToks new U.S. owners from getting your precise location When TikToks U.S. operations were still owned by ByteDance, the app did not collect the GPS phone location data of users in the United States. TikToks new U.S. owners have now changed that policy, stating, if you choose to enable location services for the TikTok app within your device settings, we collect approximate or precise location information from your device. While allowing TikTokor any social media appto access your location can mean you see more relevant content from events or creators in your area, theres no reason that app should need to know your precise GPS location, which reveals where in the world you are down to a few feet. Thankfully, you can block TikToks access to your GPS location data by using the settings on your phone. On iPhone: Open the Settings app. Tap Apps. Tap TikTok. Tap Location. Set location access to Never. On Android: Find the TikTok app on your home screen and tap and hold on its icon. Tap the App information menu item from the pop-up. Tap Permissions. Tap Location. Tap Dont Allow. How to limit new targeted advertising When TikToks U.S. operations were owned by ByteDance, the companys terms of service informed users that it analyzed their content to provide tailored advertising to them. This was not surprising. TikToks main way of generating revenue is via showing ads in the app. But in the updated terms of service posted by TikToks U.S. owners, it now appears that TikTok will use the data it collects about you, as well as the data its third-party partners have on you, to target you with relevant ads both on and off the platform. As the new terms of service states, You agree that we can customize ads and other sponsored content from creators, advertisers, and partners, that you see on and off the Platform based on, among other points, information we receive from third parties. Unfortunately, as of this writing, TikToks new U.S. owners dont seem to offer a way for U.S. users to disable personalized ads (users in some regions may see the option under Settings and privacy > Ads in the TikTok app). Still, if you have an iPhone, you can at least stop TikTok from tracking your activity across apps and websites using iOSs App Tracking Transparency feature, which allows users to quickly block an app from tracking what they do on their iPhone outside of the app. Open the Settings app on your iPhone. Tap Privacy and Security. Tap Tracking. In the list of apps that appears, make sure the toggle next to TikTok is set to off (white). Currently, Android does not offer a feature like Apples App Tracking Transparency. TikToks U.S. owners track your AI interactions Like most social media apps, TikTok has been slowly adding more AI features. (One, called AI Self, lets users upload a picture of themselves and have TikTok turn it into an AI avatar). As Wired previously noted, TikToks new U.S. owners have now inserted a new section in the privacy policy informing users that it may collect and store any data surrounding your AI interactions, including prompts, questions, files, and other types of information that you submit to our AI-powered interfaces, as well as the responses they generate. That means anything you upload to use in TikToks AI featuresor prompts you writecould be retained by the company. Unfortunately, theres no internal TikTok app setting, or any iPhone and Android app setting that lets you get around this TikTok AI data collection. That means TikToks U.S. users only have one choice if they dont want the apps new U.S. owners to collect AI data about them: Dont use TikToks AI features.
Category:
E-Commerce
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