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YouTube celebrated its 20th birthday last month. Currently, users watch more than a billion hours of content on the Google-owned video platform every day. And increasingly, that content is streamed on TVs rather than smartphones. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan recently announced that YouTubes TV viewership surpassed smartphone viewership in the United States for the first time. To understand why, we turned to Kurt Wilms, a senior director of product management who oversees the companys living room strategy. In a recent interview on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies podcast, he talked about how content creators can optimize for the big screen and why so many people watch the same videos on their TV and on their phonessimultaneously. YouTube viewers now watch more hours of video on TV screens rather than their phones. What prompted that shift? When YouTube started 20 years ago, everyone said that it was going to take over TV. Then, after it launched, smartphones got really big and YouTube kind of became synonymous with mobile phone [viewing]. We’re seeing that shift back to TV now. TVs are getting more technically capable, they’re getting cheaper, and more people are cutting the cord. And YouTube, with our vast array of content creators, makes every type of content you’d want to watch. You lead the team responsible for the living room effort. What does that mean? Living room is this word we use internally at YouTube: It means the version of YouTube that you would watch on a smart tv. We design and develop the entire experience from when you first land on the homepage and you get video recommendations to searching to the player. We developed the whole experience. How do you adapt mobile-first content for a bigger screen? One of the beautiful things about YouTube for a creator is that you film and then, once you upload it to YouTube, we handle the rest for you. That being said though, some of the things we’ve been seeing are creators investing in higher technical quality of video. The portion of [videos] uploaded to YouTube in 4K is up 35% year over year. I think that’s creators noticing that their viewership is shifting to TV. The other thing I’ve heard from a lot of creators is that half a decade ago, when they were making their video and they were doing their edits, they would think, Someone’s going to watch this on a phone, so it can’t be longer than 10 minutes. Now they dont have to worry about that anymore. Viewers love watching longer content on the TV. I read that people often play the same content on their screen and their phone simultaneously. Why is that? There’s third-party studies that basically say 80 to 90% of viewers are on their phone while theyre watching TV. YouTube’s a little unique in the TV space. Our service is interactive. You’re interacting with the creators, youre interacting with other viewers. We have features like the YouTube comments section. One of the things that we found is that it’s quite difficult to use some of these features with a remote control. Imagine typing out a comment with your remote, for example. We invest a lot in features where you can open YouTube on your phone and it connects automatically with the content you’re watching on TV, and you can do things like share the video to your friends and read the comments at the same time. Does that change the way people consume content? Are viewers more engaged? Viewers give us two themes. One is: I want to just lean back and watch their content and chill out. The other thing we hear is that because YouTube is so interactive, we call it lean in, where people want to read the comments, like the video, and subscribe to creators or channels. So we try to make it super seamless. What is the Watch With feature youre piloting? There’s this huge ecosystem of YouTube creators who basically make videos talking about live events while [theyre] happening. We’ve done studies where we talk to viewersand 50% of them would rather listen to a creator talk about a live event than watch the event itself. Watch With is a feature that is going to be rolling out more broadly over the course of this year. [It makes it] so you don’t have to pull up a YouTube video on one screen with a creator and then pull up the actual video on the side or on another device. Watch With will be an experience where you can see the event and also have the commentary from your favorite creator side by side. How did you select the creators to partner with on this? There’s so many creators who make a certain content format on YouTube, but they have a side passion they want to explore. Michelle Khare, who makes challenge content on YouTube. It turns out she’s an avid road biker and now she does Tour de France commentary. I think it’s a win-win for both the creators and the content owners because it’ll bring a lot of new viewers to this content, and maybe they’re not interested in watching [the Tour de France, for example], but they’re so tied to a creator that they’ll tune in just to see what the creator’s going to say about it. Are creators prioritizing long-form content as more viewers tune in on their TV? In general, every type of content is watched on the TV. The stuff that does really well on traditional TV also does really well on YouTube on TV, like Sports. I believe the watch time on TV for sports content has grown 30% year over year. Viewers are [also] watching over 400 million hours of podcast monthly on TV. There’s a huge transition in the podcast world happening, moving from audio-only to video. Even on TV, we have our Shorts product. You might think it’s a mobile-first format. We built a Shorts experience on the TV, and we had in mind that it would do okay. But when we turned it on, the usage skyrocketed. So we started talking to the viewers who were watching Shorts on TV, and these same concepts came up. If you want to watch short-form videos with friends and family, do you crowd around a smartphone? No. You put it on your TV, you sit on your couch, and you watch it together. How do you think about incorporating ads into the TV experience? We try really hard to make it as seamless as we can. One of the things we realized is when you’re watching longer-form content, when you’re watching a 20-minute video, you don’t want to get hit all the time with interruptions. That’s annoying. So we try to do what traditional television does, which is to, as much as possible, pod the ads together so you’re interrupted less frequentlyand when you are, it’s [for] a little bit longer. That change on TV resulted in more viewership as well as more revenue. We’re also trying to do TV-first ad formats where we don’t need to interrupt you all the time. An example would be direct-response ads, where we can put an adsomewhere, and if you’re interested in it, you can scan a QR code. We launched an ad format recently called pause ads, [so after] you pause the video, when you come back, [there’s an ad for you to watch], and if you’re into it, you can scan the QR code. Who are your favorite content creators? I love watching chess. There’s this guy in New York, Gotham Chess, who does a lot of commentary. l watch a lot of soccer; I follow this team, AC Milan, and it has this U.S. player, Christian Pulisic. There’s this creator named Kush who does a lot of commentary after the games.
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E-Commerce
Gallup recently released new data on employee engagement, and the results are dismal. Just 3 out of every 10 employees are actively engagedwhich is the lowest percentage in a decade. But despite decades of effort and investment in tackling disengagement, this persistent issue endures. If you conduct an Amazon search for books on employee engagement, youll get thousands of results. There are also dozens of apps and platforms that promise to unleash human potential and help people transform, not to mention countless, self-described coaches offering services related to re-engaging the workforce. Weve seen the rise and fall of perks culture, added opportunities for hybrid and flexible work, and wage increases averaging 39% over the last 10 yearsall in an attempt to fix this seemingly systemic issue. And yet, nothings moved the needle on engagement. Why? Despite all these efforts, weve missed something fundamental: Engagement doesnt come from where or when we work or what we get for doing it. It comes from what we experience while working. Work is relationships We construct our work experience through our interpersonal relationships. The psychologist David Blustein captured this reality when he wrote the following in the Journal Of Vocational Behavior, . . . each decision, experience, and interaction with the working world is understood, influenced, and shaped by relationships. Gallups latest data reveals that only 39% of employees think someone cares about them as people at work. Less than half say that their bosses and colleagues treat them with respect, and just 30% say their place of work encourages potential and development. Other studies from the last five years show that 30% of people feel invisible at work, 65% feel underappreciated, and close to 82% of workers say theyve felt lonely, as reported by SHRM. This paints a clear picture: Were not facing a disengagement crisiswere facing a mattering deficit, and more apps, surveys, perks, or pay increases won’t fix this. Only people can. People wont care if they dont feel cared for Mattering is the experience of feeling significant that comes from being seen, heard, and valued. Its also a prerequisite for engagement. And engagement is when employees care about what theyre doing, how theyre doing it, and who theyre doing it with. It is the experience of feeling significant that comes from being seen, heard, and valued. But we cant expect people to care if they dont first feel cared for. According to the Journal of Organizational Psychology, there are three psychological states that predict engagement: psychological meaningfulness (I and what I do matter), psychological safety (I can show my true self without fear of consequences), and psychological availability (I have the physical and psychological resources I need to do my work). You can cultivate relationships to make people feel seen, supported, and valued. This is why organizations need to shift their focus from merely measuring engagement to equipping leaders with the skills to cultivate its leading indicator: mattering. Re-skill leaders so that they care Building on almost a half-decade of research on what creates a sense of mattering, psychologist Isaac Prilleltensky distinguished two ingredients necessary to feel significant. When we feel that others value us and we know how we add value to their lives. Feeling valued and adding value have a reinforcing relationship. The more we feel valued, the more we add value. When leaders value the people they lead, those people can contribute, create, and innovate, because they know someone sees them, hears them, and has their back. Relationships in which we feel cared for reinforce our worth and ability, forging our confidence to add value. When people feel like they matter to someone, they act like they matter, they engage. A mistake many leaders subconsciously make is to assume that people only deserve value once they add value, but the opposite is true: People need to feel valued to add value. Money, perks, programs, awards, and platforms cant value someone. Theyre inanimate objects. They can be symbols of value, but only people can value people. Thats why re-engagement begins with re-skilling leaders to care, truly see and hear others, and help them understand the difference they make every day. The essential skills to create a culture of significance So, where do we start? In research for my new book, The Power of Mattering, my team and I uncovered three critical skill sets of leaders that cultivate a sense of mattering: Noticing: This is the skill of truly seeing and hearing others. Seeing others requires you to acknowledge them and paying attention to the details, ebbs, and flows of their lives and work while offering actions to show them youre paying attention. Hearing someone means demonstrating a real interest in the meaning and feeling behind someones words and inviting out their experiences and perspectives within a climate of psychological safety. Affirming: The skills of knowing, naming, and nurturing peoples gifts, showing how they and their work make a difference, giving meaningful gratitude, and providing affirming critical feedback. Needing: The skills of showing people how they and their work are indispensable and non-disposable. The good news is that mattering happens in small interactions, not grand initiatives. Addressing disengagement requires a commitment to re-learning and scaling these essential human skills. Leaders can start by making sure that they take the time to make the next person they interact with feel noticed, affirmed, and needed.
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E-Commerce
In today’s high-stakes business environment, stress isn’t just an individual challengeit’s a force that shapes careers and organizations. The U.S. Department of Labor finds that 83% of workers suffer from work-related stress, and 54% say that work stress affects their home lives. In my coaching work with hundreds of professionals annually, I’ve witnessed firsthand how impossible it is to separate stress from career trajectories; they are intertwined, each influencing and shaping the other. Stress can derail even the most carefully planned career paths, yet we often treat career decisions as purely rational, despite the fact that our psychological state profoundly influences the choices we make. I’ve practically tested these insights with individuals and leadership teams. Here are five key theories that can help us make better decisions at workand how leaders can set up their teams for success: 1. Cognitive Load Theory It’s well known that when stress increases, it causes our mental bandwidth to shrink dramatically, and it’s harder to weigh risks and rewards objectively. According to the American Psychological Association’s 2024 Work in America survey, 77% of U.S. workers experience work-related stress, with 36% reporting cognitive fatigue. I’ve seen that cognitive overload can be a recurrent theme in high-stakes professions like healthcare, finance, and emergency services. Muscle memory can’t necessarily be depended on, as each case demands fresh analysis rather than routine responses. That results in errors with vast consequences, including profound ones like death. It can also be a trend with early-career professionals who must juggle skill acquisition with performance expectations and show higher rates of burnout and worsened mental health. Example: A high-performing individual contributor, overwhelmed by multiple deadlines and an unexpected project, starts working longer hours, missing crucial meetings, and making uncharacteristic errors in financial reports, as their mental resources are depleted. What leaders can do: Think of managing cognitive load like tending a garden by creating space for growth, pruning unnecessary meetings, and protecting blocks of time for deep work. Task prioritization tools can also reduce decision fatigue and encourage breaks, allowing minds to refresh and ideas to flourish. Remember, a well-rested team will outperform an exhausted one every time. 2. Dual-Process Theory Cognitive psychologists Peter Wason and Jonathan St. B. T. Evans suggested the dual-process theory in 1974. The theory identifies two distinct thinking systems: fast, intuitive reactions and slower, analytical reasoning. Under stress, we are more likely to default to the quick-response system, bypassing careful analysis and consideration. Being mindful of stress levels helps prevent impulsive career decisions that may not align with long-term goals. Example: After receiving tough feedback during a performance review, a team leader immediately volunteers for three high-visibility projects and begins working weekends, making reactive decisions that further compound their stress. What leaders can do: If you work in a fast-growing startup with demanding client relationships or a company in volatile markets, your cultural environment may be problematic for dual-process thinking. When characterized by rapid decision cycles and high-stakes outcomes, these environments can push professionals into reactive thinking patterns. In our rush to make decisions, we often forget the power of pause. Take a look at the past quarter’s major decisions to see if you can spot patterns of reactive thinking. It can also be a good idea to help foster mentor relationships that offer fresh perspectives and openly share your journey from reactive to responsive decision-making. If teams see thoughtful choices modeled, it helps them trust their analytical minds over their impulses. 3. Affect Heuristic This psychological principle demonstrates how emotional states act as mental shortcuts in decision-making. Under stress, our emotional filters become increasingly dominant, often distorting our professional judgment. I frequently observe how bias impacts how we make decisions when fatigued and how it manifests in the daily activities of leaders. For instance, one tech leader admitted to me that they had recently realized they had been hiring people who reminded them of themselves. Tired brains naturally gravitate toward what is familiar and comfortable, yet stress-induced emotional decisions often amplify biases, leading to overlooked talent and missed opportunities. Example: A product manager, experiencing pressure from stakeholders, makes sweeping product changes based on a single negative customer review, disrupting the product roadmap and team morale. What leaders can do: Start each week with a gentle emotional temperature check of your team. Ask each person to share one word that captures their current mindset. When doing so, watch for red flags like short, clipped responses, unusual irritability, or typically vocal team members falling silent. You can also use open-ended simple questions that reveal hidden work-related stress, such as “What’s taking up the most space in your mind right now?” or “Is there anywhere that you feel stuck?” When team members default to “fine” or “okay,” go beyond surface-level responses and gently probe deeper with questions like “What does fine look like for you today?” If you notice patterns of responses hinting at exhaustion or hear words like “overwhelmed” or “drained” from multiple team members, be mindful of making major decisions. This quick emotional weather report allows you to read your team’s emotional state, meaning you get better at spotting when someone is frustrated, overwhelmed, or excitedeven when it’s not explicitly stated, preventing teams from making unsound choices. 4. Self-Determination Theory The self-determination theory includes three fundamental psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When stress compromises these core needs, decision-making becomes reactive and short-sighted. I’ve witnessed this being especially critical in modern hybrid and remote work environments, where traditional support structures take on virtual forms. Example: Feeling isolated and disconnected, a remote worker begins to disengage from team projects, miss key deadlines, and secretly apply to competitors without making an attempt to resolve their frustrations about their current job. What leaders can do: While building a rewarding career requires self-motivation on behalf of the employee, as a leader, picture yourself as an architect of autonomy, designing spaces where people shape their work while staying connected to the larger mission. If you’re not already creating opportunities for meaningful connection in both virtual and physical realms, now is the time t do so. When people feel genuinely supported, they thrive. 5. Career Construction Theory An employees professional identity is the story they tell about themselves at work, whether they’re the Excel wizard or the one who always gets things done. When organizations undergo significant changes, like switching to entirely new software systems, reorganizations, or new management, these identities can suddenly feel shaky or irrelevant to your team members. Stress can also fragment these personal narratives, making maintaining a coherent career vision challenging. When you’re stressed, it’s harder to articulate your thoughts and “sell” yourself, a product, or an idea. Couple that with productivity anxiety, and you can see why there’s an organizational need to support the skill of building a personal brand. Example: During organizational restructuring, an early-career professional becomes fixated on worst-case scenarios, exhibits less diverse thinking, and finds it hard to articulate the impact of their work. What leaders can do: Research from Deloitte indicates that 40% of Gen Z employees report feeling stressed most of the time, which impacts decision-making, confidence in their career narratives, and the time and energy to upskill in their career. Yet, every career tells a story, and helping shape the narratives of those at high risk of burnout is perhaps leadership’s most subtle art. Suppose your team isn’t surpassing its potential, engagement is dipping, and you can’t name two to three of your employees’ “non-work-related” strengths. Bring in support to holistically bolster employee brands (and the companies, too). By understanding these frameworks and taking action, you can help create environments that support rational decision-making and emotional well-being. The future belongs to organizations that recognize stress management isn’t just about individual coping mechanismsit’s about building systems that help people think clearly and choose wisely.
Category:
E-Commerce
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