Hi!

We have an extra day! What are you doing with yours? My team and I are getting together for lunch and that will lead to all kinds of interesting conversations, I’m sure. I hope you invest yours in activities that bring good results your way.

Speaking of investing time wisely, how about joining my Monday Morning Intention Pod? It’s a simple concept to help use the power of community to get your week off to a good start. We join via Zoom (camera off if you want), I welcome everyone and share a thought or two, and then we privately set our own intentions to bring compassion, empathy, and confidence into our workplace. Attendees can share thoughts too, but it’s not a requirement. Then, off we go. Email me to learn more and get the link to the meeting.

And in the meantime, here are a few stories to help you make better, more informed decisions as you and your team co-create the workplace of the future:

• Whether you listen to or read this article on how technologically monitoring employees erodes the supervisor-employee relationship, I strongly suggest you take this one in. Even if your company isn’t using these technologies, consider this as a cautionary tale.

• Data breaches increased 20% in 2023 over 2022. Stuart Madnick tells us why and what to do about it in this article from Harvard Business Review.

• Uh-oh…54% of CEOs surveyed expect their jobs to get tougher in 2024. Kinda surprised it wasn’t higher, especially considering their POVs on the biggest challenges they’re facing.

• If the CEO’s job is getting tougher, what skills are in demand for their employees? FastCompany weighs in via this detailed yet short read by Lydia Dishman. Hint: we’ve talked about them here before; this is a super duper net/net.

• If layoffs for your people are unavoidable, here are tips from Sarah Lynch for Inc. on how to do them more humanely.

Hello and howdy!

Have you ever received or given an unexpected compliment? Sure, there are times when you’re expecting a compliment. Getting one unexpectedly hits different – it makes your day a bit brighter! In my search to find others experiencing the same, I discovered this short piece from Bret Lasky on LinkedIn. It’s beautiful to see others bringing compassion they see in the outside world to the workplace!

If you’re looking for a way to add unexpected compliments to your team flow, try a shoutout board! Our team has been using a virtual whiteboard to point out our colleagues’ good work and teamwork. It helps keep us feeling good too. 🙂

Now, onto digital marketing!

• What should Google rank in Search when all the content sucks? And we can relate to his pictorial depiction of “Google [as] a baby wading through a content trash heap.” Getting past the over-the-top nature of the article, the net-net is that future success with SEO requires credible, helpful content designed to match the intent of Google’s searchers. We are in full agreement on that mission to elevate and optimize.

• Digital Marketing Institute launched a course on AI in Digital Marketing to address the AI skills gap in the industry. A quick review of the online course from ClickZ indicates this helps people who want to better understand:
• how AI can impact marketing and
• how they can start their journey into the AI space.

• Are you aware that AI “chatbots fabricate details in at least 3% of interactions – and as much as 27%?” This data is cited in a MarTech article on “How to protect against and benefit from generative AI hallucinations.” When it comes to gen AI, you should always take the “trust but verify” approach. This is why we prefer gen AI chatbots like Bing Copilot, Google SGE, ChatGPT Plus, and Perplexity. They provide citations and links to the sources they used for generating their responses.

I’ve been thinking about how the evolution of AI and its bursting into our SEO world can be viewed a little bit like the origin story of Frankenstein.

First comes Dr. Frankenstein’s technological creation; he brought it to life in secrecy.

Then, comes his training. Gemini AI summarized the Frankenstein tale this way: “Through stolen books and observations of a nearby cottage family, the creature acquires language, reading, and rudimentary knowledge of history, science, and morality.”

We all know the rest of the story includes the revelation of the creature to the village and the subsequent fear it generated.

Fellow search villagers’ initial responses to AI’s launch in Bing Copilot, Gemini/Bard, Google Search Generative Experience, etc. were similar to Mary Shelly’s work. “SEO is finally dead!” and “Organic search traffic is going to drop by up to 76%!!” are a few of the howls we initially heard.

But rather than reaching for our pitchforks, the villagers at DBE took a different approach where we saw AI as not happening to us, it’s happening for us.

So we explored how AI search bots were working.

We performed our own AI experiments to test different ways we could help AI search bots learn about the topics/brands that are important to us. Some of our main theories and queries research included:

• How did the AI searchbots act differently from the traditional search bots?
• What forms of content did they find authoritative and worth citing?
• Were they influenced by off-website factors like social media posts?
• Did the results vary between the different AI platforms?

Then we saw the results of our experiments as what we fed into the AI ecosystem echoed back in the AI responses to related questions.

This is how we created and breathed life into our Search AI Optimization (SAIO) solutions. This is how we can help you not fear AI but teach it to like and link to you.

Hi!

Leading off with an offer:

Would you like to join my Monday Morning Intention Pod? Mondays, 9:00-9:15 a.m. (ET)? We use the energy of community to set a positive course for the workweek. No need to share with the others—it’s more about setting aside the time to envision and set your intentions with like-minded people as the workweek kicks off. If you’re interested, email me for the Zoom link.

And now, jumping right into this week’s shares:

• Sometimes layoffs are necessary, but too often they are crafted by people with short-term views and no long-term vision. If we want talent to work smart and show loyalty, layoffs to brighten the bottom line are nothing short of anti-business. There, I said it. Ann Kowal Smith for Forbes says it better.

• Who among us couldn’t benefit from new insights for negotiating better? You in? Check out what Scott Walker has to say in this from Harvard Business Review.

• For discussion, do you agree? Empathy and sympathy are feelings. Compassion is action.

Hi!

What’s the best thing that happened to you so far this week?

Here’s mine: I made a transformative discovery about my perception of time and energy that I’m using to reframe my perspectives for more positive outcomes. An attitude of gratitude only begins to scratch the surface, and I’m happy to share what I’m learning with anyone who wants to chat about it.

Speaking of chatting about it, are you interested in joining my intention pod? We’re going to start with once per week (Monday, 9AM ET), quick meetings (20 minutes). We’re purposefully setting aside time and using the energy of community to set a positive, purposeful course for the week. No need to share anything you’re not comfortable sharing—it’s more about dedicating time to envision and set your intentions with like-minded people as the workweek kicks off. Happy to share more if this strikes a chord. Email me if you’re interested in learning more/participating.

And here are the stories I thought might be helpful as you work to create and maintain your own compassionate workplaces:

• Abhijit Bhaduri makes so many excellent points in this short read about the importance of work adaptability now and for the future–for leaders as well as employees. Make sure to read this one; it’s a great heads up.

• Younger employees tend to expect their companies to take a public stand on social, political, and environmental issues – we know that. But what happens when companies make statements about events and find themselves in non-stop communications with employees and the public on those topics? How do companies navigate their responsibilities to their stakeholders effectively and efficiently? Harvard Business Review has a quick-moving overview and solid suggestions.

• For what it’s worth, here’s a report from The Wall Street Journal on how professionals skew in relation to gender and race. I’ve never heard my sister, a dental hygienist, mention a male colleague, so that stat wasn’t a shocker, but there are a few eyebrow raisers too.

Two search engine strategies, both alike in goal.

In the search results, where we lay our scene.

These 90’s dreams burn with new coal;

Staying optimized keeps agencies on caffeine.

From forth one strategy emerges another;

A pair of star-cross’d lovers in it to win it

With the help of each other.

Well, Hi!

Today, we are gathered to celebrate the love of 2 special search strategies, SEO & SAIO. Let’s see what their enchanting relationship can teach us!

💖 SEO & SAIO are positive influences on each other: If you create solid content for SEO or SAIO specifically, it will help build your site authority for both chatbots and search engine bots.

They are like positive relationships in your life (perhaps your dog, a relative, a close friend). When both parties contribute positively, they can build a beautiful, supportive relationship.

💖 SEO & SAIO have different styles, but they work to the same goal: In SAIO, content is more conversational and broader in nature compared to SEO. Although the strategies vary, they still work for the same goal of visibility.

Sometimes, the differences in a relationship help us progress and widen our perspective as individuals. For work relationships, every team member has unique skills and workstyles. When these differences are acknowledged and respected, you can see some marvelous project executions.

• The latest Think With Google’s Future Ready Video Series with Katie Couric features Robert Wong, VP of Creative Lab at Google. The 7-minute YouTube interview covers a variety of topics including why you should play with AI, is generative AI creative, and what will the future of AI look like. One interesting comment that caught our ear is “that AI can generate a picture or write a sentence, but it doesn’t understand what it wrote or what it creates. AI doesn’t have taste. It can’t pick the best line.” Check it out on YouTube.

• Here’s a guide on “product page SEO” covering key elements of effective product page optimization. It includes: leveraging product page URLs, optimizing image file names, alt text, schema, and more.

  If some of this sounds familiar, it may be due to the fact we have introduced these elements for influencing SEO and SAIO. They help present your content as the most relevant to searches done via AI chatbots like Bing Copilot and Google SGE.

“Oh shoot, I’m late!”

A jolt of adrenaline hits you as you scurry to get to where you need to go. You reach for your phone. A stack of meticulously organized papers flies off your desk like the most disappointing confetti ever seen. A sigh of frustration. A look of anguish. “I don’t have time for this.”

If that is not one of the most relatable occurrences, I do not know what is.

Let us examine that pressure and how it applies in the workplace. What is the cause of this time-keeping anxiety?

The Issue with Numerical Time

As we know, numeric time is a construct, an illusion working to keep us all on the same beat. I believe the issue of our societal stress around time lies in how we think about it.

We “measure” time with productivity, efficiency, and busyness. We have methodical approaches to managing time like prioritization and workflow organization – it has been implanted within us during youth. There is pressure for kids to be potty trained before sending them off to school with timed tests and project deadlines. We learn “time management skills” so we can slap them on college applications and resumes.

While there is nothing wrong with measuring time, – it is imperative to advance as a species – our overreliance on it has been steeped in our culture, particularly in our workplaces.

Time & Workplace Productivity

A study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that many cultures view busyness as a sign of status. The question is: do we need to be overworked and overtired to feel accomplished at work?

When we anxiously race to beat the deadline, we prime ourselves for living in a “reacting” mode. Dr. Jim Taylor in Psychology Today explains that reacting is based on perceiving a threat, while responding flows from “deliberate and thoughtful decision making.” We, as people, need both mechanisms to survive. We need to run if there is a lion chasing us, but do we really need to blow up on an intern who didn’t complete a report on time? When we fall into the pressures of time crunches, we do not give ourselves time to be mindful – of ourselves and others. Constantly reacting to time pressures, we never hone our ability to respond. Think about the times you have reacted versus responded – how has your work or relationship with your team been affected?

Multi-tasking – it’s a skill in almost every job description. According to a study from the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, only 2.5% of the 200 people studied could multitask effectively without causing detriments to the work. Even without science to back it up, how has a distracted mind impacted your workday? Were you a little on edge? Did all the work get done well? While avoiding multitasking completely is impossible, why does it have to be a standard for every workplace?

What is Time Without Numbers?

Time without numbers is mindfulness.

Albert Einstein, a leader in the numbers game, said, “…the past, present, and the future are real illusions, that they only exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.” The truth is: we have only ever experienced the present. The past and the future are only thoughts. The present is here.

A present awareness can mean higher quality projects, reports, team synchronicity. A mindfulness study featured in the National Library of Medicine revealed that participants who practiced mindfulness perceived time passing more slowly than the control group. With the perception that time is longer than it is, we can catch silly proofing or computation mistakes and notice when we need a break. Living presently means we are not bound by the limitations of the past or expectations or the future.

Time without numbers is compassion.

Compassion can take on a myriad of shapes and forms. While it may not include full understanding of others’ struggles, it uncovers the openness to uncover what they may need. It allows people to be responsible for getting their work done but gives them help if it’s needed. Compassion allows for flexibility. In a Gartner survey of 10,000 digital workers, 43% of them attributed “work hours flexibility” as their main reason for increased productivity. The flexibility to work how, when, and where can help those with neurodivergence or other needs to do their best.

A New Approach to Time in the Workplace

A balance between numbers and mindful compassion can be struck. Imagine the glorious potential. Team members are mindful of what they need, while compassionate leaders can actively listen and implement solutions to deliver results.

The choice lies in whether we can embrace new perspectives of time in our own lives and workplaces.

Learn more about approaches on mindfulness in the workplace.

Hi,

Were you able to stay focused and purposefully shepherd compassionate behaviors in your workplace this week?

If yes, kudos!

If it was more challenging than usual, what made it difficult? Were you more stressed than usual? Is there a team member not aligning with others on your team? Do you feel like you’re setting the right tone, but some are tone deaf?

I’m immersing myself in the compassionate culture space and sharing what I’m learning here in Niki’s Notes. Please share what you’re learning with me, so we can learn together.

Here are the stories I want to share with you to continue to shape our collective future by putting humanity into the workplace for increased profits, productivity, and better mental health.

• Are you a giver, taker, or matcher? Adam Grant talks about the differences in this TED Talk and mentions rethinking success along the lines of contribution. Love it! This links to the TEDTalk post on LinkedIn and from there you can see the whole TEDTalk.

• Adaptive, proactive leaders win because they adjust and grow through opportunities and challenges. How are your adaptation chops?

• Is it okay to cry at work? Real Simple asked its readers and experts too. I can’t share that one here because it’s not online yet, but I found this on LinkedIn, and apparently according to both sources, it’s not as taboo as it once was. What do you think?

Hiya!

You know those days when it seems everything has gone sideways? We all have ‘em. I think the trick is to look at them in their entirety. Here are some thoughts:

• Is everything about traffic bad? Yes, it slows us down. Is slowing down always bad? Not always, for example, we slow down on vacations. Not saying traffic is like a vacation (cuz it ain’t). Perhaps it gives us time to notice the cloud formations in the sky or appreciate the sincere goodness of seat warmers in the midst of winter.
• How about making mistakes at work? Yes, it’s not fun to stare into the face of imperfection. We can sit with that. Notice how a mistake may draw you into a new path of thinking… of observing. Maybe those observations lead you to a new, creative solution…

Whatever hurdles may come up, remember that you have the strength and creativity to handle them.

Let’s get into the digital marketing rodeo!🤠

• Search Engine Land reports on the future of SGE, Gemini, Ads, and AI Search based on clues from the latest Alphabet earnings call and statements from the Google CEO. It covers a lot of ground with how AI is a key driver behind what Google hopes to achieve in 2024 and how their AI initiatives, including Bard and the Assistant (with Bard) mobile app, are being incorporated into their search products as complementary features.