Speaker 1: We learned about this research that had been done by
Speaker 1: a team of economists led by Linda Babcock at Carnegie
Speaker 1: Mellon University showing that women really struggle to say no
Speaker 1: when asked to do what she calls non promotable tasks.
Speaker 1: So these are things like organizing the office party, taking
Speaker 1: notes at work, giving a talk at an event, or
Speaker 1: sitting on a committee that won't be rewarded in any
Speaker 1: way other than appreciated because it's good citizenship.
Speaker 2: Organizing the office Christmas party, taking the minutes at every
Speaker 2: single meeting, making showing your colleagues get a nice cad
Speaker 2: signed by the whole team on their birthday. Maybe you
Speaker 2: don't mind putting your hand up for little jobs like
Speaker 2: this from time to time, but if it's always your responsibility,
Speaker 2: you're definitely losing out on time that might be better
Speaker 2: spent on deep work, on work that truly moves the needle,
Speaker 2: work that earns you at promotion. Non promotable tasks and
Speaker 2: nobody's favorite. But research shows that women have a much
Speaker 2: harder time saying no when asked to do these little
Speaker 2: tasks than men do. Add up all these little jobs
Speaker 2: over the course of a few months, or a few
Speaker 2: years and those little tasks become a big disadvantage. So
Speaker 2: how do you get better? It's saying no more often. Well,
Speaker 2: you don't have to do it alone. My name is
Speaker 2: doctor Amantha Imber. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder
Speaker 2: of behavioral science consultancy invent Him. And this is how
Speaker 2: I work a show about how to help you do
Speaker 2: your best work. Welcome to your Favorite Tips. Across ten
Speaker 2: bite sized episodes, I'll be sharing tips from some of
Speaker 2: the world's best thinkers that you, the listeners, have found
Speaker 2: the most useful. We're covering everything from creating better to
Speaker 2: do lists to setting more effective boundaries around your time,
Speaker 2: and you'll be hearing from people like best selling author
Speaker 2: Sally Hepworth, Corona Cast host and journalist Norman Swan, and
Speaker 2: Google's executive productivity advisor Laura may Martin. Today's favorite tip
Speaker 2: comes from Bianca, and she writes Katie Milkman's No Club
Speaker 2: was a game changer for me. After hearing this strategy,
Speaker 2: I got together with a couple of workmates and started
Speaker 2: my own I.
Speaker 1: Love my no Club. Yes, it is life saving and
Speaker 1: for so many reasons. Yes. So I have a group
Speaker 1: of it's three of us, three women at you know,
Speaker 1: research intensive business schools, all of whom care a lot
Speaker 1: about doing science, who care a lot about communicating about
Speaker 1: science and being good teachers and good citizens. We really
Speaker 1: are very aligned and similar goals. And we learned about
Speaker 1: this research that had been done by a team of
Speaker 1: economists led by Linda Babcock at Carnegie Mellon University showing
Speaker 1: that women really struggle to say no when asked to
Speaker 1: do what she calls non promotable tasks. So these are
Speaker 1: things like organizing the office party, taking notes at work,
Speaker 1: giving a talk at an event, or sitting on a
Speaker 1: committee that won't be rewarded in any way other than
Speaker 1: sort of appreciated because it's good citizenship. And men and
Speaker 1: women both get these kinds of asks a lot. It's
Speaker 1: part of being, you know, in any organization, and women
Speaker 1: have a lot more trouble saying no than men. They
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time on these kinds of tasks,
Speaker 1: and it can take away from doing things that are
Speaker 1: more valued by their organizations and may prevent them from
Speaker 1: rising to the highest levels. So we learned about this work,
Speaker 1: and we learned that Linda and her collaborators had formed
Speaker 1: a NO Club of women who would basically reach out
Speaker 1: to each other for second opinions whenever they got an
Speaker 1: ask that fit into this category of something that's not
Speaker 1: part of your job description that they knew wouldn't strictly
Speaker 1: be rewarded by the organization, but that might be worth
Speaker 1: doing because you want to be a good citizen, you
Speaker 1: want to do the right things. And we thought, this
Speaker 1: is such a great idea to have this no club
Speaker 1: because it turns out when we're in an outsider mode,
Speaker 1: when we're evaluating these kinds of asks to someone else,
Speaker 1: it's much easier and clearer for us to say objectively,
Speaker 1: oh no, that's a bad use of time. And when
Speaker 1: it's insider mode, you're thinking about the feelings you might
Speaker 1: hurt and the how are you going to handle everything?
Speaker 1: So we have this no club. We reach out to
Speaker 1: each other whenever we get these kinds of asks, and
Speaker 1: it has been absolutely incredible over the last I think
Speaker 1: it's going seven years and strong now for a bunch
Speaker 1: of reasons, but actually not all reasons I anticipated. So
Speaker 1: I know it would be great to have these incredible
Speaker 1: women on my size or of offering consulting services and
Speaker 1: to offer my own on these kinds of challenges, and
Speaker 1: then I might free up a lot of time and
Speaker 1: help me prioritize better. What I didn't fully appreciate when
Speaker 1: we created this is what an amazing community it would build.
Speaker 1: Right where these women were already friends, but they've become
Speaker 1: closer because we see each other's struggles. We're in touch regularly,
Speaker 1: and it's become more like a support group. We actually
Speaker 1: recently added joy Club to No Club so that we
Speaker 1: can celebrate each other's successes, which I love so like
Speaker 1: emails go out, they used to just have a tag
Speaker 1: in front No Club and then people would respond right away.
Speaker 1: But we added joy Club so we could share good
Speaker 1: news with each other and celebrate it. A third thing
Speaker 1: that I didn't anticipate but that I've researched and now
Speaker 1: appreciate more thanks to that is that when we give
Speaker 1: advice to each other, it actually ends up helping us too.
Speaker 1: So I thought that would just be, you know, it's reciprocity, right,
Speaker 1: they give me advice, I give them advice. That's just
Speaker 1: sort of the price you pay for joining this club.
Speaker 1: But it's not a price. It turns out to be
Speaker 1: really valuable to me every time I see a challenge
Speaker 1: they're struggling with, because first of all, I'm likely to
Speaker 1: face similar challenge and thinking through in an advance, seeing
Speaker 1: it with that outsider perspective, I learn and I build
Speaker 1: my own confidence because it's easy for me to see, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the right way to think about it when
Speaker 1: it's someone else's problem, and then when I face the
Speaker 1: same challenge myself, I feel confident that I can tackle
Speaker 1: it because I've seen it before. So that's actually there's
Speaker 1: research showing that advice giving improves your own confidence and competence,
Speaker 1: which I got to be a part of, and that
Speaker 1: sort of opened my eyes to the power of the
Speaker 1: advice club, not only as a social support group, not
Speaker 1: only as a way to tap into the wisdom of others,
Speaker 1: but actually to build your own confidence and competence as well.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me for this mini series.
Speaker 2: I hope you've enjoyed seeing which teaps other listeners have
Speaker 2: found most valuable, and now that how I work it's
Speaker 2: been running for a few years, I also love being
Speaker 2: reminded of it's a powerful advice that I needed to revisit.
Speaker 2: If you missed any of the episodes in this series,
Speaker 2: make sure you go back through the feed and give
Speaker 2: them a listen. There are some great tips in there
Speaker 2: from brilliant minds like Calan Newport, Turia Pit, Sally have Worth,
Speaker 2: and heaps more. As the listener of How I Work,
Speaker 2: you've hopefully picked up a few tips on this show
Speaker 2: to help you work better? But do you want more?
Speaker 2: And maybe in a book form, because let's face it,
Speaker 2: books are the most awesome thing on the planet. Well,
Speaker 2: now you can. In my new book, time Wise, I
Speaker 2: uncover a wealth of proven strategies that anyone can use
Speaker 2: to improve their productivity, work, and lifestyle. Time Wise brings
Speaker 2: together all of the gems that I've learned from conversations
Speaker 2: with the world's greatest thinkers, including Adam Grant, Dan Pink,
Speaker 2: Mia Friedman, and Turia Pit and many many others. Time
Speaker 2: Wise is launching on July five, but you can pre
Speaker 2: order it now from Amantha dot com and if you
Speaker 2: pre order time Wise a couple of bonuses. View First,
Speaker 2: you'll receive an ebook that details my top twenty favorite
Speaker 2: apps and software for being time Wise with email, calendar, passwords, reading,
Speaker 2: cooking ideas and more. You will also get a complementary
Speaker 2: spot in a webinar that I'm running on June twenty nine,
Speaker 2: where I will be sharing the tactics from time Wise
Speaker 2: that I use most often, and also some bonus ones
Speaker 2: that are not in the book that I use and love.
Speaker 2: Hop onto Amantha dot com to pre order now. How
Speaker 2: I Work is produced by Inventium with production support from
Speaker 2: Dead Set Studios, and thank you to Matt Nimba who
Speaker 2: does the audio mix for every episode and makes everything
Speaker 2: sound so much better than it would have otherwise. See
Speaker 2: you next time.