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When I ran into a former client at the grocery store, and asked him how things were going, I expected some polite small talk. Instead, what he said blew my mind. The guy (lets call him Jim) was an employee of a company that our agency, Blueprint Creative, had worked with a few years back to improve their employee experience program. One of our main brand interventions included articulating and documenting the companys core values: the nonnegotiable principles that would provide their employees with guidance on what on-the-job behaviors would be encouraged and rewarded, and what behaviors simply would not be tolerated. During our conversation, I asked Jim how things were going at the company after our brand intervention. He said (and this is a direct quote), Things are going well for the company, but they are going even better for me. I decided to adopt the companys core values in my personal life and I feel like Im now a better husband and a better father. Wait, what? What we were aiming for during our brand intervention was for the organization to have core values that every employee could embrace and use as a compass to guide their actions in the workplace. But, clearly, by integrating his companys core values into his outside-the-workplace routine, Jim had become not just his best version in his professional life, but also in his personal life. Unfortunately, this isnt the case at many companies around the world. After all, one of the core values of Enron, the company at the center of one of the U.S.s biggest fraud and accounting scandals, was integritya core value that employees had violated with impunity. But, at Jims company, their core values were so sticky that they stuck with some employees even after they left the office to go home. This is pretty extraordinary, considering that research shows that just 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organizations values to their work every day. Presumably, even fewer people believe that they can apply their organizations values to their personal lives. So, how do some companies end up with compelling core values that, as in Jims case, transform lives, while at other companies, employees dont even know what their organization’s core values are, or (like Enron), openly flout and disrespect their organizations core values? Here are a few tips on how you can develop a set of sticky core values that are adopted and respected by your employees. Avoid generalization and ambiguity Avoid generalized core values like Teamwork, Integrity, and Trust. Whether we like it or not, words like these mean different things to different people. Take integrity, for instance. Some companies codes of ethics may prevent them from ever engaging in fraudulent behavior like Enron did, but the company may have no problem developing products that harm the environment, which some individuals may consider to be unethical behaviormaking a core value of integrity ambiguous, open to interpretation, and, by extension, difficult to enforce. When articulating your core values, avoid using words wrapped in language of generalization or ambiguity. Instead, be specific and unambiguous by getting to the very core of your core values. Read on to find out how. Get to the core of your core values Identify the core element of the principles you want your employees to embrace. For instance, at Blueprint Creative, while we wanted our team members to embrace the principle of teamwork, we drilled down to the specific element of teamwork that we want all of our staff to embodythat of having each others backs. Thats why one of our most treasured core values is look out for each other. This action-oriented core value has become one of our team members favorite principles and is extremely effective in maintaining a culture where each individual knows that their colleagues will go the extra mile to help and support them. If you want your core values to be effective, be very specific about the core elements of each principle you want your staff to follow. For instance, if your definition of integrity involves environmental protection, your list of core values could include minimize damage to the environment. Similarly, the core of the broad principle of Innovation could be Be a Problem Solver or Solve Customers Most Burning Problems. If you want to articulate a core value that emphasizes exceeding coworkers and customers expectations, your core value could be Go the Extra Mile. Be highly descriptive In order for core values to be truly compelling, you must describe and document in no uncertain terms what it means to live your core values. Consider developing a Core Values Handbook, or an audio or video series that explains what each one of your core values means and how each individual can apply your core values to their roles. Use real-world examples, stories and analogies that leave no room for misinterpretation. By being highly descriptive, you can provide the clarity employees need to live your core values the way they were intended to be lived. Integrate core values into everyday conversation If you want your core values to be lived every day, refer to them every day. Thats exactly what Tasty Catering does. At the beginning of every meeting of three or more employees, Tasty Catering employees repeat the companys core values, leading to employees repeating core values multiple times per weekmaking it virtually impossible for employees to forget what their core values are. Staff members are also encouraged to use their core values to resolve disputes and make decisions. If you want your core values to be effective, find ways to integrate your core values into the daily lives of your employees. Choose core values that extend beyond the workplace People are more at peace when the principles that guide their personal and professional lives are aligned. No one wants to be guided by one set of principles at home and by another set of (oftentimes conflicting) principles at work. As Mahatma Gandhi is often quoted as having said, Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. What Jim did by adopting the companys core values in his personal life led his thoughts, words, and actions to be in perfect alignment whether he was in the workplace with his colleagues or whether he was at home with his wife and kids. But, that only happened because the core values themselves were worthy of being adopted in his personal lifenot just his professional life. Choose core values that add value to your employees professional and personal lives. Enact accountability Never allow your employees to disrespect your core values. If the infraction is minor, a transparent and direct conversation with the employee who has acted counter to your core values should be enough to get that employee back on the right track. But serious (or repeated) infractions may require disciplinary action or even dismissal, especially if that infraction threatens the companysfuture or puts employees at riskfor example, if an employee ignores safety procedures or acts in ways that put the company in legal jeopardy. Having compelling core values can make it much easier to manage your employees and can lead to a competitive advantage in the marketbut only if your employees embrace and live them every single day. The above tips can help transform your core values from being forgettable into powerful, sticky tools that help you to build a stronger brand and a stronger business.
Category:
E-Commerce
Greetings, everyone, and welcome back to Fast Companys Plugged In. It was one of the best-received pieces of Apple news I can recall. At the companys WWDC conference last month, it announced that its iPadOS 26 software upgrade would give the iPad a powerful new interface closely modeled on the one offered by the Mac. The response can be fairly summarized as finally. Its over: Apple has fixed multitasking on the iPad, mimicking the experience on the Mac, tweeted Bloombergs Mark Gurman, who had earlier reported such a move was imminent. We won! The move is Apples most comprehensive answer to a long-simmering conundrum: How can it make the iPadwhich packs some of its most powerful hardwareinto a professional-strength computing tool? Starting now, its inviting iPad users to judge the results for themselves. After four rounds of iPadOS 26 developer betas since WWDC, the company is releasing its first public beta version of the software, along with corresponding ones for the iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch. Final versions are scheduled to ship this fall. Theres quite a lot in iPadOS 26 I like a lot, starting with the translucent-y new Liquid Glass aestheticrough around the edges in spots, but satisfying eye candy overall. Apple has brought the Macs Preview app to iPad, beefed up the iPad Files app to more closely resemble the Macs Finder, added better support for background tasks such as video processing, and made it possible to put folders in the Dockall of which makes the iPad feel more like a full-powered productivity machine. Without making a big deal out of it, the company also improved iPadOSs support for web apps, a boon for any piece of software whose browser-based version is better than its native iPad experience. iPad apps are now fully resizable and draggable, replicating the interface Macs and Windows PCs have had for decades. However, as someone whos used an iPad as my main computer for almost 14 years, I cant join the chorus of unbridled enthusiasm for iPadOS 26s embrace of Mac conventions such as floating, overlapping windows and a menu bar at the top of the screen. Apple may well be making the right decision to please the largest pool of people who want to get work done on its tablet. But its also moving decisively away from some of the philosophies that attracted me to the platform in the first place, and Im trepidatious about where that might lead. (My Fast Company colleague Jesus Diaz expressed similar qualms right after the WWDC keynote.) Fifteen years ago, when the iPad was new, it wasnt Mac-like at all. Instead, it was often described as a giant iPhonedepending on your perspective, either high praise or a damning indictment. Soon enough, that changed. Apps arrived that let you accomplish tasks that were previously the domain of Macs and Windows PCs; accessory makers started shipping keyboard cases that turned the iPad into a mini-laptop. Apple doubled down on these trends with 2015s original iPad Pro, a bigger-screen version with optional Smart Keyboard. Ever since, the company has made new iPadsnot just the Pro, but other models such as the iPad Airmore and more capable of serious work. That included adding trackpad support in the Magic Keyboard, a classic Mac feature that made the transition to the iPad with aplomb. At the 2015 iPad Pro launch event, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared, The iPad is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing. Over the past decade, however, its become obvious that the hardware aspect of this proposition has been easier to figure out than the software. The company has made several stabs at features for letting users juggle multiple apps, all designed with touch-friendliness in mind, and seemed determined not to simply clone the Macs way of doing things. However, it never felt like the platform had solved productivity or even made steady progress in one direction. Sometimes, it felt stuck in limbo. In January 2020, Daring Fireballs John Gruber smartly analyzed why the iPads user interface could baffle the uninitiated. His critique remained relevant for every iPadOS version until iPadOS 26: To launch the first app, you tap its icon on the homescreen, just like on the iPhone, and just like on the iPad before split-screen multitasking. Tapping an icon to open an app is natural and intuitive. But to get a second app on the same screen, you cannot tap its icon. You must first slide up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the Dock. Then you must tap and hold on an app icon in the Dock. Then you drag the app icon out of the Dock to launch it in a way that it will become the second app splitting the display. But isnt dragging an icon out of the Dock the way that you remove apps from the Dock? Yes, it iswhen you do it from the homescreen. So the way you launch an app in the Dock for split-screen mode is identical to the way you remove that appfrom the Dock. Yet once I mastered these maneuvers, and learned you could also add a second app from iPadOSs Spotlight search, they became embedded in my muscle memory. More importantly, I loved that the iPad maxed out at two on-screen apps, or three if you counted the SlideOver feature. Floatable, draggable, overlappable windows of the sort that help define the Mac and Windows had always struck me as simulating a desktopbut a messy one. Any time I invested in rearranging them felt like wasted cognitive overload. iPad apps now have Mac-style menus. And submenus, some of which have so many items that you need to scroll through them. Similarly, I cherished the iPads abandonment of Mac/Windows-style menus, which felt like a card catalog overwhelmed by features I didnt need at that particular moment, if ever. By forcing iPad developers to think harder about how to engineer their interfaces for maximum efficiency, Apple gave them the opportunity to transcend the cruft of older interfaces. Many rose to the challenge. While Apple has given iPadOS 26 a full-screen-only mode for people who are just as happy using it as, well, a giant iPhone, it hasnt tossed many bones in the direction of those who liked the Split View and SlideOver features, which it has now retired. Even the fastest methods of filling the screen with two apps now take more steps and feel like work. Meanwhile, using the menu bar remains optional, though I worry that developers will begin to see it as the primary interface, not an alternative one. To me, the least successful Mac import is iPadOS 26s traffic light system for closing, minimizing, maximizing, and tiling apps. The buttons are located in the menu bar for full-screen apps and in the upper left-hand corner of partial-screen ones, imposing a mental tax as you remember where they are. And since theyre too dinky to touch with adequate precision, they expand when you engage with them, requiring you to reposition your finger or cursor. Its tough to imagine Apple coming up with them for the iPad if they werent already a Mac staple. If making the iPad more like a Mac was a potentially crowd-pleasing approach all along, why didnt Apple do it long ago? In an interview with MacStories Federico Viticci, software chief Craig Federighi said its only recently that the company has been able to engineer a full-blown windowing system that runs well on a range of iPad models. The interview is the best explanation of Apples iPadOS 26 thinking Ive seen, and I encourage you to read it if youre as interested in this stuff as I am. Still, understanding why Apple gave the iPad a Mac-esque makeover doesnt clarify its long-term strategy. Will the next few years of iPadOS releases be about bringing the platform in even closer alignment with its elder sibling? Or is there still room for them to divergeeven sharply, if appropriate? What happens if AI transforms how all computing devices work in ways nobody yet understands? Also: Are we any closer to being able to run Mac apps on an iPadnot a prospect that makes me giddy, but one certain users have long craved? (As quoted by Viticci, Federighi said the iPad shouldnt run MacOS, but he said nothing about Mac apps.) As I write, the first hands-on evaluations of iPadOS 26 in its public beta form are popping up online. So far, so good: Not to put too fine a point on it, this is the best iPad has ever been, says Gizmodos Kyle Barr. Its like a weight has been lifted from the soul of the iPad, writes Six Colors Jason Snell, a pretty dedicated user of the tablet himself. Right now, Im feeling a tad weighed down by some of the updates changes. Heres hoping they grow on me, and that iPadOS 27 and beyond reflect Apples future vision of computing rather than merely continuing to catch up with its past. Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top stories from Fast Company The Microsoft SharePoint breach was massive. The response has been minimalA critical vulnerability in on-premise SharePoint servers allowed state-backed hackers to breach governments and institutions worldwide. Experts are questioning why more hasn’t been done or said. Read More AI’s unfulfilled promise to small businessesExpert advice for SMBs: Start small. And rather than investing in new tools, explore the AI features already built into your existing tech stack. Read More This concept ad for Ikea shows that AI ads don’t have to be cringe‘Exploding box’ AI ads are going viral on X, and hey’re actually pretty good. Read More How to use the clean energy tax credits before they’re goneThe One Big Beautiful Bill is quickly sunsetting tax credits for all sorts of clean energy purchasesfrom EVs and heat pumps to batteries and solar panels. If you want to claim them, here are the dates each are ending. Read More This tool lets users send fake legal letters that look realwithout a lawyerHeavyweight is a free open-source project that mimics the intimidating design of legal threats to help ordinary people push backlegally or not. Read More 9 essential Perplexity AI search tips and tricksSearch engine, meet answer engine. Here’s how to get started with Perplexity. Read More
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E-Commerce
For several years Ive been evangelizing about the growing ways automation and robotics are beneficial to all. From medical facilities to factories, warehouses, industrial rigs and transit, Automated Mobile Robots (AMRs) are driving massive efficiency gains while also elevating the people and organizations who use them. AMRs reduce costs, improve safety, and address labor shortages, while delivering a rapid return on investment. A robot can be hacked As automation progresses, its vital to recognize and respect the fact that robots are both physical and digital beings. We speak with and instruct robots through digital apps and programmed instructions on computers, smart devices, and the cloud. This means that as industries rush to adopt AMRs, theyre also inadvertently exposing themselves to cybersecurity risks. Just as a database or bank account can be hacked, the digital aspects of AMRs are vulnerable to the same degradation, bugginess, or malicious misuse and damage as any software-dependent program. Yes, there are plenty of funny videos of a misdirected robot suddenly throwing punches at anyone in sight. But imagine the real consequences of even a relatively small misdirection such as a robotic traffic jam in a warehouse, or the physical danger and loss that could result from a single robotic miscue such as smashing the produce, missing a critical step in a manufacturing process, or driving a piece of expensive equipment into a wall. The results can be catastrophic. Chang Robotics CIO Joe Tenga has performed a comprehensive examination of these risks and he has written a whitepaper on industry-specific vulnerabilities of AMRs and strategies to mitigate them. For example, in the health industry, if a robots operation includes access to personal information, it could result in a HIPAA violation. In a purchasing center, AMRs could become a target for financial or personal information theft. In a manufacturing or product distribution role, AMRs could become a window for potential theft of Intellectual Property. Here are two specific concerns about AMRs and cyberthreats. AMRs run on cyber-physical systems. Unlike traditional IT assets, AMRs integrate computation, networking, and physical processes, leaving companies that use them open to these possible threats: Mobility introduces risk. AMRs can physically transport rogue hardware or bypass secure zones. Badge-based access abuse. AMRs with elevator/door credentials could be exploited to breach restricted areas. Tampering risk. Robots could be hijacked or outfitted with spy devices. Robots are not just endpoints, they are mobile insiders. Their dual nature requires an approach to safety and security that combines both physical and cyber defense. AMRs can be exploited through common network-based threats. Without proper protection, AMRs could be weaponized as mobile reconnaissance and access platformsboth passively (sniffing) and actively (spoofing or unlocking doors). Possible threats that can potentially exploit weaknesses in security include: Rogue access points and snifferscan hijack data over Wi-Fi as robots move. Man-in-the-middle attacks and hardware implantscan inject malicious commands or covertly monitor data. IoT exploit modules and proxy access abusecan use robots as conduits to broader network intrusions or unauthorized facility access. Heres how companies can protect themselves AMRs are transformative to modern business, but only if they are properly secured. Every organization using robotics must do the following: Implement security at every phase of use from procurement through deployment. View AMRs as both digital endpoints and physical agents. Develop scalable, industry-specific cybersecurity programs. The ability to scale AMR deployments with confidence hinges on embedding cybersecurity from the ground up not as an afterthought but as a competitive differentiator for your successful operation from its very inception and through all seasons to come. Matthew Chang is the Founder and Principal Engineer of Chang Robotics.
Category:
E-Commerce
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