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Researchers discovered 1 phrase that can stop an argument before it spirals out of control

March 6, 2026 No Comments

It’s brilliant in its simplicity.

Conflict is a natural and healthy part of our daily lives, so it can be very productive when we know how to have productive disagreements. In fact, you can argue that learning to have difficult and challenging, even confrontational conversations, with others is essential to a happy life.

However, it’s extremely difficult to keep conflicts from spinning out of control into arguments. Has getting into a heated argument with your significant other, a co-worker, or a child ever solved anything? Probably not. Heated arguments often lead people down the dark path of personal attacks, animosity, and getting so riled up that they stop making sense altogether.

“If no one ever argues, you’re not likely to give up on old ways of doing things, let alone try new ones. Disagreement is the antidote to groupthink,” organizational psychologist Adam Grant said, according to Psychology Today. “We’re at our most imaginative when we’re out of sync.”

So the big question is, how do we prevent heated arguments from happening and steer them to more productive territory instead? Researchers have been on the case and may have a solution.

A group of scholars at the University of Wisconsin found that it’s essential for people to create a safe environment for discussion, and the key to doing so is to ask open-ended questions that lead to points of agreement. Specifically, the researchers say to use “I” statements, such as “I feel frustrated” or “I feel concerned,” when expressing yourself during the disagreement. It’s an old therapy trick that’s often used to prevent other people from feeling attacked by accusations.

However, the most effective phrase researchers identified is one that clearly directs the discussion toward agreement.

The best way to stop an argument, they say, is with the phrase: “I’d actually like to focus on all the things we agree on.”

There are 3 big reasons why the phrase is so effective at stopping arguments from happening. First, the phrase immediately changes the mindset of both people from the areas where they disagree to one of agreement. We are no longer arguing about why we like or don’t like pineapple on pizza. Instead, we’re focusing on the toppings we both enjoy, such as pepperoni or black olives.

This subtle shift turns the person we disagree with from enemy to collaborator.

Another big reason “I’d actually like to focus on all the things we agree on” is such an effective phrase because it extinguishes the other person’s anger. When we search for a way to agree, we suddenly become an unappealing target for the other person’s rage.

Finally, this phase makes you the good guy in the disagreement because you are looking for a positive solution. You’ve just taken a right turn onto the high road and have become the rational party in the conversation. This tactic is especially effective when a third party, such as a boss or sibling, is involved in the disagreement and wants to see who is acting in good faith. This will encourage the person you’re having a dispute with to be more cooperative to save face.

The key is to be genuine about seeking agreement and maintain a sincere tone when presenting your approach. Once the potential fight has been quelled, you can work together to reach the best possible agreement.

The paper provides some helpful acronyms anyone can remember during their next disagreement, in addition to the one key phrase:

Validate
Ask (open-ended questions)
Listen (to test assumptions)
Uncover interests
Explore options
Decide (on solutions)

The researchers also further recommended some active listening techniques in addition to asking question, like mirroring or paraphrasing the other person’s statements and words, and priming. Priming involves “[making] a guess out loud about what the other person might be thinking or feeling. One must choose the words carefully and use a calm tone to avoid worsening the situation. The goal is to make the other person feel comfortable speaking.”

Using “I” statements also helps because we’re avoiding using “you” statements. “Anyone who’s ever been in conflict with someone knows that hearing a you-statement is hearing yourself be blamed for something, identified as the problem. ‘You never listen to me,’ ‘You’re always late,’ ‘Why are you so stubborn?’ And even if you don’t know consciously that you’re being blamed, your reflexive reaction of defensiveness tells you that you know it when you hear it,” Gregg Levoy, author of “Vital Signs: The Nature and Nurture of Passion,” writes in Psychology Today.

Learning how to prevent heated arguments can strengthen the relationship with the person you disagree with. Resolving a conflict together makes their relationship stronger and more enduring. So, a conflict can be a gift that you can use to skillfully bring yourself closer to someone. The key is to focus on the areas of agreement and to be sincere so you can resolve the issue together without leaving any lingering resentment.

Feature image credit: via Canva/Photos

By Tod Perry

Sourced from Upworthy

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5 ChatGPT Prompts To Protect Your Business (and Career) From AI In 2026

March 6, 2026 No Comments

By Jodie Cook,

AI is coming for unprepared businesses. The tools that seemed futuristic last year are now mainstream. Your customers can access the same information, generate the same content, build the same websites. What if your business became obsolete because you didn’t see what was right in front of you?

The businesses that thrive in 2026 will be the ones that take action today. They’ll build trust through human connection and prove their value beyond what any tool can replicate. ChatGPT can help you do the same. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through.

Protect your business from AI: ChatGPT prompts to future-proof your company

Build a personal brand that AI cannot replicate

Faceless companies are dying. People want to know who runs the show. They want to buy into a belief system, not just a product. Someone in your company needs to show up online. They need to share strong opinions. They need to tell the story behind your brand. A strong personal brand reduces your marketing cost to zero because people already trust you before they buy.

“Based on what you know about me, help me build a personal brand strategy for my business. Identify my strongest beliefs and values that could resonate with my target audience of [describe your ideal customer]. Create a 30-day content plan that shares these beliefs boldly across LinkedIn, including the specific topics I should cover and the stance I should take on each. Ask for more detail if required.”

Equip your team to outperform any AI tool

Stop hiring people who produce work worse than ChatGPT. Marketing assistants, copywriters, and social media managers who cannot outperform AI will drain your budget. You will spend money on resources you do not need. This does not mean replacing humans with robots. It means equipping your team to use AI as a multiplier. The result is faster output, better iterations, and content that improves every single week. Content is becoming a commodity. Slop will not cut it. Your team needs to create work that actually stands out.

“Based on what you know about my business, create an AI training framework for my team of [number] people in [their roles]. Include the specific AI tools they should master, the tasks they should automate, and the skills they should develop to stay irreplaceable. Design a 4-week implementation plan with measurable outcomes for each team member. Ask for more detail if required.”

Define your value beyond what AI can deliver

Here is the uncomfortable question every service provider needs to answer: Are you better than ChatGPT? If you sell coaching, consultancy, or any service, your value has to exceed what someone gets from a free tool. Most people are probably not paying you for what you think they are paying you for. Figure out what makes you human and go all in on that. Your lived experience. Your intuition. Your ability to hold someone accountable in real time. Quadruple down on the things no machine can touch.

“Based on what you know about me and my business, identify 5 unique value propositions that differentiate my service from what ChatGPT or any AI tool could provide. For each one, explain why a human client would pay premium rates for this specific value. Then create messaging I can use on my website and sales calls to communicate these differentiators powerfully.”

Collect social proof that AI cannot fake

Anyone can code a proof of concept in a few hours now. That is not the differentiator. The differentiator is brand and social proof. You need testimonials from happy customers. The more personal the better. Videos, quotes, screenshots of WhatsApp messages they send you. Solutions will flood the market. Anyone in their garage can create a business and start getting customers. The only way people know which to trust is through reviews. This is your competitive advantage.

“Based on what you know about me, create a systematic approach for collecting powerful testimonials from my customers. Include the specific questions I should ask to elicit compelling responses, the best format for each testimonial type, and where to display them for maximum impact. Design 5 follow-up message templates I can send after delivering results.”

Test and pivot faster than ever before

Because AI makes it so easy to add new services, redesign websites, and build new features, speed wins. You must rapidly test new features, new market approaches, and interrogate your customers to understand exactly why they buy and what else they want. The sooner you can pivot into the next profitable niche, the quicker you avoid being overtaken by AI. Stop playing small. Run experiments weekly. Let the data guide you. The businesses that move fastest will dominate 2026.

“Based on what you know about my business, create a rapid testing framework I can implement this month. Include 5 experiments I should run to validate new opportunities, the metrics I should track for each, and decision criteria for when to double down or pivot. Design a weekly review process that keeps me moving at speed.”

Future-proof your business before AI changes everything

The threat is real and the timeline is short. Build a personal brand that connects on a human level. Equip your team to use AI as a superpower. Define your unique value that no tool can replicate. Collect social proof that builds trust instantly. Test and pivot faster than anyone else in your space.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Jodie Cook

Find Jodie Cook on LinkedIn. Visit Jodie’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

The LinkedIn Algorithm Changed Again. Here’s What’s New For 2026

March 5, 2026 No Comments

By Jodie Cook

LinkedIn tactics that worked six months ago could be tanking your reach right now. The platform has rolled out significant changes to how content gets distributed, and most people posting have no idea. Your posts might be getting buried while others who adapted early are seeing their engagement climb.

I visited LinkedIn’s New York headquarters to learn how they think about the platform’s future. LinkedIn is understandably cagey about the algorithm because people could game it. So I chat to marketers running experiments to stay up to date on what’s actually working. I run my own. And with enough data, you can reverse engineer large parts of the algorithm.

Chris Donnelly has 1.2 million LinkedIn followers. He owns The Creator Accelerator and co-owns SayWhat, a company that analyses millions of posts weekly. Donnelly shares insights to help you generate leads on LinkedIn, including a brand new 64-page report on the LinkedIn algorithm based on 300,000 posts. Here’s what you need to know to get an edge over everyone still playing by old rules.

How the LinkedIn algorithm works in 2026: what you need to know

Your profile signals your authority

The algorithm reads your headline, about section, and experience to verify your authority before distributing your posts. LinkedIn’s latest update, which Donnelly said is called 360 Brew, “now shows your content more accurately to your ICP if you give it the right signals.” He advises to “set your profile up to look like you are a certain job within a certain sector.” A clear profile tells the algorithm exactly who should see your work.

If your content topic doesn’t match your stated expertise, LinkedIn limits how far your posts travel. A healthcare professional posting about cryptocurrency will see their distribution drop because the platform questions whether they have knowledge on that topic. Make sure your LinkedIn profile clearly states the topics you create content about, and watch your reach expand.

Saves are the metric that matters

When someone bookmarks your post, LinkedIn interprets it as content worth coming back to. This carries more weight than a quick like that takes half a second to tap. Donnelly confirms that “saves have been the most important factor for ages.” Posts that people save can resurface in feeds for weeks after publishing.

Create content people want to reference later when they need it. Frameworks, checklists, and practical guides earn saves because they offer lasting value beyond a single scroll. Think about what would make someone hit that save button. If your post contains information worth bookmarking, you’ve created something the algorithm wants to distribute.

Consistency beats timing

“There has never been a golden hour,” says Donnelly. Any advice to post at specific times misses what actually matters. For Donnelly, “posting consistently isn’t about the algorithm directly. It’s so your audience expects you to post then, and can conveniently engage.” That predictable behaviour is good for the algorithm.

Donnelly is blunt about the alternative: “random posting is very tactically bad and damaging.” When you show up sporadically, your audience doesn’t know when to expect you, so they don’t look for your content. Pick a schedule and stick to it. Your followers will learn when you post and check in at those times, which creates the engagement signals the algorithm rewards. Grow your LinkedIn by being predictable.

Consider your content formats

If you want maximum reach, polls offer a higher multiplier than other post types. But Donnelly warns against chasing that metric. He says polls are “top for reach but very low for follower growth or conversion.” His verdict on the format is clear: “truly terrible for your profile generally.” Save polls for occasional audience research, not your core content strategy.

Document carousels face new requirements. The algorithm now penalizes low completion rates, meaning your carousel needs strong visual storytelling and a shorter length of eight to ten slides maximum. Long carousels that people abandon halfway through hurt your account performance. Keep them punchy, watch your completion metrics, and cut anything that doesn’t pull its weight.

What to ignore in 2026

“Hashtags haven’t worked in years, literally,” says Donnelly. The algorithm now scans the actual text of your posts using interest graphs to categorize your content and decide who sees it. Stuffing hashtags at the bottom of your posts does nothing useful. Focus on including topic-specific language naturally in your sentences instead.

The old advice to hide links in the first comment is also outdated. You can place external links directly in the body of your post without a significant penalty. Stop making your audience dig through comments to find what they need. Put the link where they can see it, ideally at the end, after you’ve delivered value in the post above.

Win with the updated LinkedIn algorithm: the advice

LinkedIn in 2026 rewards those who adapt quickly. Align your profile with your content topics so 360 Brew knows who should see your posts and create saveable content worth bookmarking. Post consistently so your audience knows when to find you, avoid polls, focus on carousel retention, and ignore hashtags entirely. Donnelly puts it simply: “it’s still a massively outsized opportunity to generate leads if you adapt to the new style of what is working.” The people who act on this information now will be the ones generating leads while everyone else catches up.

Learn how to write a LinkedIn profile that attracts coaching and consultancy clients.

Feature image credit: The Creator Accelerator owner and SayWhat co-owner Chris Donnelly

By Jodie Cook

Find Jodie Cook on LinkedIn. Visit Jodie’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

I Built a 60-Million-User Company by Obsessing Over My Team — Here’s Why It Worked.

March 5, 2026 No Comments

By Bogdan Nesvit , Edited by Micah Zimmerman

Over the past five years, my co-founder Anatolii Kasianov and I have been building HOLYWATER, an AI-first entertainment network reaching 60 million users globally. Each of our products is a breakthrough. My Drama dominates vertical video streaming with 40 million users. My Passion is the world’s #1 independent publishing platform outside China with 1,000+ titles. My Muse pioneered AI-generated vertical series.

Our technology stack, IP portfolio and distribution channels are extensive. But when I was asked in an interview what our startup’s moat was, I said the team. We have 285 talented people committed to building something that no competitor can replicate.

Here are my main principles for hiring and managing a team.

Look beyond the CV

When reviewing candidates, most hiring managers see CVs as a set of rare data, such as years of experience, degrees and previous employers, searching for big names. However, the last one is definitely not worth chasing. Typically, people who have worked in a hot tub at a large corporation cannot get into the startup pace. This is even confirmed by research — former startup employees have more preferences for challenge, independence and responsibility. Therefore, it is certainly not worth hiring someone just because they worked for a large, well-known company. Instead, look beyond that — at their ability to solve challenges. That’s what’s significant in a startup.

At my company, we probe for three things that CVs can’t capture:

Problem-solving speed. I’m looking for someone with a “Let me figure this out” mindset. We give candidates real challenges during interviews, not theoretical algorithm questions, but actual problems we’re facing. I want to understand if they can get from confusion to hypothesis to test within hours, not weeks. The pace and curiosity matter more than perfection.
Value alignment. At HOLYWATER, we believe that imagination is the only limit. So we seek people who don’t see obstacles as stop signs.
Generalist instinct. The best performers don’t say, “That’s not my job.” They say, “I haven’t done this before, but here’s my plan.” This isn’t about hiring people without expertise but about hiring experts who refuse to be limited only by it.

Set a high bar for talent

On the one hand, you need to find the right person fast to build momentum, but on the other, it’s crucial to go slow to build quality. We don’t pick one or the other; instead, we go all in.

We have a lot of recruitment steps, and this rigorous selection process can make some candidates uncomfortable. But it helps us find our people faster, the ones who can navigate uncertainty and stay resilient.

Important: High bar is not about rejecting people who haven’t done the exact job before. It’s about finding people who are willing to move fast and take responsibility for their decisions.

When selecting employees, think about the future, not the past. Focus not on the candidate’s past achievements, but on their potential and how they can unlock it in your startup.

Build an ecosystem that supports creativity and growth

Hiring talented people is only half the battle. The other half is creating an environment where their potential can truly be realized.

Most companies cap people’s growth through invisible ceilings: rigid role definitions, hierarchical approval chains and cultures that punish experimentation. You end up with talented people operating at 60% capacity because the system won’t let them run faster.

We designed HOLYWATER differently. When someone joins our team, they enter an ecosystem where the concentration of exceptional people is extremely high. Each team member is an inspiration and a reference for others. The question shifts from “Am I capable of this?” to “How can I do what they just did?”

Each team member receives the opportunity to express themselves, take responsibility and implement their ideas, regardless of age or skill set. For example, our writers can pitch product ideas, and designers can challenge technical assumptions. This approach does not create chaos; on the contrary, it allows us to see things through a different lens and find new opportunities.

And finally, learning happens through immersion, not training programs. We don’t run formal courses or mandatory workshops. Instead, we make it normal to approach anyone and ask: How did you solve that? What tools accelerated your process? Why did you make that decision? Knowledge transfer happens organically because curiosity is rewarded and gatekeeping is rejected.

The environment you build either multiplies your team’s capabilities or divides them. Choose multiplication.

What you can do today

Stop searching for the perfect specialist to solve your next challenge. Start looking for curious minds who solve problems creatively using any tool available.

Treat building a team culture as seriously as building a product. While some founders are afraid to invest in their employees because they will “outgrow” the company and leave, be the ones who show that it is impossible to “outgrow” — because there is no ceiling. Raise the bar, inspire by example, allow them to prove themselves, give honest feedback and grow.

At that point, your competitors won’t be able to replicate your product. Even with access to the same tools, they’ll never catch up on years of learning, adapting and combining talent.

That’s a moat no amount of capital can cross.

By Bogdan Nesvit

Bogdan Nesvit is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HOLYWATER, a tech company reshaping entertainment by empowering creators with AI and smart technology. HOLYWATER’s platforms — My Drama, My Passion, and My Muse — enable creators to produce high-quality stories and help define a new era of entertainment.

Edited by Micah Zimmerman

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

A consumer watchdog issued a warning about Google’s AI agent shopping protocol — Google says she’s wrong

March 4, 2026 No Comments

By Julie Bort

Shortly after Google announced its new Universal Commerce Protocol for AI-powered shopping agents, a consumer economics watchdog sounded the alarm.

In a now viral post on X viewed nearly 400,000 times, Lindsay Owens on Sunday wrote, “Big/bad news for consumers. Google is out today with an announcement of how they plan to integrate shopping into their AI offerings including search and Gemini. The plan includes ‘personalized upselling.’ i.e. Analysing your chat data and using it to overcharge you.”

Owens is executive director of the consumer economics think tank Groundwork Collaborative. Her concern stems from looking at Google’s roadmap, as well as delving into some of its detailed specification docs. The roadmap includes a feature that will support “upselling,” which could help merchants promote more expensive items to AI shopping agents.

She also called out Google’s plans to adjust prices for programs like new-member discounts or loyalty-based pricing, which Google CEO Sundar Pichai described when he announced the new protocol at the National Retail Federation conference.

After TechCrunch inquired about Owens’ allegations, Google both publicly responded on X and spoke with TechCrunch directly to reject the validity of her concerns.

In a post on X, Google responded that, “These claims around pricing are inaccurate. We strictly prohibit merchants from showing prices on Google that are higher than what is reflected on their site, period. 1/ The term “upselling” is not about overcharging. It’s a standard way for retailers to show additional premium product options that people might be interested in. The choice is always with the user on what to buy. 2/ “Direct Offers” is a pilot that enables merchants to offer a *lower* priced deal or add extra services like free shipping — it cannot be used to raise prices.”

In a separate conversation with TechCrunch, a Google spokesperson said that Google’s Business Agent does not have functionality that would allow it to change a retailer’s pricing based on individual data.

Owens also pointed out that Google’s technical documents on handling a shopper’s identity say that: “The scope complexity should be hidden in the consent screen shown to the user.”

The Google spokesperson told TechCrunch that this is not about hiding what the user is agreeing to, but consolidating actions (get, create, update, delete, cancel, complete) instead making a user agree to each one separately.

Even if Owens’ concerns about this particular protocol are a nothingburger as Google asserts, her general premise is still worth some thought.

She is warning that shopping agents built by Big Tech could one day allow merchants to customize pricing based on what they think you are willing to pay after analysing your AI chats and shopping patterns. This is instead of charging the same price to everyone. She calls it “surveillance pricing.”

Although Google says its agents can’t do such a thing now, it’s also true that Google is, at its heart, an advertising company serving brands and merchants. Last year, a federal court ordered Google to change a number of search business practices after ruling the company was engaged in anticompetitive behaviour.

While many of us are excited to welcome a world where we’d have a team of AI agents handling pesky tasks for us (rescheduling doctor’s appointments, researching replacement mini-blinds), it doesn’t take a clairvoyant to see the kinds of abuse that will be possible.

The problem is that the big tech companies that are in the best position to build agentic shopping tools also have the most mixed incentives. Their business rests on serving the sellers and harvesting data on consumers.

That means AI-powered shopping could be a big opportunity for startups building independent tech. We’re seeing the first few sprinkles of AI-powered possibilities. Startups like Dupe, which uses natural language queries to help people find affordable furniture, and Beni, which uses images and text for thrifting fashion, are early entrants in this space.

Until then, the old adage probably holds true: buyer beware.

Feature image credit: Getty Images

By Julie Bort

Julie Bort is the Startups/Venture Desk editor for TechCrunch.

Sourced from TechCrunch

In News

How Leaders Can Make AI Work For Every Employee

March 4, 2026 No Comments

By Aytekin Tank

Two tennis players are given the chance to train for a day with a world-class pro. The expert covers service grips, how to judge an opponent’s topspin, and when to stay at the baseline versus serve and volley. It quickly becomes clear there’s a problem. One student is an experienced tournament player. She absorbs the lessons and puts them into practice. The other is a complete novice. She finds the instruction confusing—and it ends up making her already shaky strokes even worse.

The takeaway: the value of performance-enhancing tools depends largely on the experience of the person using them.

Researchers are finding the same pattern when it comes to AI. For entrepreneurs with solid business expertise, AI improves performance. For those with less experience and judgment, it can actually make outcomes worse. At the end of the day, human judgment is still critical.

In today’s increasingly AI-powered business landscape, whether to use the latest tools isn’t really a choice—if you don’t, your competitors will. The real question is how leaders can ensure employees at every level get the most from AI.

Teach How To Use AI Analytically

Researchers looked at how a generative AI assistant helped small business entrepreneurs in Kenya. One of the findings was that for those who were already doing well, the AI tool boosted profits and revenues by 10-15%, according to the study. On the other hand, it lowered results for those on the low-performing side by about 8%.

The researchers noted a difference in the type of advice that users accepted from the generative AI tool. In short, low performers took worse advice—generic recommendations like lowering prices.

The lesson for business leaders is pretty clear: organizations must provide training and instructions on how to work with AI’s output.

For starters, it’s common knowledge that generative AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT tend to hallucinate—confidently make up answers rather than admit they’re unsure. Beyond clear-cut hallucinations, you can’t always tell the quality of a response. That’s why it’s important to start with a mindset of evaluation, not assumption.

For example, at Jotform, I encourage employees to ask questions before accepting an AI tool’s answer. Questions like: What assumptions are being made? Is any context missing? Is this advice tailored to our specific [business/product/pain point]?

Generative AI can be a powerful brainstorming, writing, and research partner, but never accept an AI result at face value.

Define AI Points In Workflows

The standard leadership advice—provide employees with training—sounds like an obvious way to level the AI playing field. But speaking from experience at my own company, employees already work hard. They’re deeply committed to the mission. They also have rich personal lives, and that’s a good thing. Rolling out training programs that require after-hours learning or cut into personal time can be a tough sell.

One alternative is to integrate AI directly into existing workflows, so employees build proficiency and confidence on the job. But as teams decide where to incorporate AI, leaders must be explicit on how it fits within each workflow—and where human judgment remains essential. This helps establish ground rules for use, like consult AI for first drafts or working analyses, but leave final revisions and sign-offs to people. AI can offer guidance, but employees ultimately own the decisions.

AI can take over the tedious parts of a process, but humans should stay in the loop at the consequential moments. That’s how employees continue to hone their judgment and build business acumen.

Reward Great Ideas, Not Quantitative Output

The buzzword that’s sending chills down the spines of today’s leaders is “workslop.” Harvard Business Review defines it as “AI-generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” It’s the rapid fire list of ideas that ignores key considerations. It’s the first draft that falls completely flat, requiring a return to the drawing board.

Research confirms the cost of workslop: it can add nearly two hours of extra work and hurt productivity, collaboration, and trust. The onus is on leaders to set clear expectations for effective AI use—and to proactively discourage low-quality output.

Here’s the refrain I repeat often at my company: quantity matters little. Substantive quality is everything.

The sheer number of ideas generated or tasks completed is not a measure of success. What matters is output that moves the needle, such as proposing workable solutions. Even when an idea doesn’t ultimately fly, it still has value if it shows real ingenuity and clear thinking.

Leaders can reinforce this by rewarding great ideas and encouraging transparency around AI use. For example, even if an employee starts with an AI-generated suggestion, I want to understand the original idea, how they evaluated it, and how they revised it.

This causes an important shift, away from rewarding those who use AI the fastest and toward those who use it most thoughtfully. As employees build better judgment about when and how to rely on AI, organizations can cut back on workslop and fully harness the technology’s potential. Hopefully, they can level the impact of generative AI on performance, so that all can get the most from it.

Feature image credit: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

By Aytekin Tank

Find Aytekin Tank on LinkedIn and X. Visit Aytekin’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Enhancing customer satisfaction through personal profiles of social media customer service agents

March 3, 2026 No Comments

By Isabel Hicks, edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

A professor in Montana State University’s Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship recently published a paper in a highly regarded academic journal, Production and Operations Management, that explores the influence of social media on customer service.

Huai-Tzu Cheng, a business management professor, was the lead author on the paper, titled “Unveiling the Human Touch: Enhancing Customer Satisfaction Through Personal Profiles of Social Media Customer Service Agents.” It was published online in December 2025 in collaboration with Yang Pan at Tulane University and Rudy Hirschheim at Louisiana State University. The research is published in the journal Production and Operations Management.

The research explores the question of how personalized customer service profiles influence customer behaviour compared to standardized profiles. The team ultimately found that personalized profiles can positively influence customer interaction.

To study this, the research team focused on user interactions with profiles of U.S. telecom giant T-Mobile on the social platform X, formerly Twitter. In February 2017, Twitter introduced a new feature allowing companies to create personal profiles for customer service agents that included profile photos, names, personal interests and biographies—leading to a more “human touch” that inspired the paper’s title. Before this new feature, customers interacting with T-Mobile Help accounts on Twitter could only see the company logo and the initials or name of the customer service agent.

Cheng analysed how customers interacted with T-Mobile Help’s profiles three months before and three months after the shift and then compared those interactions with those of other telecom company help profiles—AT&T Cares, Verizon Support and Spring Care—who had not yet implemented personalized changes in that time frame.

Overall, the analysis found that personalized customer service profiles increased positive sentiment in customer posts on X, reduced the likelihood of complaints and improved customer satisfaction. However, researchers noted the personalized profiles created heightened expectations for timely responses, meaning that delays in response time were more detrimental than with standardized profiles. This finding was a “surprising and critical nuance,” Cheng said.

Another notable finding, Cheng said, is that while “humanization” drives customers to express gratitude, it does not directly drive satisfaction, which is instead driven by “perceived warmth” and “perceived competence.”

“This suggests that simply seeming human isn’t enough for satisfaction,” Cheng said. “The agent must also seem warm and capable.”

These findings will be most useful to businesspeople managing customer service operations on social media or digital platforms, and also to e-service platforms such as X that can gain value by strengthening their features for agent personalization, Cheng said.

People can draw important insights from the research, she added. For one, personalization is a cost-effective strategy for companies to improve profile metrics and customer satisfaction. She identified the shift as “cost-neutral,” meaning that it can use existing customer service staff and requires no specialized training. Additionally, the findings have applicability to artificial intelligence chatbots, indicating that adding humanizing elements to such bots can bolster user connection and trust.

Cheng also identified pathways for future research, which had a narrow scope confined to X and telecom companies. Future research could ask whether these findings hold true on other platforms with different user cultures and interfaces, such as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, and if they hold true in other industries such as banking, health care or retail.

Finally, researchers could ask if a “virtual agent” or avatar can achieve the same positive personalization results as a real photo, identifying if the benefits of social presence can be simulated artificially, Cheng suggested.

“This work is exactly the kind of expert analysis that generates findings useful for our industry partners,” said Brian Gillespie, dean of the business college. “The publication shows our students the high calibre of research at MSU and the diversity of interests of our faculty. Congratulations to Huai on this significant achievement in her career.”

Feature image credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

By Isabel Hicks,

Edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

Sourced from PHYS.ORG

In News

The 1 Question I Ask Every Successful Person I Meet — and How It’s Changed My Life

March 3, 2026 No Comments

By Chris Sorensen Edited by Chelsea Brown

I ask every successful person I meet one particular question. Here’s what it is, and how the answers inspired me to chart my own path.

Key Takeaways

When I was a young entrepreneur, I set out on a mission to meet successful people and ask them one question: “What is the best advice you ever received in your life?”
The answers I received have not only moved my career forward, but they’ve also given me invaluable lessons about how to live a meaningful life.

I’ve always been inspired by the success of others. But I’ve also been curious about where that success comes from. What sets a person on the pathway to becoming a visionary? What sparks their belief that they can go out and change the world?

Today, I run one of the world’s most successful dialling software companies. But many years ago, I was a young entrepreneur who needed some direction. So I turned my curiosity into a sort of mission to meet successful people and ask them one simple question:

“What is the best advice you ever received in your life?”

Here are two of the most memorable answers I’ve ever received. I hope they inspire you the way they continue to inspire me.

Steve Forbes on seizing opportunities

In my early 20s, one of the people I admired most in life was Steve Forbes. He had launched countless successful publications and business ventures. I figured that whatever advice had set him on that path would also hold real value for my life. So I committed myself to finding an opportunity to meet him.

This was back in the early 2000s, and Google search was not yet sophisticated enough to help me figure out how to connect with such a prominent individual. But I eventually came across a small event in Santa Monica where Forbes was scheduled to speak.

I lived in Seattle at the time. It took every spare dollar I had in the bank to buy a plane ticket down there. But that’s what I did.

When I arrived, the room had about 100 people in it. Forbes began by speaking to the group about a book he had recently written called How Capitalism Will Save Us. I spent the next few hours listening to his advice and hearing him answer questions from the audience, wondering when, or if, my moment would arrive.

Towards the end of the night, a line formed so people could get him to sign their books. I cued up with my copy and waited my turn. When I finally made it to the signing table, I looked him in the eye and said:

“Mr. Forbes, I flew all the way from Seattle today just to ask you this question.”

Forbes glanced up. “That’s a lot of effort,” he replied.

“Well,” I said with a smile, “I’m expecting a good answer. Can you tell me the best advice you ever got in life?”

He paused for a moment.

“No one’s ever asked me that before.”

I remember thinking he must have been joking. Surely I couldn’t be the first person to ask Steve Forbes about the advice that helped him become one of the most successful people on the planet.

He folded his arms. Then slowly, he said:

“It’s gotta be what my dad told me when I was young: This isn’t a dress rehearsal.”

What he meant, he explained, was that we get one shot in life. You need to put every ounce of your effort into making sure you’re seizing the opportunities that are in front of you now, because you don’t get a second take.

Ironically, I was already following Forbes’s advice when I bought that plane ticket. If I had let the opportunity pass me by, our paths might never have crossed, and he never would have reinforced my belief in the value of taking risks to achieve your goals.

As you can imagine, this belief has served me well throughout my life and career, especially as a CEO, where success demands action and comes down to inspiring others to take their own shot. But the best leaders don’t push people to act; they help them bring their best selves forward. I saw that lesson come to life years later, in a conversation with NFL coach Pete Carroll.

Pete Carroll on staying true to yourself

Pete Carroll is a coach, most recently for the Las Vegas Raiders, my all-time favourite football team. Years ago, I decided to sign up for a coaching clinic he was running, despite the fact that I am neither a football player nor a coach. Even at 6’4″ and 220 lbs, I was one of the smallest guys there. Not that it mattered; I wasn’t really there to learn football. I was there for the Q&A.

As soon as the questions started, my arm was up in the air. Everyone around me was asking questions about plays, formations and strategy. But when it was my turn, I asked Carroll the same question I had asked Forbes at his book signing.

This time, I got an answer immediately. Without skipping a beat, Carroll said to me:

“The best advice I ever got in my life was to be myself.”

He continued. “When I try to be someone I’m not, things don’t end up working well for me. You need to know who you are. Obviously, we all want to improve, but you shouldn’t try to be someone else. Try to be the best version of yourself.”

Carroll’s advice stuck with me because it was simple but deeply human: You can’t lead or live effectively if you’re pretending to be something you’re not.

That perspective has shaped how I try to show up as a CEO. The best results come from helping people lean into what makes them great. When people feel free to be themselves, they show up with passion and do their best work. It’s a lesson I still carry with me today.

How asking for advice has changed me

The advice I got from Forbes, Carroll and others has done more than move my career forward. It’s given me invaluable lessons about how to live a meaningful life.

Forbes’s answer taught me to seize opportunities, even when the path wasn’t certain. Carroll’s answer taught me to stay grounded in who I am while doing it — a mindset that’s shaped everything from PhoneBurner’s Responsible Communications™ initiative to how I approach fatherhood and family.

Those lessons have a way of resurfacing, often at moments that remind you what really matters.

A few months ago, I found myself writing my mother’s obituary. As I reflected on her life, I realized that a eulogy is not a LinkedIn profile. It’s not a summary of titles, milestones and accomplishments. It’s a story about the things you love most and the risks you’re willing to take for them.

In other words, life isn’t a dress rehearsal. You only get to do it once, so you’d better do it in a way that honours your passion and your unique gifts. One simple question gave me that perspective — so you’d better believe I’ll keep asking it.

By Chris Sorensen

Chris Sorensen, CEO of PhoneBurner and founder of ARMOR®, has built his career at the intersection of technology, revenue, and compliance. He’s a leading voice for responsible outreach, driving industry standards that protect brands and maximize connection rates.

Edited by Chelsea Brown

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

How to actually find your personal style

March 2, 2026 No Comments

By Rachel Tashjian, CNN

TikTok influencers no longer have us blindly following a dizzying slate of microtrends – cottagecore one week, dark academia the next, the mob wife aesthetic days later. In place of the churn of trends and overconsumption, a new mindset is emerging: the search for personal style. Finding your personal style, the thinking goes, allows you to shop more confidently and less frequently. By looking more sceptically at fast fashion and fancy labels, you can rise above the whims of brand marketing – and find contentment with pieces that speak, uniquely, to you.

But the search for personal style has become a complicated affair. Methods include distilling your entire being into three words, holding various colours up to your face and declaring yourself a “cool autumn,” or even quitting shopping for a year – should it all be so difficult?

Of course not! We asked stylish figures from in and out of the fashion world for the practices that have helped them figure out what to wear. Some of these people are maximalists, some committed minimalists, others wear nearly the same thing every day. But all have one thing in common: they always feel great in their clothes. Here’s 10 ways you can, too.

1. Go through every single thing hanging in your wardrobe and wear it

If you’re guilty of the classic “closet full of clothes and nothing to wear” feeling, start from the left side of your wardrobe and commit to wearing each item every day. Note how you feel in it: is it uncomfortable? Too stiff? Maybe you should save it for evening wear or chuck it altogether. Did you receive compliments you didn’t expect?

You’ll get a clearer view of what does and doesn’t work, as well as what you’re missing – maybe you’ll see you have zero white collared shirts that would make your sweaters look spiffier, or you simply don’t have enough colour and need a few punchy pairs of socks.

2. Let your passions direct you

“Good personal style requires some expertise,” said Noah Johnson, editor-in-chief of streetwear publication, Highsnobiety. “Skating made me an expert on certain things: sneaker design, how pants fit, being outside in the city for entire days with nothing to do but skate. Everyone has some form of expertise. Those are the things that inform a personal style.”

3. Look more than you buy

Go into stores (or scroll through them) not only when you need a new dress for a wedding or a tie for an interview. Embrace the pleasures of browsing, and even try things on, with the goal of learning what you like instead of acquiring more things. (Importantly, don’t let this tip into doomscrolling. Research is good – mindlessly thumbing through every arrival on a resale site, less so.)

4. Let your life and aspirations inform your style

“Personal style isn’t something you find overnight. It’s something you arrive at,” said Amanda Murray, a New York-based creative consultant and extravagantly well-dressed person. “Over time, through living, failing, heartbreak, love, wanting, shedding, you begin to understand what feels true on your body and what doesn’t.”

Jalil Johnson, writer of the fashion Substack “Consider Yourself Cultured,” took the idea a step further, saying that personal style wasn’t just a reflection of your life up to this point, but “the life you’re aspiring to or think you deserve.” Johnson added that “much like our ever-evolving and changing lives, our style evolves too, and that evolution is not only natural, but necessary.”

In short, let the changes in your life influence your clothes – the trouser cut that feels right for now may feel less comfortable or sharp in a few years, when you have a new job or move to a new town.

5. Don’t pay too much attention to celebrities and influencers

“I think the reason style feels confusing for so many people is because we’re taught to look outside of ourselves first,” said Murray. “Celebrities, what’s in, what’s out, and now the behemoth of social media and algorithms telling us who to be. But the most compelling style is deeply resolved. It reflects a sense of real self-trust.”

6. Listening to yourself, and what pleases you, is much more important than emulating others

“You might be able to put together a nice outfit by copying someone else,” said Noah Johnson. “But you won’t get any closer to real style.” Similarly, fashion writer Leandra Medine said that the answer to feeling good about your clothes wasn’t in finding the right stuff – but learning to trust your gut. “I find that the older I get, the sharper my sense of personal style becomes because I am more comfortable in my skin and therefore more willing to accept its limitations (e.g. what kind of dressing concepts I might love theoretically but not in practice on my body), and also to object to features of popular style culture that don’t align with my taste.”

7. Develop a uniform

“Since I am always working, my base has to be comfortable. I kind of have a work uniform,” said Hillary Taymour, the designer of New York-based brand Collina Strada, who wears her own clothes almost exclusively, with vintage peppered in. “When I’m getting dressed I look at my calendar: am I going to an event after work, will I be working on the floor that day, am I going to be painting clothes. The calendar always dictates the look,” she added. This usually means starting with “a slouchy pant,” Taymour said, noting that she loves to “layer shirts, add some colour with a sweater and always have an over-the-top jacket.” Or alternatively, “a skinnier pant with a dress or skirt layered and a fitted top.”

Uniforms mean you do all the thinking upfront, and can assemble outfits more effortlessly day-to-day.

8. Pay attention to what makes you feel good

For Taymour, it’s a uniform that can dictate her entire mood: “To this day, if I don’t feel comfortable or like my outfit I will in fact have a horrible day,” she said. Finding a footing in your personal style is all about paying attention to what makes you feel good. If something doesn’t feel right, no matter what anyone says, don’t wear it!

9. Play dress up

“Don’t get so stuck trying to define your personal style that you stop playing with clothes!!!” wrote Willa Bennett, the editor of Cosmopolitan and Seventeen magazines, who dresses in a uniform of suits and ties. “Style is supposed to feel like dress-up, fun, and experimental, not like a personality test or a definitive statement you have to defend.” Bennett advised people to be a little more fearless with their wardrobes. “Try the thing you are probably going to return, the emerging designer no one knows about yet, the vintage Depop purchase that your little sister makes fun of you for.”

It’s an approach that works for Taymour, too. “The more you have fun and take risks, the more your style will start to appear,” she said. “So go to your dress up closet and start thinking differently.”

10. Figure out what looks good on your body

“My biggest advice to anyone is to always dress for your body type,” said Taymour. “Once you know what works on your body you can start buying into silhouettes not trends. This is how you build a wardrobe that you feel comfortable in because you always look good.”

It’s time-tested advice, but it doesn’t have to be conservative. Try on lots of things, take pictures, and look back after a few days spent thinking about something else entirely.

11. Don’t be so hard on yourself!

“When did my ‘lucky’ Dries tie deliver a good day? When did my Supreme sweatshirt let me down? The goal is not to judge yourself,” said Bennett. “It is to notice your feelings. That is where real personal style comes from – not from rules, but from learning your own emotional logic and trusting your sense of self.”

Remember: if you wear a bad outfit, it’s not the end of the world. You can always wear a better one tomorrow.

Feature image credit: Touchstone/Kobal/Shutterstock

By Rachel Tashjian, CNN

Sourced from AOL

In News

The 5-Second Rule: A Simple Trick to Beat Procrastination

March 2, 2026 No Comments

By Adam England

Keep on task by using this quick and simple method

Have you been putting off a big work project? Keep neglecting to fold that big pile of laundry? Constantly telling yourself you’ll pay that bill tomorrow? Pretty much everybody procrastinates at some point or another, and there’s no shame in that. But what if there was something that could stop us from procrastinating and give us the impetus to get things done?

That’s where the 5-second rule comes in.

What Is the 5-Second Rule?

The 5-second rule has become pretty popular on platforms like TikTok as a potential quick-fix for procrastination.

Author and podcast host Mel Robbins came up with the rule, popularizing it in her book “The 5 Second Rule”. The idea is that when we want or need to get something done, we count down from five to one—then do it.1

Counting down engages the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of the brain that assists with decision-making.

— Kevin Connor, founder and CEO of Modern SBC

If you’re enjoying a bit of TikTok brainrot time in bed in the morning and a thought crosses your mind that you should probably brush your teeth or grab some breakfast, the 5-second rule encourages you to do so almost instantly, without even really thinking about it. It engages the part of the brain we use in decision-making, allowing us to begin a task without overthinking.

How Does It Work?

It’s easy to overthink things or tell ourselves we can put things off for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, an hour, a day. The 5-second rule helps us focus on the present and stop procrastinating by encouraging us to get tasks out of the way as soon as possible.

“The rule can help you be more productive because it creates a sense of urgency and importance around you completing a particular task or series of tasks,” says Rashelle Isip, productivity coach at The Order Expert®.

“Our brains are designed to protect us from discomfort, which often leads us to avoid doing things that we find challenging, daunting, or that feel like too much to tackle,” adds Kevin Connor, founder and CEO of Modern SBC. “Counting down engages the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of the brain that assists with decision making.2 That small mental shift is all it takes to bypass doubt and start moving before the brain slams on the brakes.”

What Are the Benefits of the Rule?

“The 5-second rule can be a great tool for breaking the cycle of overthinking and procrastination, giving people a simple way to push past hesitation and take action,” explains Elena Touroni, PhD, a consultant psychologist and co-founder of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic. “By creating momentum, it can help build confidence, reduce self-doubt, and even improve motivation over time.”

In Connor’s view, the rule offers plenty of mental health benefits beyond productivity. When we procrastinate and overthink things, we can develop self-doubt, stress, and guilt.

“Fighting that cycle—by making even the tiniest of moves forward—builds confidence, alleviates anxiety, and provides a sense of purpose,” Connor says. “It’s not simply about doing more; it’s about feeling more in control of your day.”

Ways to Use It in Your Daily Life

You can use the rule throughout the day, whether it’s for work, running errands, or simply making a phone call you’re putting off. Perhaps you’d planned to head to the gym or go for a run after work, but when the evening comes around, you’d rather watch some TV. Using the 5-second rule could encourage you to stick to the original plan.

“You can also use the rule to help motivate yourself and focus your attention throughout your routine, such as getting up in the morning or starting work for the day,” says Isip. So, why not give it a try when you wake up?

Adapting the rule to your own tendencies can help you find a system that works for you. For example. Isip suggests tracking the tasks you’ve accomplished using the rule by recording them in a notepad to help you stay motivated.

“Keep a brief running list of tasks that can be completed in five minutes or less. You can use the 5-second rule to tackle each of these tasks one after another as you see fit,” she adds.

Challenges and Considerations

You might resist the 5-second rule at first. Sure, you’ve counted down from five to one, but there’s nothing actually making you start the task at that point. The rule only has as much meaning as we apply to it.

“Try pairing the rule with an existing task where there’s little to no resistance,” suggests Isip. “This might be something like brushing your teeth or putting on your shoes. This allows you to see the rule being applied with immediate results. You may be motivated to try the rule if you’ve been procrastinating on a particular task.”

Try something small, like a work task that you can complete in a few minutes. Reschedule a meeting, make a phone call, or reply to an email. “Once you realize the rule can help you complete small tasks, you can slowly begin to use the rule in larger or more complex tasks throughout your day,” Isip says.

It’s important to understand that the point of the 5-second rule is to start doing a task we’ve been putting off; it’s not the same as doing any task impulsively or without thinking. For example, if you suddenly decided you felt like eating some chocolate, using the 5-second rule before going to get some wouldn’t be quite the same as using it to sort your laundry.

“Relying on it too much could lead to impulsive choices or mental fatigue, as constantly forcing action without considering long-term consequences can be draining,” says Dr. Touroni. “Like any strategy, it works best when used in balance with thoughtful decision-making and rest.”

Alternatives You Can Try

The 5-second rule might work better for some people than others. If you’ve persevered with it and found that it’s not a good fit, there are alternatives to consider.

Isip explains that she uses similar processes herself. “For instance, if there’s some paperwork I don’t wish to do, I may say something like, “I’m just going to do this paperwork for 30 minutes. That’s easy, I can handle that. And when I’m finished, I’ll feel better because my paperwork will be in order.”

Another thing Isip tries is to take one small step related to her work, like creating a folder on her computer or opening a notebook. “Taking a simple step forward helps reduce my resistance toward starting and continuing with the work,” she explains.

Personally, I find that the Pomodoro Technique is useful. If I’m not feeling motivated to write, I will set a timer for 25 minutes, work on the task, then take a 5-minute break before repeating the process. It works for other things, too—if I want to tidy my apartment, I’ll often do so using this method.3

You might find David Allen’s Getting Things Done system useful for procrastination, too, as well as Brian Tracy’s ‘Eat That Frog’ approach.

Feature image credit: psisa / Getty Images

By Adam England

Sourced from verywellmind