As the former CEO of AT&T Business, Anne Chow led a $35 billion business comprised of more than 35,000 employees who collectively served 3 million business customers worldwide. Known for her inspirational ability to create and grow high-performing teams, she was also the first woman of color to hold the position of CEO at AT&T. She is currently the lead director on the board of Franklin Covey, serves on the boards of 3M and CSX, and teaches at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management.Inclusive leadership has been pigeonholed into boilerplate DEI initiatives. The world requires significantly more complex growth, innovation, and personalization than these narrow concepts of inclusion. What the world needs is bigger leaders who lead big. This is what Anne Chow, former CEO of AT&T Business, has concluded after over three decades of leadership experience as the first woman of color to hold that title in company history. Chow emphasizes the power of a humanistic approach to strengthening companies as they are rocked by seismic technological shifts. Through her suggested practices and mindsets, leaders can advance work that matters, engage a dynamic workforce, and foster an agile workplace.Below, Chow shares five key insights from her new book,Lead Bigger: The Transformative Power of Inclusion.Listen to the audio versionread by Chow herselfin the Next Big Idea App.1. Go beyond the daily grindBigger leaders must do the work to develop, harness, and evolve purpose as the foundation and reason for being. Without purpose, work risks becoming meaningless or irrelevant, stakeholders will be uninspired, loyalty will be scarce, and a purpose-led team will outcompete you.Some people might think that unless youre the founder of a company, an entrepreneur, or a CEO, the purpose of your work is for someone else to decide. This couldnt be further from the truth. Our purpose is the essential why behind the work we do. It is different than an organizations mission, which represents an objective and set of actions that an individual or set of people are charged with.No matter the kind of work you do, you are on a mission to reach a destination that yields desired outcomes for stakeholders. If you are not sure what your purpose is, ask yourself,what if we didnt exist? Who would care and why?Be sure this purpose resonates with your priority stakeholders.Your purpose is the central rallying point for your efforts. Its most engaging when tied to hopes, personally and for the world. Without purpose, there is no inspiration. Linking talent to purpose on a journey of growth is an energizing mix.2. Values are vitalBigger leaders are clear about organizational values. These are the guiding principles you and your team must embody. They set the foundation for culture and behavioral norms, processes, and practices that emerge as your work advances forward.Too often, values become an exercise in spinning platitudes. Big values resonate deeply with stakeholders, often both professionally and personally, but only if leaders and every team member live by them. You will have both existing core values and aspirational values, those which you must develop and invest in to fully deliver on goals.Value grounding should not be done alone, nor is it a public relations task. Invite input from stakeholders, especially team members. Ensuring ownership from your team is paramount. Include an understanding of the consequences. If values are not practiced, include an understanding of the consequences. Tough decisions will often be made more clearly and confidently based on values that must be stated and lived.When it comes to establishing values, the most important constituent to cater to is your workforce. Your teams values will impact recruiting and retaining top talent and will establish a foundation for inclusive collaboration. Research shows that value alignment increases job satisfaction, collaboration, communication, and trust, while reducing turnover.3. Performance for stakeholdersThink of stakeholders as a collection of communities that impact or are impacted by your work. Examples include team members, suppliers, customers, investors, and partners. Depending on your industry, they could also include regulators, lobbyists, analysts, unions, volunteers, and more. Each stakeholder group will likely have distinct needs, but they can help or hinder your efforts only to the degree you engage and include them. How can you ensure they all feel connected to you or that they belong? How can you get them to work with you effectively? It requires considering their perspectives, with a bias toward making better decisions for greater outcomes. Ultimately, all work is about performance.Performance has many facets, whether financial, operational, customer, organizational, reputational, or otherwise. Step one to ensuring an inclusive approach to performance is understanding stakeholder priorities. What do they view as success for you and your team? How would they measure it? Too often, leaders focus on output and activity rather than outcomes and impact. Be sure to understand thewhybehind any given goal and establish metrics and milestones that matter.Most importantly, stakeholders are whom you are performing for and with. Establishing clarity on what success looks like for stakeholder groups is paramount to delivering upon your purpose. As examples, shareholders will care most about return on investment and return on equity. Customers may care most about your ability to innovate and keep promises as they relate to products and services. Suppliers will care about win-win scenarios that enable them to grow alongside you, and employees will want to work in a high-trust environment with meaningful work where they are respected, valued, appreciated, and included. Remember: not all stakeholder priorities are always treated equally. Prioritization is key.4. Win with well-beingFor people to perform at their best, they must be at their best amid a global mental health crisis. Most people say that work is a source of at least one mental health challenge. Recent studies show that managers have just as much of an impact on peoples mental health as their spouses and even more than their doctors or therapists. Of course, leaders arent therapists, but they can drastically improve their teams outcomes by focusing on employee wellbeing and fostering a culture of belonging.The pressures in the workforce are real. Many feel stress, burnout, exhaustion, loneliness, depression, and anxiety to the point where these mental health behavior disorders are the leading cause of disability. A third of workers feel depressed or anxious at least once a week. These are emotions that most people would not be comfortable revealing, especially at work. There is a bias that these feelings are signs of weakness as opposed to simply a part of being human.Contrary to common perception, mental health struggles are not relegated to one generation or a segment of the population. Every demographic is hurting. Most leaders are not mental health professionals, and they must respect the boundaries surrounding these sensitive issues. Yet the responsibility to safeguard the well-being of the workforce has landed at their feet due to the expectations of their people and the link between well-being and performance results. Well-being, whether physical, mental, emotional, or financial, is a leadership responsibility.5. Fortify with flexibilityIf you want to bend, not break, under pressure, you need flexibility in your people, practices, and policies. Bigger leaders champion flexible jobs, careers, and lives. Flexibility goes far beyond hybrid work environments. Rather, flexibility is all about understanding a more strategic, inclusive view of someones job, far beyond the day-to-day.First, leaders must recognize that an employee has a job in the context of their career, which is ongoing, growing, and vital. Their career exists as a subset of their life. Yes, its a significant part. After all, we will spend about a third of our lives working, but its simply a part of the vast landscape of our lives. Too many managers focus solely on the job at hand, their intent on generating the output and meeting the metrics of the day, and are honed in on what is on the immediate horizon.Some managers dont even take this to an individual level. They concentrate on the whole group because the collective work is how theyll be measured. This approach misses the necessary human connection. Each leader should help teams elevate their performance, both individually as well as collectively. Weve seen growing experimentation across different companies about thewhere,how, and evenwhenof work, including four-day work weeks.The bigger leader considers the different ways in which each individual can be most productive and engaged, as well as creative ways for the team to collaborate. Once you expand this in the context of career, bigger leaders are compelled to more deeply understand what growth aspirations each team member has and act accordingly with emphasis on developmental experiences, programs, and more. Ultimately, perhaps the most important context for a flexible workplace is the acknowledgment that ones job and career exist as a single part of ones whole life. Embrace the fact that peoples lives always remain at the top of their minds. Jobs and careers are building blocks to life, not the other way around.A flexible foundation of culture requires leadership, commitment, and action. These actions should include policies and practices that support the whole individual in the context of their evolving lives. Your people can only perform at their best when they feel at their best. Leadership is all about motivating, aligning, and inspiring a group to deliver upon a common purpose. Leading bigger, also known as inclusive leadership, is about a whole fleet of boats rowing with purpose together. Leading bigger enables us to advance work that matters, develop a vital, innovative workforce, and create trusted, agile workplaces.This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.

An exposed grid of structural steel was used to bring a feeling of "industrial elegance" to House XO in Kerala, India, which has been designed by local architecture studio 3dor Concepts.The 205-square-metre dwelling was designed for a client with a background in the steel industry and is located on a site surrounded by large mango trees in the coastal town of Tanur.House XO has a structural steel frame surrounded by mango trees3dor Concepts aimed to blend "natural beauty with industrial design elements" for the home's design, using an oversized steel frame to create loft-style spaces with high ceilings and full-height windows overlooking the surrounding garden.Resembling a game of tic-tac-toe, a large white metal X and O have been inserted into the steel grid on the home's facade, while a section of ash-brick wall above has also been carved with a grid and letters.Local studio 3dor Concepts added a metal X and O to the facade"The tight site required careful space planning to accommodate parking, privacy, and functionality, all while fostering a strong connection to nature through expansive windows and an open layout that invites the outdoors in," explained the studio."The design features clean lines, minimalist furnishings, and industrial elements like exposed steel beams and large glass windows, creating an aesthetic that is both striking and functional, seamlessly blending with the tropical surroundings while maximising space and maintaining openness."Read: Oversized roof shelters house in Kerala by 3dor ConceptsSet back from the front of the site to create space for a driveway alongside a covered porch, the living, dining and kitchen area occupies a long, narrow area in the home's northeastern corner, with fully-glazed walls that can be slid open.On the smaller first floor, an additional living space overlooks the ground floor and connects to two en-suite bedrooms with full-height windows that are sheltered by metal grids on the home's exterior.Interior spaces at House XO were designed to have a minimal appearance"Material choices focused on sustainability and efficiency. I-section and C-section steel beams were used to reduce construction time and add industrial flair," explained the studio."Concrete walls were minimised, and lightweight fly ash bricks, made from recycled materials, were used throughout the house," it added. "The durable deck-sheet roof offers thermal insulation, completing the modern industrial aesthetic while ensuring energy efficiency."Large sliding glass doors overlook outdoor plantingThe interior finishes were kept minimal and largely white to create a simple backdrop to the natural surroundings and a feeling of "openness and airiness", with wooden grids on the walls referencing the home's facade.3dor Concepts was founded in 2013 by architects Muhammed Jiyad CP, Ahmed Thaneem Abdul Majeed and Muhammed Naseem M. The studio's previous projects include another home in Kerala that is sheltered by an oversized tiled roof.Also in Kerala, Tropical Architecture Bureau recently designed a home that blends "old-world charm with the modern".The photography is by Studio Iksha.The post Gridded steel frame envelops Indian home by 3dor Concepts appeared first on Dezeen.

Christmas, at least the actual day, is all but over, but its never too early to start thinking about gift ideas for next year. Music boxes are always a popular idea for the holidays since it can also be used the whole year round. Its also one of those things that you can innovate on, design-wise since there are a lot of shapes, colors, designs, concepts, and tunes that you can play around with. Even the materials that are used can also be played around with, like with this concept for a music box made from recycled materials.Designer: Hyunbin KimSnowie is a concept for a Christmas music box that is built from an unlikely source: coffee grounds. Its not normally associated with this product but were always on the lookout for ways to recycle something as common as coffee grounds. This music box is also not really a box as the shape of the base is a huge round mound of coffee grounds, sort of evoking a coffee bean although its not really bean-shaped. Since its a Christmas product its more about a snowball except its brown since its made from coffee.It also has a cute hat on top called a Snowie hat which uses aluminum material with a polishing technique finish. The hat spring serves as the winding mechanism for the music box component. Once you insert it on top and wind it up, the Christmas music is supposed to play. There is also a magnetic Snowie nose that is made from coffee grounds and other materials to give it a lighter color. There doesnt seem to be a functional component to it other than to give the music box (or circle) a cute nose. It can also be either round or triangular. If you mix the coffee grounds with other materials, you can also get other colors of the Snowie music box. Other than brown, there are also renders of ivory and white colors, although its not really clear what other materials can be mixed. Well, theres still a year to perfect this concept or have an actual product in time for Christmas 2025.The post Music box concept is made from coffee grounds with an aluminum hat first appeared on Yanko Design.

Our favourite cat that isn't a cat takes brand collabs to another level.

Breaking workflow bottlenecks.

The hyped-up Rabbit R1, Humane Ai Pin, and Apple Vision Pro have continued receiving updates since their lackluster launches. How are things progressing? I tried them again to find out.

Smartphones and face recognition are being combined to create new digital travel documents. The paper passports days are numbereddespite new privacy risks.

Politicians fully embraced the creator economy in 2024, blurring the lines between punditry and journalism. By 2028, the lawmakers could become creators themselves.

Quality kitchen gear can last a lifetime but not every pot, pan or knife is made to last.

MacworldHere it comes, barreling down on us full steam: 2025. Somehow weve already burned through a quarter of this century. Its been a good twenty-five years for Apple, to be sure, and from all the early indications it seems like the next year will continue the trend, insofar as such things can be predicted with any certainty.While there are plenty of rumors about what Apple might do in the next 12 months, the simple truth is that the company only has so much time and so much money. (To be fair, it is a lot of money.) Not everything can be a priority, and not everything that gets talked about will actually happen.Even amongst the things that do happen, some will always stand out in terms of their impact on the company and its customers. Looking ahead to 2025, Im thinking of a few that are most likely to have ramifications that move the needleeven if, in some cases, it may take a little time for the true effects to be felt.Home, at your commandIn 2024, Apple released the Vision Pro, a device that was decidedly cutting edge, but carried such a high price tag as to be out of the reach of all but the wealthiest Apple usersand for a company that tends to charge a premium for its products, thats saying something.Perhaps the rumored smart home device Apple may release will take its UI cues from CarPlay or another existing Apple device.AppleThe newest Apple product line rumored for 2025 seems of a decidedly different bent. The companys rumored to be working on a home command center that has variously been likened to a stationary iPad or a HomePod with a screen. Such a device would provide a central way to control smart home tech, as well as display ambient information like the weather or news headlines.There are plenty of questions about the nature of this device. My general rule of thumb is that Apples products are almost always simpler and less radical than you might hope. Theyre the kind of things that, in hindsight, look obvious, given the technology the company has already put out. Apple rarely reinvents wheels, and something like the Vision Pro is the exception, rather than the rule. So in this case, look to things like StandBy mode on the iPhone, tvOS, or CarPlay as examples of templates for this kind of deviceand dont be surprised if the tech it uses is an offshoot of one of those.Whatever this home command center is, will still likely end up being a niche product like the Vision Pro, but even so, it will at least be one that the average user may be able to afford.Depth chargeThe iPhone remains Apples cash crop, but even as it continues to account for the largest chunk of the companys revenue Apple has struggled to figure out how to expand the line. The Pro and Pro Max have been significant hits, yes, but the attempts at broadening the lower endthe mini and Plus phoneshave fallen more flat.If youve always thought the iPhone was too thick, 2025 may be your year.Chris Martin / FoundryThird times the charm: if you cant change the length or width, maybe depth is where its at. This year Apple reportedly intends to introduce a thinner iPhone, possibly called the iPhone 17 Air or Slim.That thinness is likely to come at a costin part literally. While it may be less than the $999 starting price of the Pro line, its probably going to be more expensive than the base $799 iPhonewhich would seem to position it around the same $899 price point as the current Plus. And such a slim design could mean some trade-offs in capability, including a simpler camera and perhaps lower battery life.As always, the big question is the story Apple intends to tell about this device. Why does it exist? Are people crying out for a thinner iPhone? Will the tradeoffs be worth it? Or is the company simply trying to cash in on the cachet of having a fancy new exterior? Well find out next fall.The call is coming from inside the phoneOne of the biggest Apple success stories of the past decade is the shift to building its own processors. Its allowed the company to not just elicit great performance from its products, but also great energy efficiency. By having control over the lowest level of the hardware, Apple can tie it all together in a package that was simply impossible to do with third-party chips.If cellular modems gets you excited, youll be thrilled with the upcoming iPhone SE.Willis Lai/IDGIt also speaks to a major part of Apples philosophy: that if something is important to your bottom line, you do it yourself.And so 2025 is reportedly going to see the next step along that path as Apple brings another key technology in-house: cellular modems. The company bought Intels modem business way back in 2019, and rumors have sprung eternal that it would incorporate its own cellular radios into its products ever since. But reports have also suggested that the engineering has proved more complicated than expected, hence continued deals with rival Qualcomm to use their modems.The time, however, may finally arrive in the form of an unassuming product: the fourth-generation iPhone SE. The low-cost iPhone, expected to be announced in the spring, may be the first to feature an Apple-built modem. Thats a canny move, since the SE isnt subject to nearly the same scrutiny as Apples flagship phone models, and probably doesnt ship in the same number of units. It gives Apple time to deal with unexpected problems without necessarily tanking its biggest product launch of the year. And even if its modem performance in the SE doesnt match up to the iPhone 16 line, well, SE customers are likely to be a less performance-conscious market than those buying the latest and greatest phones.Eventually those modems will probably make it into other Apple products, including iPads and Apple Watches and maybe, for the first time, Mac laptops. But it all starts with the little iPhone SE that could.The restOf course, 2025 will bring the usual other assortment of Apple news. Well see the last tranche of previously announced Apple Intelligence features, a likely revamp to the base-level iPad, and the debut of the M5 processor line. More recently weve also seen rumors of an updated HomePod mini and a revised Apple TV.But the biggest questions that remain for me are about the future of Apples software platforms. Will the impact of Europes Digital Markets Act continue to spread around the world, forcing Apple to change some of its longstanding business practices? Will we see the next step in the evolution of the Vision hardware, showing us Apples plan to push the line forward and bring it to more customers? And what will Apple focus on in its platform updates this yearwill AI still be the name of the game or will that bubble burst?2025 promises to be an exciting year for Apple and the tech industry, so buckle in: its going to be a bumpy ride.