Why You Still Need Post-It Notes

Paper-based communications might be nearing obsolescence, but there’s a reason 3M still sells an estimated $1 billion worth of Post-It notes every year.

If you ask someone to do something by writing it on a Post-It note, they’re more likely to comply, according to an oddly resonant research paper from a decade ago written up this week on Harvard Business Review’s website.

Those little squares with the sticky strip on top are “surprisingly persuasive,” writes psychologist Kevin Hogan in HBR. (It should be noted that there are other sticky-note makers out there aside from 3M, which came up with the nifty technology 35 years ago.)

The paper's findings still hold up today, said Randy Garner, a professor of behavioral science at Sam Houston State University and the author of the original study, published in 2005 in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

“Perhaps one explanation," Garner wrote in an email to The Huffington Post, "is that in our seemingly overly technologically bound and electronically enhanced world we live in today, people may find unique interest in the possible influence of the low-tech impact of a small 3 x 3 piece of semi-sticky paper. :- )"

An informal Twitter survey conducted by this reporter seemed to confirm his findings. This is kind of surprising, considering that over the past 10 years, we've all been gradually sucked into the digital borg. In 2005 there was no Twitter or Snapchat or Slack or whatever-the-hell-else you use to communicate with your friends and colleagues instead of talking out loud to them.

@EmilyRPeck No smartphone alert will ever replace a Post-it on the bathroom mirror. Totally necessary!

— Emily Barker (@EmilyBarkerALM) May 29, 2015

@EmilyRPeck @HuffPostTech Totally necessary!

— Athenaeum Cybrarian (@cyberathenaeum) May 29, 2015

For his study, Garner conducted a series of five experiments in which he tried to persuade people to fill out a survey.

In one experiment, 150 college professors were sent surveys about conditions at their university. Fifty professors received a survey with a Post-It attached to a cover letter. “Please take a few minutes to complete this for us. Thank You!” said the Post-It. Another 50 got a survey with a similar handwritten message on a cover letter. The remaining third just received a cover letter and survey.

The results were clearly in favor of the Post-It. Seventy-six percent of the sticky note group sent back their survey, compared with 48 percent of the handwritten group and 36 percent of the control group. Other experiments replicated the result: Over and over again, people were more likely to do the work when you asked them on a Post-It note. If the work was particularly complicated, the study found, it helped a bit to personalize your Post-It even more -- by adding your name, for example.

“Clearly, the Post-It note itself was essential,” Garner wrote in the paper.

This week, on a "Today" show segment about Garner's research, Matt Lauer said that when charities send him solicitations with personalized Post-Its, they get his attention.

Beyond their power of persuasion, Post-Its apparently have stuck around because people still really like them.

@EmilyRPeck @HuffPostTech Nearly infinite lifecycle as I see it. Business cards fall into the same category. Technology can't kill either.

— Jack Narcotta (@JackN_TBR) May 29, 2015

They're even used to make art, apparently. This is a Post-It Mario of Mario Bros. fame:

Office jockeys also use them to express their creativity, which I guess is heartening.

RT @EmilyRPeck: Post-It notes: Obsolete or totally necessary? /in @fiiSorg we say: want it, need it, love it. pic.twitter.com/aPFJuR5DYh

— Francisca Solar (@FranSolar) May 29, 2015

In case you were wondering if the color of your Post-It matters when it comes to getting someone to do what you want: Garner said no. Color isn’t as important as contrast. The Post-It note should be a distinct color from the thing to which it is affixed. “A 3M rep once told me that was the original reasoning for their initial selection of yellow,” he told HuffPost.

Dick Fuld, Disgraced Former CEO Of Lehman Brothers, Makes Bizarre Comeback

Dick Fuld, part villain and part unforgivably very confused bystander to the financial crisis in the eyes of most -- and a victim of the financial crisis to himself -- made a bizarre comeback at a conference in New York on Thursday.

In his first public appearance (other than sworn congressional testimony) since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Fuld blamed regulators, borrowers and rumors for the end of the 158-year-old, $47 billion firm he led. It was a “perfect storm” that sank Lehman, not his own leadership or decisions, Fuld said, while touting Lehman’s “success” to the audience. He also claimed that every one of the 27,000 employees who once worked for Lehman had been a risk manager, because they owned stock in the firm.

Lehman’s September 2008 collapse was the first of many bank failures and market seizures that fall. It sparked the financial crisis that ended in a $416 billion bank bailout and left the country mired in the Great Recession.

Fuld's comments were initially carried live on the financial news network CNBC, but the feed was pulled by conference organizers part way through his remarks. Technically, Fuld was at the conference to deliver a keynote address titled, "How Emerging Growth Companies Can Succeed in Today's Capital Markets: Perspectives from My Journey." His comments, however, were a well-rehearsed if less-than-convincing defense of his own actions leading up to the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

He denied that Lehman was a failed company in September 2008 and intimated that he and the firm were victims of a conspiracy centered around former competitors in regulatory positions with a vendetta against him. Fuld, nicknamed the “Gorilla” during his career for his overly aggressive style, seemed temperamentally unchanged, telling one conference questioner, “Why don’t you bite me?”

Months prior to Lehman’s fall, Fuld had declared that “the worst of the impact of the financial markets is behind us” and pushed subordinates to take more risk, sidelining or firing those who disagreed with him.

Fuld is now working at his own firm, which is focused on the kind of small deals he would have scoffed at as CEO of a massive investment bank. The venue itself was an indication of his fall: an otherwise barely noteworthy conference focused on selling shares in tiny public companies.

Nike Just Became Part Of The FIFA Corruption Scandal

It is not just FIFA officials and little-known sports marketing groups who are finding themselves in the crosshairs of the U.S.'s investigation into long-term corruption in international soccer. Nike seems to be caught up in the maelstrom as well.

Remarks by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Wednesday, as well as indictments released by the Justice Department the same day, indicate that the iconic American corporation has been pulled into the massive global corruption scandal. Detailing the long history of bribery by some of the world's soccer governing bodies, Lynch said those offenses also extended to "agreements regarding sponsorship of the Brazilian national soccer team by a major U.S. sportswear company."

Her remarks referred to the landmark ten-year, $160 million deal that Nike struck in 1996 to sponsor the Brazil national team's well-known yellow, blue and green uniforms. Last year, Jose Hawilla, the owner and founder of the Florida- and Brazil-based sports marketing firm the Traffic Group, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for, among other things, accepting and passing along bribes and kickbacks in connection with that deal. Hawilla paid these bribes and kickbacks to a senior official in the Brazilian Football federation (CBF), who signed the deal along with Hawilla and four Nike executives.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch discusses the investigation during a press conference on Wednesday.

Lynch's comments followed the Justice Department's announcement that 14 people, including nine FIFA officials, had been arrested and indicted on Wednesday on numerous charges that include "racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies."

The Justice Department's indictment notes that Hawilla and the unnamed Brazilian official also engaged in other corrupt deals in the years following the Nike contract. While it does not accuse Nike of any wrongdoing or of any knowledge of Hawilla's corrupt practices, it is unclear to what extent Nike vetted Hawilla before allowing him to act as their middleman with the Brazilian soccer federation.

"Like fans everywhere we care passionately about the game and are concerned by the very serious allegations," Nike said in a statement to The Huffington Post on Wednesday. "Nike believes in ethical and fair play in both business and sport and strongly opposes any form of manipulation or bribery. We have been cooperating, and will continue to cooperate, with the authorities."

Nike introduced its first soccer boot in 1971, but its market share remained small. Globally, it was barely a player in a multibillion-dollar market, then dominated by its chief competitor, Adidas. In 1994, Nike began a major push to increase its presence in the soccer world. As part of this effort, the company's co-founder and chairman, Phil Knight, "openly set his sights" on sponsoring Brazil's national team that year. By 1996, the company was able to sign the deal with CBF and has supplied the Brazilian team's uniforms ever since.

Brazil soccer player Luiz Gustavo poses for pictures during the presentation of the team's new uniform for the 2014 FIFA World Cup on Nov. 24, 2013.

Now, however, Brazil's soccer federation is named in the Justice Department's investigation.

"Other alleged schemes relate to the payment and receipt of bribes and kickbacks in connection with the sponsorship of CBF by a major U.S. sportswear company, the selection of the host country for the 2010 World Cup and the 2011 FIFA presidential election," read a statement from the department.

In 2008, Nike renegotiated its contract with Brazil, which now lasts until 2018 and is expected to be worth $34 million, SportsPro Media reported last year.

Women Need To Listen To This Advice Given To Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer

You may think the advice that one super-successful corporate titan gives to another super-successful almost-CEO is something you can safely ignore.

Yet the last thing that Google founder Sergey Brin told Marissa Mayer right before she ascended to the throne of chief executive of Yahoo is something we all need to hear. Especially women.

In an interview with Patricia Sellers at Fortune, Mayer dished about the guidance Brin gave her in the minutes before Yahoo announced her appointment back in 2012. She said that Brin gave her all sorts of minor advice that she later wound up acting on -- like changing the Yahoo logo, one of the first things she did as CEO.

But as she was headed out the door, Brin called her back, Mayer told Sellers. "'Marissa, wait! Don’t forget to be bold,'" he said.

That’s it. That’s the advice women need to hear. Because many of us have confidence issues. I reported earlier Wednesday on a new study that offered up more evidence of the problem. The study revealed that female college students are less confident about their job and salary prospects than men.

It is the latest brick in a hard wall of evidence that shows women hold themselves back at work by not aiming higher. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg talked about the issue in her highly publicized book “Lean In,” and the Atlantic published a long piece last year called the Confidence Gap that detailed a lot of depressing examples of women’s propensity to be very much not bold.

In one anecdote, authors Katty Kay and Claire Shipman tell the story of their friend who supervises two direct reports: Rebecca and Robert. Rebecca plugs away at her job, diligently doing good work. When she needs to talk to the boss, she makes an appointment. She doesn’t speak up in client meetings. When she gets tough feedback, sometimes she cries. Meanwhile, Robert is at the boss’s office door constantly with new ideas. A lot of them are bad, but he doesn’t seem to care.

Kay and Shipman wrote:

Our friend had come to rely on and value Rebecca, but she had a feeling it was Robert’s star that would rise. It was only a matter of time before one of his many ideas would strike the right note, and he’d be off and running—probably, our friend was beginning to fear, while Rebecca was left behind, enjoying the respect of her colleagues but not a higher salary, more responsibilities, or a more important title.

Of course, as the authors note, women are often in a double-bind when it comes to boldness. Women who are bossy and decisive at work are often labeled as "bitches." But things are changing, thanks to people like Sandberg and Mayer herself.

We can also thank some great new female comics. In a recent episode of “Inside Amy Schumer” called “I’m Sorry,” there’s a hilarious takedown of the female propensity to undersell ourselves and apologize for no reason. It involves a fake panel of women geniuses who step over themselves with self-deprecating nonsense.

You should check it out. Meanwhile, I’m so sorry for taking up your time with this.

Takata Recalls Nearly 34 Million Air Bags

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under pressure from U.S. safety regulators, Takata Corp. has agreed to declare 33.8 million air bags defective, a move that will double the number of cars and trucks included in what is now the largest auto recall in U.S. history.

The chemical that inflates the air bags can explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal inflator and sending shrapnel into the passenger compartment. The faulty inflators are responsible for six deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide.

The agreement adds more than 18 million air bags to existing recalls, covering both the passenger and driver's side. The recalls of passenger-side air bags, previously limited to high-humidity states along the Gulf Coast, are now expanded nationwide by 10.2 million vehicles. A nationwide recall of driver's side air bags was expanded to include an additional 7.9 million vehicles.

"We know that owners are worried about their safety and the safety of their families," said Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as he announced the agreement. "This is probably the most complex consumer safety recall in U.S. history."

Safety regulators sparred with Takata for the past year over the size of the recalls and the cause of the problem. For the most part, the air bag maker refused to declare the inflators defective and even questioned the agency's authority to order it to conduct a recall.

Takata and 11 automakers that use its air bags, including Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., will have to sort out which vehicles are covered by the expanded recalls. NHTSA said the number of affected air bags could climb.

Prior to Tuesday, automakers had recalled 36 million vehicles worldwide because of the problem.

Before Takata, the largest recall in U.S. history was in 1980 when Ford Motor Co. had to fix 21 million cars and trucks with automatic transmissions that could slip into reverse. The Takata recall dwarfs last year's highly publicized recall of 2.6 million General Motors small cars for defective ignition switches and Toyota's recalls of 10 million vehicles for problems with unintended acceleration.

Rosekind said the agency and auto industry are still trying to determine precisely what is causing Takata's inflators to explode, but action needed to be taken immediately.

Takata's air bags use ammonium nitrate to inflate in a crash. But the chemical, which can be used to make bombs, is unstable. So far, testing has found that airborne moisture can get into the inflators and cause the ammonium nitrate to burn hotter than it should, Rosekind said.

He urged car owners who get recall notices in the mail should immediately make an appointment to get their cars fixed. Owners can key in their vehicle identification number at https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/ to see if their car is part of the recall. The number is stamped on the dashboard near the driver's side windshield and also can be found on state auto registration documents. It may take weeks before all the identification numbers are entered into the database.

On Feb. 20, NHTSA began fining Takata $14,000 per day for failing to fully cooperate in the investigation. That fine accrued to more than $1.2 million before it was suspended Tuesday due to Takata's cooperation, NHTSA officials said. Other civil penalties are still possible, they said.

Still, it likely will be months or longer before Takata and other companies can manufacture all the needed replacement inflators. Inflators will be allocated to older cars and to high-humidity areas first, where people are most at risk, the agency said. The expansion will cost Takata millions of dollars.

Takata CEO Shigehisa Takada said in a statement that the action is a "clear path" to restoring the trust of automakers and drivers.

"We are committed to continuing to work closely with NHTSA and our automaker customers to do everything we can to advance the safety of drivers," he said.

____

Krisher reported from Detroit. AP Auto Writer Dee-Ann Durbin contributed from Detroit.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Urges GWU Graduates To Develop Moral Compass

Apple CEO Tim Cook urged graduating George Washington University students to follow their values and find a job that helps them do good in a commencement speech delivered Sunday.

Cook talked of justice and injustice in a speech that paid homage to Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, delivered to a crowd on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., VentureBeat reported. The university expected about 25,000 people to attend the commencement exercises, according to the outlet.

The CEO mentioned the civil rights leader three times in his 20-minute speech, and said that King, along with Kennedy, had been one of his childhood heroes.

Cook, who grew up in Alabama, shared a story about his first visit to the nation's capital in 1977, at the age of 16. On the trip, Cook met with then-President Carter right after meeting Alabama's governor, George Wallace, who had opposed desegregation in the '60s. (Wallace is perhaps best remembered for his 1963 inaugural address that called for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.")

“Meeting my governor was not an honor for me,” Cook told the graduates. “Shaking his hand felt like a betrayal of my own beliefs. It felt wrong, like I was selling a piece of my soul.”

It was very different from meeting America's then-president, Cook said.

“Carter was kind and compassionate. He held the most powerful job in the world, and had not sacrificed any of his humanity,” he said. “It was clear to me that one was right and one was wrong."

Cook ended with a call for graduates to live their values and change the world -- and said that working at Apple had helped him do just that:

We believe that a company that has values and acts on them can really change the world. And an individual can too. That can be you. That must be you. Graduates, your values matter. They are your North Star. Otherwise it’s just a job -- and life is too short for that. ... You don’t have to choose between doing good and doing well. It’s a false choice, today more than ever.

Your challenge is to find work that pays the rent, puts food on the table, and lets you do what is right and good and just.

Words to aspire to.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated incorrectly that Cook spoke about John F. Kennedy. He spoke about Robert F. Kennedy.

Why A Wegmans In Brooklyn Is Great News For Low-Income Locals

The announcement that Wegmans plans to open a Brooklyn store sent a wave of excitement through New Yorkers on Wednesday. The proposed grocery store, slotted to open in 2017, would bring affordable food prices to a segment of the Fort Greene neighborhood that has long been waiting for its own high-quality supermarket.

The site sits next to the Farragut Houses, a public housing project near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a city-owned industrial park on the East River. For many years, residents had little access to cheap grocery stores with large selections of fresh foods, even as new buyers poured money into historic townhouses and luxury condos several blocks away.

Back in 2010, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration committed to a redevelopment plan for the dilapidated houses along Admiral’s Row at the Navy Yard. The plan included the construction of a supermarket, but it never got off the ground. Two potential developers had already pulled out by the time Steiner NYC secured its bid this week, with a Wegmans store anchoring the project.

The Navy Yard is situated along the northern border of Fort Greene, where home prices have climbed steadily over the last five years, according to market data from real estate website Trulia.

Townhouses within a quarter-mile of city housing are selling for around $1,100 per square foot, said Jerry Minsky, a broker at Douglas Elliman who also lives in Fort Greene. “You’re getting a lot of people from Europe and Manhattan with an extreme level of wealth,” Minsky said, adding that the area is “going through this Shangri-La now of being great for young professionals” who are making investments with parental support.

As a result, goods and services are also becoming more costly. A few affordable grocery stores in Fort Greene have already or will soon be shuttered, and public housing residents often travel several miles to Costco and Pathmark for lower prices, according to The New York Times.

“It’s hard for people on a lower income to deal with the cost of living when the neighborhood reaches a crescendo like in Fort Greene,” Minsky said. “I can go to a bodega and get organic if I choose it, but some people can’t afford that.”

The arrival of Wegmans, known for its fresh produce and low prices, will likely be a relief for its new neighbors. The store is also looking forward to serving the local community, said Jo Natale, a spokeswoman for the chain. It will begin by creating jobs, with an initial hiring round of 450 employees, many of them locals. Wegmans hopes its Brooklyn store will eventually employ as many as 600 people.

The chain had been looking to open a store in New York, but first needed a substantial plot of land. “This one is 74,000 square feet and large by New York standards,” Natale said of the Admiral's Row location.

The retailer was eager to settle in the Navy Yard when the site was proposed, having previously worked with the developer Steiner NYC on two New Jersey stores in Bridgewater and Manalapan.

Wegmans is still a relatively small retailer, with just 85 stores, mostly located in upstate New York and the mid-Atlantic region. But its popularity is buoyed by a cult-like following of devoted customers and a strong reputation for employee compensation. It’s been named the best supermarket in the country several times.

“Even this morning, we’ve been surprised by the reaction on social media,” Natale said Wednesday. “It’s very heartwarming. We are by most measures a small regional supermarket chain, and it makes it even more exciting to look forward to the opening.”

For now, Steiner doesn't expect the $140 million redevelopment project to impact nearby housing prices.

“New York is so dense that I don’t think it will change the fundamental dynamics of the neighborhood,” said Doug Steiner, chairman of Steiner NYC and Steiner Studios, one of the largest soundstages outside Hollywood and the set of several HBO shows, including "Girls."

As part of the redevelopment deal, Steiner NYC will preserve two buildings on the site. One will be converted into a community facility, and the other set aside for retail or light industrial space, Steiner said.

In addition, the firm will restore an area of around 20 acres near Kent Ave. as part of a studio expansion.

“Wegmans checks all the boxes in terms of affordability and quality, and they’re fantastic employers,” Steiner said. “They’re the ideal supermarket, and it’s long overdue for the area, both for shopping and job opportunities.”