The holiday season is near, but it’s already the happiest time of the year for the hopelessly caffeine-addicted among us. That’s because today is National Coffee Day, and you can get a free cup of joe at Krispy Kreme or (with a separate purchase) Dunkin’. Also, Peet’s Coffee is launching a new “Disloyalty Program” that lets you use rewards points from its competitors.

Prefer to support a small business instead? Your local coffee shop might have a National Coffee Day deal too. Or you could just guzzle any week-old bean sludge that happens to be in the back of your refrigerator. (Add some pancake syrup and mustard or whatever, and pretend it’s pumpkin spice?)

Today’s Edition...

Microsoft: How it made compliance training fun

Personality: Can you change yours in the office?

Oktoberfest: We have a couple of recommendations

How Microsoft Actually Made Compliance Training Fun

Annual workplace compliance training is about as much fun as being called for jury duty. You know it's the right thing to do, but it’s such a dreary chore — and the actors in most training videos aren’t winning any Oscars.

Fortunately for Microsoft employees, the Redmond-based tech giant has cracked the code … with a slick educational series titled Trust Code, which almost feels like a premium cable TV drama. Check it out below:

Although the topic of each episode is still centered around corporate rule-following — such as avoiding insider trading — the acting and production values are top-notch, turning real-life ethical dilemmas into an exciting and entertaining story. (For example, "A friendship is tested when an improper use of data is revealed.” Ooh!)

Microsoft touts that employees look forward to new Trust Code “seasons,” and overall, the course has a 99% completion rate.

Although small businesses likely can't afford to replicate this big-budget feat, here are a few useful takeaways to emulate:

Create interesting characters: Melodramatic vignettes with paper-thin protagonists and mustache-twirling villains won’t captivate workers. Instead, establish relatable characters with genuine motivations. You may even want to have your team help create them for additional buy-in!

Show realistic situations: Tailor each dramatic situation to your organization and industry so that employees understand how it applies to them directly and how they could conceivably arise.

Gamify the training: Let employees embark on the training together, such as doing a table read of the script. Provide prompts and ample time for employees to discuss how dilemmas should be handled.

You can work with a compliance consultant and even local literary talent to develop the topics and dialogue. If trainings feel like a group project, not an individual obligation, it’s likelier your team will … y’know … comply.

🤿 DIVE DEEPER

Is It Possible to Change Your Personality at Work (and Beyond)?

(Source: Midjourney/business.com)

Dr. Steven Rogelberg is a chancellor’s professor at UNC Charlotte, former president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and author of Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings.

Personality is a meaningful predictor of productivity, teamwork, and financial prosperity. For example, individuals high in conscientiousness tend to perform more effectively on the job (and even tend to have longer life spans).

Knowing this, is it possible to become higher in conscientiousness? Is personality fixed or can it be changed with intervention and diligence?

Extensive research confirms that personality traits do evolve and shift during young adulthood, middle age, and even late in life. Individuals generally cultivate increased confidence, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability as they age.

It's worth noting that the pace of change observed in these studies is quite modest. But with diligence, commitment, feedback and guidance, more substantial personality modifications are possible within a more concise time frame.

There’s not a magic formula per se, but here are some suggested ways (ideally all used together) to target specific areas:

Meet regularly with a coach and/or therapist.
Create specific behavioral goals that can be monitored and tracked. A feedback and accountability partner can serve as a key resource on your journey.
Take a validated personality test to establish your baseline and retake it over time. Many personality test publishers also provide suggestions on key ways to enact personality change.

Don’t try to do too much at once; your entire personality is quite unlikely to shift overnight. Make your goals reasonable, so each specific success allows you to build momentum for further changes.

Celebrate Oktoberfest With a Lager From the World’s Oldest Brewery

(Source: Weihenstephaner)

As the oldest active brewery anywhere (est. 1040), Bavarian institution Weihenstephaner, located in a former monastery, produces the ideal beer for Oktoberfest — or simply autumnal beer drinking in general: Festbier. The seasonal lager is bready and full-bodied but crisp and light enough for a long, relaxing session. Lederhosen optional.

(Not a beer fan but still want to celebrate? Hermann J. Wiemer’s Riesling Semi-Dry — from New York’s Finger Lakes region, not a Bavarian monastery — is a stellar example of the style: tropical, citrusy and extremely refreshing, but not saccharine sweet like you might expect.)

On Sept. 29 in Business History:

1907: Publix founder George W. Jenkins was born. Today, the supermarket chain has nearly 1,400 locations and employs a quarter-million workers.
1920: The Joseph Horne department store shipped its first out-of-the-box, plug-and-play radio receiver. (Gone were the days of customers building their own radio box in the corner by the phonograph.)
1966: Chevrolet introduced the Camaro as a competitor to Ford’s Mustang.
1996: Ask any millennial what their favorite childhood video game console was, and there’s a good chance they’ll say the Nintendo 64, which made its U.S. debut on this day. It sold 33 million units worldwide.
2008: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 777.68 points, its largest single-day point loss.