To answer your question ‘how do we separate ego and emotions from our work outcome’. Rarely are there people that are completely emotionless. Often when people

To answer your question ‘how do we separate ego and emotions from our work outcome’. Rarely are there people that are completely emotionless. Often when people say they are rational, it means they don’t have a good cognitive understanding of their emotions. So, in the context of a work environment, I’ve found it’s very helpful to take in account peoples emotions when getting tasks accomplished. And like, there’s countless studies signifying the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace. Fun in-jokes are a way of getting to know a person in a casual way. This is really important, because knowing someone allows you to know their motives, what’s important, potential hurt points, etc. This all becomes very relevant when there is an important issues to be addressed. I can adjust timing, who hears the message, context of the message, etc based on what I know about the person. Eg, if during small talk, I find out someone has been up all night because their kid is sick. Sure, that kid is not my problem, but if I wait till they are more rested to tell them about an issue in their design it will be more likely to be resolved in a productive manner.