I call Saturday Expand Your Mind and I try and provide links to articles and information of which you may be unaware or that gives you a different view of something you already know.
Along the way I learn a lot—both new stuff and new ways of looking at old stuff—just like you.
What I want to share today has nothing to do with business or anything about which I usually write.
But it blew my mind and I thought it was likely to have a similar effect on you.
A little background.
Street dancing, for lack of a better term, fascinates me. The athleticism is amazing and the skill required is obvious.
As with any art form, innovation has moved it in new directions, with multiple offshoots.
In the last few years Memphis jookin has acquired international celebrity, principally because of the exceptional young performer Lil Buck (real name, Charles Riley). An extraordinary YouTube clip of Lil Buck dancing “The Swan” to the cello playing of Yo-Yo Ma in April 2011 caused a sensation.
Of course I watched the clip and that’s what blew my mind.
In 1914 why did that ultimate capitalist Henry Ford raise worker pay to the unheard-of wage of $5 a day? There is many a corporate titan who would do well to consider Ford’s philosophy today—before developing next year’s executive compensation plan or even deciding on this year’s bonuses.
Not only was it a matter of social justice, Ford wrote, but paying high wages was also smart business. When wages are low, uncertainty dogs the marketplace and growth is weak. But when pay is high and steady, Ford asserted, business is more secure because workers earn enough to become good customers. They can afford to buy Model Ts.
These days, innovation is touted as the world’s savior, but is it really the game-changers or their copycats that provide real economic benefit? An excerpt from The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking, by Eli Broad posits the latter. And before you argue keep in mind that Apple didn’t invent computers or MP3 music players.
Who does capture the benefits of new ideas, products, and models? Imitators. They get a free ride, avoid dead ends, capitalize on the shortcomings of early offerings or tweak the originals to better fit shifting consumer tastes. And yet, imitators rarely get the recognition they deserve: When was the last time someone received an Imitator of the Year Award?
Based on descriptions of the new Windows 8 operating system I’ve decided that I will switch a few weeks after I die. If all you use is a smartphone or tablet you’ll probably have more tolerance to it, but if you use multiple applications on a real computer not so much. HBS’ Rosabeth Moss Kanter discusses it in terms of people’s resistance to change and I agree, but I have a much stronger resistance to things that make me feel incompetent and/or stupid.
Technology is good at that and as one commenter said, “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat there getting angry trying to figure out how to get something done. I’m not an idiot when it comes to computers, but this OS made me feel like one.” Kanter’s response? “Your software should not make anyone feel like an idiot.”
Common wisdom says “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it,” but there are times when that attitude is shortsighted. The Smithsonian certainly isn’t broke in any way, shape or form, but it has looked to the future and decided it needs to update its brand if it plans to continue for another 166 years and beyond.
Although the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum and research complex, is already a popular and trusted brand, officials there nonetheless decided they needed to raise awareness, particularly among young people, of precisely what they have to offer.
Education, at least higher education, is finally changing and moving forward. And like a jar of olives after you pull out the first one the rest come out faster and faster.
The exorbitant cost of a college education and the spiraling debt of new grads have led many to question the value of a college degree; what no one questions is the need for continual, ongoing education just to stay relevant.
The need to constantly adapt is the new reality for many workers, well beyond the information technology business. Car mechanics, librarians, doctors, Hollywood special effects designers — virtually everyone whose job is touched by computing — are being forced to find new, more efficient ways to learn as retooling becomes increasingly important not just to change careers, but simply to stay competitive on their chosen path.
“Higher education will change; the system is unstable,” says Kevin Werbach, a Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor, who is teaching a MOOC on Coursera this summer. “It’s an industry that will be in severe turmoil in the next decade. There are so many schools in distress, and the student loan burden is [huge]. In that environment, online platforms like Coursera are an interesting opportunity.” (…) In April, Coursera announced it had secured $16 million in funding from two Silicon Valley venture capital firms. Udacity is also venture backed. MIT and Harvard contributed a combined $60 million to launch edX, which is overseen by a nonprofit, but program directors have said they plan to make the initiative self-supporting.
The new efforts dwarf the few classes that started being offered online about ten years ago. There are no actual course credits, but with major universities, such as Harvard and MIT jumping in things are getting interesting.
In what is shaping up as an academic Battle of the Titans — one that offers vast new learning opportunities for students around the world — Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday announced a new nonprofit partnership, known as edX, to offer free online courses from both universities.
In a new report, Moody’s Investor Service calls MOOCs a “pivotal development” that has the potential to revolutionize higher education. Questions remain whether these online courses can be profitable and whether traditional colleges will award credit for them. But if successful, MOOCs could lead to lower costs for families and access to higher-quality instruction for anyone in the world who has Internet access.
As to the grads, according to the media most of them want to be entrepreneurs or are still looking for riches on Wall Street, but not all. What other career path is attracting interest these days—would you believe farming?
For decades, the number of farmers has been shrinking as a share of the population, and agriculture has often been seen as a backbreaking profession with little prestige. But the last Agricultural Census in 2007 showed a 4 percent increase in the number of farms, the first increase since 1920, and some college graduates are joining in the return to the land. (…) “You don’t get into farming for the money. You do it for the love of the game.” –Calvin Kyrkostas, 25
Robert Tanner and his blog Management is a Journey are both pretty cool dudes and he did a superlative job narrating the October Leadership Development Carnival using a back to school theme. I thought it would make expanding reading on a Saturday and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
BACK TO SCHOOL
As a leader, is it important for your team to respect you or like you? The good news is that it is not an either/or decision. As Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership explains both Liking and Respect will happen if you concentrate on helping your team and team members succeed.
Shakespeare once said, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” What type of leader are you? This is the subject Neal Burgis, Ph.D. of Practical Solutions explores in his article, Characteristics of a Natural Leader.
If only those working with you could see how great your idea is! What’s the matter with them anyway? Many business leaders have felt this way a few times in their career. In his article, Why Can’t Those People See that this is a Great Idea, Kyle Dover of Anyone Can Lead provides tips to significantly increase the chance of getting other people to adopt your proposals.
What does it take to manage an organization’s culture? As S. Chris Edmonds of Driving Results Through Culture explains in his article, Feel How to Keep Culture on Track, it’s more art than science. It’s similar to effective auto racing. “It’s not about pure speed. It’s about feeling the car ‘in the moment,’ every moment.”
As a business leader, Do you Measure your Emotional Capital? This is critical as Anna Farmery of the Engaging Brand explains with her signature quote: ”People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did BUT people will never forget how you made them feel.”
What’s the insider secret for building a strong organization? It turns out that the “secret” is known information. Strong Organizational Foundations are Rooted in Timeless Truths as Chery Gegelman of Simply Understanding explains in her slideshow of leadership quotes.
Deadlines — competing, missed, impossible to meet, have to be met — they are a regular occurrence for leaders! What’s the solution for busy professionals? In his article, Meeting deadlines! Here is how to do it!, Bernd Geropp of More Leadership provides 10 tips for getting deadlines under control.
Sometimes all it takes is a reminder to put everything in its proper perspective. This holds true for leadership and organizational problems as well. In his article, How You See Problems Helps You Solve Problems, Tim Milburn of Developing Lifelong Learners explains how problems provide an opportunity for leadership.
There’s a Rodney Dangerfield problem for some in the workplace. It seems they cannot get any respect! As Miki Saxon of MAPping Company Success explains getting respect is not that difficult. You just need to put your Ducks in a Row: When It Comes to Respect You Get What You Give.
What does it take to achieve a high level of organizational performance? As Jim Taggart of Changing Winds explains in his article, Are You a Passionate Leader, it takes passion to propel an organization forward. “Having a burning passion is a requisite to instilling a sense of mission among one’s followers.”
Servant leaders focus on developing the talent of those they lead. It’s easier to work with those star performers, but how can leaders develop their poor performers? In her article, A Performance Development Tool for Servant Leaders, Mary Ila Ward of Horizon Point Consulting provides a guide for starting the conversation with poor performers.
What’s the value of a referral? For leaders, a good referral can mean finding high performing talent to help the organization achieve its objectives. In her infographic article, It’s All About Who They Know, Meg Wheaton of Gagen MacDonald explains how leaders can use social media and other tools to find new talent and build a culture of collaboration and inclusion.
Now that we have been properly schooled on the practice of leadership, our next group of contributors will provide their insights on the art of leading transition. Something all leaders must do themselves and help others to do as well!
TRANSITION
“Every year a stream of nameless, faceless executives withdraw from their offices and gather somewhere offsite as part of a long-standing corporate ritual called strategic planning.” How effective is this process in practice? David Burkus of LDRLB tackles these issues head-on in his article, Strategy is About Choice.
“For organizations to thrive in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, leaders have to learn how to build a culture of trust and openness.” In his article, Four Strategies to Increase Organizational Trust and Transparency, Randy Conley of Leading with Trust shares tips for building a culture that will unleash creativity and innovation in organizations.
As Joel Garfinkle of Career Advancement Blog explains, for most people, changing careers is a process, not an overnight, snap decision. This process does not get easier with time. In his article — My Job Isn’t Satisfying: Changing Careers at 30, 40, or Even 50 — Joel provides tips to successfully make this transition.
When you care strongly about developing effective leaders, it’s frustrating to find out that support for leadership development and training is on life support in your organization! In A Strategic Story About Strategic Storytelling, Karin Hurt of Let’s Grow Leaders shares the approaches she used to revive a stalled leadership development project.
You’ve made the jump to management! You’re no longer just an individual contributor responsible for your own work only. You now are responsible for the work of your entire team. Now it’s starting to hit you! What exactly are you supposed to do with these people? Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership has some help for you in his article 25 Tips for New Managers.
Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) is a management philosophy where leaders evaluate employees on results — not on their presence in the office. Is this new philosophy, where employees can independently manage their own time as long as the work gets done, viable for companies? Jennifer Miller of the People Equation provides insights in her article, 7 Considerations for Launching ROWE at Your Company.
“If you think you’re leading and no one is following, you’re really just taking a walk.” Jesse Lyn Stoner of Seapoint Center gives real world proof to this saying in her article, The Process is as Important as the Product: 7 Tips to Manage Both. She explains why creating a “critical mass” of employee support is critical to implementing any change.
“To lead for innovation, leaders need to become comfortable not having the right answers, and instead think about possibilities.” Linda Fisher Thornton of Leading in Context provides these and other insights in her article, Failure is Part of Innovation.
While transition is never easy, some aspects of leadership can be scary especially when leadership is exercised ineffectively. Our last contributors for this month discuss barriers to effective leadership.
SCARY SEASON
A wise grandmother often shared the following with her family: “What you believe about people is how you’ll treat them.” Robyn McLeod of Thoughtful Leaders builds on her grandmother’s wisdom in her article Are your Beliefs Getting in the Way of Better Leadership? “As a leader, being aware of our beliefs and being flexible and open enough to shift our beliefs when necessary is a skill that pays off in many ways.”
Mention the word poison and you will get people’s attention! Poison brings harm and destruction. While the natural world has its sources, so too does the business world. Leaders can and do inflict poison on their work teams. The result — whether accidental or intentional — is the same: damaged and destroyed working relationships! In a post from my blog, Management is a Journey, I share Seven Ways to Poison Your Relationship with Your Employees.
In our society success = money. As children we are taught to pursue success, so actions that bring success within our grasp are honed from childhood on and cheating is one of those actions. I’ve often focused on the prevalence of cheating in schools, how it’s rationalized and where it leads.
That rationalization is succinctly explained by a kid attending a premier high school.
“It’s like, ‘I’ll keep my integrity and fail this test’ — no. No one wants to fail a test,” he said, explaining how he and others persuaded themselves to cheat. “You could study for two hours and get an 80, or you could take a risk and get a 90.”
In short, they wanted success, which meant getting into the “right” school; of course, getting into the right school rarely spells the end of cheating.
Over and over again, students told us that they admired good work and wanted to be good workers. But they also told us they wanted — ardently — to be successful. They feared that their peers were cutting corners and that if they themselves behaved ethically, they would be bested. And so, they told us in effect, “Let us cut corners now and one day, when we have achieved fame and fortune, we’ll be good workers and set a good example.”
Of course, the drive for success doesn’t end with school; if anything it increases. But many people have a naïve belief that cheating is found more often in business and politics, while the world of science is one of higher integrity—would it were actually true.
In the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, two scientists and a medical communications consultant analyzed 2,047 retracted papers in the biomedical and life sciences. They found that misconduct was the reason for three-quarters of the retractions for which they could determine the cause.
“For 30 years I’ve sacrificed to get to this point.” But his exit strategy, according to federal prosecutors, included his participation in a multimillion-dollar international scheme that involved the lieutenant colonel in charge of the United States Army’s Special Forces operations in Afghanistan and a Boston-based defense contractor.
Cheating is rife in the world of sports and that includes fishing—and I don’t mean the stories about one that got away.
Those who run, monitor and compete in tournaments said that cheating scandals have tarnished the wholesome image of fishing and ruined the final rankings in many competitions, as people handed trophies, cash and other prizes were later found to have cheated.
Cheating often involves taking advantage, whether of circumstances or people—or both. Just look what can happen to people whose circumstances force them to rent a computer instead of buying one.
DesignerWare, a Pennsylvania-based software maker, to create a program that secretly captured “webcam pictures of children, partially undressed individuals, and intimate activities at home.” This included people who while engaging in sexual activities in their homes were being recorded on their rental computers. (…) In a news release issued by the F.T.C., Jon Leibowitz, the agency’s chairman, said the software had also captured consumers’ private e-mails, bank account information and medical records. In some instances the software was able to capture Social Security numbers, medical records and doctor’s names. Most disturbing, the webcam captured pictures of children.
In the last decade, men, especially working-class and middle-class men, have had very different experiences in this economy from the women around them.
However, in case you hadn’t noticed, bias is alive and well in the workplace in many ways.
Considering the tremendous shortage of science and technology grads, one might think that bias would be a thing of the past. Ha! Think again.
Science professors at American universities widely regard female undergraduates as less competent than male students with the same accomplishments and skills, a new study by researchers at Yale concluded. (…) Female professors were just as biased against women students as their male colleagues, and biology professors just as biased as physics professors — even though more than half of biology majors are women, whereas men far outnumber women in physics.
Companies and higher education talk a great deal about diversity and many have diversity programs in place, but what they don’t (can’t?) address is the subtle bias that happens before anything happens.
Much of the talk about ending workplace discrimination focuses on gateways (…) But some of the biggest barriers to a truly diverse applicant pool and workforce may actually be occurring at the stage just before that…
Specifically, men with shaved heads were viewed as more masculine and dominant than other men. But it doesn’t end there: Two of the experiments showed that such men were perceived as taller (by an inch, on average) and stronger (that is, seen as being able to bench press 13% more) than those men who were well-coiffed. They were also viewed as having greater potential as leaders. (…) “The broad take-away is that perceptions about leadership and related traits like dominance can emerge from peculiar characteristics that aren’t really related to leadership at all. (…) There is evidence, for instance, that unconventional dress in women is viewed as status-enhancing. So women may have more of an impact just by engaging in unconventional behavior.”
The word “leader” is all over the news; media loves talking about individual “leaders.” Executives and people in positions of power have worked hard for decades to perpetuate the myth that leaders are magical and larger-than-life; special, unique, irreplaceable and, above all, can’t be duplicated. But that emperor has no clothes, according to HBS Assistant Professor Gautam Mukunda, who, in his new book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter, kicks large holes in the myth that individual leaders really make a difference. (Book excerpt)
The result was his Leader Filtration Theory, or LFT, which states that a leader’s impact can be predicted by his or her career. The more unfiltered the leader, the larger the prospect of big impact. The more a leader has relevant experience, the less chance of high impact.
No where is the talk of “leaders” greater than in the political arena, especially during a Presidential election. An opinion piece focused on whether being gregarious is a requirement of leadership.
Culturally, we tend to associate leadership with extroversion and attach less importance to judgment, vision and mettle. We prize leaders who are eager talkers over those who have something to say.
As an introvert, I enjoy being by myself. I sometimes feel drained if I have to be in front of large groups of people I don’t know. After I’ve been in a social situation — including a long day at work — I need quiet time to be alone with my thoughts and recharge.
One way so-called leaders, (I prefer the more neutral term ‘boss’) can make a difference is found in how they treat people; one trait they all have in common is their approachability and engagement with everybody, not just their senior staff.
68 year-old Mickey Drexler, CEO of J. Crew, is and a well known face in all aspects and locations of the company—with employees and customers.
He visits every office, store and distribution center, and makes an effort to meet every new employee, although he’s always Mickey, not Mr. Drexler. (…) He’s been known to personally respond to a letter from a shopper who has a problem or a suggestion.
One thing that we preach at work all day long is “don’t hope.” What that means is don’t wait for somebody to do something for you. Don’t do something 90 percent well and hope that it’ll slide through. Don’t rely on luck. You have to make your own luck. The only thing you can do is try your absolute best to do the right thing.
Finally, for those of you who want more on leadership checkout the information and interviews available at McKinsey’s Leading in the 21st century(free registration required).
In today’s volatile environment, leaders of global organizations must master a slate of challenges unseen in business history. In this feature, McKinsey talks with seven leaders and Wharton professor Michael Useem about the new fundamentals of leading in the 21st century.
I thought it was time to check back for a snapshot look at what’s happening in terms of people in the workplace.
First, an overview from Boston Consulting Group’s six-part article (free registration required) that presents strong support for the idea that you get more from your people by providing more for them.
Those that excel in leadership development, talent management, and performance management, for example, experience substantially higher revenue growth and profit margins.
I remember the oil crash in the mid-1980s; I was working in executive search (I was a headhunter) and I watched as several recruiting firms devoted to oil and gas closed their doors when the industry crashed, laid off, stopped hiring and adopted Draconian HR policies. Those companies are currently reaping that which they sowed, with the exception of Devon Energy Corporation. (Booz & Company’s strategy + business requires free registration.)
When the oil price fell, companies stopped hiring, and a generation of geological science and engineering students chose other fields of study instead. Now, as turnover rates rise and competitors lure away skilled engineers, this talent gap means that human capital capabilities have been strained for nearly every company in the industry.
As a result, many Americans who work for companies that embrace flexible hours are confronting a sort of office class warfare. Some employees have come to expect that the demands of their children, in particular, will be accommodated — and not all of their colleagues are happy about it.
Quick; what has changed most since you started work? How ‘bout summertime Fridays?
Everyone leaves work at noon on Fridays, said Ben Morris, 31, a British photographer who was a host of one of the Thompson parties, which start at 3 p.m. “People just leave the office. And Mondays become a write-off because no one’s there on Friday. They’re playing hooky.”
“We used to go out a lot at night, but we’re getting older, concentrating on our future,” said Reign Apiim Artis, 23,
Innovation is often a direct result of research, but they both depend on a willingness to look at the tangible and intangible in new ways and healthcare and medicine (not the same thing) are starting to benefit. Here are a few things that caught my interest.
The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, which has long been a medical innovator, has turned its attention to better ways to use IT to improve patient outcomes. (For many years the Clinic has had its own company formed specifically to commercialize its discoveries, leading to conflict-of-interest accusations.)
The clinic is a pioneer in providing information to patients and linking patient involvement with medical records and healthcare practice improvement. It is also vigorously experimenting with medical IT in new forms of patient engagement and education, including social media.
Startup Healthy Labs is creating social websites that target specific chronic medical conditions, such as Crohn’s Disease and Colitis, which are verifiably for patients.
…patient-only networks — people have to be verified as actually being diagnosed with the relevant issues before they can join. This is meant to keep out people shilling for pharmaceuticals and certain holistic “cures,” and keep the community centered around the real folks who are dealing with chronic diseases at hand.
Practice Fusion is for the rest of us, providing the kind of central medical repository that has been talked about for years, but doing it cost effectively.
… a massive database of information for medical professionals and patients that includes everything from records and vitals to doctor reviews, has data for more than 50 million patients. More than 150,000 medical professionals use it to keep track of patient data.
But an epidemic of overtreatment — too many scans, too many blood tests, too many procedures — is costing the nation’s health care system at least $210 billion a year, according to the Institute of Medicine, and taking a human toll in pain, emotional suffering, severe complications and even death.
Thanks to false information that vaccinations are the cause of autism many childhood illnesses that were seen as vanquished have made a comeback. Multiple studies have found that autism is securely tied to the world of auto immune diseases and the problems start in the womb—but the information has not been popularized.
Danish study, which included nearly 700,000 births over a decade, found that a mother’s rheumatoid arthritis, a degenerative disease of the joints, elevated a child’s risk of autism by 80 percent. Her celiac disease, an inflammatory disease prompted by proteins in wheat and other grains, increased it 350 percent.
Finally, did you know that low sperm count is a global problem? And that it is worst in Israel.
… that his stable of superior donors includes only tall, twentysomething ex-soldiers whose sperm has passed rigorous genetic testing. But finding such super sperm isn’t as easy as it used to be. Only 1 in 100 donors makes the cut. A decade ago, it was 1 in 10.
Technically speaking the links I’ve been offering lately have been off subject and perhaps I should apologize to the purists among you (assuming there are any). But I honestly believe you can draw useful intelligence from off-subject information and experiences, both direct and vicarious, to apply to your professional life, while some just apply living in general. Today I’ll start with the most applicable and move outwards to the indirect.
It’s a well-known fact that the line you aren’t in moves fastest—or does it? New research shows that it’s not how long you actually wait, but how long you are idle that counts, which is why I always try to carry a book.
“Often the psychology of queuing is more important than the statistics of the wait itself,” notes the M.I.T. operations researcher Richard Larson, widely considered to be the world’s foremost expert on lines. Occupied time (walking to baggage claim) feels shorter than unoccupied time (standing at the carousel). Research on queuing has shown that, on average, people overestimate how long they’ve waited in a line by about 36 percent.
Understanding nonverbal communications means more than looking at the obvious clues, such as crossed arms; it means taking the 3 C’s into account.
One way of increasing your accuracy is applying the 3 C’s of Nonverbal Communication: context, clusters, and congruence. Context includes what environment the situation is taking place in, the history between the people, and other factors such as each person’s role (for example- an interaction between a boss and employee).
Parenting and managing (or leading, if you prefer) have a lot in common, so I tend to read parenting articles.
A recent essay from a college professor who understands both sides of the coin when it comes to disengaging from a child-about-to-be-an-adult offers up insights that are just as useful to a manager struggling to delegate as to a parent who needs to let go.
Parents and children follow one another’s progress on Facebook. They post photos of the campus lobster bake on Instagram. They tweet. They text. They Tumbl.
There are times when I want to tell my students that if they want to learn anything at college, their first step should be defriending their parents. (…) Now that I am one myself, I finally know what it is parents are going through — not just letting go of a child but of an entire chapter of their lives.
Finally, The NYT has a feature called Room for Debate that poses a subject with experts on both sides adding their thoughts. Frequently the best stuff is found in the hundreds of comments. The most recent asked if “modern parents were rude… Or just doing what’s best for their children.” Lyss Stern, founder of Divalysscious Moms, a “luxury lifestyle company for urban mothers”, provided the most comic relief from a modern, totally self-absorbed mindset—almost a caricature of the subject.
“Yes, sometimes I did let my younger son run around Barney’s because I know he’d pitch a fit if I kept him in his stroller. But that doesn’t make me a bad mom.”
Sorry Lyss, according to 99% of the comments I read it does.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
I call Saturday Expand Your Mind and I try and provide links to articles and information of which you may be unaware or that gives you a different view of something you already know.
