I wrote a guest post for Sean over at FranchisePick in which I said, “Why does our society denigrate those who work low-paying jobs, when they’re honest, hardworking, pay taxes and even manage to raise families?”
Then in an email Sean said, “I think this is a good topic and one that’s had some controversy – especially when “McJob” was added to the dictionary despite McD’s protestations.
I have personally seen many many times training situations where teens and adults were being trained in basic manners and courtesy that they never learned from home or school. We’ve got this snotty attitude instead of teaching the value of service.
My poor kids work… their friends pull up in brand new Audis they never had to work for. You value what you earn.“
A couple of decades ago I read a study that showed how a lack of ownership tied to a lack of respect for private property leading to a casual attitude to its destruction. (I can’t find a URL, so if anyone out there has it please add it to the comments.)
I don’t think this has changed, in fact, I would posit that it’s gone much further—
employers consider renters are less stable;
single people are subject to higher turnover;
car age reflects negatively on the owner;
clothes labels are indicative of intelligence;
and dozens more.
All this goes hand-in-hand with the writings of CandidProf and related posts and the angst found in thousands of article on the subject from around the world.
If Obama wins will he really be the first black president? No, he’ll actually be the seventh.
What’s my point?
I thought that maybe, just maybe, using high-profile, emotionally-charged information might drive home the realization that your knowledge, even your self-knowledge, doesn’t always match the facts.
Do you look for discrepancies between your knowledge and the facts?
Although Steve Jobs is many things, he’s not a master of the sound bite. It’s not that he doesn’t say smart, cool stuff; it’s that he doesn’t toss out those gems that are easily remembered by everyman.
But that’s OK, I’m sure that history will forgive him considering all the stuff at which he does excel!
So without more ado, here are three Jobsisms that are worth remembering.
“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?” (Just be sure your piracy is user friendly.)
“I want to put a ding in the universe.” (Don’t we all!)
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” (Definitely not a sound bite, but just as definitely profound wisdom.)
IBM has surveyed 1,130 CEOs who are collectively responsible for 2.224 trillion dollars of revenue.
The 2008 study uses their “collective insights and wisdom” to formulate what IBM calls “The Enterprise of the Future”—an enterprise that encompasses these traits
hungry for change;
innovative beyond customer imagination;
globally integrated;
disruptive by nature;
genuine, not just generous.
“This Global CEO Study report presents findings related to each of the attributes of the Enterprise of the Future. It draws on the rich insights from our CEO s through statistical and financial analyses as well as the voices of the CEO s themselves. Each chapter concludes with some implications and thoughts about how organizations can move forward toward becoming an Enterprise of the Future and a case study to illustrate a leading company.”
Additionally, there are two other reports available, the IBM Global CFO Study and the IBM Global Human Capital Study.
No matter the size of your company, they’re worth downloading (free registration required) and reading. There’s plenty of food for discussion and I plan to refer to them on and off over the next few weeks.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a discussion going on at Business Week, offering readers the chance to weigh in and comment on serious workplace topics. My error was in misreading that June 30 was the last day to comment—the discussion is still going on. Additionally, there’s a place to offer up stories, pictures and videos of your own wacky experiences in the workplace or just to enjoy others’.
The last half of CandidProf’s post yesterday made me queasy, especially when he said, “In the city where I live, the local suburban school district had a case of a mathematics teacher who was noted for being far tougher than other teachers. The parents of the students in this teacher’s class complained that their kids were working too hard. The teacher gave far too much homework. Too many of her students did not pass. Eventually she was fired.”
In many cases these are the same parents who babble on about their strong ethical/religious (take your choice of which) principals and moral superiority and are oh-so-quick with their judgments of others.
They are the same ones who scream at the coach for not letting their child play; condemn the teacher when their child’s grades aren’t up to their expectations; complain that the boss is incompetent when their child is fired for poor performance.
Supposedly it’s parents’ responsibility to lead their children by providing a value structure, encouraging/supporting their growth and doing all those other leadership things about which we’re constantly reading.
I say supposedly because based on the very visible results very few are actually doing it.
The bad old times when the assumption was that the child is always wrong have been replaced with the assumption that everybody is wrong except the child—as long as the child is theirs and the family is of an acceptable social level with enough economic power to insist.
I’m not saying the old way was good, but it did produce stronger character than having every bump in the road smoothed out for you.
But, then, the children long ago stopped taking their direction from adults, preferring the advice and ‘wisdom’ of their peers.
The problem is that advice sans judgment; a false belief that whatever they screw up their parents can/will fix; or a strong ‘the rules apply to everybody but me’ attitude can have serious reprecussions.
A month ago I wrote about HBS’ James Heskett’s research question on deep thinking—or the lack of it—in business and life.
Now, in Heskett’s typically masterful summing up he tells this story and says that it “captures much of the sense of the responses to this month’s question about why managers don’t think deeply.”
“A since deceased, highly-regarded fellow faculty member, Anthony (Tony) Athos, occasionally sat on a bench on a nice day at the Harvard Business School, apparently staring off into space. When asked what he was doing, ever the iconoclast, he would say, “Nothing.” His colleagues, trained to admire and teach action, would walk away shaking their heads and asking each other, “Is he alright?” It is perhaps no coincidence that Tony often came up with some of the most profound insights at faculty meetings and informal gatherings.”
The summing up is valuable, but of far more value are the 136 comments from people around the world.
Take the time to read Heskett’s query and his audience’s thoughts, then ask yourself—how much deep thinking do you do?
CandidProf is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at a state university. He’ll be sharing his thoughts and experience teaching today’s students anonymously every Thursday— anonymously because that’s the only way he can write really candid posts. Read the first half of this post here and all of his posts here.
Now, these are kids that don’t want to go to school in the first place. Giving a lecture about school is boring to them. It is not the way to reach out to them. Instead of a Powerpoint presentation, I have some demonstrations. I have a table full of equipment. I show them several things, and then ask them questions about what they think will happen. I force feedback. They are not just going to sit passively.
Then I say that the mathematics shows that certain things will happen. Lo and behold, what happens is what the math says will happen! I pick some of the more showy demonstrations—things that I remember from decades ago, and things that my students still find exciting. Then I show a couple of 30 second videos, such as the famous Tocoma Narrows bridge collapse (after showing a demonstration of a similar phenomenon). I explain how each phenomenon relates to everyday life.
The kids wake up. I get started only three minutes before they are supposed to leave. The secretary asks the person in charge if I need to stop since it is time for them to go. He decides that the bus can wait. This is important. Finally, someone is engaging the kids.
When I am done I caution the kids that this is all fun and it was what got me interested in the field. But that if they want to study science and engineering they need to STUDY in high school. They need to take the tough science and math classes even if they don’t want to. They won’t make it in college if they are not ready to come here.
I don’t think anyone else told them that. But it is wrong to lead them on to make them think that all they need to do is enroll in college to get a college degree. Too many slackers in high school come to us with the same mind set. They don’t make it. And, I think that too many people let them think that they can get away with it.
Where I live, as well as in other states, there is a move to get more students to go to college, particularly the “at risk” students. They try to get more of the students who had no plans on college to go to college. BUT there is not much plan on what to do with them once they get here. The state is moving towards “performance based funding.”But performance is not defined as teaching. Performance is not defined by how well students are prepared for the workforce. Performance is defined by the number of students coming to college from under represented demographics. Performance is defined by how many students complete classes and get degrees. Performance is not defined by the quality of those degrees.
This tends to put us in a bind. They want more at risk students, most of whom are not prepared to go to college, to be accepted. And they want those students to graduate. So, come colleges drop standards. They water down courses. They put pressure on faculty to pass students no matter how poorly they perform.
Already, the beginnings of this movement have had their effects. Degrees are weakening. And many American educated students are having difficulties competing in graduate school with foreign educated students. At my institution, academic standards are still being held high. But, if our funding is eventually tied to how many students finish, those standards will have to drop. If standards drop all over the country, then what will a college degree mean?
We’ve seen this before. The states took a look at pre-college education, and they saw that not enough students were completing high school. Too many students failed classes. They began tying teacher pay to the number of students who passed. So students began passing even if they had not learned. Any teacher that added work to students to make them learn more was disciplined.
In the city where I live, the local suburban school district had a case of a mathematics teacher who was noted for being far tougher than other teachers. The parents of the students in this teacher’s class complained that their kids were working too hard. The teacher gave far too much homework. Too many of her students did not pass. Eventually she was fired.
Then word then came out that her students scored FAR higher on the state assessment tests and the SAT than other students in the district. But that did not matter. Learning and scores on those tests are not performance measures.
Sometimes, I get very discouraged at the direction that education is heading. But it is important to keep going.
Someone needs to hold to standards, and that is what an effective leader does. You hold the standards even if it is unpopular.
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 wrote a guest post for Sean over at FranchisePick in which I said, “Why does our society denigrate those who work low-paying jobs, when they’re honest, hardworking, pay taxes and even manage to raise families?”
Does skin color matter to you? Your 
A couple of weeks ago I 
The last half of CandidProf’s post yesterday made me queasy, especially when he said, “In the city where I live, the local suburban school district had a case of a mathematics teacher who was noted for being far tougher than other teachers. The parents of the students in this teacher’s class complained that their kids were working too hard. The teacher gave far too much homework. Too many of her students did not pass. Eventually she was fired.”
A month ago I 
