Poets, The Original Systems Thinkers. Poets are the original systems thinkers according to a recent Harvard Business Review piece, which describes the benefits of poetry for professionals. Author John Coleman covers the expected territory about poetry as a creative tool and of the strange appeal of meter to the human mind, but it is the following paragraph that struck me as much more interesting: For one, poetry teaches us to wrestle with and simplify complexity. Harman Industries founder Sidney Harman once told The New York Times, 'I used to tell my senior staff to get me poets as managers. Poets are our original systems thinkers.
While I do not know of any corporations that have poetry officers dropping references to Auden, Dickinson, Kunitz or Robin Robertson during particularly tricky negotiations, I think many businesses could do worse. Not so with poetry. As one kind of top-down method, poetry succeeds because we are mysteries, even to ourselves, and fully capable of self-deception about what it is we really want. Visualizing Greatness. The Acute Heptagram of Impact. Not as catchy a title as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, but I hope you'll walk through this with me: I can outline a strategy for you, but if you don't have the tactics in place or you're not skilled enough to execute, it won't matter if the strategy is a good one. Your project's success is going to be influenced in large measure by the reputation of the people who join in and the organization that brings it forward. That's nothing you can completely change in a day, but it's something that will change (like it or not) every day.
None of this matters if you and your team don't persist, and your persistence will largely be driven by the desire you have to succeed, which of course is relentlessly undermined by the fear we all wrestle with every day. These seven elements: Strategy, Tactics, Execution, Reputation, Persistence, Desire and Fear, make up the seven points of the acute heptagram of impact. Feel free to share the AHI, but please don't have it tattooed on your hip or anything.
How to Do What You Love. January 2006 To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We've got it down to four words: "Do what you love. " But it's not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated. The very idea is foreign to what most of us learn as kids.
When I was a kid, it seemed as if work and fun were opposites by definition. And it did not seem to be an accident. The world then was divided into two groups, grownups and kids. Teachers in particular all seemed to believe implicitly that work was not fun. I'm not saying we should let little kids do whatever they want. Once, when I was about 9 or 10, my father told me I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up, so long as I enjoyed it. Jobs By high school, the prospect of an actual job was on the horizon. The main reason they all acted as if they enjoyed their work was presumably the upper-middle class convention that you're supposed to. Why is it conventional to pretend to like what you do? Bounds Sirens Notes. List of eponymous laws. A Random Act Of “Wow” I was pretty exhausted when I checked into the Embassy Suites hotel in Maryland last night. I was greeted politely, they found my reservation quickly (always a good thing) and then it happened . . .
I was told that I had been selected as their guest of the day! Well son of a freakin gun, not even 30 seconds before I was simply Paul Castain and now I morphed into the Embassy Suites Guest of The Day. I’m not going to lie . . . Here’s what they gave me . . . A bag of all kinds of snacks . . . here’s the bag, minus the snacks Free internet . . . A certificate which I was thinking about waving around the lounge in the same way Wayne and Garth waved their backstage passes in Wayne’s world. A letter informing me of my “Guest of The Day” status! Here’s the bottom line folks . . . Appreciating a customer with a “random act of wow” doesn’t have to break the bank! I wonder if this is something you could utilize in your business somehow? A client of the day or week or what have you. A bag of goodies? How Powerful Companies Got Their Names (14 pics.
The Science of Procrastination - And How To Manage It. Desire path. A typical desire line A desire path (also known as a desire line, social trail, goat track or bootleg trail) can be a path created as a consequence of foot or bicycle traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. The width of the path and its erosion are indicators of the amount of use the path receives. Desire paths emerge as shortcuts where constructed ways take a circuitous route, or have gaps, or are lacking entirely. In parks and nature areas[edit] A desire path (right) merges with a footpath (center) in Helsinki, Finland In Finland, planners are known to visit their parks immediately after the first snowfall, when the existing paths are not visible.[1] People naturally choose desire lines, which are then clearly indicated by their footprints and can be used to guide the routing of new purpose built paths.
Land managers have devised a variety of techniques to block the creation of desire paths. See also[edit] 20 Ways to Find Your Calling. The 50 Cutest Things That Ever Happened. Private Language and Marketing-Speak. Marketing is, to a large extent, about communication. Consumer desire needs to be translated into a product and, in turn, the consumer has to understand how the product will make his life better in some way.
A good marketer is a communication professional. Many marketers often use their own private language, marketing-speak, to communicate among their own tribe and with others. They shouldn’t. The marketing process is complex already and there’s no point in confusing everybody with opaque terminology that nobody understands. Moreover, the often indecipherable babble obscures meaning to such an extent that often marketing professionals don’t understand it themselves. The Beetle in the Box Ludwig von Wittgenstein made the point in his essay, Private Language and Private Experience. He made the analogy of a beetle in a box. The word “beetle,” wouldn’t describe anything in particular. At first, the idea seems suspect. The Difference between Knowledge and Reference Using Our Brains vs. Huh? Val Patterson Obituary: View Val Patterson's Obituary by Salt Lake Tribune. The Courage to be Afraid. I’m afraid. Afraid of never doing enough.Afraid of never being enough.Afraid to break out of my routine.Afraid to take the leap.Afraid to commit.Afraid to say no.Afraid to say yes.Afraid to try.Afraid to fail.Afraid of disappointing others.Afraid of disappointing myself.Afraid of what you’ll think.Afraid of heading down the wrong path.Afraid I’ll never live up to my expectations.
Life is scary my friends. It’s even scarier when you try. When you do. When you have the courage to create something better for yourself. But as the late “Ambrose Redmoon” once said: Fear can absolutely destroy you, if you let it. Don’t let myself – or anyone – fool you into believing that we’re not afraid. The difference? Here’s to having the courage to be afraid. Here’s to embracing that fear…isn’t always something the be afraid of. Henri, The Cat (Tribute) *NEW* The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office” My neighbor introduced me to The Office back in 2005. Since then, I’ve watched every episode of both the British and American versions. I’ve watched the show obsessively because I’ve been unable to figure out what makes it so devastatingly effective, and elevates it so far above the likes of Dilbert and Office Space. Until now, that is. Now, after four years, I’ve finally figured the show out. The Office is not a random series of cynical gags aimed at momentarily alleviating the existential despair of low-level grunts.
I’ll need to lay just a little bit of groundwork (lest you think this whole post is a riff based on cartoons) before I can get to the principle and my interpretation of The Office. From The Whyte School to The Gervais Principle Hugh MacLeod’s cartoon is a pitch-perfect symbol of an unorthodox school of management based on the axiom that organizations don’t suffer pathologies; they are intrinsically pathological constructs. Back then, Whyte was extremely pessimistic. Comic strip for 07/25. Professor Stephanie Hemelryk Donald. I am a long way from Australia at present. I am based in Amsterdam, and have been travellin in Lithuania and a quick trip to Karlsruhe. But I was asked to write something about Australian democracy, which I found difficult to be frank.
I am not a political scientist nor an Australian historian, but here are some thoughts dating back to August: On 16 August 2011, there was a public meeting at St Peter’s Town Hall in Sydney’s inner west. Their fears resonated with concerns of farmers and communities across the Liverpool Plains. On 14 August 2011, the words ‘Dalian’ and ‘PX’ were disabled (or rather scanned for removal) on Sina Weibo, the extraordinary Chinese microblog network. In August 2011, Dalian had become a city seething with anger over petrochemical pollution. Taken together, one can see that defiance, demonstration, and a sense of the greater good are not confined to one type of regime.
Several false starts later, here we are. Remembering Steven R. Covey with Timeless Insights from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This is Why I'll Never be an Adult. I have repeatedly discovered that it is important for me not to surpass my capacity for responsibility. Over the years, this capacity has grown, but the results of exceeding it have not changed. Normally, my capacity is exceeded gradually, through the accumulation of simple, daily tasks.
But a few times a year, I spontaneously decide that I'm ready to be a real adult. I don't know why I decide this; it always ends terribly for me. The first day or two of my plans usually goes okay. For a little while, I actually feel grown-up and responsible. At some point, I start feeling self-congratulatory. This is a mistake. I begin to feel like I've accomplished my goals. What usually ends up happening is that I completely wear myself out. The longer I procrastinate on returning phone calls and emails, the more guilty I feel about it. Then the guilt from my ignored responsibilities grows so large that merely carrying it around with me feels like a huge responsibility. It always ends the same way. Ever Imagined a World Without Internet? [INFOGRAPHIC] Steve Carrell may be seeking a friend for the end of the world, but here at Mashable, we're more concerned with the end of the Internet. Can you imagine it? Instead of an iPad, you'd be clutching a weighty $1,200 Encyclopedia Brittanica as you rock yourself to sleep.
And instead of tweeting with pals halfway around the world, we'd be licking stamps that would total $6.3 trillion in the United States alone. We're cringing at the thought. SEE ALSO: The Internet Is Ruining Your Brain [INFOGRAPHIC] Online Education created this graphic detailing the nightmare that would be the world without Internet. What would be your biggest nightmare in a world without Internet? Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, JamesBrey. A Father's Advice: F. Scott Fitzgerald on What to Worry About. In the hundreds of letters authored by F. Scott Fitzgerald that have been collected, we have this one dated August 8, 1933. In it, he offered the following advice to his 11-year-old daughter Scottie, while she was away at camp.
It is still good advice today. I feel very strongly about you doing duty. Would you give me a little more documentation about your reading in French? I am glad you are happy--but I never believe much in happiness. All I believe in in life is the rewards for virtue (according to your talents) and the punishments for not fulfilling your duties, which are doubly costly. Half-wit, I will conclude. With dearest love, Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog. This is a post by David Dotlich, Chairman and CEO of Pivot Leadership.
He is a co-author of The Unfinished Leader: Balancing Contradictory Answers to Unsolvable Problems with Peter Cairo and Cade Cowan. To be a leader today in almost any organization means you are daily, if not hourly, bombarded with problems and challenges that don’t have clear-cut “right” answers. Or, even more confounding, there are many “right” answers, depending on your perspective. Such challenges include meeting contradictory needs (for example, tending to your “stars” while building the team as a whole), delivering quarterly results while investing for the future, maintaining consistent standards and policies while accommodating unique customer requirements, or staying focused on results while adhering to your company’s purpose and values.
The list goes on and on. In the face of these complex contradictions, many leaders choose to deny them and just “get the job done.” New Social Network Uses Kindness As Its Currency, Encourages Giving. An Open Letter To Anyone Ever Laid Off. Abigail R. Gehring: Odd Jobs: 9 Weird Careers That Can Make You Money. Mapping the world of thinking. MindTime® is a cognitive framework for predicting individual differences in people. What does that mean? The MindTime Theory is a universal organizing principle that reveals a simple framework for understanding the perceptions people will have of each other and the world around them, and reliably predicts how they will act upon their perceptions in all areas of their lives.
How can it do that? “MindTime will be the dominant theory of individual differences in psychology.” —Dr. Vincent Fortunato III, Professor I/O Psychology As simple as it appears, the MindTime cognitive framework is actually a well-researched, scientifically validated model of thinking. Specifically: how people form their individual thoughts, the patterns in information they are able to perceive, what kinds of thoughts people can form, and what mental strategies and patterns of behavior can evolve from those thoughts. And, everything we do begins with a thought . . . Its Past perspective: Its Present perspective: Wiping Out $90,000 in Student Loans in 7 Months - Real Time Economics.
Meet the Urban Datasexual | Endless Innovation. A LIFE ON FACEBOOK by Alex Droner. Never Give up: Inspirational video. Beyond the Comfort Zone. Neale Donald Walsch said, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” That is SO true and SO important to remember. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone, on the brink of a decision to throw yourself fully into the unknown, and let an open future with limitless possibilities carry you as you free fall. To change is to grow, and to grow is move beyond your comfort zone. In fact the only way to stay in the comfort zone is to live in the past because if you are truly engaging the present you realize that it is new and demands a new response from an ever evolving and new YOU.
The comfort zone is the red light district of personal growth. It’s all red lights, stop signs and rear view living, pimping your potential out to the past. The highest bidder is the habitual response because it’s familiar, whether it’s worked for you in the past or not. We all have a comfort zone, or maybe several. To protect what’s inside; the beliefs, the relationships, the identity. Life lessons for the office. Marcel Kampman » Quotes. This Inspiring Note Greets Apple's New Hires on Their First Day. Mostly About Chocolate. Ending "Business As Usual": 10 Insights on Rethinking Work. 25 Quotables from the 99% Conference. How to browse the Web anonymously. Shut up! Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them. Fan Power: Hunger Is Not a Game, Revisited. Blogs. The evolution of death. #ideachat. Tara Sophia Mohr: 12 Questions to Make 2012 Your Best Year Yet. How Iceland Is Rebuilding Its Economy With Social Media.
携帯にヤキモチを焼く猫 Jealous cat to mobile. A Year Later, Undertaker’s Story Offers Japan Hope.
Whales Give Dolphins a Lift. Upside of Irrationality Chapter 1: Paying More for Less. The Temptation of Free. Cat Naps On Router, ISP Provides Decoy Router In Exchange For Cat Pictures. Sorry, We’re Closed: The Rise of Digital Darwinism. The Employees First Effect. The Right Age To Be Amazing. Sometimes the most simple graphic makes the biggest impact.
Brain study finds what eases pain of financial loss. Tony Hsie on corporate storytelling. @Raesmaa. At This School, the Tutor Speaks Cabby. What Paulo Coelho Can Teach You About Storytelling & Writing. Mad Men - The Carousel (Higher Quality) The eye sheds a tear to find its focus... · iain2008. Stacy Green, Will You Marry Me? [INFOGRAPHIC] Stats About Porn That U Didn't Know [Infographics] Articles » Gig Review: Laneway Festival @ Sydney College Of The Arts » Polaroids Of Androids.