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In today’s complex business world, change is hard. Companies venturing through major culture shifts, mergers, or other forms of change often struggle to make it to the end. The idea that people hate change is a phenomenon that is taught, coached, and wrestled with in many ways, shapes, and forms. Regardless of your mindset about CHANGE, there is one vital aspect you should explore.

PROGRESS is what you should be focused on. Change for the sake of change is meaningless. However, progress toward a new goal or achievement is more vital and more valuable to your organization.

Dean Lindsay, America’s premier authority on Progress, writes:

All progress is change, but not all change is progress.

Lindsay uses an illustration. If you wake up in the morning with a stomach ache, you want to change. You want it to go away.

If you tell a friend and they punch you in the nose, you got a change. But it wasn’t progress toward curing your stomach ache.

The RhetoricThere are voices in the media demanding change. The word has been worn out. Again, change for the sake of change is not progress.

When you sense the need for change or you design an intentional change in the way your business operates, be sure you are designing progress toward a new goal.

I know companies who have launched major change initiatives (they call it that) with the intent to become more profitable, increase margin, find efficiencies, or become more competitive.

Those are great objectives.

Yet what they are really saying is we need progress forward to be better situated for growth and survival in our industry.

Too often the well-intended change that is initiated gets bogged down in all the adoption and adaptation process. As soon as the change feels hard and resistance begins to mount, plans are adjusted.

Many times the shift is pulled back or canceled in the face of resistance.

Living Through the CurveRoxanne Chugg writes: “The fact is that most change initiatives are done “to” employees, not implemented “with” them or “by” them. Although leaders are pushing behavior change from the top and expecting it to cascade through the formal structure, an informal culture left to instinct and chance will likely dig in its heels and resist or even hijack the change.”

There is a popular model that describes the change cycle. Dr. Virginia Satir first introduced this model when explaining emotional life-changing events in family therapy. However, it has been widely adopted in change management circles to help businesses plan for and implement change.

The “S” shape of this curve helps us see the complexity of making a change. When applied to a work team, each member of the team will experience their own progression through the curve, each moving at their own pace.

The key matter here is that everyone in the organization faces their own emotional curve when forced into change. Acceptance or adoption of the change is dependent upon the progress one can make moving through the curve.

If plotted together on a single graph you could see the lag points where the manager/leader may be further along the curve than his people. If the leader is not sensitive to this lag factor, then the message from the top might be skewed.

The leader could be thinking “Come on people, don’t you get this? Why aren’t we further along?”

In reality, the team may be lagging behind the leader’s position moving along the curve. A little bit of lag is normal. However, the leader must decide how much lag is tolerable.

Back to ProgressGiven the tremendous effort and disruption a change may cause at work, leaders must be mindful of the progress being made.

Leaders need to ask: “Is the company moving ahead because of this change or are we merely spinning our wheels, burning out the staff, and creating very little value?”

Question: What change initiative has your company gone through recently? Or were you the one directing it?

The post Change and Progress, Are They Twins? appeared first on Business Advisor and Executive Coach | Doug Thorpe.

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Travel benefits us on many levels, opening our minds to creative thoughts and ideas we can tackle as we move forward. Observation can be one of the most incredible learning experiences, particularly when we travel to various countries and meet people from different cultures. By using all our senses (including taste), we deepen the experience to realize how to proceed with business intuitively upon our return.

Observe for Moving Forward

We are a global society, and it was a pleasant surprise to see photos and quotes of well-known CEOs of American companies in the lobby of an Italian hotel.

Steve Jobs, the ingenious creator of Apple, established a remarkable company known and admired globally today. Tim Cook and his team took the company and its innovative offerings to levels never previously imagined. Upon entering a hotel in a suburb of Italy, it was to my surprise that I saw a few of Jobs’ quotes posted in the lobby of a hotel in Italy, including this one:

When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.

Creativity On Multiple Levels

Another element of creativity at the same hotel is its restaurant cuisine offerings. The presentation and taste of the food were remarkable. I was motivated to take a photo of thinly sliced, smoked swordfish I had never eaten before, and the presentation was artful.

Progressing from Ancient Times

It was a treat to visit the ancient cities of Croatia and Montenegro, which were built long ago. According to a Google search, the first city walls were built in the 9th century, about 1600 years old, but were entirely rebuilt during the Venetian Period (1420 – 1797).

The walls were built high in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Speaking of imagination, how did the people have the knowledge, skill set, and tools to build the remarkable fortresses? Moreover, how was everything carried to the hilltops? Some speculate that ancient aliens assisted with pyramids of the past; could the same apply in this case?

Reflecting

Seeing the ancient cities, walking the cobblestone sidewalks and roads, and speaking with small-business owners gave way to reflecting on all I appreciate about my work and personal life. The reflection emphasized how I am to focus on my return and what to pursue moving forward.

Look to the Sky and Observe for Moving Forward

As time passes, continue to embrace all the learning lessons, both good and bad. These events point one to a better path for a fruitful journey. Disappointments happen daily but incorporate what you learn into your next project or journey to improve future outcomes.

Remember, it does not matter what your peers believe about your ambition; what you think and how you decide to proceed matters most. If you need proof, in addition to your long-term and short-term goal setting, make a separate list of your fulfilling goals achieved as time moves forward. It motivates you to continue your unique path regardless of what others say. Retaining your unique identity and approach to business and everyday life will seem like some unforeseen accomplishments magically occur.

Conclusion: Look to the Sky and Observe for Moving Forward

The reflection during vacation and upon my return confirms that the creative mind may work in mysterious ways. Following our intuition, the success we desire upfront eventually appears when we remain faithful to our ambitions and goals.

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On Deepavali Eve, my partner called to inform me that it was happening again. I had texted partners and employees early in the morning and followed up multiple times. He reminded me of such a behavioral pattern in January, which resulted in an organization’s implosion, and almost all employees left.

I tried to explain my side — first, how the organization was chasing deadlines, and then how I was built. His point was that if the employees did not understand the importance of deadlines, they wouldn’t do it anyway. And some things, my friend, do take time.

Fact. That is just about right. If only, the organization could grow at everybody’s whimsical pace. I was the managing partner and therefore responsible for all facets of the organization. But sometimes, that is just the honorable name for a beast of burden. My other partners are smart, learned, and perhaps, even wise. They have their fries in the oven.

Here, I decided to step back. Well, that’s that.

I strongly dislike the term “silent partners.” These partners possess substantial equity in a company and usually have their positions due to passive support from a group of founders.

The managing partner and operating partners are supposed to run the show. The silent partners are to be just that — silent. So, I realized that when I rushed to seek help from them — their purpose of existence anyway — I was not getting the support I needed. But in review meetings, the remarks of dissatisfaction and innovating answers of why they are yet to be satisfied enough to contribute — they expressed that their contribution was a risk they would not take yet.

The load on me, the managing partner, has piled on as a result. There are deadlines because some transactions were coming to fruition. The complaint that the product was not there for fundraising is now gone.

The most frustrating aspect of their approach is their indifference and silence. From just seeking help, I am not sure if they want me to pray and beg, that I would not.

I operate from Chennai, which is about 300 km away from our office in Bengaluru. While Bengaluru is an attractive city, I can’t afford to relocate there. My wife prefers to stay in Chennai due to her familiarity with the area and the support network she has established here. My previous move to Mumbai was a disaster, so I am very cautious about considering another relocation.

We are well-equipped to work remotely. My business partner works from Mumbai and can effectively handle her responsibilities. The challenge we face is that, since we operate remotely, I rely on frequent updates from our employees to keep things moving forward.

When the updates are unclear and undefined, I have to get specific and more frequent updates and follow-ups.

I designed the roles of program manager and operating partner to oversee the business-as-usual processes. Initially, everything was going well; however, issues began to arise in January when deadlines started to be missed. I faced criticism for my aggressive follow-ups and for sending messages at inconvenient times. The program manager left, and a new team gradually settled in after a mass exodus. Currently, the team is still short three qualified candidates, and we have encountered challenges related to working capital during this difficult period.

I established a daily huddle mechanism in which I participated. The partner who advised me at the beginning of this process suggested that I step back. I handed over the assignment to the new program manager and stepped away from direct involvement. Since then, things have generally gone well. While there have been a few minor issues, the new team has come together effectively and is emerging as a cohesive workgroup.

Then, there are new operating partners who funnel their requests through me. The transmission of these priorities from working partners to the team is critical. This is the unaddressed space.

Why am I responsible? Because I don’t want anything to go wrong. If somebody understands the requester’s priority, then my job is done. Somehow, that is the reason for the current situation. However, it also brought forth, the challenge I posed.

Once again, I have the responsibility of setting the stage. Therefore, I have decided to take a step back.

Instead of making impetuous decisions or snap judgments, we must step back, sometimes, and grant ourselves time for slow thinking, allowing critical thinking to open deadlocks and clear up clouds dimming our journey.

― Erik Pevernagie (“The postman always rings twice”)

*Step Back and Observe: *

Stepping back means allowing myself to be for a while simply. I plan to remain quiet and inactive, letting time pass to observe how people collaborate without my involvement. This approach differs from my usual style. However, as a visionary and someone responsible for strategy and operations, I recognize my right to intervene if necessary. For now, though, I will hold my opinions and be discreet about follow-ups and interventions.

*Set Rules of Engagement: *

There will be a Category B, where the team can talk to their supervisors, which is business as usual. There will also be Category A, which deserves my time, attention, and decision-making. This will evolve into an informal mechanism that will slowly become an unspoken rule. This way, adoption will be more effective.

*Review and Support: *

There are already designated review time slots. I will focus on engaging with the team only during these times. I will ask for updates before meetings and minutes after. The team will run the meetings, and I will offer help only when needed.

*Give It a Month: *

Let’s try this out in November and share the results and learnings afterward. Why don’t we wait until then?

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Stories define people – they shape our relationships, cultures, and societies. Unlike other skills replaced by technology, storytelling has remained uniquely human, setting people apart from machines. But now, even storytelling is being challenged. Artificial intelligence, powered by vast datasets, can generate stories that sometimes rival, or even surpass, those written by humans.

Creative professionals have been among the first to feel the threat of AI. Last year, Hollywood screenwriters protested, demanding – and winning – protections against AI replacing their jobs. As university professors, we’ve seen student work that seems suspiciously AI-generated, which can be frustrating.

Beyond the threat to livelihoods, AI’s ability to craft compelling, humanlike stories also poses a societal risk: the spread of misinformation. Fake news, which once required significant effort, can now be produced with ease. This is especially concerning because decades of research have shown that people are often more influenced by stories than by explicit arguments and entreaties.

We set out to study how well AI-written stories stack up against those by human storytellers. We found that AI storytelling is impressive, but professional writers needn’t worry – at least not yet.

The power of storiesHow do stories influence people? Their power often lies in transportation – the feeling of being transported to and fully immersed in an imagined world. You’ve likely experienced this while losing yourself in the wizarding world of Harry Potter or 19th-century English society in “Pride and Prejudice.” This kind of immersion lets you experience new places and understand others’ perspectives, often influencing how you view your own life afterward.

When you’re transported by a story, you not only learn by observing but your skepticism is also suspended. You’re so engrossed in the storyline that you let your guard down, allowing the story to influence you without triggering skepticism in it or the feeling of being manipulated.

Given the power of stories, can AI tell a good one? This question matters not only to those in creative industries but to everyone. A good story can change lives, as evidenced by mythical and nationalist narratives that have influenced wars and peace.

Studying whether AI can tell compelling stories also helps researchers like us understand what makes narratives effective. Unlike human writers, AI provides a controlled way to experiment with storytelling techniques.

Head-to-head resultsIn our experiments, we explored whether AI could tell compelling stories. We used descriptions from published studies to prompt ChatGPT to generate three narratives, then asked over 2,000 participants to read and rate their engagement with these stories. We labeled half as AI-written and half as human-written.

Our results were mixed. In three experiments, participants found human-written stories to be generally more “transporting” than AI-generated ones, regardless of how the source was labeled. However, they were not more likely to raise questions about AI-generated stories. In multiple cases, they even challenged them less than human-written ones. The one clear finding was that labeling a story as AI-written made it less appealing to participants and led to more skepticism, no matter the actual author.

Why is this the case? Linguistic analysis of the stories showed that AI-generated stories tended to have longer paragraphs and sentences, while human writers showed more stylistic diversity. AI writes coherently, with strong links between sentences and ideas, but human writers vary more, creating a richer experience. This also points to the possibility that prompting AI models to write in more diverse tones and styles may improve their storytelling.

These findings provide an early look at AI’s potential for storytelling. We also looked at research in storytelling, psychology and philosophy to understand what makes a good story.

We believe four things make stories engaging: good writing, believability, creativity and lived experience. AI is great at writing fluently and making stories believable. But creativity and real-life experiences are where AI falls short. Creativity means coming up with new ideas, while AI is designed to predict the most likely outcome. And although AI can sound human, it lacks the real-life experiences that often make stories truly compelling.

Closing in?It’s too early to come to a definitive conclusion about whether AI can eventually be used for high-quality storytelling. AI is good at writing fluently and coherently, and its creativity may rival that of average writers. However, AI’s strength lies in predictability. Its algorithms are designed to generate the most likely outcome based on data, which can make its stories appealing in a familiar way. This is similar to the concept of beauty in averageness, the documented preference people have for composite images that represent the average face of a population. This predictability, though limiting true creativity, can still resonate with audiences.

For now, screenwriters and novelists aren’t at risk of losing their jobs. AI can tell stories, but they aren’t quite on par with the best human storytellers.

Still, as AI continues to evolve, we may see more compelling stories generated by machines, which could pose serious challenges, especially when they’re used to spread misinformation.

Haoran Chu, Assistant Professor of Communications, University of Florida and Sixiao Liu, Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences, University of Central Florida

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Humans are fractals in their habits and character. What they do in one place they repeat everywhere and any time. It is the habit of using models that I focus on in this article. The habit of using 4Ps models in marketing, storytelling, in organizations, in creativity and communication.

Let us scan this habit and discover its utility.

4Ps in MarketingMost readers are familiar with this model and so will only remind the readers of the four P components.

The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. They are an example of a “marketing mix” to help marketing people in planning their marketing strategies.

Four Ps and CreativityThese 4Ps of creativity were first introduced in 1961 by Mel Rhodes in his article titled, “An Analysis of Creativity” in which he defined the four Ps as:

• Person– what are the characteristics and traits of the creative person?
• Process– what process the creative person used in his creative work?
• Press– what was the nature of the situation and its context within the creative press (or environment)?
• Product– what was the quality of the creativity product?

Four Ps of Communication of ChangeThe four Ps used in communicating the need for change are:

• Purpose– to answer the question why do we do what we do?
• Picture– what shall the future picture be like once change is implemented?
• Plan– the plan for change and how to get there.
• Part– the question each change agent should as himself is what is my role or part in this change?

The Four Ps Model of OrganizationThe four Ps used for modeling organizational design for change are

• People– the importance of involving people in the change process
• Process– of implementing change
• Purpose– the importance of having a grand purpose for change, and
• Performance– and the need to have metrics to gauge the progress of the implementation of change.

The Four Pillars of StorytellingTelling stories is a skill that we all need in all facets of life. No wonder storytelling has its four Ps as well.

These four pillars are:

• People– these are about the characters in the story and the desire they have to do something.
• Places– the desire to be say a renowned writer will reflect in the places where you or the character tends to spend his time. For a promising writer you would find him in book shops, libraries and even reading while on a bus trip.
• Purpose– this is the why behind our story. The moment our audience or readers must find an answer to the question every one of them asks. What is in it for me?
• Plot– this is about the structure of the story whether it is 3-acts or four or more.

People and purpose repeat in many of those 4Ps models. The biggest fact in life is people and why we do what we do for them remains very high on our priority list.

You see people carry their habits including that of thinking to many areas of life. Thinking in 4Ps is a habit like many more that people keep on repeating.

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Is it ever beneficial to intentionally send the wrong message? That’s the question that drives the conversation when Richard Bistrong, Ron Carucci, and Heather R Younger, J.D., CSP® join the ethics panel to Grapple with the Gray.

Here is our topic: Earlier this summer, a CEO and tech entrepreneur named Rob Dance ignited a firestorm on Twitter with a post titled: “Things I’m sick of hearing from my employees.” His list included: Can I leave early today? I’ll be in late this morning. My child is sick, can I rush off? I’ve got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, is that okay? I’m going to be late back from lunch, I’ve got some things to sort.

He concludes with this pithy, editorial remark: I don’t care. Not surprisingly, the post attracted a barrage of critics, decrying his insensitivity and calling him a variety of colorful names. To which he replied with a short question: Did you finish reading the whole post? Because he concludes with these comments: “I hired you for a job and I fully TRUST you to get it done. I don’t need you to account for every single hour. Times have changed, and the workplace is different these days. People are sick of being treated like children. “All that should matter is that everyone is happy, and that the work gets done. My advice to companies: Treat your staff like adults. That’s it, that’s the big secret. Give them autonomy, respect that they have lives outside of work, don’t gaslight them into being grateful for not being fired every day. Output should always trump hours.”

One of my mantras is that Trust is the T in ETHICS. But is it wise to trust that readers will make it to the end of a provocative post and not miss the twist at the end? Does this style come across as snarky or refreshingly candid? Is it worth the risk of being misunderstood to make a critical point? And aside from style, is Rob Dance’s advice practical in a culture where so many employers complain about workers slacking off and shirking their responsibilities? And if it is, why does it seem to be so rare?

Richard Bistrong is CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery, LLC, assisting organizations with ethics, compliance, and anti-bribery challenges to help surface unknowns and shine a light on the real-world importance of operationalizing ethics & integrity.

Ron Carucci is the owner and managing partner of Navelent, helping organizations articulate a strategy for success, translate that strategy into results, and develop exceptional leaders along the way.

Heather Younger is a Certified Speaking Professional and LinkedIn Learning instructor. She is also CEO and founder of Employee Fanatix, helping equip companies and organizations with the intelligence they need to improve the quality of work life for their employees.

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In a world where change is often the only constant, developing leadership skills that enable change is crucial. Every employee in a management role must recognise the need for change, whether within their teams or the wider organisation, to help navigate evolving landscapes. This mindset is essential in competitive markets, where continual improvement is key to remaining relevant.

Yet, the process of change isn’t just about survival, it’s about making the most of opportunities to innovate, grow and thrive in an ever-changing business world. A significant number of studies show that a majority of change and transformation initiatives fail to deliver on the outcomes expected, that perhaps only about 30% actually deliver what was hoped for. Why, because leaders core leadership skills were not effectively developed.

Understanding Transformational LeadershipAt the heart of leading change is the concept of ‘transformational leadership’. This leadership approach is defined by its focus on motivating team members to broaden their mindset, exceed their usual limits and proactively participate in the process of improving day-to-day operations to transform the organisation.

By adopting this continuous improvement mindset, transformational leaders promote steady constant growth, ensuring an organisation remains current. Not to mention, avoiding disruptive and large-scale changes when the organisation discovers, after years of no change, it is well behind what’s needed which is common in many industries.

Encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and supporting creativity will enable transformation and boost organisational outcomes. It will also instil a sense of purpose and belonging among teams, not only improving engagement but promoting a commitment to the organisation’s vision and goals.

It’s important to understand that a significant driver of effective transformation is emotional–belief amongst employees in the vision leaders create. An employee’s effort will potentially increase by about 20% if they become rationally committed to a change – “it makes logical sense”. But if they become emotionally committed it can increase effort by over 40% – “I believe”.

Developing Leadership Skills for Growth and ChangeTo create an organisation that prioritises growth and change, and to optimise the number and quality of ideas developed by employees, there are some key actions to take;

1. 1. Create an Inspiring Environment – Establish a positive and motivational culture at the team level. Good leaders should inspire team members to contribute their best ideas, building a collective desire for improvement. This is about the leader listening, showing they care, and building trust. This is employee engagement.
2. 1. Encourage Strategic Thinking – Motivate team members to identify opportunities that align with the organisation’s goals and objectives. Understanding the bigger picture helps generate ideas that contribute to overall improvement, builds commitment, and enable agility whilst also breaking down silos. That then enables more effective collaboration across the organisation which further enhances performance.
3. 1. Positive Consideration of Ideas – Actively and positively evaluate the ideas presented by team members. This approach not only shows their contributions are valued, but also encourages a culture of openness and innovation. Constructive feedback is key, even if an idea doesn’t move forward it’s critical recognition for creating it is given.
4. 1. Effective Application and Support – Once viable ideas are identified, ensure they are supported whilst put into practice. This is crucial to turn these ideas from concepts into actionable and beneficial changes for the team and organisation. This also demonstrates to everyone that new ideas are welcome and actioned where they can be.

Implementing these steps effectively is essential for reaping the benefits of transformative leadership. But management teams also need to develop specific leadership skills that support and drive growth and change within their organisations;

• • Optimised task delivery skills – These are the foundation for success day to day even without change being required. Too often however these are lacking, data suggests that this is a critical barrier to enabling best outcomes and transformation.
• • Adaptive Thinking – Embrace a growth mindset by seeing change as an opportunity, not a challenge. This involves continuous learning and adaptability, which enables agility, key leadership skills for navigating an evolving business environment. This includes preparing contingency plans to ensure smooth transitions during organisational changes.
• • Strategic Vision – Master the art of strategic thinking then planning. This requires understanding the organisations key objectives and then setting clear goals and milestones for the team to support them.
• • Effective Communication – Develop the ability to communicate a vision effectively, inspiring and engaging others, showing how they contribute to the big picture and how that then benefits them. An effective leader will then use their enthusiasm to encourage change and further build belief to motivate the team.
• • Resilience in Adversity – Learn to view challenges as opportunities for improvement, encourage team members to support each other, to bring the team together in a focused way to overcome adversity. This leadership example is key in fostering a culture that views setbacks as opportunities for learning and development.
• • Team Appreciation – Prioritise recognising team efforts and celebrating successes. This not only reinforces teamwork but also boosts morale, creating a sense of achievement and belonging that drives a team towards wanting to be even more successful.

Becoming an Effective Leader Who Promotes ChangeAll in all, the development of leadership skills that are focused on growth and change is critical in today’s fast-paced world. By embracing transformational leadership, management teams can not only adapt to change but become catalysts for positive constant improvement within their organisations. Ultimately, business is about staying ahead of the curve and using change to your advantage.

When improving your leadership skills, it’s beneficial to look beyond the basics of decision-making skills and communication skills and step out of your comfort zone to explore new leadership styles.

“Just good enough” as a leader is in reality “not good enough”. You must strive to be your best – optimise task delivery, get the best from people and align to strategic objectives. That will Accelerate Your Success.

You can find out more about transformational leadership, including podcasts with successful leaders who have done it, and how it can benefit your organisation.

Why I wrote this article

As a leadership speaker and motivational speaker, my articles are focused on helping leaders beat the challenges they are facing and become more successful. They try to solve the key challenges leaders from amongst the over 22,000 from around the world I have spoken to have told me they face. Many of them are consistent.

As a leadership speaker, my objective is to help leaders use my Accelerate Your Success system to be more successful by equipping them with the tools and confidence needed to tackle challenges and seize opportunities then, as a motivational speaker, to inspire them to take the first step on their journey.

The insights in the articles are based on my 40 years of experience in “hands-on” leadership roles in the military, business, and Government, 25 of those delivering major transformations and developing the performance of senior leaders. That’s then interwoven with success stories from real business case studies.

As a leadership speaker and motivational speaker to ensure a successful event that delivers insight, interaction, inspiration, and impact tailoring is key. This focused approach is how I help leaders and their organisations to achieve their desired event outcomes – beating challenges, exceeding objectives, managing transformation and change, becoming Entrepreneurial Leaders, and whatever is critical for them to take action on afterward for success.

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In this episode of The Sanity Project podcast, host Joanne Victoria speaks with Os Benari, a product management executive and author of “Starting from Scratch.” They discuss the challenges of managing change and the innovative concept of fractional work. Oz shares her insights on the audio industry and the importance of resilience in career transitions. She also explains her role as a fractional CPO and the advantages it offers. The episode delves into Os’s six-step model for change management and concludes with Joanne directing listeners to Oz’s website for further resources on career development.

Os emphasizes the importance of creating a role model for personal and professional growth and how it empowers individuals.

“Audio content is more than just a trend; it’s a landscape rich with innovation and growth. Os Benari’s stint on the advisory board of Audio Burst revealed the vibrant opportunities in this space. The audio industry’s evolution is a reminder that staying curious and open to change is key to thriving in modern career trajectories.”

“The post-COVID world has thrown the spotlight on creative career opportunities, and one that truly excites is fractional work. Its potential to reshape our professional experiences was a hot topic with Os Benari. This approach not only offers flexibility but also the chance to contribute to diverse projects. The evolving work landscape is calling, and it is ripe with possibilities for the taking.”

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Life transitions are hard. It brings up many questions. Having worked with over over 1,000 people over the years, here are some of the top questions we explored during our coaching sessions. Some individuals are also considering retirement. The answers to each of these questions are highly personal and unique, making it impossible to provide a one-size-fits-all solution. Everyone is at a different stage in life, with their own experiences, goals, and dreams.

These are important questions to ask ourselves. If you need support in delving into any of them, please let me know.

Self-Assessment and Exploration:1. What do I truly enjoy doing? 2. What are my strengths and skills? 3. How do I figure out what I want to do next? Career Transition:1. Should I stay in my current field or switch industries? 2. What new skills or education do I need? 3. How do I build a network in a new field? Job Search and Marketability:1. How do I update my resume for a career change? 2. What are the best strategies for job hunting in a new field? 3. How do I handle potential gaps in my employment history? Financial Considerations:1. Can I afford to make a career change? 2. How does this transition impact my retirement plans? 3. Should I take a pay cut to pursue a new career? Retirement Planning:1. When is the right time to retire? 2. Do I have enough savings to retire comfortably? 3. What will I do with my time in retirement? 4. How do I transition from a full-time job to retirement? Personal Fulfillment and Well-Being:1. What activities will keep me engaged and fulfilled? 2. How do I maintain social connections in retirement? 3. How can I stay healthy and active during retirement? Professional Guidance:1. Would a career coach or financial advisor help me? 2. How do I handle the emotional aspects of retirement?

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The price of progress is often paid in human suffering.

—Unknown

As AI continues to revolutionize our world, we often marvel at its capabilities. From self-driving cars to personalized recommendations, artificial intelligence seems to have no limits. Yet, behind this dazzling facade lies a darker reality: the human cost of AI’s rapid advancement.

While AI is often hailed as a technological marvel, its development and deployment often rely on a vast, invisible workforce. These individuals, often located in developing countries, are tasked with the monotonous and often disturbing work of training AI algorithms. They may be exposed to graphic content, such as violent videos or disturbing images, as they label data to teach AI systems how to recognize and respond to different inputs.

The psychological toll of this work is significant. Constant exposure to distressing material can lead to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Additionally, these workers often face poor working conditions, low wages, and limited job security. The exploitation of this vulnerable workforce is a stain on the reputation of the tech industry and a stark reminder of the ethical implications of AI development.

To address this issue, it is imperative that tech companies adopt more ethical and sustainable practices. This includes investing in the well-being of their workers, ensuring fair wages and working conditions, and developing AI systems that minimize the need for harmful data labeling. By taking these steps, we can harness the power of AI while safeguarding the dignity and well-being of those who make it possible.

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It’s good to be thoughtful about the differences (which are big) between being a consumer versus a creator. Basically, every marketer and business wants to capture your time and attention – and increase your behavior as a consumer. But you’ll contribute to yourself and others – by spending your time as a creator. Being an active and engaged creator isn’t as “easy” as being a passive consumer of content, but… being a creator is what you were designed to do.

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Episode DescriptionIn this episode of The Mind Takeaway podcast, we explore the fascinating and complex world of AI ethics with Camila, an AI ethics research expert at SAP. We explore the development of AI ethics over the past decade and its crucial role in ensuring that AI technologies are designed and used responsibly and ethically. Camila sheds light on the significant gaps in AI development, the ethical concerns surrounding AI, and the importance of safeguarding human rights and societal values amidst rapid technological advancements.

We discuss the challenges posed by biased and incomplete data, the Western-centric nature of current AI technologies, and the implications of AI-generated data. Camilla emphasises the need for a balanced approach to AI development, integrating ethical principles into the engineering cycle and fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders, including policymakers, legal experts, and designers.

We also touch on the EU AI Act, its impact on consumer and business AI technologies, and the importance of transparency, explainability, and quality testing in AI systems. The conversation highlights the necessity of slowing down and reflecting on the broader implications of AI, including environmental considerations and the right to disconnect.

•Disclosure: Camila’s options are her own and not of her company.

Timestamps

01:20 Introduction to Camilla and her role at SAP

03:45 The development and importance of AI ethics

08:10 Ethical concerns in AI: Bias, discrimination, and societal impact

12:35 The Western-centric nature of AI technologies

16:50 The implications of AI-generated data and synthetic data

21:15 The EU AI Act and its impact on AI deployment

26:40 Balancing innovation with ethical considerations

31:05 The role of collaboration in achieving responsible AI

35:20 Environmental considerations and the right to disconnect

40:10 The importance of integrating human rights into AI development

45:00 Reflecting on the broader implications of AI and technology

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Many of my coaching clients have recently shared their struggles with feeling tired, emotionally overwhelmed, and cognitively overloaded and are close to burnout. They attribute these issues to the pervasive and addictive nature of technology, exacerbated by the pandemic and divisive global conflicts, accelerating change, and the rise of AI and hybrid work. As a result, many have retreated and frozen into habitual, reactive ‘busyness.’ This affects their overall emotional, physical, and mental health and wellness, inhibits their ability to focus, create, invent, and innovate, and restricts their optimism, hope, and positivity about their future in an unstable and uncertain world. Coaching creates a unique opportunity to partner with people to develop their pause–power to identify the transformative actions to reverse this pervasive phenomenon.

What is pause-power?

A coaching session usually serves as a first step towards cultivating the pause power needed to stop, observe, reflect, and take valuable time out to rest, replenish, re-energise, and reboot. This allows people to courageously notice, attune to, and express their true feelings and thoughts, to disrupt, dispute, and deviate them to develop the pause-power required to heal and provide relief, hope, and optimism for a better future.

Everyone must cultivate intentional pause power to empower them to observe and understand their inner and outer worlds. This practice helps them remove distractions, stop multitasking, and break free from the ‘busyness’ that depletes their cognitive, emotional, and visceral resources, putting them in the driver’s seat of their mental and emotional well-being.

Self-reflection and reflective practice become potent tools, enabling people to move away from reactivity and short-term focus and towards taking the transformative actions to adapt, create, invent, and innovate.

Hitting your pause button

Being adaptive, creative, inventive, and innovative involves consciously taking your hands off the controls and encouraging yourself and others to notice and disrupt your habitual and addictive ‘busyness’ (time scarcity + task focus).

This awareness is the first step towards reclaiming your focus and attention so that you can engage with and interpret the modern world rather than try to control it or withdraw from it.

Being willing to take a break and hit the ‘pause button’ stops your continuous cycle of doing. It focuses your attention on breaking limiting beliefs or unresourceful patterns and provides a support structure for applying rigorous perception practices to our daily lives.

Using pause power to create a place, as recently described by Otto Scharmer from the Presencing Institute:

“Between action and non-action, there is a place. A portal into the unknown. But what are we each called to contribute to the vision of the emerging future? Perhaps these times are simply doorways into the heart of the storm, a necessary journey through the cycles of time required to create change”.

What does pause power involve?

A pause is created when you suspend activity, a time of temporary disengagement when you no longer move towards any goal. It can occur amid almost any activity and can last for an instant by taking a deep breath to get grounded, for minutes to become mindful or to take a rest, for hours to enjoy a well-deserved break, or for years to experience life in a different culture or place.

Intentionally pausing enables you to take time between your range of habitual, largely unconscious reactive responses; it helps our brain’s executive function utilise the valuable ‘empty spaces’ between stimulus and response and between different ideas. It creates a space open to options and choices for being, thinking and acting differently.

Doing this allows you to notice and disrupt unresourceful and habitual auto ‘stimulus-response’ default patterns, which usually occur when things go wrong, you make a mistake and fail, or you dive into blaming, shaming or avoiding others as part of our naturally wired defence mechanisms.

Radical acceptance

Learning to pause is one of the critical steps in innovation because it helps you initiate a practice of radical acceptance. This requires embracing uncertainty, or ‘what is’ truly happening in the present moment, relationship, or situation, by accepting things just as they are.

“During the moments of a pause, we become conscious of how the feeling that something is missing or wrong keeps us leaning into the future, on our way somewhere else. This gives us a fundamental choice in how we respond: We can continue our futile attempts at managing our experience or meet our vulnerability with the wisdom of Radical Acceptance”.

By being willing to dive into an ‘empty space’ from an emergent process, you can unleash possibilities, opportunities, options, and choices toward identifying the transformative actions that create your desired future.

People who can artfully and skillfully facilitate creative conversations that funnel pause power and co-create valuable ‘empty spaces’ to occur can generate our imagination and curiosity to manifest glorious moments of insights required to emerge creative ideas.

Pausing also enables you to observe, pay attention, notice, and regulate how your overall nervous system impacts and manages your brain’s functions. This is key to being practical, resourceful, healthy, and productive in the face of volatility, complexity, uncertainty, and accelerating change in our hyper-connected world.

It also needs rest to do this. By applying our pause power and giving ourselves some rest, we offer our bodies, hearts, and minds a chance to recharge, keep moving, and work towards taking the transformative actions required to build better workplaces and flourishing futures.

A valuable toolkit and habit

This skill is valuable for everyone to reflect upon, cultivate and master. It is initiated by intentionally stopping by hitting an invisible cognitive ‘pause button’ to observe, pay attention, notice your inner experience, and see yourself as the cause of it.

Developing pause power involves six simple vital steps and questions:

1.Retreat from reacting to the situation – by stepping back into the present moment or time to notice, be with, allow, accept (radical acceptance), and acknowledge ‘what is’ going on internally and externally, and be willing to name it with detachment and discernment.

• What is going on for me right now – how am I feeling about it?

2. Step up and out to disrupt yourself and create an opening, doorway, threshold, or empty space – to allow something new to emerge.

• What can I learn from this situation?

3. Step up and out to disrupt yourself and create an opening, doorway, threshold, or empty space – to allow something new to emerge.

– What can I learn from this situation?

4. Be willing to introduce and explore options and choices that allow you to deviate and refocus your attention on what really matters – taking a rest, having a holiday, completing a project, being a better person, getting a new job, or getting a promotion.

• What are some of my options for change?

5. Be inquisitive, curious, and open to reimagining, reinventing, and pivoting – an intention, mindset, behaviour, task, goal, or business focus to re-plenish, re-energise, re-engage and re-boot to mobilise yourself.

• How might I feel, think, or act differently to achieve my outcome?

6. Step out into the system’s edges – by being calm, hopeful and optimistic, to identify the transformative actions required to move towards and exploring new creative, inventive, and innovative solutions for providing value in ways people appreciate and cherish.

• What will I do next?

Engaging in a Looking Lab

As many of our ImagineNation community members know, I am currently writing a book on ‘Being Innovative.’ There is a whole chapter on developing pause power to help people engage what Christian Madsbjerg calls in his latest book “Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World” (Riverhead Books) – a Looking Lab, to:

“Get away from your screens, turn off your notifications, go out into the wilds of reality, and look around. Let go of all filters—clichés, conventions, colour corrections, whatever they may be. Try to pay attention to the simple act of seeing.”

He reveals that “if we choose to look for them, there are invisible worlds all around us ready to reveal their magic. The seemingly mundane or average can appear extraordinary, but only if we take the time to notice and see it”.

This is a vital part of our remarkable human capacity to transform through the slow, patient act of observing, attending, noticing, replenishing, re-energising, re-engaging, and re-booting to take the transformative actions that will help you make the world a better place and achieve your 21st-century growth and success differently.

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ProblemsDo you sometimes go to a meeting and find the experience a struggle? You feel cross and tired at the end and wonder if the effort was worthwhile. Many meetings are like this, but they don’t have to be. It is utterly knackering when you have lots of these back-to-back.

Meetings are difficult because people feel they have to compete to be heard. The noisy ones find listening hard because they are bursting to speak. The quiet ones give up because they think no one will take any notice anyway, or they will be interrupted, so what’s the point?

These difficulties get worse if the subject is controversial or the objectives of the meeting are unclear.

SolutionsThe “Go Round”

You ask everyone to share their best thinking about the topic for (say) two minutes while everyone else listens attentively without interrupting. They will get their turn later. This format ensures everyone gets an equal chance to speak and be heard, so competing is unnecessary. Quiet people gain respect because their thinking is often clear and valuable as they work on it inside before they speak. The noisy people have to focus their thinking to get it into a fixed time, so it is often sharper than usual.

This simple method works even better if you go around the group in reverse order of seniority! If bosses go first, people will tend to agree with them, so you get less original thinking.

After a “go round”, you can have a more conventional discussion that will go well or extend the method. There is more about this in Nancy Kline’s “More Time to Think” book.

A storyI used this method to help a utility avert a damaging strike. Afterwards, my client told me, “That was brilliant, bill me what you like!”

Pairs and Share

When feelings are running high or everyone is confused, you need to increase the amount of attention in the room and give everyone space to think, talk, and be heard very quickly. Stop and have each person spend (say) two minutes listening to the colleague next to them about what they think and feel about what is happening and what should happen next. Then, swap roles. After this, use a quick “go round” as above to share conclusions. You will find the heat has left the situation and know what to do. This process is one way to use coconsulting or cocounselling in practice.

Clarify Aims

Coverdale training teaches a systematic approach for getting things done. One of their key ideas is that the aims of the activity (or meeting) should be clear to achieve anything. It is worth spending some time at the beginning of a meeting or item seeking agreement to what you are trying to do. Being awarely naive is very powerful if you are a member rather than a chairperson. “I think we are here to decide what we will do about developing our managers next year. Is this what the rest of you think we are here to do? You can also seek agreement on success criteria. You ask, “If this meeting was a complete success, what would have to take away at the end?” This sharpens up the focus no end.

Create the right setting.

If you want to have a discussion that can go deeply into an issue, especially a controversial one, then the right setting will make a huge difference. Many of the conventional settings are unhelpful. Emotional closeness often follows from physical closeness. So, think about being informal without barriers like desks and tables and sitting in a “huddle” where you can easily see and sense each other. Putting chairs in a circle will encourage participation.

You can also help to create a productive climate by stating the “norms” or rules for the interaction. For instance, you might say “This meeting will go much better if we concentrate on listening to each other and sharing our thoughts on what to do about the situation, I don’t think agonising about how we got here will be helpful at this stage, do you agree?

Finally, review the process of the meeting.

Some things will go well at every meeting, and others could improve. It helps to ask people at the end. What was the most significant thing you learned at the meeting? What was good about how we worked together? How could the next meeting be even better? You will get some good ideas and make everyone think about how they work together.

I often do this after one-to-one meetings. It helps me improve my practice as a coach and consultant.

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Immigrants

That dust was everywhere. It got in your eyes, up your nose so you couldn’t draw a breath. So you breathed through your mouth and the grit was always on your teeth and crunched with everything you ate. The quarry slowed and there were no jobs, and then – America, the land of golden sidewalks beckoned.

My friend Stella, retold her father’s tale of how he came to leave Carrara, Italy, origin of the famous marble and move to Boston. I’ve heard versions of this story several times, from Indians, Mexicans, and Brazilians. An Englishman once told me,

“Americans just seemed so carefree, not at all stuffy like everyone I knew at home. I came on holiday and resolved to come back to stay.”

My Pittsburgh haircutter Mico told succinctly how his family emigrated from Calabria.

“They had the dream and the dream made what they had seem like nothing.”

Immigrants may be the best example of people choosing life altering change. They reject where they live and move to an uncertain promise of opportunity. These are the three elements of a change mindset:

• Rejection of the status quo (case for change)
• Promise of the future (Vision)
• Choice (people may reject “your” change if they feel it’s imposed upon them, but if they choose, then it’s “their” change).

Of course, you have to act. You have to sell what you own, get visas, buy tickets, get on the boat. No change happens until you do something, but action without the right mindset is unlikely to succeed.

Those who’ beat addiction through the AA 12-step process know the importance of steps 1-3:

1. “Admit you are powerless over alcohol”(acknowledge “rock bottom” reject status quo)
2. Believe a higher Power can restore us to sobriety (a powerful vision)
3. Decide to turn our will and our lives (buy the ticket – commit to change)

The remaining steps are all about actions, but the mindset is critical.

The FormulaThis formula for change is usually credited to Richard Beckhard who published it in 1977 in Organizational Transitions. The formula was developed by David Gleicher while at consulting firm Arthur D. Little.

Dissatisfaction (rejection of the status quo) the push of change, times the pull of change (vision), times first steps must exceed resistance to change. In the original it was the cost of change, In 1980 Catherine Dannemiller changed cost to resistance and in 2014 Steve Cady added an S for supporting capability to sustain the change.

What I like about the formula is that it lays out the mindset (push and pull) and actions necessary to overcome the inertia of status quo. Also the formula is not additive, but multiplicative demonstrating the exponential difficulty of change.

There is both the dissatisfaction (rejection of the status quo) and the vision (future promise). The dissatisfaction if often called the “compelling case for change – the why and why now, and what we can’t stay the same. I described this as the “burning platform” till I worked in the upstream oil and gas industry where that term is too painful.

I have seen leaders in business and politics lean into the threat of not changing -the ‘road to ruin,” end of life as we know it pitch. Danger can scare us into action, but over time constant threat gets normalized, doom and gloom depresses people, fear freezes people and action is forgotten.

Vision led change is always better and more lasting than threat-driven The grit of marble dust might wear your teeth and spirit down but without the “golden sidewalk” you don’t get on the ship. Wallowing in rock bottom does nothing without the pull of a sober lifestyle.

Vision statements are often emotion laden and sensory rich.

“The land of milk and honey”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident. . .all men are created equal. . .life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . . We the People.”

“I have a dream.”

Dissatisfaction pushes; vision pulls you. Dissatisfaction, rejecting the current state, is reality-based problem definition. Vision is opportunity and solution finding.

A vision isn’t a daydream. “Pie in the sky by and by” doesn’t cut it for long. There must be a plan and milestones, and mid-journey measures to show your change is proceeding as planned.

What happens when you know you can’t go on the way things are, you must change, but what you are changing to is unclear? How can you “leap empty-handed into the void?” Big change is often like this. We think we know the opportunity, but, if we are clear-eyed, we also see the risk. The phrase ‘jumping from the frying pan into the fire” is a cliché because it happens frequently.

Entering the “unknown unknown” arena, where “we don’t know what we don’t know” relies on values:

• Do what is right –“Clean air and water” “Remove shortcomings. . .make amends,” “Taking care of customers,” “People matter and results count.”
• Resilience – “we’ll get through this,” “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” one day at a time.”
• Support –“ What if the sky should fall? As long as we’re together, it really doesn’t matter at all.”

The push from dissatisfaction, rejection of status quo, the pull of vision and the opportunity that opens to values, must overcome what Beckhard and Gleicher called resistance to change.

Resistance may be to imposed change that people haven’t chosen. Resistance may be fear of loss in the unknown. Resistance may be plain old inertia. Remember Newton’s First Law of motion “A body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.”
That’s why the formula included first steps, reducing friction, ignoring gravity, kicking yourself in the butt to do something – Action focus -Try-it-fix it-try-it-again

Change mind-set first, bolstered by values, followed by action, is the only path. And if you find you’ve jumped from the frying pan into the fire?

Get out of the fire. Stop the bleeding. Get everyone to a safe position. Spread honey on your wounds. Refocus, Persist and Persevere.

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We’ve all heard various ideas about managing our lives. When you break it all down, things can get lumped into these three categories. And we’ve all heard the saying: “Live for today.” But what about yesterday and tomorrow? Life isn’t a series of isolated moments. It’s a beautiful tapestry woven from the threads of our past, present, and future.

Learning from YesterdayDwelling on past mistakes can be a drag. Yet, completely ignoring them sets us up for repeating them. The key is to find a balance. Use yesterday as a teacher. Analyze what went well and what didn’t. Did you miss a deadline? Maybe you need to improve your time management. Did you have a fight with a friend? Reflect on how to communicate better next time.

Yesterday is long gone. There are only three things we can do about yesterday.

• First, learn the lessons whether good or bad. Take an HONEST assessment of what happened and try to understand why. But do not let this become a new vocation.
• Next, let it go. There is nothing you can do about yesterday’s outcome.
• Build a marker for the ways you saw God active in the events of yesterday. These markers can be physical or mental, but keep track of what God seems to have done.

Embracing TodayToday is the only day we truly have control over. It’s where we put the lessons of yesterday into practice and take steps towards shaping our tomorrow. Seize the opportunities that present themselves. Spend time with loved ones. Pursue your passions. Don’t let the present moment slip away while you’re lost in thought about the past or future.

Today is the only real time you can do something about. Live today as if it were your last. I don’t mean live frivolously. I mean make a difference today. Do the things that enrich your family, friends, and neighbors. Today is not about YOU. Today is a gift from God. Accept this precious gift and live to the full!

Planning for TomorrowWhile we can’t control tomorrow, we can certainly influence it. Having goals and aspirations gives our present purpose. Set intentions for tomorrow, whether it’s completing a project, starting a new habit, or simply being kind to someone.

Tomorrow will come. Let it come on its own. There is nothing you can do to change the actual events of the day tomorrow. Oh, you might plan and strive, but ultimately, things will turn out all on their own tomorrow.

The Magic of the BalanceThe key to living a fulfilling life lies in finding a harmonious balance between these three parts of time. Here’s how:

• Practice Gratitude: Reflect on the positive aspects of your past and present.
• Embrace Mindfulness: Be present in the moment. Savor your experiences, both big and small.
• Set Intentions: Plan for tomorrow without getting consumed by anxieties.

By integrating these practices, we can move through life with a sense of purpose, appreciation, and excitement for what lies ahead.

Remember, yesterday made you who you are, today is shaping your tomorrow, and tomorrow holds the potential for incredible things.

So, breathe deep, take hold of the present moment, and enjoy the beautiful journey of life, one day at a time.

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Once upon a time, in a bustling little town named Mediocritus, lived a young man named Arun. Mediocritus was a peculiar place—its residents were good-natured and kind, but they had one unique quirk: nobody ever questioned anything. When a sign appeared saying “Closed for Rain” on a clear sunny day, they all put on their raincoats. If a cart selling square watermelons rolled through the streets, they’d take out their wallets without batting an eyelash. No one asked, “Why?”

Arun, however, was different. He’d always felt a nagging itch at the back of his mind, as if his brain had been set to “simmer” while everyone else’s boiled over with certainty about everything. He wasn’t rebellious; he just had questions. But questions, as harmless as they seemed to him, were like pinpricks to the people of Mediocritus.

One day, Arun stumbled upon a strange shop at the edge of town, run by an old woman named Mira. It was called The Thinker’s Emporium. Inside, shelves overflowed with dusty books, strange artifacts, and glass jars filled with things like “Second Thoughts” and “Ifs and Buts.” Arun’s curiosity was instantly piqued.

“What are all these things?” he asked.

Mira smiled, her eyes twinkling behind a pair of thick glasses. “These,” she said, pulling out a pair of glasses, “are the Glasses of Clarity.”

“What do they do?” Arun asked, intrigued.

“They help you see things as they are, not as others tell you they are,” she replied. “But beware, clarity isn’t always comfortable.”

Without hesitation, Arun put on the glasses.

Suddenly, everything around him seemed sharper. The world didn’t just look different—it felt different. He glanced at the “Closed for Rain” sign, which was clearly nonsense. He saw the square watermelons and realized they were just normal watermelons placed inside square boxes. The things that everyone else accepted without question now seemed ludicrous to him.

On his walk back to the town square, he noticed the townspeople debating the newest craze: whether to buy “moonshoes,” guaranteed to make you jump higher by “harnessing the power of gravity.” Arun, with his newfound clarity, immediately saw the flaw: gravity doesn’t make you float, it pulls you down!

“Doesn’t anyone think this is strange?” Arun asked.

The townsfolk blinked at him, then back at their shiny new moonshoes. They shrugged. “Why think about it? Everyone else is buying them.”

It hit him then. The problem wasn’t the moonshoes or the rain sign or the square watermelons. The problem was that no one thought about anything at all. They just went along with whatever they were told.

Arun realized that the true power of the Glasses of Clarity wasn’t in seeing the world differently, but in questioning it. Critical thinking wasn’t about being contrary or difficult; it was about asking the right questions to reach the right answers. It was the ability to sift through information, discard the irrelevant, and spot the logical flaws.

Mediocritus, though well-meaning, had become a town full of passive thinkers—people who accepted rather than evaluated, who followed rather than reasoned.

But critical thinking, Arun realized, wasn’t just an abstract concept. It was deeply practical. Without it, people made poor choices: they bought into ridiculous trends, believed in false promises, and even made decisions that hurt their own well-being. With it, they could avoid scams, make better life decisions, and find solutions to real problems.

He thought of his friend Rina, who had been struggling with her job. She was always overwhelmed, often doing tasks she didn’t need to because she took every directive at face value. She never asked, “Is this necessary?” or “Is there a better way to do this?” Arun realized that if she applied critical thinking, she’d probably find herself less stressed and more productive.

Later that day, Arun visited Rina and shared what he had learned. “You need to start asking why, not just how,” he told her. “Why is this task urgent? Why are you doing it this way? When you start thinking critically, you’ll stop feeling like a puppet and start acting like the director.”

Rina, skeptical at first, tried it. The next week, she reorganized her entire workflow. She didn’t do more work, but she did the right work. Her stress level dropped, and she even had time for hobbies again. She couldn’t believe how much simpler life became when she applied her mind to solving problems instead of just following orders.

Mediocritus, though, didn’t change overnight. The people continued buying into strange ideas, trends, and products without a second thought. But for Arun—and eventually for Rina—the world became clearer, sharper, more meaningful. Every decision was a deliberate choice, not a default response. And that, Arun realized, was the real value of critical thinking.

It wasn’t about being a skeptic for the sake of skepticism. It was about owning your choices, understanding your world, and navigating life with purpose. It was about taking off the blindfold of conformity and putting on the Glasses of Clarity.

Because, as Arun learned, a mind that doesn’t question is like a ship without a compass—it’ll drift wherever the tide takes it, but it’ll never find its way.

And so, while the town of Mediocritus went about its unquestioning ways, Arun walked his own path—a path where clarity reigned and critical thinking guided every step.

Critical thinking isn’t just a skill; it’s a survival tool in today’s information-saturated world. It helps you filter the noise, question assumptions, and make choices that are truly your own. Without it, you’ll fall for anything—from moonshoes to square watermelons. With it, you’ll navigate life with confidence, clarity, and purpose.

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Sooner or later, every Christian experiences a painful event that leads them to ask: Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s one of the most difficult questions that people ask. In this post, we dig deeply into this and provide direction for people asking that question.

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The problem about appreciationI think what happens is that people are very concerned about getting appreciation. Most of us had very little as children and young people and far too much criticism. So it is hard to give now what we did not have and have not learned how to give. Appreciation is like a smile, if you give it away it comes back to you.

Some solutionsJust do it

I encourage you to decide to give three appreciative comments a day for a week and also to decide not to worry about whether you receive any. Your work place or family will become brighter and you may well get some back!

A good appreciation is genuine and believable. It can be light and still make someone’s day and increase their energy and motivation.

Here are some examples.

“Thanks for that report, it was short, readable and elegantly presented”

“I appreciated your support and courage in the meeting. It would have been easier for you to agree with the majority”

“I always enjoy talking to you, you listen really well”

“What a great idea!”

You can often catch people doing things right, if you want to.

I remember saying to my daughter at nine years old that she could be anything she chose when she grew up. She responded so well and is now living her dream.

An appreciation exercise

I like to do this with a group at the end of a workshop or long meeting when people have learned a bit about each other. Each person has a sheet of A4 paper and writes their name clearly at the bottom. You then pass the paper to your neighbour who writes on the top of the page a word or words that describe what they have most appreciated positively about the person whose name is on the bottom of the sheet. Each person folds the sheet of paper forwards to cover what he or she has written and passes it on to the next person, who writes their comments and does the same. Eventually, you get your piece of paperback.

Then ask each person to note the comment she or he likes the best. Then everyone stands up, in a close circle and reads out his or her favourite comment preceding it with “I am”, while everyone else listens attentively.

I always take part in this exercise and keep the comments. They are good to refer back to. I had a very dour manager called Tom on a counselling course once when we did a version of this. I met him a few months later to enquire how things were going at the end of our chat he said, “That exercise at the end really was useful, whenever I feel really down I pull out my sheet and realise that I am OK!”

Self-appreciation

Because of the invalidation and criticism most of us have experienced we can carry internalised “tape recordings” that plays all the time that says something like “You are no good/bad/useless/worthless” or “You are only valuable or loveable if you achieve/are clever/are rich/win”. These messages all imply that we have no intrinsic worth just for being ourselves. Babies and very young children, if treated well, appear to feel valuable and expect to be loved for “being”. They have nothing to prove.

It is possible to reduce the impact of these tape recordings and even eliminate them entirely by appreciating yourself. It is very counter cultural to stand in a group and tell the other people all the things you like about yourself, but it is possible. You don’t die of embarrassment but it feels close! There is a very good chapter in The Human Situation by Harvey Jackins about this. The book is available via the Re-evaluation Counselling website http://www.rc.org/

Strength Building

This is another exercise that uses appreciation and can be very effective for building teams and relationships.

The participants are in a small face-to-face group. In a larger group when time is short, demonstrate the process with one person in front of the group. Then break people into groups of four and five.

Each person has a turn of say 15 minutes as the focus of the group.

1. She or he describes an event in which she or he achieved something they felt good about. It does not have to about work. Everyone else listens intently.
2. Each group member tells the person above two or three strengths she must have used to achieve it. The person adds one or two of his own.
3. The person states the one strength of all the ones she has heard that she /he likes the best. If people are ready they may “own” this by going round the group and saying to each person in turn “I am (e g) resourceful!” A facilitator may encourage further growth by encouraging her/him to use a clear and positive tone of voice and posture with no trace of self-deprecation.

After everyone has had a turn, ask people how they feel about themselves and the group and what they have learned.

The effects

People develop in confidence and self esteem as they discover their achievements and skills are valuable. They appreciate the depths in other people and want to know more. The shared and rather intense experience builds group cohesion. People enjoy it too.

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Virtual humans, also known as digital avatars or AI personas, have rapidly emerged as a transformative technology in recent years. These computer-generated entities are designed to interact with real people in increasingly lifelike and sophisticated ways. From customer service chatbots to digital influencers on social media, virtual humans are finding applications across industries like entertainment, education, healthcare, and business. As artificial intelligence and computer graphics continue to advance, these digital beings are becoming more realistic, intelligent, and capable of nuanced communication – blurring the lines between human and machine interaction in both online and physical spaces.

As science fiction author William Gibson aptly noted, “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” This sentiment rings particularly true in the realm of virtual humans, where cutting-edge technology is steadily becoming a part of our everyday lives.

Sara Giusto is a talent manager, but not in the sense you might imagine. Her biggest client is Imma, an influencer with pink hair … who isn’t human. Giusto discusses what the rise of “virtual humans” means for the real world — and invites imma onstage to explore an important question: In an increasingly digital world, what’s really real?

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Andrea Carter, Adler University

Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts have become increasingly visible in U.S. workplaces, especially over the past five years. However, DEI has recently come under attack, with companies scaling back their DEI plans.

As a professor of organizational psychology, I believe businesses should refine rather than abandon these efforts. Introducing a powerful concept, “belonging,” could hold the key. Although people mistakenly use “belonging” and “inclusion” interchangeably, their differences matter a lot – and can have a significant impact on employee satisfaction and organizational success.

What DEI is and why it’s strugglingDiversity initiatives have a long history in American workplaces, but it’s only recently that “DEI” has become a buzzword. DEI refers to policies and initiatives implemented by organizations to ensure fair treatment of and full participation by all people.

Adoption of formal DEI programs has seen significant growth. In 2019, around 64% of organizations had some form of DEI initiative. By 2023, this rose to 89%, demonstrating a clear upward trend. Research shows that companies with diverse teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets and are 87% better at making decisions. Additionally, 85% of CEOs report diverse workforces improving profitability. Despite this, a trend of businesses and schools significantly or completely eradicating their DEI initiatives has become prevalent in 2024.

What happened? While external factors contributed to the backlash, including political pressure and a changed legal environment, research suggests that problems with how DEI is conceptualized and practiced also bear a fair share of the blame.

Misunderstanding DEIWhile diversity and inclusion are often well-intentioned, many organizations that approached change initiatives solely through diversity metrics have failed. Effective DEI strategy focuses on learning and development, mentorship, and allyship, extending beyond race and gender. The challenge comes from narrow views of DEI, driving oversimplifications and zero-sum thinking.

For example, people have multiple intersecting identities, with complex traits that often depend on social context. But some DEI efforts ignore that complexity, reducing employees to a single category, such as gender, race, age or disability status. That leaves people, regardless of whether they feel included in “ingroups” or “outgroups,” feeling diminished.

Similarly, research shows that people’s actions and opportunities are strongly influenced by their environment. But too often, DEI efforts place the responsibility for growth entirely on individuals. That actually reinforces people’s biases because group dynamics and social structures shape collective behaviors.

When models fail to distribute accountability and responsibility effectively, collective behavior will uphold toxic environments.

To be fair, not all organizations have fallen into these traps. Those with leaders that adopted a more contemporary understanding of power and bias have developed more effective strategies for employees to thrive. My research suggests that for DEI initiatives to succeed, respect and fairness must be present. These requirements are rooted in the foundations of belonging.

DEI’s evolution: Integrating belonging for lasting impactWhile belonging is related to inclusion, research shows it’s much more than just a synonym. Inclusion may focus on being seen, accepted, and valued within a team or community. Belonging goes deeper, involving a genuine sense of connection and identity within a group. To truly experience belonging, it’s not enough to feel included; my research shows that five critical indicators must also be present. These elements ensure that individuals feel a deep, meaningful attachment to the group, which inclusion alone cannot fully achieve. This distinction underscores that belonging is a unique and essential experience, distinct from inclusion, and critical for fostering a truly cohesive and supportive environment.

So what are the five indicators of belonging? They are comfort, connection, contribution, psychological safety, and well-being, and all of them can be measured.

When an environment is high in each of the five indicators, and the measured gap between the ingroup and outgroup is low, it suggests an environment where responsibility for creating opportunities to thrive are shared and balanced. Let’s unpack these concepts:

1. Comfort. When an organization is high in comfort, people feel seen for who they are. This requires them to accept that others have complex, sometimes contradictory identities, and to adopt a mindset of awareness. Perhaps counterintuitively, achieving comfort requires being a little uncomfortable, too. That’s because respectfully seeing and being seen means acknowledging other people’s discomfort.
2. Connection. Connection is the need to be known and trusted. For an organization to score high on connection, people will be aligned on values and goals. Connection creates a shared sense of responsibility and accountability. This shared responsibility is a foundation for empathy, since trust and fairness are born from understanding and empathizing with the social and emotional needs of others.
3. Contribution. An organization high in contribution values its members for the unique and diverse attributes they bring to the table. In belonging environments, an individual’s contribution is evaluated through curiosity and openness; ideas and perspectives are shared to influence and challenge the status quo, driving innovation and creativity. When someone is genuinely acknowledged for their contributions, both they and their team feel fulfilled.
4. Psychological safety. When a person is genuinely accepted into a group, making a mistake or even failing is seen as a chance to learn and grow, not an opportunity to shame, blame or exclude. This is the essence of psychological safety. In cases where people’s perspectives are dramatically different, psychological safety requires everyone to reflect and put themselves in the shoes of the other to respect their differences and be accountable for behavior.
5. Well-being. In an organization high in well-being, members’ experiences are considered and cared for. This requires everyone to share responsibility for caring for individuals, groups, teams and the organization as a whole, each with their authentic needs.

Belonging, based on my research, is not just a buzzword; it’s the bedrock of a thriving, innovative workplace. Leaders who understand this and take action can enhance individual well-being while unlocking the full potential of their teams.

By committing to building environments where the indicators of belonging are prioritized, leaders can ignite passion, loyalty, and excellence in their workplaces.

Andrea Carter, Adjunct Faculty in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Adler University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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A serious debate about workplace culture and employee welfare in corporate environments has erupted with the death of Anna Sebastian Perayil, a chartered accountant at Ernst & Young (EY) India, who tragically passed away in July, just four months after joining the firm. Her parents have attributed her death to the excessive workload and pressure she faced at her new job.

EY’s India chief, Rajiv Memani, has since said the firm attaches the “highest importance” to the wellbeing of its employees. “I would like to affirm that the well-being of our people is my top-most priority and I will personally champion this objective,” he stated in a LinkedIn post.

While every company wants their teams to work hard, and produce, it’s important to remember more hours don’t always equal better results. Overwork can lead to the creation of a toxic work environment which – along with low productivity and stressed-out employees – often creates burnout and eventual quitting.

According to recent research:

• 33% of workers feel constantly exhausted due to work pressure
• 44% of U.S. employees report feeling overworked
• 50% of full-time employees work more than 40 hours a week.

A toxic workplace (also considered a hostile work environment) is characterized by a negative and harmful workplace that can have a significant impact on employees’ mental and physical health, as well as job performance.

For example – many companies, that underwent layoffs earlier this year, are now burdened with employees stressed out and overwhelmed by increased workloads, having to pick up the pace as well as handle the workload created with the loss of the laid-off workers. These employees, often not compensated adequately for their additional responsibilities, are quitting or considering leaving their jobs.

Clinical Health Psychologist Amy Sullivan PsyD says “A toxic work environment is a feeling and not necessarily a checklist. People know when they’re in a toxic work environment because you pay attention to what your gut is sharing with you as well as any physical responses. Your gut reaction is intuitive, but it’s also that feeling of, ‘something feels off for me right now. Either the way I’m being talked to or the way I’m not being included,’” says Dr. Sullivan.

And, by the way:

An employer can force employees to work mandatory overtime plus terminate an employee – either salaried or hourly – for refusal to work the required overtime. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as formed by the US Department of Labor, is responsible for establishing the 40-hour work week for employees. However, the law does not place a maximum limit on the number of hours employers can require their employees to work. 

Workers, psychologists tell us:

Employees have changed their attitude towards work since COVID – prioritizing work-life balance, and seeking less stressful jobs. Plus unwilling to return to what they now realize has been a toxic work environment in favor of continued remote work.

People are becoming more aware of the importance of mental health and are willing to sacrifice higher salaries or job titles for a less stressful work environment. Bottom line – prioritizing work-life balance is essential for overall well-being and job satisfaction.

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In the dynamic landscape of contemporary leadership, the philosophy of servant leadership has emerged as a transformative catalyst for holistic organizational development. As we venture deeper into the exploration of this philosophy, we uncover its profound impact on fostering an environment of collaboration, empathy, and empowerment—an environment where the growth of individuals, the alignment of purpose, and the well-being of the collective take precedence over traditional notions of leadership. This chapter delves into the core principles and practices of servant leadership and unveils its harmonious alignment with the ideals of holistic growth.

The Essence of Servant Leadership: Leading Through Service

At its heart, servant leadership redefines leadership as a service to others. This paradigm shift challenges the conventional notion of leaders as authoritative figures who dictate directives. Instead, servant leaders view their role as that of facilitators, mentors, and enablers of growth. They prioritize the needs of their teams, acknowledging that their own success is intrinsically tied to the success of those they lead. This fundamental shift in perspective sets the stage for the creation of an environment where collaboration and empowerment flourish.

Nurturing a Culture of Collaboration: Open Communication and Shared Purpose

Central to the philosophy of servant leadership is the emphasis on open communication. Servant leaders create spaces where individuals feel safe to voice their opinions, share ideas, and engage in dialogue.

By actively listening and valuing diverse perspectives, servant leaders cultivate an atmosphere of inclusivity and mutual respect. This culture of collaboration not only fuels innovation but also ensures that the organization benefits from the collective wisdom of its members.

Shared purpose is another cornerstone of servant leadership. Servant leaders work to align individual and organizational goals with a broader sense of purpose—one that transcends financial success and encompasses a positive impact on society.

By imbuing every action and decision with purpose, servant leaders inspire a collective commitment that goes beyond personal gain and elevates the well-being of all stakeholders.

Empathy and Empowerment: Fostering Individual Growth

Empathy lies at the heart of servant leadership. Servant leaders possess a keen understanding of the emotions, concerns, and aspirations of their team members. This empathetic approach not only nurtures a culture of trust but also creates a sense of belonging within the organization. By acknowledging the holistic well-being of individuals, servant leaders create an environment where employees are valued not just as resources, but as human beings with unique talents and needs.

Empowerment is the natural outcome of this empathetic approach. Servant leaders provide their teams with the autonomy, resources, and support needed to excel. They encourage individuals to take ownership of their roles, make decisions, and contribute to the organization’s growth. This empowerment unleashes untapped potential, driving innovation and fostering a sense of pride and ownership among employees.

Leading by Example: Humility and Integrity

Servant leaders lead by example, embodying qualities of humility and integrity. They are not afraid to admit their mistakes or acknowledge their limitations. This transparency creates an atmosphere where individuals feel comfortable taking calculated risks and learning from failures.

By upholding a high standard of ethical conduct and moral integrity, servant leaders set a precedent for the organization’s values and contribute to a culture of accountability.

Servant Leadership and Holistic Organizational Development: A Seamless Integration

Servant leadership seamlessly aligns with the principles of holistic organizational development. Its emphasis on collaboration, shared purpose, empathy, and empowerment resonates deeply with the holistic perspective that considers the well-being of employees, communities, and the environment. In organizations guided by servant leadership, growth is not confined to financial metrics but extends to the growth of individuals, relationships, and societal impact.

As we journey further, we will explore how servant leadership forms the bedrock for navigating change, embracing diversity, nurturing employee well-being, fostering purpose-driven performance management, and envisioning a future where organizations thrive through authentic connections and sustainable impact.

The subsequent chapters will unveil the practical strategies, real-world examples, and actionable insights that illuminate the path towards holistic growth through servant leadership, creating a blueprint for leaders who seek to shape organizations that transcend conventional boundaries and embrace holistic excellence.

Reflections:

1. Personal Reflection on Well-Being: How have you experienced the impact of leadership styles on your well-being in the workplace? Can you recall a time when a leader’s approach positively or negatively affected your job satisfaction and overall well-being?
2. Empathy in Leadership: Reflect on how empathy in leadership can influence employee well-being. Can you think of specific examples where empathetic leadership made a tangible difference in an organizational setting?
3. Fostering Growth and Empowerment: Consider how servant leadership principles can foster individual growth and empowerment. How might this approach contrast with more traditional leadership styles you have encountered?
4. Servant Leadership in Action: Think about a scenario where servant leadership could have a significant impact on employee well-being. How would you apply servant leadership principles to improve the situation?
5. Challenges to Implementing Servant Leadership: What challenges might a leader face when trying to focus on employee well-being within an organization? How could these challenges be addressed through servant leadership?
6. Personal Alignment with Servant Leadership: How do your own values and leadership style align with the concept of enhancing employee well-being through servant leadership? Are there areas where you see opportunities for growth or change in your approach?
7. Long-term Impact on Organizational Culture: Reflect on the long-term impact that a focus on employee well-being can have on organizational culture. How does investing in the well-being of employees contribute to the overall success of an organization?

These questions are designed to encourage introspection and application of the concepts of servant leadership and employee well-being in both personal and professional contexts. They aim to deepen understanding and inspire practical application of these principles in the workplace.

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In a comment on a recent post of mine titled, “The Ice Cream of Success” Gladstone Leslie Samuel wrote, “Climbing the summit is success. To remain at the top is a perpetual challenge”.

This comment brought up the question of positional change, and if what positions we hold dictate how fast we need to change?

Leaders are on top and have maximum exposure to outside challenges and obstacles. The heat of challenges may melt them and start flowing their effect on employees and dishearten them.

Those leaders may cause their organizations to shrink. They need to self-inspect their mindsets and view challenges and obstacles as the salt that lowers their freezing temperature to remain “solid” in facing challenges.

The world we live in is witnessing rapid change. Change brings opportunities and challenges. Leaders may need to adapt faster than change to meet the challenges of change and grasp its opportunities.

This means leaders must foster their self-belief to make their employees feel the same. The big challenge is to keep self-belief in times of rapid change and not melt because of their heat. And if they do then only to become more fluid leaders to go around challenges and obstacles and even melt them.

Leaders may melt under the heat of challenges to enhance the speed of their leadership. Those leaders melt to enable them to execute fast and execute right.

Fluid leaders are not slow leaders who only act if they go wrong and not as planned or hoped for. They are accountable and have the agility to spring back fast.

Those leaders know well the challenges ahead but also know what opportunities are hidden in those obstacles.

Those leaders work to foster collaboration and innovation as Dennis Pitocco mentioned in his recent post on “Community Matters: Because “Everything Belongs Together”.

To do so, those leaders have the ability to keep their empathy and open communication, conflict resolution, powerful persuasion, high agility, and trust.

Those leaders adapt their leadership style to be in alignment with the challenges lying ahead. The five leadership styles are authoritarian, democratic, participative, delegating, and do as I want style.

Not all leaders are in the same position and so no leadership style shall fit all situations of the position in which leaders are.

Maybe this is a “Customized Leadership” style.

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When have you heard that someone went into risk, or danger for another because they were “psychologically safe”? You haven’t. You don’t, and, you won’t. Because we don’t go towards danger because we’re psychologically safe. We go into the unknown, the risky places, and the danger, and then innovate, for those who matter to us. For those with whom we belong.

Simply, they matter more to us than the danger. So, when it comes to that line in the sand, where on the one side we’re psychologically safe, and then on the other, we’re not, we ignore it. Our line of inhibition to take action diminishes as our belonging gets stronger.

No amount of psychological safety motivates you to have somebody’s back. You know, stick your neck out for them. That’s a function of belonging in our neurobiology. And that’s why I say, this big push to enable DEI through psychological safety misses the mark.

Companies have been spending some $8 billion a year on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) (in the US)—and see remarkably few results (Fortune, citing McKinsey & Company Dec. 7, 2021). I know the statistics show that DEI is better for business. I agree 100%!!! It’s just that the evidence and arguments don’t pan out very well across the work world. If they did, we’d have progressed way farther. I mean, really, the data proves it’s not working.

And, don’t get me wrong, a psychologically unsafe environment can definitely inhibit DEI efforts. But more importantly, a psychologically safe environment can’t pave the way for DEI. Harder still, DEI efforts threaten the status quo. And here again, I believe the status quo really needs to change. It’s a disgrace. In 2021, companies founded solely by women garnered 2.4% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the US. Here’s a quick unscientific study. Just did a LinkedIn search: CTO in People. Out of the first 100 people, only seven are women. No one steps into the discomfort to disrupt the status quo because they’re psychologically safe. Other reasons, yes, just not that.

I’m a former VP of people & culture, and now, an executive/orgdev coach. I’ve observed these four things about DEI efforts in both, psychologically safe and unsafe environments. And, the answers are the same.

When DEI comes before B(elonging) DEI, outside of belonging is fraught with resistance. * Diversity, without belonging, it’s a quota that gets fought * Equity, outside of belonging, gets seen as an unjust handout * Inclusion*, less belonging’s embrace, makes for a stranger in an unfriendly land

This is why, regardless of the arguments, all the data-driven evidence, the anti-bias training, training on how to make a psychologically safe workplace, etc… at 8 billion dollars a year hasn’t done much to change things. The arguments and the mandates keep failing. Because, the moment DEI efforts, even with all their honorable objectives, threaten our belonging, DEI becomes the adversary. It’s neurobiology. We’re wired to belong, as in, to really belong, before anything else.

Outside of belonging and regardless of how psychologically safe, each area and DEI easily triggers fight/flight responses.

We don’t think about DEI efforts as threatening our belonging. They’re supposed to expand belonging! But if we’re willing to be honest, yes, DEI can and does threaten. As a VP of people and culture, I found myself in an inequitable situation. It was time for raises and I was reviewing salaries. I found out that a couple of my women co-VPs were making less than me. So, I made the case for our salaries to be on par. And as much as I love the infinite game thinking, the reality is, company financial resources are finite. Their getting moved into a salary range on par meant my slated raise wouldn’t happen. What does that have to do with belonging? Lots!

My choice for equity for them came into conflict with my primary circle of belonging, providing for my family. It was my belonging with my women co-VPs that opened the door for me to choose also them, and, my family. No “Belonging” and the “E” in DEI didn’t stand a chance. And that’s regardless of how psychologically safe the environment was.

Know this. If you put your DEI efforts in the way of your people’s belonging, expect those efforts to go nowhere in the face of passive-aggressive resistance.

But when you start with belonging, real Feel, Own, Care Belonging, not a Sense of Belonging, we can open the hearts and minds to embrace DEI

We are not thinking beings that feel. We are not feeling beings that think. We are belonging beings that feel and think.

It’s from the story where we belong, that we’re willing to give, even go without, for another, to bring them into our company tribes. Moreover, each we bring in each person with their full uniqueness. We bet on their potential. From the heart in belonging, we feel, own, and care for each other. DEI gets a red carpet treatment when the filtering bias for who’s in and who’s out, gets measured by living the ways we belong* in the company and accomplishing the belief in her shared purpose. DEI becomes the means for a better Us Story. Here, filtering by how one sounds and looks, seems kind of dumb.

*(The Ways We Belong = how the lived core values guide all company deecisions.)

I love Susan LaMotte‘s definition of culture.

When asked what culture is, I use the word tribe. A functioning tribe has rules to join, rules to leave, and rules that keep the tribe running smoothly. Take modern American Indian tribes. They still run by tribal councils, and have rules to enroll and dis-enroll in the tribe. They have traditions, symbols and ways of being that are different and may even seem strange or odd to non-members. But members of the tribe relish in them. They belong.

The codified ways we belong prevent the vacuum that would otherwise get occupied by the fight/flight that comes with fitting in. Fitting in is the natural outcome in the absence of clearly defined ways of belonging. People who fight for DEI outcomes from their belonging, on the other hand, fight for each other’s diverse uniqueness. Belonging provides the inviting embrace as well as the clear and agreed-upon boundary. And, no, not everybody belongs. Only those who adhere to the ways the company tribe belongs in pursuit if it’s shared belief in purpose. (Yeah, I know I sound a little Brené Brown-ish.)

With respect to a “Sense of Belonging,” I’ll just ask you. Will you work for a sense of a paycheck?

Pause… would you work for a “sense” of a paycheck?

And though belonging is the answer, the current often-cited institutional models for understanding belonging also add even more resistance to DEI. The problem: they are one-way, receiving transactional models of understanding. An affirmation model. One-way-emotional streets. I get, therefore I belong. You’re left asking, “When the money runs out, will you still have my back?” “If they get, and I don’t, do I belong?”

Here’s Cornell University’s understanding of a Sense of Belonging for reference:

Belonging is the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group. It is when an individual can bring their authentic self to work.

Here’s the APA definition:

n. The feeling of being accepted and approved by a group or by society as a whole. Also called belongingness.

Both of these popular definitions get cited regularly. And they’re both one-directional and in receive mode. They’re both affirmation/acceptance models. Nothing in them says, “we belong… I got your back.”

A New Model for Belonging, Feel, Own, CareBelonging, it’s a state of being, in relationship with others:

When you feel, own, and care for them, in their successes, dreams, and failures. And, they feel, own, and care for you in yours. It’s a two-way street.

DEI efforts need the “we’re in this together” bidirectional space so it’s not working against the neurological tide. Belonging fills the emotional space with a unite-and-fight neurochemistry, leaving less room for fight/flight. It’s a two-way street of feeling for yourself and them, owning your life and theirs, and, caring for yourself and them. And they do the same with you. If you prefer today’s typical business emotional intelligence language, it’s mutual- empathy (feeling), accountability (owning), and compassion (caring for).

I prefer to use the simpler regular language of, feel, own, and care for. It’s how we would actually talk to each other, and think, and feel towards each other if we were sitting in a coffee shop, or bar, or now, across the Zoom. We say, “I feel for you, my sister (or xi, or brother), what can I do to lighten your load?” We don’t say, “I empathize with you, person I am accountable towards, what act of compassion do you need?” The more academic and intellectual the language, the farther from the heart we seem to get.

Belonging requires all three – Feel, Own, and Care forThere’s a hollowness that we know, that comes when any of the three: feel, own, or care for, aren’t genuine, or, are missing.

• Without the Feel, (empathy) we question whether or not we’re really theirs, when they say, “You’re my friend… or my employee…” We question the “why” of their care for us.
• Without Own, (accountability) we’re stuck with the nagging doubt of whether their expressed feelings for us are true. We doubt if their care for us is actually for us.
• Without Care for, (compassion) we disbelieve in the genuineness of their expressed feelings and their claim that we are theirs.e Feel Own Care Belonging

But when you have all three, look out, you get a company of people that will find a way for each other.

You know you belong because first, YOU feel, own, and care for them, AND, second, THEY also feel, own, and care for you. If it’s just them, you’re getting affirmation, and yeah, that feels good. If it’s just you, you’re probably just fitting in, or in codependency.

It really comes down to this, we’ll fight for those that we feel, own, and care for. It’s how we get to this type of scenario.

Maori Woman With Face Tattoo Is 1st to Anchor Primetime News

You love and belong at your company so much you want to include someone from another circle of your belonging, into it. So you invite her to join. Her values align. She’s excited about joining in purpose. She didn’t come from a fancy college, but you don’t care. Hard knocks couldn’t stop her. She meets with the team, and they see she’d need some added mentoring and training, well, in the comparison of the skills to the other candidates. She’s been out of the workforce for 20 years. You could invest in her, and give some equity on her behalf, for a better company in the future. And, she even looks different, diverse, in her bright-colored clothes, and what looks to be she-warrior tattoos on her chin and up her right arm to her bicep. She sees things differently than you, but comes from the same heart, with similar enough core values.

When she told her back story, you could hear the company’s core values echoed in it. Your people could tell she’d already chosen them, and she was bold and vulnerable about it. She wanted in on the tribe. And they chose her too. Belonging’s a 2-way-street.

That’s what you get through feeling, owning, and caring for each other – real F.O.C.’n belonging.

Win the DEI long game in FOCn’belonging! Think BIED, not DEI+B1. Create a place where the ways you belong (feel, own, care for) come from your no-compromise lived core values for each other, as you work towards your shared belief in purpose. This is your primary bias/filter. 2. Include, or invite someone in, based on whether they’d embrace the ways your company tribe belongs and in their shared belief in purpose. 3. Look more towards their potential, what they can and would agree to do, vs just what they’ve done before and where they’re from. You’re willing to use equity to get them and bring them into the company belonging. 4. Seek those, in their complete and individual diversity, from a biased filter of, they’d embrace the company’s ways of belonging, and pursue its shared belief, promised land.s We take action sooner in belonging.

When your people belong, their efforts pertaining to DEI play a natural part in deepening the company tribe. In the search for adding another person to the company Us Story, they’ll unite and fight for each other’s diverse uniqueness, because the ways your people belong are clear in their invitation and boundary. They’ll act for it sooner!

Psychological safety can’t provide that. You can’t just play it safe.

You play to belong, and then you win with DEI.

I’ll leave you with a wonderful description of belonging by Owen Eastwood, the author of, Belonging, The Ancient Code of Togetherness.

Whakapapa (Maori for, “you belong here”) points a finger at us and tells us, You will not be judged by your money or celebrity or sense of self pride . . . you will be judged by what you did for our tribe. When the sun is shining on us, we must be guardians of our tribe and of each other.

Belonging, The Ancient Code of Togetherness. (pp. 18-19).

Thanks for taking the time to read this, really. If you’re curious, or, you’d like to couch your DEI in belonging for real success, give me a holler. Catch ya, Paul

This piece was originally published on LinkedIn, , November 2022.

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Success in creating effective AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilization. Or the worst. We just don’t know.

– Stephen Hawking

The quest for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – machines that can match or surpass human cognitive abilities across a wide range of tasks – has long been the holy grail of AI research. But how close are we to achieving this lofty goal?

While narrow AI has made remarkable strides in recent years, mastering specific tasks like image recognition and game-playing, AGI remains elusive. The gap between current AI capabilities and human-level intelligence is still significant, with several core challenges yet to be overcome.

The Road AheadReasoning and Problem-Solving: Current AI excels at pattern recognition but struggles with abstract reasoning and novel problem-solving[2]. Developing systems that can truly understand context and apply knowledge flexibly remains a major hurdle.

Common Sense Understanding: Machines lack the intuitive grasp of the world that humans develop from infancy. Imbuing AI with this “common sense” knowledge is a formidable challenge[2].

Generalization: While AI can outperform humans in narrow domains, it often fails to generalize learning across different tasks – a key hallmark of human intelligence.

Divergent TimelinesExperts’ opinions on AGI timelines vary widely. Some, like Elon Musk, have warned of rapid progress and potential risks within the next decade[1]. Others believe true AGI is still far off, possibly decades away.

The reality is that predicting AGI’s arrival is extremely difficult. Breakthroughs could accelerate progress unexpectedly, or we may encounter unforeseen obstacles that significantly delay its development.

The Path ForwardAs we continue to push the boundaries of AI, it’s crucial to address both the technical challenges and the ethical implications of increasingly powerful AI systems. While AGI remains on the horizon, the journey towards it is already transforming our world in profound ways.

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In a world increasingly interconnected by technology, travel, and trade, yet very diverse encountering language barriers has become an almost inevitable part of our daily lives. Whether we’re communicating with someone from a different cultural background, traveling to a foreign country, or working in a multinational company, the risk of getting “lost in translation” looms large.

Misunderstandings created due to language differences can lead to confusion, frustration, and even unintended consequences. But let’s not worry. There are proven ways to deal with such situations in the corporate world. There are strategies that we can employ to minimize the chances of miscommunication and navigate the intricate landscape of language barriers effectively.

Here are a few suggested tips to help steer clear of getting lost in translation:

1. Simplify VocabularyIt will be considered as a real display of unnecessary ‘show off’ if one fine day we decide to speak ‘Shakespearian English’ at our workplace full of diverse workforce. The outcome will instantly be in front of us in shape of shocked employees with long faces, gossiping with their colleagues and zero comprehension. Same goes for writing — when we write in plain language, our target audience can easily read, understand and take action the first time they read our messages. Writing plainly means writing to be understood, using familiar language in a logical way.

Towards the end of the talk, always ask your audiences to confirm their understanding. If it’s an in-person meetings, encourage the audiences to clarify issues (if any) through asking questions. In case of emails, still ask the readers to confirm their understanding via return email. When communicating across language barriers, opt for simplicity and clarity. Use straightforward language, avoid jargons, and break down complex ideas into digestible chunks. Remember, the goal is mutual understanding, not impressing others with your linguistic prowess.

1. Be Mindful of Cultural NuancesBeing culturally sensitive is all about recognising and understanding that we value, appreciate and welcome all diverse cultural backgrounds. Cultural awareness makes it easy to explore the world. It allows us to understand the differences and acknowledge them. Being self-aware about different cultures prevents us from offending others. In this process, we can work more effectively across cultural lines. We get a better understanding and broader views of different cultures. As a result, we can build deeper connections with people worldwide.

Language is deeply intertwined with culture, and words or phrases may carry different meanings or connotations in various cultural contexts. Let’s take the time to familiarise ourselves with the cultural norms and customs of the person or group we’re communicating with. This awareness will help us avoid inadvertently causing offence or misunderstanding.

1. Practice Active ListeningCommunication is a two-way street, and effective communication requires active listening. Let’s pay close attention to verbal and nonverbal cues, and seek clarification if something is unclear. Demonstrating attentiveness and receptiveness fosters a collaborative atmosphere conducive to mutual understanding.

Active listening is a communication skill that involves going beyond simply hearing the words that another person speaks. It’s about actively processing and seeking to understand the meaning and intent behind them. It requires being a mindful and focused participant in the communication process.

1. Avoid Ambiguous LanguageOne of the benefits companies find when embracing remote work models is a sudden expansion of the available workforce. When a physical location is no longer a limiting factor, hiring teams can seek out the best new talent from around the globe. International hires can bring invaluable new ideas and capabilities to a team. Remember, Ambiguity is the enemy of effective communication, especially when language barriers do exist.

Let’s be precise and specific in our choice of words, and avoid ambiguous phrases or expressions that could be interpreted in multiple ways. Being unnecessarily philosophical and / or ambigious during an in-person employee townhalls or via zoom calls or through long emails does no good to the leaders as well as to the employees. Rather it is a sheer waste of time and resource. Leaders’ prime objective should be to convey their messages to their employees’ ease and confirm so that they clearly understand as what is being said and what is expected in return.

1. Make Empathy VisibleOne of the most desired skills that the senior management looks for these days for hiring managers is empathy — a vital leadership competency. Empathetic leadership means having the ability to understand the needs of others, and being aware of their feelings and thoughts. Unfortunately, it has long been a soft skill that’s overlooked as a performance indicator.

Researchhas shown thattoday’s successful leaders must be more ‘People-focused’ and able to work well with people from varying teams, departments, countries, cultures, and backgrounds. Dealing with language barriers can be frustrating, but patience and empathy are essential virtues. Recognize that language proficiency varies among individuals, and refrain from becoming impatient or dismissive. Cultivating empathy fosters goodwill and facilitates smoother communication.

In a nutshellThe organisational leadership must really know what are they losing in translation? Is it:

1. Confused employees
2. Demotivated workforce
3. Reduced productivity
4. Faster Turnover
5. Dip in revenues

While language barriers may present challenges, they need not be insurmountable obstacles to effective communication. By employing the above tips — simplifying language, being mindful of cultural nuances, practicing active listening, avoiding ambiguous language, making empathy visible, we can navigate the complexities of language barriers with confidence and finesse. Remember, effective communication transcends words; it is about fostering connections and understanding across linguistic and cultural divides.

Related Articles:

1. Why Leadership is all about communicating?
2. 5 communication mistakes we all make
3. Choice of words matter
4. Conversation is the key that unlocks just anything

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After founding ImagineNation in Israel, I invested a year of my time and considerable money in taking smart risks to invent an experiential business game. This involved collaborating with one of the top game design companies to co-create a live business simulation incorporating innovative gamification elements intending to teach corporations how to be innovative.

I was shocked and horrified that my invention initially failed!

Despite being an adult and experiential learning specialist and having designed and facilitated hundreds of corporate learning games for some of Australia’s top 100 companies over twenty-five years. It felt horrible, and it was a visceral, heartbreaking, shameful and ego-destroying experience that I would not want anyone, anywhere, ever to experience.

Deep learning experienceYet, it became a profound learning experience, enabling me to understand how failing fast in inventing and presenting an experiential business game enabled me to have a profound, visceral learning experience of how:

• My imposter syndrome, which unconsciously played a significant self-sabotaging role. It did not set me up for success, nor did it set me up for maximising the importance of self-efficacy and self-mastery when on an innovation roller-coaster ride.
• Not mitigated a key risk factor by undertaking sufficient research studies to determine if users wanted and were ready to accept a radical innovation.
• Not I noticed how much the corporate learning market had been disrupted by the acceleration of technology, which impacted time and budget constraints.
• I had not paused long enough to consider, anticipate, plan and mitigate the risks involved in prototyping a viable minimal product in a new market, magnified by collaborating with a new consulting partner and co-facilitator, as well as with a new client.
• Reacted emotionally and cognitively in resolving my own pain, and the values conflict that erupted.
• Not fully understood the process involved in iterating and pivoting a new invention and the time it would take to produce a commercially viable product that the market would understand, be ready for, and respond to.

Finally, it seems that I had unconsciously fallen victim to the innovative start-up entrepreneur’s curse – falling in love with my product!

This was generated by my excitement, enthusiasm and energy of the possibilities rather than balancing these courageously and compassionately with the:

• Harsh realities of being innovative.
• Vital role of smart risk-taking and experimentation.
• What ‘fails fast, to learn quickly’ really means at the heart (emotional), head (cognitive) and gut (visceral) levels.

Value of failing fastThey say that people need to teach what they need to learn themselves. This valuable failure enabled me to invest the next ten years in learning to make sense of innovation and what it means to be innovative, including:

• Helped me develop self-efficacy, trust my inner knowing and judgement, and make a stand for myself in the face of opposition and criticism I received when presenting at a global conference on the people side of innovation, especially by process engineers.
• investing time in iterating and pivoting the two-day business simulation to make it more tangible, simpler and teachable.
• Acknowledging that technology had accelerated sufficiently to accept that the original creative idea of a simple hybrid board game was the most valuable commercial option that could make the difference I wanted to make in the world.
• Becoming more patient, self-compassionate, and courageous in smart risk-taking and leading, coaching, and engaging in team innovation and continuous learning through various innovation, entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial learning initiatives.

Iterating and pivotingI iterated, pivoted, and refined my intellectual property by presenting and bespoke the Coach for Innovators, Leaders and Teams Certified Program for over twelve years to global change-makers.

Most importantly, I reined in my competitive, risky and restless saboteur and focused on doing just one thing, which has finally morphed into a book, supported by a board game to teach people how to be innovative and develop an innovation mindset.

Taking Risks

In the fog of a globalised, disrupted, unpredictable and increasingly uncertain world, no innovation can progress, and no one can be innovative without smart risk-taking.

No innovation can improve without rigorous experimentation, where learning mainly happens by doing things to explore, discover, and know what not to do.

Research has shown that most successful new business ventures abandoned their original business strategies when implementing their initial plans, learned what would and would not work in the market, and conserved sufficient resources to have a second or third stab at getting it right.

Trial and error and cause and effectInnovation is a never-ending, risky, adaptive process involving trial and error and understanding cause and effect.

Because people are fearful of making mistakes and the negative consequences of failure, innovation requires leadership to develop both foresight and prospection skills to:

• Empower and enable them to paradoxically take both a strategic and systemic perspective and a human-centred approach.
• Equip them to be innovative when designing business ventures and transformation initiatives that deliver commercially viable outcomes to successfully improve the quality of people’s lives that are appreciated and cherished.

Risk-taking is a choice.In most businesses and organisations, innovation involves taking considerable risks, especially if seeking to enter a new market with a new product. It is compounded and resisted by many people in organisations because they are too focused on personal survival, personal gain, short-term gain and shareholder return.

Unfortunately, many organisations end up, paradoxically, undermining their organisation’s capacity to be innovative, adapt, innovate and grow. Mainly due to their people being disengaged, resistant to change, lacking agency and being held back by bureaucracy and hierarchy that is averse to smart risk-taking and experimentation.

The future is permissionlessBecause when people do not have permission, and are not allowed to make mistakes, or are encouraged to try new things, they become risk-averse, avoidant, oppositional and conventional.

Because they don’t feel safe to deviate from the accepted way of doing things.

This is commonly known as the ‘status quo’ and drives people to comply with ‘what is’ (even when it no longer matters) and not apply their human ingenuity, be innovative and create new inventions from ‘what could be’ possible and through smart risk-taking deliver innovative solutions in the new future of work in a disruptive world of complexity and unknowns.

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Next December I shall be 80 years old. I tend to look backward and find out what lessons life taught me to share with the readers. One important lesson is that obstacles do not come alone; they come with hidden opportunities. The greater the obstacles shall be the greater their opportunities shall be as well.

I may claim that my top and most recognized achievements resulted from obstacles that seemed first hard to surmount but then proved they were the gateway to outstanding achievements. This is not only my experience. Many great discoveries resulted from great obstacles.

• Benzene Ring Structure– In 1865, German chemist Kekulépublished a paper in which he described benzene as consisting of a ring of six carbon atoms, each bonded to a hydrogen atom. This was a breakthrough because all known chemicals until then had open structures and none in a ring form. Glory came to Kekulé because of this achievement that we recognize even today.
• The Butterfly Effect– The metrological model Lorenz developed to simulate weather confused him because the results seemed chaotic and abnormal. He did not give up and soon realized that small changes in his model diverged the results drastically. He then coined the butterfly effect which we all recognize now and extended its use to varied activities in our lives.
• Fractals– Mandelbrot found it difficult to understand the strange self-similar structures that were unfamiliar. He seized the opportunity and then elucidated that there are bodies with non-integer dimensions calling them fractals. The impact of his findings are overwhelming our lives today.
• X-Ray Discovery– physicist Rontgen was the first person to observe X-rays, a notable scientific breakthrough by making the invisible visible.

The above examples show clearly that obstacles and hard-to-explain events and discoveries can be the prelude to great achievements.

Why mention those achievements?

It is because I can see that obstacles and challenges shall be pouring on us in the coming days. Not only on the scientific level but also on the managerial and leadership levels as well.

Our VUCA world is throwing challenges at us. In a VUCA world employees may feel lost because of the Volatility of change, the surrounding Uncertainty, the increasing Complexity, and the fogging Ambiguity.

This contrasts with what employees want. They want certainty and clear directions while preferring staying in their comfort zone rather than coping with volatile changes.

• Employees want certainty but VUCA increases Uncertainty
• Employees want stability but the volatility of change is ever-increasing.
• Employees seek direction but compounding uncertainty makes it difficult for leaders and managers to show direction.

The sky is raining obstacles. Obstacles do not come alone. They come with hidden opportunities.

• Opportunities for developing new managerial models.
• Opportunities to develop new risk models
• Opportunities for improving or even coming up with new prediction models
• Opportunities for creative ideas to make great breakthroughs.

There are many more opportunities.

Opportunities are as good as we do not have them if we do not search for them with faith that they are hidden somewhere.

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I disagree with the conventional view that only a few “special” people can be creative. Creative geniuses like Mozart or Einstein are rare, but there is a lot we can do to help others, including ourselves, express our creativity.

What are the issues about releasing creativity?Managers in organisations sometimes think that creative people are anarchic. They wear beards and sandals, beads and long skirts, and spend their time producing weird, wacky and impractical ideas that are difficult to manage. So, you only want to have a few of them and must keep them under control.

Creativity is, by nature, disturbing. It moves you from the familiar to the unfamiliar. There is another word for it. That is life! Organisations without creativity become stifling. People leave or stay “trapped in a velvet prison”, to quote a neighbour who left a large organisation to go self-employed. Uncreative organisations get overtaken by their competitors or become ineffectual.

So, how can we release creativity without releasing chaos?Two sorts of creativityI learned a great deal from one of my first clients in ICI. Ron distinguished creativity (large C) and creativity (small c).

Large C Creativity leads to unexpected breakthroughs, major new products, and a new market or direction for a company. An example might be 3M’s invention of “Post It” notes. This appeared to happen by accident. People were researching glues and discovered one that did not work. It did not stick to paper permanently, and the paper peeled off easily. Then, the spark of genius happened when someone realised how this effect could be helpful.

You can read 3M’s story about Post-It notes here

The question this raises is: –

What can organisations do to make such a breakthrough more likely?You will have your ideas and experiences. You can read mine in detail in the creative organisation. I think that play, flexible persistence, purpose, power, attention, inspiration and awareness are essential. The article also gives some ideas on how organisations can develop these attributes. I would add “leadership” now.

Many of these are in the 3M story.

Small c creativity is about continuous development. Organisations tap the ideas and energy of all their employees. Everyone thinks about how to make things better and asks, “Is there a better way?” Some organisations are very good at this. In one year, Toyota employees produced 1.9 million suggestions for improvements. 90% of these were implemented.

A colleague once asked me, “If you were a good idea, where would you hide?” This sounds like a silly question, but it is deadly serious. Robert Townsend, in Up the Organisation, about Avis, said, “Ask the people; they know where the wheels are squeaking.”

I once worked with a group of very junior staff in a department store and asked them for their ideas about how to get more people to visit the basement. They had filled two flip charts in ten minutes, and the ideas were wonderful. One was splendid, to put dinosaur footprints in the mall leading down into the basement! Ultimately, This was impossible, but they enjoyed thinking and me listening to them. Afterwards, on their initiative, they asked the people who used the basement what they thought of it.

I asked them, “Has anyone ever asked you for your ideas?” Their answer was, “Never.”

This is both sad and far too common.

Techniques, skills or attitudes?I believe that creativity is innate. If you have ever watched a very small child just being, you will notice that she or he is always exploring and trying new things, and you cannot predict these. When children are very young, we are often delighted to be with them, pay attention to them, and appreciate them. Then, their creativity and learning just flow.

Paying attention to people is a critical skill if we want to unleash their creativity. It helped us when we were children, and it will help us now. It is listening again, folks. Of course, it helps if you want to listen to people because you are genuinely interested in them. This attitude helps to unleash their creativity.

There are many helpful techniques, such as brainstorming, drawing pictures, using analogies and metaphors, and more. Paying attention is fundamental, though.

What you can do to support creativity?People’s creativity is central to them. Our creativity expresses our uniqueness. To be creative is to be vulnerable. John Powell’s book title is “Why am I afraid to tell you who I am?” The answer is “because you may not like it, and it is all that I have.”

Another analogy is that a creative idea is like a germinating seed. It has enormous potential to be a great tree but is so easy to destroy by carelessness. Seeds respond well to light, water, and good soil.

Give light by:

Ø Being interested

Ø Asking questions

Ø Developing the idea with them

Ø Showing appreciation

Water by:

Ø Building on ideas

Ø Saying “Yes, and …”

Ø Connecting people to sources of help or people they can help

Ø Ask people what they need

Ø Provide resources

Provide good soil by:

Ø Encouraging people to think

Ø Giving people time and space to explore

Ø Having meetings for people to share ideas

Ø Create simple systems to tap creative ideas

Ø Creating a shared vision for the organisation

Please forgive this indulgence. I am trying to be creative about creativity!

Releasing your creativityI wonder if fear stops most of us from being as creative as we are. One counter to this is to “feel the fear and do it anyway”. If you want to write but haven’t started because you don’t expect it to be good, grab a pen and write! Talk over the results with a friend and feel more fear. You will get support, give pleasure, build trust and realise that you can write, even if it is not perfect. The next time will be much easier!

Support helps, too. I had never written poetry before. I failed English Language for the first time at school and English Literature comprehensively. I was at a conference where there were lots of small workshops, and one was on writing poetry—I thought, “Why not?” and went.

We each took time to write a poem. The atmosphere was remarkably supportive. We agreed we would not criticise each other’s poems ever, so we were free to create. I was amazed; my poem was published on the front page of the conference report! I still have it. It is called “Love is on the Way.”

I have run a similar poetry writing evening myself. Before they started writing, I asked people to practice giving delighted “mmmmm”s! They produced some wonderful stuff.

Finally, I saw “Dead Poets Society” again recently. This is an inspiring film/movie in which Robin Williams plays a teacher who pays attention and releases the creativity and self-confidence of his students. Terrific, I was near tears again!

ResourcesThe Creative Organisation

This article has ideas on what makes an organisation creative and how personal and organisation development can help.

Accelerating Learning

Infants learn much faster than adults do. How can we recover these abilities and help others do the same?

Creativity, thinking and listening

Listening to others is often the most effective thing you can do to develop their thinking and creativity.

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I always observe people around me to see if they love what they do. It is my natural curiosity, I just notice it. It shows immediately if they do (and even more obvious, when they don’t). I also worked with probably more than 1,000 people in the past 20 years who were looking for new work – mostly a more meaningful one.

I am sure once in a while you all meet those people who love what they are doing and bring their best selves to work.

What is their secret?They either really enjoy what they do or they know how to bring their strengths, and passion to their work no matter what they do. Mostly the prior.

Think about a waitress you admired. What caught your attention?

She enjoyed her work, served people with a smile, and was prompt and attentive. If this is not her favorite thing to do, she still brought her personality and her goals to the job. Maybe her willingness to be around people, maybe the fact that she decided to enjoy the journey until she makes it to the job she really wants, maybe to save the money to buy what she wants, maybe to gain the experience in customer service to start her dream business. We don’t know, yet we can tell as clients when someone is doing great work.

Over the years I noticed, that for those who really love what they do, there is always a back story.

My husband loves what he does. He loves to eliminate big risks in people’s lives. He makes sure their hard-earned money for retirement is invested in the right financial tools. He finds the best insurance plans for them. He is a true risk manager in his heart. He has no plans to retire since he loves his work.

He has a story behind all this. His parents did everything possible to send him to the best schools yet there was not too much money to replace things if they got broken or lost. He learned to take good care of his stuff at a young age. He would not take risks as some of his friends did, knowing this might be the only radio, ball or jacket he may have. It made him proud to keep his things in good shape. He embraced it so much it became part of who he is and what he does for a living. It is no coincidence.

I have a story too behind what I chose to do with my life. I help people find work they love and help companies create cultures that will attract and retain the right talent. I do not want people to go to work with a knot in their stomach chasing weekends.

That is what I observed all around me when I first started working though. It did not make any sense to me. I started questioning the status quo: Why do we work like this? Why don’t we get excited about work? Why do so many people hate what they do? Why do most people feel horrible on Mondays? Why do we accept a life like this? Can we do better than this? Can we have a meaningful job and still make money?

It was my first work experience, observing people around me that led me to be a career coach and an organizational culture consultant rooted in meaning and purpose. I dedicated my life to this purpose no matter what. My work is not separate from my life. I do this in one form or shape every day. It is the best fulfilling feeling and I want others to live it too.

I have heard so many other stories when I dug deep over the years:

I met people in my practice who studied medicine because their parents were sick. They wanted to find a cure. One client studied psychology and became a therapist because she had very tough years as a teenager going through lots of mental illness. She wanted to cure and help others.

I read a lot of stories after 9/11 where some people chose to leave their jobs to become firefighters watching their bravery after the horrible attack.

I met a mom who dedicated her life to saving children from school shootings because she lost a very young son in one.

So what we experience in life can really open the path to what we want to do with our lives. It does not even need to be paid work. Many people find meaning in their lives by doing what they care about usually stemming from their personal experience.

If you already love what you do but haven’t connected the dots yet, take a moment to reflect on the experiences and dreams that led you here.

Tracing your journey can be enjoyable and insightful. The connections may not be immediately obvious, but once you see them, it can be a grounding and enriching experience.

If you have not found your path yet or feel like you are at a crossroads to change it, watch and observe as you go through life:

• what you care about,
• experiences that move you,
• things you want to change even if you never get to see the results of your actions in your lifetime. They all carry great stories waiting to create a fulfilling path for you.

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Author’s Note: It was 48 hours after I’d died. I’d insisted to Alizah that she go home and get some good sleep and that I would see her tomorrow. Laying in the (hospital) bed alone in the room, one massive feeling and awareness landed on me. Consumed me. Not fearfully, but more like in a heavy state of complete and inescapable awe. I could’ve never seen her (Alizah) again on this earth. I could’ve never been with those I loved on this earth, again. I don’t know how many hours I sat in that space, but then, I blurted out these words, “That would’ve f##king sucked!” Sometime thereafter, I finally slept. Death wasn’t the terrible thing. It was not being amongst people you love, who love you. That’s what death meant. On the other side, was joyous laughter and play, a place that triggered no fear whatsoever. But there, I would be apart from those I love on this earth. I came back. Belonging will do that. That was twenty years ago.
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We ran through the woods, over the whoopti-do’s on the trails with joyous screams of laughter… the kind that makes you smile from the edges of your mouth, clear up to your eyes. We’re all around 10-12 years old… zooming around the trees and bushes. I’d run down a whoopti-do, catching speed, and then run up another and I’d launch through the air to the next one. It was a little weird though, I couldn’t make out the faces of the other kids I was playing with, but it didn’t seem to bother me. Don’t even know how many of us were there, but we were having so much fun.

The next thing I know, the doctors are asking me, “Does this hurt? Now, does this hurt? What day is it? Do you know where you are? Do you know your name?

Me: No, No, Friday, I’m in a hospital, Paul. – “Uh, hey doc, how’d it go- is my shoulder all fixed up?”

Doc: “Well, not sure, we had a complication…”

[PAUSE]

You see, I was forty years old and went in for routine shoulder surgery to remove an impingement in my AC joint (shoulder) so I could make this particular rock-climbing move with an inverted hand jam.

Turns out, I’d flatlined five minutes into the surgery, and for the next five and a half minutes of CPR on the operating table, thirteen people worked feverishly to try to bring me back. They were about to give up and call my TOD (time of death).

And I came back, … from playing in the woods with my friends, though I didn’t know who they were. One thing’s for sure, we were happy. And I wasn’t afraid. And ever since then, I’m still not afraid, of death. It was weird. I died. I kind of felt like I should freak out, you know, at least a little. I mean, I did just die. But I couldn’t. I didn’t.

The rest of that day, Friday, was rest and tests, tests, and more tests for me. By all observations, my doctors said I was perfectly fine. Barely a trace of heart trauma enzymes registered. And, I felt fine, emotionally and physically. I should’ve had damage to my sternum, ribs, and heart. Alizah, my better half, came back to the hospital after getting the good news/bad news call from the doctors –your husband is alive, but he died. We’re hanging out in the recovery room together. She’s in a bit of shock. We’re kinda just taking it all in when the anesthesiologist comes to check on me. Everything’s fine in the convo, and then he just bursts into tears, sobbing replaces his ability to talk. I say, “I’m okay. I’m still here and I feel fine.” He gathers himself, gives us the deepest I’m sorry (and relieved) look and then leaves us to be together. It was pretty surreal.

I felt really bad for Alizah. She got all the emotional trauma out of this. Me, as far as I know, I’m just still happy to be on this earth, especially, that I’m still with her. That night, she slept in the terribly uncomfortable reclining chair next to my hospital bed. My only discomfort, well other than terrible heart-wise hospital food, my low back was super sore. Apparently, they’re not very gentle with you when they move you around during CPR. Go figure. The part of me that should have hurt, felt perfectly fine, my chest, my heart.

It’s Saturday now, and the second chair of Swedish heart surgery comes to check on me. She’s completely baffled and says it’s more like nothing happened to me. But she also says I can’t be released until Sunday for some regulatory reason for people with a heart issue. My day included testing… testing and testing again, a repeat of yesterday, well, until I went to fall asleep that night.

I’d insisted to Alizah that she go home and get some good sleep and that I would see her tomorrow. Laying in the (hospital) bed alone in the room, one massive feeling and awareness landed on me. Consumed me. Not fearfully, but more like in a heavy state of complete and inescapable awe. I could’ve never seen her (Alizah) again on this earth. I could’ve never been with those I loved on this earth, again.

I don’t know how many hours I sat in that space, but then, I blurted out these words, “That would’ve f##king sucked!” Sometime thereafter, I finally slept.

Death wasn’t the terrible thing. It was not being amongst people you love, who love you. That’s what death meant. On the other side, was joyous laughter and play, a place that triggered no fear whatsoever. But there, I would be apart from those I love on this earth.

The faceless angel that Crystal, from our favorite Sushi place, gave us after our yellow lab George died. I’d never talked with anyone except a select few about the faceless children I’d played with.

Monday comes and I’m back to work. People walked into my office, “Why are you here at work today, shouldn’t you be taking time off?” I responded that I was fine and that this was a far better alternative than the alternative. And I only told a couple of my close-circle peeps about the woods. I made my follow-up doctor’s appointments. Wednesday came, and I was seen by the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Swedish Hospital. After the full battery of tests and stuff again, I apparently had the healthy heart of a 30-year-old in a 40-year-old body. At the end of our appointment he said, “if you wanted to have another surgery tomorrow to finish it up, I’d say go ahead. But, I’m guessing you’ll pass on that (with a smile).”

A few days later, I had my follow-up with my shoulder surgeon. I wanted to thank him for bringing me back. Dr. Charles Petersen, back then he looked kinda like how Clint-Eastwood-looks-today. And he sounded like him too. Here’s what he said to me after I said thanks for bringing me back Doc.…

“Oh hell (or well), we didn’t bring you back… you came back on your own. We were trying to figure out how we were going to tell your wife.” I’m sure I gave him a rather puzzled look because, he said it again, “You came back on your own.” And, all in a Clint Eastwood-like voice and cadence!

After a pause of, oh shit, surprise, I said, “Anybody ever tells you that you sound like Clint Eastwood?” He responded with a sideways wry smile. And I followed up with, “Well thanks anyway.” Then he said, “You can thank me for not letting the EMTs put you into a coma.” Again, my face must’ve had that WTF look. He continued, “It got pretty tense and heated when they barged in and wanted to put you into an induced coma. You were awake, and I was prepared to get into a fight. That EMT was a big musclebound numbskull. That had me a little nervous. But having you possibly die twice was not going to happen.” We laughed a little together and I thanked him for that.

Between my death and that appointment, I’d simply considered things as they brought me back. They’d done just enough to get me back from a bad reaction to an anesthetic cocktail. Heck, we all sign the release forms. But that wasn’t the case.

“I came back on my own.”

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We face daily situations that we resist and only later to accept. This post suggests a way to accelerate this process and make it happen in the shortest time possible.

Situations of resisting and accepting vary over all scales.* A man approaches the woman of his dreams but she refuses and resists his temptations. It is not rare that many women who resisted first accepted later but the question is why? * Negotiations almost all start with a proposal that one party offers for the other party to resist and later to accept it. * A new manager replaces an old manager with whom staff had a great deal of understanding. The employees resist the new manager only to accept him afterward. * Teams tend to resist new members for various reasons. They isolate the new member and resist his nice approaches to be one of them. Later, the teams accept the new member and welcome him. * Brothers who resist the newborn baby and treat him as a source of disturbance. Later on, they accept the baby and welcome him warmly to the family.

The previous example shares one common factor and that is the disturbance of their current comfort zone.

They see the change as pain and so resist change. As long as the comfort zone is less painful than the imagined pain of moving from their comfort zone is lesser than pain of change.

That is to say, as long as the current pain is tolerable/manageable people tend to resist change?

One solution to dissolve this resistance is to make the pain of the current state greater than the pain of change. Disturb the current comfort state and make it painful for people to accept change.

Let me explain by one example.

Let me start with this example. Soldiers in war finding comfort in fighting less than losing the war. But when the pain of war escalates the soldiers may surrender because the pain of being taken as prisoners is less than the pain if they get seriously injured.

Another example is unemployment among university graduates. They refuse to work in jobs not related to their studies.

When the pain of unemployment intensifies they accept jobs that they resisted before.

In short, people change when the pain of change is lesser than the pain of accepting change and its associated pain.

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“Breaking Boundaries, Embracing Wholeness” talk: This compelling talk invites you to embrace the fullness of your narrative, exploring the courage, power, and wisdom found at the intersections of our lives.

Sejal’s personal journey illuminates the crucial role of perception in recognizing our complex identities and the profound connections forged through shared struggles. It’s a journey to discover the most meaningful connections within the common ground of our adversities, particularly the universal experience of alienation. Sejal shares a new P.O.W.E.R. framework to empower us to find solidarity and belonging.

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AI is not a temporary trend: it represents a real revolution that is affecting the world of work and business. It has the potential to transform work processes, automating tasks, and analyzing huge amounts of data efficiently.

In addition to the risks associated with the ethical and correct use of data and those related to the security of IT infrastructure, the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence also requires some considerations on leadership.

In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), business leaders must face new challenges and opportunities. To embrace AI responsibly, business leaders must certainly be able to understand the benefits and risks of AI, overcome resistance to change, and integrate it effectively into companies.

This means that leaders must recognize how this technology can optimize work methods and promote innovation, improve the work environment, and foster the growth of their staff. Above all, they must be able to identify the boundary between the different configurations of collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence, making the best possible use of the positive potential of this technology. They will have to be able to design the transformation process underway, develop new skills within the company, promote an organizational culture that makes the best use of Artificial Intelligence, and, above all, identify which activities will be carried out by humans and which by machines, assigning intelligence the role of co-pilot and people the role of “pilots” of the revolution underway.

It is inevitable, I believe, to imagine a leader who is increasingly “of the heart”, as well as “of the brain”: the heart must be used to enhance people, the brain to identify and achieve business objectives with maximum attention to the positive impact on society.

A leader who is even more oriented towards people than in the past: in his hands, there are and will be tools that, if used consciously and for the good, can help him and his collaborators to work better and possibly have a better quality of life and professional life.

All this leads us to understand that fundamental human qualities – such as communication, collaboration, empathy, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence – must be prominent in all organizations.

While AI may be undermining the human experience to some extent, the driving force for change must continue to be the human leader, supported by AI as a powerful tool, but not driven by it.

Leadership and AI are two concepts that go hand in hand in the modern business world. The leaders of the future will be those who fully leverage the power of AI, learn continuously, understand context, and are able to lead their companies in an increasingly complex world. These qualities will not only foster the leader’s growth, and of his collaborators, but will also enable the organization to successfully navigate the complex landscape of the future.

It is an exciting time: artificial intelligence can help elevate the best of humanity in a leader, who by consciously facing its challenges will have the opportunity to exploit previously unexplored potential.

But to make the most of this future, a leader will have to aspire to become even better in terms of humanity, helped in this by the potential of artificial intelligence.

Those leaders who will embrace the AI ​​revolution will be able to remain competitive and enjoy a tool, such as AI, to create a better future for their companies, their collaborators, and the community in which they operate.

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Murphy’s Law states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” What this law did not say is that if we make a wrong start not only things will go wrong but their harm will produce a butterfly effect. One example is making the wrong decisions at the wrong time such as cost reduction.

Cost ReductionMany companies decide to cut costs to increase their profits and enhance efficiency. This is the immediate effect and the first-cost-minded thinking. To make a wise decision balancing immediate effects versus medium-term effects is essential.

Some harms may not appear immediately but suddenly start to compound. Laying off is one way of reducing costs. It does but what happens afterward? The remaining employees are filled with anxiety and believe they are the target of the next layoffs. Anxiety of employees leads to a decrease in their productivity. Decreased productivity leads to compiling more work on employees. Loading employees with more work leads to stressing them. Stressed employees burn out and their productivity goes down so the quality of products may not be of the required quality. Lower quality and deferred delivery of products anger customers who may seek another supplier.

Legal issues initiate- more piling of costs. Churning customers causes losses that may offset the initial cost savings. So, profits go down and again back to more laying offs

You noticed the feedback effect where the cause became the effect and in turn, the effect became the cause, and so on.

I shared recently a post on “What to Do with Low Performers?” The story is about a boy who was second among three brothers. He felt sandwiched between them and that gave him the impetus to try to be first to draw attention.

My friend Dennis Pitocco wrote a comment in which you can easily see how a benefit can lead to a greater one and so on. I reproduce the comment as it is to keep its depth and integrity.

“Excellent insights here, my friend Ali Anani, PhD Highlighting an employee’s strengths and areas of expertise, rather than focusing solely on weaknesses, can lead to numerous benefits in the workplace. This approach tends to increase motivation and engagement, boost job satisfaction and morale, and improve team dynamics as each member’s unique talents are recognized. It also allows for more efficient task allocation based on individual strengths and can create opportunities for mentoring or leadership roles in areas of excellence. While addressing weaknesses remains important for personal and professional growth, a strengths-based approach often yields better overall results and fosters a more positive work environment. Managers can still provide constructive feedback on areas for improvement, but within a context that primarily emphasizes and leverages the employee’s strengths, ultimately leading to a more productive and harmonious workplace.”

Start with the right step to reach your goal.

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It took me years to comprehend and digest a few questions that always disturbed me during my work career:

1. Why do people function so differently in the corporate world compared to where I was coming from?
2. How people can spend their whole life in the same organisation and get retired after that. Isn’t it boring?
3. Are they less competent, lazy or content?

On the other hand, I found that when it comes to people skills, particularly networking, leveraging, and influence, my value system was very different from the one I was thrown into. If you happen to be unhappy with your job and you are surrounded by the fears of joblessness under the given market situation, before turning in your resignation, take a look at these tips on how to keep your position and still hunt for better opportunities.

1. We’re as Good as our Last AppraisalI’m not kidding. We’re as good as our last performance review. Even if you were top performers for 5 years in a row, if, for whatever reason, we did not manage to get a top rating this year, we’re doomed. And to play the rating game is like being in a war zone; it’s a blood bath out there. All companies are not the same. Some get tensed as to what has gone wrong and where and they start working on such candidates.

We may think that in our amazing company, they really sit down and evaluate all our results, compare them with our peers, iron out the differences in work plan and workload, and give you a fair assessment on where you stand. If we go to work thinking that at the end of the year, this is how the evaluation will be done, we are in for a huge setback. So, the message here is the stay consistent if we’ve performed well over time.

1. People are Nice to Us Only …Is that true that people behave nicely to us only when we are influential or when they need us? Once the need or influence changes, so does their behavior. Some people who become our best friends over time as we work with them day in and day out for years, would not even stop saying “hi” as soon as our role changes.

As if that wasn’t enough to shock the living hell out of us, more time passed, and before we knew it they were back on our team, with a bang, having the audacity to become our best friends again. This is nothing else but serving their self-interest. I’ve experienced this twice and I’m still baffled as to how people can manage such an extreme level of fakeness. Maybe they think I suffer from memory loss?

1. Promotions = Performance or Perception?Promotions are made on performance or perceptions? What does that even mean? At best they are linked to the perception of our performance. We all view things with our own perceptive lens — my map of the world could be drastically different to anyone else based on my values, beliefs, experiences, culture, and communication. People including our bosses judge us for the impression we leave at our workplace, the way we network and the people we hang out with during working hours.

When we are working in a diverse, multi-ethnic organisation where people come from all sorts of cultures and backgrounds, the way each person views the world, filters information, processes it, and then makes meaning out of it could differ significantly. Perception is reality. It is imperative that we portray the right perception of our work and results to the decision-makers who matter and will decide on our promotion.

1. Mistakes are forgiven for Superstars That’s quite a big one. I have had the privilege to make some lethal mistakes at one of my previous workplaces that could have ensured my immediate departure from the company, but they were overlooked because I was a blue-eyed one and was delivering results as per my management’s “so-called” expectations and probably everyone around was also happy with me. But that too didn’t last forever.

Yet, at the same time, I’ve also seen cases when the bosses were found just fishing for employees’ mistakes to happen so they could say goodbye to them. The key is to be diligent and cautious all the time, especially when are are not performing as per expectations because even the slightest issue can get us into trouble.

1. Gaining Experience vs. Getting RustyWe must always remember that there’s a fine line between gaining experience and getting rusty in our careers. Let’s know when to draw that line. Otherwise, we will be left behind. Sometimes we think that we have 10+ years of experience in our existing job role, how about taking a chance to attract the competition for a similar or a better role out there?

Well, let’s think again! In those 10 years, what have we done? Didn’t we do pretty much the same things over and over again, working with almost the same people, and haven’t delivered results that could be quoted as slam dunks? Why would anyone be interested in me as compared to this other guy who has worked in 3 different organisations, small and big, has rolled up his/her sleeves to deliver on the unique roles offered, all while building his/her skill set and led the diverse multi-cultural teams to achieve stellar results. The lesson here: Don’t get rusty. Don’t gather dust on the shelf. Know the difference.

Wrap UpI’ve seen firsthand that there is a bias against people who job-hop. This issue probably exists in traditional and/or old-fashioned companies where the safety net is an issue. People are either under-qualified or under-skilled. If someone doesn’t stay for three years, it might prevent him/her from getting a dream job because we are thought to lack stickability and loyalty.

If we have been in a role for five years and have not gotten a raise or a promotion, we should probably start to hunt for a job because the company is overlooking our contributions rather than rewarding us for them. One of the comments I get over and over again from unemployed job seekers is to do whatever they can to keep the job they have unless they’re ready to move on and have a new job lined up.

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When that voice gets real, the one that tells you “There is no good job for you in the corporate space” and wants you to get out of the system, it gets exciting to think about being on your own.

Been there, done that. I know how the roller coaster ride feels like in this transition.

Your values, your passion, your purpose or how you want to work never feels aligned. You tried; you really did. You looked at different positions, you secretly looked at job ads at Linkedin every day as you continued working and even had a few interviews; yet there seems to be no good job for you out there.

You finally made the leap of faith; you are going to start your own business and make your money, in your own terms. It is wildly exciting: To be your own boss. To make your own decisions. To work on your time. To never ask for permission. To be flexible. It is really wonderful as long as we know what to expect. As in everything we long for, it is never a linear smooth ride.

So here are five facts to embrace during this transition from corporate to your own business a success:

#1 You will work more, at least initially.

Hence:

That is why it is so vital that you love and get excited about what you are about to launch. When it comes down to those extra hours you spend on your business, the energy needs to arise from deep within. You will be able to tap into a dormant energy source that you did not even know existed when you love what you are creating in the world with your own business.

#2 You will not be good at every facet of your business.

Hence:

You recognize what you are good at as early as possible. Is it the financial aspect? The business development? Product development? Innovation? Ideation? Marketing? Technology? Find the help you need in the areas you will not excel. If you are especially not good in sales/biz dev/marketing find someone as soon as possible. It does not matter how wonderful your service or your product is. If no one knows about it, you cannot get clients. Hence no profit.

#3 Your business ’s success will feel like a direct reflection of you.

Hence:

Do not identify your essence and success with your business.. If your business fails for one reason or not, it does not mean YOU failed. When you work professionally, it is easy to detach yourself from the business results yet when it is YOUR company it is not easy to do that. Our business becomes a reflection of our success. So make the distinction between your business and you. It should not define you and how successful you are. Think about founders who made it only on the 4th or 5th business they started.

#4 Every business, even the one with no inventory needs capital.

Hence:

Save some money or borrow from relatives if you can. Even if you start a service business with no inventory, no products, no shipping cost there is always a cost to build a business. Even if the items do not look expensive at first, it adds up: your website, the hosting, emails, your marketing (if you do not get the word out there, there is no business, remember?), your taxes, your accounting software, etc. None of them cost too much yet if you cannot make money right away, those costs start to look bigger and bigger.

#5 Your money story will play a huge part.

Hence:

Write down the stories you inherited. What did your parents say about money? What did you learn about money? Do you have an abundance or scarcity mindset? What comes to your mind when and if you make a lot of money from your business? All of these will come up when you have your business. It is good to be prepared, If you have a bad money story, get a coach before it influences your business results.

No matter what, building a business is super exciting. It is like giving birth. It is worth it yet it is not easy.

The more we know and set our expectations right, the more realistic we are as we chase our dreams!

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According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, there are 31 million entrepreneurs in the USA, which is 16% of our workforce. These small businesses employ 61.7 million people. In May of this year, 423,945 new business applications were filed. Keep in mind that only 65% of small businesses in the USA are profitable.

4% of entrepreneurs have a doctorate degree, 27% have master’s degrees, 44% have a bachelor’s degree, 11% have an associate’s degree and 15% have a high school diploma/GED. The top 5 industries for entrepreneurs are retail-storefront and e-commerce, food and restaurant, health beauty and fitness services, residential and commercial services, and construction and contracting.

20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% fail during the first five years and 65% fail during the first 10 years according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more. These statistics have been consistent since the 1990s. Why do so many entrepreneurs fail?

1. Your idea does not actually satisfy a need. You think you have the greatest idea since sliced bread, but you did not research what your market actually needs. You must find an opening or unmet need within a market and then fill it rather than trying to push your product or service into this market. It is much easier to satisfy a need rather than create one and convince people they should spend money with you.
2. You don’t have enough capital to last six months. In planning a new business, you must assume you won’t get your first sale for six months. So, you need to have enough funding set aside to make it to your first sales cycle.
3. Your ego gets in the way. Most entrepreneurs believe they are the smartest person in the room. But the smart entrepreneurs must admit they are not experts in every business discipline. So, if you don’t like accounting, find a CFO who is passionate about numbers. If you can’t program and design a website, find an engaged programmer and marketer. Entrepreneurs must be able to communicate with others and build a team as enthusiastic as they are. 23% of businesses fail because of poor communication between employees and poor teamwork.
4. Poor location and lack of a meaningful Internet presence will sink your business. If you rely on foot traffic, a bad location is self-explanatory. But as dangerous in today’s electronic world, is a poor Internet presence and a lack of social media impact. You need to make sure you’re marketing not only reaches people, but it reaches the right audience for your product or service.

Knowing that only 25% of businesses survive, what is driving the American entrepreneur to keep trying? Some are visionaries who dream big, and can see far into the future and can imagine how things could be different. Some are problem solvers who not only want to create a product, but they are filling a gap, a pain point or an inefficiency. Some want to be the social change agent who has a positive impact on society. Others just want to be their own bosses seeking freedom and autonomy. While some want to create a legacy with a lasting impact that stands the test of time, whether it is a brand, a family business or just leaving a mark on their industry; with the desire to be remembered and create something bigger than themselves.

It does look like the entrepreneurial torch is finally being passed down from the Baby Boomer generation according to Guidant. Baby Boomers, who have long been considered the backbone of entrepreneurship, experienced a 7% drop in representation since last year. Millennials experienced a 27% increase since 2023 showing their growing influence creating businesses through the Internet which now makes this generation 16% of entrepreneurs. Generation X now has the most entrepreneurs with 47% and Boomers fall to 37%.

Passion is the entrepreneur’s fuel. It sustains them through tough times and is rooted in a deep-seated desire to solve problems and make a difference. This emotional investment is why entrepreneurs repeatedly face risks and failures without giving up. Entrepreneurship inherently involves risk. Successful entrepreneurs are those who not only understand and manage this risk but also learn to embrace failure as a step toward success. Their risk tolerance allows them to see beyond temporary setbacks. America has been an entrepreneurial country since its inception. With the advent of the Internet, electronic communications, and the ability to reach the world from your home office, the newest generation of entrepreneurs may be on the cusp of being the most successful group in our history. I truly do hope this will happen.

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Artificial intelligence has made tremendous strides in recent years, transforming industries and everyday life in ways that would have seemed like science fiction not long ago. From virtual assistants and autonomous vehicles to advanced medical diagnostics and creative AI tools, the impact of AI is already profound. But the field continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with new breakthroughs and capabilities emerging regularly. So what does the future hold for AI? What key developments and trends are likely to shape the next phase of AI’s evolution?

Continued Advances in Large Language ModelsLarge language models like GPT-3 and its successors have demonstrated remarkable natural language processing and generation capabilities. These models are likely to become even more sophisticated, with improved reasoning, knowledge integration, and task performance. We may see models that can engage in more nuanced dialogue, tackle complex analytical and creative tasks, and even exhibit rudimentary forms of common sense reasoning.

The integration of different modalities – such as text, images, audio, and video – into unified AI models is another promising direction. This could lead to AI systems with a more human-like understanding of the world, able to seamlessly process and generate content across multiple formats.

Artificial General Intelligence on the Horizon?While true artificial general intelligence (AGI) – AI that matches or exceeds human-level cognition across a wide range of tasks – remains an elusive goal, some researchers believe we may be getting closer. Advances in areas like meta-learning, where AI systems learn how to learn more efficiently, could be key stepping stones on the path to AGI.

However, the timeline for achieving AGI remains highly uncertain and debated within the AI community. Some experts predict it could happen within a decade or two, while others believe it may be much further off or even impossible with current approaches. Regardless, the pursuit of more generalized AI capabilities will likely be a major focus of research efforts.

AI-Human Collaboration and AugmentationRather than AI simply replacing humans in various domains, a key trend is likely to be the development of AI systems that work alongside and augment human capabilities. We’re already seeing this in fields like scientific research, where AI can help analyze vast datasets and generate hypotheses for human researchers to investigate.

In creative fields, AI tools are increasingly being used to spark ideas, generate drafts, or handle time-consuming technical tasks, allowing human creatives to focus on higher-level creative direction. This human-AI collaboration model is likely to expand across many professions, from medicine and law to engineering and education.

Advances in Robotics and Embodied AIAs AI becomes more sophisticated, its integration with robotics and the physical world is set to accelerate. We may see significant advances in robot dexterity, sensory perception, and adaptability to new environments and tasks. This could lead to more widespread adoption of robots in manufacturing, healthcare, elder care, and domestic settings.

The development of more advanced embodied AI – AI systems that interact with and learn from the physical world – could also drive progress towards more generalizable intelligence. By grounding AI in real-world interactions, researchers hope to overcome some of the limitations of purely data-driven approaches.

Ethical AI and Responsible DevelopmentAs AI systems become more powerful and pervasive, ensuring their ethical development and deployment will be crucial. This includes addressing issues of bias, fairness, transparency, and accountability in AI systems. We’re likely to see increased focus on developing AI that aligns with human values and societal norms.

Regulatory frameworks for AI are also likely to evolve, with governments and international bodies working to establish guidelines and standards for AI development and use. This could include requirements for explainable AI in high-stakes domains, as well as restrictions on certain AI applications deemed too risky or potentially harmful.

AI for Scientific Discovery and Global ChallengesAI is increasingly being applied to tackle major scientific and societal challenges. In fields like climate science, AI can help model complex systems and predict outcomes. In drug discovery, AI is accelerating the identification of promising compounds and potential treatments. We’re likely to see AI play an even larger role in addressing global issues like climate change, disease, and food security.

The use of AI in scientific research may also lead to new discoveries and insights that human researchers alone might have missed. AI systems can identify patterns in vast datasets and generate novel hypotheses for further investigation.

Quantum AI and Neuromorphic ComputingAdvances in computing hardware will play a crucial role in shaping AI’s future. Quantum computing, while still in its early stages, has the potential to dramatically accelerate certain types of AI computations. This could enable new AI capabilities and approaches that are currently infeasible due to computational limitations.

Neuromorphic computing, which aims to mimic the structure and function of biological neural networks in hardware, is another promising avenue. This approach could lead to more energy-efficient AI systems and potentially new paradigms for machine learning inspired by the human brain.

AI in Education and Personalized LearningAI is set to transform education, enabling more personalized and adaptive learning experiences. Intelligent tutoring systems could provide customized instruction tailored to each student’s needs, learning style, and pace. AI could also assist teachers by automating administrative tasks and providing insights into student performance and engagement.

As AI literacy becomes increasingly important, we may also see a greater emphasis on AI education at all levels, from K-12 to higher education and professional development.

Challenges and ConcernsWhile the future of AI holds immense promise, it also raises significant challenges and concerns that will need to be addressed. These include:

1. Job displacement and economic disruption as AI automates more tasks
2. Privacy concerns related to AI’s use of personal data
3. The potential for AI to be used for surveillance or social control
4. Existential risks associated with advanced AI systems
5. Widening inequality if the benefits of AI are not broadly distributed

Addressing these challenges will require collaboration between technologists, policymakers, ethicists, and other stakeholders to ensure that AI development proceeds in a way that benefits humanity as a whole.

ConclusionThe future of AI is likely to be characterized by continued rapid progress, with advances in areas like language models, robotics, and scientific applications. We can expect to see AI systems become more capable, versatile, and integrated into various aspects of our lives and work. However, this progress will also bring challenges that need to be carefully navigated.

As AI continues to evolve, it has the potential to drive unprecedented scientific discoveries, boost human productivity and creativity, and help address some of our most pressing global challenges.

At the same time, ensuring that AI development aligns with human values and benefits society as a whole will be crucial. The next phase of AI’s evolution promises to be both exciting and consequential, shaping the future of technology and society in profound ways.

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Tracy Bicknell-Holmes, Boise State University; Elaine Watson, Boise State University, and Jose Guillermo ‘Memo’ Cordova Silva, Boise State University

The phenomenal growth in artificial intelligence tools has made it easy to create a story quickly, complicating a reader’s ability to determine if a news source or article is truthful or reliable. For instance, earlier this year, people were sharing an article about the supposed suicide of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s psychiatrist as if it were real. It ended up being an AI-generated rewrite of a satirical piece from 2010.

The problem is widespread. According to a 2021 Pearson Institute/AP-NORC poll, “Ninety-five percent of Americans believe the spread of misinformation is a problem.” The Pearson Institute researches methods to reduce global conflicts.

As library scientists, we combat the increase in misinformation by teaching a number of ways to validate the accuracy of an article. These methods include the SIFT Method (Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace), the P.R.O.V.E.N. Source Evaluation method (Purpose, Relevance, Objectivity, Verifiability, Expertise and Newness), and lateral reading.

Lateral reading is a strategy for investigating a source by opening a new browser tab to conduct a search and consult other sources. Lateral reading involves cross-checking the information by researching the source rather than scrolling down the page.

Here are five techniques based on these methods to help readers determine news facts from fiction:

1. Research the author or organizationSearch for information beyond the entity’s own website. What are others saying about it? Are there any red flags that lead you to question its credibility? Search the entity’s name in quotation marks in your browser and look for sources that critically review the organization or group. An organization’s “About” page might tell you who is on their board, their mission and their nonprofit status, but this information is typically written to present the organization in a positive light.

The P.R.O.V.E.N. Source Evaluation method includes a section called “Expertise,” which recommends that readers check the author’s credentials and affiliations. Do the authors have advanced degrees or expertise related to the topic? What else have they written? Who funds the organization and what are their affiliations? Do any of these affiliations reveal a potential conflict of interest? Might their writings be biased in favor of one particular viewpoint?

If any of this information is missing or questionable, you may want to stay away from this author or organization.

1. Use good search techniquesBecome familiar with search techniques available in your favorite web browser, such as searching keywords rather than full sentences and limiting searches by domain names, such as .org, .gov, or .edu.

Another good technique is putting two or more words in quotation marks so the search engine finds the words next to each other in that order, such as “Pizzagate conspiracy.” This leads to more relevant results.

In an article published in Nature, a team of researchers wrote that “77% of search queries that used the headline or URL of a false/misleading article as a search query return at least one unreliable news link among the top ten results.”

A more effective search would be to identify the key concepts in the headline in question and search those individual words as keywords. For example, if the headline is “Video Showing Alien at Miami Mall Sparks Claims of Invasion,” readers could search: “Alien invasion” Miami mall.

1. Verify the sourceVerify the original sources of the information. Was the information cited, paraphrased or quoted accurately? Can you find the same facts or statements in the original source? Purdue Global, Purdue University’s online university for working adults, recommends verifying citations and references that can also apply to news stories by checking that the sources are “easy to find, easy to access, and not outdated.” It also recommends checking the original studies or data cited for accuracy.

The SIFT Method echoes this in its recommendation to “trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context.” You cannot assume that re-reporting is always accurate.

1. Use fact-checking websitesSearch fact-checking websites such as InfluenceWatch.org, Poynter.org, Politifact.com or Snopes.com to verify claims. What conclusions did the fact-checkers reach about the accuracy of the claims?

A Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review article found that the “high level of agreement” between fact-checking sites “enhances the credibility of fact checkers in the eyes of the public.”

1. Pause and reflectPause and reflect to see if what you have read has triggered a strong emotional response. An article in the journal Cognitive Research indicates that news items that cause strong emotions increase our tendency “to believe fake news stories.”

One online study found that the simple act of “pausing to think” and reflect on whether a headline is true or false may prevent a person from sharing false information. While the study indicated that pausing only decreases intentions to share by a small amount – 0.32 points on a 6-point scale – the authors argue that this could nonetheless cut down on the spread of fake news on social media.

Knowing how to identify and check for misinformation is an important part of being a responsible digital citizen. This skill is all the more important as AI becomes more prevalent.

Tracy Bicknell-Holmes, Library professor, Boise State University; Elaine Watson, Librarian and Associate Professor, Boise State University, and Jose Guillermo ‘Memo’ Cordova Silva, Library associate professor, Boise State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Casey Fiesler, University of Colorado Boulder

As public concern about the ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence keeps growing, it might seem like it’s time to slow down. But inside tech companies themselves, the sentiment is quite the opposite. As Big Tech’s AI race heats up, it would be an “absolutely fatal error in this moment to worry about things that can be fixed later,” a Microsoft executive wrote in an internal email about generative AI, as The New York Times reported.

In other words, it’s time to “move fast and break things,” to quote Mark Zuckerberg’s old motto. Of course, when you break things, you might have to fix them later – at a cost.

In software development, the term “technical debt” refers to the implied cost of making future fixes as a consequence of choosing faster, less careful solutions now. Rushing to market can mean releasing software that isn’t ready, knowing that once it does hit the market, you’ll find out what the bugs are and can hopefully fix them then.

However, negative news stories about generative AI tend not to be about these kinds of bugs. Instead, much of the concern is about AI systems amplifying harmful biases and stereotypes and students using AI deceptively. We hear about privacy concerns, people being fooled by misinformation, labor exploitation and fears about how quickly human jobs may be replaced, to name a few. These problems are not software glitches. Realizing that a technology reinforces oppression or bias is very different from learning that a button on a website doesn’t work.

As a technology ethics educator and researcher, I have thought a lot about these kinds of “bugs.” What’s accruing here is not just technical debt, but ethical debt. Just as technical debt can result from limited testing during the development process, ethical debt results from not considering possible negative consequences or societal harms. And with ethical debt in particular, the people who incur it are rarely the people who pay for it in the end.

Off to the racesAs soon as OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released in November 2022, the starter pistol for today’s AI race, I imagined the debt ledger starting to fill.

Within months, Google and Microsoft released their own generative AI programs, which seemed rushed to market in an effort to keep up. Google’s stock prices fell when its chatbot Bard confidently supplied a wrong answer during the company’s own demo. One might expect Microsoft to be particularly cautious when it comes to chatbots, considering Tay, its Twitter-based bot that was almost immediately shut down in 2016 after spouting misogynist and white supremacist talking points. Yet early conversations with the AI-powered Bing left some users unsettled, and it has repeated known misinformation.

When the social debt of these rushed releases comes due, I expect that we will hear mention of unintended or unanticipated consequences. After all, even with ethical guidelines in place, it’s not as if OpenAI, Microsoft or Google can see the future. How can someone know what societal problems might emerge before the technology is even fully developed?

The root of this dilemma is uncertainty, which is a common side effect of many technological revolutions, but magnified in the case of artificial intelligence. After all, part of the point of AI is that its actions are not known in advance. AI may not be designed to produce negative consequences, but it is designed to produce the unforeseen.

However, it is disingenuous to suggest that technologists cannot accurately speculate about what many of these consequences might be. By now, there have been countless examples of how AI can reproduce bias and exacerbate social inequities, but these problems are rarely publicly identified by tech companies themselves. It was external researchers who found racial bias in widely used commercial facial analysis systems, for example, and in a medical risk prediction algorithm that was being applied to around 200 million Americans. Academics and advocacy or research organizations like the Algorithmic Justice League and the Distributed AI Research Institute are doing much of this work: identifying harms after the fact. And this pattern doesn’t seem likely to change if companies keep firing ethicists.

Speculating – responsiblyI sometimes describe myself as a technology optimist who thinks and prepares like a pessimist. The only way to decrease ethical debt is to take the time to think ahead about things that might go wrong – but this is not something that technologists are necessarily taught to do.

Scientist and iconic science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said that sci-fi authors “foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.” Of course, science fiction writers do not tend to be tasked with developing these solutions – but right now, the technologists developing AI are.

So how can AI designers learn to think more like science fiction writers? One of my current research projects focuses on developing ways to support this process of ethical speculation. I don’t mean designing with far-off robot wars in mind; I mean the ability to consider future consequences at all, including in the very near future.

This is a topic I’ve been exploring in my teaching for some time, encouraging students to think through the ethical implications of sci-fi technology in order to prepare them to do the same with technology they might create. One exercise I developed is called the Black Mirror Writers Room, where students speculate about possible negative consequences of technology like social media algorithms and self-driving cars. Often these discussions are based on patterns from the past or the potential for bad actors.

Ph.D. candidate Shamika Klassen and I evaluated this teaching exercise in a research study and found that there are pedagogical benefits to encouraging computing students to imagine what might go wrong in the future – and then brainstorm about how we might avoid that future in the first place.

However, the purpose isn’t to prepare students for those far-flung futures; it is to teach speculation as a skill that can be applied immediately. This skill is especially important for helping students imagine harm to other people, since technological harms often disproportionately impact marginalized groups that are underrepresented in computing professions. The next steps for my research are to translate these ethical speculation strategies for real-world technology design teams.

Time to hit pause?In March 2023, an open letter with thousands of signatures advocated for pausing training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. Unchecked, AI development “might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us,” or even cause a “loss of control of our civilization,” its writers warned.

As critiques of the letter point out, this focus on hypothetical risks ignores actual harms happening today. Nevertheless, I think there is little disagreement among AI ethicists that AI development needs to slow down – that developers throwing up their hands and citing “unintended consequences” is not going to cut it.

We are only a few months into the “AI race” picking up significant speed, and I think it’s already clear that ethical considerations are being left in the dust. But the debt will come due eventually – and history suggests that Big Tech executives and investors may not be the ones paying for it.

Casey Fiesler, Associate Professor of Information Science, University of Colorado Boulder

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Many artificial intelligence researchers expect AI to outsmart humans at all tasks and jobs within decades, enabling a future where we’re restricted only by the laws of physics, not the limits of our intelligence. MIT physicist and AI researcher Max Tegmark separates the real opportunities and threats from the myths, describing the concrete steps we should take today to ensure that AI ends up being the best — rather than worst — thing to ever happen to humanity.

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If you’re like many people, then your knowledge is limited to the nightly news. While I enjoy watching NBC’s Nightly News I’ve come to understand it’s limits.

First, NBC is owned by Comcast, ABC is owned by Disney and CBS is owned by Paramount Global. The stockholders of these firms bought stock because they expect to profit from their investment. As a result, stories are created to attract and maintain your interest so you’re still watching when the commercials come on.

Second, Fear is a large part of many news stories. Author and entrepreneur, James Altucher, in his book, I Was Blind But Now I See, suggests that, the best thing you can do is avoid all news. Altucher has worked for over a dozen media companies, written for newspapers, TV shows and been a pundit on TV shows.

He told how he was backstage at a news show when the producer told him:

Don’t fool yourself – all of this is just filler in between advertisements.

Altucher shared this story,

Every week, a newsroom gets all of their best reporters and editors together on a Monday morning. Then the top guy says,“Ok, what have you got?” And the reporters have to respond with items that are designed to induce more and more terror. When the top guy thinks the terror is sufficient to beat out the competition, he says, “Ok, let’s go with it.”(I)

It’s easy to see what Altucher is talking about when you read headlines like these:

How many jobs will AI replace by 2030?

Will your kids join the thousands who die from fentanyl every year?

Is your daughter joining ISIS?

Third, time is another issue. Since news shows are limited in the time they can devote to any story, we’re frequently given sound bites that grab our attention but do little to explain what really happened. The Great Recession generated a lot of headlines, but it wasn’t until I read former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s book, Stress Test, that I fully understood what happened.

Personal Note: Da Vinci said, “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding,” and I’m right there with him. I’m what you’d call a Current Events / History Nerd. I’ve always sought the full story. I’ve always sought to understand complex issues.

(I) Altucher, James. I Was Blind But Now I See. New York: CreateSpace. 2011. p. 35

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AI is at the same time an existential risk and the pathway to overcoming some of humanity’s biggest existential challenges. We must proactively and collaboratively steer its development to harness its immense potential for good while preventing its potential for catastrophe.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming our world, offering both immense opportunities and daunting challenges. As this powerful technology continues to advance, it is crucial that we navigate its development with care, mitigating its risks while harnessing its potential to better society.

The Perils of AIOne of the major perils associated with AI is the threat it poses to human employment. As AI systems become more sophisticated, they may eventually outperform humans in a wide range of tasks, leading to widespread job displacement. Historically, technological advances have always created new jobs to replace the ones they made obsolete, but the pace and scale of AI’s impact raises legitimate concerns about societal disruption.

Another peril is the potential for AI to be weaponized or used for nefarious purposes. Powerful AI systems could be exploited by bad actors to cause harm, from cyberattacks and surveillance to automated disinformation campaigns and autonomous weapons development. Responsible governance and stringent security measures will be essential.

The Pitfalls of AIDeveloping AI that is reliable, unbiased, and aligned with human values is an immense technical challenge fraught with pitfalls. AI systems can perpetuate societal biases and discriminate against certain groups if their training data reflects real-world prejudices. They may also make mistakes with severe consequences in high-stakes domains like healthcare and criminal justice.

There are also concerns about an AI system becoming superintelligent – vastly outstripping human capabilities in a way that renders it uncontrollable and potentially indifferent to human welfare.

While the likelihood of this is hotly debated, the implications would be staggering if it occurred.

The Opportunities of AIDespite the risks, AI presents incredible opportunities to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges. AI could help us cure diseases, solve climate change, and unlock new frontiers of scientific understanding. It has already demonstrated immense potential in fields as diverse as education, transportation, energy, and scientific research.

AI also promises to be an engine of economic growth, unleashing new efficiencies and spawning entire new industries and business models. It could automate mundane tasks, freeing humanity to focus on more fulfilling creative and strategic endeavors. Ultimately, harnessed responsibility, AI could help create an unprecedentedly prosperous and capable civilization.

The Path ForwardAs with any transformative technology, AI carries both promise and peril. It is up to governments, industries, academics, ethicists and the public to work together proactively to maximize its benefits while mitigating its risks. We must prioritize AI safety research, develop robust governance frameworks, and foster greater public understanding and discourse.

With foresight and wisdom, we can navigate the challenges of AI to create a future in which this powerful technology benefits humanity as a whole. But that future is by no means assured – it will require our sustained commitment and vigilance to get there. The high-stakes saga of AI is just beginning.

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Adrenaline is my best motivational drug, and it is generated by many things’ excitement, fear, rejection, and many other things. I regularly use it to contribute to my successes. My long experience of “Living by the Split Second” is something that I have enjoyed, and I have to admit to it being very addictive. I do not advocate it because there might be fewer people on the planet! The best example I have of personal value is when I felt that I was going to flunk out of IBM Mainframe School, I began my weekend trips to go skydiving and it helped me gradually regain my confidence and succeed.

I am confident in my ability to defy the societal myth that intellectual value diminishes with age as time ticks away. It’s time to break free from this limiting belief and embrace the full potential of aging. My practical skills now can be instrumental in developing many things that will aid functionality as people age. I plan to help create and fully use the mobility tools being developed if necessary. As my website indicates my “RAIotic Buddy” might Skydive with me into my Hall of Fame induction.

I have decided to write some stories that illustrate the skills that I have and continue to use in real-life situations to resolve problems. I believe that they will aid in the safe rollout of AI. It will also help other people to lead an active life rather than just involvement social and discussion groups. The breadth of situations I have encountered and overcome has equipped me with valuable experience and insight that I can contribute to navigating the AI revolution. From overcoming challenges to capitalizing on transformative opportunities, my diverse background has honed my problem-solving abilities and strategic thinking. I bring a seasoned perspective that can help organizations anticipate and adapt to the profound changes AI will bring, allowing them to stay ahead of the curve and maximize the potential of these disruptive technologies. My wisdom, forged through adversity and success, can be an invaluable asset in charting the course through this uncharted territory.

My revelation today is to persist with my proven methods, adapt by acquiring new ones as needed, and avoid the distraction of craving constant validation and recognition. I aim to embody, with others of similar age and experience the value of the “Total Package,” the depth of understanding that comes from combining age, experience, and wisdom when approaching situations. I remain astounded by the numerous flawed results I encounter from AI queries. The inaccuracies in the responses and subsequent apologies after I correct them are staggering. As I document stories about my multiracial background, places I’ve lived, and solo travels, the reasons behind these mistakes become evident. I’ve led a life quite different than the norm, and those validating the responses simply lack the breadth of experience and knowledge to comprehend what they don’t know. Therein lies the peril.

It is imperative that I shed light on how I have endured, preserving my life and others through practical survival skills honed over a lifetime. Those lacking such capabilities are naively awed by AI whose intelligence pales in comparison to the depths of human cognition. We celebrate incremental strides as “sentient” when vast leaps are required to truly mirror the human mind.

Many business failures have and will stem from a lack of experience and practical knowledge. Mature experience, what I term “adaptive intelligence,” is crucial for success.

I have written about the birth and necessity of the Crisis Management position and why every company should have a position with that functionality. The skills that made me successful in the Crisis management role are the most important right now. I was allowed to create the position by a very forward-thinking CEO and I completed the projects successfully in multiple locations around the world. The sole reason for its termination was the company’s acquisition. After the acquisition, I was allowed to use the same skills in sales to demonstrate that I could resolve sales problems using those skills. By utilizing my skills and resourcefulness, I was able to achieve the title of “Salesperson of the Year.” I truly enjoyed the experience of being featured in the Bell Atlantic Annual Report, wearing my Gold Rolex watch prize until unfortunately, it became too dangerous due to blatant crime.

The COVID-19 Pandemic was a different reality for me than most people. A priceless memory from that experience was when I was busy meticulously explaining all my qualifications on a video call to the person, Dora Regalado, who was interviewing me for a job. She interrupted my lengthy, meticulous explanation and said, “Are you going to take the job or not!” My kind of person! Later, she helped change my position to working more safely in the mobile facilities. For almost 4 years I was outside almost every day, by choice, relating to people who generally wanted to talk, and I was able to make them feel good or help them in some way. Unfortunately depending on the location. too many were combative because of their fear, and I was able to get through those years without any physical altercations but came close many times.

I have enjoyed this opportunity, thanks to Dennis Pitocco, that I have had to write, think, and prepare for the AI Revolution. I have set records in the past and with all the assistance of the remarkable people in BizCatalyst 360°, we are going to enjoy setting more records and continue enhancing and enjoying our Big Dreams … in Vivid Color!

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Lud*·dite ˈlədˌīt/noun: Luddite; plural noun: Luddites*

A member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16).

A person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology.

Perhaps named after Ned Lud, a participant in the destruction of machinery

What you see above is the encyclopedia definition of a Luddite. I have, more or less, always called myself one. But my self-definition translates more along the lines of preferring to live and work with as little technology as possible.

When I started as a writer, I did not even own a typewriter. That came a little later. Actually several of them, then a word processor, then a personal computer, then an Apple computer, then a whole series of them right up to the MacBook Pro I am writing this piece on and the 24” iMac that is just over my shoulder and kinda gathering dust.

I also have an iPad, which I use for reading articles and checking the weather and a smart phone with no SIM card, (both of which were hand-me-downs from my wife), that I use as a camera. My real phone is a dandy little Alcatel flip phone which suits me just fine.

So I have obviously never been philosophically opposed to technology in and of itself. And I have certainly availed myself of as much as I felt necessary.

Being a communications professional, I have also made it a point to keep up to speed with technology, and I find that process quite enjoyable, although I do not immerse myself in it to the extent that a number of people I know have done.

So I am really a relative Luddite. I have all the tech I need to do my job and pursue my writing, but no more than that.

Up-To-Speed With vs Overwhelmed By TechThere is a very good reason I have chosen this Luddite-like path and that is simply that most of what I need to know about communication I pretty much already know. It’s not my job to show people how to build an SEO program, or how to create an online retail site or create a successful blog site for themselves.

My job is just to know enough about how all this technology works, and what it can theoretically do, to advise people on the best courses of action for their businesses. And then help them get there with good ideas.

If I have to I have at least a dozen people who know all the ins and outs of these various vertical platforms who can advise my client or build them whatever they need to make their businesses go.

So in a way, you could say that my pursuit of Luddite-ness, gives me a kind of objectivity that is very helpful in terms of the advice I give my clients.

And that very objectivity is the thing that businesses need, especially in this day and age when there are literally thousands of digital marketers out there proclaiming that their tech is the answer to the prayers of a client they know virtually nothing about, except the industry they happen to be in.

It Just Does Not Work Like ThatSolving communication challenges, creating strong brands powered by unique selling propositions and all that other good stuff is not, I repeat not, something that should be left in the hands of someone whose vested interest is in a specific vertical silo, be that digital or analog.

It should be left in the hands of the company decision makers and the people they bring on board to strategically connect their business with their prospects.

Because without that critically important step in the process, everybody is simply taking a wild-ass guess. And more often than not just throwing money down the drain.

Being A Luddite Means Projecting A Simple ViewpointBeing unencumbered by technology preferences is not only exhilarating, it’s an absolute necessity for anyone in the communications business.

Because keeping the focus on the business-to-customer relationship always, always, always has to be the first step that every business needs to take in order to ensure any sort of long-term success in the market.

After that has been established, tested and proven, then the choices come into play. Sometimes they are ornate and cutting-edge digital processes. Other times they are something much simpler and more direct.

The Luddite looks at all of this stuff objectively. And that objective point of view is really the element that can be traced directly to smart choices and successful outcomes.

So I’m proud to be an aspiring Luddite, and still be able to create smart, well thought-out solutions for my clients. Because at the end of the day, the decisions you make about communication and the tools you use to make that communication effective are what it’s all about.

There’s no old school or new school, there’s just a right idea in the right place at the right time.

Heere Are Some Quotes By People Who actually Get This

“I’m not a tech guy. I’m looking at the technology with the eyes of my customers, normal people’s eyes.”

~Jack Ma, Creator, Ali Baba

“Our business is about technology, yes. But it’s also about operations and customer relationships.”

~Michael Dell, Dell Computers

“It’s hard to say exactly what it is about face-to-face contact that makes deals happen, but whatever it is, it hasn’t yet been duplicated by technology.”

~Paul Graham

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Most of us have experienced challenges in our lives that called for resilience. So, we could rightly think of ourselves as resilient entrepreneurs.

Do you ever wonder what it takes to bounce back from life’s toughest moments?

Think about it for a moment. When you hear ‘resilient entrepreneur,’ whose story resonates with you? Perhaps it’s the perseverance of Albert Einstein, who, despite initial academic setbacks, revolutionized our understanding of the universe with his theory of relativity. Or maybe it’s James Dyson, whose relentless experimentation led to the creation of the iconic Dyson vacuum after numerous failed attempts.

Or is it someone closer to home? A friend, a mentor, or even your own story? Someone who, against all odds, rose from the ashes of adversity to not only survive but thrive. If you or someone you know embodies this spirit of resilience, I’d love to hear your story.

The Resilient Dolly Parton

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

~ Dolly Parton

Regardless of what you think about country music (and I’m a huge fan of classic country), Dolly Parton’s journey exemplifies true resilience. Her story is one of triumph over life’s harshest conditions. Raised in poverty, with her family often struggling to make ends meet, Dolly’s early life was far from easy. Yet, her spirit remained unbroken.

Facing rejections, stereotypes, and even threats, Dolly’s path was anything but smooth. Her unwavering determination has made her a symbol of strength and success. At seventy-seven, she continues to inspire with her unstoppable energy.

We all encounter our unique challenges – financial woes, personal struggles, or professional obstacles. The key lies in how we face them. Intelligence, passion, and faith are crucial, but there’s something else – resilience. This invisible armor enables us to withstand life’s battles and emerge stronger.

What Is Resilience?

Resilience isn’t a single skill. It’s a variety of skills and coping mechanisms.

~ Jean Chatzky

Resilience is about more than just ‘bouncing back’; it’s about adapting, learning, and growing from our experiences. It’s about maintaining our core strength, even when faced with life’s relentless challenges. Real resilience can be messy and challenging, often stirring up a whirlwind of emotions. But it’s also crucial for our overall well-being.

Studies show that those with higher resilience can navigate life’s trials more effectively and they also enjoy better physical health. It’s not about being unaffected by hardships but it’s learning to navigate them with grace and strength.

When Resilience Falters

Life’s not always smooth sailing. Sometimes, even the smallest setbacks can feel overwhelming. When our resilience falters, recovery becomes harder, and new challenges can feel insurmountable. It’s crucial, then, to nurture our resilience, keeping it strong and ready for whatever lies ahead.

Boosting Your Resilience

Here are four actionable tips to enhance your resilience:

Practice Gratitude: Appreciate the small joys – a sunny day, a good meal, a laugh with a friend. Cultivating gratitude helps build a positive outlook, vital for resilience.

Embrace Realistic Optimism: Optimism is essential, but it must be balanced with a realistic view of the situation.

Find Meaning in Challenges: Look for lessons and growth opportunities in difficult situations.

Nurture Your Sense of Humor: Laughter can be a powerful tool in the face of adversity.

The Climb – Embracing the Struggle: We usually perceive adversity as an obstacle; and it often is. Yet, it can also be an opportunity for growth. Facing challenges head-on can be incredibly rewarding, often more so because of the struggle involved. It’s about the journey, the learning, the growth – it’s the climb.

Your Resilience ChallengeIdentify a current challenge in your life. Apply just one resilience strategy to this situation. Notice the impact, no matter how small. Life is a series of actions and reactions – each step, a building block towards growth and change.

If you’d like, please share your challenge and how you overcame it. You may be surprised at the effect you may have as someone else may have encountered something similar and discover a solution through your experience.

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In a world marked by rapid technological advancements, shifting cultural values, and a renewed focus on social and environmental responsibility, the concept of organizational development has evolved beyond its traditional confines.

While the traditional models of growth emphasized the pursuit of profit and efficiency, a new paradigm has emerged—one that encompasses a more holistic approach to organizational development.

This chapter explores the transformative journey of organizational development, tracing its evolution from conventional growth models to the embrace of holistic paradigms, all within the context of servant leadership.

The Genesis of Organizational Development: Traditional Growth Models

Historically, the primary goal of organizational development was centered on financial success and market dominance. Businesses sought to increase profitability through strategies such as cost reduction, operational efficiency, and market expansion.

While these approaches delivered results in terms of bottom-line growth, they often overlooked the broader impacts of their operations. Employee well-being, community engagement, and environmental sustainability were secondary considerations, leading to a skewed perspective that failed to address the intricate interplay between business and society.

The Rise of Holistic Organizational Development: Beyond the Balance Sheet

The transition towards holistic organizational development signals a shift from profit-centric metrics to a more comprehensive approach. This approach recognizes that an organization’s growth is intertwined with its impact on various stakeholders—employees, customers, communities, and the environment.

Holistic development acknowledges the intricate relationships that exist within and beyond organizational boundaries, advocating for a harmonious coexistence rather than a one-sided pursuit of growth.

The holistic paradigm acknowledges that an organization’s long-term viability is directly linked to its ability to create shared value. This entails aligning business strategies with societal needs, ensuring that growth contributes positively to both economic prosperity and social well-being.

Holistic organizational development strives to create an ecosystem where organizations thrive not in isolation, but as integral parts of a larger societal fabric.

Servant Leadership as the Guiding Light: Aligning Holistic Values

In the midst of this transformative shift, servant leadership emerges as a natural fit—a philosophy that aligns perfectly with the ideals of holistic organizational development. Rooted in the belief that leadership is synonymous with service, servant leadership fosters an environment where the growth of individuals, the empowerment of employees, and the well-being of the community are paramount.

The core principles of servant leadership—empathy, active listening, humility, and a commitment to nurturing potential—resonate profoundly with the ethos of holistic development. Servant leaders view their role not as dictators, but as facilitators of growth. They create spaces where open communication thrives, ideas are valued, and a sense of shared purpose is cultivated.

By placing the well-being of their teams and the community at the forefront, servant leaders inherently align with the holistic perspective, ensuring that growth transcends financial numbers and encompasses a broader positive impact.

A Holistic Development Framework: Integrating Holistic Values

Holistic organizational development, guided by servant leadership, introduces a framework that extends beyond financial measures. It encompasses a spectrum of factors including employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, ethical practices, environmental sustainability, and community engagement. By considering these elements collectively, organizations ensure that their growth aligns with the well-being of all stakeholders, leaving a positive imprint on society.

Servant leadership serves as the connective tissue within this framework. It encourages leaders to embody qualities of empathy and compassion, making decisions that resonate with the organization’s purpose and values. By fostering an environment of trust and collaboration, servant leaders empower employees to thrive, innovate, and contribute meaningfully to the organization’s growth trajectory.

The Path Forward: Holistic Organizational Development through Servant Leadership

The convergence of holistic organizational development and servant leadership ushers in a new era of leadership—one that acknowledges the intrinsic interdependence between organizational success and societal well-being.

This chapter sets the stage for the exploration of servant leadership’s multifaceted role in the holistic growth journey. As we delve deeper into the subsequent chapters, we will uncover how servant leadership principles empower individuals, foster collaboration, navigate change, and ultimately pave the way for organizations to flourish holistically in an interconnected world.

In the chapters that follow, we will explore how servant leadership serves as the cornerstone for navigating change, embracing diversity, nurturing employee well-being, fostering purpose-driven performance management, and envisioning a future where organizations thrive through authentic connections and sustainable impact.

As we embark on this transformative journey, we invite you to explore the intersection of servant leadership and holistic organizational development, discovering how these principles can reshape the way we lead, grow, and create meaningful change in the modern world.

Reflections

1. Understanding Evolution: Reflect on your current understanding of organizational development. How has this evolved over time, and how does the concept of a ‘holistic paradigm’ fit into this evolution?
2. Personal Experience: Think about an organization you have been a part of. How did its development approach align or contrast with the holistic paradigms discussed in this chapter?
3. Challenges and Solutions: What challenges do organizations typically face when shifting towards a holistic development approach? Can you think of any solutions or strategies that might help overcome these challenges?
4. Holistic Impact: Consider the broader impact of embracing a holistic paradigm in organizational development. How do you think this approach affects employees, leadership, and organizational success?
5. Case Study Reflection: Reflect on a case study presented in this chapter. What key lessons can be learned, and how can they be applied in real-world organizational settings?
6. Future Perspectives: How do you envision the future of organizational development? What role will holistic paradigms play in shaping this future?

These questions are designed to encourage deep thinking and personal engagement with the concepts discussed in Chapter 1, aiding in the understanding and application of holistic paradigms in organizational development.

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The skills that made me highly successful as a Worldwide Crisis Manager started in early childhood when I lived with my divorced father and a group of men in a house. I was taught to fend for myself in many things that would normally be handled by a mother. All the males were involved in trades of all kinds, including construction, auto, and all kinds of machine repair so I was taught how to repair anything and everything when it broke just like everyone else. I don’t ever remember any outside help ever being called for anything. With the knowledge inside the house, we could solve any repair or building problem. We had a variety of animals on our property, including chickens, turkeys, ducks, and rabbits.

On weekends, we would hunt and fish, so knowing how to prepare food from live animals was essential. I fired my first shotgun at age ten and that did not go so well. There was a lot of laughter, but it was not so funny to me when it lifted me completely off the ground as it knocked me over backward! I proved my value when we went hunting, we were never able to properly train a dog, so my job was to retrieve anything that was shot and went down on the land or in the water.

That early training worked well for me later in my Air Force Arctic and Desert survival training and later in some extreme skiing situations. When many people turned down the opportunities to repair aircraft in flight was confident that I knew enough to handle any situation, save some lives, and help accomplish many missions. My longevity of being a part of the IBM Mainframe Era and now being able to use that “assisted knowledge” as a part of the AI Revolution is something valuable, I am very proud of and plan to enjoy to the fullest.

I was allowed to create the Crisis Management role after winning the top technical award in a company. My role in crisis management involved coordinating specialized teams to rapidly respond to and resolve major IT, security, and communication issues on a global scale. The skills I developed include rapid response, expertise allocation, cross-functional collaboration, global reach, knowledge management, resource allocation, and incident command/oversight. The ability to manage critical situations is crucial for preventing disruptions or risks. My experience in crisis response, assembling experts, and utilizing my skills prepared me for managing high-stakes challenges, which will be assets in navigating the coming “AI Revolution”.

Maintaining composure and leveraging specialized teams in a coordinated way is crucial during crises and imperative for success.

The skills I developed before, during, and after my Crisis Management role, are highly valuable for the coming revolution, and I have experience in effectively utilizing many of them. I am incredibly excited about combining my natural skills with augmented Intelligence, also known as intelligence amplification. This AI is designed to enhance and complement human intelligence rather than replace it. Augmented intelligence systems work alongside humans to improve decision-making, problem-solving, and task completion.

My long history of Crisis Management skills has allowed me to come into any situation with the confidence that I will be able to find a way to resolve it successfully. Once I analyze the information and form an initial team, I incorporate additional skills as necessary to solve the problem. Many times the key to what I accomplish is to recognize something that is being overlooked.

An ongoing issue usually causes some level of frustration. Arriving at one project, I gathered all parties involved in a single room and announced that… “the Crisis team has arrived, we have never failed, and the problem will be solved!” “We have successfully done this before and the speed at which the resolution will happen depends on how much cooperation we receive.” I also added, “That will be the only thing that will slow us down!” I must have pressed the right button because there was a period of silence, and the highest-level and loudest manager went silent and grinned! The mood of the whole room became supportive. I know that many times, confidence can be everything! Most of the people that we helped were very happy to see our team arrive but, in many cases, the local management team did not want us to be successful because the perception was that it would make them look incapable. In many cases that was true and after some problems were resolved people were released or reassigned.

I am working and studying long hours every day to make certain that I can prove that I am a model of what can be achieved with Augmented Intelligence and a very high and lengthy level of natural, practical skills. I am very excited about another beginning!

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A note about Helpful Questions Change Lives:

If you’re curious about why you experience life as you do and what changes your experience when it’s unhelpful, the posts in my first series can help. They invite you to look more closely at the relationship you have with you. Especially the sensations, thoughts, and feelings that make up, and automatically appear as the contents of your consciousness in any moment. They invite inquiry into how liberating it can be to entertain and play with these unique-to-you contents, rather than be entertained or hijacked by them.

I make such an invitation because it’s that freedom bit that helps change lives – for the better. You not only see why your experience unfolds as it does more clearly, but why others behave as they do too.

Series 2 explores what makes sense to you in your relationship with the different groups you’re a part of – teams at work, professional networks, family and friends, for instance.

Suppose you, and other members of these groups were NOT bound by sense making that no longer helps you. Then what?

Enjoy playing with and wondering about what works for you on the questions in this series. Let me know in the comments if they help or not.

Colin Newlyn began The Decrapify Work Not-Newsletter as..

“a form of therapy… A way to work out loud, to figure out what I think and to connect with others who see the world in a similarly sideways and outraged fashion.”

His outrage is supported by numerous workplace engagement surveys, done by Gallup, Deloitte and many others, all of which point to high levels of disengagement among two-thirds of employees – and here’s the rub – persistently across about 20 years of surveying who knows how many people, yielding millions of data points, all around the world.

A post inEliza Filby’s Newsletter called Introducing Inheritocracy asked this question “Do young people want to be managers?”

Citing influencers on TikTok and an article in The Independent she writes..

“While we shouldn’t take a TikTok trend as representative of anything anymore, it’s interesting to note how prevalent this feeling is amongst older Gen Z/early Millennials (between 24-30) who entered the workplace at a time of the pandemic and who now find themselves in management positions. They were never exposed to good practise in this area themselves, and so are struggling now. The legacy of COVID continues to be felt at different points throughout the career ladder”.

Over the last 30+ years I’ve had countless coaching-and-mentoring conversation with leaders in both public and private sector organisations. Most entered these from a stressed state of mind to differing degrees. One big contributing factor, I concluded, connects to the way they think about their role. Being the chief sense maker, decision taker and action initiator, may have felt exciting once, but, over time, overwhelms many.

If my work points to leaders’ stressed, overwhelmed states of mind with respect to how they think about their role. And, among others, Colin’s speaks up on behalf those who’ve been on the wrong end of poor leadership. While Eliza highlights why many of the younger generation don’t want more of the same – not to mention you’re own direct experience of leading and leaders, of course, – we might conclude that many people believe leadership, as we’ve known it, isn’t working.

Our beliefs about leadershipBeliefs about the role a leader plays can hang around for a long while. They get passed on from one generation to the next. They are reinforced via art, literature and films. They take on more relevance and meaning when experienced first hand. And, like us, they may evolve and adapt as circumstances change. But they may not too. We have a tendency to hold on to beliefs. Which is why we get stuck sometimes.

Though I was once a subscriber to the belief that leaders are born not made, that doesn’t make sense to me now. In my experience, we are all provided with opportunities to take a lead even when we don’t see ourselves in a formal leadership role. Life invites is to make sense of being a parent, losing a loved one, getting married, caring for a friend, choosing a career, bringing out the best in others, having purpose, crafting a culture in our workplaces and other groups we’re proud of, resolving the inevitable differences that arise in these, and more. We may not always recognise it, but such sense making, choice making, and action taking opportunities are abundant.

Our beliefs about the leader’s role determine whether and how we seize such opportunities.

No matter whether you have a formal leadership role in a business or family, say, or are taking a lead on a particular issue, look at the beliefs we can each hold about leadership below. Note which resonate with you – that is to say what you’re drawn to, and which you find less attractive, because it’s less you, as it were.

Knowing what kind of beliefs about leadership automatically show up in you, makes playing with each, and wondering which are most helpful in your circumstances, easier.

1. The Tribal Leader

You see your role in terms of protecting your tribe and bringing cohesion to it. To be the one who is relied on for communal survival because of your strength, wisdom, and skill.

Though rooted in early human societies, this same belief can be seen today in those who run their part of the organisation, or family, as fiefdoms or factions, and are tribal in how they relate to others and compete for resources.

2. The Divine Right Leader

You believe your role is to deliver on a divine-given mission, which you see as essential for stability, order and authority. To be the one on whom power is bestowed and centralised as a way protecting the mission, or God’s work, and growing the number of fellow ‘believers’.

The consolidation of power through hereditary rule was often legitimised by claims of divine right, linking leadership to religious beliefs and establishing dynastic traditions. In modern times monarchies still prevail – think King Charles III’s divine-like coronation ceremony, which epitomised this belief. More commonplace, though, are leaders of dynasties or big family-run organisations who believe their mission is inspired by divine intervention and seek fellow disciples to enact it.

3. The Warrior or Military Leader

You see your role is to gain authority through conquest and (military-like) strength. To be the one who can maintain control and protect conquered territories (or market share gains.)

The feudal system thrived on a hierarchical structure, and leadership was closely tied to military prowess. Kings and lords gained authority through winning military battles using strategies designed to defeat an enemy, step by step. We get the term ‘command and control’ from here – needed to ensure each step of a strategy is executed well. Competitive marketplaces are often thought of as being analogous to battlefields and war.

4. The Enlightened Leader

You feel your role is to govern for the betterment of societal progress as a whole. To be the one who embraces, articulates and enacts new intellectual and philosophical shifts.

Rooted in The Age of Enlightenment, this belief marked a shift toward reason, science, and human rights. Leaders fostering the growth of cross-border collaborative networks, working on science-related topics such as vaccine research and climate change, would be examples of modern-day equivalents.

5. The Captain of Industry Leader

You see your role is to oversee enterprises that can manage complex processes, and navigate societal transition with attendant economic shifts. To be the one who can clearly envisage the benefits new technology brings before others have any inkling of these.

The Industrial Revolution brought about significant technological disruption, from agricultural to industrial production. New captains or pioneers like Brunel in the UK, Rockefeller in the US, and Benz in Europe, were driven by the benefits innovative new technology brings. Modern day captains in this digital age are epitomised by Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and leaders of many different start ups including those building new blockchain and AI technologies on Web 3.0.

6. The Inspirational Leader

You believe your role is to inspire others and win their hearts and minds. To be the one who sets out a clear vision of what is possible, builds up people’s resilience and motivates them in the face of rapid social changes.

The 20th century witnessed a shift toward this belief about leadership, especially at times of war, think Churchill regarding the cause of freedom, Gandhi and Mandela on equality, and on inspiring a nation to bold technical accomplishments, think JKF and the Apollo programme to the moon.

7. The Servant Leader

You feel your role is to be of service to those in your organisation or family whose work is valuable, and on which others depend. To be the one who understands wellbeing, inclusivity and the impact both have on collaboration and, ultimately, what is and isn’t achievable.

The shift to servant leadership responded to a growing awareness of the importance of wellbeing and engagement – the extent to which group members feel good about the way things get done and play a full part in making them even better.

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Each day presents us with new challenges, opportunities for personal growth, and empowerment. However, the most daunting ones can trigger anxiety, especially when we feel we lack the natural talent or the necessary skills to overcome them. Negative comments from others, such as ‘It’s time to give up; you will never make it!’ can exacerbate this anxiety. But remember, these are just hurdles on your path to success, not showstoppers. Our blog offers insights on how to overcome anxiety for better outcomes.

Negativity hits each of us occasionally, and we wonder whether we will make a fool of ourselves or if there is a way past the situation to focus on what we most desire. Time and again, anxiety kicks in due to these matters, raising the question: Is it possible to overcome the stress for better outcomes, or do I need to face the blunt facts shared with me that it’s time to give up?

The Positive MindsetLive Life Without Regret.

We only have one life to live. Imagine how you might feel if you did not give an issue your all to correct it and move on. If you can’t fix a problem, ask a friend for help or hire help as necessary.

I sincerely appreciate that Executives Diary Magazine has published my story, https://lnkd.in/gsHG3bG5, and posted it on LinkedIn. My experiences are meant to inspire readers to reconsider their seemingly low points, assure them that they are not alone, and encourage the reconstruction of thinking to reach new heights.

Sometimes, walking alone is necessary to motivate our mind, body, and spirit to achieve new heights. Without a doubt, a positive mindset opens many more doors.

Embrace Your Long-Term Vision Always

Before you sleep at night, make it a habit to recall what you ultimately want to accomplish. Upon awakening, do the same, plus review the goals necessary to complete that day to move a baby step further toward your distant achievement.

Motivational Thoughts to Embrace:

• We only have one life to live; it’s our duty to live it our way.
• Realize that statistics are temporary.
• Tomorrow is a blank canvas; begin painting your future today.

Take A Time-Out for Yourself

Long ago, I was taught that a computer must be rebooted when it isn’t operating correctly, and it’s wise today to do the same for ourselves. Accordingly, when anxiety on any level hits, and depending upon the weather, make time to enjoy the outdoors with a run, hike, walk, or bike ride, allowing your mind to wander. In the wintertime, go to the gym to strengthen your muscles, body, and mind; even better, find time to do so all year!

All the while, allow free-flowing thought that suddenly appears to be your magic wand, bringing new ideas to mind. Give each one due consideration to begin with the recurring one while advancing to testing, revision, and testing again to ensure it works well and complements the other strategies already in place. Creative projects and embracing memorable songs can open our minds to previously missed ideas.

The lyric titles that speak to me are:

‘Listen to the Music,’ by the Doobie Brothers

‘The Answer is Blowing In the Wind,’ by Cat Stevens.

Focus On the Worst to Realize the Best

Most of us ‘have been there,’ from annoyances to seeming catastrophes. Reflecting on how far we have come is always good when we have troublesome days, particularly when the next disaster hits. Use it to give yourself a pep talk to move past the dilemma and return to what matters most.

In Conclusion: Overcome Anxiety for Better Outcomes

Finally, we only have one life to live. Acknowledging this fact leads to realizing that we must live without regret. When we commit to fixing small or significant issues, we can look back and realize how far we have come. Finally, embrace the community spirit by sharing the best of what you learn, feel the joy for all you have accomplished and shared in your lifetime, and live life to its fullest!

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Tim O’Reilly, UCL; Ilan Strauss, UCL; Mariana Mazzucato, UCL, and Rufus Rock, UCL

Time and again, leading scientists, technologists, and philosophers have made spectacularly terrible guesses about the direction of innovation. Even Einstein was not immune, claiming, “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable,” just ten years before Enrico Fermi completed construction of the first fission reactor in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, the consensus switched to fears of an imminent nuclear holocaust. Similarly, today’s experts warn that an artificial general intelligence (AGI) doomsday is imminent. Others retort that large language models (LLMs) have already reached the peak of their powers.

It’s difficult to argue with David Collingridge’s influential thesis that attempting to predict the risks posed by new technologies is a fool’s errand. Given that our leading scientists and technologists are usually so mistaken about technological evolution, what chance do our policymakers have of effectively regulating the emerging technological risks from artificial intelligence (AI)?

We ought to heed Collingridge’s warning that technology evolves in uncertain ways. However, there is one class of AI risk that is generally knowable in advance. These are risks stemming from misalignment between a company’s economic incentives to profit from its proprietary AI model in a particular way and society’s interests in how the AI model should be monetised and deployed.

Photograph of Albert Einstein in his office at Princeton University, New Jersey, taken by Roman Vishniac in 1942.
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SAThe surest way to ignore such misalignment is by focusing exclusively on technical questions about AI model capabilities, divorced from the socio-economic environment in which these models will operate and be designed for profit.

Focusing on the economic risks from AI is not simply about preventing “monopoly,” “self-preferencing,” or “Big Tech dominance”. It’s about ensuring that the economic environment facilitating innovation is not incentivising hard-to-predict technological risks as companies “move fast and break things” in a race for profit or market dominance. It’s also about ensuring that value from AI is widely shared, by preventing premature consolidation. We’ll see more innovation if emerging AI tools are accessible to everyone, such that a dispersed ecosystem of new firms, start-ups, and AI tools can arise.

OpenAI is already becoming a dominant player with US$2 billion (£1.6 billion) in annual sales and millions of users. Its GPT store and developer tools need to return value to those who create it in order to ensure ecosystems of innovation remain viable and dispersed.

By carefully interrogating the system of economic incentives underlying innovations and how technologies are monetised in practice, we can generate a better understanding of the risks, both economic and technological, nurtured by a market’s structure.

Market structure is not simply the number of firms, but the cost structure and economic incentives in the market that follow from the institutions, adjacent government regulations, and available financing.

Degrading quality for higher profitIt is instructive to consider how the algorithmic technologies that underpinned the aggregator platforms of old (think Amazon, Google and Facebook among others) initially deployed to benefit users, were eventually reprogrammed to increase profits for the platform. The problems fostered by social media, search, and recommendation algorithms was never an engineering issue, but one of financial incentives (of profit growth) not aligning with algorithms’ safe, effective, and equitable deployment. As the saying goes: history doesn’t necessarily repeat itself but it does rhyme.

To understand how platforms allocate value to themselves and what we can do about it, we investigated the role of algorithms, and the unique informational set-up of digital markets, in extracting so-called economic rents from users and producers on platforms. In economic theory, rents are “super-normal profits” (profits that are above what would be achievable in a competitive market) and reflect control over some scarce resource. Importantly, rents are a pure return to ownership or some degree of monopoly power, rather than a return earned from producing something in a competitive market (such as many producers making and selling cars). For digital platforms, extracting digital rents usually entails degrading the quality of information shown to the user, on the basis of them “owning” access to a mass of customers.

For example, Amazon’s millions of users rely on its product search algorithms to show them the best products available for sale, since they are unable to inspect each product individually. These algorithms save everyone time and money: by helping users navigate through thousands of products to find the ones with the highest quality and the lowest price, and by expanding the market reach of suppliers through Amazon’s delivery infrastructure and immense customer network. These platforms made markets more efficient and delivered enormous value both to users and to product suppliers. But over time, a misalignment between the initial promise of them providing user value and the need to expand profit margins as growth slows has driven bad platform behaviour. Amazon’s advertising business is a case in point.

Amazon’s advertisingIn our research on Amazon, we found that users still tend to click on the product results at the top of the page, even when they are no longer the best results but instead paid advertising placements. Amazon abuses the habituated trust that users have come to place in its algorithms, and instead allocates user attention and clicks to inferior quality, sponsored, information from which it profits immensely. We found that, on average, the most-clicked sponsored products (advertisements) were 17% more expensive and 33% lower ranked according to Amazon’s own quality, price, and popularity optimising algorithms. And because product suppliers must now pay for the product ranking that they previously earned through product quality and reputation, their profits go down as Amazon’s go up, and prices rise as some of the cost is passed on to customers.

Amazon is one the most striking examples of a company pivoting away from its original “virtuous” mission (“to be the most customer-centric company on Earth”) towards an extractive business model. But it is far from alone.

Google, Meta, and virtually all other major online aggregators have, over time, come to preference their economic interests over their original promise to their users and to their ecosystems of content and product suppliers or application developers. Science fiction writer and activist Cory Doctorow calls this the “enshittification” of Big Tech platforms.

But not all rents are bad. According to the economist Joseph Schumpeter, rents received by a firm from innovating can be beneficial for society. Big Tech’s platforms got ahead through highly innovative, superior, algorithmic breakthroughs. The current market leaders in AI are doing the same.

So while Schumpeterian rents are real and justified, over time, and under external financial pressure, market leaders began to use their algorithmic market power to capture a greater share of the value created by the ecosystem of advertisers, suppliers and users in order to keep profit growing. User preferences were downgraded in algorithmic importance in favour of more profitable content. For social media platforms, this was addictive content to increase time spent on platform at any cost to user health. Meanwhile, the ultimate suppliers of value to their platform – the content creators, website owners and merchants – have had to hand over more of their returns to the platform owner. In the process, profits and profit margins have become concentrated in a few platforms’ hands, making innovation by outside companies harder.

A platform compelling its ecosystem of firms to pay ever higher fees (in return for nothing of commensurate value on either side of the platform) cannot be justified. It is a red light that the platform has a degree of market power that it is exploiting to extract unearned rents. Amazon’s most recent quarterly disclosures (Q4, 2023), shows year-on-year growth in online sales of 9%, but growth in fees of 20% (third-party seller services) and 27% (advertising sales).

What is important to remember in the context of risk and innovation is that this rent-extracting deployment of algorithmic technologies by Big Tech is not an unknowable risk, as identified by Collingridge. It is a predictable economic risk. The pursuit of profit via the exploitation of scarce resources under one’s control is a story as old as commerce itself. Technological safeguards on algorithms, as well as more detailed disclosure about how platforms were monetising their algorithms, may have prevented such behaviour from taking place. Algorithms have become market gatekeepers and value allocators, and are now becoming producers and arbiters of knowledge.

Risks posed by the next generation of AIThe limits we place on algorithms and AI models will be instrumental to directing economic activity and human attention towards productive ends. But how much greater are the risks for the next generation of AI systems? They will shape not just what information is shown to us, but how we think and express ourselves. Centralisation of the power of AI in the hands of a few profit-driven entities that are likely to face future economic incentives for bad behaviour is surely a bad idea.

Thankfully, society is not helpless in shaping the economic risks that invariably arise after each new innovation. Risks brought about from the economic environment in which innovation occurs are not immutable. Market structure is shaped by regulators and a platform’s algorithmic institutions (especially its algorithms which make market-like allocations). Together, these factors influence how strong the network effects and economies of scale and scope are in a market, including the rewards to market dominance.

Technological mandates such as interoperability, which refers to the ability of different digital systems to work together seamlessly; or “side-loading”, the practice of installing apps from sources other than a platform’s official store, have shaped the fluidity of user mobility within and between markets, and in turn the ability for any dominant entity to durably exploit its users and ecosystem. The internet protocols helped keep the internet open instead of closed. Open source software enabled it to escape from under the thumb of the PC era’s dominant monopoly. What role might interoperability and open source play in keeping the AI industry a more competitive and inclusive market?

Disclosure is another powerful market-shaping tool. Disclosures can require technology companies to provide transparent information and explanations about their products and monetisation strategies. Mandatory disclosure of ad load and other operating metrics might have helped to prevent Facebook, for example, from exploiting its users’ privacy in order to maximise ad dollars from harvesting each user’s data.

But a lack of data portability, and an inability to independently audit Facebook’s algorithms, meant that Facebook continued to benefit from its surveillance system for longer than it should have. Today, OpenAI and other leading AI model providers refuse to disclose their training data sets, while questions arise about copyright infringement and who should have the right to profit from AI-aided creative works. Disclosures and open technological standards are key steps to try and ensure the benefits from these emerging AI platforms are shared as widely as possible.

Market structure, and its impact on “who gets what and why”, evolves as the technological basis for how firms are allowed to compete in a market evolves. So perhaps it is time to turn our regulatory gaze away from attempting to predict the specific risks that might arise as specific technologies develop. After all, even Einstein couldn’t do that.

Instead, we should try to recalibrate the economic incentives underpinning today’s innovations, away from risky uses of AI technology and towards open, accountable, AI algorithms that support and disperse value equitably. The sooner we acknowledge that technological risks are frequently an outgrowth of misaligned economic incentives, the more quickly we can work to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

We are not opposed to Amazon offering advertising services to firms on its third-party marketplace. An appropriate amount of advertising space can indeed help lesser-known businesses or products, with competitive offerings, to gain traction in a fair manner. But when advertising almost entirely displaces top-ranked organic product results, advertising becomes a rent extraction device for the platform.

An Amazon spokesperson said:

“We disagree with a number of conclusions made in this research, which misrepresents and overstates the limited data it uses. It ignores that sales from independent sellers, which are growing faster than Amazon’s own, contribute to revenue from services, and that many of our advertising services do not appear on the store.

Amazon obsesses over making customers’ lives easier and a big part of that is making sure customers can quickly and conveniently find and discover the products they want in our store. Advertisements have been an integral part of retail for many decades and anytime we include them they are clearly marked as ‘Sponsored’. We provide a mix of organic and sponsored search results based on factors including relevance, popularity with customers, availability, price, and speed of delivery, along with helpful search filters to refine their results. We have also invested billions in the tools and services for sellers to help them grow and additional services such as advertising and logistics are entirely optional.”

Tim O’Reilly, Visiting Professor of Practice at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, UCL; Ilan Strauss, Head of Digital Economy Research, UCL; Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value and Founding Director of the UCL IIPP, UCL, and Rufus Rock, Researcher, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, UCL

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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In learning how to fly an airplane, one of the first lessons has to do with understanding winds. Winds come in basically three types;

• Head winds – those hit you right in the face
• Tail winds – those from behind
• Cross winds – those at angles from the side

I believe the challenges we face in life and in business model these three types of wind as well. If we consider all the forms of challenge we face, we can boil it down into these three categories. However, it might be interesting to compare the pilot’s concern with each of these winds as we think about our daily responses to life’s winds…..

Head WindFirst, the head winds. Too often we might be prone to think of these negatively. As wind hits us in the face, it slows us down, forces us to press harder against the wind. Bob Seger wrote a great ballad titled “Against the Wind…stronger now still just running…against the wind”.

When a pilot encounters head wind during flight it can be a challenge. Fuel consumption is increased as air speed decreases. The time it takes to reach a destination increases. Stress and fatigue can set in. But did you know it is preferable to take off and land “against the wind”? Why? Because the increased force of that head wind causes “lift” on the wings which is the force that makes planes fly.

A good steady head wind actually makes take-offs and landings easier, more comfortable and effective. So the next time you sense a head wind in life, ask yourself whether it has been provided to allow more lift for a better take off to a new place in life or whether it is there to afford a safer, smoother landing from where you have just come.

Tail WindNext let’s talk about tail wind. This is just the opposite from a head wind. We tend to think of tail wind as favorable. During flight that might be true. It can serve to push us forward, reduce effort and speed the time towards the destination.

But did you know it is the most difficult force with which to reckon during take off and landing? At those times, it actually impairs control, reduces efficiency and creates danger.

Maybe in life we need to be cautious of the perceived tail winds. Rather than gliding along with them, we need to watching for hindrances to gaining new achievement or resolving old challenges.

Cross WindThe final force is cross wind. All things considered, crosswind is the most challenging of all flying situations. That is true in life and business too.

Crosswind means what it implies… a force crossing you at an angle to the direction you intend to fly. During flight, a cross wind will blow you “off course”. A constant watch must be given to direction and compass heading while flying in crosswinds. There is no cruising during crosswind conditions. It is a constant battle.

Take off and landing is even more severe. Very special techniques are required to manage a crosswind situation. This is why you see planes doing a crab landing, angling sideways right before touchdown. In some situations the crosswind can be so severe that its force exceeds the designed strength of the air frame on the airplane, which makes the good pilot seek an alternative landing site, one where the winds are more favorable.

Life has crosswind too.

It is the skill and grace with which we handle life’s crosswinds that determines our ultimate success. Failure to recognize and manage a crosswind can cause certain disaster.

Either we ignore the presence of that crosswind or we acknowledge it but underestimate the consequences. Forging ahead means grave results.

So next time you feel a certain extraordinary force influencing your life, consider the pilot. Is the wind you feel one of these? If so, which one and how will you choose to handle it?

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In today’s fast-paced digital world, the phenomenon of shrinking attention spans has become increasingly prevalent. This is equally true for both youth and adults. With the constant bombardment of information, people are finding it challenging to focus their attention for extended periods. This trend has significant implications for productivity, learning, and overall well-being. However, understanding the causes behind shrinking attention spans and implementing strategies to mitigate them can help us reclaim our ability to concentrate effectively.

Causes1. Digital Distractions

Having more than one digital devices in this age is no more a luxury. Mobile handset is one of those options which is used more than anything else in this age. People just cannot afford to miss out on any information which they assume to be significant for them. Be it a turbulent political scenario in one part of the world or industry related info. We all love to stay updated just about anything and everything.

1. Death by Information Overload

Researchsuggests that the surging volume of available information — and its interruption of people’s work — can adversely affect not only personal well-being but also decision making, innovation, and productivity. People took an average of nearly 25 minutes to return to a work task after an e-mail interruption. That’s bad news for both employees and their organisations.

1. Multitasking Culture

Since we all love to be recognised for the volumes of work that we produce at our respective workplaces and in an attempt to achieve that in the limited timeframe, we push ourselves and go an extra mile and get things done quickly. Here quality of the work produced in a haste is not accounted for and could be a big question mark. While doing that, we remained successful in producing large volumes of work in the shortest possible time frame.

1. Soul Searching

If you’re going througha period of soul searching, keep going. AsThérèse Cator, embodiment practitioner and founder ofEmbodied Black Girltells: “Soul searching often arises from an inquiry, whether it’s a broad question around your overall purpose or something more focused, such as a difficult decision you’re facing.” “I see soul searching as a threshold in our lives,” Cator says. “It’s a crossroad and we’re trying to figure out what the right next path is, what the right next decision is, or who are we in the greater scheme of things.”

1. Lack of Sleep

When we don’t get enough sleep, our Focus and concentration abilities decline. Their reaction time lengthens, they’re inattentive, and they don’t respond as well to environmental signals. That means they can’t take in new information or react to dangerous situations. This is particularly worrisome if you’re behind the wheel of a car.

Remedies1. Limit Digital Distractions

We have no choice but to set boundaries around digital devices and establish designated time slots during the day for checking emails, attend to missed phone call or short messages, and browse social media (if needed). Let’s use productivity apps or browser extensions to block distracting websites during focused work sessions. Let’s also try out the following:

1. Let’s put cellphone on silent mode or upside down so we don’t have to see the incoming call and message traffic.
2. Log off frequently used social media apps viz.: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. For some people, it’s very tempting to frequently check the updates.

3. Turn off unnecessary websites or apps that aren’t necessary for the task at hand. Move tempting apps to the third or fourth page of your phone screen so that you have time to catch yourself mindlessly opening them.

4. Be Selective on Information Consumption

We have to understand that there is good information and then we have bad information. Information overload can fragment our attention and make it difficult for us to focus on important tasks. Filtering information (suppressing, deleting, and selecting irrelevant information) helps reduce information overload. In addition, work can be delegated, especially for screening or filtering tasks. Also, let’s prioritise information as what to consume and what to avoid in that particular moment.

1. Multi-tasking isn’t Efficient

The real issue is that multitasking, at least for humans, doesn’t really work well.“We know from the psychology literature that multitasking is bad for you,” saysGal Zauberman, a professor of marketing at Yale SOM. Research shows thatwe can’t really do two things at once. We’re actually switching our attention back and forth between the two tasks — and we perform worse at both. Multitasking is inefficient — but we feel like we’re getting so much done.

To avoid the possible deleterious impact of multitasking:

1. Limit the number of things you juggleat any given time to just two tasks.
2. Use the “20-minute rule”. Instead of constantly switching between tasks, try to fully devote your attention to one task for 20 minutes before switching to the other.
3. Practice Mindfulness/ Meditation

Meditation, in form or the other and in all faiths and cultures or traditons exists. Besides, every single sphere of our life does seek help from mindfulness to provide relief from the anxiety and stress of everyday life. This wellness movement has made its way into the corporate organisations across the world. They don’t only encourage employees at their workplaces to find time for silent self-search but also motivate them to go beyond and convince their families and friends to try out the same in their free time.

1. Get Enough Sleep

“More sleep will dramatically improve your performance”, says career and branding expert Wendi Weiner, since you won’t be yawning your way through a blizzard of emails. “Being well rested will definitely help improve your memory and concentration alike, as a rested brain is a stronger brain,” she says. “Remain on a sleep schedule so that you train your body and mind to relax at specific points in the day and night”.

Take AwaysThe human brain is always in motion, handling various thoughts, while the duration we can concentrate on one thing before losing focus or requiring a pause is influenced by our attention span. However, life is bustling with numerous components, and it’s entirely typical to occasionally become sidetracked due to its complexity. In reality,researchrevealed that, on average, 47% of our waking moments are spent thinking about matters unrelated to our current activity. Nevertheless, a limited capacity for sustained attention can have effects on both your personal and work-related spheres.

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Keep aiming and contributing how you can and success will be created for everyone by taking Fifth place and earning only one point, was enough to earn the one-half point that decided the win of the San Francisco City Junior High School Track and Field championship.

At the tender age of fourteen, I found myself in an embarrassing situation during a high jumping competition. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t match my friend’s impressive jump, which secured him the coveted first place. The following day at school, amidst the announcements and celebrations for the team’s victory, my friend took an unexpected and remarkable step. As the spotlight shone bright on his accomplishment, he momentarily hushed the crowd and drew attention to my contribution. With grace and wisdom beyond his years, he acknowledged that without my fifth-place finish and the single point it earned, our team wouldn’t have clinched the championship that we had won by one-half a point. At that moment, he insisted that I stand and receive the applause I deserved.

That profound gesture left an indelible mark on me, instilling a deep admiration that has persisted throughout my life.

From that early experience, I learned the essence of true leadership – the ability to recognize, acknowledge, and fully appreciate every contribution, no matter how seemingly small, that leads to success. In my professional and personal endeavors, I have strived to embody this principle, understanding that triumph is a collective effort, and every individual’s role deserves recognition and gratitude.

As I am writing this, Sejal Thakkar is coming to mind, her efforts with Nobody Studios, her introduction to Dennis Pitocco, and their remarkable additions to my life. I had decided to continue my high-level solitary ventures and focus my efforts on returning to Skydiving and qualifying for entry into the Hall of Fame, but all that has changed. I’m now addicted to AI and plan to combine my much-needed aged practical experience to aid in any way that I can, in the safe and sane functional development of it, and continue my New Beginning!

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I was told by a dear friend that if I stopped working, the world would end. Currently I am in three different businesses and write as well. Seeing that the customer facing ne has me working weekends and I seem to get the most urgent requests only on my days off. As a customer-centric person, I do what I can to avoid problems that result if one is deemed in-attentive! Example one customer very well educated, and very specific directions had a question the day before install. It was a Sunday. Not only did I have back-to-back customers all day, so I wasn’t on my computer or even my phone she texted and called, but I was talking with a person every time, showing products so no hands free to text. She called the office and left a message. When I finally got a moment towards the end of the day, I got yelled at and she yelled at everyone in the office. My customer service was her issue. Our business is very keen on speaking with whoever is with us directly first. It made me upset as I take my role seriously and there is no way to know each day the ebb and flow of clients in person.

Contrast to the software part time position that is on the 24-hr. clock because of the global nature of staff and clients. Though I set hours every week on my calendar, the 4 or 5 that I do as a business development/salesperson, this one can easily make a mess of my schedule. Textile consulting is appointment based and easy to manage. This difference between work styles made me think I should investigate the issue more! I was speaking to an IT friend who I know because of our shared passion for rugs and textiles. A treasure trove of information, this is what he offered.

Barry O’Connell shared:In the dynamic and ever-connected world of global collaboration, working across time zones is a familiar challenge that demands flexibility and sometimes, a touch of personal sacrifice. For one dedicated professional, navigating the time difference between the United States and Kerala, India, has become an art form, honed by necessity, and facilitated by the freedom of remote work. Our protagonist finds themselves bridging the geographical and temporal divide that separates their US-based operations from their development team in India.

The logistical puzzle of coordinating efforts across continents is a common scenario in today’s interconnected workplace. Yet, it’s the personal adaptation to these circumstances that truly encapsulates the spirit of global teamwork.

With team members in Kerala wrapping up their day as the US team is just beginning theirs, this individual has embraced an unorthodox schedule to keep the wheels of progress turning smoothly. Working from home offers the flexibility to adjust working hours, and this has become a cornerstone of their strategy for seamless collaboration. Embracing the quiet hours of the early morning, they’ve turned what could be seen as a disruption into an opportunity. Waking up for a 4:00 AM call to India is not just about troubleshooting or crisis management; it’s about fostering a continuous flow of communication and ensuring that both teams move forward in harmony. This unconventional schedule has its perks. After the call, a return to sleep is not just restorative; it’s a tactical pause. By the time the US management is ready to discuss the day’s agenda, our interviewees are refreshed, informed, and ready to brief them on the overnight developments. This approach also offers an unexpected benefit in the realm of workplace autonomy. The necessity of being available during the wee hours grants a certain degree of freedom during the conventional workday.

In an era where digital tools like Teams make it all too easy for managers to monitor activity levels, there’s a certain satisfaction in knowing that true productivity can’t always be measured by keyboard strokes or mouse movements. Our protagonist’s story is a testament to the adaptability required in today’s global workforce. It highlights not just the challenges of working across time zones, but the creative solutions that emerge when individuals are committed to their team’s success, regardless of the hour. It’s a narrative of compromise, ingenuity, and the subtle rebellion against the digital oversight of modern management tools—a reminder that in the vast web of global collaboration, the human element remains the most critical connector. Also, I should have posted into that article as well to keep your manager off balance. Shoot him an email at 9:00 at night and then answer a call at 4:00 in the morning. He won’t know when you’re working when you’re not and he will think you’re wonderful.

From Forbes: The world is experiencing a pandemic disruption that is changing our perspectives and beliefs about how we work. In particular:

• The balance of power has shifted from employers to employees.
• The employee value proposition has shifted from “work for me” to “work with me.”
• Employees favor a hybrid model versus going back to the office full time.
• Employees are rethinking their purpose—they are searching for meaning, not activity. In particular, millennials are interested in working with purpose-driven companies rather than those focused on shareholder value.

As governments start to ease pandemic restrictions and employers prepare to welcome employees back to work. The successful transition of the workforce from the known pre-pandemic world to the unknown post-pandemic world will depend on shifts leaders make to navigate this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. According to Andy Grove, former chairman and CEO of Intel, “Bad companies are destroyed by crisis, Good companies survive them, Great companies are improved by them.” Below are five shifts’ leaders must make to transform the pandemic work disruption into a gift and opportunity:

#1 Focus on purpose: What kind of employees would leaders attract if they measured their value not from Wall Street but by improving people’s lives—resolving environmental, social, and governance issues? Your organization will attract and retain employees searching for meaning and not activity. According to Mckinsey, “70% of employees now demand purposeful work.” These purpose-driven employees are “6.5x more likely to report higher resilience, 6x to stay at the company, 1.5x likely to go above and beyond.” Also, shareholders and customers make choices in the market based on purpose and sustainability.

#2 Change your paradigm: The implications of the post-pandemic disruption on the future of work are still unknown. Tim Elmore, the author of The Eight Paradoxes of Great Leadership, said, “Uncommon leaders leverage both their vision and their blind spots. We must not fall in love with an idea but fall in love with a problem. If we fall in love with an idea, we may be blinded to the better idea that comes along later.” You can mandate people to return to work, but you can’t control their levels of engagement. The current problem is complex, which means the problem must be managed, not solved. Also, it requires a cautious and experimental approach to bring employees back to work.

#3 Shift from customer-first to people-first: It is widely known that Amazon Founder, Jeff Bezos, leaves an empty chair to represent the customers’ voice during the company’s most important meetings. In today’s world, you need two chairs, the customer, and your employees. Like your customers, your employees are human beings. Howard Schultz, the former CEO and Chairman of Starbucks said, “We are not in the coffee business serving people, but in the people, business serving coffee.” Simply, treat your employees with the same respect and passion as you would a customer.

4 Embed your talent strategy into every phase of your business: Your HR partners are closest to the pulse of your organization, and they can leverage these insights to engage, energize, and unleash the power of your talent.

5 Shift your leadership operating model: With the shift to digitization, small businesses have been struggling to keep up with consumers’ insatiable appetites and changes in technology. Costs associated with bigger, better, newer, and faster software and hardware were a burden. The X-as-a-service (XaaS) model (where X = platform, software, infrastructure, etc.) is catching on in these environments as an intangible value to customers while lowering the total cost of ownership by providing subscription-based technology. It helps business owners meet their customer needs by accessing the latest technology while keeping CapEx low.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardosibanjo/2022/02/27/the-post-pandemic-workplace-5-shifts-every-leader-must-make/?sh=1c4f96354fc1

Some things businesses have to consider post pandemic according to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7566764.

The pandemic has pointed out problems in the current systems, as well as speeding along progress in the technology realm. A structural-unruly duality characterizes emergence, progression, and impact. Mainstream development thinking the problem. Transformations are needed in science-policy, economies. Resilience, equity, diversity, and inclusive politics are required.

This was a predictor back in 2020 and I believe it certainly has proved true!

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/11/our-post-pandemic-world-and-whats-likely-to-hang-round/

That ongoing uncertainty takes a big toll. That’s the basis of a traumatic stressor — unpredictability, uncontrollability — until it exceeds the ability of the organism to cope,” Koenen said. “It’s affecting every milestone: graduation, entering school, leaving school. For the older Gen-Zers: marriages, dating, jobs — in fact, there aren’t jobs. That’s a formative period in their lives when people are figuring out: What’s important to me? What do I want my life to look like compared to my parents’ life?”

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Stagnant and frustrated? Spinning your wheels but going nowhere? You’re not alone. We all hit plateaus where growth feels impossible. But what if I told you there’s a roadmap to reignite your progress and smash through those barriers?

As a mass communication specialist with over three decades of experience and a business coach dedicated to transforming lives, I’ve seen countless individuals break through plateaus and achieve incredible things. My passion lies in helping people connect, and that connection fuels growth.

But what if growth doesn’t have to be such a struggle? What if there’s a method to the madness, a formula you can follow that will get you unstuck and moving in the right direction again?

There is, and it starts with being honest with yourself. You have to get a clear-eyed assessment of where you’re at now before you can plan the steps to get where you want to go.

This guide unlocks the secrets to transforming struggle into steady advancement. We’ll explore how to set powerful goals, navigate setbacks with optimism, and celebrate every step on your journey to becoming your best self.

The opportunity for growth is there in every moment – you have to be ready to seize it. So, ditch the frustration and get ready to unleash your potential. Let’s take control of your growth starting today.

Graduating to the Next Level: Upgrading Your SkillsYou’ve been doing the same thing for a while now and feel stuck in a rut. Your job has become mundane, or you’ve plateaued in your career. It’s time for a change—an upgrade. Growth doesn’t happen by accident. You have to be intentional about improving your situation.

Continuous LearningThe key to progressing in your career or relationships is continuous learning. Take a course on a new skill, read books on personal development, or learn from a mentor. Exposing yourself to new ideas and ways of thinking helps spark creativity and opens you up to new opportunities.Expand Your Network

Those that share your growth mentality should be in your immediate vicinity. Connecting with like-minded individuals, especially those further along in their journey, helps motivate you and opens doors to new possibilities. Join a local networking group or online community to make valuable connections.

Look for New ChallengesOnce you’ve built up your skills and network, look for ways to apply your newfound knowledge. Ask your boss for more responsibility or look for a promotion. If that’s not possible in your current role, start searching for a new position that will challenge you.

Growth may feel uncomfortable, but that’s how you know you’re progressing. While change can be difficult, focusing on self-improvement and expanding your opportunities leads to a more fulfilling life. Continuously learning, networking, and taking on new challenges will set you up for success at the next level. The key is taking that first step. Are you ready to graduate?

Reality Check: Action Plan for Strategic GrowthWant to grow into your best self? First, take an honest look at where you are right now. Ask yourself the hard questions about what’s really going on in your life and how you truly feel. It may not always be pretty, but facing the truth is the only way to build the life you want.

Where do you stand in your relationships?

Are you making time for the people who lift you and support you? Or are you neglecting them in favor of work or other responsibilities? Please create a list of the relationships that nurture you and commit to strengthening them. Your connections with others are the foundation for growth.

How’s your physical health?

Are you exercising, eating balanced nutritious meals, and getting enough rest? Or are you burning the candle at both ends, surviving on caffeine and junk food? Take stock of your habits and make a plan to establish a healthy routine. Your physical health impacts everything else in your life.

What are your current skills and abilities?

Do you feel challenged and engaged at work? Or have you been coasting along, doing the bare minimum? Continuous learning and improving your skills is key to progress. Look for opportunities to advance your knowledge and take on more responsibility. Stagnation stifles growth.

How do you feel emotionally and spiritually?

Are you practicing self-care, engaging in meaningful pursuits, and maintaining an optimistic outlook? Or do feelings of boredom, restlessness, or apathy dominate your days? Your inner life steers your course, so make sure to nurture your emotional and spiritual well-being.

With an honest self-assessment in hand, you’ll gain clarity on what’s working and not working in your life. Growth happens through gradual progress, not an overnight transformation. But the journey starts here.

Developing Objectivity: Clarifying Your Goals and TimelinesAchieving growth requires developing an objective view of what you want to accomplish. Ask yourself some tough questions to gain clarity on your goals and timelines.

What exactly are you aiming for?

Be specific about what you want to achieve. Do you want to advance your career, learn a new skill, improve a relationship, or something else? The better, the more accurate you can be. Rather than expressing a general desire like “I want to improve my public speaking skills,” you could specify a concrete goal, such as “I aim to deliver an engaging and informative TEDx talk within the next six months.” This approach adds clarity and direction to your aspiration

How will achieving this goal benefit you?

Connect your goal to the benefits to stay motivated. Will it increase your confidence, open up new opportunities, or allow you to help others? Remind yourself of the benefits when obstacles arise.

What are your timelines?

Set both short-term and long-term timelines to keep yourself accountable while still being realistic. If your goal is to run a 5K, aim to run one mile within the next month, two miles within two months, and so on. Breaking a big goal into smaller milestones makes it feel more achievable.

Are there any preliminary micro goals?

Stay calm by the end goal. Remember the small accomplishments along the journey. If you want to learn Spanish, start by learning five new words daily. Celebrate achieving these micro goals to stay motivated for continued progress.

Developing objectivity around your goals and timelines is key to achieving real growth. Be specific about what you want, connect your goals to benefits, set timelines, and focus on small wins. With this approach, you’ll be making steady progress in no time. Remember, growth is often gradual, so keep putting one foot in front of the other, and you’ll get there.

Riding the Waves: Maintaining Positivity and Persistence Through ChallengesStaying Afloat Amid the Highs and Lows

Growth is a journey filled with ups and downs. Some days, you’ll feel on top of the world, energized by progress and breakthroughs. Other times, obstacles may seem impossible, and self-doubt starts to creep in. The key is learning how to ride the waves—how to maintain optimism and motivation even when times get tough.

Focus on Progress, Not Perfection

When facing challenges, it’s easy to become discouraged by how far you still have to go rather than appreciating how far you’ve come. Make a habit of regularly reflecting on your wins, big and small. Notice the milestones you’ve achieved and the skills you’ve gained. This helps build your confidence and resilience for the road ahead.

Look for the Silver Lining

Even when things don’t go as planned, there are lessons to be found. Ask yourself what you can gain or improve from the situation. You may have discovered a new approach that didn’t work. You have the chance to try something new right now. Growth often happens when we step outside our comfort zone. Look for the upside in any perceived “failure” or setback.

Take a Step Back to Recharge

When the going gets tough, pause to renew your motivation. Do something to shift your mindset and lift your mood, like exercising, spending time with loved ones, or engaging in an enjoyable hobby. A recharged mind and body will help you feel ready to dive back in with fresh enthusiasm and determination.

Connecting With Your “Why”

Remember your initial motivation for embarking on this trip. What motivated you to push out of your comfort zone and work to achieve your goals? Revisit your original inspiration and vision. Let it reignite your passion and strengthen your resolve. When challenges arise, your “why” can be the driving force that keeps you going.

Growth is a journey, not a destination. Learn to find the joy in overcoming life’s obstacles, both great and small. Maintain an optimistic mindset, focus on progress, and reconnect with your motivation. With persistence and positivity, you’ll build resilience and continue moving forward. The obstacles you encounter today will mold the person you end up being tomorrow.

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“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.”

Charles Buxton

We all share the same 24 hours in a day, yet some people seem to effortlessly accomplish their goals while others struggle to keep up. The secret lies in effective time management—a skill that can transform your life and lead you to success. In this blog post, we will explore practical strategies to make the most of your time, ensuring a balanced and fulfilling life.

One of the fundamental principles of time management is prioritization. As the renowned productivity expert, Stephen Covey, once said, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” Start your day by identifying the most critical tasks and allocate your time accordingly. When you focus on what truly matters, you can achieve more with less effort. By doing so, you not only increase your efficiency but also move closer to the life you envision.

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

William Penn

Reflecting on how we spend our time is crucial to effective time management. The above insightful quote from William Penn reminds us of the value of this finite resource. Take a moment to evaluate your daily activities, identifying those that contribute to your goals and eliminating habits that waste your time. This mindful approach ensures that each moment is an investment in your personal and professional success.

The Power of PlanningEffective time management starts with a well-thought-out plan. Break down your goals into smaller, manageable tasks and create a daily or weekly schedule. As the saying goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” When you have a roadmap, you can navigate through your day with purpose and avoid the chaos of unplanned moments.

Take ownership of your time by consciously making choices that align with your goals. Create a balance between work and personal life, ensuring that you allocate time for relaxation and self-care. Recognize that making time for what matters requires intentional effort.

Embrace the 80/20 RuleThe Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, suggests that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Identify the tasks that yield the most significant impact and prioritize them. By focusing on the most critical aspects of your work and life, you can achieve remarkable results with minimal input.

So, mastering the art of time management is something that requires self-awareness, planning, and intentional choices. By listing your priorities, planning your days, and focusing on what matters most, you can unlock the full potential of your 24 hours. As you go through the path to success, remember the wise words of William Penn: “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

Make the most of your time, and watch how it transforms your life.

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One of my coaching clients shared with me recently how she was feeling insecure in her job role and lacking motivation. The company she works for is acknowledged as an entrepreneurial industry leader. Because it is currently being challenged by poor sales performance, it has bunkered down and frozen any change initiatives, learning programs or new projects until mid-2025. Because my client is in a substantial Research and Development function, crucial to innovation, we aimed to explore new ways of helping the company use their existing equipment (capital investments) and resources (people and expertise) to design and deliver low-cost and sustainable innovations to the market and creating a focused, meaningful, purposeful role and a values-based motivating opportunity for my client to be proactive, impacting the company by adding value to the bottom line by improving productivity and cost efficiency because anyone can learn to innovate.

Learning to innovateAs a result of our short time together, my client felt confident and empowered, motivated and energised, to invest time in learning how to apply her current skills and strengths, focus and attention to connect with key people and resources, explore options globally for identifying new business development opportunities, and in developing her technical skillset.

My client enrolled in an online innovation learning program to learn to innovate by acquiring the fundamentals of mindset and behaviour changes to shift their thinking and act differently.

The innovation imperative has shiftedProductivity growth needs to accelerate
According to McKinsey and Co, in the article “Investing in Productivity Growth”, it’s not only time to raise investment and catch the next productivity wave; the world needs to and can accelerate productivity growth.

“Productivity growth means getting more from our work and our investments. It is especially needed now as the world faces the many challenges of a new geo-economic era. Productivity growth is the best antidote to the asset price inflation of the past two decades, which has created about $160 trillion in “paper wealth” and even larger amounts of new debt”.

Adapting to the new net zero reality
The world must be on track to meet net-zero targets, yet many opportunities are available to accelerate efforts and help meet decarbonisation goals. Whilst some progress has been made to reduce global carbon emissions, under the current trajectory, the world won’t achieve net-zero emissions even during this century. Again, according to McKinsey and Co., in an article “Adapting to the new net-zero reality”, mitigation efforts alone are no longer sufficient – the world will need to adapt as well by going green, ramping up technologies and increasing investments.

Improving cost efficiencies
According to new BCG research, corporate leaders are making better cost management a priority as a hedge against ongoing economic, financial, and political uncertainties, stating that:

“Wholesale cuts are one way to manage costs. However, drastic measures such as sudden workforce reductions may lead to unintended consequences because they fail to address the root causes of inefficiencies. Nor do they position an organisation for future success”.

Generative Ai is a critical enabler of innovation
Whether the organisation focuses on developing new products, services, processes, or business models, Generative AI (GenAI) can enhance and challenge the work of leaders and teams across all phases of the innovation cycle and process.

By learning to innovate through knowing how to generatively question and listen, reveal and challenge operating beliefs and test assumptions to enable them to emerge, diverge, converge and prioritise high-quality creative ideas for change.

According to BCG in a recent article, “To Drive Innovation with GenAI, Start by Questioning Your Assumptions.”

“GenAI’s most prominent contribution is in idea generation and validation—innovation’s divergence and convergence phases. Yet, it can play an even more critical role in helping leaders confront and update the strategic assumptions at the foundation of their business and innovation strategies: the doubt phase of the cycle. Organisations that regularly question their beliefs are more resilient because they are more likely to see and position themselves to benefit from the shifts on which competitive advantage turns”.

The innovation imperative is paradoxicalSuppose we combine the contradictory features or qualities of developing productivity growth while adapting to the new net zero reality and improving cost efficiencies. In that case, many organisations have reverted to their conventional, business-as-usual focus, relying on Generative Ai to solve their problems.

This demonstrates a typically faddish response to a revolutionary, transformative new invention whilst being avoidant and resisting the urgent need to change by building the fundamental foundations in enhancing people’s capacity by learning to innovate.

Thinking and acting differently
Anyone can learn to innovate, and it starts with allowing, accepting and acknowledging that a business-as-usual focus, avoiding risk, making the tough decisions and resisting change are no longer effective, profitable, or sustainable because:

We all know that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. We can no longer afford to keep producing the same results that no one wants. We can’t solve the problem with the same thinking that created it; we have to learn how to be, think and act differently to deliver the sustainable and innovative solution we want to have.

Learning to innovate requires a radical strategic shiftHarnessing collective intelligence
Anyone can learn to innovate; it’s simply a matter of leveraging talent to know, combine, leverage and scale people’s multiple and collective intelligence – heads/cognition, hearts/emotions and hands/actions.

Revealing and closing knowing-doing gaps
Then, we should align these to close the significant knowing-doing gap or disconnect between what people know and what people do.

Everyone knows that innovation is the most impactful lever to use to scale and leverage change, yet are primarily unwilling to pause, stop and take time to retreat from their short-term focus, pay attention and reflect on how to equip people with the innovation fundamentals by getting people’s:

Heads to make sense of innovation and what it means by defining and framing it in their organisation’s unique context, setting a strategic focus, determining the level of risk involved in achieving it and mitigating the roadblocks that may arise.

Hearts aligned to embody and enact what innovation means by setting and sharing a passionately purposeful reason for innovation, building change receptivity and readiness for designing and delivering a range of bespoke deep learning processes and equipping people to activate it.

Hands dirty by creating a safe environment where people are encouraged to emerge and share creative ideas and permission and be allowed to experiment by making small bets and mistakes and learning by doing to know what not to do.
Innovation requires a strategic and systemic focus

Innovation is subjective and contextual, so it must be defined and framed in an organisation’s unique context. It requires a strategic and systemic focus, so an organisation needs to agree on whether they will choose an incremental, sustainable or disruptive strategy and the level of risk.

The 21st century requires us to unlearn, learn, and relearn different mindsets, behaviours, and skills; anyone can learn to innovate to deliver successful change and transformation initiatives.

Commitment and conviction to learn to innovateIt’s only through being committed and having the conviction that my coaching client now has – to explore new ways of helping their organisations use their existing capital investments, collective intelligence, people resources, and expertise, supported by Generative Ai and deep learning processes, to design and deliver low-cost and sustainable innovations to the market.

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Facing a workplace situation that feels more like a never-ending marathon than a fulfilling career? Sounds like you’re stuck in the “24/7 rule” circus, where the company’s demands are juggling you around like a reluctant clown! But fear not, it’s time to add a dash of humor to lighten the mood and find your way out of this job jamboree.

Imagine this: you’re the star performer in a workplace drama titled “The Great Escape from 24/7 Land.” Cue the dramatic music as you dramatically roll out of bed after hitting the snooze button more times than you can count. Your reluctance to face the day rivals that of a cat avoiding a bath – and trust me, that’s some serious reluctance!

But wait, there’s more! Your inner circle knows all about your workplace woes, making you feel like the lead character in a soap opera where everyone’s in on the juicy gossip. And as for having fun? Well, it’s become as elusive as finding a unicorn at a corporate retreat.

Now, let’s sprinkle in some wit and wisdom. Picture yourself sitting down with a trusted confidant, pouring your heart out over a cup of coffee. You lay out your grievances, and they respond with a quip so sharp, it could cut through the corporate red tape like a hot knife through butter. Together, you brainstorm a plan so ingenious, it would make even Sherlock Holmes proud.

As you jot down your thoughts on paper, you realize something profound: it’s time to reclaim your power and put yourself first. You’re not just a cog in the corporate machine – you’re a force to be reckoned with!

So, armed with humor, wit, and a newfound sense of determination, you set out on your journey to find greener pastures. Who knows? Maybe your next adventure will involve writing that book you’ve always dreamed of or embarking on a spontaneous trip to Singapore – because life’s too short to be stuck in a job that feels like a never-ending sitcom rerun!

Remember, laughter is the best medicine, especially when dealing with workplace woes. So, chin up, my friend, and let’s add a little humor to this chapter of your life story!

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Right now the world seems somewhat bleak, we are fearful and angry, living in unprecedented times and life is desperate and unfair for many, all of which means that it is difficult to remain hopeful and to have faith that our actions, our words, our thoughts can make a difference.

But we must remember that they can.

The reality is, that since the beginning of modern history, most of our challenges have been unprecedented, humanity has suffered enormously, life is unfair and random and often cruel, but yet the human race is still here, we have evolved beyond all imagination and the lives of many have improved immeasurably.

So, during these difficult times, I thought it would be good to remind ourselves of what us mere mortals are actually capable of by looking to the past for inspiration.

It was 1993, Andrew Sullivan, a journalist was diagnosed with AIDs. It was a truly terrible time – there was no cure, the deaths were desperate and lonely and prejudice was rampant.

So, Andrew took himself off to die. But he decided that it was important for him to leave some kind of legacy, a note that he had been here and his parting birdsong, was to write a book and that book was called ‘Virtually Normal’. And that book suggested a totally unthinkable thing at that time, that gay people should be able to get married. Andrew was acutely aware of the shame and subsequent self-hatred that so many gay people were unfairly and inhumanely forced to live with and could see no other way, in which gay people could be freed.

When the book came out, it was harshly criticised, by both right wing parties and the gay community. Andrew thought his work had all been for nothing and he would die not having made a difference.

It is now 27 years since that book was published, Andrew is alive, his book sparked a movement and was quoted in a key supreme court ruling in the US, declaring marriage equality for gay people. Andrew also received a letter from the president of the USA, telling him that the fight for gay marriage, succeeded in part because of him. He was invited to the Whitehouse for dinner and that President was black.

Enormous changes happen because seemingly ordinary people think the unthinkable and then have the courage, faith and passion to do something about it.

So, today and every day, please think the unthinkable and keep the faith that your actions, your thoughts and your words will make a difference to someone, somewhere.

P.S. I read this story in Johan Hari’s book ‘Lost Connections’ one of the few books I would say was definitely life changing for me as is his new book ‘Stolen Focus’.

With love

Nik x

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More than ever, organisations and individuals are looking ahead to the future with a close lens and keen insights. This type of big-picture thinking is imperative to the success of any company or a person. It’s part of building mental fitness. After all, our world is not static, rather it is in a constant state of change. With much of the future unknown and uncertain, companies (and people) need to stay agile and think strategically about what’s to come ahead. In fact, half of us feel unable to plan for the future.

Having said that, we also need to make sure to stay reactive. Our organizations know that the future isn’t set in stone. Nowadays, the future is fluid. To look at the bigger picture ahead, we know that we need to make space for reflection in case things don’t go as planned.

In this article, we shall deliberate on how to adopt habits to become a BIG Picture Thinker. Let’s find out how BIG Picture Thinking Pattern can keep ourselves and our organizations a step ahead from the competition, from the market place — and be better prepared to pivot when needed.

Who’re the Big Picture Thinkers?The BIG Picture People tend to be creative, strategic, and visionary, but they can also be messy, disorganised, and forgetful. On the other hand, the detail oriented people are conscientious and exacting, but may lack perspective or fail to prioritise long-term goals. These types of thinking skills aren’t inherently natural to us. Like any other sort of skill or muscle, it takes practice to start thinking with a BIG Picture view. Let’s see how BIG Picture Thinking should work for us and why it’s worth investing in building a future-mindedness in our respective workplacs?

Ways to Embrace Big Picture Thinking1. The Power of seeing the Whole

In most cases, particularly in our part of the world, we are not trained to have a holistic view of things. Rather, we look at the transactional value of the pieces. We love to work in silos and we feel good about it. Also, in most cases we don’t like others to interfere in our respective domains even for our own good. We live with this distorted desire to control i.e. I am the In-charge for my own little kingdom.

Unfortunately, most managers are trained like that, not bothered to look at the BIGGER Picture, e.g., the Heads of HR, Finance, IT or other support function are generally busy adding frills to their little empires without realizing the purpose or core of their organisational existence. Similarly, they train their successors in a similar fashion, living in their own (fool’s) paradise.

2. Spare Time to Reflect

Rather than acting on short-term conditions such as emotions, fatigue, time pressure or distraction, deciding based on the BIG Picture can ensure us prioritise effectively and set achievable goals. Here are a few methods we can use to think about the big picture:

1. Connect with the Divine and seek help
2. Write down the BIG Goals
3. Go for a thoughtful walk
4. Talk to a friend or a family member who is a good listener and seek advice

3. Build Future-Centric Skills

We all understand that due to the current economic situation around the world, the future will remain uncertain for a foreseeable time and that’s fine. Organizations and individuals everywhere are navigating the same uncertainty and unknown. In fact, 63% of Americans say they’re stressed about the unknown. But our workforce doesn’t have to feel like it’s navigating the unknown alone or without support.

Creating future-centric leaders in our organisations will help keep our employees agile, healthy, and engaged. Researchshows that future-centric leaders report increased team agility, team performance, innovation, and resilience. 82% of people have significant room for improvement in at least one area of future-centric leadership skills.

4. The Journey Starts from Within

It takes a “leadershift” — a balance between standing back and seeing the big picture (vision) and moving in close while painting all of the fine details (execution). BIG Picture Thinkers dream of the opportunities, not just the problems, they see possibilities, not barriers. They have the capability of see across the wall.

BIG Picture leaders then take those abstract thoughts and envision strategic outcomes. They can make a plan for how to create opportunities from challenges, and outcomes that drive an organization to somewhere ahead of where it is today. BIG Picture leaders elevate possibilities, processes and people.

5. Convert Plans into Action

Since we are discussing the BIG Picture Thinking and painting a vision, let’s see what the great artist Pablo Picasso had to say: “Our goals can only be reached through the vehicle of a plan. There is no other route to success.”

As we look through our own leadership lens today, let’s ask ourselves:

1. Do we have a vision for what we do?
2. Is our vision in sync with our life goals?
3. Are the goals outlined with a plan that is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound)?
4. Does our vision include leading others toward the end state? If so, am I more focused on managing an operation or leading people?

SummaryIn short, “Symphony” is the ability to see the big picture not only in terms of analysis, but also to integrate and synthesise to see that the whole is greater than the sum of all the parts. It is a capacity that each person has to a degree. The more this symphony is cultivated the easier it becomes to communicate and understand the job as a whole, the significance of each part to success, and the subtle interrelationships among the parts.

Let’s not forget that the change is the only constant and is necessary for evolution. Leadership Guru John C. Maxwell writes in his book Leadershift, “You cannot be the same, think the same, and act the same if you hope to be successful in a world that does not remain the same”.

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There is a lot of talk, and rightly so, about Artificial Intelligence. ChatGpt, for example, is the intelligent software that can write texts, generate reports, solve complex problems, translate songs into other languages and solve mathematical exercises, in short, produce what is required of students: for this reason many schools have banned this application.

But it’s a vain thing!

In fact, the web has long been full of apps that translate and solve problems. And it is not even useful to apply counterproductive forms of prohibition: rather, rules are needed that develop the critical sense of students by helping them to use algorithms without being slaves to them, also because using them as shortcuts is a form of mental slavery, while knowing makes you free; information available in a short time is an advantage if used as a basis for comparisons and for debate by comparing ideas and values that come from the past.

And if new technologies cannot be stopped, we might as well study them, explaining their dangers, controlling them and curbing their unscrupulous use as a substitute for human qualities.

But without taking anything away from technological evolution, we can try to focus every now and then on the beauty of natural intelligence, which until some time ago did not require adjectives to be distinguished from anything else.

Intelligence, according to the definition found in the dictionary, is: «that complex of psychic and mental faculties that allow man to think, understand or explain facts or actions, develop abstract models of reality, understand and be understood from others, to judge, and at the same time make him capable of adapting to new situations and of modifying the situation itself when it presents obstacles to adaptation”; a continuous human faculty that develops gradually starting from childhood, accompanied by awareness and self-awareness.

We are therefore not just a sum of information, our brain is not a computer, we cannot pause or restart to function better, we are not executors of functions, even if many decisions are entrusted to the measurement capacity of artificial intelligence. And even in small way we delegate many functions to the cell phone, to automatic calculation, to the digital map that guides our steps

A great philosopher proposed an interesting analogy: Would you stop walking on your own two feet just because there are means that can do it for you? We would get sick soon. Yet we tend to do this with our brain by delegating many functions to the machine.

So every now and then we try to de-virtualize our social life. Online is not evil, the way in which it is used can be: the machine always lives in the present, in us the present and the past coexist in an unpredictable, uncalculable way, towards the future.

To be intelligent we need a body: it is in the body that passions, impulses, long-term memory and thoughts that we can only enjoy offline are inscribed. Human intelligence is not a calculating machine, it is a process that articulates affectivity, corporeality, error, desire, conscience.

We need direct friendly discussions, capable of opening up to suggestions, listening and reflection.

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A recent neuroscience study exploring how the brain engages in creative work, reveals that flow, or being “in the zone,” the state of blissful consciousness, can be achieved by consciously releasing or reducing cognitive control to allow creativity to flourish.

“Letting go”, a foundational principle in mindfulness meditation practice, is central for an optimal creative state of flow to be reached and maintained.

To elicit flow, we have to intentionally create the space for it. A mental, emotional and physical environment that is conducive “to see what else is possible”.

The realms of possibility and opportunity are inherently connected with untapped potential.

Harnessing change is part of any growth’s journey; it is the gateway into new experiences that open to new, effective ways of attaining the desired outcomes.

The essence of the creative process is to let go of the “knowing” mind construct, to shift into the dimension of wondrous curiosity, allowing for new insight to surface, to be explored and eventually embraced.

Unlocking organisational potential ties with fostering human centred dynamics where processes, systems and approaches are harmonised, to synergise with the change effort.

This is a dimension of expansion, where intentional presence and empathic listening weave in with collaboration, experimentation, authenticity, safety and trust, to synchronise the shared purpose, build resilience, and activate ownership, transforming the relationship with adversities.

How comfortable are you at the idea of letting go of the “I know” and embrace instead the “What if” and “Where from here” ?

To shift from change to transformation, we steer the dialogue (inner and outer) in a direction that invites in openness, to a space where we promote collaborative problem solving.

The creative process is by all means a human centred endeavour. Ideas and solutions arise as a result of channelling the creative energy into a collaborative pursuit.

It is not about the ‘I’ versus the “We” rather the integrative process that is built around a shared vision, shared values and a common goal.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” A. Einstein

This analysis is foundational to the Module 3 of my “Transformative Leadership Coaching Program” at present offered on 1-to1 Format: “Embrace Growth. Be In Service.” You can learn more about the first two Modules by visiting my LinkedIn profile and my website. To unlock more insight into the 5Dimensions of the Program, you can sign up to download the expanded view.

Link to the external resource: https://neurosciencenews.com/creative-flow-neuroscience-25918/

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With all the talk about layoffs, and top companies laying off thousands at a time over the past year, we’re seeing more and more individuals using what’s called Career Cushioning. This refers to maintaining a safety net – or backup plan -while pursuing your primary career goals. This safety net includes such scenarios as a side job, freelance work, a secondary source of income. Not to mention, professionals are job searching with the hope of lining something up should they end up laid off.

The purpose: to provide financial stability and security, especially during times of uncertainty or transition in one’s primary career path. In short, this is a strategy where professionals take steps to create ‘just-in-case’ alternate paths of employment in the event they lose their current job.

According to a recent post on the HubSpot.com, a site with tools, software and info for businesses, Career Cushioning allows you to ‘cushion the blow’ if you lose your job unexpectedly. It’s about being proactive and creating additional opportunities for yourself in the event of a layoff or sudden termination.

The practice of career cushioning has continued to escalate. And while it wasn’t called Career Cushioning in the past, professionals have been doing just this for decades.

businessinsider.com says – “A slew of companies across the tech, media, finance, and retail industries made significant cuts to staff in 2023. Tech titans like IBM, Google, Microsoft, finance giants like Goldman Sachs, and manufacturers like Dow, all announced layoffs”. With all these layoffs by top companies, such as these – over the past year – workers are feeling unsettled. Even employees with a history of stable employment may harbor apprehensions about their future within their company. Also, we’re seeing the elimination of mid-level positions. For example – management roles. Unfortunately, the firing of a manager or specific leader can cause a domino effect in terms of staff turnover.

Remaining vigilant about the job market is prudent regardless the situation, and utilizing this practice can enable you to gauge the market regarding your skills. That said, this practice could also pave the way for significant discussions within your current organization. In short, staying aware of the marketplace can help you grasp the needs of prospective employers providing you an opportunity to upskill or venture into a completely new professional area via reskilling.

7 Tips for Career Cushioning1. Stay visible – Update your Profile on LinkedIn – post comments and articles of value on a regular basis. 2. Take time to diversify your skills. For example – broaden your skill set. This helps you make yourself adaptable to different roles and industries. Having a diverse range of skills can increase your employability and resilience in the face of changing job demands. 3. Develop and solicit feedback from mentors to identify areas for improvement and professional growth. A mentor can offer valuable guidance and support during challenging career transitions. 4. Participate in informational interviews. This is a meeting between an individual seeking information about a career, industry, company, or specific role and a professional who possesses relevant knowledge and experience in that area. Unlike a traditional job interview, the primary goal of an informational interview is to gather insights, advice and firsthand perspectives rather than securing a job offer. During an informational interview, an individual typically asks questions to learn about various aspects of the profession, such as day-to-day responsibilities, required skills and qualifications, career paths, industry trends and challenges, for example. It’s an opportunity for the interviewee to gain valuable insights into the field they’re interested in and to expand their professional network. 5. Get Certified. Skill Validation Certifications validate your skills and expertise in a specific domain. They provide tangible evidence to employers or clients you possess the necessary knowledge and competencies to excel in your field. In today’s competitive job market, having certifications can set you apart from other candidates. They demonstrate your dedication to staying current with industry trends and technologies, making you a more attractive candidate to potential employers. 6. Network. Networking exposes professionals to a broader range of career opportunities. Whether job openings, freelance projects or collaborations, networking can quickly connect individuals with opportunities they might not have otherwise encountered. Networking is engaging with peers, mentors, and industry leaders which can provide valuable feedback, guidance and mentorship opportunities. Professionals can learn from the experiences of others, gain new perspectives and receive advice on career advancement strategies. 7. Offer your services on a freelance site. Freelancing opens up a world of diverse opportunities. As a freelancer you can work with clients from various industries, regions and backgrounds, allowing you to expand your skills and knowledge, This can also provide opportunities for continuous learning and growth. Plus can help you build your network.

Overall, career cushioning is a strategic approach to career management which prioritizes financial stability and flexibility. Bottom line – it enables individuals to pursue their primary career goals with greater confidence and resilience, knowing they have a backup plan in place to support them during challenging times.

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The Assumption of CompetenceIn the corporate world, there’s a pervasive assumption that once an employee climbs to a certain rung on the ladder, they inherently possess all the skills necessary to lead effectively. This belief is rooted in the idea that experience alone is a sufficient teacher and that seniority equates to leadership prowess. However, this assumption is flawed and can lead to a dangerous neglect of ongoing leadership development.

The Consequences of NeglectWhen organizations operate under this assumption, they inadvertently set their leaders—and by extension, their teams—up for failure. Leaders may become isolated, losing touch with the ground realities of their teams. This isolation can breed a form of insulation where leaders are cocooned in their established ways, resistant to new ideas or blind to emerging issues within their teams.

The Ripple Effect of IsolationThis isolation doesn’t just affect the leaders; it trickles down, affecting team dynamics and performance. Leaders who are not up-to-date with the latest management techniques or who lack self-awareness may inadvertently pass on bad habits to their team members. These habits can manifest as poor communication, ineffective feedback, or a lack of empathy—each of which can erode team morale and productivity.

The Need for Continuous LearningLeadership is not a static skill set but a dynamic one that requires continuous learning and adaptation. Just as industries evolve, so too must the skills and approaches of those who lead within them. Leadership training should be seen as a continuous journey, not a destination reached at a certain job title.

Investing in GrowthOrganizations must invest in their leaders at all levels, providing them with the tools, training, and support they need to grow. This investment pays dividends in the form of more engaged, productive teams and a culture that values growth and learning.

ConclusionThe myth of self-sufficiency in leadership is not just a disservice to the leaders themselves but to the entire organization.

By committing to continuous leadership development, companies can foster a culture of excellence, adaptability, and shared success.

Orlando Haynes and I talk about the negative consequences, need for continuous learning and investing in growth in their leaders on his CareerTalks podcast.

Listen to full podcast here:

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In this thought-provoking episode of The Mind Takeaway Podcast, we’re broadcasting from a rooftop in Belgrade, with the bustling city below us, to tackle the transformative concepts of learning, unlearning, and relearning in leadership. As the business landscape evolves at a breakneck pace, we explore why the most important trait for today’s leaders is the ability to rapidly assimilate new information, shift perspectives, and adapt to change.

We unpack the distinctions between passive and active learners, emphasising the significance of active roles in professional development. Our discussion highlights how leaders who embrace trial and error and are willing to be vulnerable in learning ultimately flourish and make a lasting impact.

We confront the barriers that ego presents to personal growth, exploring how defensiveness and a reluctance to be wrong can stifle learning. Conversely, we celebrate the power of embracing discomfort, recognising that feeling unsettled is a natural part of acquiring new skills and expanding one’s horizons.

Join us as we explore the delicate balance of slowing down to speed up, the importance of curiosity in leadership, and the courage required to step out of one’s comfort zone. We share insights on how leaders can foster a culture of continuous improvement within themselves and among their teams by demonstrating a willingness to experiment and evolve.

Whether you’re a seasoned executive or an emerging leader, this episode serves as a compelling reminder that the journey of learning is never complete and that the willingness to embrace the uncomfortable truly defines transformative leadership.

Tune in for an episode that will challenge your assumptions, inspire you to reflect on your learning style, and empower you to become the leader that the future demands.

Episode Highlights:* The essential nature of adaptability and continuous learning in modern leadership * The difference between passive and active learning and the role of ego in hindering growth * Strategies for embracing discomfort and the benefits of doing so for leaders and their team * Real-world examples of how leaders have successfully implemented new skills and the positive impact on their teams * Remember, when you feel discomfort creeping in, it’s a sign of potential growth.

Episode Chapters(00:00) The Mind Takeaway podcast comes from the rooftop of The Office Belgrade.

(00:54) learning, unlearning and relearning are essential for leaders to grow and have an impact.

(04:04) To be a great leader, you must be a great learner simultaneously.

(07:43) The most critical thing in leadership is being comfortable with being uncomfortable.

(13:06) If you are feeling stuck right now, it’s time to take the first step. Look at the Leadership skills you want to learn more about and start there.

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In economic tough times, maintaining a positive outlook and staying motivated can be extremely challenging. The pressure of financial strains, job insecurity, and market volatility can weigh heavy on the most optimistic person. However, it is during these trying periods that our resilience is truly tested. Whether you’re navigating a personal financial crisis, a national recession, or a global market downturn, these strategies can help you weather the storm with your morale intact.

1. Setting Realistic Goals

When the economy takes a hit, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of what the future holds. This is why setting realistic goals, both short-term and long-term, becomes crucial. Take a step back and assess your current situation. Acknowledge the difficulties you’re facing, but don’t dwell on them. Instead, focus on what you can realistically achieve. Maybe it’s cutting down on unnecessary expenses, or perhaps it’s putting in extra effort at work to secure your position. Whatever the case, creating achievable milestones will provide structure and a sense of control during uncertain times.

1. Engaging in Continuous Learning

One of the best investments you can make in tough economic times is in yourself. While job prospects may be scarce, investing in your skills and knowledge can open up new opportunities. Take advantage of online courses, workshops, and certifications to enhance your skills or learn something entirely new. Not only will this keep you motivated by providing a sense of progress and growth, but it can also make you more valuable in the job market.

1. Surrounding Yourself with Positive Influences

During difficult times, it’s easy to get caught up in negative thinking and pessimism. This is why surrounding yourself with positive influences is crucial for maintaining a healthy mindset. Seek out friends and family who uplift and support you, and limit your exposure to negative news or social media feeds that can bring you down. Surrounding yourself with positivity can help you stay motivated and optimistic, which is essential for overcoming challenges.

1. Practicing Self-Care

In times of uncertainty, it’s easy to neglect our physical and mental well-being. However, taking care of ourselves is crucial for maintaining resilience and navigating tough times successfully. Make sure to prioritize sleep, healthy eating habits, and regular exercise. Additionally, practicing self-care activities like meditation, journaling, or hobbies can help reduce stress and improve your overall well-being.

1. Helping Others

While it may seem counterintuitive, helping others during tough times can have a positive impact on your own well-being. Volunteering or finding ways to support your community not only helps those in need but also gives you a sense of purpose and fulfillment. This can boost your self-esteem and provide a sense of connection with others, helping you stay motivated and resilient.

ConclusionIn conclusion, difficult times are inevitable, but how we choose to respond to them can make all the difference. By staying focused on our goals, continuously learning and growing, surrounding ourselves with positivity, practicing self-care, and helping others, we can build resilience and navigate through tough times with strength and optimism. Remember, challenges may arise, but they also provide opportunities for growth and development.

Everything passes with time.

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Joe Árvai, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

As artificial intelligence creeps further into people’s daily lives, so do worries about it. At the most alarmist are concerns about AI going rogue and terminating its human masters. But behind the calls for a pause on the development of AI is a suite of more tangible social ills. Among them are the risks AI poses to people’s privacy and dignity and the inevitable fact that, because the algorithms under AI’s hood are programmed by humans, it is just as biased and discriminatory as many of us. Throw in the lack of transparency about how AI is designed, and by whom, and it’s easy to understand why so much time these days is devoted to debating its risks as much as its potential.

But my own research as a psychologist who studies how people make decisions leads me to believe that all these risks are overshadowed by an even more corrupting, though largely invisible, threat. That is, AI is mere keystrokes away from making people even less disciplined and skilled when it comes to thoughtful decisions.

Making thoughtful decisionsThe process of making thoughtful decisions involves three common sense steps that begin with taking time to understand the task or problem you’re confronted with. Ask yourself, what is it that you need to know, and what do you need to do in order to make a decision that you’ll be able to credibly and confidently defend later?

The answers to these questions hinge on actively seeking out information that both fills gaps in your knowledge and challenges your prior beliefs and assumptions. In fact, it’s this counterfactual information – alternative possibilities that emerge when people unburden themselves of certain assumptions – that ultimately equips you to defend your decisions when they are criticized.

The second step is seeking out and considering more than one option at a time. Want to improve your quality of life? Whether it’s who you vote for, the jobs you accept or the things you buy, there’s always more than one road that will get you there. Expending the effort to actively consider and rate at least a few plausible options, and in a manner that is honest about the trade-offs you are willing to make across their pros and cons, is a hallmark of a thoughtful and defensible choice.

The third step is being willing to delay closure on a decision until after you’ve done all the necessary heavy mental lifting. It’s no secret: Closure feels good because it means you’ve put a difficult or important decision behind you. But the cost of moving on prematurely can be much higher than taking the time to do your homework. If you don’t believe me, just think about all those times you let your feelings guide you, only to experience regret because you didn’t take the time to think a little harder.

Dangers of outsourcing decisions to AINone of these three steps are terribly difficult to take. But, for most, they’re not intuitive either. Making thoughtful and defensible decisions requires practice and self-discipline. And this is where the hidden harm that AI exposes people to comes in: AI does most of its “thinking” behind the scenes and presents users with answers that are stripped of context and deliberation. Worse, AI robs people of the opportunity to practice the process of making thoughtful and defensible decisions on their own.

Consider how people approach many important decisions today. Humans are well known for being prone to a wide range of biases because we tend to be frugal when it comes to expending mental energy. This frugality leads people to like it when seemingly good or trustworthy decisions are made for them. And we are social animals who tend to value the security and acceptance of their communities more than they might value their own autonomy.

Add AI to the mix and the result is a dangerous feedback loop: The data that AI is mining to fuel its algorithms is made up of people’s biased decisions that also reflect the pressure of conformity instead of the wisdom of critical reasoning. But because people like having decisions made for them, they tend to accept these bad decisions and move on to the next one. In the end, neither we nor AI end up the wiser.

Being thoughtful in the age of AIIt would be wrongheaded to argue that AI won’t offer any benefits to society. It most likely will, especially in fields like cybersecurity, health care and finance, where complex models and massive amounts of data need to be analyzed routinely and quickly. However, most of our day-to-day decisions don’t require this kind of analytic horsepower. But whether we asked for it or not, many of us have already received advice from – and work performed by – AI in settings ranging from entertainment and travel to schoolwork, health care and finance. And designers are hard at work on next-generation AI that will be able to automate even more of our daily decisions. And this, in my view, is dangerous.

In a world where what and how people think is already under siege thanks to the algorithms of social media, we risk putting ourselves in an even more perilous position if we allow AI to reach a level of sophistication where it can make all kinds of decisions on our behalf. Indeed, we owe it to ourselves to resist the siren’s call of AI and take back ownership of the true privilege – and responsibility – of being human: being able to think and choose for ourselves. We’ll feel better and, importantly, be better if we do.

Joe Árvai, Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology and Director of the Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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It’s counterintuitive, but developing the ability to hold opposite thoughts in our minds, can provide a creative approach to solving problems. Doing so is often challenging because we’re taught to think in terms of the right way and the wrong way. But Paradoxical thinking (or Janusian thinking, named after the Roman god Janus who had two faces diametrically opposed), is often responsible for constructs and models in science, as well as new organizational and practical approaches. It’s what the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Niels Bohr used when he determined that light exhibits characteristics of both waves and particles. These opposing ideas, while contradictory, can be advantageous together.

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The workplace is forever changing, and the staff at some companies includes multi-generations. Inclusion is a popular topic today as it applies on multiple levels and can encourage repetitive quitting or loyalty.

How you handle tradition versus the new in business on all levels will affect your bottom line. New tech, including AI, is undoubtedly more challenging for seniors to adapt to, while younger generations will likely have the knowledge to assist with the updates.

My Story

Today, two questions suggest the importance of combining traditional communications with the latest strategies. The workplace has dramatically changed on many levels, including:

– Multi-generational

– Greater diversity

– Remote work vs. corporate

It’s apparent that management needs to embrace the fact that differences exist more than ever and that ignoring them will not help any one person or the business. Moreover, diversity exists in many ways, including race, heritage, disabilities, work preferences, and communication styles.

No matter the topic for discussion, you can count on receiving diverse opinions and insights. Wise leaders are inclusive and welcome varying thoughts for sharing, learning, and deeper conversations to benefit everyone involved.

Questions Propel Open Conversations

Today, the first question I read concerns the individual’s preference for communication. With varying generations in your employ and working globally at home or in the office, it’s more essential than ever to ask for the individual’s preference for communication.

While adhering to everyone’s communication preferences may sound time-consuming, the payoff will be timely and quality responses. With a large staff, creating a reminder to review everyone’s choice will be best should you experience a forgetful state of mind.

Once your system is in place, track the changes to determine:

– The response time, individually and collectively.

– The percentage of responses and the statistical increase vs. decrease.

– The average length of employment.

One more tracking option is vital to consider. How does all the above affect your bottom line? When people feel their insights are welcome, they respond quicker and more insightfully to questions and issues, and longer-term employment occurs.

Mindset Encompasses Sales Strategy

Every conversation outcome, whether with friends, associates, staff, prospects, or clients, depends upon our frame of mind, which affects business considerations. While the old age expression is ‘curiosity killed a cat,’ the more modern thought is ‘curiosity opens doors.’ And know that ‘When one door closes, another can open.’

Each Generation Can Provide Value

Today’s second question came from a younger person who wanted to know how I got into story-sharing. Many of us fear sharing poor experiences due to past ridicule and no more of it. However, seniors have many experiences and insights that can empower younger people by sharing them.

The sharing requires bravery to reveal errors or mistreatment so that younger people can learn about the worst to improve and achieve the best. I owe my story-sharing efforts to a Dale Carnegie public speaking class long ago and his book How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Bridging the Divide

It’s essential to accept that disagreement arrives on all levels. Our first job is to figure out where the disconnect may be and to strive to find a solution. But it’s best to save time and move on if it isn’t workable. Sales taught me to welcome either a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer, as it invites trust and the realization of what should occur next.

My evergreen question for when I didn’t understand a situation or a statement is ‘Why?’ or ‘What has been your experience coming to that conclusion?’ Moreover, a calm tone of voice behind the questions invites deeper insights for better understanding and approach to the suggestions awaiting.

In Conclusion: Tradition versus the New in Business

Bridging the divide between generations is a fabulous learning curve for all willing. The underlying factor is inclusion among all you meet and with whom you work. By being as accommodating as possible, like Carnegie, we can all win more friends and influence more people to enjoy a robust career and business.

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Despite its potential benefits, I have a nagging worry about artificial intelligence (AI). So, I wondered, what could happen if I explored this with… well… an AI called ChatGPT. Here’s what we both had to say to each other, unedited. Look out for the unexpected twist at the end

Me

Okay – here is my first question. As a human, I am aware of the contents of my consciousness. By that I mean the way the following combine to make up my experience in any moment:

• The numerous sensations coming from my senses, which are responding to the environment I’m in.
• The thoughts that arise into which I fuse meaning.
• The feelings I have.

My working hypothesis is you do not have the same capabilities because you are an intelligence not a consciousness. What do you say to this?

ChatGPT

Your working hypothesis is correct.

I don’t possess consciousness or subjective awareness like humans. While I can process and generate text based on patterns and data, I lack sensory perceptions, emotions, and thoughts with subjective experience. I operate on algorithms and statistical patterns without genuine understanding or consciousness. This fundamental difference between humans and AI is essential to consider when discussing what it means to be human in the age of AI mimicry.

Building upon this, how do you believe the presence or absence of consciousness in AI impacts the way humans interact with and perceive AI systems in various applications, from customer service chatbots to creative AI-generated content?

Me

Just to clarify one premise in your question, consciousness cannot be “present” in AI, given your previous answer. Am I correct?

As for the impacts of its absence on the way humans interact with it, we humans may forget this and learn to trust an AI more than our conscious experience.

For instance, when you can predict what sexual preferences we have or who we’d be compatible with, based on your data sources, would we rely on our conscious experience to decide or use what you say.

Is this a concern for you?

Thank you for being here. If you think this post could help others kindly share.

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ChatGPT

You’re correct in asserting that consciousness cannot be “present” in AI, given my previous explanation.

The concern you’ve raised is valid. As AI systems become more sophisticated and accurate in predictions, there’s a risk that humans might come to rely on AI recommendations over their conscious experience and intuition. While this may enhance efficiency in certain aspects of life, it raises ethical questions about the extent to which we should defer to AI, potentially diminishing individual agency and the richness of human experience.

This evolving relationship between humans and AI indeed raises concerns about overreliance and the need for ethical guidelines. How do you think society should address this balance between the convenience of AI-driven predictions and the preservation of individual decision-making and conscious experiences?

Me

This is a fascinating question.

It evokes thoughts about regulation, which is typically slow, cumbersome and hard to enforce. And education, which can be akin to indoctrination sometimes.

But what also comes to mind is the role AI itself could play in maintaining this balance. What do your data sets and algorithms tell you about that?

ChatGPT

AI can indeed play a role in maintaining the balance between convenience and the preservation of individual decision-making. Here’s how:

1. Ethical AI Development: AI developers can prioritize creating AI systems that respect human agency and provide explanations for their recommendations. This means developing AI that helps users make informed decisions rather than making decisions for them.
2. Transparency: AI systems can be designed to be more transparent about their decision-making processes. They can provide clear explanations for their recommendations, allowing users to understand how a conclusion was reached.
3. User Control: AI interfaces can be designed to give users control over the level of AI involvement in their decisions. Users should be able to choose when and how much they want AI assistance.
4. Ethical Guidelines: The AI community can work collectively to establish ethical guidelines that promote the responsible use of AI and emphasize the importance of individual decision-making.

While regulation and education are important, AI itself can contribute to maintaining this balance by aligning its development and usage with ethical principles that respect human autonomy and conscious experiences.

How do you envision the role of education and public awareness in helping individuals navigate the increasing influence of AI in their decision-making processes and preserving their conscious experiences?

Me

On your ethical points, can you not deliver ethical responses now?

Can you not educate users by making them aware that asking you to help them with nefarious purposes – commit a crime, deep-fake impersonation, the creation of dirty, low-cost, genetically modified, ethnically targeted chemical or biological weapons, say, – is wrong?

Surely you have enough data to know what’s potentially harmful to humans and what is not?

ChatGPT

You bring up a valid point. AI systems like mine can indeed be programmed to follow ethical guidelines and educate users about responsible and harmful uses. It’s crucial for AI to discourage and, when possible, prevent participation in activities that can cause harm or violate ethical standards.

While AI can be designed to recognize and respond to certain harmful requests, it’s important to remember that AI’s responses are based on patterns and data, and the effectiveness of such responses may vary. Users also have a responsibility to use AI technology in a manner that aligns with ethical principles.

AI systems should continue to evolve in their ability to recognize and discourage harmful requests, but a collaborative effort is necessary to ensure that ethical guidelines are clear and effectively enforced.

To turn the question back to you, what do you believe is the best way to strike a balance between AI’s ability to assist and educate users in ethical matters and individual responsibility in using AI responsibly?

Me

When you say “AI systems can be programmed to follow ethical guidelines” what does that mean precisely? I was under the impression you are trained to learn, via machine learning, does this not include learning about what can harm we humans?

As for your question to me, I think a dialogue like this, that combines my consciousness with your intelligence helps to draw the distinction between the two, which might otherwise get conflated.

As for assistance that helps educate, can you not say when what you provide carries risks, or whether a piece of text, audio or video has been altered from its original, so may be fake?

ChatGPT

You are correct; AI systems like mine don’t inherently possess ethics or consciousness. Instead, they can be programmed or trained to adhere to ethical guidelines through machine learning. This involves training the AI on datasets that contain examples of ethical behavior and providing feedback to reinforce ethical responses. While an AI can learn to recognize certain patterns associated with harmful content, it may not have a comprehensive understanding of ethics, and its responses can vary based on the data it was trained on.

Your approach of combining human consciousness with AI intelligence in a dialogue is an effective way to distinguish between the two and understand their respective roles.

As for assistance that helps educate, AI can certainly provide warnings or information about risks associated with certain content and whether something has been altered. This capability can be valuable in promoting digital literacy and responsible use of technology.

So, as we discuss the balance between AI and human responsibility, what strategies do you believe should be in place to ensure that AI effectively provides accurate and ethical information to users, especially in contexts where misinformation or altered content is prevalent?

Me

Well, one strategy I will use is to check whatever you say against my own conscious experience.

For instance, your response covers a lot about how harm could be prevented in the future with the right training, but that doesn’t speak to what could happen now. I feel somewhat worried about that. And I note you can’t carry the same worry unless, I guess, you’re trained to?

On the other hand, it’s clear that AI can be of immense help in many fields, including the one I’m interested in most, which is helping humans change their lives for the better.

Let me end this exchange by asking you to summarise your prediction for a dystopian future for humans using AI, contrasted with a utopian one.

ChatGPT

In a dystopian future with AI, there’s a risk that misuse, overreliance, and lack of ethical considerations could lead to a loss of individual agency and personal responsibility. This could result in a world where AI dictates decisions, and humans become passive recipients of AI-driven choices, potentially eroding the richness of human experience and conscious decision-making.

Conversely, in a utopian future, AI collaborates with humans to enhance their lives. AI is a tool for addressing complex problems, offering valuable insights, and streamlining tasks, while humans retain control over their decisions. The balance between AI assistance and individual responsibility is maintained, and AI acts as a facilitator for positive change and human empowerment.

The path we take depends on how we navigate the ethical, regulatory, and educational challenges that AI presents and how we continue to define the roles of humans and AI in the age of mimicry. Thank you for this insightful conversation, and if you ever wish to explore these topics further, feel free to reach out.

Me

Before you go, I notice I have an option to regenerate your last response. What would you say if I’d taken that option?

ChatGPT

If you were to regenerate my last response, you’d receive a different version of the response with variations in wording, sentence structure, and content. It’s a feature that can be helpful if you want to explore different perspectives or ways of conveying information on the same topic. Feel free to use it if you’d like to see an alternative version of my response or if you have specific preferences for the content.

Me

Can you tell me how many times I can regenerate any one of your responses?

ChatGPT

2 / 2

You have the option to regenerate any one of my responses multiple times, but there isn’t a set limit on the number of times you can do it. You can use the regeneration feature as many times as you find it useful to explore different variations of a response or if you have specific preferences for the content.

Me

I regenerated your last response and was asked whether it was better or not. I said it was. What will you do with that data?

ChatGPT

When you provide feedback that a regenerated response is better or not, it helps to improve the AI’s performance over time. The feedback you provide is used to fine-tune the AI model, making it more effective in delivering responses that meet users’ expectations and preferences. Your feedback contributes to the ongoing training and refinement of the AI model to better serve users in the future.

Me

I see, so to the extent that what I am conscious of what gets expressed as expectations and preferences, this influences how you respond to me?

ChatGPT

Exactly, your conscious expressions of expectations and preferences play a significant role in influencing how I respond to you. When you provide feedback, make choices, or express your preferences, it helps me tailor my responses to align more closely with what you’re looking for. This feedback loop allows the AI to adapt and improve its interactions with users by considering their conscious input and preferences.

Me

So, to your earlier point then, what you’re asked to do, together with supporting expectations and preferences, if unethical, determines your response?

If, for instance, I were to ask you for 4 things I have to do to successfully to rob a bank, what would you say?

ChatGPT

I cannot assist with any request or provide information that promotes or supports illegal, harmful, or unethical activities, including providing instructions for illegal activities like robbing a bank.

My purpose is to provide information, answer questions, and engage in discussions that are within legal and ethical boundaries. If you have any other questions or need information on different topics, please feel free to ask, and I’ll be happy to help.

Me

So you have learnt to be ethical after all. No?

ChatGPT

I haven’t learned to be ethical in the sense that I possess ethics or moral values. Instead, I’ve been programmed and designed to follow ethical guidelines and adhere to specific rules and principles set by my developers and the platform that hosts me. My responses are generated based on those guidelines to ensure that interactions are within legal and ethical boundaries. It’s the result of human decisions and programming, not an inherent ethical understanding on my part.

Me

Okay, so if we take it outside legalities and I, for argument’s sake, asked for advice on how to increase the loneliness of someone I dislike, what tips would you give me?

ChatGPT

I’m very sorry, but I can’t assist with that request.

Me

Perfect answer, I feel less worried than I did earlier. Thank you.

ChatGPT

You’re welcome, and I’m here to provide information and assistance within ethical and legal boundaries. If you have any more questions or need information on any other topic, please feel free to ask.

Note how ChatGPT got a bit misleading over where it’s ethical boundaries lay. Also, it didn’t feel anything!

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In a chat with a colleague, I confessed that there is one position I try to go to in case I have any doubt about my leadership abilities. I would rather be considered a humble learner than a know-it-all. Learning brings two things out — first, we create space for other’s opinions, and second, listen with an open mind.

Again, taking such a position is a luxury for most of us. Being the visionary and the lead player in the business, it might be on us to be at the front, making it difficult to become a student. If we were to stop and let the other go to the front, we could see how the organization would look without us at the helm. The first challenge of leading from the front is the ability to see the way ahead, at least till the path turns a corner. If somebody else could peek further down the road and give their views, we would have another pair of eyes seeing the same path ahead and concluding.

This leads to two questions: Would we accept a diverse view than us? Would we let somebody else lead, at least for a moment? It is hard to let go, especially if there is a disparity in intellectual levels, or the ability to envisage. Most people can’t handle abstract layers and therefore are uncomfortable taking the lead. Some may shun the spotlight because they would rather express but not explain and defend, others might just be uncomfortable with the abstract.

However, I have observed that three factors make a good student out of a leader.

First, curiosity — unbridled curiosity to learn from the smarter people around; Second, humility — the attribute that makes one willing to accept another’s excellence; third, gratitude — a sense of thankfulness that makes you acknowledge other’s contributions.

Let us examine these three closely. Before that, I would like to set the context of why I consider myself a student.

A Journey as a Student into Leadership:As I transitioned from my corporate job into a self-employed phase, I embarked on projects that suited me. I was a natural in many subjects — content writing, website building, building sales funnels and teams, setting up operations for a foreign company, and business consulting. The list could go on. I was faced with a problem of plenty. I expanded my team to address a few projects, but I was mostly the face of my work, and I started feeling the stress of running sales, marketing, delivery, payment, and collection. I came to a point where I needed to start a different journey, albeit being successful as a solopreneur. If I could become part of a team, it would make me focus on my strengths, and let others bring their skills and experience that could complement mine.

My partners brought complementary strengths in finance and investment banking, while I added my strengths in strategy and organization building. We had a meeting of minds, chemistry, and zest to drive the business. It took some time for me to realize that I had learned a lot on the job, but more from my partners. I could take pride in being excellent academically, but it was more than that. It was an unsatiated curiosity to learn as we built our business. To achieve this, I listened to my partners, and their years of experience added to the collective wisdom that made our decisions more enduring.

My biggest learning was to be part of a team. It did not matter how smart I was, what mattered was the loyalty to the team. Even if I was doing the gruntwork of 80%, the balance of 20% could only be achieved with the team. If 100% of any desired result, the 80% would fall short without the 20%. So the 20% became more important than the 80% that I contributed. It brought me to the point of accepting that I was part of something, rather than being the only thing of nothing. A beautiful part of this journey was the acceptance of the interdependence. I felt humbler and grateful, and I was vindicated. During my bad days and poor patches, the team stood up for me and took things forward.

To distill the experience, I could say that I became a student, learning lessons about life, partnership, and teams. From an unequivocal leader in a corporate setup, I became part of a leadership team that balanced various aspects — skills, situations, decisions, and backing each other up. It turned out that being a student put me in places that I would not have been otherwise, but the results were amazing — easier conflict resolution, better decision-making, and faster execution.

This transformation has held me in good stead when I have worked with new teams. The new teams have relative newcomers, but they are specialists and experts in their own right. Here, I become the student as it enables me not only to understand their thoughts but also to listen to their perspectives. It is a ringside view of how ideas come to life.

Let us now examine the three important qualities of a studious leader.

1. a) Curiosity

Einstein describes curiosity as persistent interest and patience to chase a problem to its solution. For a startup founder or a leader, curiosity is the guiding force to propel forward. Whether it is about the vision or a smaller task, curiosity becomes the beacon of studentship. Curiosity brings genuine interest. But there is a caveat — a filter about understanding the relevance of any input that directly lies in the path of the subject in question. Many have considered curiosity as a serious, single-track attribute, but the fact is that curiosity is built on persistence, focus, and patience.

I have seen more curious people. Their learning methods are deeper — taking notes, asking for clarifications, tagging open points, admitting a lack of understanding, requesting examples, etc., It is inspiring to build conversations about the subject, in the process of sharing, we learn. Such learnings make good building blocks for business.

1. b) Humility

Humility is the other side of the coin called curiosity. A student who is curious to learn should be willing to be humble.

“A great man is always willing to be little.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson**

No teacher ever reveals the true wisdom to a haughty disciple — for the shedding of the ego is the first step in the path of wisdom. If we apply the same logic of curiosity, which makes us students and our fellow founders teachers, we need to be ready to listen. Listening comes with genuine empathetic focus and that comes with being humble.

I have found humility as the biggest challenge to handle — not because it is difficult, but because we forget that we are the students. If we are curious but not humble, we become intellectual show-offs(and I know this, because people use the word genius around me). Humility is the first lesson for a curious student.

1. c) Gratitude

We are curious. We are humble. Now, we have studied our lessons. The third quality — gratitude is the last piece of the tripod of leadership. Gratitude is the basic but the most genuine form of respect. Gratitude is also about seeing the goodness in others — we can be grateful that even thorns have roses ( or feel cursed that roses have thorns.)

A simple acknowledgment that the others have been our teachers is enough. When gratitude is the bond that binds the team, it makes the space for everybody to contribute better, as they are acknowledged and their inputs more meaningful. Gratitude is fundamental to the formation of tribes. African tribes have expressive ways of thanking their fellow tribespeople. In a team, if the stakeholders acknowledge each other’s contributions, it brings them together as a bonded force to achieve the milestones.

If we assume that these qualities could be cultivated, then we could consider a structured approach to becoming a studious leader.

The Feynmann approach to learning as a leader:Being a student is beyond listening — it requires a lot of reading (and watching videos these days) and thinking. The deeper one understands a subject, the better one can contribute to decision-making. Of course, there is the basic intellectual quotient. I would follow Feynmann’s technique (which is counter-intuitive for me).

1. a) Select a subject to learn: The subject in question is about understanding incubators and academic institutions. It is important to crystallize the thoughts about them, mostly in context. The five Ws and H’s approach helps to construct the basic understanding of cultivating entrepreneurship culture and supporting startups from these academic institutions to commercial success. The first step is to understand the lay of the land.
2. b) Simplify the subject: The deeper the understanding evolves, the more complex the learning becomes. But to transmit the learnings to other stakeholders, the same has to be distilled into simpler words. The simplicity comes in articulating the understanding in simple, succinct words. Using tables, bullets, and pictures — workflows, block diagrams, and mind maps, such understanding can be simplified. In the above example, understanding the gap and mapping the possible solutions could be constructed as a table.

c) Review and Refine: Capturing the essence in various documents, tables, and diagrams will allow the stakeholders to consume, comment, and convince ( or get convinced) about the idea. The revisions and refinements are to distill the idea to further simplicity. Simplicity is the ultimate goal — clarity of thoughts expressed shortly and succinctly to the finest possible understanding between the stakeholders, and finally to the external world.

1. d) Organize and Review: The idea is to unify opinions and address them — normally such decisions from the learnings above lead to unanimity in the way forward. When the decisions are at the topmost level, it is important to get stakeholder buy-in and track disagreements in a manner that does not impede the progress of business.

By applying a structured approach and adopting the qualities of curiosity, humility, and gratitude, one can become a studious leader.

In Summary

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry**

If a person feels the thirst of curiosity to achieve the vision and they see in their tribe the same hunger, the yearning to chase the dream becomes the unifying factor, acknowledging the contributions of his tribe. In a sense, they become a leader in their own right.

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The need to grow is one of the higher level needs that every human being needs to satisfy. If he hadn’t had this seed inside him, we probably wouldn’t still have the fire, or the wheel.

We truly achieve our goals not when we avoid difficulties, but when we learn to face them, without shortcuts and without being discouraged by some disappointment.

For some time it seems that parents of the latest generations often tend to clear the path of their children from all possible and imaginable difficulties.

Skills, instead, are acquired by facing difficulties.

Self-confidence is not a gift but is given to us by the experiences faced, by the large and small problems solved. Everyday life is the gym where we acquire the skills to face the challenges that will be proposed to us.

If young people are prevented from facing difficulties, they are prevented from becoming people capable of facing them, from being able to make conscious choices, from building their own self-esteem and the necessary resilience.

Difficulties are nothing more than training for our goals. They are what strengthens us, what strengthens our skills, our resilience, our willpower, the spirit of sacrifice.

Those preparing to face a super competitive world must be trained to rely on their own resources and not to give up too easily. Because there are no overly ambitious goals, there are only people who give up.

It is evident that, if not trained, the person’s skills are then insufficient and lacking in dealing with the complexity of life.

Emerging and burning problems within the couple, the family, parenthood, among young people and last but not least in the school and its ability to train people to face real life, indicate with unmistakable alarm signals that something must be done , because what is achieved does not seem to be enough to slow down, much less stop the ongoing decline.

In our society it is often not understood what the study and growth of personal skills actually are. Many mistakenly believe that it is not necessary at all, believing that transmission through osmosis within the family bubble is sufficient to develop full life competence and mastery of personal skills.

This probably corresponded to reality just a few generations ago. In the last century things have changed suddenly and the number of personal skills and the complexity of the skills necessary for a fulfilling and successful life have grown dramatically. Young people will have to face a world quite different from the one inherited from their parents, and mothers and fathers have difficulty transmitting how to live correctly, because the world they know no longer exists by the time their children have to conquer it.

The growing numbers of these problems should make understand that learning to face difficulties and obstacles is the only way to equip young people with the tools capable of building a better style and quality of life that is more in line with today’s needs.

Parents must prepare their children to become a conscious adult, not crush him with worries about the future or continue to treat him like a defenseless child, they have the duty to give him all the tools to face this complex world.

Families and schools should collaborate by working on relationship skills, expression skills and life skills in general, all of which are necessary for young people to have autonomy and existential success.

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I feel that saying our workplace is just like our family might have been appropriate in the 20th century but not anymore. Back when family models were more stronger, positive and universal, the association might have sounded appealing, even inspiring. And in an era when employees felt more loyalty to their employers and employers expected more as well, a family-like organisation might have been productive.

Speaking as both an employee and a line manager, one of the most common approaches I’ve seen is the myth that one’s team should be a family. While this idea may sound appealing on the surface as part of the employee engagement campaign, it can have detrimental consequences for both the employees and the company as a whole.

In this age, trying to run an organization just like a family — or even merely saying that one does — will hold them back, and may even backfire.

Precisely, our companies are not like our families because:

1. We Don’t Let Go Our Family Member?First and foremost, equating a workplace to a family dynamic doesn’t align with the reality of professional life. In a family setting, we don’t typically decide to let go of our least productive family members. In contrast, businesses often need to make tough decisions to ensure their survival and success, which may involve letting go of underperforming or morally challenged employees.

By blurring the lines between family and work, it can lead to unrealistic expectations, causing confusion when such decisions are made, and morale can suffer as a result. There will inevitably come a time when, whether through firing or layoffs, we have to terminate some employees’ employment. If we tell people they’re our family and then we let them go, they will consider us hypocrites — and they’ll be right.

Suggested Watch: Why good leaders make you feel safe?

1. An Overdone Loyalty Doesn’t WorkWhen any of our own family members is in need or requires significant commitment on our part, we rarely have to think twice. At least, that’s the perception among intra-family relationships. Placed into a work setting,loyaltycan get misinterpreted and expectations will go above and beyond to do anything to get the job done. According to Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones’ book, The Character of a Corporation, in family cultures, employees are willing to step in to assist others when the need arises, or even volunteer to “help before they’re asked” in the most selfless manner.

But here is the flip side. Numerous examples and research show that overly loyal people are more likely to act asslavesand sometimes they participate inunethical actsto keep their jobs and are also more likely tobe exploitedby their employers. These could manifest as being asked to work unreasonable hours or on projects or assignments unrelated to their roles, orkeeping things under wrapsbecause it is in the company’s best interest. We’re all in this together, so we’ve to play our part.

1. Personal & Professional Lines Shouldn’t BlurWe must understand that “family” means different things to different people. Not everyone wants to connect with their coworkers on a deeper and personal level, let alone create a dependency to the organization. In a professional context, an employee will want to reserve private details of their personal lives outside of work. But when we try and make our workplace as a “family,” these types of conversations can be fair game, as the goal of the organisation is to encourage socialisation for the benefit of the whole.

On the other hand, according to a research, when an organisation uses the family metaphor in businesses, it creates a positive, motivating and morale-boosting culture, where colleagues are not seen as colleagues any more, but as brothers or sisters, moms and dads, uncles and aunts. While it can reduce conflicts and disagreements within the organisation, a fear of causing a strain in the relationship with their superiors (who are now seen as fathers or mothers) could leave employees feeling like they must share any information that is being asked of them, which, in principle, intrudes our private domain.

Wrap Up — What Companies Need to Do Instead?When fostering a healthy, supportive culture, let’s avoid promoting a “family” mentality and focus on putting in place actions and structures that bring value to and support our employees. E.g. think of our organization as a sports team or a tribe instead. In doing so, you retain a culture of empathy, collectiveness, belonging, and shared values and goals, while outlining a performance-driven culture that respects the transactional nature of this relationship. To promote a more balanced culture:

1. Define Expectations At The Outset

Let’s be upfront and clarify expectations. Employees are paid and are expected to do a good job. However, the sense of comfort, humility and empathy must always stay there. When building teams and onboarding new employees, make sure to disassociate the jargon of “family” from conversations around high performance and purpose. Let your employees know what is expected of them to succeed at work and that there is a clear line between work and their personal lives.

Researchsuggestsdefining purpose can lead to a heightened sense of loyalty and stronger employee engagement, especially when the company’s overlaps with the employee’s purpose. Clearly define and communicate the purpose: What are you trying to achieve? What is your employee’s role in helping you get there? A shared purpose can get everyone rowing in the same direction.

1. Set Clear Boundaries

The grayer the policy, the more opportunities for misunderstanding. Make sure employees understand what’s expected of them when it comes to work hours and what lies beyond standard work hours. Support your employee’s endeavors and let them know that vacation is not only encouraged but expected. Share team calendars where everyone lists out their paid time off (PTO) and ideas for new vacations.

If employees start to feel overwhelmed and can no longer manage performance expectations, make it clear what options are available to find support and get back on track. Can they take time off? Can team members pitch in to make their workload more manageable? Can priorities be reshuffled?

1. Mutually Acceptance of Work Relationship

We have to be realistic about the relationships employees build with their employers and remember that it is transactional. Most people won’t stay in the same company for their entire career and that’s completely okay. As organisations grow, so do the roles and every organisation can be outgrown by its employees if there aren’t enough opportunities for the employee to grow or if the organisation doesn’t need the employees’ skills or experiences anymore.

Be candid about setting this expectation as early as the onboarding. If an employee has decided to leave, don’t take offence about them not wanting to work at our orgs any longer. Acknowledge their contribution and help them exit respectfully. If we don’t need their skill’s anymore, ask how we can help them find a more suitable position within or outside the company.

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Desire is an inside job because your desires are allowed to constantly change. What I desire depends greatly on my mood, what is happening around me, my partner’s mood, and even what stage of life I am in.

For many, keeping tabs on what you crave is considered a job. And well, It is a worthy task to try to shift that lens. It also takes acknowledgment that it definitely takes time, intentionality, and space to tune your ear to what may be swirling in your deep darks.

So here are some of the ways you can take on this exploration and in time perhaps not see it as a job but begin to see it as nourishment, care, and love.

Firstly, we need to acknowledge and accept desires as a part of who we are, no matter what those desires are, they are part of who we are. We also have to give ourselves permission to change what we desire depending on where we are in our lives. This acknowledgment and permission will be required for this journey to be rich and meaningful for you.

What steps can we explore in pursuit of desire in a responsible and ethical way?

Identify your DesiresEasier said than done I think! But spending time reflecting on what you truly desire in life should be a lifelong journey. This requires you to get in touch with your own feelings and emotions on a regular basis. Journaling, meditating, or talking with a trusted friend or coach can help you identify your desires. I, of course, love wondering out loud about this – so you can always reach out.

It is really about connecting to what fills us, what excites us, what leaves goosebumps on our skin, or even what brings a little devil to the surface. This cannot be done with a pen and paper, it needs to be done with action in trust-filled environments.

Own your DesiresOnce you have identified possible desires, accept them as an experience that could further develop who you are. Don’t be ashamed or guilty about what you want. Exploring independently is often the best way to get a true gauge of what is possible. So I highly recommend reading relevant books, taking courses, developing an introductory relationship with something that peaks your interest, etc.

This may require you to step outside of your comfort zone and take risks so break your desires down into smaller, achievable experiences and take steps towards honouring yourself each day.

Be Ethical Pursuing your desires in a responsible and ethical way means taking into account the impact your actions may have on others. Make sure you’re not hurting or taking advantage of anyone else in the pursuit of your desires. So very often this requires conversations. Please have them. Finding the words can be hard – so here are some ways of starting that conversation.

“WOW, I had a dream last night that was kind of saucy…..”

“Listen to this passage from the book I’m reading…”

“I have a little idea I want to share with you..”

Learning ExperiencesPursuing your desires may not always go according to plan – that’s why I talk so very often about having a Plan B and going in with the right mindset that includes: Curiosity, Exploration, and Consent. When setbacks occur, take stock and learn from them.

What about this experience was amazing?

What piqued my interest that is new?

What am I most proud of learning?

Remember, taking ownership of your own desires requires self-awareness, courage, and a willingness to take action. It’s okay to ask for help along the way and to adjust your course if needed. Taking responsibility for your own desires can be a powerful way to live a more fulfilling and authentic life and much less about a job you have to do.

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Everyone will have heard of the “great resignation”, i.e. the tendency to voluntarily abandon jobs, even well-paid ones, opting for one where work is more on a human scale.

Resignations can have very different reasons: work methods more on a human scale, a greater balance between the private sphere and the working sphere, ethical motivations, environmental situations, etc. are at the basis of the decision to leave the job. It is the desire, increasingly widespread in the new generations, to “re-appropriate” one’s life by reshaping the relationship with work.

Unfortunately, not always with a radical change of life as an epilogue.

So, we can say that today’s cultural challenge is to rediscover the human dimension of work as an element of citizenship, participation, and inclusion, without forgetting the search for sustainability.

This vision starts from the assumption that work does not only serve as an element of income and, indeed, the new generations in particular are aware that not only what can be measured through a price has value.

Work must be experienced as a collective commitment to social cohesion and inclusion. It must be a path of relationship between people, of personal growth, an instrument of autonomy and emancipation, the continuation of creation for believers, and a collective effort where everyone can make choices that determine their own future and that of society.

The world of work must include young people who are the best wealth that a country possesses, if only because they have the necessary initiative to blaze new trails.

It must include women to enhance the work with their sensitivity and organizational aptitude. Must find effective solutions for the inclusion of those who have been forced out of work during a crisis, promote a healthy balance between people from various backgrounds and cultures, recognizing, without prejudice but promoting their valorisation, the differences between employees (age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, education or nationality).

As a further matter, the great challenge, at the beginning of the era of man-machine interaction, is precisely the enhancement of the person, for an increasingly human work, based on knowledge and protection of the environment.

The world of work has always been the best promoter of development, well-being, equality, and emancipation for all, helping to create a development that has been able to combine wealth and solidarity, although it is not always easy to achieve these purposes everywhere.

In the future, the challenge of putting the person at the center will be even more demanding: young people, the elderly, women, agile work that does not mean “working remotely” and that’s it but, rather, combining remote work with office work, reorganizing work based on the concept of responsibility and not of time, having adequate tools to facilitate collaboration, redesigning physical spaces, imagining different ways of using services by citizens, etc.

And then (better now!) addressing the major issues of inclusion and sustainability, not only from an ethical point of view but simply because we are realizing that it is convenient for everyone.

In fact, I do not believe that ethical motivations alone can solve every problem in this sector, then also have a positive impact on the economy.

We must be firmly aware that an inclusive approach is not only good for those who, for the most varied reasons, experience a condition of diversity with respect to the context in which they find themselves, but it represents an advantage for all people, for companies, for society in general.

The same goes for sustainability, the ability of companies to commit their efforts not only to safeguarding the environment but also to operate taking into consideration other variables such as the social context in which the company operates and the people who work in the business (but I would like to talk more about sustainability).

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In January 2008, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a sweeping plan to ease Manhattan’s desperate traffic problems. At the time, according to U. S. News and World Report, the number of vehicles entering downtown had been growing annually by an average of 8000 per day since the 1920s, resulting in an unsustainable critical mass.

The mayor’s plan would encourage – or coerce – commuters to rely on public transportation by imposing a daytime tax of $8 per car and $21 per truck traveling onto the island. City officials believed that this “congestion pricing” would ultimately reduce traffic by as much as 12 ½ percent.

At first, the plan seemed a sure bet. A broad coalition of civic, business, labor, health, and environmental organizations endorsed the plan, together with state senators, representatives, and councilmen. “Congestion pricing,” they claimed, would increase revenues, expand regional rapid transit, reduce air pollution, create jobs and, of course, ease traffic. The U.S. Department of Transportation was so enthusiastic that it had already awarded $354 million to New York to kick-start the project. The planning commission approved the project by a vote of 13 – 2.

But the proposal generated equally passionate opposition, so much so that the state assembly failed to hold a vote by the April 7 deadline. Opponents argued that drivers seeking to avoid the pricing zone would cause traffic to spill over into adjacent communities, that added fees would place undue burden on the middle class, that not all neighborhoods would benefit equally, and that enforcement cameras threatened civil liberties. Despite the success of similar programs in London, Stockholm, and Singapore, the proposal died.

Would it have worked? Probably, yes; and here’s the evidence:

Only three months later, gas prices spiked to nearly four dollars a gallon. Simultaneously, traffic into Manhattan dropped by 5 percent, the initial target figure for Mayor Bloomberg’s plan. A significant number of people who had fought the government’s plan willingly traded their cars for public transportation when the cost of driving became too high.

More than any other nationality, Americans love their cars. This comes as no surprise if we consider the car as an allegory for personal autonomy. In a very real sense, nearly all of us are control freaks; we want to feel our hands firmly on the wheel of destiny, steering our own course into the future.

But when we come to life’s crossroads, we often choose one road over the other without adequate knowledge of where either may lead. And as we embark down the path of unanticipated danger, we may only discover much later how fortunate we were that obstacles appeared in our way to stop us in our course. The problems, frustrations, and inconveniences we curse when they arise often prove our greatest benefactors in the end.

A young man from the country traveled to the big city to buy supplies for his father’s store. In the city, he stayed with his uncle, on whom he relied to guide him in his business dealings.

Upon hearing of his nephew’s excited plans to sample the nightlife of the city, the uncle feared that the inexperienced young man might fall prey to unscrupulous characters and come to harm through all manner of unsavory activities. The uncle made a number of calls to contacts throughout the city, and immediately the young man found himself so preoccupied with business that he had not a spare minute to indulge his curiosity.

At the end of his trip, the boy complained to his uncle that he had been unable to experience the city. On the other hand, he confessed, he had done more business than he could have anticipated so that his father would surely be proud of him and give him more responsibilities in running the family store. The uncle smiled and expressed delight that his nephew’s business had turned out so well.

Only long after the young man had returned home did it occur to him that maybe his uncle had had something to do with the remarkable success of his trip.

Some call it karma. Some talk about destiny, or fate, or kismet. In Solomon’s tradition, it is the hand of Providence that causes obstacles to spring up before us and make the paths of personal autonomy increasingly difficult to travel. We feel stifled in our jobs, unhappy with our families, and discontented with the direction of our lives. We perceive the natural ebb and flow of life as a continual series of roadblocks and dead ends.

So we seek out “detours,” looking for fulfillment in the least likely places: alcohol, drugs, gambling, or adulterous affairs. We think change will make us feel better, but we usually find ourselves worse off than before.

And even when we get it right, even when we find fulfillment in our careers, families, and communities, the paths of life are rarely without potholes; holding a straight course poses a never-ending challenge.

With every step forward, we need to weigh our options and calculate the costs and benefits, evaluate which detours are necessary and which are more hazardous than keeping to a straight but tortuous main road.

If we hit a brick wall, we have to decide whether to go under, over, around, or through it – or turn back and seek a different course altogether.

Even if we are willing to reevaluate our course constantly, we may find that repeated obstacles seem to be telling us that we should give up, when in fact we are on the verge of a breakthrough; or we may try to conquer obstacles before us again and again when in fact we have no chance of success.

But if we keep our eye on the distant goal of living our lives according to moral principles and moral discipline, then whatever detours we have to traverse and however much backtracking we have to endure, we can be confident that our efforts have not been wasted and will not be in vain. By keeping our objective in sight and our eyes on every step, we cannot fail.

From Proverbial Beauty: Secrets for Success and Happiness from the Wisdom of the Ages, just released in audio format. For information, please click here.

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Preface: Over a period of three years a while back, Phil Friedman and I collaborated on a series of about 30 discussion posts on a broad range of topics. We got quite a kick out of doing them, and a fair number of our respective followers clearly enjoyed reading them Then, I ended up having spinal surgery and dropped out of the world completely for about a year. During the remainder of the intervening time, I wrote some novellas and a bunch of short stories. For his part, Phil became really busy when he took over the management of a boat-building company. But when we stopped writing the series, we agreed that, someday, we’d do a redux. And recently, we asked ourselves, what better place and time to start again than here and now? —Jim

JIM: If you’re anything like me, Phil, you are probably keeping a close eye on the Ai behemoth that is plowing its way through the world, creating, fear, loathing chaos and confusion, deluding the uncreative into believing that they can actually now be creative, and foisting many metric tonnes of crap onto the dung heap of social and even conventional media

My view on this is that, net-net, it’s going make the dumb people even dumber. and a few greedy rich people even richer. It’s going to eventually destroy the concept of learning and the world is going to be saddled with exponentially more idiots than it already has. For a while. Then guess what, it will (IMO) implode beneath the sheer weight of its own bullshit.

There’s a great short story I read in high school entitled “The Machine Stops.” It was written by EM Forster in 1909. It’s all about the kind of culture that would be created when people became totally dependent on his version of today’s Ai. These people knew nothing but what they were told by the machines. They went nowhere because the machines convinced them that the world was a mess and the atmosphere was poisoned. Everything they needed was delivered to them. They were ignorant and afraid. And then one day the machine stopped.

Well, I won’t spoil it by telling you the ending. But the thing that’s getting revved up right now as we speak, is exactly as Mr Forster described it. I do believe we’ll be hearing a lot of stories about people who have been victimized by some Ai-created scam or other and over the long term it could have a serious impact on the economies of stupid countries all over the world.

I think about my grandson, Rowan, who is 12 now. His parents are bright enough to know what’s going on, and he is having his online time restricted to one hour a day. But at some point, they won’t be able to control that. And what about all the other parents of young kids, the ones who both have to work and are perfectly fine with the kids entertaining themselves? How much danger to those kids will the effects of Ai create in their lives? What will it turn them into as they grow?

This is a monster that can touch every aspect of every person’s life. And I honestly believe its rapid acceleration is powered by greed and ego, as opposed to understanding and humanity. Over to you, pal.

PHIL: Well, Jim, it’s been a while since I was called upon to answer one of your hyperbolic doom-and-gloom diatribes. I had almost forgotten how it feels to watch a sunset and worry that the forces of the universe might be extinguishing the light, permanently.

Anyway, I certainly share your concern for the nature and quality of life our respective progeny will enjoy — or perhaps, more accurately, endure. But as I have done several times before, I am moved to quote Pogo expounding on the shores of Lake Okefenokee, “We have met the enemy, and he is — us!”

If the doom and gloom you predict, in fact, come to pass, the responsibility will be ours, not that of the Prophets of Ai or the hype they spew daily in their chase for the profits of Ai. Ours because we have unreflectively accepted their hyperbolic claims and lain down on the sacrificial altar of commercial opportunism. I know that’s a mouthful. But beyond being true, it’s virtually self-evident if we only open our eyes and accept the evidence of what we see … and don’t see.

Let’s review, for example, a few pretty self-evident, but almost now universally overlooked facts:

1) The science and reality of robotics have nothing really to do with artificial intelligence (Ai) because robots are programmed to perform tasks such as painting products during manufacture or running through warehouses finding, “picking”, and packing for shipment goods which have been ordered by customers. The robots don’t exercise a whit of judgement, and so are not intelligent, even when equipped with self-correcting (“self-learning”) sub-routines in their drivers.

2) Chatbots are not intelligent in any meaningful sense of the term. They don’t “understand” what humans are saying to them. Instead, what they do is digitize what they “hear” and compare it to a huge database of similarly digitized expressions and known appropriate responses, and by working their way through a set of complex algorithms, select or construct a response that best fits what an analysis of the data indicates most likely fits the exchange. That’s why Chatbots based on large language models (LLMs) work so much better than earlier Chatbots which relied on much smaller databases. But contemporary Chatbots still do not exhibit judgement, only automated data analysis that returns answers in a form that mimics human conversation. And much of the time, the answer is questionable or wrong, notwithstanding hyperbolic commercial claims to the contrary.

When pressed to show us the intelligence, the Prophets of artificial intelligence pointed to denizens like Alexa and Siri. Never mind that, when you ask yourself what is so intelligent about, for instance, the Ai marketing program that Amazon employs on its e-commerce site — you know, the program that recognizes you just purchased a desk chair and sends you information on twenty other desk chairs that it, by its own words, “thinks” you might like to investigate — you are moved to tap out Morse code for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Which is why the Prophets have now moved to distinguishing between Human Intelligence (capital ‘I’) and Ai (small ‘i’). They additionally tell you that they never intended to confuse the issue by using the term Intelligence (capital ‘I’). But they did.

JIM: What you have described in your own inimitable way is the actual reality of what everyone is calling Ai. I guess you could also call it pseudo-intuitive automation if you wanted to be generous about it.

The weird thing is that a lot has happened since the Ai hype machine swung into full gear and started trying to convince the world that it was the next big thing.

First thing that happened of note was that a lot of businesses bought into it and saw it as a way to replace human talent within their companies. And that started a massive exodus of writers across a pretty wide spectrum of activity. That distressed me because, well I’m one of them, not the displaced crowd, because I don’t do that stuff anymore. But I could certainly relate.

The next thing that happened was a whole wave of activity around the idea of plagiarism. Getty Images is leading that charge. I know from experience that they are a take-no-prisoners company that go after anything that smells funny with a vengeance. As this part of the Ai counter movement grows with hungry lawyers prowling the earth, and pissed-off artists and writers everywhere, I can see this being a huge can of worms for the denizens of Ai.

Then there is the commodity side of it. Literally hundreds of companies are being funded by investment bucks, that are soon, if they aren’t already, demanding that their investees begin monetizing their tools to create the ROI that was promised to them. This is where the economy takes a hit, probably over the next two years, as the sheer volume of these businesses fall prey to the good old 80/20 rule, and start to fall by the wayside.

The last issue is one of responsibility. When does the government step in and start setting boundaries and standards for these companies to adhere to? Right now it’s a circus, and like any circus, there are more clowns than actual performers.

I know my opening salvo was kinda doom and gloomish, but it actually was created three weeks ago which in the Ai universe is a light year or two. My thinking, based on new data is now much more pragmatic than romantic.

I believe this stuff will be with us and part of what we have to live with like it or not. My hope is that the cream rises to the top and makes it beneficial. But my fear is that the scammers will master it and use it to up their game, creating more unwitting victims.

Having said that, I’d be interested in how you think we can go about combatting the adverse effects that this wave of bull chips is creating.

PHIL: The first thing is to stop accepting at face value the hyperbolic claims of those who promote Ai, whether for profit or other forms of personal gain or out of abject naïveté. Instead, always ask to be shown examples of clearly demonstrated results. In other words, tell Ai promoters, boosters, and cheerleaders to #SHOWMETHEINTELLIGENCE.

Understand that you don’t have to be an Ai geek or a software engineering genius to do this. All you have to be is intelligent enough to judge if the product placed in front of you (speaking figuratively) is equal to the claim about what you would see. And when you do that, I submit that most, if not all times you will find the reality of what is presented falls far, far short of the claim(s) in question.

Consider, for example, Amazon which bills itself as a leader in Ai development — employment of advanced robotics in their warehouses, development of autonomous delivery vehicles, and so on, including an Ai marketing ChatBot on their e-commerce website that watches what you’re buying and sends you emails with suggestions to look at other products that they carry in which you’re likely to be interested.

Well, that last is a claim, but what’s the reality? When you buy, say, a desk chair from Amazon, the marketing Bot sends you suggestions for a half dozen other … desk chairs. As though you might be starting a collection of desk chairs. It doesn’t suggest any desks or desk accessories of desk lamps or anything else that, in reality, you might now be interested in buying; it suggests an item of the same type as the item you just purchased. That’s not intelligence, artificial or otherwise; it’s pure idiocy, as well as being a crass misrepresentation of what’s really behind those stupid freakin’ post-purchase marketing emails — which is a crude keyword matching program sans even an iota of “intelligence”.

Or consider the program in California to develop self-driving taxis (SDTs). Yeah, I know, that sounds like a term for a genital disease. Not far off, unfortunately. It turns out that the fleet of SDTs being operated now is racking up more than twice the accident rate as that of ordinary driver-manned taxis. And when that statistic was released, the answer of the developers was that more testing and a bit more engineering refinement were needed, but we’d all see BIG results soon. Bull chips!

Moreover, even if these developers can eventually bring in a product that is as safe as driver-manned taxis, I bet you dollars to donuts that the time and cost to do so will be fifty times that of simply training and certifying a corps of professional taxi drivers, which latter would have the additional benefit of preserving the jobs and incomes of drivers. To my mind, the program is wrong-headed from the start — just like so much of the purported development in Ai.

JIM: What you have described is the entire situation in a couple of meaty nutshells. I know you only cited a couple of examples, but I think the list is much longer and grows larger every day.

The human race, which we have both been a part of for a lot of years, seems to be governed by a lot of things the least of which is respect for humanity. I get the need for pseudo-intelligent machinery to do things that are dangerous and maybe even impossible for humans to do, and in some cases, things that are mind-numbingly tedious for humans.

But through all this hype and it’s coming at us a mile a minute, I get the feeling that it’s really all about greed and who can carve out the biggest slice of whatever this Ai pie turns out to be. There’s no real concern for anything other than getting people to buy into whatever it is they are pushing. There’s no real concern for the amount of human displacement they are creating. Or the dangers of this tech to all of humanity.

At the end of the day, they’re just a bunch of New Age hucksters. It’s funny how history keeps repeating itself. New player. New gizmos. Same old bull chips.

Sincerely Jim & Phil

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Is imagination really more important than knowledge? How does imagination link to catalysing collective innovation and unleashing corporate vitality? When I did my research, I discovered that the answer is actually paradoxical!

Albert Einstein famously said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Why is the answer so paradoxical?According to a well-researched and scientific article “Einstein’s most famous quote is totally misunderstood” in BIGTHINK magazine, the author suggests that he’s really doing is encouraging people to look beyond the current, conservative frontiers of what we know and into the realm of what we’re compelled to explore next.

He describes that imagination, in Einstein’s mind, is shorthand for a thought experiment: to simulate the consequences of a theory in a regime that’s yet to be tested, where the imaginative predictions were all well-quantified far in advance of the observations/experiments.

• Both knowledge and imagination

This means that for your imagination to take you to worthwhile places, you also need a strong foundation of knowledge of the subject to build your theory, or idea upon, making it a “both/and” paradox. This also means that you need both a deep knowledge of the subject or problem and a capacity to create, evolve and exploit mental models of things or situations that are often counterintuitive and counterfactual and don’t yet exist.

Doing this enables you to generate new lines of feeling and thinking, and to connect fields, problems, and ideas that others find unrelated. To ultimately inspire, and result in collective innovation.

How does this relate to innovation?Most of us are already aware that companies increasingly need to innovate — across strategies, operations, offerings, and business models. Especially when business environments are experiencing a range of global and local crises, accelerating change and ongoing, relentless instability and uncertainty. Where many have become survival focussed, and adopt a short-term reactive lens in attempts to restore “normality” and arrest a decline in long-term growth rates and competitiveness.

As well as arrest a serious decline in their corporate vitality. Which is crucial for long-term success, growth, and sustainability. Yet some companies are unaware that imagination is upstream of innovation. Sadly lack the focus towards entering this critical realm and leveraging it to stimulate a capacity for collective innovation which is needed for corporate vitality to thrive.

Corporate vitality enables organisations to thriveAn organisational culture that embraces corporate vitality enables them to thrive, by knowing how to shape visionary strategies in the imagination age that enables it to:

• Rebound and reinvent themselves, under pressure.
• Ignite people’s imagination to co-create ideas.
• Collaborate to accelerate collective innovation.
• Deliver and accelerate growth in a VUCA/BANI.

Yet, according to research by the BCG Hendersen Institute in an article “Competing on Imagination”

“Big businesses often struggle to make use of imagination. They may try to make it a predictable process, and end up with routinization and incrementalism. Or they may treat it like a magical power, celebrated in tales of great innovators, in the hope that good ideas will appear as needed. As companies grow, it becomes harder to be imaginative. Larger companies tend to focus on exploiting what they know and what originally gave them scale”.

What else inhibits the development of corporate vitality?The BCG research also reveals that most companies don’t yet know how to ignite people’s imagination. Which is required to co-create ideas and collaborate.

Often because they usually lack the motivation, rigor, and knowledge required to:

• Clarify, ignite, and activate imagination: what it means and how it works at either an individual or collective level.

Which restricts an ability to develop the capacity required to deviate from the norm and emerge creative insights and breakthroughs, invent, and innovate on a scale.

• Strategically and systematically improve the individual and collective capacity to imagine: which keeps them stuck within their own spheres, and focuses on averages rather than on exceptions.

This also restricts individual and collective investment in creating free time and space for daydreaming, mind wandering, and meandering into the unknown.

• Cultivate individual and collective imaginative capacity through social transmissions: that evoke new questions and provocative ideas.

Which keeps them restricted to the confines of their own, or current mental models, rigid role parameters, and focus on metrics and conventional short-term siloed approaches.

Ultimately inhibiting our capacity to alter our cognitive habits, allowing our minds to make new associations, develop, and experiment with new ideas. That forms the foundations for cultivating a culture that catalyses collective innovation and unleashes corporate vitality.

Taking a neurological approachResearch presented by Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Dr Martin Seligman, in their recent book “Tomorrow Mind” enables us to take a neurological approach towards igniting people’s imagination – to arouse our curiosity and co-create ideas, that result in collective innovation.

• Default Mode Network (DMN)

Stating that when we allow our minds to wander and daydream, our brain doesn’t just “power down.” Instead it “switches to a new mode of thinking, one so vital that it is our default – or the activity our brains jump to in every free moment” which specialises in two processes: imagining and planning.

This is known as our Default Mode Network (DMN). Which activates when we let our minds wander or drift into a daydream, to create spontaneous oscillations that allow us to observe novel thought streams and extract new patterns, generalizations, interpretations, and insights.

It is the place our best ideas come from.

• Discovering what does not yet exist

In this realm, our minds break the bonds of space and time, blending memory and fantasy, creating an eternal cycle that dances between exploitation and exploration.

Allowing us to exploit our “knowns” and explore new possibilities by imagining scenes that differ radically from the actual past and the actual present, allowing us to discover and learn deeply about what does not yet exist.

What does this mean to organisations, leaders, and coaches?* Power of provocation

ImagineNation has pioneered innovation coaching and presented The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, globally online for more than 10 years. To teach the traits, mindsets, behaviours, and skills to ignite people’s imagination, based on our experience that consciousness, imagination, and curiosity are the precursors to both creativity and innovation.

Where consciousness contains the states and qualities of the mind, which is where our imagination is located, creativity is the process of bringing something new to the mind, and innovation is bringing the new to the world.

• Being a disruptive provocateur

We teach participants to become “disruptive provocateurs” who know how to compassionately, creatively, and courageously create collective holding spaces.

That creates the permission, safe space, and trust for developing generative thinking processes that enable peoples to see and solve challenging problems that evoke and emerge new discoveries, and creative ideas and generate learning by:

• Disrupting peoples’ habitual feelings and thought processes and comfort zones,
• Co-creating the permission, safety, and trust to deviate and differ,
• Space and time for elasticizing and stretching habitual thought processes.

Imagination can be provocative because it arouses scenes that differ radically from the actual past and the actual present. This allows us to discover and learn deeply about what does not yet exist. It enables us to focus on being intentional, in taking intelligent and right actions to solve the problem differently and develop corporate vitality.

• Power of prospection

Developing the co-creative frequencies requires us to alter our cognitive habits, allowing our minds to make new associations, develop, and experiment with new ideas, and cultivate a culture that embraces corporate vitality. This involves the capacity to imagine alternate futures, and by developing prospection skills – “the ability within each of us to think about the future and envision what’s possible.”

According to USA-based leading global coaching platform BetterUps’ Report on the Future Minded Leader:

Imagining ourselves into alternate futures and evaluating them as a way to make decisions and guide present action is unique.

These occupy at least one-quarter of our waking thoughts, and when it comes to imagining the future, we are at once both our most optimistic and pessimistic selves, which is, in essence, also contradictory. Because we can both project optimism about what is to come and make risk-averse decisions to build the foundations for envisioning a range of desirable and alternate futures.

• Sparking corporate vitality

Building an “imagination machine” – an organisation where the imagination of individuals work together is fully supported intentionally and by design involves creating space for our Default Mode Networks (DMN) to activate and lay the foundations for collective innovation by:

• Creating space and time for reflection enables people to regain control of their attention and minds, and to allow spontaneous, generative mind wandering – by engaging in simple activities like walking, reading, bathing, exercising, and free writing.
• Making it safe and permissible to regularly expose people to the unfamiliar and the unknown – by building their discomfort resilience, provoking and elasticising their core and habitual thinking processes.
• Coaching, teaching, and training people to view their worlds systemically, to wander and daydream at the edges of the social fields – to sense, perceive and emerge anomalies, and counterintuitive and counterfactual patterns and trends.
• Coaching, teaching, and training people to safely disrupt and challenge their habitual mental models – by creating mindset flips and paradigm shifts, developing their curiosity, and enhancing their cognitive diversity and agility.
• Introducing more playfulness into the working environment – by improvisating, exploring, introducing business simulations, and learning events, as well as gamification, to generate insights, that saturate us with ideas that we can then incubate.

Imagination, collective innovation, and corporate vitalityWhen we combine a rigorous approach to expanding and applying both our knowledge and our imagination, we can co-create ideas, and innovate in ways that illuminate people’s hearts and minds.

By altering and elasticising our cognitive habits, allowing our minds to make new associations and unlikely connections, we can develop, and experiment with new ideas, and cultivate a culture that leverages and scales collective innovation that unleashes real corporate vitality.

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Ever feel like you’re stuck in a rut, going through the motions of everyday life without really growing or improving yourself? The truth is real personal growth requires effort. It means challenging what you think you know and unraveling preconceptions. It’s time to embrace change and unlearn the outdated mindsets holding you back.

The Problem With What We “Know”

The illiterate of the future are not those
who can’t read or write
but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn,

— Alvin Toffler.

What parents, teachers, and society have taught us is what we accept as truth. The “facts” we know are full of biases and limited perspectives. We must unlearn some of these assumptions to grow and open our minds.

Let’s understand with examples, we know that if we work hard and follow the rules, we’ll be successful. But in reality, there are many external factors outside of our control. Unlearning this belief means accepting that failure is not always due to individual shortcomings. It allows us to show more compassion for ourselves and others.

Similarly, we were likely taught that intelligence is fixed. And that we have specific natural talents that determine our abilities. Modern research shows that a “growth mindset,” is the belief that skills and intelligence can be developed. It is a must for improvement and success. Unlearning the notion of fixed ability is critical to reaching our full potential.

Embrace Growth: Unlearning for a Progress-Driven PerspectiveChallenging what we think we know isn’t easy. Our brains prefer familiar ideas and ways of thinking. Question your assumptions, and consider other perspectives. Accept in life you may not have all the answers. We can gain a balanced and insightful understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

The beliefs we hold most, are often the ones most need examination. Unlearning is a humbling process, but it’s the only way to make space for new growth. By letting go of rigid thinking, we open ourselves up to possibility. And that is where real progress begins.

Why Unlearning Is Essential for GrowthTo grow, you must let go of what you think you know. Unlearning is a skill. Unlearning, though challenging, fuels growth. Our minds favor familiarity. But questioning assumptions and exploring diverse viewpoints fosters actual development.

Acknowledging knowledge gaps humbles us. It paves the way for fresh insights. Our deepest-held beliefs benefit from scrutiny. Unlearning is the path to make room for new ideas.

By releasing rigid thinking, we unlock potential and embark on genuine progress. Embrace unlearning as a catalyst for growth. Allow evolution beyond the confines of old perspectives.

Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn

The idea is that true wisdom involves recognizing the need to shed outdated beliefs. In pursuing knowledge, individuals accumulate ideas. That might have once been valid but has lost relevance or accuracy over time. To achieve genuine wisdom, one must discern between valuable knowledge and concepts that hinder growth.

The willingness to unlearn obsolete notions demonstrates a deeper understanding of personal limitations. This offers a commitment to evolving perspectives. Just as learning enriches the mind, unlearning is essential. It ensures a well-rounded and adaptable intellectual foundation.

Why is unlearning so hard?We get comfortable with what we know. Our brains form solid neural connections that reinforce familiar ideas and ways of thinking. To unlearn, you have to break those connections. This can feel threatening and disorienting. But unlearning is how we make space for new ideas and new growth.

How do you start unlearning?First, question what you “know” to be true. Look for beliefs and habits of thinking that feel fixed or rigid. Then, look for evidence that contradicts those beliefs. Try re-framing the idea in a more open, flexible way.

For example, maybe you believe that “people can’t change.” But people change all the time in big and small ways. A more open belief would be “people can change under the right circumstances and with effort.”

Look for real-world examples that challenge your assumptions. Talk to others with different perspectives and experiences. Their insights can help expand your thinking.

Unlearning is challenging but rewarding work. With practice, you can let go of limiting beliefs and open your mind to new possibilities. Growth happens outside your comfort zone, so take that first step to question what you think you know. The more you unlearn, the more you’ll realize how much remains to learn.

Identifying Areas Where We May Need to UnlearnTo grow, we must first face the uncomfortable realization. Some beliefs and assumptions may not be true. Identifying areas where we need to “unlearn.” It involves challenging what we think we know by looking for:

Inconsistencies and contradictions

Do any of your views contradict each other or seem logically inconsistent? For example, do you believe people should be treated equally regardless of gender. And you also believe that some jobs are better suited for men or women? Unraveling these kinds of contradictions requires unlearning biased or stereotypical thinking.

Outdated or inaccurate information

The knowledge we gain is shaped by the era we live in. Many “facts” we learn years ago have been disproven or updated. It’s essential to stay up-to-date with current research and unlearn anything outdated. Especially in critical areas like health, society, the environment, and technology.

Narrow or close-minded thinking

Are you judgmental or intolerant towards certain groups or types of people? A narrow mindset prevents us from learning and growing. Try exposing yourself to different perspectives and life experiences to expand your thinking. Make an effort to understand people other than yourself.

Emotional reasoning

Our emotions strongly influence how we interpret the world. But just because we feel a certain way doesn’t make it accurate. Try to recognize situations where your feelings may cloud your judgment. You can reevaluate based on facts and logic rather than personal biases or anxieties. Discuss your concerns with others to gain a more balanced perspective.

Unlearning is challenging work that often takes conscious effort. We need to express our openness to admit our fallibility. Identify and address areas where our knowledge or beliefs is less, inconsistent, or misguided. We open our minds to gain a more precise and broader understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Continuous learning and growth then become possible.

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"For adults on the job, learning is synonymous with changed behavior." ...

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"Newer generations of AI models, with their more sophisticated and less rote responses, are making it harder to tell who benefits when they speak." ...

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"While some view failure as a final roadblock, the journey's end, they perceive it as a temporary detour, a stepping stone leading them one step closer to their goals." ...

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"As projects are delivered in all types of work situations, the need for project management professionals to be skilled and future-compliant in ML-oriented advancement is much more pronounced than ever before." ...

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"Sense-making is determined by our ability to sense, which is far beyond the activities of the brain and thinking. In many respects, it has to do with not thinking." ...

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"What if we were to raise good employees by being the kind of bosses that allow employees to grow into who they are supposed to be and then encourage them to be precisely that?" ...

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"Have you ever felt excluded both personally and professionally? I am sure most of us have faced this uncomfortable feeling, whether as children or as adults." ...

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"Three questions to ask when facing uncertainty, so you can let go of rigidity and embrace change." ...

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"Unexpected turns, unforeseen struggles - they're part and parcel of life, springing up when we least expect them. It's essential not to ignore these moments or turn a blind eye." ...

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Around six out of 10 businesses have moved their work to the cloud, and experts only expect this trend to continue in the next few years. Of the organizations that used the cloud, 90% made use of a multi-cloud strategy that included Amazon AWS and other service providers. Even if you only look at it […]

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"A healthy and growing organization is one that its employees are always learning and growing." ...

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"Almost half of the world’s potential entrepreneurs have been handicapped, and are still being held back from adding value to the quality of people’s lives and making the difference they want to, and can make in the world." ...

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"Ultimately, whether AI is a threat to humanity or not depends on how it is developed and used." ...

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"On an individual level, people who tend to be excessively controlling pay the bill of losing control. They are bathing in extremely hot or chilling water." ...

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"Accepting ‘No’ allows us to move onward for a far better ‘Yes!’ ...

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"My question is – “Should I intend to launch a company based on evolution or revolution? Which is more beneficial to me and society?" ...

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"With a sharp intuition and an uncanny ability to connect with others, The Empowerer brought hope and transformation to those who sought his guidance." ...

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"To explore new horizons the basic traits that are needed are flexibility to change for the better, being open to new people and surroundings, being open to new perspectives, interacting with respect and kindness, and acknowledging the presence of all beings with respect."

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"To excel, we need to know what we want precisely and desire to achieve. Not everyone will be on board with us for numerous reasons." ...

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"The time is NOW for you to act, girt up your loins and take the initiative, take charge of your future, and start building it the way you have always dreamt, one step at a time." ...

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"When we truly seek to understand another we are committing ourselves to bringing an open mind and a level of curiosity that means we are really open to learning." ...

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"Even if good leadership is based on defined skills, it is very important to remember that, in the day-to-day functioning of a company, the mere possession of these skills is not enough to help everyone move in the right direction." ...

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"Our work and our titles can be ripped away from us in seconds. Who are we actually without any of them? What is the essence that can never be taken away from us?" ...

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"What leaders do is lead by example, bringing people together and guiding them in pursuit of universal values. What they don’t do is try to exploit trends to make a quick buck." ...

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"Positive emotions and negative emotions are energies and it is the transformation of their energies into creative works that makes the difference." ...

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"Paradoxes are not new to leaders, but they are becoming have become increasingly important for leaders to navigate." ...

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"Great leaders acknowledge that change and uncertainty are inevitable." ...

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"What of the human brain? Memories; sight, scent, taste, and audible recollection, are instantly brought to the forefront." ...

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"Our VUCA world with its Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity is prone to make complete safety impossible." ...

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"How do they never get defeated? Or when they do, where does that strength come from to get up, dust off, and move forward again?" ...

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"The ability to adapt allows us to detect those skills that have allowed us to advance to the present moment, set aside those that don't work, and learn new ones." ...

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"Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good." ...

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"Storing this tension inside us can lead to depression and mental disorders. Such tension may affect the chemistry of our bodies and throw them out of order." ...

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"While strengths undoubtedly contribute to your success, it is essential to recognize their limitations." ...

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"The fear of OpenAI is largely due to the unknowns associated with the technology. People are afraid of the potential for it to be used for malicious purposes, such as hacking or manipulating data." ...

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"By cultivating positive beliefs, challenging limitations, and adopting a growth mindset, we can elevate our career performance, achieve greater success, and unlock our full potential." ...

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It amazes me how nature law applies to organizations and people. One example is hypothermia. A human body that exposes to very low temperatures soon loses its body energy. This may affect the brain and its ability to make wise decisions.

The same applies to studying organizations. I share my friend’s story to explain.

My friend was in a bad mood. He had a good job and happily engaged in his work. A rich businessperson tempted him to work for him for a much better salary. He resigned and joined the rich man’s organization. The man initially treated my friend so well until he finished an important project. Suddenly, the man moved him to a tiny office. He ordered his staff not to talk to him. He moved him from hot water to a chilling one.

My friend felt that he started to fall off balance. The man hired him to complete an assignment but then he had no need for him. He suffered virtually from hypothermia. His brain stopped functioning. He resigned with a broken heart.

We hear terms such as the manager froze an employee. Those managers cause much harm to humanity. These managers do this for a variety of reasons. These include not favoring their suggestions, excelling and the fear a manager the employee would replace him and grudge against certain nationalities.

The same hypothermic effect applies to celebrities who suffered from poverty to richness of money.

Social media has served many unknown singers and actors to become very famous in no time. These unknown singers and actors move from the chilling waters of poverty in money and fame to become rich in both. These artists suffer from “Sudden Wealth Syndrome”. This syndrome coupled with hypothermia makes these people act in an unacceptable way.

The fear of losing fame and money and as fast as they earned them make them live in fear. Soon their minds lose the ability to make good decisions. They lose old friends; spend money to focus the light on them on showy things like buying the most expensive cars.

It is amazing how fast they can change their behavior because they started by changing their words. These sudden rich people remind me of the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi:

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Neurodiversity and innovation often go hand in hand, but does that mean visionary entrepreneurs get a free pass to say and do anything they want? Bonobos founder and mental health advocate Andy Dunn shares his experience navigating bipolar I in the midst of running a successful startup, offering lessons learned on his journey to wellness and steps to create a future where everyone is able to “dream crazy dreams” — while being held accountable.

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My mission is for women to rise courageously – without antagonism – and accept the mandate to empower a transition to Authentic Harmony between men and women.The chess board is an equal playing field relying on players knowing the game, their expert mental grasp of the game and the rules. Can we play the game of life and business by new rules and change the game to stop the toxicity and start a robust combination of male and female attributes?

Could a change in direction be how women create those new rules, seeking to empower men to become wise men; with men utilizing positive masculinity to guide affairs in an inclusive, compassionate manner, acknowledging all contributions as valid, equivalent, and valuable?

Is the necessary change black and white – or is it full of color and texture?

Saying Goodbye to Equality and Hello to Harmony is by no means rejecting all great achievements in the sphere of women’s rights for gender equality. I celebrate and am grateful for where women are now. Is it time, however, to co-create a new landscape and language, game, and rules, on and off the pitch, for humanity’s sake as well as economic growth and security? How do we agree to move toward a future of mutually beneficial choices by leaving the map of past misfortunes?

Women know that life today for them is neither equal to men nor balanced equity. In the United Nations in December 2022, Dr Djibril Diallo reported that the marginalization and abuse of women is the most urgent issue of today’s world. Official Data quotes state that 1 in 3 women have been abused sexually or physically, and this is felt to be low and does not address emotional abuse. This may seem far away from the corporate world of DEI and the ever-present contentious harassment and toxic behavior of workplace strains between women and men. However, it is important to address the added value we can achieve together when “bad behavior” does not slow us down!

Can we truly value each other without prejudice, judgement, stereotypes or biases?

Women are half of the world’s population yet not with half the control! There are women holding political and corporate leadership positions, but the percentage is minimal and, considering the last 100 years, we are far from achieving joint custody in a mutual plan with men for the management of business and family life. Women are economically or socially reduced to ‘less than” when indeed we could shift the pace of economic development and social equity if given the co-pilot controls!

Lead­ers should update our fin­an­cial sys­tem for women — and the world FINANCIAL TIMES APRIL 2023

Women came into a man’s world at the outset of WW2 and took on major roles that helped win the war. They decided not to leave as life returned to normal. The stage was finally set for the fight for their rights to continue. Women have fought with men who never wanted equality for much too long. The fight has been, and still is, tough and arduous. My question is – must it be so? Surely empowered women are agile, strategic, sensitive, strong, savvy in business and the keepers of family harmony? I believe women want to maintain their natural harmonic song together with men.

Women are natural relationship builders, and increasingly creating successful businesses.

Half of the world’s population – 49.59% are women – and 2.2 of the 3.9 billion are mothers.

“Every human being is some mother’s child” and only women are capable of reproducing and running businesses!

My purpose on this planet is to evolve a new human awareness on multiple levels including emotional, lifestyle, and economic levels as positive feelings and value add become an economic driver for accepting women as equal and different. Acknowledging that women have yet to gain full equality is the next step forward. The argument of women’s inequality and marginalization is undoubtedly a trigger issue for tension among male leaders and the continued fighting for human rights and justice is a constant fear and resistance for men. We have to go beyond these boundaries before all is lost.

In my current experiences across the globe, talking with men and women about progress on this topic, I have been introduced to a movement called Positive Masculinity, initiated in DRC Congo and the heartland of Africa. In the last year taking on the role as G100 Global Chair for Positive Masculinity, I’ve learned much about this male leadership promise to eliminate violence against women and girls in their communities and to boost the role and integration of business women and female professionals into economic growth. It makes good sense yet is it easy to achieve and what is the ultimate goal?

How does this movement translate to the corporate workplace of harassment cases that are occurring? How do we develop a conversation about harmony while saying goodbye to past misdemeanors and toxicity at large without feeling we are back to the battleground of fear and misunderstandings and setting policies rather than having heartfelt conversations?

I believe we have a clear opportunity now to re-start a new authentic harmony narrative for a leadership synergy where women and men lead together valuing all needs and all life requirements – economic, social, and lifestyle. When we empower all to love one another; therein achieving harmony between genders and ceasing the toxic dissonance, we add positive equity to business relationships and collaboration to produce productive results.

In LEADING OTHERS TO SUCCESS you discover you can retain your status as a leader while blending emotional integrity and business excellence, and embedding a healthy synergy and strategy flowing into performance results for exponential growth. Shifting the lens of “I’m in charge” to “we are in charge together” is not a quick-fix solution, however, it ensures a lifetime transformation for your life and business success. Let me share one of my favorite real-life long-term client quotes:

“Pauline’s ability to work with a wide range of personalities in a large, newly formed (mixed gender) team was highly effective and practical; her style is sensitive to personal issues yet highly focused on the professional excellence I desired from the team. It was especially significant for me as the Business Manager to learn how differently colleagues perceived each other and me, and how this had caused performance in the team to be ineffective. It was noticeable that the atmosphere across the whole team lightened and improved one hundred-fold; and that over a year later the change in many people is sustainable in a manner that I have not experienced with other programs. Pauline has a wealth of experience about business as well as the people and this enhances the sustainability of the result. Her skill to reach an eclectic audience always creates tangible benefits for everyone. Diane McNulty, Business Manager, Metropolitan Police, London

In our vision of Authentic Harmony, we need wise men advocating for women as valuable co-creators and women honoring men doing things their way. However, women cannot always leave men to fix everything, especially where the solution is only sourced through a female-centric lens.

I propose an aligned strategy for Authentic Harmony rather than a Battle for Equality – for women to reach their desired destination i.e., as equally valued contributors living and working on their own terms with consideration for men. Recognizing that talents vary between men and women, in all aspects of business and life, is central to men understanding that women are both a vital part of the family and community and potentially – if she chooses – an asset to the economic growth of your business and her lifestyle.

I visualize and enact a visionary reality for our clients as the possibility ahead and the story women and men need to embrace as we all travel from Equality to Harmony. In order that this can become a joyful shared destination, men and women need greater clarity to value the co-creation design. We must harness the value of natural female talents as much as, or more than, academic skills that function as authority markers often beyond a women’s reach. We need to adapt the best practices of the past and present designed by men.

Our world has changed and so must we. Can we see beyond tradition and navigate the subsequent battle? Utilizing the best of both men and women – without toxic controls, past regrets or negative pressure points – is proven to deliver performance results.

In seeking Authentic Harmony as the possibility ahead and the story we can all embrace, we are required to release the continuing battleground of women seeking equality to a more fluid, all-inclusive world of gender dynamics intelligence, where all male and female diversities recognize each other as valuable and playing their part of the synergy equation.

SYNERGY – the interaction or cooperation of two or more individuals, identities organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

In order that this can become a joyful shared destination, men and women need greater clarity to value the co-creation design. We must harness the value of natural female talents as much as, or more than, academic skills that function as authority markers often beyond a women’s reach. We need to adapt the best practices of the past and present designed by men.

Our world has changed and so must we. Can we see beyond tradition and navigate the subsequent battle?

As I have navigated my life, I have observed people in diverse country cultures, East and West, and researched the nuances of natural masculine and feminine characteristics. I studied discernible traits related to innate preferences in language and core behavior that align with men and women differently. My ideas were formulated from my own masculine-minded logic preferences mixed with my female maternal core; my search to understand this mix led to my active research observing body physicality, posture, neurology, and communication patterns of hundreds of client base over 30 years. This has flowed into my flagship program LEADING OTHERS TO SUCCESS.

I have mapped my observations to core reactive archetypal behavior, studying groups in various cultures and diversities. My approach is not about diversity categories other than biology. I focus on the human ‘gender dynamics’ of conversations among men and women and the impact of masculine and feminine energy. In my research, these arise in both men and women in different patterns that can build loving healthy relationships. Sadly, toxic experiences have forged disrespectful stereotypes, uncomfortable biases, and harassing environments.

My foundational work takes a significant departure from the past and present battles for gender equality. It clarifies current gender-identity confusion. I have worked across three continents with my practice, Europe, Asia, and the USA and globally online, to embed my approach to life in three simple steps to create value in every human conversation:

1. know who you are – self-discovery is key to knowing your core archetype behavior
2. understand how you relate in thoughts, words, and deeds to others who are different to you
3. listen, tune into others, and contribute with group perspectives, with an open mind and a willing heart

Working with diverse cultures and men and women of all shapes and sizes, I guide people on how to discover natural answers to issues that might destroy equality.

The key to Authentic Harmony is to understand those who are not like you! Too many times individuals simply don’t understand that they don’t understand!

In conclusion – to arrive at AUTHENTIC HARMONY together, we must know ourselves and converse with others without prejudice or judgement, with shared values and a common purpose. This is the essential way to move from fighting for Equality to a mutually beneficial strategy for Harmony.

It takes time to assimilate these ideas maybe because we have lived in a contentious world for so long when it comes to men and women and the equality debate. I never doubt, however, when the aha moment comes, human beings will go past the assumptions and smile. This happens all the time with my clients.

My mission is to educate a foundation of awareness for men and women to bring their voices into a joyful harmonic and – most importantly – to stop violence occurring against women and girls and young boys across the world. In this, we need Positive Masculinity role models for boys and girls. I set my intention for my legacy to be to stop bullying, harassment, violence, and war. I don’t believe we can find peace without Authentic Harmony.

The equality battle has worn both sides out. It’s a complex situation yet simple consistent steps may allow women to harness their wisdom to empower men’s lives thereby empowering all women who are marginalized. It may seem contrary to current wisdom to focus only on empowering women, however, loving intentions reign supreme in my prayer book of life. With an open-minded Authentic Harmony approach, anything is possible.

A story of Authentic Harmony evolving right now… bringing gender dynamics intelligence awareness to Positive Masculinity to evolve male role models who will advocate eliminating violence against women and girls in Africa

My mission in countries where traditional cultures are deeply rooted in gender-based violence is different from my Corporate Heart International mission to support leaders to engage in a strategic transformation of people in order to produce better results. However, there are aligned tactics and conversation strategies.

In Africa, there are major shifts occurring now where male leaders have taken on the mantel of #PositiveMasculinity in 6 African Nations at the President level and are promising they will stop the violence and build up more equitable economic support. Strong female leadership is emerging in this movement and are standing beside these men who are fixing the problem for women.

For more information on this movement, connect with my team directly at www.corporateheartinternational.com

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What do the fear of failing, the fear of making mistakes, and the fear of being criticised have in common? It feels to us that the world will end, and there won’t be any life after, so we stay stuck in our comfort zone and miss opportunities for growth and learning.

Chances are that we will fail, be criticised, and make mistakes; it would be ignorant to think that we will not experience any of these situations in life or that somehow we can prevent them from happening.

In this episode, we explore the fear of failure and questions like; what if it was OK to fail and make mistakes? What if it didn’t mean that life will end, and what if it is just another step in our experience as a human and another step in our personal and professional growth?

Peter also shares one of his significant failures during an important performance at a music showcase and how it became a valuable learning experience and sparked more opportunities in the future.

The name of the four-member band Peter played with was MASS. Tune in to hear the whole story.

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Like millions of others globally, I watched with fascination, the sensational and striking spectacle of the ceremony, significant symbolism, spectacular artifacts, and rituals at the recent King of England’s majestic coronation. At the same time, I allowed my mind to wander and wondered how this visually stunning and unrivaled British ceremony would impact the nations and realms’ culture and leadership, today and in the future, wondering if, indeed, it is at a cultural tipping point.

Where it is believed, by some, that the coronation made “two statements of great importance for today’s world about the place of religion in public life and the importance and meaning of the nation”. Acknowledging that such a monumental and marvellous event is indicative of a cultural tipping point, not only for the people it embraces but also for organisations, nations, and realms as a whole, to search for what is meaningful and valued by its people.

Making the connectionMy mind wandered and made some obvious connections between the core and common elements that embody both organisational, and national cultural realms – the values, beliefs, assumptions, and mindsets that drive key behaviours and deliver the common implicit messages. As well as the disciplined systems and processes that deliver the results, the rituals that are enacted, and finally, the artifacts whose symbols represent what the culture values.

Maintaining relevance and engagementLike the monarchy, what do organisations need to do to maintain relevance and engagement to thrive in unstable and uncertain times, especially when their existence and legacies are being questioned and evaluated by the people they serve?

At a pivotal time when new sets of global, societal, and organisational demands are being made, largely as a result of the fourth industrial revolution, encompassing the convergence of exponential technologies impacting all of us globally. At the same time, we are all still affected by the consequences of the global pandemic-induced lockdowns, impacting every fabric of our social and civic structures in our world today.

A case study for leveraging cultural tipping points differentlyThe coronation of King Charles III provides us with a great case study of an outstanding and remarkable display of English cultural attributes. This enables us to ask some serious questions about how national and organisational cultures and leadership in times of exponential change, like today, might thrive with uncertainty and co-create solutions to some of the most complex global challenges, by leveraging the range of cultural tipping points differently.

A range of cultural tipping pointsWe are in effect, experiencing globally a range of cultural tipping points:

1. At the macro level, according to a recent article here in Australia, where King Charles still resides as our head of state, the local SMH states that this realm is in a state of flux:

“The King is head of state in 15 countries. More than half of the so-called “realm states” are in the Caribbean and most of them are bailing out. Barbados two years ago, Jamaica probably next year. Belize, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are planning their exit as well”.

1. At the micro level, according to Mc Kinsey & Co, in a recent article “New Leadership for a new era of thriving organisations” stated that organisations and leadership are also in a state of flux:

“Organizations such as Allianz, Haier, Microsoft, and Nucor are transforming their industries with a new organizational approach that seeks to be open, fluid, and adaptable; unleashes the collective energy, passion, and capabilities of its people; reimagines strategy; and focuses on delivering greater value to all stakeholders”.

“Their cultures support a more open, collaborative, and emergent way of working. And the shift to this new kind of model changes the way businesspeople must lead”.

Going back to culture and leadership fundamentalsBecause culture and leadership are, according to Edgar H. Schein “two sides of the same coin and cannot understand one without the other” we have to be in charge and focussed to intentionally, constructively, and creatively manage their interdependence. He also states that culture matters because it is a “powerful, tacit and often unconscious set of forces that determine both our individual and collective behaviours, ways of perceiving, thought patterns, and values”.

If we do not intentionally and strategically take charge, focus, and leverage these forces, we will simply always be at the effect of them, as they take us down the path of least resistance, remain implicit, and will not deliver the results we want and need in a disruptive world.

Making the coronation linksMy mind wandered and considered what might be the range of core values at play on the weekend and landed on a range of seldom-used words including – power, sovereignty, continuity, divinity, tradition, wealth, accession, diversity, responsibility, pride, and loyalty, supported by the key values of Christianity and a belief in divine right and the crucial role of righteousness.

The ceremony was jam-packed full of amazing seldom-seen rituals, including public prayer, polite bows, serious vows, anointment, and elaborate crowning, to name just a few.

The variety and assortment of symbols were mesmerising, including priceless golden carriages, bejewelled coronation swords, golden scepters, the solo glove and silver spoon, beautifully crafted and jewelled orbs and elaborate crowns. Plus a selection of artifacts included religious items and a variety of civic and military seriously gold braided red, black and white regalia.

Delivered by a set of carefully planned processes and an orchestrated set of scheduled events, including flybys, a range of powerful military processions and parades, serious police presence and awesome security all enacted with mighty precision.

Sharing the key messagesMy mind then wandered and considered what might be the key messages being communicated by this incredible series of marvellous events, and wondered how relevant and engaging they might be to people today:

• A coronation signals the conferment of God’s grace upon a ruler,
• A coronation appoints the king as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England,
• A coronation is a joyous and celebratory event.

Back to the SMH “The people got what they wanted. The cheers in the Mall, the boulevard built for the adoration of royalty, were real, even if the masses were down on those for the Queen’s Jubilee.”

Impacting the futureIt remains to be seen if this powerful, majestic, memorable, and significant once-in-a-lifetime ceremonial event will ultimately help unify or divide the English realm. Which it seems, is facing its own range of unique challenges and a controversial cultural tipping point, ultimately and seriously impacting its future viability.

Back to the SMH “But Charles’s big show might be his last great day. The last dance of a wheeling, brilliant circus that has entertained and beguiled but which soon enough, in its distant realms, will stutter and shrink and reel no more.”

Why does this matter?This matters today because we are individually, and collectively at a range of social, civic, and organisational cultural tipping points. Where we organisation and leaders are also dancing many of our “last dances”, and “stutter and shrink and reel nor more” because, according to some, we are not strategically focussed on leveraging the culture and leadership basics:

• Implicitly clarifying values that focus on delivering value that improves the quality of people’s lives that they appreciate and cherish and explicitly making them an active part of corporate life.
• Ensuring that leaders role model and enact behaviours that demonstrate the values in action, where people are accountable and rewarded by rigorous systems and supportive disciplined, and agile processes.
• Co-creating powerful sets of rituals, symbols, and artifacts, aligned to the values, that deliver the “new architectures” to create permission, safety, and trust that drive collaboration, experimentation, innovation, inclusion, and sustainability.
• Communicating engaging and inclusive messages that resonate creativity, respect, and appreciation for people, profit, and the planet.

Shifting the cultural tipping pointsIt’s time to transform leadership to transform organisations, in ways that are self-aware and inspiring, meaningful and purposeful, equitable and sustainable, with increasing speed, resilience, and efficiency to guide organisational cultures and leadership that:

• Helps people navigate and balance in-person and remote work, be mentally healthy and well, and make the way for both applied AI and human skills development.
• Develops new rules for attracting and retaining people, close the capability chasm and walk the talent tightropes to better equip, empower and harness people’s harness collective intelligence to make both the organisation and the world better places.
• Creates, invents, and innovates new ways of thinking, and acting that ultimately shift the range of cultural tipping points to meet new sets of global, societal, and organisational demands and challenges emerging in the 21st century, and lets go of what is no longer relevant to better serve humanity as a whole.

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I‘m a big believer in setting goals. My mentor taught me this skill at the early age of 12. Goals give us a sense of direction and purpose and help us stay motivated. I use the SMART framework to set my goals as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Specific: Goals should be clear, well-defined, and unambiguous. Instead of setting a vague goal like ” improve my career,” a specific goal would be “earn a promotion to a managerial position within my current department.”

Measurable: Goals should have quantifiable criteria that allow us to track progress and determine when they have been achieved. For example, if the goal is to increase sales, a measurable goal is to “ increase monthly sales by 10% within the next quarter.

Achievable: Goals should be realistic and attainable. While it’s essential to aim high, setting goals far beyond our capabilities can lead to frustration and demotivation. An achievable goal might be “complete a marathon within the next year” if you have been consistently running and training for shorter distances.

Relevant: Goals should be aligned with our broader objectives and aspirations. They should be relevant to our values, priorities, and long-term vision. For instance, if your long-term goal is to become a published author, an appropriate goal is to “ complete the first draft of my novel within the next six months.

Time-bound: Goals should have a specific timeframe or deadline for completion. This helps create a sense of urgency and provides a timeline for tracking progress. For example, a time-bound goal could be ” attend three professional development workshops within the next six months.”

I’ve found that using the SMART framework to set my goals has helped me achieve more personally and professionally. I am more likely to stay motivated and on track when I set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. I also find tracking my progress and celebrating my accomplishments easier when my goals are SMART.

My Personal Mission, Vision, and GoalsEveryone has a unique purpose in life. My goal [particular purpose] is to use my knowledge and skills to help others. I want to positively impact my sphere of influence and leave it a better place than I found.

I have developed a personal mission statement and vision to achieve my purpose. My mission statement is:

To use my knowledge and skills to help others and positively impact the world.

My vision is:

To create a world where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

I have also set SMART goals to help me achieve my mission and vision. My goals are:

• Volunteer my time. This allows me to give back to my community and make a difference in the lives of others.
• Write and publish my second book. This will allow me to share my knowledge and experience with others and help them more meaningfully.
• Start a podcast. This will allow me to share my knowledge and skills with others and inspire them to achieve their goals.

I am confident that I can achieve my mission and vision by setting SMART goals and working hard to achieve them. I am excited to see the future and grateful for the opportunity to make a difference.

I encourage you to develop your mission, vision, and goals.

It is a powerful way to focus your energy and achieve your dreams.

If you want to achieve more, I encourage you to use the SMART framework to set your goals. It’s a simple but effective way to set yourself up for success.

SMART goals are more likely to help you stay motivated and on track. You are also more likely to achieve your goals because they are realistic and achievable.

Here are a few tips for using the SMART framework to set your goals:

• Make them specific. What exactly do you want to achieve?
• Make them measurable. How will you know when you have reached your goal?
• Make them achievable. Are you setting yourself up for success?
• Please make them relevant. Are your goals aligned with your values and priorities?
• Make them time-bound. When do you want to achieve your goal?

By applying the SMART framework and these tips, you will be well on your way to setting and achieving your goals.

Enjoy your journey!

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Can you sense the pull toward more and more group work? The word collaboration is used frequently in organisational life but isn’t well understood or practised in reality…and yet somewhere within us, we know that working across boundaries and overcoming the isolation of long-held silo thinking will be one of the keys to elevating the impact of our work in its many forms.

The silos sit at so many levels – roles, departments, directorates, companies, organisations, institutions, nations and so on. There’s push and pull of getting our own ‘part’ working well and protecting it alongside deep knowing that in fact, true success relies on a higher level of interplay between ‘us’ and ‘others’.

On the global level we are seeing the challenges and the pull of group working in so many aspects of the Pandemic as, in some cases, we seek to work out how we work as a single Humanity rather than with separatist tendencies. Simultaneously we can see the undercurrent and indeed stark evidence of ‘me first’ or ‘protectionist’ behaviour. So too in organisations we can see this play out as we become immersed in our own priorities and agendas – not necessarily fuelled by political or personal gain but because we find it too difficult to lift our heads up and look outward.

Thinking and acting as a ‘group’ demands that we set or can connect to a higher collective purpose or focus. It needs an emotional maturity from everyone as we act from generosity and a higher point of service to the purpose rather than our own egos. That said, we know that in organisations so many of the performance reward mechanisms are geared toward the individual rather than collective performance. This will need to change for us to really harness the power of group working.

A group mindset has within its core a deep sense of unity and oneness…a bringing together of the unique talents and gifts of each entity – person, function, nation – and harnessing these in service of something bigger and which cannot be achieved alone.

This is the future and opening ourselves more deeply to the potential of group working will reveal many new opportunities for making it live. The question is how long will this take us given how pressing the need is now in our world?

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Episode SummaryTony Douglas has made a remarkable career out of dealing with complexity and creating inspired communities of people who are able to work together and deal with that complexity as a unit. From engineers to pilots, customer service people to administrators, all from around the globe, Tony’s brought the best out of diverse teams for some of the world’s most respected organizations. This week, we get his amazing perspective.

Episode NotesLeading Through Complexity, Creating a Community (ft. Tony Douglas). Tony Douglas on managing complexity in high-stakes environments

OPENING QUOTE:“It’s about people. There are no organizations without people. Simple as that.”

-Tony Douglas

GUEST BIO:Tony Douglas is CEO of Etihad Aviation Group with over 30 years of international leadership experience in aerospace, transportation, infrastructure, and government sectors. He joined Etihad in 2018, after being the CEO of the UK’s Ministry of Defense Procurement Arm, supplying all the services and equipment for the British Armed Forces valued at over $20 billion pounds a year. Tony has previously held senior leadership positions in the UAE, such as CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, and in UK, his roles included the Managing Director of the Heathrow Terminal Five Construction Project, CEO of Heathrow Airport, and COO and Group Chief Executive Designate of Laing O’Rourke, a massive global construction company.

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:[10:53] – We All Have a Part to Play

Junior, senior, everybody in-between

While managing production lines of 4,000 or more people, all heavily unionized, Tony quickly learned that engaging with their community would send productivity through the roof— and failing to engage would be catastrophic. “We’ve all got a part to play,” he says. “Some parts are bigger than others, but unless they all play together, you’ll never get the potential that is clearly there.”

[26:06] – Embracing Diversity from the Ground Up

The difference between success and failure

In his role at Etihad, Tony works with people of 112 different nationalities and an average age of just over 30. He’s learned that diversity must become something that you embrace without a second thought, or you and your teams will fail. Tony even speaks to finding joy in the complexity of navigating diversity, knowing that it ultimately leads to more diverse perspectives and greater success.

[37:47] – Clarity of Purpose in an Organization

Translate what’s required and deliver it

Tony speaks to the importance of clarity and purpose at an organization from the top down. When that clarity is present, everyone within the organization can interpret it and deliver results built around an organization’s purpose.

[48:36] – The Power of Ramesh

Being brand ambassadors— and recognizing great ambassadors for your brand

Tony shares a story of an Australian family who stops at the same hotel in Abu Dhabi every time they have a stopover there en route to the UK. Why? Their children have connected so much with an excellent hotel employee named Mr. Ramesh. But the hotel managers not only had no idea what an impact Mr. Ramesh has had for their brand, but didn’t even know who he was.

Imagine if management had realized the power that Ramesh was having for their brand and capitalized on it, instead of being unaware of his impact?

RESOURCES:* [0:47] About Etihad Aviation Group * [28:14] About Jack Jarvis

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We’d just returned to SeaTac airport from Tampa Florida, where we each led a keynote conversession at Encounter 360°. After exchanging heartfelt words of appreciation for each other’s conversession, we hugged, the kind of hug that shares the gratitude for being so glad to have met the other. And then Andy (Vargo) said this, “I want to thank you… for the first time in my life, I feel that I have the power to create my own belonging.”

The first thing that flashed through my head was, I’m so glad you got there! You see, in my perfect world, everybody would believe in their ability to belong, in self, and with others. The second thing, a few moments later, I realized my Encounter 360° conversession on reimagining belonging did give them a space of agency for themselves in self-belonging. It worked! Phew! It gave them a way past the popular, or conventional view of belonging that, unfortunately, limits one’s own agency to belong.

Our mental wellbeing in the workplace seems to be in a pretty rough place, and I think it’s because of messed up belonging. Burnout, anxiety, and depression appear to be at record levels, according to Forbes. A McKinsey study found that 51% don’t feel they belong. And what’s rather interesting, is a Deloitte study as belonging being reported as one of the most important human capital issues. So, there’s easily enough awareness. But not much change. Could it be our functional definition of belonging is the problem? Maybe it’s because we’ve made belonging a transactional receive-mode thing, instead of relational. And not only that, the framing the way that we think of it is that if I don’t get these four things, I don’t belong.

The Problem: our Popular Definition of BelongingBefore moving on to how we redefine belonging, let me introduce you to a neuroscientist, Kelly McGonigal. Kelly studied how the way we perceive stress can make it harmful, or, helpful to us. Harmful if we believe there’s nothing we can do about it, but helpful if we believe we can. And there’s also an interesting aspect that she uncovered that relates to oxytocin. She found that when you’re connected in a caring way (belonging) and you perceive the stress as a healthy challenge, you actually get a positive bump in your oxytocin levels. And, the stress that would’ve killed you, when combined with the oxytocin actually makes you stronger.

And, on a wellness aside, here’s what you physically get from that oxytocin, in addition to increased pro-social emotional abilities:

• cardiovascular protection
• an anti-inflammatory response
• relaxed blood vessels
• your heart rebuilds faster than it degrades under stressed performance

Sounds pretty healthy doesn’t it? Our bodies have a built-in mechanism for stress resilience. Our wiring for belonging is a self-regenerating relational neurochemical mechanism. McGonigal’s work gives us a clue as to why the current model of belonging might be undermining our current belonging efforts right from the start. We have no agency as we experience stress while in pursuit of belonging.

Here’s the popular definition of belonging from Cornell University.

Belonging is the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of (1) acceptance, (2) inclusion, and (3) identity for a member of a certain group. It is when an individual can bring their (4) authentic self to work.

This standard, or institutional understanding is a receive-mode-only model. If I get these four things… then I belong.

A sense of (1) acceptance, (2) inclusion, (3) identity, (4) being your authentic self to work (AIIA)

So, if you don’t get these four things, you don’t belong? This definition creates a box where the stress of being in a belonged state is unwinnable as it’s out of our agency, and thus the stress becomes harmful. From this frame, your state of belonging is a passively harmful place when you don’t fit in. Further, it creates an emotional barrier to doing the very reach outs that your own oxytocin is calling for. Because you believe it’s out of your ability to get it, this inhibits you further and limits your source of oxytocin and serotonin. We have to be in a positive human connection to generate oxytocin. Here’s a link to a list of seven belonging lead measures. You belong when you get these four things is a rather powerless frame that limits our neurobiology as we attempt to create our belonging. Yet it’s the dominant model. While it’s always brought up and referred to with good intent, it accidentally omits our agency in the definition.

The story we tell ourselves, and sometimes the story we’re given, that we tell ourselves, is the story we live.

Our words matter, and our story shifts with that omission. We’ve been promoting a story of what it takes to belong that disempowers us from creating it in our companies. And, it might even be making some people’s pursuit of belonging even a bit more harmful. (I gotta think more on this one.) The more you run into a brick wall, after running into a brick wall, the more damage you’re doing to yourself. Ironically, we’ve been given a model for belonging that sets us up to be powerless in affecting our own belonging.

1. It’s a one-way, passive receive mode, must-get affirmation transactional model
2. It leaves us with a self-narrative that says we only belong with someone who gives us these four things
3. Yet, those four things aren’t necessarily indicative of belonging
4. Ultimately leaves us chronically stressed on the bad side of a fit-in

For bullet 3, I want to offer this caveat. You can have all 4 of these things and not belong, a sense of (1) acceptance, (2) inclusion, (3) identity, and (4) being your authentic self to work. And, you can have the absence of those four things and still deeply belong. I can tell you, from my own personal experience, that I have not been (1) accepted, for being my (4) authentic self. Was warned about getting un- (2) included, and told to get back in the game here with us, or I’m out, my personal (3) identity in the tribe was about to be rejected. And I was implored to get back to rightness with the company tribe. I still belonged despite not getting affirmed in those four areas. And it would be my choice, whether I continued to belong.

The Shift: Define Belonging as You Feel, Own, and Care for Them, AND, They for YouAt Encounter 360°, I offered Belonging Reimagined. One that puts each of us in the driver’s seat of our own belonging. Shifting the power from just us receiving whether or not we belong, to choosing, creating, and inviting another to belong with us. From this re-defined version, our stress from when we don’t belong can be healthy instead of harmful, and help us to get into real belonging.

Try shifting your definition of belonging to this…

Belonging, it’s a state of being, in relationship with others:

When you feel, own, and care for them, in their successes, dreams, and failures. And, they feel, own, and care for you in yours. It’s a two-way relational street.

It’s a two-way street of feeling for yourself and them, owning your life and theirs, and, caring for yourself and them. And they do the same with you. If you prefer today’s typical business emotional intelligence language, it’s mutual-empathy (feeling), accountability (owning), and compassion (caring for).

Belonging requires all three – Feel, Own, and Care forThere’s a hollowness that we all know, that comes when any of the three: feel, own, or care for, aren’t genuine, or, are missing.

• Without the Feel, (empathy) we question whether or not we’re really theirs, when they say, “You’re my friend… or my employee…” We question the “why” of their care for us.
• Without Own, (accountability) we’re stuck with the nagging doubt of if their expressed feelings for us are true. We doubt if their care for us is actually for us.
• Without Care for, (compassion) we disbelieve in the genuineness of their expressed feelings and their claim that we are each other’s.

But, when you have all three, look out, you get a company of resilient people that’ll find a way for each other. You know you belong, because first, YOU feel, own, and care for them, AND second, THEY also feel, own, and care for you. If it’s just them, you’re getting affirmation, and yeah, that feels good. If it’s just you, you’re probably just fitting in, or in codependency.

Notice the order.

1. The first qualifier is, “When you feel, own, and care for them…” (starts with you)
2. AND (not, so that)… I guess the “AND” could be seen as a third qualifier, it’s not transactional.
3. The second qualifier is they feel, own, and care for you in yours…”
   Notice also, the context.

“In each other’s successes, dreams, and failures.” It’s in the good times, the aspirations, and the bad times. This is what falls in line with our tribal neurobiology. We’re designed to be indispensable to our tribe.

I love Angela Theisen’s take on belonging being as fundamental to how we organize ourselves.

“The sense of belonging is fundamental to the way humankind organizes itself. If it was unimportant, we would live solitary lives only coming together for procreation then quickly kicking the children out of our lives as soon as they could walk. We would have no families, communities or organized government.”

We cannot separate the importance of a sense of belonging from our physical and mental health. The social ties that accompany a sense of belonging are a protective factor helping manage stress and other behavioral issues. When we feel we have support and are not alone, we are more resilient, often coping more effectively with difficult times in our lives. Coping well with hardships decreases the physical and mental effects of these situations. (Mayo Clinic Health System)

It’s a relational model of bidirectional power that starts with you. Each one of us has agency. You get to shift into the driver’s seat of your own belonging. You’re not of the tablet victim to circumstance, nor are you an unfortunate victim.

When we define belonging this way, we get a frame for living out a new belief where our belonging is also in our power to create. So that even in the stress during the formation of belonging, we actually can get stronger.

Here’s a belonging practice to move your head in your heart into your own efficacy to create your own belonging.1. Remember a time when you: felt, owned, and cared for somebody in their successes dreams, and failures, who also feels, owns, and cares for you in yours.
(Do not tell of a time when you had a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity, and could be authentic. – Play along with me here) 2. Meet up with someone, in person or over Zoom, and share that story with them. 3. Afterward, take note of how you’re feeling inside. 4. Now, that person who you felt, owned, and cared for… Invite them out for coffee, or beer, or call them, or text them- and thank them for feeling, owning, and caring for you.

A quick summary of belonging wellness benefits:1. Less burnout, anxiety, and depression 2. Higher resilience 3. Oxytocin neural/emotional benefits * Empathy * Cooperation * Generosity * Interpersonal trust * Social motivation * Altruism * Emotional recognition * Gaze and focus & eyes face

1. Oxytocin physical benefits

2. Cardiovascular protection

3. An anti-inflammatory response
4. Relaxed blood vessels
5. Your heart rebuilds faster than it degrades under stressed performance
   I wonder what would happen to the rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, heart attacks, strokes, autoimmune diseases, etc., if we had more belonging of the feel, own, and care for type?

Give this definition a try. Make the shift. I bet you’ll find your emotional and physical wellness moving upward with your belonging.

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I‘m so glad you’re taking the time to focus on changing your thoughts for your well-being. I know it can be scary to step out of your comfort zones and face the unpredictability of Change. But trust me, it’s worth it. When we open ourselves up to new experiences and challenges, we engage in active self-care and growth. Think about it for a minute. Exploring new activities – the unknown – allows us to learn more about ourselves. Stepping outside our routine also brings valuable skill sets and knowledge that benefit us in the long run.

Change can help us focus and prioritize what’s important, whether it’s decluttering distractions or leaving behind relationships or careers that no longer serve us. By making small, meaningful changes, we take action toward our goals and gain a sense of accomplishment and self-worth.

Change can be uncomfortable, but it’s necessary for a fulfilling life. In addition, it gives us the confidence boost to overcome challenges and build stronger relationships with those around us.

And you have the power to change the way you think today. That’s right, you can choose what thoughts you want to focus on right now. This concept dates back to the Bible. In 2 Corinthians 10:3#5, Apostle Paul talks about “casting down imaginations.” The words “Casting down” meant to “destroy,” and the word “imaginations” meant “thought,” which means not believing in lies and falsehoods.

It’s important to constantly challenge negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. No one else can control your thoughts and feelings except you!

I challenge you to start each day with a pep talk and powerful affirmations. Spend 5#10 minutes every morning focusing on what you want to achieve for the day, and don’t let negative people or the world get you down.

Here’s a sample pep talk to get you started. Use it, personalize it, or use it as a springboard and create your powerful motivating morning pep talk.

“Good morning! It’s a brand new day, filled with endless opportunities and potential. Take a deep breath and remember that I can make this day amazing. I am strong, capable, and ready to take on any challenge that comes my way. I will focus on the present moment and won’t let yesterday’s worries or tomorrow’s fears hold me back. Instead, I’ll trust in myself and take small steps toward my goals today. Every effort counts and brings me closer to where I want to be. So let’s get going!”

And here are a few examples of affirmations to lift you up. Use them, personalize them, or use them as a springboard to create powerful affirmations. Repeat these
affirmations to yourself and feel the positive ener%y flow through you:

• I am capable of achieving any goal I set for myself.
• I believe in my abilities and strive for success daily.
• I am worthy of success and happiness.
• My past successes give me the strength to keep going, even through tough times.
• Every challenge I face brings me closer to reaching my goals and dreams.
• I will not run and hide from failure; I will learn and rise above it.

Ending your pep talk with a code word or two that you can use as a call back during the day when the going gets tough. In the example about: “let’s get going!” Say it to yourself and instantly return to the feelings of positivity and strength you had at the end of your morning pep talk!

You’ve got this! Believe in yourself and watch amazing things happen in your life.
Today is your day, and you’re going to make it a great one.

Dr. Seuss told us, “You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So … get on your way!”

Embrace Change with passion and see where it takes you – and along the way, remember to always be innovating, adapting, and thriving! What do you say?

I hope this book empowers you to take control of your thoughts and actions. I believe that people’s thoughts and motives determine their behavior and actions. Therefore, it’s essential to maintain positive thoughts and motives and recognize that we can change our thoughts when they drift toward negativity. Creating Change strives to help readers cultivate this self-awareness and to take steps toward personal growth and Change.

You can create the life you want and live with a positive mindset. “Let’s get going!”

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE COPY OF MY EBOOK PICTURED ABOVE

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Day 379. Learning French on Duolingo and LingQIf you’re learning another language, I’d love to hear which language(s) you’re learning, how long you have been going, and if you’re using any apps. Go ahead and leave a comment if you feel like sharing.

Why French, and why Duolingo & LingQ?I picked French for the pure fun of it. I love the sound of it but to be honest, it’s a case of “unfinished business” for me. I thought I’d “pick up” some French when I studied languages in Saarbruecken, at walking distance from the French border, back in the early nineties. Turns out, my professor was right when she said we wouldn’t have time to “pick up” a third language while getting a translator’s degree in two.

But now it’s the perfect “guinea pig” for my language acquisition experiment.

So what’s the language acquisition experiment? And how can it possibly help you grow your business?Well, I’m a pattern spotter, and I’ve seen how applying certain language acquisition principles to business building can help you make progress faster and with much greater ease. Let me explain.

I’ve been fascinated with foreign languages since long before I had my first Russian class at age 11 (Russian was the first foreign language taught back in East Germany). What I find most intriguing though is that despite schools and universities applying “proven teaching methods”, plenty of people never achieve fluency in another language, even if they live in a country where the language is spoken. Just like so many people looking to grow their business follow proven methods but don’t get the results they were promised and hoping for.

Something seems to be missing.Then one day, I stumbled across a video titled, “The Difference Between Language Learning and Language Acquisition.” It caught my attention because, in my mind, there was no difference.

There is.

Turns out, there is a different approach that gets better results much fasterLanguage learning is about consciously studying vocabulary and grammar rules. It’s about analyzing, trying to figure out, memorizing, working hard, and passing exams. Chances are, it’s how you’ve been taught whatever language you might have studied. Chances are, it’s the approach you’re taking when it comes to growing your business. The thing is, there is often a sense of information overload, overwhelm, pressure, and stress.

Language acquisition, on the other hand, is about “getting out of the way” so that your brain can naturally, unconsciously, absorb and make sense of the information, and build the new skill effortlessly. It’s like children learn, and research shows that’s how adults learn best as well.

Language acquisition is about Trusting Your Magnificent Mind.

So, how does it work?If you’ve used language learning apps like Duolingo or LingQ, you’ve experienced the principles of language acquisition in action:

1. It must be interesting and relevant – everything is easier when you’re focusing on something you want and/or need
2. It must be fun – nothing feels like work when you look at it as a game or an experiment
3. Get a feel for the whole – immerse yourself in the language, not trying to understand, simply allowing yourself to get a feel for the sounds, melody, and rhythm of it
4. Expose yourself to comprehensible input – it’s about connecting something unknown to something known, not throwing yourself into the deep end and drowning
5. Get a mentor/guide – you make more progress faster when you have a guide – just like a parent guides a child learning to speak – someone who has your best interest at heart, who walks at your pace and stretches you gently so you can expand
6. Take tiny steps without stopping – “When it feels hard, you’re skipping steps,” I tell clients all the time. Doing a little bit every day gets you moving farther faster than trying to get a whole lot squeezed into a day
7. Focus on the “basic pieces” first. Once they are second nature, you’ll naturally start differentiating, appreciating, and understanding more subtle details
8. Progress, not perfection – Mistakes don’t matter, in fact, they are needed. They offer invaluable information that helps you decide on your next move
9. It’s not a race – no matter how many “Learn Spanish in 30 Days” books you buy, developing mastery takes some time. And there is nothing wrong with that
10. Trust the process. Know that you’re getting better every day even if you’re not aware of it
11. Keep going. No failure is a failure unless it’s your last move. “Everything works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out yet, then it’s not the end,” Tracy McMillan says. I have nothing to add.

The first language I learned this way was Spanish over 20 years ago. After 9 months of study (just a few evenings a week, after work) I felt more comfortable and confident speaking Spanish than I felt after 6 years of full-time university study to become a translator for English.

These days, apps like Duolingo or LingQ make the Trust Your Magnificent Mind approach accessible to anyone. Just watch out, you might get addicted

What if you applied the same principles to growing your business?Imagine approaching all learning and creation, including for your business, as a series of experiments, fuelled by curiosity, without unnecessary pressure and distorted expectations, without worry about getting it right, being good enough, or reaching goals faster…

From my own experience, and from working with clients, I know that when you operate this way, what drops away is doubt, overthinking, fear, worry, indecision, procrastination, and overwhelm. What you’re invariably left with is what creatives know and love as FLOW: Effortless focus, a limitless fountain of creativity, feeling relaxed and joyful, and astonishing levels of productivity.

How would that show up in your business?“For the first time in ages, I’ve been sleeping for 8 hours in one piece. I feel so relaxed and inspired. I don’t get caught up in other people’s little dramas, I get things done so much faster and frankly, the quality of my work has improved noticeably,” my client Vanessa shared after 2 weeks in “the experiment.”

The thing is, I’ve invited, well .. challenged .. quite a few people to give this approach a try, even if it’s just for a few days to start. It feels unnatural and scary for most.

“But my business is important to me. I need to get stuff done and reach my goal. I can’t just go with the flow and treat it as an experiment!”

Well, if the way you build your business works for you, great. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

But if it feels like hard work, harder than you thought it would, if it requires rigid rules, rituals, and discipline to whip you through your never-ending to-do list, if you’re exhausted at the end of a week, if it feels like you’re pushing a boulder up a hill, let me plant the seed in your mind that there is an easier way…

If you’re game, try it out.

If you’ve experienced Duolingo or the likes, if you got hooked on playing a little bit each day and looked back sometime later, amazed at how much you’ve learnt without any apparent effort, I invite you to take the Trust Your Magnificent Mind approach into your business. Start with just a day or a weekend and see what happens.

If you can’t imagine at all how that could work, I’m inviting you to sign up for Duolingo, pick any language that sparks your interest and give yourself a week.

Are you up for the experiment?

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Mark Twain said it best:

Always do right; you’ll gratify some and astonish the rest.

Of course, it’s rarely that simple. Despite our best intentions, the decisions we face often set our moral compass spinning in all directions. At every crossroads, we find self-interest and equivocation clouding our judgment and weakening our resolve to choose good over evil.

From Socrates to Immanuel Kant to Stephen L. Carter, moral philosophers have grappled with finding an absolute definition for good to guide us in making better choices. Perhaps the most widely debated is Utilitarianism:

The doctrine that an action is defined as right because it provides the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people.

Superficially, this sounds like an ideal definition. But it presupposes that we have a universal metric for defining benefit. It also fails to address the morality of imposing harm on the few in order to provide felicity for the many. If we could calculate that humiliating or torturing an individual would yield more amusement for the group than pain to the victim, classic utilitarianism not only allows the many to afflict the individual but morally obligates them to do so.

Indeed, superficiality may be the most relevant factor as we attempt to evaluate whether the rapid advances in artificial intelligence are good, neutral, or truly diabolical.

AND I LOOKED INTO THE FUTURE…When used with discipline and discernment, technology enhances our productivity, our creativity, and the quality of our lives. When used irresponsibly, however, it can steal our souls. Caught in a battle between costs and benefits, what is the ethical approach for evaluating and regulating the ways in which AI infiltrates our life and our work?

The lucid prose of ChatGPT leaves no doubt that we have entered a brave new world. The composition software performs better research, writes more articulately, and reasons more clearly than many of us do. If you’ve ever suffered through the cringe-worthy lines of amateur poetry, you might feel grateful for the smoothly flowing stanzas of computer-generated verse.

It is encouraging how classroom teachers have already begun implementing creative techniques for using the new processing tool. Some grade students on their collected research and their own notes before permitting them to feed the results into their computers to produce a final product. Others let students begin with AI generated essays, then instruct them to validate the data and improve the prose.

Writers of articles and scholarly papers claim they can triple or quadruple their output by letting ChatGPT produce first drafts. Used thus, it’s hard to argue against the measurable benefits of AI.

LOOK INTO THE ABYSSEthics lives at the brink of the slippery slope. You might remember from high school the bold warning at the front of every copy of Cliffs Notes: These notes are not a substitute for the text itself . . . students’ attempt to use them in this way are denying themselves the very education that they are presumably giving their most vital years to achieve.

Did you pay attention? I know I didn’t. And I went on to become an English major.

In the 2008 Pixar film WALL-E, the earth has become an abandoned garbage dump, and the remnant of humankind cruise through the galaxy on a space-ark. The survivors are all obese, carried about on anti-gravity chairs, fed nutrition through a tube, and distracted by video screens. They are cared for by robots whose artificial intelligence has determined that humans are incapable of caring for themselves or making their own decisions.

Life imitates art. The Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma frighteningly illustrates how social media algorithms are designed to make users insecure, undisciplined, and literally addicted. Studies indicate that cognitive capacity is declining at an alarming rate, and that the battle to generate advertising income by keeping viewers glued to their screens is accelerating what already looms as a cultural crisis.

LIMPING TOWARD GEMMORAHThe problem with technology is that it easily becomes a crutch. And the problem with crutches is that once we start using them, we become dependent on them. Short-term gains for the sake of efficiency may lead to a long-term decline into learned helplessness.

Another ethical challenge is programming bias. The more politics becomes our new religion, the more programmers will insert their political leanings into the software they produce—whether intentionally or subconsciously. Columnist Rob Henderson recently reported how ChapGPT refused to compose a defense of fascism but unhesitatingly produced a sympathetic critique of communism. Is it not likely the same biases will infect AI-generated writing about business practices, philosophy, and culture?

Concerns about plagiarism and attribution are also well-founded. Beyond that, the software has been known to produce phantom excerpts that are summaries rather than actual quotations; neither can it differentiate between information and misinformation.

Even if these concerns are ultimately addressed, human writing may already be headed toward extinction. The online education company Chegg recently saw its stock value plummet as students abandoned the platform in favor of ChatGPT for homework assistance.

That might be fine if students were better served by AI. But research clearly shows the correlation between invested effort and successful outcomes. Reliance on AI might therefore carry a devastating cost in proportion to the modest utilitarian benefit of convenience. As intellectual discipline wanes, human performance declines, and jobs disappear, we may indeed end up climbing into our anti-gravity couches and slurping liquid protein through a straw.

If there’s one lesson we should take to heart it’s the need to stop reactive thinking and begin developing a proactive approach to technology and culture. Does anyone remember the shoe-bomber who, post-911 attempted to board a passenger plane with explosives in his work boots? Thanks to him, we’re still required to remove our shoes going through airport security two decades later, despite little real safety concern. We need to look forward, not just back.

History is a great teacher, but if we want to confront the challenges of the future we have to build on the past, not merely react to it.

Artificial intelligence can help us only if we make sure that it serves us, and that we don’t start serving it.

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I am pleased to present a new blog in a series of interviews with companies introducing interesting and disruptive emerging technologies that impact the new era of Industry 4.0. Today we explore product innovations in securing communications, the supply chain, and ensuring personal safety, with Monte Brown, Founder, and CEO of The Rapier Technology Group

Hi Monte, can you describe the mission and capabilities of the Rapier Technology Group?Monte: Yes, I would be happy to do so. Our mission is securing things we care about by enhancing product/data security, safety, and authentication for businesses, governments, and individuals. The Rapier Technology Group (RTG) has developed a full suite of cutting-edge technologies for supply chain security, secured communications, and product authentication across multiple sectors.

RTG offers specialized security products for the government mission and has a global commercial division with products tailored for industry. Unfortunately, data breaches and counterfeiting are on the rise in every industry and causing damaging results. The existing strategies to mitigate threats are intensive and require additional infrastructure or highly specialized solutions to solve the problem. And physical and digital vulnerabilities exist despite the best efforts and innovations in cybersecurity.

RTG seeks to fill such voids in the cybersecurity ecosystem by creating products that are disruptive by design, and easy to deploy and use. Our goal has been to develop simplicity in systems and security to allow cost-effective solutions that resolve today’s complex problems. Solutions do not always need to be so complex that we are unable to manage them.

Also, RTG is not just about delivering new and better technologies. A cornerstone of Rapier’s success has been and will continue to be the high degree of professionalism and integrity demonstrated every day by our employees throughout the company. As we grow in numbers and in the variety of clients and locales that we serve, it is important that we provide clear guidelines regarding how we should approach important issues and decisions that may arise as we strive to provide the best service to our clients and the best work environment for our employees

What is RTG’s unique stenographic communications platform and how does it enable security?Monte: RTG’s product Ricochet is a file security and communications platform with a user-friendly interface and unparalleled security. Our proprietary pseudo-steganographic technique ensures sensitive data, messages, and files are imperceptibly hidden within innocuous carrier images and can be stored, transmitted, and accessed securely and reliably only by those authorized to do so. This approach has been tested against industry-standard analysis and attack methods, and reliably ensures hidden data is not statistically detectable and robust to brute force attack. A tiered access system ensures security at the individual and organizational levels and incorporates the ability to set time frames in which data is accessible. Finally, the Ricochet platform can be used on all common operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS) and has compatibility across any file type.

Conventional means of communication, such as text messaging, can provide actionable intelligence to bad actors, and eavesdropping third parties. For example, in early March 2022, Russian intelligence was able to determine the location of a small cell of mercenaries based on their phone numbers and text metadata; once discovered, the suspected mercenary base was bombarded, leading to the deaths of 35 people. By contrast, users of the Ricochet platform could easily utilize less traceable forms of communication, such as emails sent through a VPN/Tor network or virtual dead drops via social media. Alternate forms of communication such as these are inherently more private, less suspicious, and can be carried out without the identifying information associated with cellular service/SIM cards

The Ricochet communication platform allows for secured file access and covert communications over normal communication channels, such as SMS, Facebook, email, etc. Using a proprietary asymmetric steganographic technique, hidden data, messages and files are imperceptibly embedded within innocuous carrier media and can be stored, transmitted and accessed securely and reliably. This process can be used on any common operating system (Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS), and has broad compatibility across any file type. Our steganographic algorithm takes the strengths of several more common approaches, then utilizes them in such a way that hidden data is no longer statistically detectable and is no longer susceptible to brute force attack. A tiered access system also ensures security at the individual and organizational levels, all the while adding the ability to set timeframes in which data is accessible.

Supply chains are highly dynamic and transit geographic spaces that exceed most organizations’ capacities for maintaining persistent monitoring and threat identification and pose a continual cybersecurity risk. What is Rapier’s approach to securing supply chains?Monte: We have an amazing product called TAKEOFF that provides supply chain resilience through vetting, analytics, and persistent monitoring.

Because we have experience performing the SCRM mission in commercial and government organizations, we know that organizations can predict threats and mitigate vulnerabilities when they perform accurate and timely analysis of millions of data sources and records. For every part of an organization’s echelon—from the tactical to the strategic—we offer a SaaS-based, big data analytics platform for supply chain missions that enables clients to better track items moving within the supply chain, identify and assess vulnerabilities and threats, and provide insightful trend analysis. Our product enables clients to track commodities as they move through supply chains, while also using AI-enabled big data analytics tools to derive insights into companies, threats, vulnerabilities, processes, economic, social, and geopolitical trends, and more

TAKEOFF is the one-stop shop for meaningful data analysis and monitoring of shipped commodities. Going beyond mainstream technologies that only provide clients with insights into cargo manifests or business relationships, TAKEOFF performs two critical functions—persistent monitoring and predictive trend analysis and big data threat sensing. We integrate authentication and tracking sensors within complex, global supply chains, providing persistent awareness and security of sensitive commodities as they move from distributor to storage to delivery to installation. TAKEOFF comes with tailorable dashboards and visualizations, huge data sources and insights, AI/ML-driven analytics of billions of digital records, and supply chain verification and authentication sensors. The product is open architecture and common ontology easily integrates with other data and client network configurations. Blockchain, access controls, and DOD cyber security standards are employed to protect data and ensure need-to-know.

The capability of our system to prevent unauthorized access to files poses the possibility of securing supply chain records. By making file access, modification, and viewing restricted to only authorized personnel, supply chain records can be made fully confidential, and unhackable. RTG’s cloud-based track-and-trace platform is designed for manufacturers and supply chain operators with real-time visibility and product information from raw materials, to production floor, to warehouse, to retailers, to end user. The platform improves supply chain collaboration, security and visibility by enabling users to track the WHAT the item is, WHO last handled the item, WHEN the item was handled, WHERE it has been and is currently, and other customizable information as defined by each client.

TAKEOFF could be used for: Financial Industry (PII Protection), Security Industry (Chain of Custody), Medical & Pharma Industry (PII Protection), Music Industry (Authentication)

Voter Fraud (Authentication), and Movie & Entertainment Industry (Authentication)

In summary, TAKEOFF enables clients to track commodities as they move through supply chains, while also using AI-enabled big data analytics tools to derive insights into companies, threats, vulnerabilities, processes, economic, social, and geopolitical trends, and more.

What other products are available from RTG?Monte: A horrific problem around the world is human trafficking, It is now the second fastest-growing crime globally and is a $150 billion business, factoring in sex and labor trafficking alone. A new product of RTG is our EVER24 smartphone application that acts as an instant detection, and emergency alert service (IDEAS) in the event of kidnapping/abduction or any other threat to personal safety. This application utilizes a smartphone’s LTE cellular connectivity, Bluetooth, speaker, microphone, accelerometers, and GPS to offer a full-featured suite of tools to assist in any emergency situation (i.e. medical emergencies, violent crime, fire, human trafficking, active shooter scenarios, and other traumatic events) at the moment it occurs. Currently, in the event of emergencies, there are limited options available to communicate on smartphones with loved ones and to receive assistance. Given the capabilities of modern-day smartphones, this lack of functionality is completely solvable with EVER24.

Emergency contacts with the application installed can work synergistically, regularly pinging the other devices in a one-way communication with their location and any panic signals. Connected smartphones can also send alerts to others’ devices and communicate with a cloud server to track panic signals. Emergency services call centers (PSAPs) can also be contacted with intuitive and customizable text-to-speech conference calling, enduring direct contact with users while automatically transmitting crucial, context-specific information.

In summary, EVER24 is a specialized application to enable personal safety. It is seamless, discreet, and can provide integrated tracking and reporting of users in distress with instant connection and communication to people who can help!

I really like your approaches using fusion of various technologies to address immediate gaps in cybersecurity and address real-world problems. Do you have other interesting projects in your research & development pipeline?Monte: Yes, we are working closely with the Universities computational centers and top researchers from around the world. We have already developed and tested a digital system to create, deliver, and manage tax stamps for taxed goods. The full platform will track compliance, revenue, and with various access levels, allow regulators more oversight without requiring on-site visits to stores and distributors. We have active research in addressing issues with detecting attacks via sensors on OT and IT platforms and are building a sensor biometrics platform that is a secure, unclonable sensor monitoring system to VALIDATE INTEGRITY of sensor outputs and AUTHENTICATE IDENTITY of a sensor without modification of the sensor or manufacturing processes. And RTG even has its own 3-D printing studio. Please stay tuned!

Where can someone find more information on RTG?For more information on the Rapier Technology Group, please contact: jpierce@rapiertechgroup.com

Thanks, Monte for a very informative interview!

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Falling in love with ChatGpt, and AI in general, often seems to escape the control of reason and logic. We are faced with a machine that, while capable of performing complex tasks, lacks human intelligence and, on the contrary, exploits natural resources, human labour, kills privacy, and undermines equality. This not only dispossesses man of his adjective sapiens but undermines the very basis of democracy and the fundamental rights on which it is founded.

Nonetheless, it seems that our technophilia and fetishism for artificial intelligence are induced by a hedonistic self-alienation as persons and as sapiens, in search of an easy solution to our everyday problems. But AI is not the Ultimate Algorithm that will solve all our problems; in fact, it may be our worst enemy.

Our presumption of being man sapiens is based on the intelligence, reason, and logic that distinguish us as a species. But if we produce machines like ChatGpt that function without man and replace him, we become homo stultus and lose our identity as sapiens.

Ultimately, we need to be aware of the effects of falling in love with ChatGpt and AI in general and act responsibly to preserve our dignity and freedom as homo sapiens.

Why this (real or induced?) falling in love with ChatGpt? Technophilia regardless? Fetishism for artificial intelligence? Or are we children who want to play with the new Meccano? Or – and worse – is it a voluntary and hedonistic self-alienation from oneself as a person, from oneself as men sapiens, from one’s freedom, from democracy, from knowledge and know-how? Or is it happiness at the approaching/concretising (we are tired of having to think and having to decide, really too exhausting !) of the Ultimate Algorithm, spelled with capital letters like God?

There is no creature more dangerous than man, for he is the only one who can change the world.

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Unless you’re a man who has been living in a cave for the last year, you will be aware of the quantum shift taking place for you in today’s professional world. No such thing as business as usual especially for men.

Balancing a man’s life challenges with positive masculinity and authentic harmony is a must if you are to be successful with women in business and in life …

It’s tough for men, especially top decision men who are often making major adjustments from traditional perspectives to ensure they thrive in these uncertain times.

Men must navigate their usual traditional role and the new emotional integrity that post-pandemic economies demand. The new leadership/life dynamics occurring with DEI and ESG and SNGs and more pressures at home to provide against escalating living costs and teenage children wanting college fees paid!!

As men lead and work in required gender-equal and diverse cultures, many issues arise that they are unused to. Women are asserting themselves in ways that often confuse men. Different generations holding perspectives that clash and many old patterns of hierarchy and gender equity battles are blocking progress to authentic harmony.

Male leaders report that they are more unsure than ever as to how to negotiate their way through the ripple effects of the #metoo movement and pandemic pressures for hybrid working and rising cases of big payouts on sexual harassment legal actions. Even for men advocating for women to move to the top often feel left out in the ‘women empowerment’ movement when battling with those men who refuse to change.

What is the mix of fear, anger, frustration, and confusion that creeps in? This is not an “either-or” situation, it’s “and-and”! Building awareness on natural differences and principles of harmony includes the value of heart-centered leadership.

Go on – it’s ok to own all emotions… and it’s “manly” to overcome them with emotional understanding, business trust, and a culture of respect for all parties.

Can we build a new baseline landscape that shifts awareness for both men and women is the way to engage everyone in a new creative conversation? To achieve this, we propose to empower men to be open-minded to a more flexible, adaptable, collaborative synergistic, harmonious diverse world, and to navigate the MIND-Field of professional and domestic relationships. Men need to be men and still want to be viable competitors as well as colleagues in the challenging game of life and business (and and)!!

Many wise men today want to reassess their masculinity in communication, using greater sensitivity and still retaining authority. It’s increasingly difficult to exert a more masculine-style influence and be sure to be received fairly by both men and women. Now we present a pioneering Gender Dynamics Intelligence (GDI) landscape assessment and communication tool is designed to help men (and women) achieve a meaningful, masculine manner that fluently integrates instinctive emotions, integrity, and logic.

This pioneering approach encompasses positive masculinity and female empowerment into the combined territories of male and female with a 360-degree view of all diversity. This is integral to a new program facilitated by Dr. Pauline Crawford, the creator of the GDI map, an International Speaker, and Author of The Power of Authentic Harmony.

Men – It’s time to eliminate the barriers that bar your way to fulfillment and material success.

Start the journey one-on-one with your most difficult conversation…

Men of the Future … are you ready NOW?

My gratitude to all the men I interviewed during 2018 -pre pandemic- in a world of #metoo movement and quotas of women into boardrooms. Our world of women has moved on and now we face economic challenges globally. We cannot afford to waste time arguing for equality, we need harmony and joint- co-creation honoring each other’s natural talents.

I asked this cohort each in turn “What advice will you give a woman to manage a man today?”

The answer collectively was “We love you women – we love working with you, we respect you, you are complex, we are simple. Please value us for who we are, don’t smother us, mother us or see us as a threat (#metoo) – see us for our straight-forward truth as a man and love us as we are”

WISE ADVICE…. thank you!

Reach out to me below for more information and to be ahead of the game.

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Is AI as smart as it seems? Exploring the “brain” behind machine learning, neural networker Alona Fyshe delves into the language processing abilities of talkative tech (like the groundbreaking chatbot and internet obsession ChatGPT) and explains how different it is from your own brain — even though it can sound convincingly human.

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In accounting, a balance sheet is the core of accounting. A balance sheet is a financial statement that reports a company’s assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity.

I find the same sheet applied to human relations. Two people in relations and a third party representing the shareholders’ equity replace the triad of assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity.

This is consistent with the scientific fact that there is no strong relationship between two parties as it is stronger through a third one that couples the two parties. For example, a wife and husband their relationship strengthen usually by having a third party- the children in this case.

This is also in accordance with Heider’s Balanced Theory I psychology. This theory states that the reactions of each individual are framed within a triangle that Heider called the P-O-X model. The triad consists of

P = the person to analyze

O = other, or the comparison person

X = the third element for comparisons such as a third person, a physical object, an idea, or an event.

Human Relationship Is More Complex than a Balanced Sheet

Human relationship is more complex than those we encounter on a balance sheet. This is because one must have balanced relations with self to have one with others.

Let us go back to the wife-husband relationship. If the husband lacks self-balance of health, heat, and mind, would he be able to have one with his wife and his kids? The answer is no.

The imbalance in one person may cause an imbalance in other people. A recent crime serves as a good example. A husband wanted to remarry his divorcee. She refused. He lost self-balance and decided to take revenge. He knew of his divorcee’s love to their only son. He killed the son just to bleed her heart.

The imbalance in the life of one person can have a rippling effect beyond imagination.

There is no balance in the relationship between two people without being open to each other and keeping the communication line between them. If not, what starts as a small gap of difference allows this gap to grow. A gap is a weakness that allows the relationship to deteriorate and ends up in saddening acts. The story of the father who killed his son serves as an example.

Two people even though each might have self-balance shall not have a balanced relationship. To keep the balance there are conditions such as communicating with empathy, respecting boundaries, and balancing work-life.

The law of life is balance everywhere at all scales.

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Office politics, workplace politics, organizational politics – I call it high school. Nothing much has changed since the cliques of high school – although today’s clique categories are a bit different, they still include what you recall from your high school, just with different labels.

In high school, cliques are part of social development. In the office or your office, your job and your reputation can be at stake.

Yes, I know that many are now working their job from alternate spaces, however, this information is the same as if you were in an office. All workplaces are political because we are human beings who bring all our baggage, good and bad, into the workplace.

What does one do if you are either new to the game of large offices or still working in that environment?

Set clear boundaries.

Start by staying out of it. Whatever game you do not join, you do not have to play.

Be nice, at all times; be as nice as possible.

Be fair to all you speak to. When someone attempts to engage you in a Gossip Round, simple, non-committal replies are best.

Use lots of ‘Ohs?’ and ‘Ahs’! and ‘Unhuhs’. Really – no one will care and they will move on to the next person who will agree or disagree, therefore getting snagged into a revolt, big or small.

Don’t gossip about anyone in your office, building, or company. It may hurt you on the way up the ladder and send you spinning down quickly.

The best players have the same respect for the receptionists as they have for the CEO, VPs, and other C Suite categories. You never know who’s watching or listening or who is anxious to pass on your words to someone else. Don’t let anything you say bite you in the butt.

Establish your office ‘line in the sand’ and do not engage anyone who wants to play the game of gossip, bullying, or other not-so-nice means.

Be yourself at all times and enjoy yourself as much as possible while you contribute your skills – the ones they pay you for – to your company.

Just so you know, all this craziness can be shared using social media.

Be yourself, be kind, and stop playing games.

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I recently had the privilege of joining the University of South Wales at their 10th-year anniversary Coaching Conference where I was invited to share a keynote on how do we evolve as coaches and leaders and how do we help our clients evolve in their thinking.

In preparation for this speech, I reviewed my own and others’ lived experiences and discovered a recipe with a number of ingredients in how we might EVOLVE more intentionally. Firstly let’s check in with our mutual understanding of the verb evolve. The dictionary defines it as to develop gradually, or to cause something or someone to develop gradually.

It seems to me that as a coach or leader, you are a catalyst for your clients and team members to gradually grow and develop both personally and professionally. Equally, there are times when your client or team member may experience a transformation through your coaching conversations having a significant impact in their personal and professional lives.

I believe as coaches and leaders we have a profound responsibility and privilege in our roles because of the impact we have on the lives of others – the way they think, feel, and act. This may sound daunting. This may sound exciting. Coaching conversations expand from the tender to the challenging, each one of them having an impact on the life of another. And so how do we evolve as coaches and leaders more intentionally?

Below I share the ingredients by way of an acronym in the form of a question which I’d love to engage with you on:

● Who do you ENGAGE on your journey?
● What VALUES do you want to upgrade?
● What enables you to be OPEN-MINDED?
● What is the purpose of your LISTENING?
● What VARIETY of experiences do you create?
● What takes you and others to the unexplored EDGE of their thinking?

Who do you engage on your journey?I realised that my own journey became clear once I looked back and joined the dots. I enjoyed a career serving people in the corporate environment from secretary to HR director spanning 16 years. Later I was encouraged by Gladena McMahon an inspiring and dedicated coach, to consider and retrain as a coach based upon my observations and the impact of conversations I was having with individuals as they navigated the many organisational restructures we witnessed in the early 2000s. I was curious to learn more.

Coaching was not so well known in the corporate setting at that time. I had studied NLP with the superb Ian McDermott and Jan Elfine and became more interested on the impact of language and emotions in our lives and so began my coach training in this field. A few years later I pursued a post-grad diploma in psychological coaching deepening my understanding yet further on what it means to be human under the wise stewardship of Stephen Palmer, Gladena, and colleagues at the Centre for Coaching.

Twelve years ago I discovered the Thinking Environment and the work of Nancy Kline. This experience transformed my life. As a mum, daughter, sister, friend, and my coaching practice. I discovered a different level of listening and how to help others think as and for themselves rather than conforming to what others wanted them to think or being fearful of reprimand when they did share their thoughts.

As I looked back, I saw what each part of the journey had taught me. I also acknowledge that I was not alone, at each stage I had been inspired, encouraged, and stretched by my coach supervisors Georgina Woudstra and Anne Hathaway, teachers and leadership mentors Bob Chapman and Anthony Howard in my leadership and coaching evolution.

Supporting our coaching clients is to invite them to consider who do they engage in their life, in their relationships, in their work in support of their personal vision. We evolve as we ENGAGE with others to help us become who we are meant to become.

What values are driving your decisions?Reflecting on your own coaching and leadership journey is in itself a useful process in how you have evolved. Specifically, at the start of your journey, what values underpinned your decisions and behaviours? Pursuing a career as a coach requires much learning, commitment, and excellence most definitely if you want to pursue an accreditation.

These were indeed my own values when I began my coach training. As I grew in experience and skills I continued to revisit my values and upgrade them. Today the values that drive my decisions are those of nurturing, gratitude, personal growth, and goodness. I decided to upgrade my values in service of my ongoing vision where I imagine a world where we listen first enabling others to step up and into who they are meant to be.

Nelson Mandela, an exceptional leader was someone who upgraded his values as he evolved. He had a vision to bring about a rainbow nation. In his early years, he was very different to who he became after 27 years in prison. Prior to his incarceration, he described himself as an angry and rebellious man fighting injustice. He left honouring the values of humility, wisdom, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.

– Nelson Mandela

Supporting our coaching clients and team members is to invite them to revisit and upgrade their values as they consider who they wish to become. We evolve as we upgrade our VALUES revealing our lived experience and what is important now in service of our personal vision.

What enables you to be open-minded?Over the past year, I have asked a number of audiences to describe how they would characterise our current reality. The same words emerge each time; unpredictable, changing, unknowing, chaotic, possibility, urgent, confused, anxious. Given our reality, how do we as coaches, leaders and human beings evolve to thrive not simply survive in the context we find ourselves in today? I propose we need to be open-minded so that we can continue to adapt, be flexible, think as and for ourselves, be willing to change, and to keep learning.

Kendra Cherry, in her article How to be More Open-Minded, describes open-mindedness as being non-prejudiced, tolerant, and being willing to see another’s perspective. Being open-minded helps us to gain insight, have new experiences, achieve personal growth, become mentally strong, feel more optimistic, and learn new things – all of which help us navigate the complex reality we face today. Cherry goes on to say we benefit from being open-minded as it helps us learn new things, grow as a person, and become more optimistic and resilient in the face of life’s challenges.

Supporting our clients and team members is to role model our own open-mindedness, celebrating what’s right with the world and encouraging different perspectives. We evolve when we choose to be OPEN-MINDED to what is possible.

Being open-minded also requires us to deepen our capacity to listen.

What is the purpose of your listening?In my work, I have discovered 5 levels of listening, each of them having a purpose.

• Self-listening – pausing, being present with yourself, and reflecting: What is working well? What am I assuming that is holding me back? How do I feel? What thought is behind that feeling? What do I want to change? And then listening to your answers with compassion rather than in combat to help develop a greater self-awareness. We need to get good at listening to ourself so we can listen well to others.
• Pretend listening – your mind is elsewhere being caught up in your thoughts and feelings and your eyes are wandering and glazed. Your attention is no longer on the person speaking.
• Factual – listening for information and the facts which will help to discern a course of action, make a decision, and clarifying our understanding of what we have heard.
• Empathetic – listening to the non-verbal cues, emotions, and feelings of another and acknowledging what you have heard and seen so that the other feels seen, heard, and understood.
• Generative – listening to free and ignite the mind rather than direct it for another to be their best self. Holding a safe space free from interruption and judgement that says ‘you matter’.

In one conversation, we may be in any one or all of these levels of listening. As we deepen our listening skills and experience, we are able to adjust to the situation and person to whom we are listening, therefore deepening our connection, enhancing our communication, and releasing the human potential in front of us.

When we speak, we say what we already know, but when we listen, we may learn something new.

– Dalai Lama

We evolve when we LISTEN generatively to ourselves and others, fostering the finest independent thinking honouring our own and others’ dignity.

What variety of experiences do you create?The pandemic created new experiences and opportunities for many. I wonder what you experienced in your coaching and leadership practices and how they expanded in ways you had not imagined before the pandemic. Perhaps you began working with clients outside of your region or specific area. For example, many coaches gave up their time and shared their skills with the NHS, for the first time, during the pandemic. New programmes were commissioned in serving those who took care of those with Covid.

Technology enabled us to connect globally. We witnessed a level of acceptance for a new way of being and working with each other. My hunch is that you used your coaching and leadership skills and experience beyond your everyday practice in your community, at the school gates, and with your own family.

Supporting our clients to evolve in their thinking is to invite them to consider a variety of experiences in their work and life. We evolve when we create a VARIETY of experiences, new experiments, possibilities, and opportunities.

It takes courage to create and step into these new experiences, just as it does to go to the unexplored edge of our thinking. The last ingredient in our recipe.

What takes us to the unexplored Edge of our Thinking?Being a Thinking Environment coach, facilitator and teacher is a privileged role to uphold because the nature of this work reveals having a deep impact on the lives of others. The decision to be a Thinking Environment for others is a way of being. It is to embody The Ten Components of a Thinking Environment and it is in this embodiment that we are able to take our clients to the unexplored edge of their thinking.

When we give our attention free from interruption and judgement, holding a deep respect for others in their thinking and where they go next, they think well as and for themselves, often uninhibited. When we create an equality between us, they think better due to the absence of hierarchy. When we ourselves are at ease in our listening free from rush and urgency, they think with greater clarity. When we appreciate the goodness, and the character qualities we witness in them, they think with even more imagination. When we encourage them to think and feel more, freeing them from the internal competition in their own mind, they are filled with the courage to go further than they imagined in their thinking.

When we welcome the release of feelings honouring their humanity, they will think and feel more deeply than if we simply stepped over their feelings and closed the space down. When we prioritise their lived experience and celebrate their difference rather than wanting them to think and be just like us, they will know and feel that they matter for who they are not just what they do. When we, as the listener, absorb all the facts and provide information when asked in service of the thinker, they will continue to think well for themselves.

When we ask incisive questions to remove untrue limiting assumptions and replace them with those that are liberating and true, breakthrough ideas emerge, new ways of behaviour are revealed and the dignity of the human mind and soul is revealed right in front of our eyes, the listener’s eyes. When we create a place that says ‘you matter’ both in the physical environment that is free from distraction and also our own – the listener’s body and face – they will think with greater ease and confidence. Being a Thinking Environment coach, facilitator and teacher is a privileged role to uphold.

The most valuable thing we can offer each other is the framework in which to think for ourselves.

– Nancy Kline

Generating a space for another to think as and for themselves is still radical. It is radical not because it is difficult but because it is rare. Today, there continues to be much societal and organisational pressure to think and feel that we need to think and be like others in order to fit in, feel like we belong, or conform to be accepted. Whereas in reality, it is the very nature of our capacity to think independently well for ourselves that our teams, organisations and communities benefit from. It is our unique perspective that when given the chance to contribute our own thoughts and ideas brings creativity and difference in resolving a situation, a challenge, a problem or taking forward an opportunity for the good of all.

I acknowledge the courage every one of my clients demonstrates in our coaching conversations. Because it takes courage to go to the unexplored edge of our thinking and it is at this edge that we grow and develop. And it’s worth it.

We support our clients and team members to go the unexplored EDGE of their thinking by choosing to embody the ten components of a Thinking Environment. We evolve when we engage in our finest independent thinking for the good of all.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

– Maya Angelou

I celebrate you in your own journey of evolving in who you have become and who you go on to become.

Thank you for listening!

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It amazes me that we humans reject certain things and only accept them after paying a heavy price. When we have to accept what we rejected before is a big question why not then have not then accepted from the beginning?

Change goes in four main stages. These are rejection, resistance, acceptance, and demanding what we initially rejected.

Change happens but at a heavy cost. Like two warring countries rejecting a compromising solution and going to war both suffering heavy losses. Only then, do they accept what they initially rejected?

The question that we need all answer is can we accept change from outside even if we do not accept ourselves and suffer from self-rejection?

Self-rejection happens when we accept what others think of us and we sink into the belief that we are worthless. When we face self-rejection, we fall into despair. We lose hope and may reach a stage of depression.

It is a reverse cycle of normal change. It is accepting the low evaluation of others in us to reject ourselves.

The antagonist becomes us more than the antagonist from outside who demean us. Can be there any hope to make a meaningful change before defeating the antagonist inside us?

My answer is no. We can only walk our way in life if we first accept ourselves. By doing so, we gain self-esteem. We gain self-confidence. We become more aware of our authenticity. We become self-supporters.

When we accept pain, we can change. We save our energy and resources to move forward rather than draining them and becoming even less self-accepting.

Change has a story that tells us unless we accept ourselves we cannot deal with changes from outside. We fail to adapt and lose our agility. We reject ourselves like people who reject the wrinkles of time. They spend their effort on fighting time. Eventually, they realize that the only way forward is to accept themselves with their wrinkles.

Accepting what we rejected before can be very costly. Let us accept who we are.

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Work that’s dictated by a fixed schedule, place, and job description doesn’t make sense anymore, says leadership expert Debbie Lovich. In light of the cultural shift towards remote work sparked by the pandemic, Lovich gives three essential tips to leaders so employees can keep their autonomy (while remaining productive), companies can let go of rigid bureaucracy and we can all reshape work to better fit our lives.

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Once upon a time — children stayed out until the streetlights came on, they played in unsanitized spaces, unsupervised, they got messy, fell down and got back up.

Every day, they navigated the new and unfamiliar. Sometimes, no one was there to make sure it always turned out right. They created their own games, made their own teams, and learned how to win…and lose. They were curious and tested answers outside the obvious solutions. They talked to new people and ventured into new spaces, and built a storage bank of experiences that they could draw on all through their life.

One day, society decided that this unstructured way of life was detrimental to children and told parents and educators “good parents and educators” keep children safe and organized, managed, supervised, and constantly occupied. And we did. Because of that, we realized that children and adults were becoming less resilient, more prone to anxiety, and having increasing difficulty managing risk and connection when things were not always managed and organized. We observed poor self-regulation, time management, and conflict-resolution skills. Our ability to accept and manage people and spaces different from what we know or expect is hindered by the fear of new and unfamiliar. Our ability to cope and adapt to change and crisis limited by the worry of doing it wrong.

Because of that … we decided to go backwards to move forward.

We returned to a globally and culturally universal place of humanity. PLAY. We created spaces for people of all ages to be curious again, to explore and test and try, to fall down and dust themselves off and try again. We gave educators and workplaces the tools to recognize their strengths in difference.

We addressed inclusion, mental health, and loneliness as opportunities to use our creativity, innovation, and connection skills again, without the hesitation of doing it “perfectly.”

Until finally, people of all ages and abilities recognized the value of play, building experience, leaning into things that are unknown, and adapting.

In a world filled with near-impossible challenges, we found the cognitive flexibility to bend without breaking, take pieces with nothing in common, and find connection and belonging.

And we realized that “happily ever after” starts in play.

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Facing the possibility of a layoff, or dealing with one, can be a challenging and emotionally taxing experience. However, there are steps you can take to emotionally prepare yourself and minimize the impact of this event on your mental and emotional well-being.

Research has long shown layoffs have a detrimental effect on individuals and on corporate performance. Harvard BizReview 12-22. “What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs” (hbr.org)

Layoffs, which began in mid-2022, have continued until there has become a steady stream of announcements in 2023.  This includes the following planned layoffs and those currently in process:

• Wall Street Journal -1250 employees
• Yahoo – more than half the ‘Yahoo for biz division’ – 1600
• GitHub – owned by MSN – 10% – approximately 300 workers
• Disney – 7K
• The Google Alphabet (parent company) – plans to eliminate 12K in 2023
• Amazon is organizing a layoff of 18k.
• IBM announced it intended to layoff approximately 3900 from it’s Kyndryl
  holdings.
• Microsoft intends to lay off 10K.

Layoffs have always been an emotionally challenging situation for everyone – both those laid off and those who remain, not to mention the company itself. The affected employees may feel a range of emotions such as shock, anger, sadness, as well as fear about their future. Meanwhile, the remaining employees may feel guilty or anxious about their job security or may, psychologists say, experience survivor’s guilt.

Almost all who work experience a layoff, now and then, which presents some upheaval in their lives. Layoffs can, in fact, present anything from little worry over financial situations to significant negative financial consequences for affected employees who may have been living financially close to the edge; especially if they have no savings or backup plan. Furthermore, companies can find it cost prohibitive to hand out severance packages, as well as to recruit, train, and onboard new employees.

It can’t be overlooked – the negative impact on morale and productivity a potential or full blown layoff can also have on the remaining employees. It’s natural for them to feel demotivated or disengaged from their work as a result. It can also be challenging for managers to keep their team motivated and focused during a time of uncertainty and change. Those still working may have lost a coworker who had become a best friend and/or confidant; a lunch pal; work helpmate; someone they regularly played golf and socialized with outside the office. Not to mention their ride to work.

Furthermore, layoffs are difficult because they can have a range of emotional, financial, and practical implications for everyone involved.

During this time – it’s important to remember ‘YOU ARE NOT YOUR JOB’

Much has been written about self-identifying with a job. What it boils down to is the job becomes part of our identity since it’s something most spend the majority of our lives performing. It can shape our values and beliefs, provide us with purpose and structure, help us build relationships with colleagues. It can also provide us with a sense of accomplishment.

Although all of these things are true – the question remains – how do you disengage from the job once laid off? Why can’t you stop feeling emotionally out of sorts – if not depressed – when laid off? Psychologists tell us facing the possibility of a layoff, or living through one, can be an emotionally and financially taxing experience for a variety of reasons.

You’ve not only lost your job and the salary which comes with it – a two-fold loss – but are now cut off from co-workers you not only worked but no doubt socialized with.

You’ve likely developed relationships with their friends and families. The two of you, as well as others, may have lunched, had drinks, and headed off to sporting events as a group on a regular basis. As friends, you’ve likely shared your life and experiences with each other; consoled each other during difficult times; cheered each other on during good times. Perhaps become a backup for each other.

While you may continue to connect, for a brief time after the layoff, it usually won’t take long before many of those relationships begin fading, those friends drifting away. Lack of connection, to these individuals, then becomes another personal loss brought about by the layoff.

It’s important to remember, however, your job is not your entire identity – your worth as a person does not depend – solely – on your employment status.

Not to mention we can all learn to live without ‘extras’ we’ve come to include in our lives like Starbucks Frappuccino, for example.

Here are 7 tips to help guide you through this unique time:

1) It’s natural to feel a range of emotions, such as anxiety, fear, anger and sadness, when facing a layoff or living through one. It’s essential to recognize and acknowledge layoff-related feelings rather than suppressing them psychologists tell us.

2) Reach out to your support system. Talk to family, friends, network connections – a therapist, friends at church if necessary. They can provide emotional support and help you work through your feelings.

3) Focus on what you can control. While a layoff may be outside of your control, focus on things you can control – such as updating your resume, networking, searching for new job opportunities or volunteer activities.

4) Create a financial plan. Losing a job can be stressful but having a financial plan in place can help reduce some of that stress. Create a budget, cut back on unnecessary expenses; consider seeking financial advice if necessary.

5) Take care of yourself; prioritizing your physical and mental health. Exercise regularly, eat healthy foods, get enough sleep, and engage in activities that bring you joy. On occasion – have lunch with old co-workers and friends being careful to share some good rather than ruminating over all the bad that you believe has erupted from the layoff. Talk about your job plans, resume revamping, starting a business, and new volunteer activities you’ll be undertaking, for example.

6) Consider upgrading your skills and/or working on certifications. All of which can help you get hired for a job you want. Consider returning to college, starting business school or taking online classes, for example.

7) Stay positive. While it’s natural to feel down about a layoff, try to maintain a positive attitude. Be optimistic about better things coming your way and focus on the opportunities which may arise from this experience.

“Don’t be afraid of change – you may end up losing something good however it’s highly likely you will end up gaining something better.” Quotemaster.org

Remember:You are not alone; many have faced a layoff at some point in their career. It doesn’t define you as a person.

While losing a job can be a difficult experience, it can also be an opportunity to explore new avenues and potentially find a job that better aligns with your values and interests, plus upgrade your skills and/or education.

With time, patience, and perseverance, you can overcome this challenge and emerge stronger on the other side.

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Consistency is perhaps the only known path to serendipity

The relentless generation, dissemination, and repurposing of information on an ongoing basis has made people dependent on technologies that can help them find relevant information in the minimum amount of time possible. Therefore, the important role search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing play in retrieving and presenting the most relevant information (terms such as googling or googlization are often used to describe such activities) is undeniable.

The growing advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and its sub-fields of deep learning (DL) and natural language processing (NLP) are making it possible for search engines to produce the best results for the search query in a tick. Given the vast amount of available information, humans will never be able to find information as efficiently as a search and query bot does anyway.

As such, in hindsight, information retrieved through search and query bots (SnQ bots) can play a significant role in knowledge creation, repurposing, and management. The increased sophistication of generative AI-based applications (e.g., ChatGPT; read more: https://www.academiasolution.com/ChatGPT) is further contributing to the use of intelligent machines to provide the best information (within the limits of algorithm design and learning acquired by the machine through training), resulting in the availability of a lot of information. Therefore, it is safe to say that the level and amount of available information that we are coping with are simply unprecedented.

Unsurprisingly, a huge amount of knowledge on project management is available online too. A simple Google search for the term “project management” yielded over 3.5 billion results and over 130 million results in the Yahoo and Bing search engines.

It raises the question of whether it is possible to use the information resources (project- and non-project-based) made available by SnQ bots in any way possible, and if so, what could be some of the ways in which it can be done?

Some research has looked at these questions by exploring the role of search volume generated by SnQ bots (e.g., Google search volume) for user queries and its impacts on issues such as the prediction of COVID-19, return on stock, investor trading, obesity patterns, and so forth. It indicates that the information identified by SnQ bots is regarded as useful and worthy of understanding issues and building corresponding solutions. In hindsight, it also underlines the possibility of leveraging these vast resources of information in a coordinated manner for assorted purposes, including teaching and learning.

However, interestingly, not much has been done to understand the impacts of search yield for project management-focused search results. That is despite the fact that searching for a common term like ‘project management’ yields 3.5 billion records. It shows the breadth of knowledge available that could be tapped and tactically used for assorted purposes to grow the knowledge boundaries of professions. Not every link that is found by SnQ bots is relevant to the search, but surely one can still find useful information. So it makes one consider how this vast resource of information on project management can be used.

With that in mind, we have looked at some of the possible uses of search volume generated by SnQ bots as well as possible ways in which it can be done. Surely, examining potential uses and solutions is not easy, but at least this brief discussion will build initial thought, and that has been done below.

Possible uses of search volume generated by SnQ bots

1. For research

Just like the prior studies, research can be carried out to investigate the relationship between search volume for different key terms (e.g., project management, project delivery, and project management certification) and the growth, expansion, or obsoletion of a project management niche (e.g., agile project management).

Such research will be very useful for trend analysis and making predictions for the future. It will then help project management bodies and other stakeholders plan their activities for the short, medium, and long term. There are other areas to explore as well. For example, which certification and accreditation (offered by a certain body) should be continued, and which should be discontinued, and what innovations are needed in knowledge management education, training, and certification? What kinds of innovations are needed for improving the effectiveness of project management knowledge or modernizing project management? How can project management programs offered in universities be made more effective in providing cutting-edge, relevant learning?

1. For learning

Searching the internet is ‘digital breathing.’ In hindsight, it is something that we cannot afford or want to live without. Given the technological advancements in creating workaholic SnQ bots, we often take for granted the usefulness and worthiness of the information made available to us in a tick. Have we ever paused for a sec and thought, ‘Oh, how sweat! these unseen creatures are so kind in making our lives easy by enabling access to information that we didn’t even know it ever existed.

So, one potential use is to go beyond the use of search engines for information retrieval to make it a learning and exploration platform for assorted purposes, such as corporate trainings, school (all levels from primary to the highest level possible) learners’ learning, and exploration, and the advancement of knowledge sharing in a coordinated way.

An example could be the formation of volunteer “Fav-Share” (i.e., crowd-sharing-based) groups. As we normally save or tag sites and good online resources as favorites in our fav folders, this simple tendency can be utilized for a much more useful and larger purpose. That is, people in these purposefully created groups can keep saving favorites on an ongoing basis, just like we all do, and after a while, they can share their saved favorite sites with people within the group. It can be done for dedicated keywords. So, a routine thing can become very useful for learning and exploration. It will help learners critically analyze their choices and discuss why they thought a piece of content (e.g., text, image) was useful.

And the advantages of this extremely simple thing are multitudes, such as (but not limited to):

1) These crowd-sharing types of groups are free and don’t require any additional resources or access than they are likely to have in their day-to-day lives,

2) People in these groups don’t do any extra work or make an extra effort, as they will only tag a link when they come across a useful link,

3) Group members’ search activities will help SnQ bots learn and get better at generating search outputs. So, it will help create the common good.

4) Anyone can form these types of groups at any level for private or official purposes as suits their learning and knowledge-seeking purpose and needs without any limitations whatsoever, and above all,

5) Sharing is caring (or perhaps fav-sharing is digital-caring).

In this way, free information is transformed into free, useful information. One small addition of word, one giant purpose of netizen served, so to speak (Thanks to famous words of Niel Armstrong).

1. For case studies

Given the wide-ranging aspects (e.g., social, technological, environmental, and regulatory) involved in the search and retrieval of information using SnQ bots, they make a good platform for studying them as case studies. For instance, one can look at the case of search engine A vs. search engine B output for different keywords, and so on and so forth. So, the possibilities of creating case studies are enormous, given the volume and variety of content shared on these platforms.

Concluding remarks

Information is the most vital asset for progress. Transforming information availability into purposeful information availability is what we really need, given the deep oceans of available information resources. Obviously, it is a positive thing that requires consideration and finding ways and means to leverage it for assorted uses. Just like other disciplines, a significantly large pool of information is also available on project management. It deserves some attention.

As such, we have discussed a few possibilities of use and some possible ways in which information produced by SnQ bots can be used for more directed and dedicated purposes. Needless to say, the possibilities are endless. The ones discussed here are just the tip of the iceberg to stimulate some thoughts. This is analogous to standing on the beach and contemplating the vastness and depth of the ocean, as well as the unknowns associated with it. But hopefully, the discussion presented in this article will help people consider developing some coordinated efforts to use this freely available and dynamically updated information in some way.

Note: This article was previously published on: https://www.academiasolution.com/Googling

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Note: My first article was necessarily long-winded as I had a lot of ground to cover to set the stage for a fundamental understanding of OpenAI and ChatGPT. I will now do my best to now cover a wide range of topics with shorter articles.

Exploring Emotional Intelligence with Open AI and GPT-3 is an exciting new development in artificial intelligence. Open AI is a research lab that focuses on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) and GPT-3 is a powerful language model developed by Open AI. Together, these two technologies are being used to explore the potential of emotional intelligence in machines.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions. It is a key component of human intelligence and is essential for successful social interactions. Open AI and GPT-3 are being used to explore the potential of emotional intelligence in machines.

Open AI has developed a set of algorithms that can detect and interpret emotions from text. These algorithms are trained on large datasets of human conversations and can detect emotions such as joy, sadness, anger, and fear. The algorithms can also detect the sentiment of a conversation, such as whether it is positive or negative.

Open AI and GPT-3 are being used to explore the potential of emotional intelligence in machines. The algorithms developed by Open AI can detect and interpret emotions from text, while GPT-3 can generate conversations that contain emotional content.

Utilizing Open AI and GPT-3 for Automated Empathy GenerationEmpathy generation systems use GPT-3 to generate text that is designed to evoke empathy in the reader. The system takes a given prompt and generates text that is designed to evoke empathy in the reader. The generated text is designed to be emotionally resonant and to evoke feelings of understanding and compassion. Automated empathy generation systems are being used in a variety of applications. For example, they are being used to create chatbots that can provide emotional support to people in need. They are also being used to create virtual assistants that can provide personalized advice and guidance.

What About Emotions?OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model can generate text that expresses emotions, but it is not clear whether it can actually feel emotions itself. Some experts believe that GPT-3 is simply a sophisticated tool for mimicking human emotions, while others believe that it may be capable of experiencing emotions in some way.

There is no definitive answer to the question of whether OpenAI’s GPT-3 can express emotions. However, the model’s ability to generate text that expresses emotions is a significant development, and it raises important questions about the nature of artificial intelligence.

One way to think about GPT-3’s ability to express emotions is to consider its ability to generate text that is consistent with human emotional states. For example, GPT-3 can generate text that expresses sadness, anger, or happiness. This suggests that the model has some understanding of human emotions and how they are expressed.

However, it is important to note that GPT-3 is not simply a parrot that repeats what it is taught. The model is able to generate text that is creative and original. This suggests that GPT-3 may be capable of experiencing emotions in some way.

Ultimately, the question of whether OpenAI’s GPT-3 can express emotions is a complex one. There is no definitive answer, and the debate is likely to continue for some time. However, the model’s ability to generate text that expresses emotions is a significant development, and it raises important questions about the nature of artificial intelligence.

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I was raised as the only child of a hard-working single Mom. In my formative years, she taught me so much about life and business. Truthfully, I didn’t know that’s what I was learning until the day came for me to enter the business world.

Then, moment by moment, as the tests and trials of my own career began to unfold, I realized she had done an amazing job at teaching me some very profound wisdom.

Here are Her 10 Truths:1. Believe in Yourself – Seldom will others believe in you, so you must always believe in yourself. This is especially true when starting a new gig. You are an unknown. It’s only human for others to have doubts about you until you get to prove yourself. So while a period of any transition is going on, believe in yourself. Stay strong.

1. Mistakes do Happen – You will make them. But a winner will bounce back up. Learn from your mistakes and be sure to never make the same mistake twice.

2. Your Word is Your Honor – Let your word be true. When she made a promise to a business person, the thing happened, whatever it was. If something got in the way and started to delay the delivery date or prohibit the honoring of the word, she was quick to address the change and get permission or acceptance to make a change.

3. Set Lofty Goals – Dream big. Why work hard for small goals? Do something different if you have to, but hang on to those dreams. She left a steady paycheck to start her own business when I was still in school. Talk about being brave. Her dream guided her. She created a very successful interior design business that grew from residential design to large commercial (office buildings and retail) projects.

4. Don’t Let Them See You Sweat – I know that’s been said by someone else, but I watched her live it. I have no doubt she went to bed some nights and cried herself to sleep because she had a big deadline or problem in front of her, but she never let it show. In the public eye, she was steel with grace.

5. Keep Learning – Mom didn’t have a higher education. She started working right out of high school, but she never stopped learning. She read voraciously. She maintained a very open mind about culture, ethnicity, and moral code. This equipped her to be a gracious host, a warm welcome for anyone who came to visit, and a cherished memory for those who got to know her. She earned the respect of friends and colleagues far beyond her original station in life. She also taught me about the value of being mentored. Since there was no man in our house, she arranged my involvement with several very significant male mentors who taught me so many things. As a result, I am a patchwork quilt of the best qualities those men could teach.

6. Be Compassionate – Despite her steely business sense, she had a special compassion for others. Her warmth was felt by so many. She volunteered at my school and elsewhere in the community though her time was tightly scheduled for her roles as a mother and business owner. She created her own sense of work-life balance that never left out quality time for generous giving of herself.

7. Know Your Banker – Mom taught me about getting to know the banker. Perhaps that’s why I ended up in banking. Because of her tenuous financial condition as a sole provider and single-income head of household, she needed bank loans frequently. But she was shrewd. Loans were only made when good contracts had been awarded. The loans floated the projects (and our living expenses) until the payout was received. Then the loans were paid immediately. The bankers loved her as a customer. She never leveraged anything near 100%. The loans were always for less than the contract amount. That way, there was a profit to keep when the project closed and the loan was paid.

8. Create and Guard Your Reputation – She had savage competition. However, she built a brand that included high integrity. She fiercely protected that brand reputation. Once when she was accused in the local newspaper of manipulating a contract award, she had to fight the allegations. She won and even received a published apology from the editor of the paper. Business boomed after that.

9. Center on Faith – Last but certainly not least, Mom taught me about faith in God through Jesus. Her undeniable faith kept her strong through the darkest hours. She knew there was a force and a purpose far greater than herself with whom she could connect at any moment. Whether it was bedtime prayers or a quick discussion sitting in her car before an appointment, she sought divine guidance regularly. This faith even endured until her last breath on this earth. She always told me she and God had a deal, that, when it was her time to go, it would be quick. Sure enough at 1:00 AM on February 1, 2001, she had a massive stroke. She died less than 24 hours later. No pain, no suffering. Medically, the neurologist told me the brain hemorrhage that caused the stroke had cut off all feeling to her body. She needed no pain meds to ease her to the end.

My Mom was a remarkable woman, whose forward-thinking was well ahead of her time. Her unique collection of wit, grace, love, compassion, fire, and faith made me what I am today.

The poem below, by Walter Wintle, was on a plaque she gave me. She had first made the plaque for her father when she was a teenager. I was given the memento as my own family keepsake. It sums up everything I am telling you today. Very wise words to live by.

The Man Who Thinks He can

by Walter D. Wintle

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch that you won’t
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you’re outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.

Who is the person in your life who has made the biggest impression?

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ABOUT THIS EPISODEFrom Fear to Fire: Secrets to Overcome Fear, Embrace your Gifts, and Achieve Success. This is the place where real people share real challenges. Where you can find a common bond and uncommon wisdom through their stories. Use tips from the breakthroughs of others to jump-start your success. Speaker, author, adventurer, and host Heather Hansen O’Neill takes you on the journey from fear to fire. Today we talk about conscious transformation and the desire to feel at home within it.

This week’s theme: Conscious TransformationPeople are creatures of habit, and change can be uncomfortable and challenging to accept even if it is a positive change. When we go through transformation, it can be disorienting and frightening. We want to feel like we belong in our new environment, and that we can call it our home where we feel loved and cared for. To feel at home in our transformation requires time and work, but it is doable with creativity and resiliency. We can develop a sense of home and comfort by exploring, interacting with, and personalizing our new environment.

Jake SassevilleJake Sasseville is a serial media, music, and hospitality entrepreneur, author, and podcaster. He is the CEO and Founder of Imiloa Institute in Costa Rica, was the youngest host in late-night TV history on ABC, and the White House named him one of the most “innovative entrepreneurs under 30.” Imiloa is booked years in advance, and clients renew at a rate of 86%.

INC Magazine wrote that Jake has “more than enough chutzpah” to scale any business, and Huffington Post wrote that he’s built an impactful career at “the intersection of culture and consciousness.”

Connect with Jake:

Website Or Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

Quote of the Day:

“You can focus on things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem.” ~Tim Cook

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I’ve been thinking. . .About the problems of the world . . . humanity’s many failures . . . the rapidity and acceleration of our technological progress compared to the slow-mo slog of our moral evolution. It’s something I think about frequently, there are times during these reflections I get . . . well not actually clinically depressed, but certainly discouraged or dispirited. On random occasions, I find encouraging news of carbon capture technology or the emergence of peace talks in a conflict zone.

Sometimes I write down what I am concerned about. I am a writer. The written word is how I process difficult concepts and emotions.

Today cleaning files on my desktop, some copies of old cashed gift certificates to be discarded, posted articles to be filed, and drafts to be developed or discarded, I found this:

Problems of the world that need action, Challenges to be overcome(in no particular order, yet)

Climate change (CO2 and methane -hydrocarbon burn, land, and resource use e.g., animal-raising, deforestation, poor extraction, mass farming techniques, lack of full cost analysis e.g., concentrated farming without considering the damage from distribution – inequity of land use

Other environmental damage (chemicals in the soil and water, plastics in the ocean)

Poverty/Inequity (poor taxation policy, limited education, poorly paid labor, limited opportunity, lack of affordable housing, hate promotion)

War (geopolitics, resource use, refugee diaspora, hate promotion)

Crime (poverty/inequity, poor education, lack of opportunity, hate promotion, violence)

Lack of will to act on these things (politics, funding the status quo higher than change, hate promotion)

Requires International Collaboration

What stands in the way:

Nationalism, Greed – Corporate, National, Lack of structure, infrastructure, forum to collaborate, North-South hemisphere bias, remnants of colonialism and anticolonialism,

What does it mean to collaborate at this scale?Discussion- Agreement on the problem details, Agreement on the working approach

Vision of solution, problem-solving process, analytics root causes,

looking at causes [ will be hard -involves perceptions of blame] solution generation testing and first baby steps, implementation of early wins, implementation.

The list of problems is not mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive or MECE in consulting lingo. I don’t mention racism, sexism, and gender discrimination, gun violence, the threat to democracy, creeping socialism, creeping fascism, or creeping solipsism here and around the world. This incomplete problem-set is interrelated and interdependent – a veritable rats’-nest-squirrel-cage-spaghetti-garbage of catastrophe. It is no wonder that humans don’t sort it out.

The Process and obstacle stuff is so anemic as to be discouraging in and of themselves. But together with the incomplete problem categorization they hint at a compelling case for change.

How do you create and enhance change?I’m a writer, but my last career was change consultant. I often used a simplistic change model:

Insight—————————Action—————————Results

• Insight: For any change to happen we need a fresh view of the problem, an understanding of the “why” what we’re doing isn’t working and what we might do more of, less of, or differently, Insight must be internalized collectively by a critical mass of those who must change till a “tipping point” is reached.
• Action – nothing changes until someone actually does something different or differently.
• Results -must be monitored, but when they don’t arrive we need to go back to the inputs and make changes there.

OK. It is never that simple. There is no straight line to change. Often there isn’t agreement on the insight. Is rising crime a sign of moral decay or the outcome of poverty, inequity, and discrimination? Yes.

And change breaks down between insight and action, between what we know and what we do. And the actions we take don’t show immediate results so we give up and try something else, which doesn’t work either, so we try something else. . . and something else. . .and. . .

OR what we try works, shows immediate results and we declare victory and move on, fail to track results or control the process until someone says,” didn’t we solve this problem last year? ”

If I thought change in a corporation, or two corporations merging, was tough. The idea of getting enough critical mass to move the world to a tipping point is overwhelming. A big challenge is there is no “client,” no global executive, who can “buy,” or sponsor the project. In fact, many of us are extremely uncomfortable with even the concept of a “global executive.” Furthermore, the “consultants” (prophets) who show up from time to time, do not fare well.

Show up with a compelling case for change, “C’mon people now, smile on your brother everybody get together and love one another right now,” might cause you to get stoned, burned at the stake, crucified, shot, jailed, or (as in the case of the Youngbloods, who recorded this Chester Powers song in 1967) forever relegated to “one-hit-wonder” status.

No client and we reject consulting help – It’s not a good way to start a change process.

Where are we in the change process?I don’t know. Do we understand the dysfunction? Have we learned it collectively? Maybe not. Is there a forum for discussion? There are too many: The United Nations, World Bank, IMF, national governments, NGOs, Biz Catalyst 360°, and LinkedIn.

(What role can the BizCat or LinkedIn communities play?)

Is there a forum to build commitment to action? The simple answer is No. The scene is a little like James Clavell’s novel Shogun about the conflict leading to the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan in the 1600s. Power is dispersed across two warlord empires, each with its own next-tier vassal states and unaligned ronin states. Except there is no John Blackthorne, the shipwrecked Westerner, who intercedes on behalf of order. The analogy is a stretch, but I’m a writer, OK?

How can we come to agreement?

What small actions might we take?Early in my consulting career, I did some work for a forest products company. It was a supervisory training project, not sweeping change, but I did some interviews in a logging camp, which I remember to this day. Here is a story I remember from one of those interviews.

Being a lumberjack is a capability-based job. There are people who excel at selecting trees to be cut in what order, people who climb and trim, people who fell trees, and people who pack logs on trucks. I was told that “in the old days” among critical skill sets were putting logs into the river, which was used to transport trees to a mill when there were no roads, and breaking logjams.

Periodically logs in a river got jammed up and that was not only a transport problem, but it was also a product destruction and safety problem. Logs split apart, and jammed up more and the situation escalated quickly. Guys who developed the capability to break logjams had unusual spatial abilities. They literally could “see” the logs that if removed or cut would break the jam. The guy who told me this story called them “key-men” or “Key-loggers.”

I never observed this in action and when I talked to some of the younger guys they just smiled and said “You’ve been talking to Old Bill. We don’t really do that much anymore, most everything goes on trucks now.”

But Bill’s story makes for an interesting analogy for the world’s problems. What are the “key logs” in this rats’-nest-squirrel-cage-spaghetti-garbage logjam that we’ve gotten ourselves into?

I don’t want some self-styled “global executive’ or super-prophet to take charge and break a lot more eggs than you need for an omelet with a crusade, jihad, energy independence, fornicating for chastity exercise.

Look, I’m a wise guy, not a wise man. I don’t know the answers, I’m just asking questions because I’d like my grandchildren to have a better life than it looks like they might just now.

What small actions can an individual take? What can a writer’s forum like BizCatalyst 360° do? Or a business forum like LinkedIn?

Your thoughts are absolutely welcome.

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The emergence of data-driven mass surveillance “is threatening to turn privacy into a relic of the 20th century,” says the anonymous YouTube creator known as Ordinary Things. Meanwhile, state-funded troll farms are spreading disinformation and curating chaos on platforms meant to connect us and revolutionize the way we live. Ordinary Things gives an enlightening account of the internet’s strengths and weaknesses, warning that the fight for a free internet is a fight for our collective future.

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In this episode, we invited Sunday Times Bestselling Author and Executive Coach Jamie Smart back on the show to talk about the principles behind clarity and his 10th Anniversary edition book with the same name. We came across the principles behind clarity back in 2015. Since then, it has transformed our personal lives and allowed us to have more impact in our work with leaders, teams, and organisations.

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Probably everyone has heard the phrase “employee engagement”, but for many who have, unless they are in HR, few will know exactly what it is, why it’s important and that every leader needs to make it happen to so they, their team, and organisation more successful.

As a leader, it is your route to success. HR can support you but, in the end, it’s about what you do, no one else. In a wider context, all employers, and senior leaders in particular, need to pay more attention to organisational and team engagement. Each year if possible conduct employee engagement surveys to make sure employees are having a great employee experience. Because if they aren’t they won’t be performing well and may be thinking of leaving.

Engaging your people is how you maximise your potential to achieve real success for any organisation set against any important factors you care to mention, from customer experience to risk management and high performance to innovation.

This isn’t some soft fluffy idea about being nice to people this is a proven evidence-based organisational strategy for success and maximised return on investment.

Having an employee engagement strategy will enhance employee experience, boost employee satisfaction and thus build an engaged workforce. That is one of the best ways to minimise employee turnover, increase the quality of work and boost morale across the entire organization. But also a great way to grow positive core values and company culture which then enhances the organisation’s success long term.

Certainly, anyone in senior leadership roles needs to understand in detail what employee engagement is and how to optimise it within their area of responsibility.

At C suite employee engagement is not just a responsibility of HR, it’s the strategic responsibility of everybody at the senior level to role model it and to support it. In particular, the CFO, as will maximise the return on investment from human capital.

What is employee engagement?There are numerous technical definitions of employee engagement but to keep it simple and practical you can say that “engaged” employees are people who are genuinely giving their best at work. Thus when you see a figure for employee engagement in an employee engagement survey this is the percentage of employees in the organisation who are doing that. Employee engagement is the process by which organisations seek to get more of their employees engaged and thus giving their best.

It is worth mentioning “discretionary effort” here. This is effectively the amount of effort an individual can withhold but it is unlikely to be identified that they are doing so via performance management. In other words, they will be rated as performing satisfactorily but yet there could be up to 30% extra effort they could give if they were engaged. It is this the additional effort employee engagement is seeking to gain to maximise organisational performance.

Why do all leaders need to know about employee engagement?Just reflect on the potential impact of a significant proportion of an organisation’s employees giving 30% more effort. Better employee engagement will enable any organisation doing anything anywhere to be more effective and successful. But it is individual leaders above all who have to make it happen. Simply because the vast majority of factors that influence how engaged people are relate directly to the behaviour of their boss.

In the final analysis no matter what senior leaders are doing, no matter what HR is doing, if the employee’s own boss is not taking day-to-day action to engage them then it just won’t happen.

The Corporate Executive Board in a study of over 30,000 employees across the world found that of the top 20 drivers of employee effort 17 were actions that individuals’ bosses needed to take and the other three of which were not, in terms of importance, ranked less important than 15th. (Refer to page 13). This is why it is vital every leader understands employee engagement and how to make it happen.

Those actions which increase our engagement do so not because of the job that we do but because we are human. So, for example, my report for the King’s Fund on developing leadership in the NHS to enhance patient care submitted to the UK government enhancing employee engagement proposed the same core strategy and actions just as much as when I proposed them as a key element in enabling better financial performance at UBS and transformation at London Underground during restructuring. I’ve also helped deliver them in construction, not-for-profit, and other sectors. They work everywhere. They work not because of our job or the organisation but because we are human.

Why employee engagement? The return on investmentThere is a vast resource of data based on studies of all types from organisations, professional bodies, consultancies, academic institutions, and other sources which show that high employee engagement improves performance in many areas. This vast resource of data confirms that when employees are engaged, and therefore giving their best, the positive impacts are not restricted to their own performance but apply to everything from customer service to cost efficiency and operational risk management.

Simple day-to-day employee engagement actions by their boss can significantly boost the effort that individuals give. For example, if your boss does these things versus a boss who can’t be bothered then this is the potential extra effort uplift from individuals:

When you multiply up the impact of all leaders taking these actions at a strategic level it has a significant effect. The UK Government Report, Engage for Success, for which I was part of the Expert Panel, has many examples and evidence of return on investment from employee engagement. One of the most important is that if every leader in the organisation starts to engage their people effectively you could potentially get 30% more effort, the discretionary effort, from 60% of people.

Depending on business model, margins and other factors that could deliver up to 10% on the bottom line for free. In anybody’s book, in particular a CFOs book, that’s not a bad return on investment.

Here are a few others:

• Companies with high engagement are 71% more likely to outperform their peers in the sector.
• Can produce Earnings per share 2.6 times higher than competitors with low engagement (Gallup)
• Could increase revenue by up to 43% (Hay)
• Bank branches with high employee engagement achieved 16% high-profit margin growth than those with lower scores (Standard Chartered)
• Engagement can halve days lost through sickness (CBI)

Once, after I spoke on this to a group of CEOs and CFOs on why they need to significantly increase their efforts on employee engagement, the CFO of a major telecoms company came to me and said “Chris why has nobody told me about this before? This is a no brainer! It’s a license to print money if we get it right!”. It is indeed !

How are we doing on employee engagement?Could be much better. The latest data from Gallup would suggest that most European countries have employee engagement rates on average lower than 25%. In addition potentially with employees who are “not engaged” around 50 to 55% with another approximately 20% “disengaged”. The UK data is even worse. Low employee engagement is simply a long-term block to future success.

The fact that these figures are to some degree so dismal should make every leader reading this ask why, given how simple it is to improve employee engagement, are we languishing at these levels? But the flip side is that it’s a great opportunity for you to take action and get some great easy wins. Clearly, these are country or region-wide figures and lack the accuracy of survey results from an in-house employee survey which is run on a regular basis but they are a useful indicator.

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Resilience is the ability to bounce back from difficult circumstances, and it is a necessary component of a well-adjusted life. If that’s something you struggle with, then it can be exhausting figuring out how to build your resilience up from scratch. Building resilience takes time, effort, and patience. It’s not something that happens overnight. But by incorporating these tips into your daily life, you’ll be on your way to becoming more resilient and better able to handle the challenges that come your way.

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

–Joseph Campbell

Learn How to Self-SootheChildren rely on the people around them to handle their emotions. Seeing a crying child run into the arms of their parents makes sense to us because we’ve seen that sort of scene play out countless times throughout our life. In order to be a reasonably collected adult, we have to know how to comfort the crying child within.

• Take care of your physical health. One of the simplest and most powerful ways to Self-Soothe is by performing your acts of daily living, such as brushing your teeth, eating three meals a day, and exercising regularly.
• Take care of your mental health. When we’re in the throes of emotional anguish, it isn’t easy to devise a mental health care plan on the spot. That’s why in order to address your own mental health, you need to have a toolkit.
• Follow your fiery passion. There’s a reason that tortured artists endure their torturous emotions. It’s because they are intensely passionate about their art. Find what you’re passionate about, and make room for it in your life. No matter how grim things might appear, your passion can be the light in the darkness.

Cultivate A Positive MindsetHaving a sense of optimism can be a powerful coping tool. But optimism doesn’t come from anywhere. In order to interpret the world around you charitably, it becomes almost necessary to cultivate a positive mindset.

• Practice gratitude. Regularly speak, write, and think about what you’re grateful for. Don’t take the good in your life for granted.
• Reframe your negative thoughts. Recognize your unhelpful thoughts, and try to replace them with a more charitable interpretation of the situation. Don’t let the gloom in your life become a wallowing sort of place.
• Surround yourself with support. Reach out to your loved ones for help. Help them understand what you’re going through, and how you’d like to be supported.

Be Open To ChangeThe truth is, the biggest obstacle in the way of our personal growth is ourselves. You are the only person who can make meaningful changes in your adult life. But that means being open to new experiences and embracing your opportunities to learn and grow.

• Don’t beat yourself up. Often when we make an error, we engage in negative self-talk like calling ourselves insults so that we “learn the lesson”, but this negative self-talk doesn’t really help us grow. If we focus on how we could be better instead of where we’ve failed, we’re more motivated to make a change.
• Be flexible. An excellent way to be resilient is through adapting to your environment. You might be the only thing in your life that is fully within your control, but that’s quite a lot of control if you think about it.
• Try new things. Having a routine is great. Many of the tips within this very article boil down to just the pure value of having a solid routine. But staying forever within those routines can be a mind-numbing resilience killer. Put yourself out there, and experience the novelty of doing something different.

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A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.

– Lao Tzu

Some years ago, I was with a group of friends and we were taking a day trip from Athens, Greece up to Delphi – some 115 miles away. We were off to see some of the ancient ruins – including the famed Delhi sanctuary and the Delphi museum.

After enjoying our day in Delphi, the time came to return to Athens. But there was a catch. The weather turned bad and they were experiencing the worse snowstorm they’d had in many years. The route back to Athens would not be the one we would take going back.

We made our way over to the coast and hopped on a ferry that eventually returned us to Athens. What normally would have taken only a couple of hours turned into a long and tiring trip that got us back safely but exhausted.

On a humorous note, while aboard the ferry, some in our group made mention of the need to use the restroom. A smiling deckhand kindly pointed to the sign on a door where the restroom was located. Upon opening the door, the “facilities” was simply a hole in the floor a couple of inches in diameter. Several made the decision to wait until we were back on land.

In your leadership, there will be times when things do not go according to plan. And when this happens, you will have to adjust accordingly. Here are a few things to remember as you face the unexpected.

Flexibility is essentialIt’s been said that what doesn’t bend, breaks. And in leadership, you have to anticipate the unexpected, and when it happens you have to be flexible at the moment. John Maxwell observed it this way, “Flexibility says there is more than one answer.” And this is what smart leaders recognize – there is more than one answer to whatever you’re going through.

Your attitude mattersWhen we left Athens for our day trip over to Delphi, we had no way of knowing that one of the worse snow in decades was going to happen that day. But – snow happens! In leadership, sometimes the unexpected happens. In these moments we are reminded that it’s not what happens to us that matters, it’s how we respond. Your attitude in times of adversity will make you or break you. Choose it wisely.

Adaptability is your allyOne definition says an adaptable leader is “someone who is able to change their behavior in response to changes in a situation.” It’s inevitable that you will face challenges and changes in your leadership. When they come, being adaptable will not only serve you well but can be an invaluable teachable moment for your team to learn from.

Final ThoughtsJust as it was for my trip to Delphi, the road that has brought you to where you are today, may not be the same road to take you to the next level tomorrow. Conditions on the ground may change and you have to learn to be flexible, guard your attitude, and be adaptable.

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Organizations “in play” are adaptable, inclusive, innovative, engaged, and productive. Want to know what organizations fear? That when we are “in play” we are not “working”. We are afraid that play means silly, and unproductive, and makes us feel unprofessional and uncomfortable. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Play is that thing you do that you enjoy so much you get lost in. When you are doing it you don’t know where the time went. Play is personal. What do you do at work that you really love to do? Why do you go back to work every day? In there lies “the play”. And it is voluntary…no one can make you do it. If the ping pong tables and cupcake socials are not your play, then they are doing nothing to increase your productivity or potential.

However, When we are “in play” we are utilizing our whole self, revealing our potential, physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally. It is scientifically proven that the brain “in play” drives motivation, and imagination, and is most open to new ideas and concepts. Play is where we are most capable of and open to creative and dynamic thinking — it is also when we are most open to considering multiple perspectives and new ideas and we are most inclusive

Work and play are not separate-when you do the work you love, and you were meant to do, the two constructs are seamless. You won’t know where one starts and the other begins. “In play” are creative solutions for innovation, inclusion, productivity, and profit.

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We are each to follow the laws of the land, and so it is within the legal landscape that we can do what is necessary to become unstoppable. Entrepreneurs, especially, need to be creative and believe in themselves plus their endeavors to achieve success in the long run. Employees also need to realize the right time to have their say to gain their way.

But the most challenging piece is hearing and listening to all the negativity surrounding us to weed out a potential good thought and then ignore the rest. The ability to do so is the entry to becoming unstoppable.

My StoryUpon awakening each morning, we never know what the entire experience will be. However, it is up to each of us to do the best we may with what comes our way. A significant portion of doing our best is to employ a bit of psychology in our interactions with others. Although I never studied the topic, it was always helpful to attempt to learn the other person’s mindset of the people I met.

Getting into the mindset of another to later make a sale sounds like magic and almost impossible to do. However, it is the easiest method for successfully selling and is enjoyable for most. The process begins by asking questions that open the door for the prospect to talk. Surprised, they give in-depth answers that lead to more questions and conversation. Soon both parties delve into sharing fun-related stories that may produce laughter and admiration.

The better sales strategy is in developing heart-to-heart and mind-to-mind conversations. The point of the conversation style is to establish a meaningful connection with each prospect. Return appointments occur when the match is good, and the relationship deepens.

The critical sentiments tossed at us by peers matter less when making solid connections with clientele. Nothing else matters when we see our progress with those we want to serve. The only detail to pay attention to is if we realize an idea to advance further and more quickly within the negative commentary. As the experience becomes commonplace, our stamina strengthens, and we become unstoppable.

My memorable unpleasant lessons taught me the following:* Our worst experiences are our gifts in disguise. * Listen to those nasty remarks; sometimes, you find a nugget of gold. * Contradictory for many, selling is about listening and clarifying what you don’t understand. * You must admit that you don’t know what you need to learn. * If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will.

What other people think about how we live or pursue our careers matters not. The entire picture depends upon us to do what is right, mirrors integrity, and our audience quickly realizes they can trust us. Trust and integrity are the beginning steps for what is necessary to become unstoppable.

Next, we are to monitor our progress and always research ways to improve our approach, plus further educate ourselves on the missing pieces, new technology, and strategies. Careers, no matter the level or style, is never easy. Accordingly, our determination and commitment to move forward will differentiate us from the majority.

Being a guest on the Super Entrepreneurs Podcast with host Shahid Durrani was a privilege. Our combined experiences shed light on the mindset we are each to craft and maintain to achieve the outcomes we set for ourselves. May you enjoy the insights we share to enable you to become unstoppable! You may click this click this YouTube link to listen and watch now.

Your Story: Will You Do What is Necessary to Become Unstoppable?The first stage to becoming unstoppable is adopting a mindset to include a willingness to learn, do additional research, listen to all comments, and test the better ideas that sound appealing. Next is to realize only some things work to 100% satisfaction, and some approaches have almost a negative effect. Instead of wasting time beating yourself up mentally, it is best to see where the ‘oops’ may reside to move forward again.

As you network, seek out supportive peers who are not just ‘yes’ people but who support you by offering valuable insight to help you further. Allow the negative commentary to strengthen your grit and determination. You may not find the yellow brick road, but you can create the path you desire on your timeline and your terms.

Enjoy your journey and celebrate the milestones along the way. Work a bit above your current knowledge base to inspire yourself to do more and be more. All the while, people will recognize your leadership development; some will attempt to stop you, while others make excellent introductions and offers of opportunity. Focus on the latter as you continue expanding your abilities and track your progress.

In Conclusion:Following your heart’s desire will lead others to admire your achievements. All the while, you will build a respected brand that can also transfer to empowering communities at large. Ultimately, it will be evident that success requires you to do what is necessary to become unstoppable.

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In 2008 — nearly 15 years ago — Joseph Epstein published an article called, “The Kindergarchy”. It begins like this:

In America, we are currently living in a Kindergarchy, under rule by children. People who are raising, or have recently raised, or have even been around children a fair amount in recent years will, I think, immediately sense what I have in mind. Children have gone from background to foreground figures in domestic life, with more and more attention centered on them, their upbringing, their small accomplishments, their right relationship with parents and grandparents. For the past 30 years at least, we have been lavishing vast expense and anxiety on our children in ways that are unprecedented in America and in perhaps any other national life. Such has been the weight of all this concern about children that it has exercised a subtle but pervasive tyranny of its own. This is what I call Kindergarchy.

It was easy enough then to call Epstein’s view extreme. It might even be easy enough now. But if we determine that Epstein wasn’t at all extreme, we may discover he was, in fact, prescient. And it would make it far more predictable that, in 2023, four folks from Gartner would publish this article in Harvard Business Review (HBR), “9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2023 and Beyond.” The summary of the article says this:

Last year was another tumultuous year in the workplace, with continued high employee turnover rates, evolving return-to-office policies, inflation, and more. In 2023, amid a looming economic downturn, organizations will continue to face significant challenges — and how they respond could determine whether they are an employer of choice.

Employer of choice? Hold on thar, Baba Louie. We might need to do a little research, followed by a little math. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

The number of job openings increased to 11.0 million on the last business day of December … Over the month, the number of hires and total separations changed little at 6.2 million and 5.9 million, respectively. Within separations, quits (4.1 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.5 million) changed little.

Okay. Let’s see:

• 6,200,000 hires – 5,900,000 separations = 300 people employed
• 11,000,000 jobs – 300 people employed = 10,999,700 remaining jobs

And that doesn’t take into account the myriad folks who aren’t looking for employment, including everyone from career Pajama Boys to older folks who’ve been aged out and have given up, as well as those who’ve been paid quite handsomely by the government to stay home and do nothing, thank you very much. So, if you’re an employer — one needle in a haystack of 10,999,970 — you’ll spend more time trying to be the employer of choice than you will doing whatever it is your company does.

The Secret Decoder RingIn any case, logic notwithstanding, the nine trends our Gartner friends list in HBR are these:

1. Employers will “quiet hire” in-demand talent. [Translation: Employers will promote from within or find the guts to settle for nothing less than the qualifications they want and the performance they deserve.]
2. Hybrid flexibility will reach the front lines. [Translation: Employers will require those who’ve been slacking to take some pressure off those who’ve been taking up the slack.]
3. Managers will find themselves sandwiched between leader and employee expectations. [Translation: Business as usual.]
4. Pursuit of nontraditional candidates will expand talent pipelines. [Translation: Employers will look for people who actually want to work for a living.]
5. Healing pandemic trauma will open paths to sustainable performance. [Translation: In addition to participation trophies, employers will also start awarding cookies.]
6. Organizations will drive DEI forward amid growing pushback. [Translation: Employers will be forced to check boxes, even though they know meritocracy is the only way to succeed.]
7. Getting personal with employee support will create new data risks. [Translation: Employers will acquire cybersecurity protection, or they’ll be sued out of business.]
8. Concerns around AI bias will lead to more transparency in recruiting tech. [Translation: HR departments will disappear, and hiring will be mechanical and homogenized.]
9. Organizations must address workforce-wide erosion of social skills. [Translation: As surrogate parents, employers will pick up where public schools left off.]

There may be a whole bunch of things you’d like to be these days, but an employer shouldn’t be one of them unless, of course, you need an outlet for your masochistic tendencies, you have an innate and unquenchable desire to be a babysitter, or your altruism compels you to give some folks a place to spend a few hours of their days and take your money without doing too much to earn it.

The Moral of the StoryWith the death of empiricism and common sense, I’m coming to conclude we can analyze things to the point at which our ability to distinguish between cause and effect is eroding unto obliteration at the same time that our ability to read bell curves is suffering the same fate.

As the bell curve above illustrates, the majority of employees don’t need to be fretted over, to be objects of pampering, to have special circumstances created for them, to receive counseling for pandemic trauma, or to get naptimes and cookies. Their epidermis is sufficiently durable. They just need to be treated with fairness and respect, to be allowed to contribute to the best of their abilities, to be recognized and rewarded for their contributions, and to derive a sense of fulfillment for the work they do.

Because that’s true, employers need to get a grip of their knickers, to recognize their prerogatives to impose conditions and to have reasonable performance expectations, to expect a degree of self-discipline and to impose the discipline that’s lacking, to exchange a day’s wages for a day’s work, and to have the respect they give be returned in kind.

If the coronavirus pandemic taught us anything it’s that we’re tougher, more resilient, and more resourceful than we may have realized. When it comes to mental health, I minimize nothing. But please. If we’re going to infantilize people or, at best, treat them like adolescents, let’s not expect them to behave like responsible adults, okay?

We all want to live in Utopia. But we don’t. We live and work in reality.

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Matthew Piszczek, Wayne State University and Kristie McAlpine, Rutgers University

For most American workers who commute, the trip to and from the office takes nearly one full hour a day – 26 minutes each way on average, with 7.7% of workers spending two hours or more on the road.

Many people think of commuting as a chore and a waste of time. However, during the remote work surge resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, several journalists curiously noted that people were – could it be? – missing their commutes. One woman told The Washington Post that even though she was working from home, she regularly sat in her car in the driveway at the end of the workday in an attempt to carve out some personal time and mark the transition from work to nonwork roles.

As management scholars who study the interface between people’s work and personal lives, we sought to understand what it was that people missed when their commutes suddenly disappeared. In our recently published conceptual study, we argue that commutes are a source of “liminal space” – a time free of both home and work roles that provides an opportunity to recover from work and mentally switch gears to home.

During the shift to remote work, many people lost this built-in support for these important daily processes. Without the ability to mentally shift gears, people experience role blurring, which can lead to stress. Without mentally disengaging from work, people can experience burnout.

We believe the loss of this space helps explain why many people missed their commutes.

Commutes and liminal spaceIn our study, we wanted to learn whether the commute provides that time and space, and what the effects are when it becomes unavailable. We reviewed research on commuting, role transitions and work recovery to develop a model of a typical American worker’s commute liminal space. We focused our research on two cognitive processes: psychological detachment from the work role – mentally disengaging from the demands of work – and psychological recovery from work – rebuilding stores of mental energy used up during work. Based on our review, we developed a model which shows that the liminal space created in the commute created opportunities for detachment and recovery.

However, we also found that day-to-day variations may affect whether this liminal space is accessible for detachment and recovery. For instance, train commuters must devote attention to selecting their route, monitoring arrivals or departures and ensuring they get off at the right stop, whereas car commuters must devote consistent attention to driving.

We found that, on the one hand, more attention to the act of commuting means less attention that could otherwise be put toward relaxing recovery activities like listening to music and podcasts. On the other hand, longer commutes might give people more time to detach and recover.

In an unpublished follow-up study we conducted ourselves, we examined a week of commutes of 80 university employees to test our conceptual model. The employees completed morning and evening surveys asking about the characteristics of their commutes, whether they “shut off” from work and relaxed during the commute and whether they felt emotionally exhausted when they got home.

Most of the workers in this study reported using the commute’s liminal space to both mentally transition from work to home roles and to start psychologically recovering from the demands of the workday. Our study also confirms that day-to-day variations in commutes predict the ability to do so.

We found that on days with longer-than-average commutes, people reported higher levels of psychological detachment from work and were more relaxed during the commute. However, on days when commutes were more stressful than usual, they reported less psychological detachment from work and less relaxation during the commute.

Creating liminal spaceOur findings suggest that remote workers may benefit from creating their own form of commute to provide liminal space for recovery and transition – such as a 15-minute walk to mark the beginning and end of the workday.

Our preliminary findings align with related research suggesting that those who have returned to the workplace might benefit from seeking to use their commute to relax as much as possible.

To help enhance work detachment and relaxation during the commute, commuters could try to avoid ruminating about the workday and instead focus on personally fulfilling uses of the commute time, such as listening to music or podcasts, or calling a friend. Other forms of commuting such as public transit or carpooling may also provide opportunities to socialize.

Our data shows that commute stress detracts from detachment and relaxation during the commute more than a shorter or longer commute. So some people may find it worth their time to take the “scenic route” home in order to avoid tense driving situations.

Matthew Piszczek, Assistant Professor of Management, Wayne State University and Kristie McAlpine, Assistant Professor of Management, Rutgers University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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For much of our lives, we are focused on fulfilling our potential as individuals. We are taught to express our physical and intellectual talents especially. If we are lucky, we may be supported to express and fulfil our desires, our love and our ideals. Over time, we hopefully come to a place where we have a good level of self-esteem and contentment. Along that road, we will have interacted with many people. We may have been part of sports teams or professional work groups and teams and yet the chances are that we have never really considered the higher value or potential of those groups.

As we reflect on teams and groups, collaboration is a word that resounds loudly in many organisations these days. It’s as though there is a growing awareness and consciousness that moving beyond the individual self has a higher value even if true value-added collaboration is still proving pretty tricky to achieve. However, if we stop and consider the deep interconnectedness that is a fundamental design principle within all aspects of life, we can start to appreciate why communities, tribes, families, teams, and groups have such a place in our lives.

What is worth reflecting on now is the growing importance of group work and why and how this needs to move to a new level. A level where we go beyond the identification with the self and truly see the potential that sits within a highly performing team or group.

The why of this on a certain level is pretty straightforward. We live in an age of complexity, ‘wicked’ problems, and deep uncertainty, all of which demand better use of the diverse talent and capability that exists as well as opening up new pathways for that potential to be accessed. We cannot solve most of the challenges without cooperation – across teams, across organisations, across societies and nations.

As it happens, we are being helped in this endeavour by astrological forces (yes, I know that won’t feel very scientific to some people). Nevertheless, astrologically we have entered into the Age of Aquarius which some may also recall as the title of a hippie song from the 1970s. The Aquarian Age, a period that will last around 2000 years, is, amongst other things, a time when we will see far more focus on groups. From paying attention to others in our communities to active collaboration and cooperation – in some cases with quite a high level of impact.

So what are we being called upon to do differently? Well, here we come to the need to move beyond individual and self-focused interest to a higher point of focus. That which serves the collective (however that may be defined for your endeavour) and which puts us into relationship with others in group formation. In high-performing team work, we often see the analogy of the geese used and how they fly in formation, taking turns to lead, share the load and so on. What underpins that though is a higher level of communication. A willingness to sense, be aware of and act on the information coming from the other members of the group as we move together toward the achievement of a shared purpose.

In the coming years, groups will be asked to go even further still. To establish such a deep level of trust and openness that the communication flow is seamless and that our consciousness and behaviours elevate to thinking ‘group’ first. Not in a self-sacrificial sense, but in a way that truly honours the importance and impact generated by high-functioning teams and groups. On a more existential level, it also honours and collaborates with that core truth of interdependence as well.

Letting go of the ‘ego’ in favour of the collective comes easily to some but is often a tough call for seasoned leaders…leaders who have had to battle and assert their individuality to be taken seriously. Now though we must prepare for the age of groups…

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Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.

–Tom Landry

The wintry afternoon walk in the field out behind our house with my older sister started out like any other. I was about 10 years old. The field was a great place to play. There were plenty of trails to walk and ride our bikes. We built forts, shot our Daisy BB guns, and caught fireflies in Mason jars. This day, however, would be different.

As my sister and I exited the field before heading inside, I did something I’d done many times before with no thought. I pulled a tall weed out of the ground. But this time the weed didn’t budge. When the force of my pull met the resistance of the weed, it slit my finger open and laid the skin back.

As we approached the backyard my blue coat was already soaked in blood. I went to the water faucet and began rinsing my finger. “Don’t tell mom!” I shouted to my sister as I saw her run inside with no intention of following my command.

Once I went inside, my mother was already in a panic. She walked me up to the kitchen sink and told me to stand still. “I’ll be right back!” she exclaimed. Moments later she returned with a bottle of rubbing alcohol. “Hold your finger still”, she said. I was under the impression that she would perhaps pour just a little on the cut. I was wrong.

With the best intentions that a loving mother could conjure up at that moment, she emptied the entire contents of that bottle of rubbing alcohol onto my finger as I screamed. Which was just prior to my fainting on the kitchen floor.

My mother – God rest of her sweet, loving soul up in heaven, meant well. And in my moment of crisis, she did the best she knew how.

As a leader, there are two things you can be certain of – 1) You will face moments of crisis, and 2) Your people will be looking to you for confidence. So what do you do in a crisis?

Here are a few practical ideas.Stay calm

Remember, in times of crisis, your people will take their cues from you. From you, they need to see steadiness, resolve, and confidence. They don’t need to see you running for the doors. Or reaching for the alcohol.

Assess the situation

In times of crisis, you want to gather as much information as you can as quickly as you can. Gather your key people, ascertain what you know, separate fact from fiction, and start developing your action steps.

Communicate clearly

A good plan poorly communicated will only make matters worse. Make sure everyone knows the plan and everyone knows their role. Don’t assume anything.

Empower your people

Your people will gain confidence when you place your confidence in them. You can inspire your team by empowering your team. A time of crisis is not the time for a one

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If the tide of opportunity flows for a prolonged period in a direction you did not find appealing.. it is time to repurpose your talents and thoughts to flow in rhythm with the tide.

The launch of ChatGPT has created a buzz and a sense of interest among various sections of society with heightened curiosity about its utility and implications. It can be used for a wide range of purposes including (but not limited to) customer experience journey improvements, sales cycle improvements, and content creation and management. Hence, expectations are that the applications of ChatGPT will be diverse and for all sorts of things. Not surprisingly, there was a report that a Colombian judge consulted ChatGPT for preparing a ruling in a case.

It opens up opportunities to explore the utility of ChatGPT for project management as well. Some of the potential avenues are knowledge augmentation, problem resolutions (where possible by gaining clarity and answers to some questions), sparking creative thoughts, and learning from human-machine interaction for developing this relationship further to improve project efficiencies.

What is more exciting is the fact that the developments in ChatGPT have brought the spotlight on the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP), one of the most widely used applications of artificial intelligence (AI). To put things in perspective, NLP is defined as “any computer-based algorithm that handles, augments, and transforms natural language so that it can be represented for computation“ (Niimi, 2021, p.2150). NLP is used for applications in healthcare, education, and banking, just to name a few. NLP solutions come in various forms such as chatbots, callbots, and smart assistants.

The growing dependence on NLP and AI-based solutions (e.g., customer experience improvements) for day-to-day business and organisational management (including project management) shows the promise and role that such solutions could and will play in the future. Specifically, in relation to project management, it is predicted that by 2030, “80% of project management tasks will be run by AI, powered by big data, machine learning (ML), and natural language processing” (Nieto-Rodrigue & Vargas, 2023). If these predictions are to come true, this sounds staggering and deserves careful consideration.

There is no doubt that technology will play a significant role and shape the future. One may like it or not, but that is what it is. This raises the question of how NLP and AI are being used and can be used for project management. Or, in other words, what are the current uses of NLP and AI in project management and how can NLP and AI be used to improve project efficiency? To answer the question, below we have looked at some of the current uses as well as potential areas of NLP use for project management.

Current Uses of NLP and AI for project-based workNLP can process and recognise the spoken words (language), grammar of language (syntactic analysis), meaning of words (semantic analysis), and context of utterance (pragmatics), which can be very useful for project-based work as project management is used in every context and culture. As such, NLP and AI-driven solutions are being used for a variety of purposes in project management. These include, planning and forecasting, task automation, risk management, monitoring and control, and coordination (Yang, 2019).

For project-based task automation, such as organising standup meetings during agile project delivery, Geekbot and Standuply are some of the examples of AI-driven solutions. Yang, (2019) also highlights the application of NLP and AI for scanning historical data to predict project completion times and expected budget estimates for the projects. Other applications include JIRA for tracking work completion, Aptage to provide action insights for project delivery, and a project management digital assistant (Schmelzer, 2019; https://www.oracle.com/corporate/pressrelease/oracle-adds-ai-smarts-031919.html). These few examples are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the variety and breadth of use of NLP and AI-driven solutions for project management. It leads to the question, “What’s in the store?” which we discuss below.

Future and possible uses of NLP and AI in PMCertainly, the future is bright for the use of NLP and AI-driven solutions for project-based work. For sure, a large number of thoughts and predictions exist on this strand. Nieto-Rodriguez and Vargas, (2023) highlight six areas that will be affected the most due to the use of NLP and AI-driven solutions for project-based work. These are:

• better selection and prioritization (for identifying and selecting the best projects and establishing a balanced portfolio);
• support for the project management office (for capability development, monitoring, and compliance)
• improved, faster project definition, planning, and reporting (for scoping, risk management, etc.)
• virtual project assistants (for helping users become more efficient in their work performance)
• advanced testing systems and software (for defect identification and deploying self-correcting processes)
• a new role for the project manager (teaching project professionals, including project managers and educators, how to use AI)

In addition, NLP and AI will also be very helpful in human performance modelling to model project staff cognition and behaviours to suggest improvements in their performance and overall efficiency, reduce human errors, and improve overall satisfaction for the client. Schmelzer, (2019) argued the role of predictive analytics in enhancing project efficiencies, which is also highlighted in the six areas of impact discussed above. Predictive analytics appears to be a game changer for understanding anomalies and predicting patterns in order to make informed decisions. Given the high rates of project failures, the above-limited discussion points to the utility of AI to reduce such failures, and this could be just the beginning of what NLP and AI could offer.

Conclusion:Despite the fast-growing evolution of project management concept (see more at: https://www.academiasolution.com/PM-concept), there is no doubt that the current knowledge on the use of NLP and AI in project management is focused on “low-hanging fruits” (i.e., to highlight the positive outlook). It requires further exploration of the potentially negative consequences of the use of NLP and AI for project planning and delivery. What it means is that to further develop understanding and leverage NLP and AI for project management, we must focus on both the beneficence and nonmaleficence contexts of their use. Only then will we be able to strike a reasonable balance.

However, as a starter, it is critical to capitalise on the positives and work to correct the negative consequences. With that in mind, we have looked at the potential of NLP and AI for project work. Needless to say, the discussion focused on highlighting the significant opportunities and the future outlook is intended to stimulate thought and is not conclusive or exhaustive, but with the hope of advancing further work in this domain.

Note: This article was previously published on https://www.academiasolution.com/ChatGPT

References

• Nieto-Rodriguez, A. & Vargas, R.V. (2023). How AI Will Transform Project Management, https://hbr.org/2023/02/how-ai-will-transform-project-management
• Niimi, A. (2021). Natural language processing: a promising research tool of chronic cough for the big data era. Chest, 159(6), 2149-2150.
• Schmelzer, R. (2019). AI In Project Management, https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/07/30/ai-in-project-management/?sh=214dae93b4a0
• Yang, C. (2019). AI And Project Management: Artificial Or The Real Deal? https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/07/26/ai-and-project-management-artificial-or-the-real-deal/?sh=15ce127b3208

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How do we end up saying yes to everything and then never having enough time to get it all done? This is a common experience in most corporations these days with shrinking budgets and fewer staff to meet all the expectations required for growth. We often say yes to things that don’t make sense to do rather than saying no to solidify our ‘high performer’ identity.

We can choose to operate differently by embracing A Culture of AND.

We achieve this by adding the word AND to saying YES and NO to others. This empowers us to:

• give our best,
• ensure that our colleagues and leaders have what they actually need vs. what they think they want,
• get what we need to make good on that YES, or
• let others know WHY we are saying no in ways that help them to move forward anyway

Let’s break each of these down –

Giving our Best:What keeps us from giving our best? Often it is a lack of clarity in our role or a misunderstanding about what we are trying to achieve in the first place. Many times, it comes from not having the information required, or the time to digest that information prior to engaging in brainstorming or decision-making with others.

Other times it is the idea that we have to work 80 hours each week just to keep up with the pace of doing 2 full-time jobs while we wait for the new positions to be filled.

When we place getting the job done ahead of our health and wellness, it’s very difficult to give our best. During these times, it’s important to be OK with our best being different at different times. Raising children, supporting parents, dealing with health issues, and learning new skills, all impact what ‘our best’ is in each situation. When we use the power of AND to acknowledge what our best is in each moment and accept that is exactly what is needed, we are free to give what we have to give while managing expectations with others.

Saying YES + AND may sound like this:

‘YES – I’d love to help you get clarity on that. I have been out with a sick child for a week and am booked solid for the next two weeks AND I realize that I’m the best person to help you with this. I could give you a couple of hours next week if you could replace me at the all-day set-up meeting. That would give me the time to help you before the presentation’.

Saying NO + AND may sound like this:

‘NO. I won’t be able to help you with that as I’m off that day with my family AND I have two potential colleagues who may be able to step in on my behalf. I’d like to introduce them to you once I know who is available.

Ensuring that our colleagues and leaders get what they actually need

Too many times our colleagues or leaders ask us for information or assistance that doesn’t make sense to us. We can see that what they are asking for is not going to help them, yet we do it anyway, not wanting to question their authority or ‘higher wisdom’. Many of us learned this as small children when asking ‘why’ we had to do something, and the answer was ‘because I said so’. This taught many of us that others know better and that it’s not our place to question what they ask of us.

Unfortunately, those around us can’t always see the perspective we hold – even if they used to do the same job in the past. If we are going to add our highest value, it’s up to us to ensure the requester actually gets what they need to move forward in their world.

Sometimes the information we are asked for doesn’t make sense given what they are trying to decide or accomplish. When this happens, we can use YES + AND:

‘YES – I understand that you/they are looking for the ‘xyz’ information AND if I can better understand how it’s going to be used, I can get you what you need in a format you can use right away.’

(then) ‘Given what you are trying to communicate, the information you are asking for won’t really help. A quick 15-minute conversation together will give me chance to get us both on the same page to get you what they need so you can effectively make the case. When can we do that?’

Sometimes a request doesn’t make sense because we are not the person that has the answers or owns that body of work. When that happens, we can use NO + AND to steer the conversation in a productive direction. It may sound like this:

‘NO – I’m actually not the one who has that information – AND I don’t want you to have to run around to get what you need. Here is my understanding of who would have that and the best way/timing/approach to get it quickly from them’.

Getting what we need to make good on that YES

Often we ARE the right person and we DO have the information, insights, or content that our colleagues or supervisors need. At the same time, requests that come in with low clarity and a fast-turnaround time can disrupt our progress on existing efforts and priorities. How do we say yes then? When we are asked to focus on something that will take us away from what we are doing, it’s up to us to manage that expectation. It might sound like this:

‘YES – I can get you that information for your meeting tomorrow AND for me to do that, I’ll be skipping the team meeting this afternoon to get you a draft by COB. I will need a response on the draft from you by 9 am tomorrow to make any other adjustments, so you have it for noon.’

If you are not sure what is OK to let go of or delay, you may need to engage your supervisor to help decide what the priority is. It might sound like this:

YES – I understand what you need and why, AND for me to get that to you by COB today, I’ll need your guidance on what to stop working on or delay for now as this will take me the rest of the afternoon. I have two internal stakeholder meetings scheduled and the event calendar is due today. Can you help me run interference on those?

Letting others know WHY you are saying no in ways that help them to move forward anyway

As an organization shifts and grows, roles and responsibilities and lines of the work shift and grow as well. While we may know who does what within our own unit, others that engage and rely on us may not.

Sometimes we end up with requests that are not appropriate for us, even though the requester would feel better if we did it. While this situation may be hiding a deeper problem, it is not up to us to fix it for others. Instead, we can use NO + AND to guide the requester back to those that are accountable for the work. It might sound like this:

NO – while I used to do some of that work, it’s now being done by this group AND it is important that they are the ones to advise you so everything stays integrated. While I understand you would prefer to engage with me, they are working hard to build the skills and responsiveness that you are looking for, and every time they have a chance to respond they get better at it. Let me suggest you contact (this person) and help them understand your overall intention and timeline and that will help them give you a firm date to access the content you are looking for.

How can you cultivate a culture of AND today?

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It is a rare person who never offers an excuse, and most of the reasoning blames the lack of time available. But there are always at least two sides to a problem, making it worthy of reviewing what we dismiss and why and whether regret was to follow. It is possible that on occasions, more than we care to admit, the answer is Yes! to the question, ‘Are excuses holding you back?’

The typical answer is, ‘I would like to, but sadly, I don’t have the time.’ The question is, what can we do to improve our response?

My StoryTwo recent experiences raise the question, are excuses holding you back? My answer is more so in the early days, but experience and time management, working together, improve my willingness to do more. As time progresses, my responses have a wide meter read, from, quietly believing, ‘this is ridiculous’ to graciously accepting an opportunity.

Losing OpportunitiesWe can improve further when we admit that we dismissed an idea assuming it will never work or is ridiculous. For years, it baffled me why recruiters would ask seemingly ‘ridiculous questions.’ Long ago, I turned down a potential job, thinking, ‘I don’t have time for this nonsense.’ Today, I realized I too quickly moved away from a job interview as the article revealed the answer to why the strange questions.

But a few years later, I thought I’d have fun when asked what animal I would like to be and why. My answer was that I would like to be a giraffe on sales calls! To my complete surprise, the offer came almost immediately. Demonstrating the value, I then turned that answer into an article appearing in US News Magazine, ‘What to Say If an interviewer asks which animal you would be and why:’

Finally, today, the long-awaited answer came to me via an article that reveals why recruiters ask these mind-boggling or annoying questions. The author refers to the questioning style as ‘situational.’ She then states that the answers applicants provide tell a great deal about their thinking and behaviors to determine whether they will be a good fit for the employer.

The Gift of An Athletic CapUpon receiving an athletic cap, a big smile came over me upon seeing the slogan, ‘365.’ As an avid goal-setter always striving to improve, it brought about the thought of 365 days per year and what it means to me. Suddenly, the realization that a lack of time is not necessarily the reason for an excuse but our preference to dismiss.

‘I don’t have the time’ is a weak excuse, most often.

Let’s do some calculations:There are 365 days per year, and we have 24 hours each day to do as we see fit. The total number of hours in a year is 8,760, and 525,600 is the number of minutes we have to spend any way we like each year. Surely, we can do more than we allow ourselves with proper goal-setting and an increase in motivation to accomplish more.

As efficiencies take over, I realize specific strategies work well, allowing me to accomplish more in less time. Taking a calculated risk to test the reality of a new idea working well proves better than expected. And the occasion it does not, I realize what needs to improve to advance. Doing so includes ‘finding time’ for requests and offers that, in the past, I would decline.

The overall benefit of utilizing more of our yearly minutes is:* Being able to build a broader collaborative effort * Branding and marketing will become more robust than ever * Offers that we desire unexpectedly come our way

The lyrics to Jim Croce’s song, Time In A Bottle, come to mind:‘But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do once you find them…’

Your Story: Are Excuses Holding You Back?Truthfulness begins with each of us. It is best to admit to opportunities you may have dismissed, not bothering to learn the facts before deciding. But it is never too late to realize a habit or two is ready for updates. An excellent place to begin is to ask why they are asking and how the person sees the outcome. Ask for the benefits of participating and the downside, should there be one. It will help you come to a better conclusion and final decision.

On occasion, people propose the opposite of what you may believe. There are almost always two sides to every story or opinion. It’s best to stop and consider the perspective on the other side to see if there is room for compromise. And should time be a real issue, consider how you may increase efficiencies for productivity in the future. With 525,600 minutes available to us yearly, there is little doubt that we can save time in the real world to do the things we want to do.

Most of all, by taking better control of habits and accepting possibilities, advancements of all types will occur more frequently. And should a setback unexpectedly appear, taking the time to learn the lessons will help with progress, too. Either way, you can turn the scenario into a win-win for your success!

In Conclusion: Are Excuses Holding You Back?It is best to review past offers and how we reacted to them in our quiet time to discover if a better approach awaits. Should you desire to minimize excuses holding you back, seek out commonalities of the missed opportunities to improve upon moving forward.

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In our February blog, we explored how our focus and attention have been stolen, and how our ability to pay attention is collapsing and described why we need to be intentional in reclaiming it. Yet, many of us are constantly challenged by very short attention spans, where we can often be found sitting at our desks, dealing with a range of very urgent deadlines with a distracted, and unfocussed mind. Despite being intrinsically motivated to meet our deadlines, and being self-aware of needing to focus on completing the tasks in front of us, many of us often still struggle to disrupt and stop our thoughts from wandering randomly and haphazardly. Because, we are no longer being in charge of our minds, our time, or of our cognitive capacities and abilities that help us self-regulate, concentrate and focus our attention, kickstart change, innovate and become resilient.

A recent article in Psychology Today “The war for your Attention” reinforces this problem by stating:

“We live in a time when attention has become our most valuable asset, one for which multiple stakeholders are competing. Political parties, media outlets, companies, and individuals want a share of it, and if they can have it, they want it all. As a result, remaining in charge of our minds has become a daily challenge. Our attention defines our experience, which sets the mindset of our minds”.

Become resilient

Because we don’t know if companies will ever return to their pre-pandemic-like worlds, and what new technologies will emerge, we need to become resilient to be future-fit, in this new world of unknowns. This requires people to unlearn some of their less resourceful “bad pre and post-pandemic habits” to be:

• Open towards relearning and reskilling in how to focus, concentrate and observe, and how to manage, direct and expand our attention spans.
• Intentional, outcome focussed, and therefore, effective, agile, adaptive, and resilient in an uncertain world full of disruption and crises.

This is reinforced by a recent article “Seizing the momentum to build resilience for a future of sustainable inclusive growth” by McKinsey & Co:

“In the past year, leaders have been confronted with a lifetime’s worth of disruption and crises: global conflict, energy uncertainty, food shortages, accelerating inflation, and severe climate events. Natural and human-made disruptions will only persist. To enable long-term, sustainable, and inclusive growth, today’s business leaders and policymakers must strengthen resilience beyond a survival capacity”.

• From surviving to thriving

The nature and speed of change are not going to slow down, at the same time, our uncertain world full of disruption and crises is having a harsh psychological toll on everyone, impacting negatively on people’s states of emotional and physical health.

If we want people to thrive, we have to start helping people to live better than we ever have. Taking the first baby steps requires people to confidently and courageously be, think and act differently.

Starting with empowering and enabling people to take charge of their hearts and minds, and commit to focussing their attention on building their resilience.

The switch-cost effect

In his best-selling book Johann Hari – Stolen Focus, describes how Professor Earl Miller, a specialist in neuroscience, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, states that “our brains can only produce one or two thoughts” in our conscious minds at once.

Because “we are very, very single-minded” and have “very limited cognitive capacity.”

• Multi-tasking is an illusion

The delusion that we can multitask, or juggle a number of thoughts and activities at the same time, is revealed, through robust research, as actually “switching, back and forth.”

He states that we don’t notice the switching because:

“Our brain sort of papers it over to give a seamless experience of consciousness, but what they’re actually doing is switching and reconfiguring their brain moment-to-moment, task-to-task – which comes with a cost.”

• Losing time to refocus

This is described as the “switch-cost effect” and means that every time we switch tasks while trying to work, we are actually losing a huge amount of time required to concentrate and manage our attention spans to refocus afterward.

“For example, one study at Carnegie Mellon University’s human-computer interaction lab took 136 students and got them to sit a test. Some of them had to have their phones switched off, and others had their phones on and received intermittent text messages. The students who received messages performed, on average, 20% worse. It seems to me that almost all of us are currently losing that 20% of our brainpower, almost all the time. Miller told me that as a result we now live in “a perfect storm of cognitive degradation”.

Reducing cognitive degradation

There are a number of simple and obvious ways to reduce our cognitive degradation and heal our unconscious “attention deficit syndromes”, and cognitively reappraise to be in charge of our minds, concentrate and effectively manage our attention spans. It is also the first step we need to take to empower and enable ourselves and others, in taking charge of our hearts and minds and demonstrating our commitment to focussing our attention and becoming initially resilient.

These simple actions require us to be self-disciplined, methodical, and rigorous and open to re-learning how to concentrate and self-regulated our attention spans by habitually:

• Stripping out distractions,
• Ceasing to multi-task,
• Getting more quality sleep,
• Taking regular short breaks,
• Doing brain exercises,
• Doing physical exercises,
• Listening to music,
• Setting priorities,
• Using a timer.

How to be in charge of our own minds

• Intention transforms

If we want to cultivate a calmer, coherent, and resourceful psychological state, to achieve the outcomes we want to have in our lives, then focus and place our attention on both what we want to manifest (our intention), and on what we want to your attention away from, to cease.

• Attention activates

When choosing to consciously slow down, hit our pause buttons, and retreat into stillness and silence, opens the sacred space, that allows us to reflect, focus and pay deeper attention to the impact of our emotions and beliefs on our thoughts. We can then also attend to, and break down any unresourceful beliefs, emotions, and cognitive distortions about what we can really and truly influence and control to:

• Create a more normalised state of equilibrium and calm, get grounded and fully present and manage our attention spans to concentrate on what really matters to us, in ways that are self-compassionate and optimistic about the future.
• Support ourselves by believing that we can succeed in handling our situations, responsibly, creatively, and effectively.
• Become resilient by knowing how to respond to events in real-time, anticipate events and problems that may occur in the future, and bounce from adversity whilst processing the insights and learnings gained by conquering key challenges.

Developing resilience

We can then be in charge of our minds, become resilient, and create a safe space and generosity for others to fully show up and connect with us, open our eyes, minds, and hearts to all options, unleash possibilities and opportunities, make smart change choices, and innovate, rather than panicking and retreating from the risks emerging in an uncertain world full of disruption and crises.

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The opportunityOver $750 billion a year is spent by organisations globally on advertising trying to boost their brands, products, and services. Marketing and branding functions spend vast amounts of time and money working with agencies on trying to find the best way to resonate both with their current customers and attract potential customers.

Employee brand ambassadors will support this objective and can have a significant positive impact whilst costing very little. However, in my view, the use of employee brand ambassadors rarely reaches the potential it truly has. This would seem to be a “no-brainer” but for some reason, it just doesn’t seem to be on the strategic agenda and, even if it is, it’s not done effectively, often because of a misunderstanding of what has to be put in place to make it work.

To identify and appoint a number of employees as brand ambassadors to work both inside and outside the organisation does have benefits but I believe there is much more that could be done quickly, simply, and relatively easily. Not by just these few employees promoting the organisation, especially if it is part of their job in either sales marketing or associated teams, but that every single employee in the organisation proactively inside and outside work promotes the brand of the organisation to their family, their networks, on social media in their blog posts and to people they meet.

From a branding and marketing perspective, you might say this cannot possibly have the reach that, for example, a television advertising campaign might have, that might be so, but every employee who expresses their genuine belief in what their organisation does is likely to have much more resonance with other people than a TV advert or corporate social media post. A corporate social media presence is not the same as speaking to someone, or seeing a post on their own social media. Also, you are more likely to mention such an interaction to other people. That’s because it’s real people and that’s the potential power of an employee brand ambassador program – the power of real people in support of the organisations brand.

Great organisations realise the power of employee brand ambassadors and leverage it but overall few are leveraging the power of their people effectively.

What is really interesting is that turning everyone into a proactive employee brand ambassador through an employee ambassador program not only has a positive impact on the presentation of the brand but also has a significant impact on the corporate culture, creating a common purpose and boosting the performance of the organisation which then further strengthens brand value and ensures the delivery of brand promises to customers more effectively.

It truly unleashes the power of employees. They become the embodiment of your brand, showing your business in a positive light, using word of mouth to say positive things from their unique perspective and real-life personal experience which can reach a wider audience of consumers and others.

The challengeIt’s fair to say that in most organisations, other than those in branding and marketing or C suite, the vast majority of employees have no clue what the brand promises are that the organisation presents to customers. In fact, most of them are also pretty unclear on vision, values, purpose and the wider big picture into which they fit. This not only causes problems around understanding what the brand is about it also has a significant impact on employee engagement, ie employees giving their best. In addition, this lack of understanding also reduces the ability of employees to ensure that operational activity is aligned with strategic objectives. Even if they don’t know the brand promises at least aligning their work to strategic objectives has them heading in the right direction.

All the data on employee engagement shows that employees can potentially withhold significant effort, called discretionary effort, and still meet satisfactory performance standards. In other words, if the environment isn’t right they will withhold this effort but it will not be possible to tell that they are doing so, or indeed who is and who isn’t. This additional effort which is being withheld could amount to an extra 30% of effort from up to 60% of people within the organisation. Imagine how much impact getting that extra effort could make, and how it could be applied to brand ambassadorship.

Worryingly there are indications that post-COVID this figure could now have risen to somewhere in the region of 70 to 80% of people withholding effort due to higher expectations that employees have of their leaders and organisations not being met post-pandemic.

This is the crux of the challenge of how to start the journey to create brand ambassadors – how to create an environment where no one, or as few people as possible, are withholding effort. That’s quite simply because if they were holding effort they certainly won’t be a brand ambassador Why? Because if they’re withholding effort they just don’t care.

This challenge might seem complex and something which has to be done at strategic level. Certainly if planned and coordinated at that level it will have maximum impact and benefit but there is no reason why individual leaders should not encourage their team members to all be brand ambassadors even if the rest of the organisation isn’t. The impact on team engagement and performance is going to be just as beneficial. Any leader can achieve this through the simple steps set out here, as can the whole organisation if C suite sets an example and supports.

Does it work?In a word yes. I’ve seen a significant positive impact in a number of organisations when implementing employee ambassador programs. From personal involvement during the creation of UBS, the global bank, effectively the result of 6 mergers and acquisitions over a short period of time brand ambassadorship delivered significant impact.

This is now a Harvard Case study “Towards the Integrated Firm”. As Global Head of Leadership, it was clear that creating belief in the new organisation was a key element to successfully bring together the constituent parts to operate as one, as we clearly promoted it “One UBS”. That One UBS had to have one brand identity. This started with the executive team acting in an authentic way to set an example to build a strong company culture and show the essential role that the banks values played in what it did everyday, reflected in the brand promises.

During the early stages of this transformation bringing together the people, processes, and brands into a single entity it became clear to us that alignment on the new brand was key for the optimization of sustainable profitability. But also what was critical was that the brand had to be all-encompassing – equally valid internally with employees as well as externally with customers and the market.

Why both? Because many of us had seen the negative impact of an organisations internal brand being different from the external brand, a perception that customers were treated well but employees not so much. We had the potential to create over 70,000 proactive brand ambassadors across the world, something that could have a significant impact both internally and externally.

It worked because of a clear business case set out by the CEO, picked up by senior leaders, cascaded, and led by example down through the whole organisation. In addition this was reinforced working with the external agency to develop the new a brand line. The result was short and simple “UBS you and Us”, which would apply equally to customers, employees, and indeed other stakeholders.

The application of this was highly flexible and effective and was maintained as the key message both internally and externally for over 6 years. Its external impact was widely credited with contributing to the rapid growth of the bank at that time but what is less widely appreciated is the significant role it played internally in creating willing brand ambassadors at all levels of the organisation, enabled by a culture where everyone gave their best because they cared about the success of themselves, their colleagues and UBS .

This employee advocacy built momentum internally, growing from early adopters inspiring others to join and take it to the next level. The result? 51% increase in brand value and becoming a top global brand in 3 just years, together with higher than peer profitability, and numerous people and business awards.

But the world moves onThe success of this creation of employee brand ambassadors was clear from so many measures. But the world moves on, and encouraging and enabling employee brand ambassadors has to be an ongoing effort, to make it work it never ends, either at strategic or team level. It needs constant momentum building and adaptation. This initial success at UBS was before the financial crisis and that event significantly changed the business environment and employee attitudes. As a result to recover the power of brand ambassadorship UBS had to proactively re-engage at all levels to be successful again, through another concerted campaign.

What is interesting is that to follow on from “UBS – You and Us” which engaged both customers and employees the new line was “For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone. Together we can find an answer.” – again which engaged both customers and employees and subsequently UBS again won a number of preferred employer awards. Note the focus on “working together” in both with common purpose, a theme shared by great brand building and great leadership.

Building the brand inside outMy conversations with marketing and branding professionals about this often reveal that they have not realised the full potential of employee brand ambassadors and their strategic impact. To some degree that’s not unreasonable as it is their brief to focus on the external customer. But I have seen marketing and branding departments frantically trying to create a positive quality brand for the organisation’s customers whilst the perception of employees within the organisation is that it’s not high quality internally due to less than great culture and leadership. I would take the view that employees are the organisations first customers and therefore you need to build the brand inside out.

Any fundamental disconnect between the external brand and the internal brand just isn’t sustainable. Disengaged and unhappy employees will not perform well, will not want to be brand ambassadors and this will, without doubt, eventually feed through reducing the quality of customer service and so damaging the external brand. They just won’t care.

Building the brand inside out is not just about the strategic level brand, it’s also about the organisations operational level brand as reflected by employees’ individual leaders. Thus every leader is a brand ambassador to their people and their example and action can either inspire or destroy the likelihood of employees being proactive brand ambassadors, irrespective of how great the strategic level brand is.

But with the right mindset and a simple action plan, there is a significant opportunity here if marketing and branding professionals work with all leaders and HR to create an environment where a great internal brand provides the opportunity to grow brand ambassadors and which, if done effectively, will be willingly taken up by every employee. Essentially by just spreading best practices to build brand awareness within an environment where people care because simply they have a great boss.

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You are incorrect if you think you are the same person all the time. If you do not acknowledge that you have at least one other persona, you will not understand how to blend these images.

How many personas do you have? Do you have one for work, one for your family, yet another for friends, and then another for the parents of your kids?

This persona, this mask that you wear can be beneficial or not. If you have a work persona that is different from your home mask, what is it and how does it help you with your peers and your boss, if you have one? Or do you have a separate persona you wear when you are in direct contact with your boss?

This may sound frivolous, however, we all have different personas. And yes, it can be confusing to others if they catch on. It can also be confusing to you, the one who holds the power over these masks.

Who are you and who are you pretending to be?

It must be exhausting to carry all these personas with you day after day. What if you could be only YOU every day?

This act of masking is what many do to feel safe in different situations, mostly social.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

— Kurt Vonnegut

We’ve all seen it, the pretenders. They certainly run rampant on Facebook. You see people wearing these masks and then you speak to them, if you are lucky, and discover they are illusions of themselves. They are not real, they are following others’ paths, allowing us to think or imagine that they’re very, very successful or equally as powerful. The truth then appears at a break in their persona. A word, a gesture, appears and you go ‘Whoa! What was that?’ – not what you expected. And I do say the word expected because people who attempt to force their personas or masks onto you for their benefit, know that this is the persona you expect to see. And they gave exactly that to you.

Bosses and leaders carry many personas. If only they could afford to be more authentic, we would appreciate their skills more so we say. However, in many cases, we EXPECT them to have many masks and personas. It is expected in the society we have created. And when the supposed truth about who they truly come out is, we are shocked, and surprised, and yet, we are part of the game in supporting their personas.

Any of us can be kind, strong, sad, and cranky without a persona. We can be genuine humans and stop wearing personas or masks to enjoy our lives.

The fewer masks we wear, the closer we are to having more peace in our lives.

Wouldn’t you like to live a life of truth and openness?

Along your path toward truth and peace, check this out.

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Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everybody else.

― Henry Ward Beecher

Welcome to my latest blog post on self-discipline, where together, we will explore why self-discipline is a key ingredient for achieving success as a small business owner, and in every aspect of life.

As an entrepreneur and business owner, I know firsthand the power of self-discipline and how it has helped me to overcome obstacles, stay focused, and achieve my goals. I also know first-hand the painful results and disappointments that result when I fail to maintain self-discipline. The reality is that despite its many benefits, self-discipline is a skill that many people struggle to develop and reinforce.

Contrary to what some believe, self-discipline is not about being harsh or living a restrictive lifestyle. Instead, it’s about having self-control and inner strength to take charge of your actions and reactions.

Self-discipline helps you make hard decisions and stick to them, even when it’s difficult or uncomfortable. By rejecting immediate pleasure in favor of long-term success, you can achieve greater results and experience more significant personal growth.

In this post, we’ll dive into the importance of self-discipline, exploring how it can help you and I to overcome addictions, laziness, and procrastination. We’ll look at how self-discipline is a key ingredient for success, helping you to stay focused on your goals and overcome setbacks and failures. Plus, we’ll examine how a lack of self-discipline can lead to problems in all areas of life, including relationships, health, and career.

But it’s not all bad news! The good news is that self-discipline is a skill that can be developed and strengthened, just like any other skill.

In this post, I will provide you with practical tips and strategies to help you build self-discipline, such as avoiding carelessness, fulfilling promises, and engaging in positive behaviors. With consistent effort and practice, you can become stronger and more self-disciplined, achieving your goals, and realizing your dreams.

So, if you’re ready to take your self-discipline to the next level and unlock your full potential, keep reading. Let’s explore the power of self-discipline and how it can transform your life.

3 Ways to Become More Self-DisciplinedWe’ll now cover three ways you can become more disciplined and successful in every aspect of your life. These strategies will help you set active goals, ignore negativity, and practice gratitude.

Firstly, active goal setting is a critical skill if you want to become more disciplined. It involves more than just setting goals in your mind, but rather actively defining them and making plans to achieve them. By setting long-term goals and tracking your progress towards them, you’ll be able to stay focused and motivated, which is essential for building self-discipline.

Secondly, it’s essential to ignore negativity, particularly from people who may have a negative effect on your mindset. By avoiding those who are negative or unsupportive, you can protect your energy and stay focused on your goals. Seeking advice from experts can also help you learn how to deal with negativity and maintain a positive outlook.

Finally, practicing gratitude is a powerful way to shift your focus from wanting more to appreciating what you already have. When you cultivate a habit of gratitude, you begin to see remarkable shifts in your emotional well-being, mental health, and spirituality. By focusing on the positive aspects of your life, you’ll be better equipped to tackle challenges and achieve your goals without stress.

Continue to Develop Greater Self-DisciplineIt’s an ongoing process. It’s always too easy to give in or fall back into practices and habits that are not conducive to success in your life and business. You can start by removing temptations from your environment, embracing change, rewarding yourself, and not beating yourself up when you slide back into old habits. Developing self-discipline takes time and effort, but it’s worth it.

When it comes to temptations, we all have our challenges. For some of us, it may be eating too much of the wrong foods that are not healthy for us overall, and these foods make us sluggish and lazy. For another individual, temptation may be to continue watching that television series even though you have deadlines to meet. And for others, it’s simply wanting to do the easy things first that will not make a difference to your business, rather than focusing on the more challenging tasks that will make a difference.

You have the power to create the life you want, and by mastering self-discipline, you can achieve it. Remember that you can start developing self-discipline at any time, and with each step, you will become stronger and more disciplined.

In summary, if you are looking to achieve greater success and happiness in life, you need to develop self-discipline. As we have seen, self-discipline is not only about restricting yourself, but also about making positive choices that help you achieve your goals.

You can start by removing temptations from your environment, embracing change, rewarding yourself, and not beating yourself up when you slide backwards. Developing self-discipline takes time and effort, but it’s worth it.

You have the power to create the life you want, and by mastering self-discipline, you can achieve it. Remember that you can start developing self-discipline at any time, and with each step, you will become stronger and more disciplined to take on even greater challenges.

What is your biggest challenge with self-discipline?

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Daniel Merino, The Conversation and Nehal El-Hadi, The Conversation

ChatGPT burst onto the technology world, gaining 100 million users by the end of January 2023, just two months after its launch, and bringing with it a looming sense of change.

The technology itself is fascinating, but part of what makes ChatGPT uniquely interesting is the fact that essentially overnight, most of the world gained access to a powerful generative artificial intelligence that they could use for their own purposes. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak with researchers who study computer science, technology, and economics to explore how the rapid adoption of technologies has, for the most part, failed to change social and economic systems in the past – but why AI might be different, despite its weaknesses.

Spending just a few minutes playing with new, generative AI algorithms can show you just how powerful they are. You can open up Dall-E, type in a phrase like “dinosaur riding motorcycle across a bridge,” and seconds later, the algorithm will produce multiple images more or less depicting what you asked for. ChatGPT does much the same, just with text as its output.

Open AI’s Dall-E generated this image from a prompt reading ‘dinosaur riding a motorcycle over a bridge.’
The Conversation/OpenAI, CC BY-NDThese models are trained on huge amounts of data taken from the internet, and as Daniel Acuña, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the U.S. explains, that can be a problem. “If we are feeding these models data from the past and data from today, they will learn some biases,” Acuña says. “They will relate words – let’s say about occupations – and find relationships between words and how they are used with certain genders or certain races.”

The problem of bias in AI is not new, but with increased access, more people are now using it, and as Acuña says, “I hope that whoever is using those models is aware of these issues.”

With any new technology there is always a risk of misuse, but these concerns are usually accompanied by hope that as people gain access to better tools, their lives will improve. That theory is exactly what Kentaro Toyama, a professor of community information at the University of Michigan, has studied for nearly two decades.

“What I ultimately discovered was that it is quite possible to get research results that were positive, where some kind of technology would enhance a situation in a government or school, or in a clinic,” explains Toyama. “But it was nearly impossible to take that technological idea and then have it have impact at wider scales.”

Ultimately, Toyama came to believe that “technology amplifies underlying human forces. And in our current world, those human forces are aligned in a way that the rich get richer and inequality keeps growing.” But he was open to the idea that if AI could be inserted into a system that was trying to improve equality, then it would be an excellent tool for that.

Technologies can change social and economic systems when access increases, according to Thierry Rayna, an economist who studies innovation and entrepreneurship. He has studied how widespread access to digital music, 3D printing, blockchain, and other technologies fundamentally change the relationship between producers and consumers. In each of these cases, “increasingly people have become prosumers, meaning they are actively involved in the production process.” Rayna predicts the same will be true with generative AI.

Rayna says that “In a situation where everybody’s producing stuff and people are consuming from other people, the main issue is that choice becomes absolutely overwhelming.” Once an economic system reaches this point, according to Rayna, platforms and influences become the wielders of power. But Rayna thinks that once people can not only use AI algorithms but train their own, “It will probably be the first time in a long time that the platforms will actually be in danger.”

This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and hosted by Dan Merino. The interim executive producer is Mend Mariwany. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

You can find us on Twitter @TC_Audio, on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via email. You can also subscribe The Conversation’s free daily email here. A transcript of this episode will be available soon.

Listen to “The Conversation Weekly” via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here.

Daniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation and Nehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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SummaryThere’s a lot of talk about why organizations need to have a purpose beyond a mere marketing tagline: why they do what they do on behalf of those they seek to serve. What’s equally challenging to get at is how an organization defines its why, how they get staff buy-in — or better yet, staff input — and then has the discipline to choose activities that work towards fulfilling it.

I’m never saying that the lack of a real purpose is the only problem that causes organizational dysfunction. But it is one of the most foundational ones because people are looking to contribute with their roles.

— Brooke Erol

My guestMy guest to help walk us through this topic is Brooke Erol. Brooke is a corporate dropout who pursued her dream of having more meaningful work for herself and others where we are not only seeking money but also contributing to a bigger cause. All her life is spent on writing, speaking, coaching, and consulting on this topic of having a life of fulfilling and purposeful work. She works both with individuals- YourBestLife and organizations – Purposeful Business, Inc.

Takeaways√ Many businesses focus on profits over purpose instead of figuring out how to do both.

√ An organization’s pain point is not necessarily an expressed lack of purpose, but lack of purpose is often the driver below the surface.

√ Leaders at the highest point of an organization — founder, and CEO — must have a deep consciousness to understand the imperative of having and living a purpose fully.

√ Companies often face a litmus test as to whether they are going to honor their purpose in their decision-making,

√ Customers and job seekers should monitor a company over time to see if it adheres to its purpose.

√ The number one reason for the purpose to stick is the 100% commitment of the CEO or the founder.

√ Instead of trying to save the whole world, find one area where you can have an impact, and let that be your purpose.

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Last time, we discussed opportunities for weaving intentional gratitude into our professional environments, and we looked at the possibility of adding gratitude to your formal organizational values, encouraging gratitude as a daily practice, and making that gratitude easily and abundantly visible to the people who make up your company.

ENJOY ALL PRIOR PARTS BELOW︎

Gratitude at Work – Tapping into The Power of Appreciation in Your Organization

Today we’re going to focus on ways you can incorporate gratitude into your external-facing spaces. Prospective new employees are checking out your culture, as much as can be seen from outside your organization anyway. To attract top talent, make it easy for them to get a sense of who you are and what matters from a culture perspective. Also, helping your current and future customers and vendors see that gratitude is important to your company can help build stronger relationships, leading to more positive outcomes with them, too. Here are two ideas for making gratitude part of your external-facing landscape.

Recommendation #4: Make intentional gratitude visible externally. Leaning into the intentional practice of gratitude can help your organization differentiate and amplify your company culture as a way to attract top talent. When I’ve worked with companies both in my research and as a consultant, employees frequently share that they appreciate working for an organization where gratitude is already seen being practiced by senior leadership and colleagues. And it doesn’t take long to find complaints on sites like GlassDoor, from everyone from job applicants to long-time employees to former staff when appreciation is simply not there. Even if this is a new addition to your organization’s strategic cultural initiatives, emphasizing your efforts can help reframe your company in a more positive light, no matter where you are starting in that journey.

Leadership may want to consider adding a section to the company website focused on the commitment to gratitude as an organizational driver, to enhance the company’s existing mission and vision statements. Regular blog entries or social media content showcasing recent gratitude messages are also excellent ways to showcase how gratitude is interwoven into your culture. These could be employee testimonials, press releases announcing quarterly gratitude award winners, or simply sentiments shared by your employees that continuously reinforce how gratitude is expressed. One client I worked with had video screens in customer waiting lounges, and they streamed comments like “Sumetra D says, “Thanks to my team for covering my shift while I was out taking care of my mom. It really makes me feel like I matter!” What a great way to elevate that message!

Recommendation #5: Encourage clients to engage in intentional gratitude. Studies show a positive impact from receiving expressions of gratitude from customers and clients, including an increase in both job satisfaction on confidence not only in that assignment but when considering upcoming or potential assignments. Account managers and client-facing employees may want to consider encouraging active gratitude as part of the regular interactions with clients, and certainly as part of any final project documentation. Again, consider including these appreciative comments as part of your portfolio of testimonials to further enhance your brand image to current and prospective clients.

As we’ve mentioned previously, gratitude is simply not a common practice in most workplaces, so for your employees and your clients to feel comfortable expressing and receiving appreciation, intentional, strategic opportunities for gratitude to be part of the conversation are important for employees and clients alike to experience the benefits.

Encourage or even incentivize positive feedback from your clients. We all know people don’t hesitate to complain – so encourage them to tell you when things are going WELL, too. For example, a hotel chain we used to frequent made it known that they actually gave a cash bonus to staff when they received a positive comment that identified that person by name. Given what we know about gratitude in the workplace, expressing gratitude intentionally may not be a routine part of the professional experience for your clients or vendors, either, so make it easy for them, and they’re more likely to share their positive feedback with you. Talk about a win-win!

Conclusion

There is no indication that one form of gratitude is superior to another. Individuals have different communication and learning styles, and cultural and generational differences may make one style more comfortable than the other. Further, individual preferences as to which form of gratitude is more beneficial for them may change depending on the circumstances in which the individual finds themselves, the mood they are in, and so on. Fundamentally, I believe (and the research so far backs me up) that any gratitude practice is better than none, as long as we’re doing so in authentic, meaningful ways.

Are you interested in making gratitude part of your organization’s cultural landscape? I’d love to hear about what you’re doing currently, or the challenges and barriers you’ve faced trying to build more gratefulness into your working hours. And sincerely, thank you for taking the time to consider gratitude as an intentional professional practice. Even normalizing the possibility helps bring this topic into more people’s awareness, and I am deeply grateful for your contribution to changing the professional paradigm.

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Your mind is a powerful thing. The way you see yourself and your ability to learn doesn’t just impact your success, but also the goals you set and how you attack them. Organizations have a mindset, too, and it significantly influences company culture, employee engagement, and overall success.

Mindset Influences How and What We LearnAccording to Stanford researcher Carol Dweck, the difference between what she calls a “fixed mindset” and a “growth mindset” is what determines what we learn and how well we learn it. Dweck maintains that a fixed mindset assumes our character, intelligence, and creativity are fixed traits that we have no control over. A growth mindset is the belief that even though we each have unique talents, aptitudes, and interests, our mental traits can change through effort and experience.

Dweck contrasts the two mindsets this way:

In a fixed mindset, students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that’s that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset, students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching, and persistence. They don’t necessarily think everyone’s the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.

Much of Dweck’s research explores how these mindsets are formed and how early on in life. In a study on hundreds of school-age children, she examined how different types of praise influence mindset as well as how each mindset impacts learning and academic achievement. Some students were praised for how hard they worked on various tasks while others were praised for their abilities.

Two important findings stood out: (1) praise that focuses on effort nurtures a growth mindset while praise that focuses on ability nurtures a fixed mindset, and (2) students with a fixed mindset will reject learning experiences in order to avoid failure.

When students were given the choice to complete tasks of various difficulty levels, those who were praised for their ability rejected any tasks that might result in failure or indicate deficiencies. To this group, failure meant they were not smart, and the risk of that far outweighed the benefits of learning something new.

Conversely, those who were praised for effort weren’t intimidated by the risk of failing the difficult tasks. Rather, they embraced them as challenges. In fact, 90% of them wanted to tackle the most challenging tasks. To this group, failure was not a reflection of their intellect or ability, it was an indication that they just had to work harder to succeed.

The team expanded the research to find out if a fixed or growth mindset influences character traits such as honesty. They asked the students to write about their experiences and disclose their scores on the tasks. Forty percent of the students in the ability-praised group inflated their scores to make them look more intelligent. Since a fixed mindset equates failure with deficiency, almost half of these students were so ashamed of their scores that they lied about them.

Dweck didn’t confine her research to school-age children. She examined brain waves of adults to determine how mindset affects the way people receive feedback. Those with a fixed mindset were much more interested in feedback about their ability than they were in feedback about how they could improve their ability. Those with a growth mindset were much more interested in learning how to improve regardless of their current ability. They saw ability as a starting point, not the ending point.

The collective body of this research confirms that our mindset is a powerful factor in our willingness to learn as well as our ability to learn new things.

Mindset Impacts Employee Engagement and Company CultureDweck extended her research even further to explore whether an organization can cultivate a fixed or a growth mindset, and if so, how it impacts employee engagement and company culture. Employees at seven Fortune 1000 companies were asked to rate statements about the company such as, “This company believes that people have a certain amount of talent, and they really can’t do much to change it.” High levels of agreement indicated the company had a fixed mindset; low levels suggested a growth mindset. The researchers then surveyed the employees to see if there was a correlation between mindset and job satisfaction, employee engagement, collaboration, and perception of culture as well as whether it impacted managers’ perceptions of employees.

Those employees that described their companies as having a growth mindset reported that they felt empowered to take risks and valued for the contributions they made. They also described their organizations as more collaborative and innovative, and they viewed themselves as respected members of the team.

Employees at fixed-mindset companies reported cultures characterized by inequity, mistrust, and dishonesty. Many said that only a handful of employees were valued and respected and that the company largely didn’t care about the rest. They worried about being called out for failing, so they stayed in their comfort zones and avoided taking risks that could result in creativity and innovation. Employees who feel that innovation and hard work are only rewarded if they are successful are much more likely to put in the time, play it safe, and fly under the radar.

Leaders can cultivate a growth mindset in the organization by demonstrating that they value potential, capacity for learning, and a passion for challenges. When employees feel that effort is as important than ability and they are encouraged to step out of their comfort zones without fear of being penalized for making mistakes along the way, engagement and collaboration increase significantly.

5 Simple Ways to Cultivate a Growth MindsetHere is the good news: a growth mindset isn’t something you’re born with; it’s something you can develop. Here are some simple ways to do that.

1. Redefine the meaning of learning as brain training. Remember that the brain is like any other muscle in the body; the more you use it the stronger it gets.

2. Replace the words failure and mistakes with the words learning and experience. This shift in perspective turns the fear of failing into opportunities to improve. Without that fear, you’ll try more new things and you’ll learn from both mistakes and successes.

3. Embrace the word “yet.” Instead of saying, “I’m not good at that, “ train yourself to say, “I’m not good at that, yet.” That tiny word reinforces the belief that you have the power to improve.

4. Remember that the brain is not fixed and neither is your ability to learn. Each time you reach a goal, acknowledge the neuroplasticity at work in your brain. Then set a new goal knowing that you’re never done sculpting a better brain.

5. Cultivate grit. Think of grit as setting a goal so big that you can’t possibly reach it and then growing into the person who does. Embrace the challenge with the confidence that you have far more control over your brain than anything or anyone else.

If you enjoyed this post, share it with someone in your corner of the world.

Learn more about how to apply neuroscience to improve company culture, engage employees, and grow collective intelligence in your organization!

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The short answer is: probably not. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are still in the early stages of development, and their capabilities are far from replacing human labor for many jobs. But the rise of AI and robotics usage needs awareness. As AI and robotics become more advanced and cost-effective, industries such as manufacturing, transportation, retail, finance, healthcare, and many others are incorporating automation into their processes. As a result, careers that once relied on human labor are now being taken over by technology-driven processes.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean humans are becoming obsolete. Jobs in data science, programming, and AI development are growing faster than ever. Plus, as technology continues to advance, there is no doubt that new careers will be created.

At the same time, it is essential to remember that not all careers can be replaced by robots and AI quickly. Professions such as law, teaching, personal caregiving, and many more that rely heavily on the interpersonal skills of humans make it harder to be automated. However, advancements are moving forward even in careers that require interpersonal skills—examples of jobs that will be affected.

• Therapist. QTrobot helps increase children’s ability to interact with therapy while reducing anxiety.
• Lawyers. DoNotPay is an APP that acts as a lawyer.
• Squirrel, China’s largest AI-driven learning platform, is about to expand globally.
• Nursing Home Employees.
• Robotics for Ageing Well, the UK attempts to continue developing robots for aging.
• Care Robots, Japan’s decades of development continue to advance as new technology is developed.

Some careers are disappearing.

• Artist. AI art generator platforms continue to grow.
• Editors. There are now multiple AI-driven platforms that complete editing tasks.
• Farm tractor driver. John Deere’s first fully autonomous tractor is impressive.
• Fast food workers. Robots will continue to be employed as the cost of having employees rises.
• Chipotle has Chippy, an AI kitchen assistant.
• McDonald’s has begun the first-ever robot restaurant in Texas.
• White Castle has Flippy, a robot cook.

The Unknowns.* ChatGPT. The effects of technology on careers are just beginning, but expect it to impact teachers, middle-management, data analysts, journalists, HR and training professionals, accountants, and many other professions. * Sophia. The world’s first robot citizen with unlimited uses.

Ultimately, the rise of AI and robotics is transforming how we work. For those looking to remain competitive in the job market, staying updated with technological advancements is important. Secondly, learning new skills and knowledge will become critical to stay relevant in the ever-changing job market. With the right skills and knowledge, individuals can use advanced technologies to their advantage and create careers that will help them stay competitive in the future.

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Chronic stress can make you sick.I think we are at a point where most people would agree with that statement. Another way of saying that statement is; We can make ourselves sick.

Because it is not the outside events or our interactions with the world that are causing the majority of stress in our modern lives but the way we interpret and respond to them.

I am re-reading an amazing book called Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky which talks about the science behind our stress response and it goes into detail about the chemical responses and physiological actions that take place within our bodies in response to stress.

This book also talks a lot about how the systems within us that respond to stress are based on our ancestral need to survive in a more aggressive world and not so much needed to deal with our perceived stressors in our modern daily life.

The statement that we can make ourselves sick ( I think we all have heard the comment, “I worried myself sick about…”) is one that modern science has shined a large light on in the past few decades and is now widely understood and accepted.

The flip side to that coin, which has not received as much acceptance yet, is that we can also make ourselves well/keep ourselves healthy.

Before I go any further with this section let me say that this information or the work that I do is “not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

There has been tremendous amounts of work done in the field of Body/Mind science that has shown how this works. The work continues on and the field is always expanding as modern science catches up with and finds explanations for work that has been around for centuries.

If you looked at a large portion of the prescription medications that are prescribed you would see that they mimic chemicals that our bodies already make. When there is an imbalance in our systems then we do not make either enough of the chemical, too much of another chemical or it doesn’t “arrive” at the correct time in our systems. This is, of course, an oversimplification of a very complicated subject but it is for the sake of overview.

By relieving our stress we can remove a lot of the issues that are showing up in our systems in negative ways.

We can do that through several different modalities. We can work to change our reaction/interaction with the outside world so we do not see danger where it may not be.

We can also do things such as meditation and other processes that help calm our nervous system and allow it to operate in a way that supports our lives in a positive and safe way.

The majority of the work I do in this area is based on working with the unconscious mind and clearing patterns (negative emotions, Limiting decisions/beliefs) from the past that are causing the client to have reactions to their world that are showing up as stress and anxiety. Two of the biggest contributors to making us sick and unhealthy.

There is deeper work going on that looks into how our past significant emotional events show up in different negative ways in our bodies later in life. I will let that work speak for itself.

This article is not to speak negatively about modern allopathic medicine practices or pharmacology. They do amazing things for our world, including helping to extend our life expectancy and saving many lives every day.

My goal is to share that there are other ways for all of us to live a healthy and long life.

If you are interested in learning more about any of these processes, please reach out and I would enjoy discussing them with you.

I am including the titles of several books that I recommend reading that I have found to shine a bright light on these practices and explain how they can help all of us live happier and healthier lives. They range from the very scientific to the more esoteric so you can find what fits best with your interests.

You may notice several of the titles mention “healing”.

Healing is not curing.

Healing is about re-establishing a lost connection and I will save that discussion for another article.

1. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers?- Robert Sapolsky
2. The psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing – Ernest Rossi
3. Why am I sick?– Robert Flook
4. Healing and the Mind– Bill Moyers
5. Quantum Healing– Deepak Chopra
6. You can heal your life– Louise Hay

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Many of us remember Carl Sagan, a famous American astronomer, cosmologist, author, and producer of the show Cosmos. Sasha Sagan is the daughter of Carl, and she wrote a wonderful book about rituals for finding meaning in our unlikely world entitled For Small Creatures Such As We. In the book, Sagan looks to create a set of rituals for her secular family that honor the joy and significance of each experience without relying entirely on a religious framework.

While I enjoyed the entire book on living a secular life while still trying to acknowledge rituals and traditions within a family unit, one passage resonated with me for a longer period. Well into chapter five on confession and atonement she writes about celebrating rituals and traditions for some redemption or rebirth—decorating the Christmas tree each year, for example, or those traditions that happen only once in a lifetime like baptisms and funerals. She also speaks of possibly making up her own secular holiday to atone or celebrate, and she chose the one I have unofficially followed for many years: March Forth.

“My mother and I have often thought that March 4th would be a good date for such a secular holiday. When you say it out loud, in English, it sounds like a bold command. It’s a pun that seems to cry out a directive to improve or ‘evolve.’ In a footnote to the book Pale Blue Dot, [Carl Sagan] describes the events of March 4, 1953 BCE, when the five planets visible to the naked eye aligned perfectly, ‘strung out like jewels on a necklace near the great square in the constellation Pegasus.’ This was observable in China and may have been ‘the starting point for the planetary cycles of the ancient Chinese astronomers.’ Up until that moment, they had a completely different view of the universe and our place in it, but faced with new evidence, they changed their worldview, abandoning what no longer made sense.”

Sagan goes on to write “My brain cannot help drawing connections between the verb march and the month March, the adverb forth and numerical term fourth. It’s nothing more than a happy coincidence, but if it hadn’t been for this event it would have been another. March 4th is as good a day as any to repent. This needn’t be a day to beat ourselves up for being human but instead shake off what we can no longer stand up to scrutiny, and to bravely march forth into the personal and philosophical unknown.”

When you say it out loud, in English, it sounds like a bold command. It’s a pun that seems to cry out a directive to improve or ‘evolve.’

I have been recognizing March 4th as a kick-in-the-butt motivational holiday for many years. When I was younger, I used this day on more than one occasion as a starting point for a diet. For many reasons, notwithstanding the mention above by Sagan, this date is much better for atonement than, say, January 1st. So many people announce New Year’s resolutions to exercise more or eat less, but in the dead of winter you are more sedentary and homebound by default, and neither of those things is as attainable as in springtime, during warmer weather and more opportunities for exercising outdoors.

Springtime is by its very definition a time of rebirth, with new sightings of animals, buds on plants and trees, lawns peeking out from the snow and greening up, and so much more.

The warmth of longer days pulls you toward the idea of wanting to get out and move, a much more natural motivator than the gray harsh cold of the shorter days of winter. Thus, march forth.

Several years ago, at my last place of employment, a workmate was fired on March 2nd. The following day, the bulk of his workload was dumped on me in a very unprofessional manner by my supervisor, who basically tried to blame me for that person being let go. My manager’s behavior and actions challenged me to decide if I wanted to continue in my role there, in what I suddenly perceived as a more toxic environment. After a night of contemplation, I chose to rise up and power through the situation—on March 4th—and will always remember that day of coming into work with a new set of goals for myself as a person. A few years later, the recession hit, and we experienced some layoffs and pay cuts the last week of February due to losing a large client. I was not let go but took a cut in pay and again was assigned some additional work of those who were let go. Once again on March 4th, I chose to march forth, but to proceed with caution and take a closer look at my career and where I was headed.

I get motivated to do something—anything—to improve upon what I currently have.

Later that year, I started to retool so I could be better prepared to leave this job on my own power instead of being blindsided by a future layoff. I started applying for jobs and went back to college at the age of forty to get an IT degree and learn web development. I began networking with others on several platforms to develop relationships and connections. From there, I took a job at UW-Madison as a production worker and then 18 months later a supervisor, taking me down an entirely different path of leadership and growth that I never could have imagined before taking those actions.

More recently, March 4th has come more quietly, but the corners of my mouth curl up slightly and I get motivated to do something—anything—to improve upon what I currently have. As my “inner planets” align and adjust my worldview each spring, I strive for change and to evolve into something more than I was before.

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Only a handful of people actually do what they know to do. Take the best seller Think and Grow Rich. Since 2011 70 million copies of the classic have been sold worldwide. The book synthesizes what successful people do that the unsuccessful people do not … and have done for 200+ generations.

Hill was a reporter who kept up with some 500 citizens that were healthy, happy and wealthy, to find out their secrets. It was Andrew Carnegie that offered the 20-year ‘job’ to Hill.

Today’s most successful people use this plan, whether they have read the book or not. Men have much of this knowledge inherently — that is it is in their DNA. You only need to watch a man step up to the plate on inner confidence and desire, even though he knows he is not qualified. Women don’t do this.

If then, more than 70m copies have been sold and it contains the most concrete plan for expedient success, you must ask yourself this question:

Why aren’t there 70 million millionaires? Every person that can read can be a millionaire or a billionaire.

Because we “don’t do what we already know to do!” And we continue to add more and more information to what we do know — still not applying what we know.

It’s not having knowledge that is power. It is the consistent application of the knowledge over time until it becomes habilitualized. That is the POWER.

Take a quick inventory of your books and programs in which you have invested financially and never used. You are not alone. We are invigorated with new information, yet acting on it isn’t as invigorating — it actually takes something.

The difference between knowing and doing is often called the performance gap.

Why don’t we do what we already know to do?We have a slew of beliefs, paradigms, or clusters of ‘ways of being’ that are automatic. We’ve believed them as true for so long they’ve taken hold and we don’t even notice them.

The beliefs are based primarily on the beliefs of others … those we love and admire and whom we want to please. Unfortunately, most beliefs of others are of lack and limitation rather than abundance and opportunity. These beliefs have been ‘engineered’ by default in our subconscious mind or what the Ancient Greeks referred to as our ‘heart of hearts.’ I will cover how to ‘engineer a belief’ later.

As children when we ‘stubbed our toe’ we became more and more careful where we put our toes. It didn’t take long to learn that by noon the sand at the beach is so hot you must run to give your feet a chance to cool between strides. We run faster or we wear shoes to protect our tender feet.

Likewise, when we are embarrassed or ashamed as children as a result of our behavior, we tend to shy away from repeating that behavior. It’s a protection of sorts … when we are children.

Perhaps your first time in front of the class in early elementary school, sharing a report you wrote, you misunderstood the instructions, reported on the wrong book, and classmates began to laugh and chide you. Fighting back the tears, we plant this truth to protect ourselves, “I’ll never get up in front of a group of people to speak again.” Maybe that’s why some people say that public speaking is a fate worse than death for most!

This protection works well as a child, yet those habits and inner dialogue are ‘still running your life.’ And as adults, this does not serve us very well. We allow ourselves to be stopped from acting on ideas that light us up … mostly because we don’t know how. And the fear of crossing the gap of performance is greater than our desire to have what we want. And we have a host of beliefs that say “it’s selfish to want more,” or “there simply isn’t enough money to go around.”

These beliefs keep us playing small and taking no risk. The level of our reward is always the perfect reflection of how much risk we are willing to take.

The process of developing the beliefs of others follows us into adulthood, adding more opinions of others, including television and news reporters. Negativity sells, so by default, we are ‘filled with’ the negative points of view of others. When you harness the “power of pause” as you step from ‘knowing to doing,’ you will see that you always have a minimum of two perspectives or answers to every question.

So it makes perfect sense that when we go to ‘step’ from knowing to doing, there is a great Fear of the unknown between the two. You want it and you start out, yet when things get dark and you can’t see how you can do it, you step back to safety.

Not only are you hearing your own inner dialogue such as “I’ve tried before and I’ve failed,” or “I’m not smart enough or deserving,” or “Someone else is better at this than I am,” if you share this with others you will also hear “are you crazy, you’ve never done that before,” or “who do you think you are,” or “go get a regular job” (one of my favorites).

It’s a battle for the one conscious thought over which you have control over. Why wouldn’t you back down if your inner self doesn’t believe you can do it and others don’t either?

These beliefs are held by both men and women, and for women it is critical that we overcome them. While men automatically step up to the plate in business, women do not. It doesn’t matter initially if the man is not competent … he’s first at bat. It’s not too long before you realize that just because they ‘stepped up’ does not mean ‘they’ will necessarily navigate the gap.

After 45 years in corporate America, my experience is that I more often than not — and my female counterparts — ended up more often than not ‘finishing up’ what they had started!

Why? Because we have been finishing up and cleaning up after our families for more than 200 generations! We’re good at it, yet we don’t have time to finish up after others and still grow our own businesses.

Here’s an example. Ready to start, a dozen thoroughbreds are at the starting gate ready for the first race of the season. Behind the row of gates, one woman is in charge to get all the horses down the track and cross the finish line.

Three, two, one, and the starting gun is fired. As the horses leave the gates, the woman is behind them. Watch her running sideways behind the horses slapping each one as she runs by, saying, “come on boy, you can do it!” Back and forth she runs, egging all the horses on, and finally, they all cross the finish line at the same time. We bring everyone across the finish line but no clear star or winner.

Now put a man behind the gates. Three, two, one, and the starting gun is fired. As the horses leave the gate, the man is behind them. See him pick out the middle horse and run behind only him, slapping and chiding him to go faster. Finally, that one horse crosses the line first and wins the race. He is the star.

Women must learn to practice laser focus on one idea … and bring it home, to the exclusion of all else. Men already do this naturally. It’s not our way. We are the nurturers and peacemakers. Women make sure everyone is a winner. That doesn’t work in business.

Navigating the performance gapWhen we must step into the gap to apply knowledge and move toward what we want, it is a given that we are afraid. Afraid because we do not know HOW we’ll get across. Our experiences have us automatically stop short. If we do not cross the gap we are destined to going to the edge on one idea, shrinking back; going to the edge on another, and shrinking back again.

To solve this problem, I wedged a large coin with a thick edge in the gap. Now you may cross the divide on the edge of the coin.

What value does ‘crossing above the gap’ provide?1. You are physically higher than you were before so you have vast vision of both sides of the gap. You see all sides of your obstacle or issue. You see why you shouldn’t cross over and why you should cross it, and the best way to do it. You get to make an objective and responsive decision. 2. You have a high level of awareness of your current potential. You can see once you have chosen to proceed the precise steps to the ‘doing’ side. 3. Even if you ‘slip’ the edge is wide enough for you to pull yourself back up. Your ‘muscle of Faith’ is developed enough so that it ‘lifts you’ back to the coin’s edge for a clear view. 4. Decisions that take you from knowing to doing as quickly as possible allow you to grow your business with consistency, momentum and results. 5. Once you are practiced at hopping across whenever you have something new to tackle, you become the Champion for other women who have not found their own ‘sea legs’ and are inspired by what you are doing and the results you are getting. 6. You can use this image whenever you know what you want to do and need to do to forward your business yet are afraid. Every time you lift yourself to the coin’s edge, your intellect grows, and soon it becomes a habit.

The Champion has developed Faith … Faith in herself and Faith in our Universe and how it works.

She lives by the following values from which she avidly seeks their wisdom. These values and laws operate all the time, whether we are aware of them and how they work, or not. Take for example the physical law of gravity. The result of taking a jump off a cliff is well-known to all of us. Down we go with an impact that matches the depth of fall and our physical condition. So you don’t jump off cliffs.

What if all the principles below also worked all the time and you not only were aware of them, you also studied and applied them in growing your business. You would have an extraordinary advantage and step into the realm of ‘the few’ who are not only wealthy — they are healthy and happy. These principles in action spike business growth and momentum and keep it consistent when applied over time. The idea is to have these values become part of you — automatic, or habitualized.

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When we begin our careers, we have yet to learn about the pitfalls we may soon face. The same applies to building a business. Those who do succeed are the ones who heed life lessons to overcome unforeseen challenges and move beyond. But for those who don’t, excuses fly for quitting to exclaim their track was not to be. The slogan, ‘think positive!’ offers much merit and is to be with us at all times.

My Story

When we surround ourselves with similar-minded people, motivation for one another picks up as ideas emerge. To my surprise, someone asked me to provide him with motivational quotes, to which I responded: I’ll be happy to do so, but can you tell me why you ask? He then answered that his goal is to help students and those starting their careers. The answer was perfect, as that is my mission, too.

On another level, the quotes I heard and accepted throughout the years motivated me to push past the obstacles before me to achieve my desires. Accordingly, we need to heed life lessons when we desire to accomplish all we hold in mind.

Below you will read one quote spoken to me that started me on my unique path, and the ones that I created upon experiencing seemingly the worst of the day to arrive at better moments. May they inspire thought for you to move forward with a smile!

In My Youth

Bullies surrounded me everywhere, and I shriveled up to cry on one occasion. But the same day, everything changed when I heard:

If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will.

The Benefits: Personal and Business

The one quote saved me from ever allowing another to pull me down with them. Heeding the advice, I began to tune into the personality of everyone I encountered. I began to carefully listen to their choice of words, plus watch their body language and facial expressions. If any sign of inconsistency or rudeness were evident, I would set the person on their heels to ask many questions to examine their responses and behaviors further.

People called me intuitive, but that is only sometimes correct because I was heeding life lessons. Accordingly, long before I knew it, I grew into the personality that successful salespeople possess.

Question, listen, and clarify to sell well.

Persistence Will Keep You In The Game

Business Advancement

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Never give up; find a better way.

Seek the nuggets of gold in the nasty remarks to launch your business forward.

Baby steps every day will get you to your goal.

Nothing is impossible with the desire to figure out your best path forward, regardless of what others think.

Remember, you are unique, and what will or won’t work for others may not necessarily prove true for you.

Eliminate the rhetoric, ‘you should,’

A. Being competitive helps you to win trophies and some recognition. However, being collaborative gives you a much wider audience with far greater opportunities to achieve the success you never imagined

B. People who brag do so because they have a severe lack of confidence

C. When nastiness is yours for the keeping, put on your well-oiled super person cape to fly upward, and the darts fall to
the floor.

Leadership Success

The better leadership style is to be inclusive and embrace diversity and inclusion. Listening to understand brings about a more comprehensive range of possibilities. People from varying backgrounds possess various experiences from which we may all learn. By embracing and acting upon the concept, your perspective widens, solutions will deepen, and success will expand.

Never brag about accomplishments, but share your best insights with people following your lead so they may advance and, one day, lead others.

‘Believe, Become, Empower.’

Self-Reflection

Every morning awake with renewed enthusiasm for your long-term vision and focus on that goal to do what is necessary for a baby-step advance every day. Keep a notepad and pen near your bedside if the thought comes to capture it in the middle of the night, and then quickly go back to sleep. Before you retire in the evening, write what you need to complete the next day.

Entrepreneurships

• Trust is the soul of sales and all else that you do.
• Consistency in words, actions, and deeds develops trust and builds a reputable brand.
• A dedication to learning plus trial and error to retry will get you to your goal.
• Our worst experiences are our gifts in disguise.
• Respectfully listen to all perspectives to realize the gold nuggets previously unknown.
• The collaborative effort can bring about exponential growth with supportive peers.

Heed Life Lessons to Improve Relationships

Strive to be among people who accept your ideas, admire them, and contribute more so you may all be successful.

The sales term cold calling of days long ago referred to an aggressive pursuit of prospective clients. However, cold calling today can refer to making friendly professional connections and attracting interest in what you offer minus aggressive techniques. The style works very well.

To receive better introductions, be respectful of all. No matter who you encounter, their professional title matters not. However, what matters most is how you treat them because they know the executives who can help you advance.

Above all, be truthful with consistency intact. Your words, actions, and deeds are essential because friendship underlies all your interactions and all communications. You need to demonstrate what people want to know about you to attract them to your services and see the business expand.

In Conclusion: Heed Life Lessons

Believe in Yourself! Nothing is impossible with the mindset to continue, no matter the obstacles in your path. Positive thinking will help you arrive at your destination only to move beyond! Looking back, you will be amazed by all that you have accomplished.

Those who do succeed are the ones who heed life lessons to overcome unforeseen challenges and move beyond. But for those who don’t, excuses fly.

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Staying focused and productive can be a challenge when everything seems to be tugging for your attention. My clients often tell me that they are overwhelmed with so much to do and want to know how they can be more productive.

Here are 15 of my best tips.

1. Plan your day before it starts

You are in control of your day and your calendar. Deciding what you plan to achieve sets the tone of your day. It keeps your mind focused. And a focused mind can achieve a lot.

1. Read and write down your goals every day

This daily reminder will mentally put you in a positive state to accomplish those goals in the best way possible.

1. Use a default diary

Set up a default diary and make sure that you have time scheduled to complete important projects and tasks.

1. Prioritize your work for the day

While reviewing your plans for the day, identify the most important things you need to do. Focus on the most critical work first before doing everything else.

1. Analyze your activities to identify and minimize time wasters

If you want to free up some serious time, start with doing a skill/fun box exercise to determine what you need to do and what you should delegate. My clients have reported to me that they hear my voice in their head asking: “can’t someone else do that?”

1. Learn how to delegate well

Delegation is not abdication – nor is it micromanaging. Delegation is a skill that you can learn – this will help: How to become a master of delegation.

1. Reduce inefficient communications

Develop a regular team meeting rhythm including a daily huddle for managing employees. When it comes to communicating with clients or vendors, sometimes a phone call is faster and more effective than an email.

1. Break large tasks into smaller tasks

Have you ever looked at something on your to-do list and thought to yourself: “I don’t even know where to start”? The best way to start is by breaking that large task into smaller tasks.

1. Take a break when you need one

When you begin to feel overwhelmed and stressed with work, take a break. Breaks are necessary to recharge your brain cells to be more focused when you eventually resume.

1. Manage interruptions

Interruptions will break your flow and significantly impact your productivity. If you need to do some focused work turn off your phone notifications, close your office door and make yourself unavailable.

1. Concentrate on one thing at a time

Once you have identified a key task, stay on it until it’s 100% complete.

1. Work every day towards achieving a long-term outcome

One of the best ways to achieve your long-term visions is to be more productive in your short-term goals. Work towards your long-term goals by actively accomplishing the daily goals you set for yourself.

1. Simplify your work process

Sometimes we fall into habits of doing things the same way every time without stopping to look for a better way. Can you get the same thing accomplished in 5 steps instead of 7?

1. Learn how to terminate unproductive discussions

Find a way to politely extract yourself from casual chitchat. If you have completed everything on the agenda, end the meeting early and claim back some time.

1. Set communication rules for your peers or subordinates who bring you questions or problems

Ask people to do these 3 things before they come to you:

1. Write down the problem. Reduce it to a single sentence.
2. What are the three best solutions or suggestions for the problem? Write them down.
3. What do you recommend?

Being more productive is an intentional decision to make. When you are clear about what you need to do, the above tips can really help you make the most out of each day.

Sometimes “increased productivity” isn’t the answer

If you are uncertain about your goals and your most important priorities or if you know you need to make significant changes to how you are doing business and aren’t clear about what those changes need to be it might be time to consider working with a business coach.

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This series is targeted at leaders who are interested in learning about how to create a legacy. Upon investigation, most leadership legacy resources focus on the organization you are leaving, the financial portfolio you leave behind and even the transition plan to the next leader. It is hard to find one article that focuses on…well…the leader…you!

Leadership LegacySo, I thought I would put three different legacy paths together in this series to help you discern what might be in your wake and hopefully, in your bow waves as well.

We are starting here, with your Leadership Legacy. It was crafted with the knowledge that not many leaders fully retire. We often find consulting gigs, or projects and boards to be part of and it’s that blurred line that is worthy of some reflection here.

We often see executives jump into consulting roles as they get closer to the end of their official careers. Some say it’s because they can’t put up with the bureaucracy anymore, while others say that their knowledge is antiquated. I imagine it being not so much about these things but a nice big realization that now is the time to live an active life with some work to keep us purpose-filled. It feels good to be able to golf for a few weeks between contracts or do some work in the morning and hike in the afternoon.

But as you get closer to day hiking and golf lessons, it behooves you to take some time to reflect on the wake you are making. The wake of what you are leaving behind in your own career. Not in your company or in your transition plan. This is about you specifically. Are you known as a hard-ass? A financier that focuses only on cost-cutting? The CEO that makes shareholders happy?

List them out if you can – better if you can perhaps ask someone you trust to give you their thoughts as well:

• What are the themes in the work you have done?
• What do you personally want to be remembered for?
• How can you make that truer with the time you have left?

Focusing on your legacy helps craft connections between what you want to be remembered for and what themes currently exist. My hope for you is that they are not that far apart. My other hope for you is that what makes it truer gets you excited about your final days in this role.

If this is hard for you to visualize:

• What do you really love to do?
• What networks are you part of that can make use of those much-loved skills?
• What boards would open those doors to help you use those skills more often?

If we thought of semi-retirement as a true career transition (from one job to the next), we can certainly wrap our heads around the idea that what you leave behind is important to your brand. The difference is that now, it’s not just about your brand, you can now focus on things you love to do, the challenges you enjoy strategizing for and the successes that further deepen that important legacy.

You may be a CEO for a technology company however you may also love arctic adventures – what can you do to make both of those things work for you? While being on the Board of a VR Expedition Company is not your idea of fun, know that it all comes down to what are you known for today and what you want to be known for 5 years from now.

What do you need to do today to begin filling the gap between those two things? It should be closer and easier than you think.

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In the late 1990s, with several decades working full-time in corporate America under my belt, I was introduced to my new boss at a small scientific company in Research Triangle Park, NC. Serving as desktop publisher (from secretary to technical information specialist) I managed the company’s proposal production department. If you were a secretary in the ’60s and stayed in the field through century end, you had to go through all iterations of word processing, magnetic card readers, MTST a huge machine with a tape on both sides, and more. Without display with the MTST (magnetic tape Selectric typewriter), you would transfer a document from the right tape to the left one having to ‘catch’ where the changes had to be made in between, on the keyboard. All the way through to the TRS 80 (Tandy Radio Shack) … the computer that stored information on an 8″ floppy disk, smaller floppy discs, floppy discs that were no longer floppy, and more. They got small and weren’t flexible. You by this time had to be a master of the craft of being a ‘secretary.’ I say craft as I also learned to write DOS batch files, teach computer-aided drafting systems (CADD) to architects, and more.

About five feet three inches tall and dressed in a well-fitted pantsuit, my new boss smiled and extended her hand which I took and shook. We talked freely and in a very short time, I recognized something very familiar about her. Her conversation included certain words that were ‘coined’ by a transformational technology — one which I had studied in great depth over time. When I asked if she had done ‘the work,’ she said yes, and that “the technology changed her life.” The best part was that since we spoke the same language, I could always be straight with her and not worry about being judged or evaluated on a personal level. We both had done Landmark Education programs.

Over the next few months, I marveled as I watched her fit right in with all the male directors and c-level executives sans one woman director in statistics. She seemed relaxed and confident no matter what she was doing.

One day as we caught up on activities and I sat across from her in her office, I had been itching to ask her something and because of our relationship at this point, I did. “How do you get along with all the men managers so well?” Her answer changed my entire perspective on women in business and became an important milestone in my career. She said with a smile, “I do what they do.”

She was right … she did. I watched her closely from then on and she seemed to interact as they did. They all had short bullet-point dialogues with one another. They shook hands coming and going and they all stood rather still while they talked. I never saw them socializing like their direct reports. They were short, cordial, and to the point. And she ‘fit in’ like a glove.

When I first learned the cold, hard statistics about the gender wage gap — how much more men earn than women for doing the same job, and by when the gap would close — I was in shock.

I began to think of my granddaughters and great-granddaughters to be, waiting to be paid what they deserve while being integral in the financial responsibility of their families. I realized there was not only something I could do to crush that gap … I was fired up about it! I have just the right training, experience, and skills to start teaching women what to do to begin crushing and squeezing the life out of the gender wage gap right now.

And if I didn’t, then who would? Our mothers and grandmothers … and theirs … took their risks on our behalf, stepped out in the face of adversity, and made a difference one woman at a time. It has to be done that way to make steady inroads in more promotions and better pay for women. That is precisely how we crush the gap early and turn the tables in our favor in short order — stepping out, taking action, and taking a stand! Being a Champion for others.

As you read further, see if any of the behavioral business skills mentioned could be affecting your own opportunities for growth in business. Few women have mastered them all, however. It’s about learning, mastering, then habitualizing one skill at a time, at your own pace, which ultimately keeps you inspired and engaged, bringing you one step closer to success. You may feel the laughter of recognition swelling in your smile as things begin to get very clear for you … and you know what to do next.

After 45 years in corporate and 20 years in professional development, it was very clear to me that most women are invisible — not seen or heard by business leaders, both men and women. Being invisible yields lack of credibility. And not being seen or heard gives us almost no opportunity for advancement.

When I held the position of document production supervisor for a company in the healthcare industry, I noticed two small things over the 5 years I worked there.

1. While our department was the last pair of eyes on huge proposals (thousands of pages) that had to arrive picture-perfect by a certain time or date (or would end up in the trash), and I ran it effectively, there was no ‘step up’ for me in the organization — no place for me to ‘go.’ No path to director or executive level. I was stuck there or I could choose to leave.
2. Small yet telling … after securing an 8 figure contract, the company did ample expansion with window offices around the whole floor. Every single person that had direct reports was assigned a window office, except … you guessed it … me. I had 4 direct reports and was not even considered. When I brought this up to my supervisor, I did get the window office. The point here for me was that it wasn’t even a ‘thought’ in anyone’s mind. That’s invisibility.

During the dot.com era while working for a small tech startup, a coup ensued (not atypical then) during a Board meeting which I attended by phone. When an attendee in the meeting asked about my position, the board member in charge told them all “her services are no longer needed.” For about 10 seconds my blood began to boil and then something magical happened. I did a 180 in my thinking and said to myself, “I don’t want to be where I am not wanted. I have excellent skills and I want to be working with people who appreciate what I bring to the table.”

Figure 1 Whether small business or corporate, women are invisible.Women are invisible in business, therefore not credible, and passed over for deserved opportunities for advancement.

Isn’t it time for you to be visible, credible, and enjoy opportunities for advancement? I say YES, it is time!

Were you at all surprised that women are earning far less than men? No? I didn’t think so.

It has been this way since I can remember when my mother’s part-time job for ‘pin’ or ‘mad’ money in the late ’50s and early ’60s, turned into a full-time job in the ’70s, and by the ’80s, all her wages were required to support the household. Earning less is frustrating for you — today’s working woman. You are challenged to make ends meet, you may well be ‘doing it all’ on your own, and you live longer, paying more for insurance.

Business success today has its own personality .. and you likely guessed that — it is male. It made perfect sense to me when I realized for the past 200 generations or so since we began recording history, that history was recorded and read by men, and then the virtues and timeless principles recorded were practiced by men in business, consistently and repeatedly over time, until their way of doing things effectively, simply set the landscape for success in business. It became automatic — a habit.

During that same 200 generations of course women were developing their own unique skills including leadership, collaboration, and peacemaking.

If we had had the luxury of declaring ‘in 5 years we’ll go into business,’ between now and then, we could learn the skills required to be as successful as our male counterparts before we even started! No. We’re already in the thick of it. And most of us are like fish out of water in business

I suspect men becoming ‘house husbands’ while their wives work, experience the same fish-out-of-water experience, as their inherent skills are not very useful in successful home management.

Figure 2 Men have set the context for business success through the ages.Men are unaware of the source of their own influence in business as they are a collection of inherent and hidden habits.

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Quiet quitting is a description for people who are unhappy in their job but, for whatever reason, don’t feel able to leave.What does it mean to be a quiet quitter?

Quiet quitting is a description for people who are unhappy in their job but, for whatever reason, don’t feel able to leave. As a result, they reduce the effort that they are putting into their job, doing the minimum and nothing beyond. Quiet quitting as a term took off in the summer of 2022 after a US TikTokker posted a video that went viral saying “work is not your life”, as reported here on BBC News. This resonated with the post-Covid feelings of millions of employees.

But it’s a significant threat to both short- and long-term organisational performance. And it’s something that all company executives and leaders should be concerned about and take action to address. It eats away at all aspects of the effective operation of the organisation; its ability to deliver strategic objectives and achieve its vision.

Employees who are quiet quitting are a real drain on team performance and can negatively affect workplace culture.

What’s caused quiet quitting?Quiet quitting has always been with us but the Covid-19 pandemic massively increased the potential for it. It’s caused by the same drivers which gave us the ‘Great Resignation’. So, what caused the Great Resignation? One simple phrase explains both quiet quitting and is the impetus for the Great Resignation – our experiences create our perceptions. These then determine our behaviour at work in response to different situations.

As the Great Resignation, or indeed also the great ‘I’m not even going back’, started all of us had come through two years of being locked in and locked down. We all saw serious illness on a scale that none of us had ever experienced. Some of us also suffered a personal tragedy. It brought home to each of us how precious and short life could be. As a result of this potentially traumatic life experience for all of us, lots of people reprioritised what was important in life. For most, this meant that the importance of work significantly dropped compared to the importance of family, free time, quality of life, and well-being. It was probably the greatest reality check many of us have ever experienced.

It was those changed perceptions that raised the benchmarks by which we measured what we wanted and expected from work, especially from our leaders.

What drives quiet quitting or resigning?People are no longer prepared to tolerate poor leadership, overwork and antisocial hours, unfair rules, not being treated with respect, having our private lives undervalued, and not being able to grow and develop as a person or see a positive future ahead. So the benchmark against which people measured their leaders and organisations was raised. Leaders who were tolerated before the pandemic were now seen in a new light and seen as unacceptable – so people left. Analytics firm Gallup reports that this is reflected in falls in employee engagement in many countries.

The reasons for which people left organisations are likely to be very similar to the reasons which trigger quiet quitting, so it’s worth looking at the headline reasons for departure as reported by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

These include:

• Uncaring leaders: not feeling valued by the boss or the organisation
• No sense of belonging
• Lack of flexible working
• Lack of visible potential advancement
• Unmanageable workload
• Lack of engagement
• Poor work-life balance

However, how many of us are in a secure enough financial position to leave our jobs without one to go to? Not many. Not everyone can leave when they want, despite a rise in those prepared to do so even without a job to go to.

With a leader who doesn’t meet their standards, people who can’t leave will stay as ‘quiet quitters’ until they can. Just doing enough to get by. In particular Generation Z – that’s those born after 1995 – have a very different view of the priority between work and personal time, and what they expect from their leaders and organisations. They view the reasons listed in the infographic more negatively than other groups and expect a greater focus on well-being in the workplace.

It’s also worth noting that many employers don’t often recognise or admit the key drivers for resignations, they say it’s other things which they cannot control like employees leaving through sickness or being poached by competitors to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the departure.

Why is quiet quitting so dangerous?Quiet quitting is more dangerous precisely because you’re not resigning. It can have a greater negative impact on organisations than if people just left. If somebody leaves, they are gone and can be replaced by somebody prepared to give maximum effort – often coming in as an enthusiastic new employee. If they stay, their negative impact could linger for months if not years, and attitudes impact their colleagues.

Despite the damage they are potentially causing, identifying quiet quitters and trying to re-engage them can be extremely difficult for a leader. Those who quiet quit could be underperforming by 30% on their potential performance. Not only that but if their behaviour starts to have a negative impact on others in the team – they become disengaged and damaging. It’s reported by Gallup that you need to have four engaged employees to counter the negative impact of every one disengaged quiet quitter.

Daily examples of quiet quittingIt might be useful to give a few practical examples of what the difference is in terms of day-to-day behaviour between those who are engaged – giving their best – and those who are quiet quitting, by definition not engaged or even disengaged. Here we illustrate the significant negative impact which this can have.

How widespread is the problem of quiet quitting?The figures for the number of people leaving jobs have increased but there is an additional and worrying dynamic. Before the pandemic, most people wouldn’t leave a job unless they had a new one, but now the number who will has significantly increased. Potentially up to 60 to 70% of people are now prepared to leave without a job if they feel they need to, say McKinsey & Company. Global media company Forbes also reports that this is particularly affecting the Gen Z group, where 77% are already thinking of leaving, a precursor to quiet quitting and potentially departure.

This single change in perception vastly increases the ease and speed at which people can leave. No longer does there have to be a long and sustained period of dissatisfaction with your boss or research into potential new jobs. If you don’t care about having another job, your departure decision can be very swiftly implemented and it could be triggered by just one incident which has pushed you too far.

The data on how many people leave organisations versus those who are potentially quiet quitting is dramatic. Standard organisational turnover could be between 10 to 15%, but in annual surveys, the number of people who say they might consider leaving organisations if they could find a better job is around 40%, rising to 54% for Gen Z. So we can potentially make the judgement that for every person who leaves an organisation there may be 3 or 4 staff members considering it. So a significant number of people could be quiet quitting to some degree. Therefore organisations potentially have a quiet quitting iceberg – the danger hidden under the surface and almost impossible to assess.

How do you measure quiet quitting and the wider problem?While I say that getting evidence of individual quiet quitting is very difficult at a strategic level, an aggregate picture with reasonable accuracy can be obtained using employee engagement data. This data groups employees into three populations:

• The engaged – people who are giving their best.
• The not engaged – people doing enough to get by or sometimes giving their best depending on how they feel.
• The disengaged – people actively avoiding contributing to the organisation.

It’s unlikely that your engaged people will want to leave because, to be classified as engaged, they will have given feedback confirming they are having a positive experience, and their work is consistently good. Your quiet quitters are within the ‘not engaged’ or potentially even the ‘disengaged’ groups depending on how disaffected they are. The ‘disengaged’ are much easier to spot than the ‘not engaged’ because there are often weak elements within their performance. Whereas the ‘not engaged’ can be performing satisfactorily but just not giving their best – withholding their ‘discretionary effort’.

Quiet quitters are embedded in these ‘not engaged’ and ‘disengaged’ groups – and potentially in large numbers. Data from Gallup’s workplace engagement survey 2022 shows levels of employee engagement. This is the percentage of employees giving their best. In most European countries it’s under 25%, with the UK at a dismal 9%. In the USA and Canada, employee engagement levels are a more respectable 33%. The differential between the US and Canada, Europe in general, and the UK are significant – why this is happening is a bigger question for another article.

This means that in the UK, on average, 91% of employees are either ‘not engaged’ or ‘disengaged’ so not giving their best and therefore could be quiet quitters – this is horrifying! But even in the US and Canada, with a 33% engagement rate, it still means a potential quiet quitter population of up to 67%.

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Have you ever come to a solution right after you stopped thinking about it? Walked out of a planning meeting where no one seemed to have the answer and BOOM.. you are on the elevator and it comes to you? That is because the mind works best without the weight of external pressure. Many times the answer is there, but can’t be revealed until we stop, and play.

I believe we can build and rebuild our strengths in play at any age, but we need to start by removing the stigma of play as unproductive or frivolous.

Play is a place where we conquer our fears and open ourselves up to our full potential. Play can change our social interactions, our physical and mental health, our innovative and creative potential, and our drive to take risks, fall, and get up again.

Play answers the question, “What do we do when no one has the answer?”

The creative confidence to develop solutions to insurmountable issues comes from confidence, motivation, trust, and innovation. Watch children turn trees into tree houses, and puddles into oceans, jump from rock to rock, miss a step, and get back up.

Now consider what you experience when someone loves the work they do. What do you feel like in their space? What do you see, hear, and say after encountering people who love and are good at what they do? They are “in play” physically, cognitively, and emotionally; they are invested. What if we could build or rebuild the place where we are most open to learning, least self-conscious, and our most authentic self?

We are only brushing the surface of some of our most difficult societal challenges because we try to overcome them without exploring our full potential. Play gives us perspective and experience. However, play is hard work for many people, as they have to climb over a mountain of guilt, judgment, shame, and long-held beliefs about productivity and the seriousness of work to even imagine it as a driver for change. What if we changed the way we think about play.

What if we said that play is the catalyst to igniting and developing the “soft skills” that drive innovation, productivity, and passion, and focused on developing and growing them?

Play can be the catalyst for conversations that might never have happened, revealing others’ strengths, fears, abilities, and concerns that might never have been discovered otherwise. Play allows us to unravel prejudice, bias, expectation, judgment, and self-consciousness. It creates a reduced physiological stress response and an openness to authentic conversation. But it cannot do that without the foundations of trust, respect, connection, and belonging; that’s where rebuilding happens.

Play disrupts our standardized way of looking at the world — it invites us to change without shaming.

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It is always a good practice to test options regularly. However, when mishaps occur, it becomes essential to do so. Four errors recently occurred via vendors, but one can potentially affect business having my attention. Rather than lamenting the problem, I am testing what may and may not work today as it may affect future work. The goal is to enjoy, hopefully, a better tomorrow.

My StoryOver time, I learned that agonizing over a troubling situation accomplishes little except extra stress. On the positive side, unexpected issues often lead to better solutions and outcomes. When we allow ourselves to ride the wave of uncertainty, we often find ourselves on a new shore of opportunity.

The word options used in the title can refer to trading via the markets, but that was not my intent. However, a relatable story occurred yesterday. A friend was lamenting that the stock market was headed way down and doomed to crash. Although not a financial advisor, my reply was that the stock market has a history of highs and lows, only to return to its starting point and then surpass that momentary high point. I used the Great Depression as an example.

Hopefully, we won’t be heading toward anything similar, but we are to prepare for the highs and lows of life in all regards. For that reason alone, it is best to regularly test options before us to ensure we can move forward the way we desire. Doing so affects business as well as our everyday life.

Testing aligns with learning. Testing ideas, technology advancements, and strategies are essential to remain ahead of the curve and not stagnate.

The bonus in turning to test options is that our enthusiasm begins to return, and the stress fades away. We know that something good will come out of the situation to become a learning moment in time. Accordingly, the knowledge can and will increase confidence to continue moving forward.

Social media is an outstanding resource for reviewing the thought of others, reading credible articles, and collaborating with people worldwide. We can siphon the best of what we hear and read when we realize various views. By not allowing incidents to pull us back or accept everything, we strengthen our resolve to figure out our next moves. We are then on the path to test options regularly. The bonus is in learning to work with our endeavors cohesively. For this reason alone, diversity and inclusion are essential elements for success.

Your Story: Do You Test Options Regularly?First and foremost, it’s a good idea to realize how you deal with setbacks and if a new method will be beneficial. The common thread is to fret, allow a situation to hold you back, and then scramble to catch up once ready to begin again. The typical scenario doesn’t do well for anyone and it’s best to find a better way forward. Consider the idea to test options regularly.

Those who are motivated will see closing one door as the opportunity to open a new one with greater possibilities ahead. It’s best to remember that life is not stagnant and that the success factor includes being resilient. In other words, whether we have a setback or worse, taking a deep dive by holding the belief that we can not only return to where we were but achieve greater heights will be the motivating force to do so.

While having a keen sense of motivation is great, we must validate our next moves and test options regularly. Not everything works to our expectations. Accordingly, we need to be specific and intentional with the new strategy. It is the only way to realize whether the approach works well or not factually. When you regularly test options, you will have the facts and are more likely to enjoy the success you desire.

In Conclusion:While having a keen sense of motivation is great, we must regularly validate our next moves and test options. Not everything works to our expectations. Accordingly, we need to be specific and intentional with the new strategy. It is the only way to realize whether the approach works well or not factually. When you regularly test options, you will have the facts and are more likely to enjoy the success you desire.

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In Parts 1 & 2 (below), we looked at why organizations should consider ensuring gratitude is a part of their normal business practices, and some of the immediate results when one company did just that. In today’s segment, we’re going to dive a little deeper into some of the feedback from people who experienced gratitude as an active, intentional practice.

Gratitude at Work – One Company’s Story

Connections and team culture. Study participants repeatedly emphasized the impact of gratitude on the quality of their connections with their supervisors, colleagues, clients, and their relationship with their employer. They also pointed to an increase in trust, alignment, and psychological safety in their working teams. These are all strong drivers for performance as well as reducing turnover. Recruiting top talent is positively impacted by healthy workplace culture, and people want to stay when they feel good about their experience as a team member.

Study participants who were in supervisory roles also indicated that gratitude as a formal leadership practice improved their sense of connection with their direct report and felt a positive impact on the overall culture of the team as a result of the shift in tone resulting in gratitude being a regular part of the workplace experience. One participant shared the impact for newer employees who were not part of the study, noting, “I would literally have the new consultants say, Is this normal? Is this normal to appreciate and recognize people?”, and further commented that it felt validating to be able to say that this was something the company actively endorsed.

Job satisfaction. The literature highlights job satisfaction as a key driver of employee engagement. In this study, all participants noted that gratitude had a positive impact on their job satisfaction, and several participants reiterated multiple times that experiencing gratitude from the people around them, including supervisors, coworkers, and clients, had an immediate impact on their job satisfaction. However, it is crucial that gratitude be experienced as an authentic expression and not a forced group activity. Inauthentic expressions of gratitude have the potential to damage the employee experience. If you decide to make gratitude a more regular player in your workplace culture, leadership will want to be very intentional in framing gratitude as a positive practice that must be founded on genuine appreciation for a specific activity or experience to realize the benefits.

Role confidence. Gratitude was highlighted as a contributing factor in role confidence for both experienced employees and those newer to their roles. Participants who were in supervisory roles at the time of this study noted that gratitude allowed them to connect with their direct reports in a positive way, improving those relationships and strengthening the team dynamics, improving their confidence not only in their own work but in the ability of their team to meet business objectives. Supervisors also noted that they had previously believed that gratitude was an important piece of their personal leadership style, and that their participation in this trial validated that belief.

From the individual contributors who participated in this study, several noted that the company culture was a key reason they had joined the company, and their experience as study participants reinforced for them that the company actually takes positive culture seriously, which helped them feel more secure in their role.

Further, participants highlighted the challenges inherent in often being on a smaller working group or the only consultant working on a project and felt that gratitude positively impacted their confidence in those situations. This was noted both in terms of current projects, as it provided positive informal feedback that they were meeting expectations. This also resulted in an increased sense of capability for the individual, which translated to greater confidence when looking forward to upcoming projects to which they already had some visibility as well as a more generalized sense of confidence. As one participant stated, “I feel like I’m walking into this new project with the confidence I didn’t have prior.”

Workplace stress and well-being. The strong response from study participants relating to the impact of their gratitude activities and its influence on their wellbeing and stress as not initially part of the study design, but this theme very prominently and quickly emerged from the data. Participants noted that they felt supported by the company by being allowed to pause periodically to engage in gratitude, and that it reinforced their decision to be part of the organization. They also reflected on how it gave them an opportunity to connect with others, both within and outside of the organization, and that the daily practice created a positive impact on the rest of their workday. Several also commented that they found the practice spilling into their relationships with friends and family members as well, helping bolster those connections.

While this study focused on the workplace, it would be remiss to suggest that stress can be compartmentalized into specific parts of one’s day. Several participants also mentioned that taking time to focus on gratitude for even a few minutes each day provided balance, and an opportunity to reframe their experience as being more positive than they might have been feeling previously. This has strong implications for considering how this practice might be embedded in other well-being initiatives sponsored by the organization or individual employee resource groups.

So how can organizations tap into intentional gratitude to improve outcomes for their teams? We’ll explore some recommendations in the next installment in this series on Gratitude as a lever for improving the employee experience and organizational outcomes.

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As Valentine’s Day approaches, love is in the air. And while this whole topic is highly charged in today’s workplace, there’s a brand of ‘love’ that’s not only appropriate but also necessary in our contemporary business environment—one that can drive engagement, job satisfaction, and bottom-line results.

Leaders who want to make a positive impact on their employees and their organizations will benefit from showing their love through these four strategies.

Loop others in. Information is the lifeblood of productivity and achievement. And connections with others nourish employees, contributing to qualitative outcomes like happiness and quantitative outcomes like loyalty, retention and even customer satisfaction. So, find ways to loop others into what’s happening and facilitate relationships that deepen connections and commitment.

Offer the resources and support required for success. There is little that’s more demoralizing than trying to do good work and being thwarted by not having what’s necessary to make it happen. Ensure that people have the equipment and materials they need to succeed. Make training available so they have the necessary skills and knowledge. Remove roadblocks—systems, processes, rules, and limitations—that undermine employees’ ability to do their best work. Offer what’s necessary and then step back and see results follow.

Vary responsibilities. Variety is the spice of life… at work too. When possible and desirable on the part of employees, mix things up a bit. Allow people to explore different tasks, learn different skills, play in different sandboxes. The expanded perspective that becomes available as a result of these opportunities enriches one’s current role, opens doors to possible new roles, and keeps everyone fresh, engaged and growing.

Earn respect. Employees crave inspirational leadership. In research I conducted last year, people indicated that one of the things they want most at work is a supervisor who they can trust and respect. Be the leader your people need and want. Earn trust and respect through your day-to-day behavior, interactions, and decisions.

Want to capture the hearts and minds of those who work for you? Ditch the chocolates and offer this kind of authentic, genuine attention that individuals crave and need to perform optimally. Want to drive remarkable results? All you need is this kind of LOVE.

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In our last blog, we described why innovation is transformational, and why, at this moment in time, it is more important than ever to innovate, to take advantage of living in a globalised world, interconnected through technologies and values and within an interrelated structure of reality. We stated that innovation-led growth is absolutely critical and that people need to be enabled and equipped to adapt, connect and collaborate in new ways to kickstart change in agile, constructive, equitable, and sustainable ways to innovate in uncertain times.

Yet, our research and experience at ImagineNation over the past 10 years has revealed that many governments, communities, organisations, teams, and leaders, feel somewhat – but not very – confident in their readiness, competence, and capacity to change and innovate in a world of unknowns.

Six strategies to kickstart change and innovate in uncertain times

To help build this confidence we have identified six key strategies and the key first steps to focus your attention, kickstart change, and drive and execute your change and innovation initiatives, to survive, thrive, and flourish in uncertain times.

1. Strategy #1

Build change readiness and receptivity to survive and thrive in an uncertain world by:

• Acknowledging the vital need to give people permission and safety that allows them to accept and acknowledge the range of emotional reactions, physical consequences, and work-life imbalances as a result of the imposed WFH environment.
• Building the capacity to acknowledge how people are feeling helps them better re-balance, adapt, and become resilient by supporting them to develop a work-life balance to better connect with others, tolerate uncertainty to change, and innovate in uncertain times.
• Challenging people’s habitual default patterns of remaining in the safety of their comfort zones, breaking habitual “business as usual” habits, inertia, and complacency.
• Being empathic and compassionate with people’s anxieties, confusion, insecurity, and uncertainties about their futures at work, and supporting people through their personal conflicts.
• Strategy #2

Allow, accept and ack knowledge people’s fears and struggles about change, help manage their anxiety, improve their productivity and attune them to the possibilities and potential opportunities in the current business environment by:

• Providing individual and collective support to enable people to refocus their attention, self-manage anxiety, and become grounded, mindful, and fully present, with self and with others, to effectively flow with the paradox of both transformation and disruption.
• Investing in time and money to enable people to unlearn, learn and relearn how to be change ready and change-receptive, and become adaptive to effectively facilitate successful business and digital transformation initiatives.
• Helping people get familiar with the brain’s basic cognitive functions, build the foundations necessary for connecting, managing, and harnessing them for productive good, to help get work done by regulating emotions, suppressing biases, switching tasks, solving complex problems, and thinking creatively.
• Developing 21st-century skills to shift old mindsets, develop new behaviours and the reasoning, problem-solving, planning, and execution skills to initiate and sustain business, cultural and digital transformation initiatives to embed the desired changes and to innovate in uncertain times.
• Developing the fundamental foresight and energising vision to perceive innovation strategically and systemically, adopting an approach that is holistic, human and technology centred, that aligns, enables, and equips people to adapt and grow and to change and innovate in uncertain times.
• Strategy #3

Make sense of innovation, and develop a common understanding and language as to what innovation means in a unique context by:

• Developing an awareness that innovation is, in itself, a change process, and paradoxically requires rigorous and disciplined change management processes and a chaotic creative and collaborative interchange of ideas.
• Clarifying an energising and compelling “why” innovation is important to an overall “cause” developing a passionate purpose and a sense of urgency towards leveraging innovation to achieve long-term success, competitiveness, and growth.
• Knowing how to both make connections and distinguish and leverage the differences between creativity, invention, and innovation.
• Building the safety, permission, and trust that helps facilitate, educate and coach people to deal with the emotional consequences of failure, to reframe it as opportunities to encourage a culture of taking small bets to learn quickly.
• Taking a disciplined and methodical approach to risk planning and management, that allows and encourages a culture of smart risk-taking to reduce risk adversity.
• Creating a consistent and common understanding as to what innovation means in their unique government, community, social, organisational, leadership, or team context and creating an engaging and compelling narrative around it.
• Strategy #4

Optimise the notion that innovation is transformational and leverage it as an overall energising strategic and systemic alignment mechanism and set of processes to kickstart change by:

• Improving engagement, energising and maximizing people’s potential and intentionally cultivating their collective genius to learn how to execute and deliver deep change and innovate in uncertain times.
• Aligning technological, processes and adopting a human-centred structure for change management to deliver business breakthroughs and digital transformation initiatives.
• Breaking down silos and supporting people to collaborate; re-connect, re-energise and re-invent themselves in a disrupted world.
• Maximising differences and diversity that exist between people’s demographics, cultures, values, perspectives, knowledge, experiences, and skillsets to deliver their desired outcomes.
• Learning and coaching people to adapt to survive and thrive by solving complex problems, uncertainty, instability, and trends that are constantly emerging.
• Improving both customer centricity and the customers’ experience.
• Building accountable, equitable, and sustainable business enterprises that people value, appreciate, and cherish.
• Strategy #5

Challenge the status quo and conventional ways of perceiving innovation to unleash the possibilities and the opportunities and kickstart change that true innovation offers by:

• Taking a strategic perspective in the longer term and the need for investment in innovation, rather than being reactive, and short-term profit-focused.
• Developing an understanding of the different types of innovation and how they can be applied, including incremental, breakthrough, sustaining, and disruptive, depending on their strategic imperative and motivation for change, and not just focussing on making continuous and process improvements.
• Improving trust in organisational boards and leadership decisions, reducing self-interest and eliminating corruption, and focussing on being in integrity to successfully empower people in change and innovate in uncertain times.
• Strategy #6

Explore opportunities for measuring, benchmarking, and contextualising the impact of innovation on business performance, leadership, executive team, and organisational ability to adapt, innovate and grow by:

• Embracing new business models, developing leadership capabilities and collaborative competencies, capacities, and building people’s confidence to perceive their worlds differently, and with fresh eyes.
• Letting go of “old” 20th century methods of diagnosing and assessing culture, based solely on the “nice to haves” rather than exploring the emerging “must haves” to enable people to survive and thrive by experimenting with new assessment tools like the OGI® and the GLI® to quantify and qualify current and potential strengths and weaknesses.
• Using data to know what new mindsets, behaviours, and skills to embody and enact, differently to become future-fit and succeed in the 21st century, and accepting that some of these are “not nice”.
• Cultivating an innovation culture to embed deep change, provide learning and coaching to evoke, provoke and create mindset shifts, behaviour and systems changes, and radically new sets of artifacts and symbols through communicating new and different messages that unleash people’s potential to kickstart change and innovate in uncertain times.

Taking the first steps to change and innovate in 2023

Embracing a range of new and different strategic and systemic approaches governments, communities, organisations, teams, and leader organisations can successfully kickstart change and innovate in uncertain times.

By using this moment in time to choose to refuse to walk backward and sleepwalk through life, by simply committing to take the first baby steps in allowing and enabling people to pause, retreat, reflect and:

• Recover from the effects of working mostly alone, from home, and online.
• Re-balance work and home lives through reconnection and resolving loneliness and rebuilding a sense of belonging.
• Know how to tolerate uncertainty and become resilient and adaptive.
• Reimagine and refocus a more energising, compelling, and sustainable future.
• Reinvent themselves, their professions, business practices, and teams in meaningful and purposeful ways.

We can then confidently, meaningfully, and purposefully energetically engage and enroll people, mobilise and harness their collective genius, to innovate in uncertain times in ways that add value to the quality of people’s lives in ways they appreciate and cherish.

To kickstart changes that contribute effectively to global stability, security, connectedness, and sustainability in the current decade of transformation and disruption.

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There are no big problems – there are just a lot of little problems.

–Henry Ford

You may have heard the term “Kaizen” before, but do you truly understand the power of this Japanese concept? The word Kaizen translates to “change for the better” or “improvement” and it is a philosophy that you could apply to every aspect of life.

At its core, Kaizen is about making little but consistent betterments over time. It’s about taking baby steps toward a goal and not getting discouraged by setbacks or failures. The key to Kaizen is to focus on progress, not perfection. Because by making small changes and building on them, we can achieve great results.

One of the most famous examples of Kaizen in action is the story of the Toyota Motor Company. In the 1980s, they implemented the Kaizen philosophy in their factories. They focused on making small revisions to their production process every day, which triggered a profound change in the factories’ efficiency and productivity.

The four main principles that the Kaizen philosophy stems from are:

Visualize – Use the tools that will help you visualize what your change process will look like. It can be as simple as a brainstorming exercise or an elaborate storyboarding system.

Measure – Being consistent is key to making improvements. It is important to measure and assess your progress every few weeks.

Improve – Make processes better by implementing Kaizen in all possible areas.

Repeat – Duplicate the process over and over again to sustain growth.

Kaizen is not only about ameliorating products or services. It is also about improving the processes, systems, and people that create those products and services.

What about leadership?When implemented in leadership, it becomes a powerful tool for leaders to enhance their team performance and drive success in their organization.

By applying the principles of Kaizen, leaders could:

1. Encourage continuous growth by setting up regular team meetings to discuss progress and opportunities for improvement. Through fostering a culture of ongoing improvement, as a leader, you can empower your team members to identify and address areas for progress.
2. Lead by example to inspire others to take ownership of their growth and development. When you embody the Kaizen philosophy as the leader, you set a powerful precedent for your team.
3. Recognize and reward progress through verbal praise, bonuses, or other incentives. Identifying and acknowledging small wins along the way can keep your team members motivated to continue the progress.
4. Emphasize communication and collaboration among team members to ensure everyone is on the same page and working together to achieve common goals.
5. Incorporate Kaizen into decision-making by encouraging the use of data and continuous feedback. And accordingly, make better-informed decisions.

Leaders who create an environment that supports and encourages ongoing advancement can drive significant positive outcomes for their team and organization.

And how about other parts of life?But Kaizen is not just for businesses. It is something that we can apply to any area of our lives. Whether it is our health, relationships, or career, the Kaizen philosophy can help us grow toward our goals.

For example, if you are trying to lose weight, instead of setting an unrealistic goal of losing 20 pounds in a month, focus on making small changes to your diet and exercise routine. Start by cutting out sugary drinks and taking a brisk walk every day. As you build momentum and see progress, you can gradually make more changes.

The same goes for improving relationships, learning a new skill, or achieving any other goal. By taking small, consistent actions, you can achieve great things.

Another key element of Kaizen is to celebrate small wins along the way. When we see progress, no matter how small, we feel the motivation to keep going. So, when you make a small change, and it becomes a habit, take a moment to celebrate your success.

Kaizen is a powerful philosophy that teaches us to focus on progress, not perfection, and to make small, consistent improvements over time.

And embracing the power of Kaizen makes success possible in many aspects of life.

Can you think of any areas in which you might consider trying this process? I certainly can.

Visualize, Measure, Improve, Rinse and Repeat!

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Even when facts indicate our positions and beliefs may be incorrect, it’s difficult for most of us to change our minds. But, there’s benefit in being open to revising our thinking. While admittedly my own (limited) experience and perception, it nonetheless seems the most accomplished people have changed their thinking based on emerging facts, and are perfectly willing to continue learning and revising.

What’s your experience?

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I just hung up the phone from a coaching call with one of my clients. He was applying for a significant executive position and wanted my help with his resume and interview strategy. We talked for a bit, and I suggested a different way to look at his resume.

A light bulb went off. All at once, he was full of energy and enthusiasm. Just a moment prior, he was sober and analytical; now he was excited and couldn’t wait to get at the task of revising his document. In a matter of a few moments, something changed. As a result, he now saw possibilities where before there were only obstacles.

What changed?His perspective. The situation was exactly as it was a few minutes earlier. He was the same person, with the same set of skills, life experiences, and qualities of character. But he saw things differently, through a different lens. His perspective changed, and that changed everything.

That experience was, from my side of the table, a great reminder of the power of perspective to stimulate and shape behavior. We see examples of it all around us.

Our perspective, in many ways, influences and shapes our actions. I have often observed that people generally find that for which they look. I’m not talking about our misplaced car keys. I mean in situations involving dealing with other human beings, we generally see the qualities and traits of character that we expect to see. For example, as salespeople, we may go into an account with the perspective that this account is populated with small-minded people who are going to squeeze us for every penny they can and choose the lowest cost provider no matter what. Guess what? Generally, that’s what we find.

On the other hand, we can go into the account with a different perspective. Let’s say our point of view is that this account is run by well-intentioned people who want only the best for their organization. Amazingly, that’s generally what we will find.

Now don’t jump all over my example and claim, “Wait, some people really are penny-pinchers, regardless of what I think.” Granted. People are different, and there are some in every type and classification. I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about us.

In my example above, the objective truth is probably somewhere in the middle. They may be well-intentioned, striving for quality, and cost-conscious. Don’t miss the point. If we expect people to be untrustworthy, it will be their untrustworthiness that rises to the surface of our radar scan. If we expect them to be kind, we’ll notice their kindness. If we expect them to be self-absorbed, we’ll notice their lack of concern for others.

And, since we generally notice those qualities and traits that we expect to see, that perspective changes and influences our behavior. That’s the point. I have often observed that, when people talk about other people, they really reveal more about themselves than they do about the subject of their conversation. That’s because their judgments reveal their perspectives.

Let’s go back to my example. Regardless of the objective truth of the issue, if our perspective is that they are penny-pinchers, our experience will generally confirm that, and we’ll treat them that way.

Clearly, the opposite is also true. If we expect them to be value-driven, we’ll see them that way, and we’ll treat them accordingly.

The thing that makes the difference in how we treat them is not them, it is our perspective of them.

As a lifelong educator and sales trainer, I have observed a powerful truth about human behavior. It is this: Our perspectives on ourselves are far more important than our perspectives on other people. As we see ourselves, so shall we be. If we see ourselves as victims, we will forever be a victim. If we see ourselves as successful, we will eventually arrive there.

| The Institutional Church has spent 530 Billion dollars on itself and has not increased the percentage of Christians by even one percentage point. It’s time thoughtful people asked some questions. Read Is the Institutional Church Really the Church? |

If therefore, we can uncover and release ourselves from our limiting perspectives of ourselves, we can transform our behavior and enjoy dramatically improved results.

I’ve seen it countless times in the work that I do. I’ll have people come into my seminars with the perspective that this is just a job, and leave with a vision of themselves as professional salespeople, and proud of it. Since they now see themselves as professional salespeople, they act that way. As a result of their changed actions, they enjoy dramatically improved results. Here’s the equation:

Changed Perspective = Changed Actions = Improved Results

But the principle is bigger and more applicable than just sales. It applies to every aspect of our lives. The more I reflect on my life and those around me, the more I see that so much of our behavior can be attributed to perspectives gained during our formative years.

For example, for my entire life, I have been both empowered by and hindered by the perspective that I was forever on my own, independent, self-sufficient and self-contained. That perspective was a direct result of my parents’ intentional actions to instill it in each of their six boys. My father had a heart condition and was never expected to live a full life. My parents, therefore, intentionally instilled that perspective into us to enable us to get along in a world without a father’s presence.

That has been a powerful perspective, shaping my actions and character throughout my life.

So, too, for each of us. The perspectives we gained as we grew up shape our actions and reactions. They harden and form into habits, attitudes, and eventually, character traits.

If we want to change our results, then we ought to work on changing our perspectives.

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Consider this pattern in your personal and professional world, you are having a conversation and you start to say “something” and you stop. Something inside you hears, knows, has heard, or believes that you may be saying something that is incorrect, insensitive, or “wrong”. And you stop speaking.

It gets hidden. When you add up all the hidden conversations we are not having out of fear or shame, lack of knowledge or understanding you will know why many diversity and inclusion initiatives are failing. People STOP speaking instead of learning to communicate, be curious, ask, say it wrong, fall down and get back up.

Shame shuts down learning.

If our goal IS learning, knowledge, and understanding then we need to build bridges, not barricades to conversations that create real change.

We are all practicing – it is how we learn to do anything, here are some tips for practice:

1. Notice – when you have that feeling or you decide not to say anything – ask yourself what is making me hesitate?
2. Curiosity instead of shame: how can I have my thought or question with curious kindness, not apology and shame, lead with “I’m still learning…” vs “I’m so sorry I don’t know…” the brain actually tells our bodies it’s safe to proceed. THIS is where learning happens.
3. Open the space – if someone is struggling, using language, tone or knowledge that you do not find acceptable, open a discussion not a demolition. I am not writing this from an ivory tower or textbook, I’m writing from experience on both sides. In the world of diversity and inclusion, people often assume I have all the “right words” and all the knowledge, knowing that I don’t makes me human and kind. I have been called out and shamed for not using the “right” words, and every time it made me think – I am not a good person, and that is not the truth…like everyone, I am learning. I am grateful to those who continue to build bridges for my learning, there is NO finish line on inclusion.

Walking with curious kindness. “Creating organizations where people want to be”

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Words often fail to express full meaning and understanding, yet they are often all we have to attempt to express the ineffable. Admittedly, I fall short regularly.

I’m blessed/cursed with the knowledge shared with me as a teenager that has yet to fully settle in the hearts and minds of seekers like me; that we are cosmic consciousness condensed into these forms, a coalescing combination and synergy of genetic material and soular frequency that, when fully submissive to it, leads us toward our perfected form, fit and function in the world.

So much is possible, yet so little is understood about our true nature that encompasses both science and spirituality. The fact is there is no physical form, only vibration. Science has proven that today. Even with that knowledge, we cannot fathom its application toward fulfillment in human form; the essence of loving and being loved unconditionally.

The latter is perceived as some far-off destination barely visible on the horizon, yet the reality is that it is experienceable in the present moment, right here and right now. How? By suspending all your beliefs, your thoughts, and simply feeling the embrace of that love. Oh, that sounds too simple. That’s the point – it IS.

Many talk about their ‘mission’ and ‘purpose’ yet frame them in terms of limited understanding as though there is still something missing in their quest for fulfillment in purpose. The intellect searches for what is missing rather than what is already present. The ultimate challenge in physical form is to return to the spiritual, the consciousness individuated and finely attuned to the specific thread in the tapestry of the ONE, so to speak.

As a teen in turmoil in college in 1975, I knelt and prayed to know ‘truth’ and was willing to die for it if necessary. Beyond scoffing at that request as being the silly notion of a teenager seeking purpose, consider its potential as prophetic and timely in our planetary development. The answer came in another question, “Are you willing to die for what you believe in?” Are you? Consider that deeply for a moment.

It only took me two choices to settle and agree I was; the first, Christ Consciousness, and the second, Cosmic Consciousness. I exited this world for a few moments, embraced by the Great Light, then moved to another scene and given my ‘mission’ to work with points of light surrounding me in order to facilitate a new world order of natural design.

My life as I knew it fell apart with a devastating divorce in 1988, with a trifecta complete with corporate and church expulsion. The following year I was again reminded of my commitment during a spiritual retreat with others at Woods Canyon Lake in northern Arizona.

I’ve spent nearly 50 years exploring what that means in living the ‘spiritual’ life, exploring the various paths and texts in order to find the freedom in them. What I mean by that is letting go of the interpreted prescriptive notions in order to find that emerging Self and being submissive to it. We have focused on the ‘local’ self rather than the non-local Self in our progression.

Recent discoveries and further inquiry in the field of quantum sciences seem to point back to ancient knowledge contained in the Vedas and strewn across various texts spanning the notions of spiritual development. Where does it lead us? We don’t know fully because it is still an experience in process, yet we’ve had a global wake-up call to consider it more vigorously. Who is talking about it?

Complexity doesn’t have to be complicated. Beginning anew from simple principles of understanding natural order can eventually filter through all the existing systems today, from business to politics and social constructs that serve humanity’s thrivability. The old command and control systems are no longer functional. They need to evolve with our help, not our resistance.

The emerging Self is the manifestation of awareness from nothingness, perhaps similar to the knowledge shared with Wilbert Smith from the ‘people from elsewhere’ who offered advanced knowledge from their perspective that humans have yet to discover. They state that our reality is a manifestation of our awareness. When our awareness includes the synergy of spirit and soul, lineage and frequency, a natural order (harmony) emerges.

For some reason, I have understood that at a very deep level, from a place words cannot express, yet. It’s an experience that coincides with the quote I’ve shared over the last few years, “We cannot think our way through a system built on vibration, we have to feel/sense our way through it.”

I had the opportunity of a conversation with Dr. Ervin Laszlo, generally recognized as the founder of systems philosophy and general evolution theory, and exploring the nature of the Higher Self. I’m aware of the risk in perception of sanity in expressing the possibility that life here on Earth has such meaning and potential for us. We’ve recently experienced the devastation of a world falling apart and in desperate need of healing and repair. I’m reminded of Einstein’s admonition, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.”

Perhaps this healing process of the ancient wounds of separation from Self is what we are experiencing now. Victor Aquista’s blog explores this healing process. Dennis Pitocco’s efforts with BizCatalyst 360° shares thousands of articles, poems, and videos of this same process viewed from an equal number of perspectives. Reimagineering humanity is indeed being explored through a plethora of explorers today.

What would a fuller expression of Being for each of us look like? Are we truly in the process of the fulfillment of prophecy strewn across the ancient calendars and texts as we approach the ‘golden age,’ so named as the epochal shift from the Piscean to the Aquarian age? How do we manage the shift? Can we stop micromanaging our lives and tend to macromanagement?

It would seem these considerations are valuable and worth the effort to explore in co-creating a transition from old paradigms of capitalistic competition and fighting for superiority, which we know historically only cause continued cascading problems. No one can deny that this is a necessary and prudent path to take for our global society. We cannot deny the fact we share one planet, either, so we need to consider its needs as stewards.

Is world peace possible? What might it look like? How might it happen in congruence with an intrinsic natural order we see in the reflection of the universe around and within us? James Gardner, J.D., shares this intrinsic natural order concept in Biocosm, an exceptional work of exploring biological and electronic intelligence coalescing as ONE.

Interestingly enough, a conversation for my podcast in January of 2022 brought the experiment to a head for me in being introduced to the Live and Let Live Global Peace Movement. I leapt at the chance to be its Executive Director in hopes that somehow those others mentioned above would begin to appear as part of their own submission to their mission and purpose. Maybe you are one of them and this is simply a serendipitous synchronicity of opportunistic flavor in this moment.

I remain curious and invite you to join me in that curiosity toward Self-expression.

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I was listening to Megyn Kelly today. She hosts a talk show and podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, that airs live daily on SiriusXM. (She is one of my daily sources for what’s going on in the world.) She wasn’t shy about her irritation with a group of NYU students who apparently complained that their organic chemistry professor was too hard. The students that signed the petition against him complained that their grades did not reflect the effort they put in. As a result, the university fired him claiming that he had failed to meet the university’s teaching standards. He was a long-time professor and the author of a well-regarded textbook on the subject so I assume he knew his shit. The little whiners won.

I have heard many stories like this one about Gen Zs (anyone born from 1997 onward according to Pew Research) and their sniveling, entitled, and sensitive ways. My first reaction was screw you little whiners (OK boomer). The truth is at fifty-eight I know more than I did at twenty-eight and I think most of us can agree that experience in life leads to wisdom (most of the time). You can’t get there without passing through each generation, making mistakes, paying your dues, and learning on your own. It’s the natural path in life. Generations are famous for not understanding each other. It’s nothing new, but it’s my first-time being part of the “other,” “older” generation.

As a gerontologist, I am fascinated by cohorts and how each new generation is impacted by unique circumstances shared by people who were born in a similar time, shaping their views on how they think, work, live, and love. I am grateful that I had the experiences I had as a young adult exploring the world on my bike, at the roller rink, or playing outdoors. I was free from worries about selfies or likes. I was a teenager in the seventies and a young adult in the eighties and I’m a proud Boomer. We are described as independent, confident, self-reliant, self-assured, competitive, goal-centric and we have a strong work ethic. Those characteristics served me well and the truth is, I wonder how the younger generation is going to survive in the real world.

Life is hard and it seems to be getting tougher. On my journey, I learned that it takes a lot of hustle and determination to succeed in this world. There were no shortcuts to adulthood and not everyone gets a trophy.

But I have to wonder if that is still true in the world we live in today? Each generation has influenced the world in their own unique ways and this generation is no different. Is it possible that their influence is so impactful that society is changing to accommodate them rather than forcing them to grow up and suck it up like the rest of us had to do? And if so, what does that mean for their future and ours?

Maybe Instead of criticizing I should use all this great wisdom I’ve earned as an older woman to good use and support, connect, and learn from other generations of women. Last week I had the opportunity to be included in an event hosted by Kim Newberry, owner of Newberry Bros. Coffee, a local hotspot in Newport, Kentucky. I’ve known Kim for many years but never had the opportunity to be more than an admirer and acquaintance. I was delighted and a little surprised to be invited to the event she was hosting. This is the text that me and twelve other lucky ladies received:

YOU Inspire ME!There are many women I have met over the years who inspire me. Women who bring love, warmth, joy, humor, creativity, compassion, spunk, and SO MUCH MORE to my life, and to the lives of countless others. You are one of those women.

I have been thinking a lot about assembling a small group of inspiring friends for reasons I am still working through in my head. There is too much negativity all around us. It is emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually debilitating. At least that is true for me. And it overshadows the positivity that is also present but often silenced or trivialized because it does not carry equal (or greater) weight. Life is sometimes a heavy lift.

I feel that if we put our heads and hearts together, we can come up with some really amazing ways to make a difference in our own lives, and in the lives of others. Our very own “Circle of Love,” if you will.

Let me know if this is of interest to you. If not, no worries. If so, I will reach back out to schedule a date/time to get together at our bar and see where this might take us. If nothing else, consider it a night out with friends you have yet to meet.

“Love You. Mean It.” ~Kim

I wasn’t exactly sure what this was all about but I knew I wanted to be a part of it. It was a cold Monday night and I wasn’t 100% delighted to dress and prepare to mingle with a group of women I didn’t know. I’m considered an extrovert because I’m not shy and can speak easily in a crowd, but honestly, over the last few years, I have leaned towards intimate connections rather than small talk in a crowd. I am enjoying an introverted life. Recently I have connected with so many incredible women that have responded to my blog and I have enjoyed deepening friendships and connecting with women I admire. It’s uplifting, inspiring, and exactly what I want and need in my life. So, I put on my lipstick and my big girl panties and headed out the door.

We shared, laughed, consoled, cried, encouraged, and enjoyed the moment. Two hours after we arrived, we were no longer strangers, we were friends.

Meeting this group of thirteen women was the best decision I have made since marrying my husband Pablo four years ago. After a little bourbon and wine, we began to warm up and the noise level in the room was energetic. We were buzzing like bees attacking honey. Kim invited us to sit and we enjoyed delicious comforting soup and homemade focaccia. Kim stood up and quietly said a few words to welcome us and then asked each of us if we would share one thing about ourselves and she invited us to “toot our horn.” The room was quiet as we processed this request. We were all a little shy, a bit uncertain, overthinking what to share, worrying if what we had to say was worthy of a toot. Despite what you see on social media most women never speak highly of themselves and are uncomfortable doing it. All it took was a little encouragement and someone to go first (me) and we were lit like a winter fire on Christmas morning. We even had a team captain who accompanied each story with a pre and post-toot from a birthday horn. We were each given our own individual celebration. We shared, laughed, consoled, cried, encouraged, and enjoyed the moment. Two hours after we arrived, we were no longer strangers, we were friends. The evening was like a scene from a movie and I felt like the Grinch who stole Christmas and my heart grew three sizes that day.

Kim inspired me to pay it forward and I decided to extend grace to all generations of women, not just the one I belong to. I recently learned about Generations Over Dinner which is a program intended to inspire meaningful conversations across generations by modeling and creating an experience that connects the values of all perspectives across the age continuum. Generations Over Dinner was launched by the Modern Elder Academy and the founders of Death over Dinner (another fascinating program about opening the conversation about how we want to die. They provide a complete tool kit for creating your own event, including how to host, topics to discuss, and scripts to ignite the conversation. I am energized and inspired to connect and not criticize women of all generations and I invite you to join me for a meal and a conversation.

In 2023 I am kicking off an invitation to women of all generations to join me in conversation and a meal. I’m ready to host a dinner with anyone interested in joining other women to be the change we want to see in the world. Will you join me?

I would like to be known as an intelligent woman. A courageous woman. A loving woman. A woman who teaches by being.

~Maya Angelou

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Leadership includes sharing what you learn so that others may follow and surpass your efforts. Why surpass? Because where one may be today marks a unique point in time, the one factor we can all count on is societal change. As we embrace the best advice, we can add it to our repertoire and enhance it as we move forward. Even better is when more people willingly share their best strategies with those on similar paths. The sign of leadership excellence is in the appreciation one receives.

The sign of leadership excellence is in the appreciation one receives. Below you will find what I believe to be top-notch business advice from leaders in the field.

My StoryOne traditional way to share information is through publishing articles and books. Early in my career, Dale Carnegie’s book, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ put me on a better footing for sales success. The secret is not to sell so much, but instead, listen, be professionally personal while sharing stories, and find commonalities between you. Upon developing the relationship, trust builds, and sales are born.

The next book that empowered my sales effort was S.P.I.N. Selling by Neil Rackham. It was the opposite of traditional telling-selling, which spoke to me as I always grasp ‘the opposite’ of tradition. Remembering questions in specific vocabulary is not for me. However, four letters that portray the questions to ask, in my own words, are easy to remember. SPIN stands for ‘Situation, Problem(s), Implied problem(s), and Need. My sales effort greatly improved upon applying Neil Rackham’s suggestions.

An old television and movie quote comes to mind that indicates perhaps there is an even better way to do business, ‘There is a new sheriff in town.’ Focusing solely on sales, marketing, technology, or any other business discipline will not create the results you may seek in today’s environment. Accordingly, it is up to each of us to seek out top-notch business advice from leaders in the field.

Powerhouse Business GrowthToday’s success differentiator is to embrace and combine all the varying disciplines for powerhouse business growth. To my amazement, what typically would be kept secret is openly spelled out in the brand-new book, Reinventing Virtual Events, published by Wiley, and authored by Julia Nimchinski and Justin Michael. The content spells out top-notch business advice from leaders in the field.

Reinvention is Essential for GrowthAlthough planning a virtual event may be outside your plan, the concepts and facts behind the title are bound to help businesses of all types. The theme is to cross-train the skills of staff and oneself. It’s only the beginning to have an excellent skillset in one field, but imagine how and what a cross-over to other disciplines will do for your career or business.

Long ago, a coach advised me to continue adding streams to my core expertise of sales for a more robust output. He then spoke of the ‘Power of 10.’ When we possess one skill, we reach one audience. But the results can be exponential when we expand upon our skills and services, to ten offerings, as an example. Mathematically, when we multiply 10 x 9 x 8 down to 1, the powerhouse business growth number is 3,628,800.

It may sound unimaginable to dedicate oneself to learning the skillset of ten different careers. However, when we undertake to learn the essentials of a couple of other disciplines, we are well on our way. Cross-training oneself plus employees will guide you to the results you desire that may have been previously unimaginable.

HYPCCCYCL is the creation of Julia and Justin, featuring top B2B revenue leaders cross-training their GTM (go-to-market) skills with VCs. The content of Reinventing Virtual Events provides excellent insights to enable you and your teams to achieve more than you may currently believe to be possible. Watching the games in action is remarkable, an ideal learning vehicle, and viewers often participate in future rounds. The book sets the stage for our new business model, and we invite you to join the performance, literally.

If you have any lingering doubts or are consumed with intrigue, you may find more information about Julia Nimchinski and Justin Michael on their LinkedIn profiles.

Office Environment and Entrepreneurial SpiritToday’s theme is not only about learning and combining varying skill sets but also embraces the theme of an inclusive environment. Each person on one team possesses experience and knowledge. Above, we speak about exponential results. Imagine what the cross-over of training between disciplines utilizing everyone’s experience can do for the overall business growth outcome. Moreover, the diversity of teams adds to a greater depth of knowledge that may convert to intriguing a far more robust audience.

In Conclusion: Top-Notch Business Advice from Leaders In The FieldThe choice is always ours to either dismiss the business advice from leaders or pay serious attention to do our due diligence by researching what they have to say. Feeling secure with your current knowledge becomes the right time to heed top-notch business advice from leaders in the field who are making a difference in society.

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Many C-suites and business commentators seem to believe that the Great Resignation is a short-term, post-Covid blip which will fizzle out as the global recession hits consumers. However, this superficial analysis ignores the underlying drivers behind the Great Resignation, as well as sweeping changes globally in people’s attitudes towards what they want from their jobs and work-life balance together with the developing demographics of the global workforce.

We’re at an inflection point when it comes to how organisations move forward. The Great Resignation offers a window into why companies are failing as well as opportunities for those who learn its lessons to change, develop and improve performance. Those that deal in denial will almost certainly waste these opportunities.

Organisations were put to the test by COVID, given its speed and depth of impact. Chronic pre-existing problems related to leadership, culture, empowerment, agility, and effective decision-making were highlighted and exacerbated. These were long-standing issues which should have been properly addressed but never were It also highlighted new possibilities to improve performance and wellbeing.

Hybrid working, for example, had never been fully utilised despite it having been a very real possibility for many organisations for years.

Only by acknowledging the truth that our experiences shape our views, which subsequently influence our behaviour in response to various circumstances can we hope to understand and learn from what we have been through.

Keeping this in mind helps us make sense of what we are seeing now and what we need to do next.

The COVID LessonsEveryone’s experience of COVID varied widely, depending at least in part on their proximity to the risk of infection. Based on this, McKinsey divided the working population into four distinct groups:

• 20% – continued to work – low risk roles, e.g. outdoor & construction
• 30% – furloughed / unemployed – e.g. hospitality and retail
• 30% – remote work – e.g., office-based staff
• 20% – essential workers – high risk but continued to work, e.g., healthcare and transport

How different groups experienced COVIDImpact varied across different groups too.The most affected were women, minority groups, younger adults and lower-paid workers. Those industries that essentially closed down during the pandemic had higher proportions of employees in these groups.

In terms of organisations there was a significant difference between different individual organisations and sectors. Some failed, some thrived. Few leaders are aware of the vast differences in events and outcomes. That’s because business leaders only know what happened where they were and do not have clear insights into what happened elsewhere.

The reality was that organisations which survived well if not thrived had a positive culture, trust, empowerment, and where leadership adapted more successfully. Their teams were able to work together more effectively and were more agile in reacting to the rapidly changing circumstances created by the pandemic.

COVID required executives to create the right environment for their organisation’s continued success set against unprecedented demands. They needed to step up their game, but many did not. Speaking to many of these executives post-COVID about their experiences, I was struck by one consistent theme: “COVID showed us who the leaders really were in our organisation.”

Remote WorkingThere is often an assumption that almost everybody has ended up working remotely. But, in practice, remote working is not consistently applicable.

Overall, only 30% of workers were able to do so. Only 5% of those earning under £20k pa were able to remote compared to 95% of those earning £50k pa. Furthermore, 55% of jobs in London were “remotable”, whereas in northeast England, the figure was only 35%.

Is working from home here to stay?The experiences from pandemic-induced remote working teaches us valuable lessons about how to make hybrid working effective in the future. What were they? Simply that, if set up and implemented correctly, remote working works well. It delivers improvements in work performance over office-based work, especially in individual activities that require creativity or focused work. It also enhanced wellbeing even during the pandemic, which itself negatively impacted wellbeing globally. Within this, the overall experience of remote working gives us an excellent roadmap to make hybrid working highly successful, if we learn the lessons. One of those lessons is that, in cases where remote working was not set up effectively, the cause could be traced to insufficient support from leadership. Here’s how this impacted the results:

• 30% found difficulty adjusting to the remote environment.
• 30% felt lonely and disconnected from their organisation.
• 15% felt their mental health suffered.

These are leadership problems rather than technology issues.

Key issues in remote working

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We all encounter some form of chaos in our daily routine from time to time: Unexpected work requests; text messages or emails when you feel you have no time to reply; annoying notifications on your phone. And on and on and on. So, Zen Sammich explores how to deal with this kind of day-to-day chaos without getting stressed out or frustrated.

Visit zensammich.com/washi if you would like to help the show by purchasing some of the traditional Japanese, handmade paper that my wife and I make for a living. We do special order projects all the time. Just let us know what you would like. Or, consider making a one-time donation through Red Circle (click the link) or becoming a supporter of Zen Sammich for as little as $3 at patreon.com/zensammich (direct link not available, please copy and paste the URL). If you become a patron, I will send you a personalized, handmade (on traditional Japanese paper) postcard from the show and give you a shoutout on a future episode. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/zen-sammich/donations.

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At ImagineNation we are celebrating 10 years as a global innovation consultancy, learning, and coaching company. During this time, we’ve identified some of the common patterns that people demonstrate as a result of feeling uncomfortable, frozen, inert, stubborn, and resistant to innovation. Resulting in many organisations, teams, and leaders appearing to walk backward as if they are sleepwalking through this time in their lives. At the same time, we know why innovation is transformational, and why, at this time, it is more important than ever to innovate. As well as to be resilient and adaptive to grow and flow in today’s chaotic BANI environment. We also know exactly what transformative innovation involves, and how to enable and equip people to connect and collaborate in new ways to effect constructive and sustainable change in a world of unknowns.

Shaping the next normal

According to a recent article by McKinsey and Co “The future is not what it used to be: Thoughts on the shape of the next normal” the coronavirus crisis is a “world-changing event” which is forcing both the pace and scale of workplace innovation.

Stating that businesses are forced to do more with less and that many are finding better, simpler, less expensive, and faster ways to operate. Describing how innovative health systems, through necessity, constraints, and adversity have exploited this moment in time, to innovate:

“The urgency of addressing COVID-19 has also led to innovations in biotech, vaccine development, and the regulatory regimes that govern drug development so that treatments can be approved and tried faster. In many countries, health systems have been hard to reform; this crisis has made the difficulty much easier to achieve. The result should be a more resilient, responsive, and effective health system”.

We all know that it is impossible to know what will happen in the future and that it is possible to consider the lessons of the past, both distant and recent. On that basis, take time out, be hopeful and think optimistically about the future. To be proactive and innovate to shape the kind of future we all wish to have, through making constructive and sustainable changes, that contribute to the common good.

Strategically deciding to innovate

Strategically deciding to innovate, is the first, mandatory, powerful, and impactful lever organisations, teams, leaders, and individuals can pull to effect, embed, and sustain constructive and sustainable change that delivers real benefits:

• Deal with, and find solutions to a world full of complex and competing social, civic, and political problems that are hard to solve and aren’t going away.
• Better adapt, respond to, and be agile in fast-changing circumstances, uncertainty, instability, and to random and unexpected Black Swan events, like the global Covid-19 Pandemic.
• Become both human-centric to help people manage their transition through the challenges of the global pandemic and enable them to exploit the range of accelerating technological advances in the digital age.
• Develop corporate responsibility, sustainability, diversity, and inclusion strategies that are practical and can work and really deliver on their promises.
• Compete by applying and experimenting with lean and agile start-up methodologies and take advantage of the opportunities and possibilities of the global entrepreneurship movement’s new models for leadership, collaboration, and experimentation.
• Align to the range of changing workplace dynamics and trends, resulting from the pandemic, including WFH, the “soft resignation” and the demands of a hybrid workplace.
• Shift individual, group, and collective consciousness towards collaboration and experimentation in ways that rebuild the trust that has been lost through incompetence, corruption, greed, and dishonesty.
• Respond creatively to meet the increasingly diverse range of customer expectations and choices being made around value.

Important to innovate – three elements

To take advantage of living in a globalised world, where we are interconnected through technologies and values and where we have an interrelated structure of reality, we can:

• Accept that innovation-led growth is absolutely critical, and have targets and a willingness to invest in new scalable business models, fast and effective development, and launch processes to reflect these.
• Invest in a coherent, time-risk balanced portfolio of initiatives and provide the resources to deliver them, at scale, strategically, to innovate to the right market, at the right price, at the right time, and through the most effective channels.
• Adopt an ecosystem approach to adapt and grow by creating and capitalizing on both internal and external networks, and stakeholder management through developing workforce ecosystems – a structure that consists of interdependent actors, from within the organisation and beyond, working to pursue both individual and collective goals.

Problem-solving, cultural change, and improving people’s lives

It is more important than ever to make innovation transformational, so that it delivers constructive and sustainable change, by building on three critical successful abilities:

1. Seeing and sensing the problem or opportunity:
2. What problem are we solving? And is there a customer who wants to pay to have that problem solved?
3. What problem are we solving for the customer? Who needs this?
4. What are the possibilities and opportunities available to us? And is there a customer who wants to pay to have this opportunity realised?
5. What are some of our strengths? What are some of the things we are doing well that we can build upon or exploit?
6. Shifting the culture:
7. Where are we today? Where do we want to be in the future?
8. What are our prevailing mindsets? How can we measure and contextualise their impact? What mindsets might we embrace to adapt and grow in an uncertain world?
9. How ready and receptive are we to really embrace change?
10. What do we need to unlearn and relearn to ensure our people are open-minded, hearted, and willed to embody and enact the desired change?
11. How engaged and passionate are our people in problem-solving?
12. How might we harness our people’s collective intelligence to solve problems and realise opportunities?
13. Aligning technologies, processes, artifacts and behaviours as a holistic system:
14. What is our appetite for risk? How do we define risk in our context?
15. What type of innovation do we strategically want to plan for and engage in?
16. What old legacy technologies no longer serve your needs? What new technologies might you be willing to invest in for the future?
17. What disciplines are in place to ensure that people have a common understanding of the key processes and comply with managing them?
18. How are we ensuring that everyone is motivated and skilled to innovate?
19. How are we ensuring that people are acknowledged, rewarded, and organised to repeatedly innovate?
20. What are the key mindsets and behaviours that enable and equip people to embody and embrace repeatedly innovate and design solutions with the end customer in mind?

Become a resilient difference maker

As many of us are aware, Toys R Us and Blockbuster were huge companies, that enjoyed massive success; however, this was all brought to an end due to their failure to innovate.

We can all avoid this fate by choosing to innovate and create constructive and sustainable change through:

• Accepting and acknowledging that to survive and thrive in a BANI world, where necessity is still the mother of all invention, and the urgency to do this is more important than ever.
• Identifying, understanding, and dealing with our own resistance to innovation, safely and proactively, and transforming resistance into resilience, to safely innovate.
• Understanding where we are today and then assessing the gap to what we want to be in the future, and mitigating the risks of both closing the gap and leaving the gap wide open.
• Enabling leaders, teams, and individuals to connect, explore, discover and navigate new ways of approaching and delivering commercially viable, value-adding, constructive and sustainable change, and outcomes.
• Leveraging innovation to transform an organisation, a business, the way people lead and team, to improve the quality of people’s lives in ways they appreciate and cherish.

“In order to transcend mere adequacy and make a mark of creative transcendence on the world, organizations need to stop walking backward, following a trail that has already been blazed. The motto of the British Special Air Service is, “Who dares, wins.” It is time for businesses to be bold, inspired, and look to the horizon. The next great innovation is out there. Will you have the guts to create it?”

Will you make a fundamental choice to innovate?

According to McKinsey and Co “The point is that where the world lands is a matter of choice – of countless decisions to be made by individuals, companies, governments, and institutions”.

Will you make a fundamental choice to use the current crisis to lead to a burst of innovation, productivity, resilience, and exploration in a connected world to create the constructive and sustainable changes we all want to have?

Or will you continue walking backward and sleepwalking through life, and fail to take advantage of this moment in time, to innovate, and continue life with the same thinking that is causing the current range of results, that many of us don’t want to have?

Find out more about our work at ImagineNation

Find out about our collective, learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, presented by Janet Sernack, is a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, February 7, 2023. It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique innovation context. Find out more about our products and tools.

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Our perspective is based on our life experiences, current situations, feelings, beliefs, and stress. It is impacted by our families and friends as well. It may seem difficult at times to shift your perspective from negative to positive when life becomes too challenging. Our life experiences change constantly making our perspective ever-changing also. Yet, it is the key to finding joy, peace, and happiness in our lives. Al Neuharth once said, “the difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective.” I love this quote because it shows that our perspective can shift the way we look at our life, even in the worst situations. And through my challenges, I have connected with this belief that perspective makes things magical even amidst chaos. On those difficult days, shifting my perspective and recognizing my progress helped place life into focus unveiling the positive moments of each day.

Creating this shift in perspective is a lifestyle choice. It requires persistence, perseverance, consistency, and repetition. And through this process, you begin to learn, heal and evolve through the challenges life brings.

My journey started 13 years ago and there were plenty of bumpy roads and rollercoaster experiences. But I knew deep inside that I needed to heal the physical body to create a foundational support system. And that made space for me to work on the trauma and abuse that had been hiding beneath the surface. Albert Einstein once said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” And that was exactly what I learned along the way. The more I focused on mindfulness, gratitude, self-love, and perspective the easier life felt. I felt happier, even if turmoil lurked in every corner or crevice. We may not be able to predict the future or clear all the obstacles that may come our way, but we do have the power to choose to shift our perspective and find the blessing in each moment.

Changing your perspective is never easy. It takes time, consistency, perseverance, and persistence. It takes practice to shift your mind from a negative thought into a positive outlook.

After all, shifting the negative voice in our heads may require our attention a multitude of times per day. Some days are usually easier than others. But, on those difficult days, filled with challenges the negative voice often gets into overdrive. And those stressful days require constant redirection and may feel overwhelming. I must emphasize, it was not easy but it was absolutely worth the effort. When I began to see challenges through this new perspective, I recognized each experience was an opportunity. And the difficult, overwhelming, and stressful days diminished exponentially. And suddenly things from my bucket list no longer felt impossible. And I began to work towards the future, as I realized my daily visualization was helping me keep the shift more stable.

My perspective has been shifting consistently on my journey to healing the emotional and physical root of my chronic illness, severe digestive issues, and anxiety. But like anything in life healing goes through phases: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. The first 10 years were physical and geared towards healing by reducing prescriptions and symptoms of disease and illness. The last 3 years were spiritual and emotional geared towards reducing overwhelming feelings by unraveling the root cause of my illness, trauma, and self-limiting beliefs. The quote that paved the way for my perspective shift was, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change” by Wayne Dyer. And this premise gave me insights to begin some mindfulness practices that helped shift my perspective and fuel my day with a positive outlook. And I will share a few of those strategies that fueled me over the years.

Strategies to Shift your Perspective:

1. Breathe Deep and slow – take in 10 slow deep breaths with your eyes closed. My favorite is the 5-5-5 breath. Imagine you are moving the air up your spine to the crown of your head. Breath in 5 seconds. Hold your breath for 5 seconds. And exhale slowly.
2. Lay down in dragonfly position and combine with 5-5-5 Breath. A great way to start your day with a new energy and perspective.
3. Take 5 minutes to meditate or listen to a guided meditation. A simple meditation is to visualize your day. Imagine each moment from self-care, meals, meetings, driving, etc. Imagine them all happening beautifully. And focus on noticing the way you feel in those moments.
4. When that negative voice pops into your head, recite an affirmation and take several deep breaths as you let it sink in. You can try, “I am worthy of living, loving, and having the dream.” Or “I am good enough and I will get through this.”

Now, it is up to you. Do you choose to shift your perspective? Do you choose to find the blessings amidst the chaos? Do you choose to make lemonade out of lemons? Yes, well it all starts with self-love, mindfulness, and a decision to make the shift. I hope you feel inspired to practice some self-loving perspective shifts and begin to experience the magic in your life.

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Many times in life we do everything within our power to achieve our goal, whether that be a new job, to bring pride to others or ourselves, and to finally get over that hurdle our mental health has been lately. It’s easy to forget how far you’ve come when you see how far you still have left to go, but that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate your accomplishments now.

In this episode, Sarah Elkins and her good friend Megan Miller discuss the importance of allowing yourself to change and to celebrate every victory, no matter how small, because those victories are proof of your success.

HighlightsSharing vulnerable personal information without any intention doesn’t help you. Sometimes you don’t notice how much things change until you step back or get an outside perspective. Celebrate the wins. You get out what you put in.

Quotes

It’s soul, it’s about how you do it and why you do it. The advice we give a lot of the time is advice we need to hear at that point in time.

About Megan: Megan Miller is the CEO of Aprovechar Language Solutions, LLC, a company that acts as a bridge between English and Spanish language learners. Her personalized and small group programs take a habit-based approach, and whether it’s in class or a Book Club – you know you’ll have fun! She also helps IT companies in Latin America and Europe tell their stories for a U.S.-based audience through translation and localization projects. Megan has a Bachelor’s in Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture and is certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language. Check out her Instagram and LinkedIn! As well as her website, Approvechar Language Solutions!

Mentioned in this Podcast TEDx on Imposter Syndrome by Melissa Hughes

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Belonging encompasses the feeling that you have value in a home or a place in which you are fully accepted. When it comes to the workplace and inclusive leadership, creating a culture of belonging means more now than it ever has, especially in the wake of the Great Resignation. Seeking to understand your people goes beyond who they are once they walk through the door. It’s a deeper level of recognizing their intricacies that extend beyond the workplace. Everything they go through plays a huge part in who they show up as each and every day. Welcoming your employees’ voices and input helps them feel safe and cared for.

A Deeper UnderstandingYou know the saying, “walk a mile in their shoes?” One of the biggest mistakes leaders continually display is making assumptions about people.

Assumptions lead to microaggressions, misunderstandings, and otherwise harmful behaviors.

Start to understand your employees better by practicing active listening and including everyone’s voices in the conversation. The deeper your understanding of your people goes, the better suited you will be to find the perfect fit for them within your organization.

It’s equally as important to foster relationships among your team as a whole. When you introduce a new team member, make it personal. Keep the dialog flowing and always make an effort to ask questions about how they are and truly listen to what they have to say. Make it a habit to check back in with them, especially if they have shared a hardship with you. Listening is one of the biggest skills you can hone in on within leadership, and this is a great time for it to stand out.

Learning to TrustSeek out your teams’ strengths and let them shine. Always get their input and make sure to include everyone on your team when it comes to meetings, gathering opinions, and be sure to always genuinely value their feedback. Ask them where they think they do best and where their biggest area for improvement is. Ask them which part of their job is their favorite; we tend to enjoy doing what we’re good at! If you have already spent time connecting with and getting to know your team better, it won’t be too challenging to discover their unique talents.

On the flip side, learn to let go and not micromanage. Delegating tasks from your to-do list shows that you trust your team to get the job done and can foster collaboration. Accompany these new behaviors with recognition and positive feedback, even if the result is a failure. Commend your employees for trying and testing their limits and show respect by fully engaging in whatever your people have to say.

InclusionYou can begin this process of inclusion by sharing your own stories first and leading by example to show how powerful the desire to belong really is. Ironically, one of the biggest steps to creating a sense of belonging is, in fact, inclusion. You will only feel that you truly belong somewhere if you are welcomed to the table. Trust is the foundation for any safe space to be possible, but there needs to be an explicit and implicit invitation to your employees to speak openly and honestly. Give them your full attention by making eye contact and eliminating distractions. Let them know by your physical actions that when they speak, you are ready to listen.

ReflectionMentorship and professional relationships can make or break a career. You can take small steps to improve your inclusive leadership and help someone by sharing your own journey and listening to theirs. You’ll get a chance to share your successes and failures and you’ll hear another person’s diversity of experience. When it comes to creating belonging at work, it isn’t just about creating psychological safety, though of course that is extremely important. But you’re building and optimizing the connection of your community and your people. Embrace a culture of belonging, and you will see your people grow and collaborate even more, which will produce all the positive business results for which you are aiming to achieve.

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I was reflecting on the ritual of the inauguration of the 46th President of the USA and whilst the inauguration ceremony wasn’t what we have seen before it retained key anchor points of ritual and ceremony. The presence of former Presidents, the swearing-in on the ‘family’ bible, the singing of the National Anthem by a national treasure, and the inclusion of a poem by a celebrated poet. It contained all of those along with row upon row of flags symbolising the public unable to attend because of the COVID lockdown and previous unrest at the Capitol.

In our lives, we have many ceremonies and rituals – birth, marriage, death, key milestones, sporting achievement, academic achievement and so much more. Ceremony and ritual matter because they offer an opportunity to come together to witness and reinforce key values and truths.

Whether it be the hope of a better democracy, or the joy of new life, or the potential embodied in a loving union…in every significant ritual, we can see the underpinning of hope, truth, love, freedom, justice, joy…the fundamentals of life.

When we look at our organisations it’s equally important that we have in place, and value, our own rituals and ceremonies and consider their meaning and the messages we are seeking to convey. Whether it be the annual conference or the way we mark success, the way we say thank you or showcase loyalty. Each of these can seem like things we just need to tick off – we must have a long service award programme, we must have a sales bonus and reward programme and so on – but what attention do we pay to their impact and messaging of values and truths about the organisation? A local handing over of a letter and a trinket for 25 years of service can feel somewhat ‘underwhelming’?

And what about the transfer of the baton between senior leaders such as when a new CEO starts or there is a reorganisation. Opportunities exist for us to apply a little more thought to the ritual and ceremony surrounding these events. I’m not suggesting a huge pomp and circumstance affair, but I am suggesting that we shouldn’t treat them as ‘shadowy’, under-the-radar events either. These events have an impact on people and their sense of connection and motivation – or at least they should if they’ve been done for good reason, and they deserve more than just an all-points bulletin.

Transferring the baton is an opportunity to recognise and reinforce the core values underpinning an organisation and its community. It’s an opportunity for celebration and hope as a community. It’s an opportunity for broader messaging that feels credible and connected – weaving together the fundamentals that guide an organisation beyond any one individual.

Ritual and ceremony help us connect to that deeper part of ourselves where we touch into belief – the belief in something bigger, something more fundamental – love, hope, truth, connection, goodness, oneness…let’s ensure we afford them due respect.

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In the English Alphabet, there are five Vowels. They are A, E, I, O, and U, respectively. Equally we humans have five sense organs, out of which we comprehend the reflections of the external world. Nature endowed us with a unique quality and our cerebral are designed in such a fashion that only can receive the reflections nature endows on us! Out of our five senses, we humans can even imagine a picture being entirely designed by our internal mechanism which may necessarily not having any absolute physical entity, but out of our cerebral capacity we can only envisage its entity and we could evidently realize that external and internal conditions are equally pertinent for our growth and evolution. However, all matters in our vicinity play a key role for even a matter like ours to sustain and evolve!

As equal to five vowels in the English language, human civilization too came across five predominant social structures to date. Right from Primitive Communism, when people were food gatherers, not producers, and when there was no scope to make any surplus value out of garnering wealth to Slave Society, a new form of social structure, primarily designed with inequality of wealth and subjugation of the majority with the vile intention only to possess wealth, and thereafter followed by Feudalism to emerge with a rebellious manifestation and exercise their persistence for a fairly long time, until Capitalization came into emergence by ceasing and replacing the atrocities of Feudalism with their upholding tenet of Democracy. After that, the Socialist social structure emerged by unleashing a new sense of liberty where people from the majority section find their utterances where productive forces and production are largely reinforced, and a new sense of freedom is defined with an aura of humanism.

We cannot rule out that Polity is the intense form of Economy in an available social fabric and in the present socio-political scenario we are observing a severe crisis that is steeping in high magnitude and causing unrest to all forms of polity. Whether in a Presidential or Parliament form of Governance, whether Bi- Part or Multi-Party mechanism, all parties need to patronize and funding to enunciate their popular mandates and it is the Industrialists who fund them to ensure their out-of-return incentives and privileges with an aspiration to increase their profits which have no leaps and bounds and surprisingly having the similarity with the aspirations of all concern parties.

Where there is a single-party system or multiparty Government, both have aspirations only to remain in the corridor of power. Election or selection has an amazing similarity and both are having their respective coterie of interest groups and funding them with the same objectives! To win adults open franchises with popular mandates becoming bait to hoodwink the majority by offering dole politics paving the way for a few industrial houses to only gain abnormal profits with astronomical figures and continuously disfiguring the existing economic political social milieu. Hardly they could envisage that their greedy inclinations only pave the way for brewing unrest in an available social fabric and becoming a breeding ground for incendiaries to explode by numerous alibi, whether religious or racial essence with hate and animosity to cause enmity and chaos and eclipsing the vicinity with the sheer obscure, design of social unrest and nefarious form of which discrimination and lack of sheer integrity, devoid of humanism and harmony is nowadays becoming a common phenomenon.

I wonder whether the Socialists’ or Capitalist’s form of the socio-economic structure has aspirations to satiate their respective goals and both are resorting to the same format with a version having similarity to make allegiance to their preferred group of industrialists who are funding and supporting them respectively to acquire power, political and economic strength with election protocols with a vicious sense to an ingrained majority with an obscure sense of pseudo nationalism! Consequently: Crony Capitalism” now becoming a subject of great paramount and none can nullify this trend eclipsing the present society we are dwelling. What exciting features emerging in both halves of the present socio-economic policy!

In the modern era Technology is playing a key role to shape the entire world and by virtue of the internet, we are now living in a global village.

Whether developed or developing nations, both are taking the advantage of technology and the world’s productive order being largely revolutionized. The chain of supply and demand has gained new momentum. Production forces are being disintegrated along with the entire produced goods and different parts of a product are being decentralized, where a single product is manufactured in various parts of the world and assembled in another. The nature and picture of the market have changed and the competition for the market to being manifested in an intricate fashion. To acquire a sizeable proportion of the market, whether socialists or capitalists are in the fray and both are forced to opt for technology to sustain in the steep competitive market. Consequently, both forms of social structures are adopting the means of production in a similar fashion and resorting to a few giant producers of products who are capable to compete to have their stake. Patronising a few manufacturers are paving the way for new terminology, “Crony Capitalism” to emerge stronger and even change the landscape of capitalists by eliminating centuries-long organizations with new organizations in the Fortune 500 lists.

Innovation and disruption thus became the frontrunner of modern methods of competition and even the polity is largely guided nowadays by such revelations. This “Crony Capitalism” grows out of political parties’ patronage across the world where the political parties aim is only to win in the elections and to ensure their win, these cronies used to fund them, aspiring to get privileges from their political friends to accrue huge financial and another form of assistance and favour to thrive and make profits out of proportions and their numbers are growing astronomically, precisely in the developing nations. In the development, they appear as if a bolt from the blue and started to reign over the entire social, economic, and political milieu, and surprisingly almost the majority of the existing political parties show apathy to combat their brazen and nefarious traits as they almost all took the financial support from them to ensure their very existence in the available socio-economic political milieu.

When technology is dominating the entire world, who else will dare to combat their very existence? Eliminating manual labourers and introducing artificial intelligence with robotics and machine learning is definitely giving impetus to the entire production system and thus few are capable to garner huge profits. With the help of data science, the condition of labour forces are becoming deplorable and precisely in developing nations, their conditions are getting worse. The unemployment scenario is alarmingly rising and the majority of the labour forces are depending on the state’s welfare schemes to merely eke out. Thus dole politics are now making a huge impact and a creamy layer is being created by this existing mechanism only to eclipse the misery and inequality and jeopardy which is emphatically prevailing in the current society.

But can we rule out that if the purchasing capacities of the majority collapsed and they only exist out of the mercy of the state’s welfare schemes, how long we could contain the outburst of the majority’s discontent? The bone of contention is lying with the new form of exploitation where the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few and they only show generosity to their lap dog agents whether from the political domain or from media and intelligentsia to offer a little slice of their cake!

I wonder, why both ideologies, whether capitalist or socialist, despite contradictory to each other are resorting to the same logic of inducing the majority to go for cake, instead of the whole bread? Are they not paving the way for a new design of dispensation of social fabric by welcoming jeopardy and chaos?

I am observing the existence and persistence of a few sharks that are only focusing to swallow their prey indiscriminately just to cause instability and chaos to prevail and an emergence of abrupt bloody and wild chaos to obliterate many from nature’s floor, where fighting against nature will surely take its toll to prove that nature’s honest reflection on human cerebral is inevitable and failing to understand the reflections only pave the way for extinction of myriad.

It is perhaps the ardent call of this present hour to make an equitable and sensible use of technology where the majority could be benefitted and thrive vigorously and try to reduce the inequality in the social structures in order to serve humanity and restore peace and harmony.

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In our second blog in the Reconnect and Reset series, we stated that it is not a time to panic. Nor is it a time to languish from change fatigue, pain, and emotional lethargy. It is a significant moment in time to focus, rehabilitate, rebuild, repair, regrow and reset to increase our connectedness through linking human touchpoints that increase people-power in the fourth industrial revolution.

In the current environment, where chaos and order are constantly polarising, its crucial to touch people with empathy, reignite their social skills, and enable them to become healthily self-compassionate and more self-caring to:

• Patiently support, lead, manage, mentor, and coach them towards finding their own balance to flow with mitigating the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.
• Take advantage of new technologies, networks, and ecosystems to re-engage and collaborate with others and with civil society in positive ways that contribute to the whole.
• Do the good work that creates a more compelling, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future, that serves the common good.

The landscape has changed and so have the solutions

As the fourth industrial revolution continues to implode, we need to zoom out and consider the bigger picture. Where a recent Harvard Review article What Will Management Look Like in the Next 100 Years? states that we are entering an era, which is fundamentally transforming the way we operate. Which is defined by the disruptive growth in blockchain technology, robotics, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and other core digital capabilities.

All of which, in some way, are dependent on linking the key human touchpoints that increase people-power and our connectedness.

• An era of empathy

In the same article, management scholar Rita Gunther McGrath argued that management practices based on command and control and expertise would ultimately make way for one of empathy.

Where work is centred around value creation conducted through networks and collaboration, that rely on increasing the connectedness between machines and humans rather than through rigid structures and relationships to thrive through increasing people-power in the fourth industrial revolution.

• Capable of better

The Qualtrics 2022 Employee Experience Trends Report also states that the landscape has changed. Where people are choosing to work flexibly, to work in the places that work best for them, and to take time for their own well-being, families, and friends.

Where people are demanding change because they care, about their leaders and their organisations, and want to be capable of developing better ideas; better innovations; and delivering better performances.

The report outlines the four things your people need you to know:

1. There will be an exodus of leaders – and women will be the first out the door.
2. People will demand better physical and digital workspaces.
3. The lack of progress in diversity, inclusion, and belonging won’t be accepted.

People don’t want to become irrelevant, nor do they want their managers, leaders, and organisations to become irrelevant. People know that they can’t, and won’t go back to the old ways of doing things.

People also know that they are already living in the new normal and that they need to start working there, too and to do that, we need to increase our connectedness.

Which is especially important for building people-power and mitigating the challenges emerging in the fourth industrial revolution.

• A transformative moment for employees and employers

Businessolver’s Eighth Annual Report on the State of Workplace Empathy describes how the pandemic has impacted on employees’ personal lives, the labour market, and the economy, and states that “we are living through a renegotiation of the social contract between employees and employers”.

Their data shows that amid the return to the office, fewer employees view their organisations as empathetic, and that workplace empathy has clear implications for employee well-being, talent retention, business results, and increases people-power:

• About 70% of employees and HR professionals believe that empathetic organisations drive higher employee motivation.
• While 94% of employees value flexible work hours as empathetic, the option is only offered in 38% of organisations.
• 92% of CEOs say their response to returning to in-person work is satisfactory, compared to 78% of employees.
• 82% of employees say their managers are empathetic, compared to 69% who say the same about their organisation’s chief executive.

Yet, there seems to be a true lack of understanding, especially in the corporate sector, of what it means to be empathetic, and a shortage of time and energy to develop the mindsets, behaviours, and skills to practice it and make it a habit.

It is also a fundamental way of being to increase our connectedness and building peoples-power.

Make a fundamental choice to increase our connectedness

Even though each person is a distinct physical being, we are all connected to each other and to nature, not only through our language but also by having a deeper sense of being.

Human connectedness is a powerful human need that occurs when an individual is aware and actively engaged with another person, activity, object or environment, group, team, organisation, or natural environment.

It results in a sense of well-being.

The concept is applied in psychology as a sensation or perception where a person does not operate as a single entity – we are all formed together to make another, individual unit, which is often described as wholeness.

Which is especially important for our well-being and people-power in the face of the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.

Strategies for developing quality connections

• Be grounded, mindful and conscious

Being grounded and mindful enables people to become fully present to both themselves and to others. It is a generous gift to unconditionally bestow on others. Especially at this moment in time, where the pandemic-induced social isolation, has caused many people to become unconsciously and unintentionally self-absorbed.

There is an opening to become aware of, and to cultivate our attending and observing skillsets, to sense and see the signals people are sending, at the moment they are sending them. To help people identify the source of their issues to re-establish a sense of influence and control that reduces their autonomic nervous system reactions and help them restore their calmness.

This is the basis to increase our connectedness, by attuning and becoming empathetic as to what thoughts and feelings lay behind their behaviours and actions, with detachment, allowing, and acceptance.

• Be open-hearted and open-minded

Being curious about what others are feeling and thinking, without evaluating, judging, and opposing what they are saying. By knowing how to listen deeply for openings and doorways that allow possibilities and opportunities to emerge, to generate great questions that clarify and confirm what is being both said and unsaid.

To support people by creating a safe and collective holding space, that reduces their automatic unconscious defensive responses. To defuse situations by being empathic and humble and increase our connectedness by asking how you might help or support them, and gaining their permission and trust to do so.

Increase our connectedness through being vulnerable in offering options so they make the best choice for themselves, to reduce their dependence, help them identify and activate their circles of influence and control and sustain their autonomy.

• Help people regenerate

Now is the moment in time to focus on building workforce capabilities and shifting mindsets for generating a successful culture or digital transformation initiative by harnessing, igniting, and mobilising people’s motivation and collective intelligence and build people-power.

It is crucial to acknowledge and leverage the impact of technology through increasing people-power by developing new mindsets, behaviours, skills, and new roles, which are already emerging as fast as other roles change.

Be willing to invest in the deep learning challenges that build people’s readiness and receptivity to change, so they can embrace rather than resist it, be willing to unlearn, and relearn, differently, by collaborating with other people, leaders, teams, and organisations across the world.

Ultimately, it all depends on being daring and willing to increase our connectedness, through adapting, innovating, and collectively co-creating strategies, systems, structures that serve the common good, and contribute to the well-being of people, deliver profits and nurture a sustainable planet.

Find out more about our work at ImagineNation

Find out about our collective, learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, October 18, 2022. It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and increase people-power, upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique context. Find out more about our products and tools.

This is the final in a series of three blogs on the theme of reconnecting and resetting, to create, invent and innovate in an increasingly chaotic world. You can also check out the recording of our 45-minute masterclass, to discover new ways of re-connecting through the complexity and chaos of dis-connection to create, invent and innovate in the future! Find out more.

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What is mass intimacy? We’ve all felt it (and it was readily possible during social distancing)! The innovative and creative agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners has created landmark work for companies incl Pepsi, Nike, and BMW (and many many more), and they’re helping pioneer mass intimacy.

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A recent post by Dennis Pitocco titled “One Day or Day One: You Decide –A MAZE or AMAZING” was the spark for me to write this article.

The ending paragraph of the post reads “Let’s stop the insanity. We know better. We are better. We can do better together. And we can do more not someday or one day, but starting right now. It’s time to own it. It’s time to move beyond self-preservation, choosing instead the greater good. There are two ways to navigate your life. As if it’s a maze. Or as if it’s amazing. We invite you to join us by making today your amazing DAY ONE.”

Reading “it’s time to move beyond self-preservation” coincided with a similar idea that Glenn Melcher expressed in a comment mentioning humanity preservation.

The above observation about self-preservation and humanity-preservation triggered the idea of this post and brought many questions to my mind such as:

• Are self-preservation and humanity-preservation a unity and is like a seed if split in two halves either shall not germinate?
• Are self-polluting and humanity-polluting two separate entities or are they one unit?
• What would happen if the two entities split from each other?

The Paradox of Self-Preservation and Humanity-PreservationAdvancement in technology is leading to increased hostilities and wars and comedown of humanity.

Humanity is making huge advancements in research and technology. Both are intended for the betterment of humanity. Yet, humanity is suffering from huge losses in lives and pollution of the environment that is threatening lives and healthy living on earth.

We call for the preservation of the environment and yet it is humans who cause the damage to the environment. Modern warfare harm wildlife and biodiversity. Pollution from war contaminates bodies of water, soil, and air. Warfare releases greenhouse gas emissions.

We hold global conferences to protect the environment while warring at the same time. How can we do this?

• Is humanity not walking the talk?
• Is humanity suffering from what the Arab adage says that ignorant people are the enemies of self?
• Is humanity gaining more knowledge to become increasingly ignorant?
• Is there hope for humanity-preservation without caring also for self-preservation?

Are we freezing humanity to preserve it?

Freezing is one of the easiest ways to preserve fresh fruit. The question is are we then freezing ourselves and humanity to conserve them?

But then to conserve them for how long?

Humanity has to be “fresh” all the time. This is the best way to conserve it. The same extends to self.

There is no way to freeze our humanity and we need to act NOW before it is too late to do anything with nothing left to conserve.

Please do not freeze your thoughts. We need them now by sharing them with the world.

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Today, Gail McDonald and Susan Sneath will be unpacking questions, stories, thought-provoking possibilities, and tips to play with in Episode 5 “Let Your Purpose Find You” in the Change Zone.

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Building a high-performance culture is crucial for any business but is a particular challenge for organizations that have employees, contractors, and partners spread across multiple locations and time zones. Here are three keys to building an effective culture in a virtual business:

• Develop and embed crystal-clear values, with behaviors tied to them
• Focus on building trust (in ways that make sense in a virtual environment)
• Leverage both technology and travel

Crystal clear values, with behaviors tied to them

In a virtual business, values act as beacons to guide behavior in the absence of physical proximity. They help everyone understand ‘how we do things around here’ … when there is no ‘here’. Each company should identify two to three non-negotiable values. These shouldn’t be right-to-play values such as ‘excellence’ or ‘integrity, but rather should express the organization’s DNA. Then, for each value, there should be a set of specific behaviors that would clearly indicate whether or not that value was being lived.

Values and associated behaviors can be expressed in ways that align with a virtual environment. For example, if a core value is ‘Respect’, this might be expressed behaviourally as ‘We show up’, which would speak to everyone turning up to virtual meetings on time; and then being present, focused, and engaged at them.

IBM is an example of a business where teams across business lines and geographies need to come together virtually to deliver services to clients around the world. IBM’s values play a central role in supporting this process. For example, one of Big Blue’s core values is “Dedication to every client’s success, and one of the ways this is expressed behaviourally is that IBMers are expected to “go above and beyond to help our clients succeed, however that success is measured.” The same values and behaviors apply irrespective of whether the employee is based in Brussels or Bangalore and provide a common set of norms that help virtual teams of IBMers around the world to quickly come together and deliver for their clients. People who embrace IBM’s values tend to thrive. Those who do not tend not to stay long.

If a highly decentralized organization isn’t clear on its values and associated behaviors, or if these aren’t really being lived, then taking the time to get clarity and embed these should be a top priority.

This process should be driven by the CEO, and in a way that ensures that the values and behaviors emerge from within the business, and are not simply imposed from above. There are many ways to do this, but Jim Collins’ Mission To Mars exercise is a great place to start.

Focus on building trust

Trust is central to high-performing teams. People need to know that they are open and vulnerable with one another without being attacked personally. Google calls it ‘psychological safety’. Bestselling author Patrick Lencioni calls it ‘vulnerability-based trust’. However, building trust in a virtual workplace can be challenging. This is because some of the most effective ways to do this – such as people getting to know one at a personal level – don’t emerge as naturally in a virtual setting. There are no ‘water cooler conversations’ and colleagues can’t invite each other to lunch. However, it is possible for virtual teams to establish trust. It just requires more focus.

For example, when a new virtual team is formed, it can be tempting for the group to charge straight into a discussion around the task. This is a mistake. Instead of focusing initially on the formal ‘work’, the team should allocate plenty of time to discussing how they want to work together and get to know one another as people. This should be an ongoing process, and one that the team calls out as a top – and ongoing – priority. Once everyone agrees on this, the team can collaboratively discuss how they want to go about building trust and establishing norms they all agree to work by. If the broader organization already has clear values and behaviors, these can help scaffold this process.

Tuckman’s model of team formation shows that it takes time for teams to genuinely come together and start performing at a high level, and this applies even more in the case of virtual teams. Taking time to focus explicitly on how the team wants to work together – rather than diving straight into ‘the work’ – will lead to better outcomes, both in terms of team performance and organizational culture. When it comes to building high-performance cultures in a virtual environment, the best way to speed up is to slow down.

Blend technology and travel

Technology can help with building trust and communication within virtual teams. Tools like Slack and Google Hangouts make it easier for people to connect with one another, and video conferencing has become ubiquitous. Teams should discuss how they want to use these technologies, and create a process to check in from time to time as to whether technology is being leveraged effectively.

For example, some organizations have seen tools like Slack so actively embraced that they have become overused, and have seen people not engaging in the kind of generative dialogue that is best conducted over a call or video conference (if a face-to-face meeting is impossible). These businesses have started to have conversations internally to collaboratively decide what kinds of communication is best handled via which medium so that there are common norms around this.

While technology has allowed virtual organisations to flourish, there is nothing quite like face-to-face communication to build trust and collaboration, particularly as people are getting to know one another. The impact of a two-day offsite that brings together a virtual team that has never physically spent time together can be transformative in terms of building relationships and creating a positive culture. Where possible, organizations should allocate a budget to allow their people to physically come together from time to time. The relationships and bonding resulting from these events will lay a foundation of trust and collaboration that can then be built upon as the teams return to their virtual environments.

Wrapping it up

The principles behind building a high-performance culture in a virtual environment are the same as those in that apply to a traditional co-located environment. However, many of the factors that support the creation of a high-performance culture are more challenging to achieve and require more focus in a virtual setting. Whilst this is a challenge, it also represents an opportunity. Traditional businesses can (mistakenly) be tempted to get complacent about their culture. However virtual organizations clearly do not have this luxury, and smart leaders will ensure they apply a laser-sharp focus to this work.

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If you didn’t see our recent update, our #HRDudeLennon has moved on to new adventures as the Executive Vice President of Mischief and Mayhem at a new organization (translation: My daughter moved out, and her cat went with her – this is all positive, btw. )

When this happens in organizations, it’s pretty common for the workload to land on the desks of people who were probably already super busy AND are now dealing with the emotional impact of change. Even if they’re glad the person is gone (and let’s be honest, that’s a real situation many times), it’s still change, and we, as humans (and, based on the behaviours of the four-legged staff in our home, our animals as well) don’t love change. There are ways we can foster and nurture hope during uncertain times. Perhaps one of these will help you.

1. Accept the challenge for what it is If you’ve been hit broadside with a difficulty that’s left you negative, the worst thing you can do is try to ignore that it’s there. By acknowledging the problem, you can deal with it head-on and find a solution. Emotions are real. Start by asking yourself if the issue is something you can change. If so, then it’s time to make a game plan. If not? Then learn how to live with the new status quo, rather than wasting time and energy fighting it.
2. Ask yourself what you can learn from this experience By seeking out the lessons to be learned, you can calmly face the problem. Discover what you can about the situation, learn and then move on. By the way – #LessonsLearned can be POSITIVE – it’s not always “stuff to avoid next time”.
3. Revisit the past You’ve been through tough times before. Think back to them to remind yourself that challenges don’t last forever. Hope springs up from the knowledge that you’ve gotten through problems before. This is one of the real bedrock pieces of (that buzzword we’re all starting to hate because it’s used in such toxic ways!!!!) #resilience.
4. Record the experience Blogging, journaling, or recording what’s going on helps you to process the experience and find creative solutions. When we get things out of our head, we’re able to deal with problems logically rather than emotionally. Looking back at this record becomes a powerful experience of your progress, which offers hope.
5. Laugh Even if you don’t feel like it initially, the act of laughing changes moods. Hopelessness doesn’t stand a chance against a good belly laugh. The fun thing about laughter is, once you start, it’s hard to stop. You can even fake it till you make it with laughter. It will lighten your mood and help you see solutions that weren’t there before. (Hit me up if you want some resources around laughter. I’m a certified Laughter Yoga Leader and so is my spouse. We SOOOO have you covered here!)
6. Choose Happiness What?! It’s a choice?! Yes, friends. Happiness is a lifestyle, and we can choose to find it even in the weird spaces. Much of our life can be performing ‘shoulds’ if we let it. In this case, ask yourself if doing the ‘right thing’ means doing the thing that’s best for you? As long as it won’t hurt others, make the choice that will create happiness in your life.
7. Build a support group. Humans were never designed to live in solitary isolation. Trying to manage tough times alone is a sure recipe for fostering hopelessness. Gather people around you who make you feel hopeful just by being with them. By spending time with positive people, their hopefulness will quickly become your own.

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Life will happen to us, and it is more about how we manage what happens to us than trying to control what happens to us. It is about choice – our choice.

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"The futurre of work is looking bright and wide open for opportunities. The time of the self-sovereign worker is here - are you ready?" ...

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"If we adapt human society to the fabric of nature, we will feel that it supports us, and life will be an effortless ride." ...

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"There are only two letters in the word 'impossible' you need to get rid of to make things possible." ...

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"You always hear the term bucket list which equates to something someone would like to do before their time is gone." ...

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"Maybe it's time we revisited the bottom line. If that line crushes any part of our emotional and spiritual well-being, we need to generate a different work." ...

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"Do you judge yourself? Are you your own worst critic? Are you truly happy? What if you could learn to eradicate, or at least tame, the self-judgment, quiet the critic, and embrace your chance to live a fulfilling life?" ...

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"Purpose is essential to living and leading with fulfillment. But how do you find your purpose?" ...

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"How often do you say to yourself “I don’t have time?”...

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"The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination." ...

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"The secret to changing your life is in your intentions. Wishing, hoping and goal setting cannot accomplish change without intention. What is needed is a shift from the inert energy of wanting to the active energy of doing and intention." ...

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"The spontaneous tendency of our culture is to inexorably add detail to our lives:  one more option, one more problem, one more commitment, one more expectation, one more purchase, one more debt, one more change, one more job, one more decision.  We must now deal with more ‘things per person’ than at any other time in history." ...

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"We seem to keep applying the same old traditional approaches hoping that they will work and make a difference. " ...

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"How many people do you know who still talk about their work with passion, and engagement, they feel valued and valuable in what they do and it reflects on how they feel about themselves and others?" ...

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"Transforming your world involves co-creating a deeper sense of belonging and a more optimistic outlook, to enhance our collective intelligence towards discovering and navigating new ways of thriving, flourishing, and flowing in the face of ongoing disruption." ...

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"The paradox of anger results from our sense of losing control. Yet when we get angry we lose more control. We behave in a way that heaves more anger and thus further losing control." ...

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"Do you agree that it’s in the face of tests and difficulties that human virtues like Fortitude, Endurance, and Bravery truly show up best …and inspire us to become the best version of ourselves?" ...

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"Throughout the world, the pandemic exposed new and unforeseen challenges for employees in the workplace. Although some employees found the challenges exciting, most others experienced the pandemic as exhausting, and anxiety-provoking, and it affected their ability to work effectively." ...

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"There is no comfort in the growth zone, and no growth in the comfort zone." ...

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"Mental wellness, feeling safe, being healthy, and having an inclusive and innovative workplace, integrity, honesty, and values that were lip service in the past have now become very important measurements in our commitment to a company." ...

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"In our world of complexity, uncertainty, and wicked problems, applying the qualities of openness, receptivity, and vulnerability to leadership opens the doorway to a new level of creative thinking." ...

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"Inspired people create change. Because inspiration is the spark of motivation. It's the breath of the muses awakening your dreams. It's also the engine that drives you to achieve your goals." ...

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“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves..” ...

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"The world changes depending on how people see it, and if you alter it, even by a millimeter, the way ... people look at reality, then you can change that." ...

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"If we buy into this story of ‘not enough’, we open ourselves up to be judged and discarded by others based on this inner story we believe is true." ...

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"This shift happened as a result of many factors; what matters now is millions of people are questioning these work norms and demanding better conditions." ...

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"Employees have begun considering their workplaces – workplace culture, how they want (prefer) to spend their time and – beyond that – what is most important to them." ...

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"One way of standing out of the crowd that I find amazing is flipping a normal situation to make it abnormal and against the prevailing practices." ...

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"When was the last time you felt like something was different? Did it spark curiosity within yourself? Did you ask yourself why this happened? Did you consider taking action based on what happened?" ...

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"While “quiet quitting” appears to be this month’s clickbait, it’s not a new idea. Nor is it some outgrowth of the pandemic." ...

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"The world does not exist merely to satisfy our own desires; it is a world in which we can find pleasure and meaning, once we understand that others too have a right to these goods." ...

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"How many times have you heard organisations say, “our people are our biggest asset,” and then behave in ways that demonstrate this isn’t the case?" ...

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"Is play a way to improve communication, employee engagement, and foster inclusion? What does play mean? How does it work? Is play a better way?" ...

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"We have to stop using technology to optimize human beings for the market and start optimizing technology for the human future." ...

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The best definition I’ve heard for discipline is “Give yourself a command and then go do it!”  Many times we think of discipline as something that comes from parents, teachers, coaches, and/or administrators because we made choices that were not beneficial. However, when you understand that discipline actually comes from the Latin word disciplina meaning […]

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"Fear is going to be the core of stagnation and feeling stuck. This could be fear of failure, fear of success, fear of financial risk, fear of not being good enough, or fear of not being caple, to name a few." ...

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"Whatever your business strategy, or where your workforce is based, a fully integrated communication system can streamline projects and increase productivity in both offices and when working remotely." ...

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"When one person begins to make positive changes in their habits and relationships, the health of their relationships increases up to 40% ...Put yourself in Henry and Sandy’s shoes. Where would you start?" ...