Cock-a-doodle-do & Happy New Year to You!

This morning, five "articles for 2012" jumped out at me.  Because I thought they might 'speak' to you, too, I have assumed the responsibility of "aggregator" by combining them into one PDF.  (I have made zero efforts to modify, clean-up, or edit any of them, of course, so caveat emptor.)

I believe you will enjoy them.

Reading them in one brief swath, you will see a common thread: more and more, the Customer-Client-Student is CENTER.  Not peripheral, but front-and-center.

Now, of course, this is a multi-millenia reality, but never as focused as today.  The magnifying glass has found the sun, and the diffused light has become a laser beam.  I can see the smoke and smell the sizzle.

The first article, "Physicists Seek to Lose the Lecture as a Teaching Tool" describes the transition from 'Sage on the Stage' to 'Guide on the Side.'  In short, students who are required to answer questions and wrestle with reason via 'peer instruction' learn 3x more than those who sit idly by and listen to a professor pontificate.  Historically (e.g., before Google... "BG"), the 'gathering of information' was the hardest half of learning, when compared to 'making sense of information.'  Today, gathering information is easy--it almost happens passively, as we are immersed and awash in it hour by hour.  This allows, therefore, professors to invest their time provoking, guiding and leading inquiry and understanding...rather than transmitting data.  While this is no great epiphany, it will ultimately upend the teaching model as we've known it, challenging all of us to 'adapt or become extinct.'  (Read it to see how the student, not the professor, should be at the center of the learning process.)

The second article, "The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives" speaks to the importance of humility (respect), boundaries (character), curiosity (followership), receptivity to disagreement (retention), authenticity (vs. attention), reality (vs. hype) and change (vs. worshipping the past).  It is an interestingly nuanced and subtle juxtaposition to Walter Isaacson's biography about Steve Jobs, describing why (perhaps) several of Jobs' core behaviors were exceptions--not the rule.  (Read it to see a balanced view on market, customer, and leadership vision and strategy.)

The third article, "Five Resolutions for Aspiring Leaders" outlines simple-yet-transformative things you can tackle in 2012 to continue your professional development.  (Read it to see how 'gaining knowledge,' not 'defending it,' will keep you front-and-center...and relevant in the months ahead.)   

The fourth article, "What Americans Keep Ignoring about Finland's School Success" describes something I tackled in Cultivating the Strategic Mind: the value of cooperation rather than competition.  Equity vs. Excellence.  I know, I know, it sounds heretical!  (Read it to see 'the bigger picture' and understand how--and why--putting EVERY student at the center of an educational process makes Finland a North Star.)    

The fifth and final article, "Five Predictions for Higher Ed Technology in 2012" shows, by way of Stanford and MIT, that online learning is here to stay and, given that more and more college students are drowning in debt and questioning the value of diplomas in a soft economy, universities must find alternative delivery methods.  From 'peer' and 'distance learning' to replacing bulky, back-breaking-backpacks full of anachronistic, outdated and overpriced textbooks with iPads and tablets, the future is here.  And now.  Once universities get their own act in gear, the dam will burst, the watershed will overflow, and those 'lockers' we all experienced from K-12 will be about as useful as a hitching post at your local watering hole.  (Read it to see why, once again, the customer--aka student--is king.)

5ArticlesFor2012.pdf (235.13 kb)

Not quite, but my promise to you today is one of pithiness.

Of all the words that have been written about leadership, performance and the like...of all the 'ornamentation' we hang here and there to garnish the tree, it always comes down to this:

CONNECTION & CONTRIBUTION within RELATIONSHIPS defined by TRUST.

End of story.  Period.

We all desire a sense of connection--to others, to purpose.  To make a difference, to contribute something.  To buzz the work and get 'r done.  To see, as Steve Jobs wrote, "a dent in the universe."

"I made that," the credit rolls...

If we can truly connect to someone and something--and be trusted to achieve worthwhile outcomes, life is good.

Don't believe me?  Read any study, particularly longitudinal ones like Harvard's 70-year-old 'Happiness Study.'  Or faster yet, ask an unemployed person why he or she is periodically depressed.  "I'm drifting, untethered.  I feel emasculated and small.  I want to engage and provide and be counted."

Whether we look at it as a parent, sibling, child, employee, citizen...it makes no difference.

To reach our potential, to sing our song, to paint our masterpiece, to live life to the fullest--this organism requires connection and contribution within relationships defined by trust.

Now go get yourself some air, water, sunlight and soil.  Plug-in and power-up.

And if or where you struggle, don't lose hope or give up the fight.

Even weeds find sunlight through concrete, and so do we.

Connect and contribute in even the smallest of ways and, like a spark in the night, the rest often takes care of itself.

I had one of those "if it weren't so dang painful, it'd be comedic" sort of weeks last week. 

It culminated at the rental car counter where the attendant pronounced, "Wow.  It sucks to be you."  (He was not smiling.) 

Needless to say, though practically everything did seem to be working against me, I got a kick out of the comment (though the 'customer service critic' in me flinched at his...honesty?).

We all have our ups and downs, but I don't live in flooded Pakistan right now...or another war-ravaged 3rd world country...or in a dark corner of the globe where personal liberties are non-existent and beautiful, innocent young women suffer having their bodies mutilated at the hands of savages. 

Have I got problems?  Duh.  Who doesn't?  But there are 'problems' and there are p-r-o-b-l-e-m-s. 

* * *

As I walked through a parking lot earlier today, I came across a woman spilling out of her car with this bumper sticker--and couldn't help but laugh...and wonder, "Huh.  Where does she park her car at work and how do her colleagues feel when they read the sticker?"

There are so many days that stink; so many days when we might be inclined to feel absolutely microscopic and insignificant.

Days when we envy even the lab rat.

But buck-up, little camper, because there is hope:

Pretty funny, no?  Can I get even a snicker or a giggle? 

I aim to please.  And to remind you: laugh every now and then, will 'ya?  It releases neato endorphins, puts things in perspective and helps you remember, you ain't all that and this too shall pass.

Just like Grandma's fruitcake or Aunt Emmie's deviled eggs.

See? 

I told you.  Endorphins.

This past week I spent some time with a company renowned for being a "high tech systems integrator."

It got me thinking just a couple degrees differently, so I thought I'd pay the perspective forward.

So often, an organization focuses on increasing trust, improving performance, incorporating best practices, etc.  Yet generally, these efforts occur within isolation, in silos.

It reminds me of Dr. Frankenstein's efforts: try as he might to 'create life,' he inadvertently created a monster.  "The law of unintended consequences," to be sure.

My advice?

A rising tide lifts all boats, so step back--take some time--and work, as Michael Gerber wrote so eloquently, "on your business, not just in or for your business."  (Do the latter two and your business is master.)

Ask yourself, "If I were to start anew, from a blank slate, how would I design my organization?" rather than, as Frankenstein did, "If I stitch this onto here and attach that to the other thing...I wonder if I can 'create life?'"

Gerber articulated so thoroughly that it's rarely about what we use on hand...the 'additive' nature of mashing things together.  This rarely proves successful and frequently convolutes.

Far better to reconceive your company as if you were the unbiased systems integrator: "What do I need?  What do I have?  What do I lack?"  And then, come to terms with scrapping anything and everything in order to design, sequence and overlay most efficiently.

I know it's hard, because we all love our binkies.  But as a wise man once shouted, "You can't expect me to revolutionize transportation and insist that I keep the horse!"

Several days ago while differentiating Good vs. Poor Leaders, I committed to write a bit more about leadership. 

In keeping that commitment, allow me to share the following model which has proven helpful for several groups over the years.

Beyond 'arguably,' there are certainly a number of key leadership competencies unaccounted for here (like systems thinking and change), but we can dive into those another time.

What the model here does do, and simply, is capture 2 key axes, 4 diverse endpoints...and all this while reminding the leader the importance of stability.

Let's start with the 2 axes, Results and Relationships. 

Notionally, the premise of Results and Relationships (like Yin and Yang) alerts leaders to mind these two very unique yet interrelated dimensions. 

On the one hand, great leaders have got to be adequate (or, more ideally, exceptional) relationship-builders.  For those leaders who like to think programmatically, linearly or via 'building blocks,' understanding that he or she can build relationships in two ways often proves constructive. 

For example, on the one hand, a leader can build and improve relationships by focusing on how he or she Collaborates with others.  Collaborate is a straightforward word -- it means to "co-labor" or "work together."  Two practical ways to think about this include: (1)People do not resist their own ideas and (2)People like to see their photo...or 'DNA' in the scrapbook.  In short, to be a better leader, co-labor with others in ways that allow them to contribute and see their contributions.  It's as simple as that, and yet a huge portion of the 'leadership population' does not operate this way.  Instead, they place themselves at the center of everything, marginalizing those around them as grunts and missing tremendous opportunities to facilitate dialogue, contribution, better solutions and support.

A second way for a leader to build and improve relationships is through Communication.  Here's a neat way to think about communication: (1)Awareness occurs through the senses, (2)Understanding occurs in the mind, (3)Belief occurs in the heart and (4)Behavior occurs through the hands.  Pragmatically, this means more than time permits us to unpack today...but imagine a company that seeks to 'communicate' through posters in the cafeteria, name badges, mouse pads or screen savers.  Will people be 'aware' of the company's direction?  Perhaps.  But will they integratively understand, believe and demonstrate that direction daily?  It's doubtful.  To improve the odds, the organization should learn to communicate in ways that involve people and breathe life into the ideologies by animating and modeling beliefs and behaviors.  The Confucius maxim, "I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand" holds water.

But communication is about a lot more than 'spewing or sensing.'  I believe that, as is the case our entire lives, we learn more by doing than seeing or hearing.  Said more plainly, if you want to communicate effectively, involve another person in the decision-making or delegation of a task.  (Like mathematics, you don't really know whether I understand the problem's nuances until I show my work.)  And while I have you here, let me add one more morsel: Deciding and Delegating are two of our strongest methodologies for Developing people.  Lots of leaders 'miss' this, making too many decisions themselves or seeing delegation as a way to clear their plate.  This is a huge mistake.  Instead, approach each task and ask yourself, "How can this serve as a developmental opportunity for someone else, too?"  Then, draw others into the decision-making process or delegation loop purposefully.  (The sign of a great leader is increasing irrelevance.  The sign of a poor leader is unending dependence.  Great parents teach this, starting with removing the training wheels.) 

Continuing now, any leader must accomplish results.  I have often viewed results as occurring across two common categories of activities, distinguishable along a scale of management and leadership.  The teeter-totter image below should prove a helpful tool for your further consideration of this idea. 

At the core of the first model, though, are values & ethics.  These alone are an entire field of inquiry that Aristotle himself didn't finish pondering.  One's own values and ethics warrant a lifetime of exploration and commitment.  They unquestionably serve as our compass' True North position, without which we wander, wonder and succumb to all manner of mirages and temptations.

I know it's not true in the purest sense, but I have always been predisposed to believe that if it's easy or convenient, it's probably wrong.  Those things in life which prove virtuous or right generally seem to be more difficult or inconvenient.  Diet, exercise, discipline, meaningful communication, giving others the benefit of the doubt, turning the other cheek, being selfless, meeting others' expectations, checking one's work, proofreading, going slowly now to go faster later, saving money, finishing one's homework proactively rather than procrastinating, loving thine enemy, living a whole and undivided life (walking the talk), dying unto oneself, checking one's ego at the door, truly listening (vs. reloading), being creative rather than a revisionist....  These are difficult things, and right.

In summary then, if you aspire to be a better leader, don't forget these 'minima:' Create better relationships through more purposeful collaboration and communication.  Achieve results through a proper mixture of management and leadership.  And all the while, drop your anchor deep into a stable, unchanging bedrock of consistent values and ethics.

Do these and you'll be more consciously-competent than half the leaders on the field.

Remember 1982 and that brain-rut-inducing Thomas Dolby song, She Blinded Me with Science? 

Science can be blinding--and blind--but today let's explore how Emotions can be, too.

(Science, of course, can be blind because it presumes itself to be the determinant of what is real.  It is the great judge, jury and executioner.  And yet, on matters such as art or ethics, science has little if anything to say.  Genomes or no genomes, deconstruction is no panacea.)

But what do I mean by "Emotional Impairment" or "Emotional Blindness?"  Simply put, I mean that emotions can swallow us whole and, once enveloped within their darkness it is virtually impossible to see our hands in front of our face.

There's a great book that describes similar phenomena, but let me attack it this way...

Forget for a moment the limbic system and all the hormones (which play absolutely vital roles in emotion) and let's just focus on two psychological elements: (1)Loss Avoidance and (2)Commitment.

As denoted by the image below, when one's "Opposition to Loss" (loss avoidance) and "Commitment" escalate, we have a recipe to brew disaster.

Examples are ubiquitous, from gambling and airplane crashes to suicide and high-risk behaviors.  Wherever we see an individual tied to high-stakes, we are right if we see trouble.

Let's take a current example, one that I'm sure has universal applications: War.

Whether we look at "Civil" Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq...or the thousands of wars that have been waged non-stop since the dawn of humankind, we see leaders in the crosshairs.  Leaders like Lyndon B. Johnson, who felt a tremendous pull between the war in Vietnam and his commitment stateside to create the Great Society.  Here's a great, representative quote from LBJ in 1968.  At the time, America had 500,000 troops in Vietnam and there had been tens of thousands of U.S. casualties:

“I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved.  If I left the woman I really loved – the Great Society – in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home.  All my programs, all my dreams to provide education and medical care.  But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, there would follow in this country an endless national debate – a mean and destructive debate – that would shatter my presidency, kill my administration, and damage our democracy.”

What happens when we, as leaders, become consumed by Loss Avoidance while simultaneously Escalating our Commitment?  We go blind.

We send more and more troops into un-win-able wars.  We change mission.  We broaden mission through scope-creep.  We change the game.  We change the rules.  We change the scoreboard.  We sell, we push, we spin.  We beg for more.  We ask and take and dicker and steal and we, along with all those around us, go up in flames.

I have a sweet friend whom everyone calls, "Zippo."  Why Zippo? 

Because every time he opens his mouth, he lights himself on fire.

He has no (in the words of my mother) "governor."  No filter between his brain and his tongue.  Or, perhaps too permeable a filter.

We all know Zippos.  "Did he just say that?" we ask ourselves.  And maybe, just maybe, it occurs to them after they've said what they've said..."did I just say that out loud?"

Beware your emotions.  Yes, they serve a prehistoric purpose, without which you will win the Darwin Award.

As human beings, it is true that our emotions often supersede rational thought.  We are reaction machines, our pulse often telling the story before we ourselves are attuned to our anger.

Be vigilant and self-aware, especially when--while reaching for the prize--you scale to the tippy-top of a precarious ladder comprised of self-justifying rungs named "I cannot lose" and "No turning back."  The air up there gets very, very thin...and where so, we stop thinking, stop seeing clearly and become blind to our own emotionality.

Surround yourself with buddies, fail-safes, ejection seats and fire extinguishers.  People who can say, "What are you thinking?  What are you telling yourself?  Why are you acting like this?  Who have you become, Mr. Hyde?"  And mechanisms designed to break the glass and douse the flames while you extricate yourself from your burning building and all that you have wrought.

While literally countless important questions swirl around us every day, there are few that stimulate me as much as, "What makes a great leader?"

It's a loaded question, of course, because embedded within it is another question, "Are leaders born or made?"  (The short answer, for today, is—"Yes."  But more on that Russian doll another time.)

Leadership is such a perennially important issue and this year is no different.  Every generation believes its time is unheralded and novel, and ours is not unique: we continue to live in undeniably tremendous times—an era of explosive growth, ceaseless change and limitless potential.  (But again, the same could be said 4,000 years ago...2,000 years ago, and again during the Renaissance...it is no less true today.)

As always, we need great leaders and greater leadership if we are to continue progressing in fields and practices as diverse as geopolitics, science, economics, finance, spirituality (yes, spirituality), innovation and sustainability.  From natural to man-made disasters in Alaska, New York, Sri Lanka and India to Thailand, Haiti and Louisiana, the importance and effects of leadership (or its absence) are—if we are fortunate—a broadcast away. 

In future blogs, I commit to writing more extensively about leadership at large, but today I will limit my thoughts to the importance of formal education (e.g., the University) as a mechanism and greenhouse for creating and growing tomorrow's leaders and will then conclude with a rough table differentiating poor from great leaders.

My preliminary comments are inspired today by John Sexton, President of New York University ("NYU").  My later comments are inspired by John Maxwell, author of 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (among other books). 

Though I believe there are indeed few 'new things' under the Sun, to the extent these men's ideas are held tenably together, I am to blame.

Universities for Tomorrow

Describing the University for Tomorrow requires a few thousand dissertions and years of research, to be sure, so I will simply take a slipshod whack to get your mind whirring.  You, along with millions of others who are already studying this opportunity, can do the remaining 99.9999% by filling in the gaps.

Fact #1: 70 of today's 85 oldest organizations are, in fact, universities.  (Vatican City and Parliament are examples of the other 15.)

Fact #2: If you want to create a vibrant 'center of thought,' create a great university and wait 200 years.

Fact #3: The universities-within-walls which brought us this far will not lead us into the future.

What NYU is doing in Abu Dhabi is right on the money: it's primarily about people, programs, teaching and research (and just so happens to serendipitously be what my doctoral program was, but on steroids to the 100th power).  I attended the modest Union Institute & University, the first "University without Walls" and participated in classes hosted in Brattleboro, Montpelier, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Miami.  We regularly embraced eccentric professors on sabbaticals from the Ivy League who operated 'unfettered' from many of the restraints they described occurring in Cambridge, New Haven, Providence, Princeton, Philadelphia, Hanover, Ithaca and NYC. 

...but I digress...

What encouraged me about Mr. Sexton's comments was the notion that tomorrow's university is an open, diverse, ecumenical, organic circulatory system of ideas and best practices that will focus on creative, exploratory thought and nuanced discourse.

I couldn't agree more. 

Indeed, any university, even the ones mired in the past (the ones we revere, historically) are mandated to help students learn to think (and critically) for themselves.  But my impression, far too often, is that university life can quickly become High School 2.0, packed to the gills with memorizing facts, completing rote work, regurgitating information or defending knowledge.  Unquestionably, we should possess societal standards of 'minimum knowledge,' but I expect this work to occur more fully in grades K-12.  The undergraduate years can round-out this process, but the fact that today's ACT and SAT tests still emphasize standardized knowledge, facts, reading, mathematics—and some writing (though many admissions boards admit they don't quite know what to do with this element yet)—I remain concerned that our perspectives are deficient.

While the United States is proceeding toward national standards in 48 of the 50 states, China is migrating toward a more exploratory curriculum designed to create great THINKERS and INNOVATORS rather than fact-regurgitators.  The ideal approach is, of course, a hybrid that includes the best of both.  We need a hygiene-oriented 'bare minimum' (which should be rigorous, not minimalistic; a 'threshold knowledge base' if you will) combined with strong creative and critical thinking skills.  IQ has never been a predictor of leadership success and it never will be.  Similarly, while standardized admissions are undoubtedly sufficient at predicting university success, they are representative solely of the coursework comprising undergraduate schoolwork—which illuminates my point and the 'smallness' of what we expect today.  Moreover, IQ and standardized metrics will never wholly predict a leader's ultimate societal contributions, service to humankind or general performance, so whatever the University of Tomorrow intends to look like, it must quickly learn to shed historic metrics in favor of indices that get at meaning, contribution and potential.

The single greatest determinant of student performance in the classroom is the teacher's expectations.  Knowing this, we should ourselves have the highest expectations for tomorrow's teachers, educators, instructors, professors...and each and every one of them should be well-versed in the Pygmalion Effect.

Finally, the university of tomorrow should be a bastion of deep discourse, not soundbytes.  Mr. Sexton described at length the disadvantage that today's thoughtful politicians start from when they find themselves embroiled in conflicts with opponents adept at dumbing down exceedingly complex issues.  The media loves sticky slogans ("It's the economy, stupid."), but we must have an appetite for prolonged, nuanced, systemic dialogue if we are to more fully understand issues, one another and create students and leaders capable of doing the same.

Poor vs. Great Leaders

Perhaps contary to popular opinion, the leader at the helm of such a university is not terribly dissimilar from the sort of leader who thrives in enterprise.  In the comments of John Sexton and the work of John Maxwell, I see similar threads regarding how students, university officials and tomorrow's leaders interact with the world around them. 

In this light, I conclude today's very embryonic blog with the following table differentiating 'poor' and 'great' leaders.  I trust that it might prove handy somewhere along the line.

More on these and adjacent thoughts in the weeks to come. 

On May 20, 2010 I caught a neat episode of Charlie Rose on PBS featuring an interview with Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures. 

(Maybe you remember Nathan; he has been 'everywhere' the last couple years describing everything from IV's "mosquito-zapping laser" to their proposed "water hose in the sky," theorized to minimize global warming.)

IV has been compared to "Davos...in Birkenstocks."

Whether you're creative, love people who are or fancy yourself a polymath, you'll totally dig Nathan.  (Pun intended, given his fascination with paleontology and archaeology.)

It's fun, if only for a few minutes, to imagine how someone like him -- and his "lab crew" -- see the world. 

Here's a great article about Nathan by Malcolm Gladwell, along with a giddy presentation at TED.

The matter of 'workplace' and 'personal' motivation comes up a lot.

Here's one of the more pleasurable explanations that I've come across.  My thanks to a dear colleague for sharing it.

Enjoy! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

The list is in.

Be sure to read the brief article on #1 SAS; it's a fascinating bounty of best practices. 

This morning I received a rather humorous email alleging, "A magazine recently ran a Dilbert Quotes contest, eliciting quotes about real-life Dilbert-type managers submitted by their employees.  Here are some of the best submissions from corporate America..."

Alleged Dilbert-Manager Quotes.pdf (99.48 kb)

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

We make countless decisions each and every day...every hour...every minute.

And most decisions aren't that hard.  We go with our gut, we experience 'behavioral shorthand' and know how, for example, to wind our way to work each morning without even thinking about it or, in the case of tougher decisions, we think, we pray, we seek counsel. 

But you know as well as I do that some decisions are very, very difficult.  Unimaginably gut wrenching.  Consider the sort our President is wrestling with this very week.  Or the sort our Supreme Court wrestles with each and every day.  Or the sort a grieving adult-child faces as her dying parent is placed on life support. 

And some of these decisions are in the oven for months...for years.  Indeed, they are very long in the making.

To describe this protracted 'deciding,' I use the analogy Decision Hill.

The first segment of Decision Hill is the ascent.  This is the acknowledgment that a decision, generally a complex, multifaceted one (and often an emotional one or one that will have 'tentacles' affecting others or 'collateral effects' beyond our immediate imagination) needs to be made.  Consider a neophyte playing chess with a grandmaster or a naive child wandering alone in the dark.  Neither is fully aware of the errors of his/her ways, much less the unknown and potentially devastating consequences that might follow an initial, innocent, well-intentioned mis-step.  In fact, consider the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy...or the pre-strike intelligence the NSA possessed on terrorists before the horrors of 9/11 in NYC.  Neither of these examples represent one huge or glaringly obvious oversight on anyone's part so much as an incremental, microscopic accumulation of residue...of tiny error after tiny error which, in the particulate, seem invisible, yet in the aggregate, seem enormous.

The ascent takes a very, very long time.

We wrestle with complexities.  With our emotions.  With possible outcomes.  We recall the past, we look to the future, we strategize, we visualize moves and countermoves, we think of the people who will be affected by our choices, we fall to our knees, we seek others' counsel, we T-chart the pros and cons, we flip coins, we toss coins in fountains, we wander and wonder, we rule things in and rule things out, we sleep on it, we eliminate outliers and finally...finally...after the grueling and the slogging and the swinging and the fighting and the traversing many meters to the top...we arrive, crestfallen, at the apex of Decision Hill.

And we straddle the tippy-top of this mountain.  We feel its enormity beneath and around us.  We accept the hollowness within us.  We long for the connectedness and renewal around us.  And we stare into the fog and darkness and storm and wonder if the heavens are with us. 

And we decide.

In an instant.

After the weeks and months or even years that preceded, we finally, exultingly, make a choice.

And this choice brings us -- in that singular moment -- from our ascension...to the second segment of our climb...the tipping point.

The slow boil is now a gas.

And with the clarity that cuts through the night like a knife through warm butter, we turn our eyes finally and fully toward the future.

The angst of deciding is behind us.

And we feel luminescent.  And buoyant.  And human again.

The weights slip off our shoulders, the bodice around our chest is loosed, the vice around our mind is broken, the chains around our ankles and neck and wrists are shattered, and we fall forward toward our destiny.

Like the child awaking to a pure and powdery snow on Christmas morning, it is the dawning of a bright, shiny, wondrous, clean, perfect day.

And we fall face-down upon our sled, grab the handles with shaky hands, and are restored and renewed.  We are officially in segment three: the descent.

Beloved gravity will do the rest.  Slowly, crunching...then quickly, now skittering...we gather speed and momentum and inertia and velocity...and we arrive, startlingly soon, at the bottom of the hill and find ourselves rocketing toward our future, snow spraying up all around us, ice crystals stinging our cheeks, laughter peeling all around. 

And like the shirtless, sledgehammer-wielding strongman at the summer fair, we are ready to slam forward into all the tomorrows that stretch out before us.

I want to encourage you today: It will get easier.  There is a top.  There is another side.  Even -- especially -- in the darkest moments of the darkest hours of the darkest days of the darkest seasons -- light shines on.  It always will.  It always has.  That's the benevolent nature of light.  It travels effortlessly and ceaselessly and swiftly across the darkest regions of the known and unknown universe to warm your skin.

That's all there is to it. 

Your charge...indeed, the only toll for your journey is pure -- and simple:

Believe

and

Keep Moving Forward

God speed.

The announcement by GM yesterday that, in effect, "Saturn is dead" is a tough, tough blow for many.  Not just employees and their families, but customers and so many others who developed an affinity for the little-brand-that-tried-but-just-couldn't.

I remember all too well studying Saturn in 1988 as a Case Study.  Just three years old then, it held so much promise: to be union free, to be collaborative, to be lean, to offer no-haggle pricing.

It really did aspire to be different and to survive outside the GM solar system.  But in the end, it proved to be entirely unprofitable.  It was mostly "all show, but no go."  The hype proved incongruent to the product.

The many reasons for its demise are clear to anyone who's been paying attention, but I'm certain GM's Saturn will be as infamous a Case Study as Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol.

My focus for today, therefore, is hardly to flog such a valiant effort on a ruthless industry battlefield.  (It'd be akin to picking on an airline, where survival is victory.)  After all, there are far too many cynics and observers who host rock-throwing parties in glass houses. 

No, instead, I simply wish to remind you that you are not the sum of your employment.  Not at all.

For the many who remain unemployed this day, or who will be in short order -- be it from Saturn or wherever else -- you are much more than your employment.

You are a human being, potential incarnate, and I lift you up today.

Keep putting one foot in front of the other.  Remember, it's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you stand up.

As Bruce Lee used to say, "Walk on."

We all -- each and every single one of us -- present.

Just as we all sell and negotiate each and every day.  Life is one long dialogue about what to do, with whom, and in the context of finite resources...be they time, money, attention, energy, effort, etc.

When I am asked for recommendations on Presentation Skills, I always recommend http://www.presentationzen.com/. 

And I do so again today.

Presentation Zen is a crisp, clean, clear blog rife with countless book recommendations, videos, checklists, and other wonderful resources.

Enjoy and, if it benefits you, please share it with others.

It appears this week that many, many friends, colleagues, and clients are on vacation.

Outstanding -- it's late Summer, and this is as it should be.

But if you know me, you know I love words, and this morning I was thinking about two, in particular: Vacation and Vocation.

(My minor musings may not necessarily interest or inform, but I'll share them nonetheless.  Heck, we're here.)

The root of Vacation is vacāre, which literally means, to empty.

And the root of Vocation is vocāre, which literally means, to call. 

Sometimes, if we are exceedingly fortunate and blessed, our profession/vocation/career is the same as our calling.  (You know, we're doing what we were designed and called to do, as opposed to 'doing this or that in the interim while going to school and then searching for a j-o-b.')  Pinch yourself if you get to, as one client recently said, "Spend the rest of my career here and be happy with that."

But for the sake of balance, be sure to periodically 'empty yourself.'  Emotionally, physically, labor-wise.  Forget things, lay things down, set things aside... release and let go.

We all need 'fresh perspectives' and the opportunity to get away, clear our head, recharge, and get in touch with who we are, who we've become, where we're going, what it's all for, and to reconnect with those intimates around us -- close family and great friends.

To be called, then to empty. 

A natural rhythm in life that must be heeded if we are to be intra- and inter-personally healthy.

Enjoy the kayaking, the hiking, the cycling, the swimming, the skiing, the camping, the riding, the driving, the flying, the sleeping in, the standing still, the breathing deeply -- the 'whatever' that may call you away in the near future. 

We'll see you when you get back.

While checking email recently, a link popped-up with a few interesting workplace articles from the writers at Career Builder.  They're worthwhile and, given their locations, transient, so -- if you intend to read them, do it quickly.

Here are three of the best:

How Toxic Behavior Leads to Sinful Behavior at Work

10 Worst Work Habits

10 Worst Things to Say in the Workplace

Like ants in a mound, we all sense the vibrations of impending change.

In particular, I am feeling in my bones, perhaps for the first time ever, bona fide (sorry for the pun) traction in the Green Movement.  Similarly, I also sense the early tremors of a tectonic shift in Workplace Expectations in smaller, more nimble organizations.

The minority of "crackpots" are now becoming the mainstream, and with them... the trains are beginning to steam-up, rumble, and leave their respective stations.  The 'get on board' or 'get left behind' decision-point is now becoming less theoretical and more tangible.

On the topic of the green movement, the media is dripping with books like The World Without Us, The Earth After Us, and The Last Human and 'thought-experiment-documentaries' like Life After People are springing up through the cracks of every sidewalk.  Long overdue regulatory emissions and fuel economy standards have just passed, and now more and more grocery stores are charging a tax for consumers who use paper or plastic sacks at checkout.  (Even Michael Moore has joined the proverbial greenpeace parade, with his latest entreaty on what should be created in the wake of GM's bankruptcy.  GoodbyeGM,MichaelMoore.pdf (15.29 kb))

On the topic of shifting workplace expectations, there is a trove of research -- two decades old now -- that has tracked and highlighted and forecasted all the varying expectations between 'generations' in the workplace.  Given the recession and an average 40% loss in wealth among those with retirement plans, the 'social contract' between employees and employers is under assault and will result in a renegotiation of what truly matters.

I am running into more and more people, often in their sixties and seventies, who spent some fifty years away from their families to create a nest egg which barely remains.  "Why?" is pretty much all they can ask.  The 'deal' they made with the devil was a house of cards and, as the economy melts down, much of their 'earthly treasure' has become tragically diluted.

For all the parents who worked tirelessly, barely seeing their spouse or children in the mornings or evenings or on weekends, "why?" indeed.  The then-logical, selfless, and sacrificial decision by these millions to create income as a means to secure financial and familial stability has been wholly undermined by a few reckless risk-takers in the most opulent buildings in NYC.

As a result of coming to terms with 'the casino sets the rules,' more and more employees are accepting that 'the house always wins.'  And so, as Wall Street lands on featherbeds of bailout dollars and safety nets while Main Street shutters its windows and closes too many doors, individuals are taking stock and starting to reclaim what they can -- their lives -- for the benefit of their families and the sake of their own sanity.

I witnessed it just last night on Charlie Rose as he interviewed Claire Shipman and Katty Kay about their new book, Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success.  In it, many startling admissions that, hitherto, would have been blasphemous.  But in the harsh sunlight of 2009, many people will say, "Of course."  Read it and decide for yourself, but I predict it will be one of a raft of such books to follow in coming months.  Books about owning reality, speaking truth, and reclaiming one's life on her or his own terms.

I am also hearing and reading more and more about such things as ROWE, Results-Only Work Environment as espoused by CultureRx and embraced by clients like BestBuy.  This is a trend I have seen coming for years, and it goes hand-in-hand with expectations held by many Generation X-ers, Y-ers, and Millennials (20-somethings).  Few within these generations will agree to be chained to a desk, tracked or monitored to within an inch of their life, or to serve as a cog within a large, cold machine.  Most of them will commit to accomplish results and be accountable, but not in exchange for balance, community, or altruism.  And most of them studied George Orwell's 1984 as required reading somewhere in high school. 

With all implosions and explosions, there is debris and fallout.  And following forest fires, be they accidental or prescribed, there is regeneration and new life.  New growth is the 'creative' that follows 'destruction.'  What will the Recession of 2009+ yield?  Only time will tell, but if the hairs on my arm are any indication, Bob Dylan's line was spot-on: the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.  People are questioning. 

As is the case every hundred years or so, this will likely prove to be a season, nothing more.  In time, the pendulum has a tendency to swing back.

But it is also possible that rather than a Season, we are dealing with a Genie or Pandora.  And they, once out of the bottle, lamp, or box, prefer to stay out.

Either way, I'm sure the questions and changes are welcome.  The way we worked throughout the Industrial Revolution is neither sustainable nor compatible with what is coming. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, with new and fervent questions come better answers.  And this, in the words of the "venerable" Martha Stewart, is a good thing. 

"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them."

                                                                                                - Albert Einstein