Tag: creative tension

The Curious Will Inherit The World, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

Questions Are MUCH More Important Than Answers. Damn It!

ThisMuchWeKnow

My partner Lori is a saint, natch. Though she has every right to do so, daily, she rarely complains. Woe be hers, rarely. However, when she does, I ALWAYS have an answer at hand. Isn’t she the lucky one?! In recent times, lifelong learner that I am, I have tried to bite my tongue. When someone is offloading, they rarely need or want the answer. They want someone to listen, to comfort, to ask a good clarifying question. Not my number one strength. As a worker and colleague, same goes. Answers are easy. Everyone has an answer. But who has … Continue reading Questions Are MUCH More Important Than Answers. Damn It!

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The WorldLeave a comment

#Unsquirrel 7: We Leave Home But We Never Really Move On.

ThisMuchWeKnow

Speaking of travel, “As Freud saw it, we basically spend our lives unconsciously replaying a tired old script memorized in childhood through endless rehearsals with our parents and siblings. We leave home but we never really move on. We just take the show on the road, casting everyone we meet in supporting roles…” I ain’t no analyst, y’all, so I’ll stick to what I do know. I got stuck in my life. I have been down many a knowledge and skills cul-de-sac. I have rehashed my knowledge – and my issues and insecurities – in an endless series of screechy … Continue reading #Unsquirrel 7: We Leave Home But We Never Really Move On.

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The World, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

#Unsquirrel 6: I Come Back Sounding Strange Even To Myself

ThisMuchWeKnow

Travel remains a journey into whatever we can’t explain, or explain away…I know in my own case that a trip has really been successful if I come back sounding strange even to myself; if, in some sense, I never come back at all, but remain up at night unsettled by what I’ve seen. –          Pico Iyer, “The Place Across The Mountains” in Sun After Dark. I am not sure of the ratio, but let’s say it is 1000:1. One thousand pieces of data and knowledge wash over me; but one of those pieces changes something. Maybe not everything – though … Continue reading #Unsquirrel 6: I Come Back Sounding Strange Even To Myself

Social Business, Story + Narrative, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

#Unsquirrel 5: Frivolity And Boredom

ThisMuchWeKnow

The frivolity and boredom which unsettle the established order, the vague foreboding of something unknown, these are the heralds of approaching change –          Hegel, preface to The Phenomenology of Mind. How many leaders have you met who laugh(ed) at the rise of social business over old-school-tie-who-you-know business, the power of networks over hierarchy? Do you, perchance, find them frivolous and bored, like the Court of Louis XVI? Off with their heads! ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading #Unsquirrel 5: Frivolity And Boredom

Story + NarrativeLeave a comment

#Unsquirrel 4: You Say Benevolence, We Say Malevolence

ThisMuchWeKnow

More on Canada’s psyche: Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well-informed about the United States.” –          John Bertlet Brebner Agree. People here in Canada know more about US politics / affairs than they do their own country’s. We pity them. Americans’ ignorance of Canadians means we get away with a lot… ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading #Unsquirrel 4: You Say Benevolence, We Say Malevolence

Social Business, The Curious Will Inherit The World3 Comments

The Sophisticated Answer To The Prisoner’s Dilemma: Tit For Tat

ThisMuchWeKnow

In my undergraduate studies I was paid to participate in game theory sessions within the economics faculty. The (flawed) assumption of game theory (and a lot of economics) is that individuals are rational. Anyway, The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a simple modeling tool to understand decisions, and to understand complex systems (definition: “large networks of simple interacting elements which, following simple rules, produce emergent, collective, complex behavior.”) If you need the rules of the ‘game’ – here you go. It turns out that the best approach to this ‘game’ is surprisingly simple. Tit for tat wins out every time. One of … Continue reading The Sophisticated Answer To The Prisoner’s Dilemma: Tit For Tat

Story + Narrative, The Curious Will Inherit The WorldLeave a comment

Embracing Complexity: Individuals

ThisMuchWeKnow

Nilofer Merchant (in conversation with Carol Dweck) wants to challenge smart and talented leaders, those ‘in the know.’ Here are a few choice quotes: “[W]hat if you don’t [know]”? What changes? The things you know today are not enough. Facts change, new challenges arise, and so you can never think, “I know this” and call it done. The growth mindset then is about your ability to adapt to a world of changing circumstances. You have to be wedded to a definition of success that says we will figure it out, and keep figuring it out.” An embrace of complexity for leaders, … Continue reading Embracing Complexity: Individuals

Social Business, The Future of Work1 Comment

Entropy: How Crap Communicators Waste Energy

ThisMuchWeKnow

So, here I am talking about how great! exciting! embraceable! is complexity. And about how entropy (the cost of moving data) is a good thing! Yet, of course, it is never that obvious. We will all have “Yeah, but…” examples of what a pain in the arse it is too. So, here’s mine. One of my pet peeves is how complex and complicated communicators make so much of their work. It is either rank inefficiency they teach communicators, or a fear that – like the Emperor’s new clothes – if they did not actively pursue complex and overblown solutions, then … Continue reading Entropy: How Crap Communicators Waste Energy

Personal Branding, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

TMWK Best Of 2013 1: Corporate Disorganizer

ThisMuchWeKnow

This is the most viewed post of 2013: I Have Changed My Job Title To…Corporate Disorganizer.. It is an intriguing idea, one that has been woven through many posts on change management, organizational development, personal branding, career planning, and discussion on the future of work. I assume its popularity is due to its reference in many of these posts. Here’s to disorganizing some more in 2014! ←This Much We Know.→ Continue reading TMWK Best Of 2013 1: Corporate Disorganizer

Personal Branding, Story + Narrative1 Comment

Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Synthesizing Your AwesomeSauce

ThisMuchWeKnow

This is where the hard work begins, and the pay-off too. You have a ton of data, and several interesting ideas to play with. Perhaps your brand has a theme to it. You have a beautiful BrandBoard to share! Now what? Well, now we synthesize. This means distilling down all the brand content into 2-3 core ideas around which you can build a story. Although you brand might skew in a particular direction – mine is a heavily head brand – it does not mean you have no skills in the other Head-Heart-Hand elements. When you meet people, generally you … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Synthesizing Your AwesomeSauce

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Dissecting Your Personal Brand: 180 Degree Peer Review

ThisMuchWeKnow

I have received a 360 degree peer review – a very interesting process of understand the good, bad and ugly about myself. Illuminating. Personal branding is not 360 feedback. It is 180 degree feedback – it looks forward into the marketplace; it does not (generally) look behind the curtains at the malignancy and maleficence within us all. Save that for the psychologist’s couch, please. No, we want input from your cohort about how great you are, to drive your brand to new heights and to either agree or challenge your own thinking about how you show up. Seeing Eye To Eye. Generally, I … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: 180 Degree Peer Review

Social Business, Story + Narrative, The Future of WorkLeave a comment

#RelentlessHumanity: Take 3

ThisMuchWeKnow

I am working out loud on this blog. This means the content and much of the thinking is a work in progress. The work is the learning, and the learning is the work, as Harold Jarche says. One concept I am trying to better articulate for myself is how to have better conversations about the connected enterprise, and the (social) technology that drives us towards the future of work. Currently, these conversations are too technocratic: which service does what, how cool every piece of tech is, how a vendor can deliver a perfect intranet of things, even. Wrong approach. Where … Continue reading #RelentlessHumanity: Take 3