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{ Category Archives } Learning

What Teachers Make

I just came across this recently courtesy of Seth Godin. Something to think about over the weekend.

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2010 06 25 Jim Comments (1)

Learning from Failure

A classic commercial that nicely captures the importance of failure in learning.
 

We learn so much more from failure than from success. We all know that, yet how little room do we allow for it in our business and professional lives?

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2010 06 11 Jim Comments (2)

Rethinking thought leadership as an operating principle

Thought leadership risks becoming an empty marketing phrase just as it becomes essential to long term success. In an idea economy more and more firms understand the importance of getting credit for being on the leading edge, but getting credit is best preceded by actually being there. Organizations that depend on generating and exploiting ideas [...]

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2010 05 18 Jim Organization Comments (2)

Odds of being a terrorism victim on a flight

What this graphic and the underlying data analysis show more than anything else is how little evidence and rational analysis have to do with most decisions by most people.  We can lament that all we want. If you’re running a lottery, you make money off this predictable irrationality. On the other hand, if you’re committed [...]

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2010 01 29 Jim Social Impact Comments Off

On not being surprised by the future

The future is already here. It’s just unevenly distributed                             William Gibson

A recent discussion about bad television science fiction versus what good science fiction can be illuminates the challenge of coping with today’s technology environment in everyday organizational reality.
It started with a recent speech by Star Trek writer Ron [...]

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2009 10 22 Jim Social Impact Comments (2)

25 Words on Social Media Wisdom

Liz Strauss offers up another of her provocative challenges; to craft 25 words of advice on social media.
Here’s my 25 words:
Social media wisdom, like all wisdom, comes from experience. Engaged, mindful, reflective experience. Deliberate and intentional practice will yield wisdom. Other experience need not apply.

The picture is of my coxswain son and his [...]

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2009 07 31 Jim Comments (1)

danah boyd on new habits in a connected world

I have got to meet danah boyd in real life one of these days. Her work, as revealed through her blogging, shows what can happen when you drop a well-trained, smart, and articulate observer into new environments. We all learn from her sharp attention to what is really going on. So much better than listening [...]

2009 07 14 Jim Knowledge work Comments (0)

Visualization of US Airways 1549

Here’s a fascinating animation reconstructing the flight of US Airways 1549 and overlaying the conversations between air traffic controllers and the flight crew. it really brings home the extraordinary job the crew did. A testament to the value of experience and training in responding to a crisis.

(h/t to Chris Carfi at the Social Customer Manifesto [...]

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2009 03 04 Jim Comments Off

Was being a fast follower ever a viable strategic option?

[cross posted at FAST Forward blog]
How often do you run across organizations that claim they intend to be “fast followers” when it comes to some dimension of strategy and innovation? Maybe I’m simply cranky because it’s Monday, but is there any way to make sense of such an approach in operational terms? The image of [...]

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2008 11 10 Jim Comments (0)

Shining Eyes: Benjamin Zander on leadership

Someday I’ll manage to get myself to a TED conference.In the meantime, I will continue to take advantage of the wonderful TED videos. Benjamin Zander is someone whose work on leadership I’ve appreciated in the past. The Art of  Possibility, coauthored with his wife Rosamund Stone Zander, remains one of the most useful books on [...]

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2008 08 09 Jim Comments (1)