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By admin Web, news Comments on Facebook read more >
We're ready to go live.
This new revision to the Kensho Coaching site sure has been a long time in the making. This web site creation thing is hard. Who knew? :-). Thanks to my own coaches for helping me keep my focus on getting here and eyes on the prize.
By admin WorkLife Comments on Facebook read more >
The role of shame in the workplace.I was just reading "Daring Greatly," by Brené Brown, and she speaks about the importance of vulnerability in our lives. Her book is (intensely) personal, but I thought, this also relates to the workplace. She gave an example of a man who had lost his job but hadn't told his wife: He still left the house each day dressed for work, but spent the day searching for employment. When he found a job, he said, he would be fine with telling his wife what had happened and that he had solved the problem.
Isn't that just like the workplace? Admitting failure is suicide–unless you do it after the fact. Then the truth can out. “We thought we’d have to scrap the project until Bill came up with the idea of using the utility server for backups.” A very common sort of statement to hear, but how often do you hear the story at the “We think we’ll have to scrap the project” stage? At that point it’s too embarrassing.
Shameful.
Like so much in the workplace, there are no easy answers to this. Being open enough to share a problem in progress is career-limiting or -ending unless you’re in the right culture, in which case you already know that you have the freedom to be open. Changing the culture by socializing the information about how more open businesses are more successful may be the best way. (And I know, “Easier said than done.”)
By admin Next Revolution comments on FaceBook read more >
The Lights in the Tunnel
I have just finished reading "The Lights in the Tunnel", by Martin Ford. It's essential reading for Next Revolutionistas. (I'm jealous of his catchy metaphor. I'm on the lookout for something equally snappy to replace "The Next Revolution." Until then, ‘Revolutionistas’ is as innovative as I can get.)
Ford develops many of the same principles as I do, with a shift in focus toward analyzing the economic impact of technological change. It's thought provoking and Ford is engagingly intellectually honest: He sets out his hypotheses in detail and then takes pot shots at them from every conceivable angle, refining them as he goes, and admitting where there is room for him to be wrong. I have far more reason to agree with him than to take shots at the relatively insignificant areas in which I would disagree. I think you'll find The Lights in the Tunnel to be a valuable complement to the ideas expressed in The Next Revolution.
I see on Amazon that he has a new book, "Rise of the Robots". I'll be getting that one for sure.