I’m just now including under the section labeled “Magic”, my recent basic list of 133 topics, ideas, games, Executive Vignettes, video clips, etc. [click here]. For years I used this as starting point when generating the initial architecture of a Leadership Learning Forum. It’s not been updated in some years, but I will eventually make it so. I will start now to include a brief explanation of use, or potential place in a Forum Process of each. Like the numerous “posters” available on this site, these can be adapted or expanded to customize for a particular set of Forum participants, and actually reformatted into a different delivery media, i.e., from a list, to a game, to a breakout discussion, to an assigned presentation, etc.
Jun 08
The StrengthFinder profiling process is superb, one of the top two, in my opinion, of a dozen or so in wide use in corporate America. It focuses on 34 themes or talents, that are present, in various degrees in all of us, especially on your top set, usually five. We tend to use those, are most comfortable there…and are likely most personally successful, doing so. My top 6 are the same, both times I’ve done their full assessment. I’ve spent some time examining the remaining 28, picking 11 that I want engaged in my leadership process…..some listed lower, i.e., lessening my tendency to use them, and also raising some others’ ranking, in my perception, i.e., to more often be exhibited in my actions! Thus having settled on 17, one half of their set, I’ve now gone back to more fully understand my top 6, how they interact, and can be connected to the other 11 traits I’ve chosen to use to guide my thoughts/words/actions, and hopefully, results!
I’d be happy to share a learning dialogue with anyone else using Strengthfinder for their own growth and development
May 28
The daily SingularityHub is very worthwhile to peruse. Yes, even daily. On 5/26 there’s coverage of the progress/impact of 3D printing in the $10 trillion manufacturing business……currently can print in c. 300 different materials…full color….in mixed media…complexity and personalization come “for free”. Amazing, especially given that only a few years ago, for most of us 3D printing was altogether just a future idea. Look it up and ponder.
Disruptive in Big Health Care, Higher Education, and Finance too, I believe…..
May 16
As Spring on Cap Cod gains momentum – a delight after the winter we had – my focus on improving, expanding, & enriching my website continues its major new focus points . Maybe perhaps 6 months old. Maybe perhaps, I’ll be doing this as long as I’m able [ planning on 15 years more – that’s in my long range plan, current version]. Four major thrusts -1] providing a fast improving search function -2]arranging for your option of adding comments where you’d like – 3]making the whole site more anticipatory or future oriented, rather than just archival or historical and adding 4] photos with explanatory comments by me, for new LLF facilitators to ponder
I’m thinking this will be 6 more months of intense web building and additions. Then normal creativity for the rest of my years!!
Apr 20
Very interesting having this trip right next to Costa Rica [ scroll down two entries to that trip]. New Orleans is much smaller than I knew…c. 35oK…maybe 125 k people, they say, didn’t come back after Katrina. There have been multiple hurricanes after Katrina. Their damage is still visible from various locations. Music, by seemingly random volunteer players, gathered for tips, here and there, were quite good. Very old buildings everywhere , but also lots of construction, and many ads selling the growth potential and current positive ranking of the city, A huge port. Famous restaurants. The food was excellent everywhere. You can drink on the street and in your car, if you’re not diving. People go to NOLA in large part, to drink and eat, it seems. It’s the city’s mantra. Many homeless. Many smokers. Many panhandlers with a direct approach to help you @ first. Excellent museums. Public transportation worked. Old fashioned “street cars” easy and quick to get around. A huge number of tourists, with families, lots of younger children up to, perhaps High School. Traffic looked impossible in the city. Very diverse and mixed cultural population. People friendly. Not in any hurry. Water [ Lake, Ocean,Miss. River] everywhere so fish/sea food is big. Many churches and of course cemeteries with all the vaults above ground. We went on several tours – a huge Steam Paddle Boat on the Miss. – a swamp/bayou air boat. History and tradition is as old as New England, or more so. It was the 4th largest city in the U.S., in 1900. Gave birth soon thereafter, to new energy and a long lived jazz age, which was everywhere. I always loved “Louie Armstrong style” music. A giant, spectacular WWII Museum, which is still growing, is there because of supplies delivered during that war effort. These last two aspects of NOLA were huge for me.
A very different trip for us. Especially juxtaposed to Costa Rica. Glad of that perspective.
Mar 03
Back. Tired. Happy to be home. Wonderful trip, for both of us. I knew so little about the place, other than it’s Rain and Cloud Forests….they abolished their Army in 1948, have something like 0.04% of the earth’s land mass, and something like 30.0% of the world’s total species of birds flowers, animals. plants! A multiple of 750x ???!!! The people are largely middle-class. 97 % literacy. Also very, very diverse heritage, and so is the terrain and climate. Rated 2nd happiest people in the world?? After Bhutan. Saw no homeless. Lots of Americans retire there, and get on their Health System which is very good and get a green card to work a little. Seventeen on the Smithsonian tour, all interesting ,very well travelled, highly accomplished people. Lots to ponder about why not else where!?!? Leadership history that unusual or successful??? Will study it more now!
Jan 10
This is a basic LLF process document [Post 237I-3] , recently reviewed & updated for several clients who are beginning to lead their own adaptation/customization, of my evolving LLF Process. Sixteen key decisions and 22 issues to shape or set in place.
Usually takes a lot of discussion, planning and counsel.
And it’s a continual process in order to maintain the “magic”
You’re welcome to connect to explore that ongoing effort.
Dec 10
There’s an increasing amount of literature, including some very powerful books, covering this topical area. All reference /support or re-position the scenario, of A2I [Advanced Artificial Intelligence] possibly , in the not too distant future, surpassing general human capacities, enough to control or “rule’ us….like “HAL” in the old movie epic “2001- A Space Odyssey”. But with enough astonishing things already possible, and being done, in many professions, that the fundamental ?’s, or issues, already worked over, in literature and art, are very real. They require much more exposure, dialogue, and personal experience. I have been in technology, and people handling, all my life, but only have read sporadically of AI, now A2I .Will change that in this 7th phase of my life, the Legacy phase…….more to come…..
Dec 01
I am reading/hearing others say in support for driverless cars – 1.2 million people killed each year by cars driven by people -Such cars don’t drink – and like robots they are easy to train/instruct – and such cars could benefit the elderly or disabled – plus their actions are very predicable. In short they are likely better on the average, than very many humans are when those humans drive!!
Much the same set of arguments are made for robots replacing humans in some kinds of work – robots are less forgetful, pay attention to new changes, don’t disobey or underperform
Lots od literature lately about will that always be so, as they are made more sophisticated. It was not long ago, that just “science-fiction” writing/movies, that pushed such possibilities. It seems much closer @ hand,now, given the rate of advancement in exploration in both driverless cars, and robotics in general.
Are these possibilities legitimate concerns for Corporate Information Technology leaders?
I believe so and am engaging in that dialogue, integrating it into thoughtful anticipation of the near future in several industries.
Sep 18
The two photos shown below are of the first larger size Inukshuk I just did, in our back yard as it sloops off to the dammed up river and conservation area we live on. Building such a Sculpture Garden has been a fantasy goal of mine for years…..ever since moving to Cape Cod ten years ago, actually! The general write-up is also attached, as an explaination. Some of you have seen one or more of the smaller Inukshuks, which I’ve given as personal gifts, to family, clients, friends. Our evolving Sculpture Garden includes other pieces Barbara and I have aquired over time, and will contiue to do so. This Inukshuk is to celebrate our life here, and the many already in the hands of others.
Aug 27
I have been in Systems/technology all my professional career, beginning in 1959 when a Department I was the manager of, was automated by the then called Data Processing Group. Later I was one of the 11 founders of the Society for Information Management in 1968 [SIM]. Trying to anticipate future advantages of existing or new technology was, & is, always an elusive challenge. Perhaps, relatively speaking, it’s never been any less of a difficult responsibility than now. But is seems like there’s more research, more choices, more potential paths of deployment than was the case earlier in our industry’s short history.
For some time I’ve been a subscriber of Ray Kurzweil’s Weekly AI newsletter, which highlights a broader & more current span of research, venders, organizations, then many of the other publications I read. Having read years ago, reported on, and explained to others, my resulting conclusions from his book “The Singularity is Near”, I’ve always been intrigued by his views, and his extensive network of connections.
Especially , more recently I’ve begun “connecting the Dots”. He uses the verb “convergence”. Gartner’s March 2014 report uses the phase “nexus of forces”. Doing so is very provocative. Perhaps beyond some people, even scary or thought impossible
When you do this integration today….there clearly seems to be an explosion in the depth, pace and impact of technology, which excites, and sometimes overwhelms me. I hope many more of us are on that journey of understanding and preparation! It’s fundamental!!
Jun 03
In a recent LLF, hosted @ Seyfarth Shaw, with Pierce & Assoc. I.T. professionals, two participants presented Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”, in an outstanding coverage, that everyone, even those of us who’ve read it several times, can benefit from! It’s an LLF “core book” [ i.e., continually grows with you as you grow!!!], and a favorite referral reading for many of us. Enjoy their perspective and research. They brought the classic Forum “Magic”, intensely to that session!
