Teamwork v. Collaboration per Patricia Martin
The book is called "RenGen," by
Patricia Martin. Her thesis is that we are in general, and the USA in particular, on the edge of a new Renaissance. That many of the social signs marking the onset of the first Renaissance are in place today. One of the highlights of a Renaissance is the emergence of droves of creative people.
Creative people demand collaboration rather than top-down management. Top-down management, known to some as "command and control," is an artifact of the Industrial Revolution, and was probably at the peak of its influence in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. I have talked before about war-monger managers, who read works like Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and draw management inferences from them. These guys are the ultimate top-down types. Please don't get me wrong, by the way: command and control management has its place, for instance in the military, where instructions tend to be simple and imperative, and many things must be learned through repetition until perfected. I'm just saying -- and I think Martin is saying it too -- that you can't run a whole business with that technique. At the very least, you won't draw creative people to work in that environment.
Creative people can lead as well as follow, which is different from the critical
"team-player" concept seen in many contemporary job ads. The concept of the team-player suggests someone who can only follow. There's a limit to how much mileage you can get from a company full of followers. Some managers don't like leaders, however, because they want to avoid discussion and confrontation over all tasks in the company. LOL But many creative people, as said above, can do both -- and if they can recognize (or be taught) when leadership is needed, and whom it's needed from, then you'll find very valuable employees who can switch roles to fulfill specific needs. Martin gives an example of an orchestra that doesn't have a conductor. How would that work?
Sociability matters in this context. People who get along with people, and who are creative, are the most valuable players of all in this new context. Martin gives numerous examples of highly creative companies who find these people and succeed as a result.
Finally, talent attracts talent. The leader/followers tend to have specialties that complement one another. And these people love to work in companies where other such people work. Even if they must work harder and for less.
Labels: history, recommendations
Rich Barrett passes; a loss we'll feel
My good friend Rich Barrett has passed away. He was one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject of fasteners -- a subject often overlooked by engineering organizations both small and large. He deserves credit from all of us for caring about a subject so many ignore as an afterthought; a subject that, if ignored, can lead to momentous engineering failures and loss of life and property. For my money, if an engineer CAN be a hero, Rich Barrett was a hero.
I've maintained a large portion of his Fastener Design Manual on this Web site. It'll stay here until I leave TCNJ for good and all, or until Rich's family asks me to pull it down. In the meantime, there will be no answers to e-mail inquiries made to Rich. I certainly won't do it, and I never have. Dozens of engineers has written to ask Rich for free help, which he didn't have time to give during his life, and which I am neither qualified nor inclined to pitch in. It's just a book -- read it or don't, but don't bother with questions. Rich did a fine job collecting a cache of info about fasteners, but he didn't leave behind a support service. You certainly won't honor his life by asking for help now.
This is his last communication to me, dated 03.17.2007:
- My spouse and I divorced over religious differences. She thought she was God and I didn't.
- I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
- Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
- I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
- Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
- You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
- Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
- Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
- I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
- Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
- NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.
- God must love stupid people; He made so many.
- The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
- Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
- Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
- Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!
- Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.
- Procrastinate Now!
- I have a degree in Liberal Arts. Do you want fries with that?
- A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
- A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
- Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!
- They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
- He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.
- A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.
- Ham and eggs...A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.
- The trouble with life is there's no background music.
- The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.
- I smile because I don't know what the heck is going on.
This list has probably been around the Internet and back. But it shows that Rich was keeping a sense of humor around until the last.
Labels: character, education, engineering, history
The black hole of recommendation forms
I think the thing I hate most about filling out recommendation forms and writing recommendation letters is that I seldom hear what happens. For the last several years, a few students each year have asked me for recommendations for various honors: scholarships or student jobs, usually. And almost none of them has ever written me back to tell me what happened. The funny thing is that even
sites that describe the etiquette involved in requesting one of these things don't suggest that the requester report on the results.
But I can't help it. I want to know. I'd at least like the students who request a favor like that not to forget me. LOL And I'm learning a lesson here myself: I have to tell the people who've recommended me in the past that
my own job is going just fine. And thank them again.
A bit of history: five years ago, I worked with a group called the Weather Boys in one of my
Rhetoric classes. (They got the idea for their team name from watching the film
October Sky.) These kids, over the course of two semesters, performed the heroic feat of supplying
Ewing's Antheil Elementary School with a weather station. They convinced the Antheil Parent-Teacher Organization to donate $1000 for the purchase of the station, the rain gauge of which is pictured here. They installed the station. They prepared the software so Antheil's computers could receive data. And they did the groundwork for Antheil's weather feed to be supplied to
TCNJ's Web site.
All this work is now pretty much unknown except to the Weather Boys, myself, and a couple of Antheil staff members. This is because in the summer of 2003, Ewing schools put up a new firewall which prevented the weather station from sending data inside the building 20 feet away. And nobody would do anything about it. That situation still rankles me, years later.
But I digress. I brought this up because Matt Ledyard of the Weather Boys came along this week seeking a recommendation letter, as...
I am on the homestretch here at TCNJ, and upon graduation I hope to continue my service with the Air Force by becoming a pilot. Within the next few weeks I will be sending off application packets to various Air National Guard units across the United States. My top choice would be to fly fighter jets, specifically the F-15, F-16 or A-10 airframe.
This note came along just as I was beginning to get the annual spring rush of recommendation requests, and was most discouraged about them. Now I have to rethink my discouragement, because Matt is such a super guy. I see him as one of my greatest success stories.
Matt's the reason I'm posting this. I think my recommendation for a good young person is one of the best gifts I can give, and it really is flattering to be asked. It suggests that at least one person gives a shit about what I think. LOL
Labels: education, history, rhetoric, young entrepreneurs
zigzag.net murder-suicide
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A gunman shot and killed three men at a business Monday night before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life, police said.
You definitely want to
read the whole article.
Of course, there's nothing about the shootings on the
zigzag.net Web site, at least not at the time I write this. But the shooter appears to have been an
investor, unhappy with some moves made by the small company, which does (among other things) marketing and Web development.
I found out about this company a year ago, when I met Nicole Graham (no relation) of zigzag.net at an activity held by the
Entrepreneur's Forum of Greater Philadelphia. At the time, Nicole followed up with the following:
I believe that Zigzag could be a valuable asset to your young entrepreneurs and I would like to learn more about the start-up companies and see how Zigzag can get involved.
I didn't follow up on this follow-up, and now I regret it. The young entrepreneurs I know are short on money (for now), but that doesn't mean they won't appreciate a professional contact down the road. Nicole will hear from me again.
And, zigzag folks, I want to publicly send you heartfelt condolences.
Labels: history, young entrepreneurs
You can link types of franchise as well as franchises :-)
| SEEMINGLY MISMATCHED COUPLE FINDS LOVE TOGETHER -- FILM #784 |   |
Michelle Rodriguez is engaged to be married to Some Jerk. The two travel to some small village somewhere to have a wedding. Michelle Rodriguez is exploring the town, when all of a sudden she bumps into Hugh Grant.
MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: Hello. Me Michelle Rodriguez.
HUGH GRANT: I’m…I’m terribly sorry... I’m just... I’m... well I was just... I’m... I’m... pardon me, I’m... I’m... excuse me, I’m... I’m... I’m... I’m... I’m... I’m... I’m... I’m... I’m... I’m.
MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: GAAAAH!!! BRITISH MAN TALK SO ANNOYING!!! MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ SMASH!!!
Michelle Rodriguez beats the crap out of Hugh Grant. The two hate each other for three quarters of the film and then magically love each other. Michelle realizes that her fiancé is a total jerk.
MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: I am realizing that my fiancé is a total jerk!
Michelle plunges her hand into her betrothed’s chest and rips out his still-beating heart.
HUGH GRANT: The script says I love you, Michelle.
MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: We sex now!
Hugh Grant and Michelle Rodriguez live happily ever after. All male members of the audience dragged to see this movie have now died of self-inflicted wounds.
Labels: diversions, history
The secret to reviving a dormant franchise
...link it with another one.
The above was created by Robert Graham for your dining and listening pleasure. :-)
Labels: diversions, history
...and the rest is history!
The following statement appears in the
bio for Sir Richard Branson in
the Internet Movie Database:
Started Virgin Atlantic Airways after a flight he was scheduled for was cancelled. Upon hearing of the cancellation, he quickly had a charter jet liner secured, and invited the passengers of the cancelled flight to fly for free. He jokingly posted a hand-lettered sign above the entryway, reading, "Virgin Atlantic Airways - Flight 1." Several of the passengers of that flight became investors of the airline.
This isn't the first thing Branson did as an entrepreneur, but it's highly illustrative. It's all about seeing an opportunity in front of you, and taking it.
Labels: history
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