Moving at the Speed of Creativity

These are some thoughts I’ve collected this week that relate to 21st century workforce skills and our network economy.

Communication devices like cell phones, laptops, and iPods increasingly enable LIFE.

Reactive responses are generally inferior to proactive responses which are based on listening, planning, relationships and collaboration.

There are unprecedented opportunities today for people to innovate the applications which will ride on the increasingly converging IP network of the 21st century.

AT&T is on the January cover of Forbes magazine as the “Company of the Year”

The ubiquity of dynamic, unpredictable change is overwhelming in the current business climate.

Those most successful in business are motivated by PASSION: they “outpassion” the competition

Six Sigma is a method of analysis by understanding variances.

Inspect what you expect.

Celebrate to emphasize best practices, success stories, and the importance of relationships with anecdotes and personal stories.

Metrics in business are sometimes (maybe often) measured EVERY WEEK
- feedback loops and processes are essential, and drive on a daily basis what is done in the boardroom and in the field

Each employee in an organization needs to “find themselves” in each goal and metric and make it personalized, make it contextual
- what does that mean to and for YOU, to and for ME?

Whenever possible organizations should avoid unnecessary layers of complexity and bureaucracy

Learning is about CHANGE.

Intellectual capital is more important than physical capital in the 21st century workforce environment.

Speak slowly when you leave your name and phone number on someone’s voicemail.

If you’re on time, you’re late.

A good work ethic is an essential skill in the 21st century workforce.

When you simply tell someone something they tend to remember it for about 1 minute.
- The key to making an impression and changing perceptions is having a relationship and conversations over time.

Communication is not a tennis match.

Make your life a self-fulfilling prophesy
- Your expectations define your attitude, your behavior, and the way others react and interact with you
- introductions often CAN be everything

Individuals in 21st century, successful organizations realize the BIG PICTURE when you connect the dots is this: All we have is EACH OTHER
- As an organization we don’t want people to think we just have individuals who are GREAT, we want people to know we have a GREAT TEAM
- to build this perception, give credit to the team and share the credit when good things are done / accomplished

Knowledge IS power
- you are judged by how you conduct yourself, your posturing, your questions, and your knowledge MUCH MORE than you are judged by your title or position

Some assert “When you talk you teach, when you listen you learn.”
- I agree with this to an extent, but I disagree that talking can never be learning. I think when you REMIX ideas you begin to OWN them. Taking personal ownership of ideas is key for retention and long-term learning. (And learning is defined as change.)

Remember that perceptions shape and define reality. People interact with and treat you based on their perception of you.
- How you interact and present yourself is KEY to lifelong success
- How often are we talking about this importance of “presentation” in schools?

We really need to have better strategies about improving ourselves, our organizations, and better fulfilling our missions than just WORKING HARDER
- we need to work smarter and work differently, with clarity of vision and specific focus

We work in a world of:
1- increasing complexity
2- an overcommunicated environment
3- where our brains have access to excess information

This world is SO different from the slower, simpler, less complex and less information-rich world of the past

Malcom Gladwell in “Blink” - when studying human influences, we see that people often make decisions in 3-5 seconds about others (initial impressions are formed in that time)

The test of whether you have a “relationship” with someone: If they ask you to move, do you move? Vice versa true?

Build trust by making good on a series of small agreements over time

Knowledge workers need to work hard, but also work SMARTER rather than just harder

The number one value and belief that executives have is about BEING UNIQUE, and their organization being unique
- if that is true, then I wonder how this plays out in the education space with superintendents
- is it a key idea to explore with superintendents how they differentiate the learning experience in their school district from the experiences of other students and teachers in other places?

Fundamental dynamics of human relations and psychology are the desire to BELONG to groups and the desire to be UNIQUE and RECOGNIZED.

Active listening is an incredibly important skill for the 21st century knowledge worker.

Every employee should have a rehearsed “elevator speech.”

Technorati Tags: economics, education, leadership, workforce

On this day..

• Computers for just testing and math games - 2008
• The Corporation documentary: A big eye opener - 2008
• Forward Thinking - 2007
• Wisdom from John Miller - 2007
• Podcast35: There are no Shortcuts by Rafe Esquith - 2006
• Complexity of Problem Solving - 2006
• Talking emails with Springdoo - 2006
• Concept Mapping tools - 2006
• Quest for a survey instrument - 2006
• "None of These Diseases" -- Sounds like a good read - 2005

This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 10:11 pm and is filed under economics, leadership, literacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.