Adfreak looks at a survey that reveals which baseball teams we like to hate and notes that the World Series between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals doesn't trigger raw emotions.
Naturally, the team that inspires the greatest hatred is the you-know-who.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Worry
If you are a worrier - and I am one of Olympic caliber - you might enjoy Edward Hallowell's extraordinary book, Worry.
I pass this along because I've found his insights and recommendations to be extremely helpful. Hallowell, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and the founder and director of The Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Concord, Massachusetts, explores how we can bring our worries into perspective. An excerpt:
I was "on" that day and gave a good talk. When it was over and the applause died down, my old teacher, Dr. Leston Havens, shook my hand and told me the talk was "superb." He told me I should feel proud. And I did...for about as long as it takes a light bulb to fade after you flick off a switch.
Why was it that at the very moment Dr. Havens was shaking my hand, I picked out the face of a woman at the back of the room who was scowling at me? My eyes connected with hers, and her scowling face stuck in my mind as if it were a poisonous dart. As I left the lecture hall, that face overwhelmed my mind. Rather than feeling the gentle warmth of a job well done, I felt a chill rising within me instead. What was the meaning of that scowl, I wondered to myself. Why had that woman looked so disapprovingly at me? What had I done wrong? And what bad thing would happen to me as a result?
I pass this along because I've found his insights and recommendations to be extremely helpful. Hallowell, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and the founder and director of The Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Concord, Massachusetts, explores how we can bring our worries into perspective. An excerpt:
I was "on" that day and gave a good talk. When it was over and the applause died down, my old teacher, Dr. Leston Havens, shook my hand and told me the talk was "superb." He told me I should feel proud. And I did...for about as long as it takes a light bulb to fade after you flick off a switch.
Why was it that at the very moment Dr. Havens was shaking my hand, I picked out the face of a woman at the back of the room who was scowling at me? My eyes connected with hers, and her scowling face stuck in my mind as if it were a poisonous dart. As I left the lecture hall, that face overwhelmed my mind. Rather than feeling the gentle warmth of a job well done, I felt a chill rising within me instead. What was the meaning of that scowl, I wondered to myself. Why had that woman looked so disapprovingly at me? What had I done wrong? And what bad thing would happen to me as a result?
End of the World As We Know It Update
Mark Steyn is looking at population stats again:
I wonder how many pontificators on the "Middle East peace process" ever run this number: the median age in the Gaza Strip is 15.8 years.
Once you know that, all the rest is details. If you were a "moderate Palestinian" leader, would you want to try to persuade a nation—or pseudo-nation—of unemployed poorly educated teenage boys raised in a UN-supervised European-funded death cult to see sense? Any analysis of the "Palestinian problem" that doesn't take into account the most important determinant on the ground is a waste of time.
Likewise, the salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia is that they're running out of babies. What's happening in the developed world is one of the fastest demographic evolutions in history. Most of us have seen a gazillion heartwarming ethnic comedies—"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and its ilk—in which some uptight WASPy type starts dating a gal from a vast, loving, fecund Mediterranean family, so abundantly endowed with sisters and cousins and uncles that you can barely get in the room.
It is, in fact, the inversion of the truth. Greece has a fertility rate hovering just below 1.3 births per couple, which is what demographers call the point of "lowest-low" fertility from which no human society has ever recovered. And Greece's fertility is the healthiest in Mediterranean Europe: Italy has a fertility rate of 1.2, Spain, 1.1.
Read the entire NewsMax.com article here.
I wonder how many pontificators on the "Middle East peace process" ever run this number: the median age in the Gaza Strip is 15.8 years.
Once you know that, all the rest is details. If you were a "moderate Palestinian" leader, would you want to try to persuade a nation—or pseudo-nation—of unemployed poorly educated teenage boys raised in a UN-supervised European-funded death cult to see sense? Any analysis of the "Palestinian problem" that doesn't take into account the most important determinant on the ground is a waste of time.
Likewise, the salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia is that they're running out of babies. What's happening in the developed world is one of the fastest demographic evolutions in history. Most of us have seen a gazillion heartwarming ethnic comedies—"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and its ilk—in which some uptight WASPy type starts dating a gal from a vast, loving, fecund Mediterranean family, so abundantly endowed with sisters and cousins and uncles that you can barely get in the room.
It is, in fact, the inversion of the truth. Greece has a fertility rate hovering just below 1.3 births per couple, which is what demographers call the point of "lowest-low" fertility from which no human society has ever recovered. And Greece's fertility is the healthiest in Mediterranean Europe: Italy has a fertility rate of 1.2, Spain, 1.1.
Read the entire NewsMax.com article here.
Diversity and Turnover: Weak Link
Business Pundit has an interesting analysis of this study, which finds a weak link between diversity and turnover; i.e., diversity does not in itself help you to retain employees.
Very interesting:
One surprising finding of the study, however, is that women seem to dislike gender diversity. In fact, women are more likely to quit when the gender diversity of their workplace is close to fifty-fifty than when it is mostly female or mostly male.
Very interesting:
One surprising finding of the study, however, is that women seem to dislike gender diversity. In fact, women are more likely to quit when the gender diversity of their workplace is close to fifty-fifty than when it is mostly female or mostly male.
Consultant Roles
David Maister, who has devoted his career to advising professional service firms, has raised an interesting question: What do consultants know?
In my consulting practice, I've found that our advice tends to fall into these categories:
Narrow Expert: We are asked to assist a client on a project that we've done many times. We know the subject extremely well because it has been our focus and we have a passion for the topic.
Related Expert: We haven't worked on the specific topic, but have handled related matters and the skills needed for success are interchangeable. We carefully consider these projects and only take on ones in which we are fully confident that not only can we do a good job, we can also bring a perspective that the Narrow Expert might miss.
Sage Advisor: On these projects, which usually involve executive or managerial coaching, we are asked to provide objective and sober advice. Our ability to do so comes in part from a knowledge of the particular subject area, but also from the fact that we have "street smarts" related to life and organizations and have the scars to prove it.
What I find interesting about the above categories is the greatest appreciation from clients tends to fall in the Sage Advisor role, possibly because of the personal nature of the service. The consultant is more of an ally and less of a tool. All of us, at some point in our lives, need a Sage Advisor.
Some less enjoyable roles for consultants are:
Scapegoat
Executioner
Fall guy
We do our best to avoid those assignments.
In my consulting practice, I've found that our advice tends to fall into these categories:
Narrow Expert: We are asked to assist a client on a project that we've done many times. We know the subject extremely well because it has been our focus and we have a passion for the topic.
Related Expert: We haven't worked on the specific topic, but have handled related matters and the skills needed for success are interchangeable. We carefully consider these projects and only take on ones in which we are fully confident that not only can we do a good job, we can also bring a perspective that the Narrow Expert might miss.
Sage Advisor: On these projects, which usually involve executive or managerial coaching, we are asked to provide objective and sober advice. Our ability to do so comes in part from a knowledge of the particular subject area, but also from the fact that we have "street smarts" related to life and organizations and have the scars to prove it.
What I find interesting about the above categories is the greatest appreciation from clients tends to fall in the Sage Advisor role, possibly because of the personal nature of the service. The consultant is more of an ally and less of a tool. All of us, at some point in our lives, need a Sage Advisor.
Some less enjoyable roles for consultants are:
Scapegoat
Executioner
Fall guy
We do our best to avoid those assignments.
Ten Ways That Organizations Encourage Unethical Behavior
- Shooting bearers of bad news.
- Labeling dissenters as incompetents and malcontents.
- Letting the end justify the means.
- Aiming solely for legal compliance instead of ethical behavior.
- Seeking to be right instead of doing right.
- Justifying questionable behavior by noting that everybody does it or that the competition did it first.
- Punishing technical violations more severely than ethical violations.
- Identifying anything related to the success of the business as being synonymous with good ethics.
- Believing that the top decision makers are so bright that if they favor a course of action, then that course of action must be ethical.
- Valuing toughness over integrity.
Monday, October 23, 2006
"Why Men Hate Going to Church"
From an interview with David Murrow, author of Why Men Hate Going to Church:
Little things matter to men. For instance, how we decorate the sanctuary: soft, cushiony pews, fresh flowers, boxes of Kleenex, lace curtains, and of course, quilted banners on the walls. Honestly, how do we expect men to connect to a masculine God in an environment that feels like Aunt Polly's parlor?I think we could ditch the handholding, prayer requests and screeching violin offertories from seven-year-olds without driving women away. I know a lot of women who would appreciate a more masculine Jesus. I also know women who are sick of the "I'm in therapy forever" emphasis in our megachurches. Men and women need a mission, not just a personal relationship with Jesus.
[skip]
But the male dominated church is largely myth. Men dominate the pulpit (and some governing boards), but women dominate everything else. The average worship service draws an adult crowd that's 61 percent female. Midweek activities are often 70 or 80 percent female. Church staffs are almost totally female. Author Leon Podles puts it this way: modern churches are ladies' clubs with a few male officers.If current trends continue, by 2050 the average pastor in America will be a 55 year-old woman. By 2075 the male pastor will be as uncommon as the male nurse is today. This is already happening in the Church of England; in 2005, that denomination will appoint more female priests than male ones for the first time. And their average age is nearing 60. One observer laments, "the priesthood is becoming a hobby for grannies."
Little things matter to men. For instance, how we decorate the sanctuary: soft, cushiony pews, fresh flowers, boxes of Kleenex, lace curtains, and of course, quilted banners on the walls. Honestly, how do we expect men to connect to a masculine God in an environment that feels like Aunt Polly's parlor?I think we could ditch the handholding, prayer requests and screeching violin offertories from seven-year-olds without driving women away. I know a lot of women who would appreciate a more masculine Jesus. I also know women who are sick of the "I'm in therapy forever" emphasis in our megachurches. Men and women need a mission, not just a personal relationship with Jesus.
[skip]
But the male dominated church is largely myth. Men dominate the pulpit (and some governing boards), but women dominate everything else. The average worship service draws an adult crowd that's 61 percent female. Midweek activities are often 70 or 80 percent female. Church staffs are almost totally female. Author Leon Podles puts it this way: modern churches are ladies' clubs with a few male officers.If current trends continue, by 2050 the average pastor in America will be a 55 year-old woman. By 2075 the male pastor will be as uncommon as the male nurse is today. This is already happening in the Church of England; in 2005, that denomination will appoint more female priests than male ones for the first time. And their average age is nearing 60. One observer laments, "the priesthood is becoming a hobby for grannies."
"Street Meat"
Want to be a political commentator on the television news programs?
As this CareerJournal article shows, it's not a pretty process.
And we wonder why we are subjected to people like Ann Coulter, James Carville, and Ariana Huffington.
As this CareerJournal article shows, it's not a pretty process.
And we wonder why we are subjected to people like Ann Coulter, James Carville, and Ariana Huffington.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)