Butterflies

During the course of the past week, my family lost a very dear long time friend. She had been friends with my mother since grade school, and in many ways, she was like a second mother to me and my siblings. We called her "Aunt," and she was far closer to us than most blood relations in all the ways that count.

Our "Aunt" continued to have an exuberant, loving, nurturing and supportive spirit throughout her 91 years, and until about a month ago, she continued to be blessed with enough physical strength to make her visits and spread joy. You always felt special under the bright light of her love. And even when you realized how widely she spread that love, your gratitude only grew.

My "Aunt" loved butterflies. Anyone who knew her knew that. At her funeral this week, her pastor schooled us about "the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions;" in other words, the butterfly effect. In short, it's how the small actions of one being can ripple out exponentially and affect change. That was my "Aunt." She did that.

As we drove into the cemetery, a butterfly flew past our car.

Coming Soon!

For those who actually follow this blog, I apologize for what has become my annual summer recess. It's not intended; events always seem to sweep me along in the summer. And it is my intention to return -- soon.

But for now, I cede this space to one of my favorite coach, Jill Geisler of the Poynter Institute. As part of her must-read series on "What Great Bosses Know," she talks about the challenges and potential satisfactions of changing the culture of an organization in need of transition.

Enjoy! I'll be back soon.

Jill Geisler on "SuperVision:

Fail to Succeed

It's day 83 of the catastrophic oil in the Gulf of Mexico. After a long, sorry list of attempted fixes and failed containment solutions, the British Petroleum Oil Company this weekend decided to move toward a more effective way to cap the billowing flow of oil from the ocean floor.

Unfortunately, this effort required BP to remove the ill-fitted cap that it secured to the well last month. According to the Associated Press, as much as five million gallons of oil could gush out between the removal of the old cap and the installation of a new cap, which engineers hope will funnel the escaping oil to tankers at the surface.

Attention to this tragedy has waxed and waned since the explosion which started with the April 20 explosion and fire on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. And I fear that in the constant viewing of the underwater camera fixed on the spill, many people have forgotten about the 11 oil rig workers who lost their lives, and the families they left behind.

At the same time, I am fascinated at the metaphor presented by the choices made by BP. In order to get a positive result, these engineers are not risking the flow of more oil into the Gulf. They are guaranteeing that result. In other words, they have to accept failure, (hopefully temporary), in order to get to a better result.

What about you? Would you be willing to knowingly fail in order to move closer to ultimate success?

The Correct Miscalculation

Like millions of American women, I belong to a book club. Along with the monthly opportunity to share good food, good company and good conversation with a group of extraordinary women, I appreciate my club because it forces me to read literature -- fiction and non fiction -- that has nothing to do with the work I do during the rest of the month. Our selections reflect the wide range of interests and experience of our members, and expand my own understanding of our basic humanity.

This month's book is "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa. The book was originally published in Japanese in 2003. We read the 2009 translation by Stephen Snyder.

"The Housekeeper and the Professor" tells the story of a brilliant mathematics professor who suffered a life-altering brain injury in a car accident. His short term memory is reduced to a precise 80 minute cycle. A young housekeeper is hired to care for the professor, her work made more challenging by the fact that to some degree, her relationship with the Professor must begin anew each day, since he has no ability to remember the previous day's encounters. Even the multiple hand-written reminders that the Professor pins to his suit cannot adequately compensate for his loss.

Despite this deficit, there are certain constants in the Professor's life. Chief among them is his complete love and immersion in the beauty of numbers. Not only can he see patterns and relationships in the formulas and theorems of mathematics, but he has a unique ability to share his understanding with his much less educated housekeeper and her ten-year old son, whom he has dubbed "Root" (because the top of the boy's head reminds him of the square root symbol).

A simple, elegant relationship develops between the Housekeeper and the Professor, perhaps because it is stripped away of the expectations placed by memory or past mistakes. In fact, the housekeeper learns a different perspective about "mistakes:"

"He had a very feeling for what he called the 'correct miscalculation,' for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers. This gave us confidence even when our best efforts came to nothing."

And although the Professor's life revolved around the precision of mathematics and numbers, he is completely comfortable with the unknown; perhaps a metaphor for the limitations of his own capacity for learning:

"Among the many things that made the Professor an excellent teacher was the fact that he wasn't afraid to say 'we don't know.' For the Professor, there was no shame in admitting you didn't have the answer, it was a necessary step toward the truth. It was as important to teach us about the unknown or the unknowable as it was to teach us what had already been safely proven."

"The Housekeeper and the Professor" is less than 200 pages. The beauty and efficiency of its prose make it a worthwhile investment.

Purpose Motive trumps Profit Motive

Daniel Pink thinks, writes and lectures about the way we do business, in this country and abroad. He thinks about capitalism and the assumptions made about how people work and what makes them work better -- more effectively, more creatively and more productively.

A few days ago, I had the privilege of hearing Pink speak to a conference of more than 200 coaches in Washington, D.C. He was fascinating, captivating and engaging. Fingers were flying as people took notes and sent Twitter messages about key phrases in his presentation.

Pink deconstructed the whole idea of capitalism and the profit motive. He used recent studies and recent history to show that work based solely on the need to make money and more money does not serve society particularly well. But work based on something larger -- a purpose -- could be more valuable than gold.

I cannot do justice to Pink's presentation in this blog. Fortunately, someone has recorded his words. And better still, the clever people at the 250+ year old RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) in London created this amazing piece of animation to illustrate his thoughts. Literally, Words Into Action.

It's not the same as seeing Pink in person. It's something completely different:

The Bigger Picture

I am lifting a post in its entirety from new media/social media marketing maven Seth Godin. When something is perfect, why mess around?

Sentences, paragraphs and chapters

It's laughably easy to find someone to critique a sentence, to find a missing apostrophe or worry about your noun-verb agreement.

Sometimes, you're lucky enough to find someone who can tell you that a paragraph is dull, or out of place.

But finding people to rearrange the chapters, to criticize the very arc of what you're building, to give you substantive feedback on your strategy--that's insanely valuable and rare.

Perhaps one criticism in a hundred is actually a useful and generous contribution in your quest to reorganize things for the better.

[And for those in need of subtitles, this isn't a post about your next novel. It's about your business, your career and your life.]

Four people tell you that there was a typo on the third slide in your presentation. A generous and useful editor (hard to call them a consultant), though, points out that you shouldn't be doing presentations at all, and your time would be better spent meeting in small groups with your best clients.

Here's the link to Seth's blog:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/05/sentences-paragraphs-and-chapters.html

A New World Coming

Environmentally conscious Americans can still feel the afterglow of this month's Earth Day celebration in Washington. April 22nd marked the 40th anniversary of the Earth Day observance in the United States.

Although the volume of the debate over global warming rises and falls regularly, most people are in agreement about the risks of over-population and how the strain of those growing numbers threaten the earth's ability to support us all.

According to the Census Bureau, the world population increased from 3 billion in 1959 to 6 billion by 1999, a doubling that occurred over 40 years. The Bureau's latest projections imply that population growth will continue into the 21st century, although more slowly. The world population is projected to grow from 6 billion in 1999 to 9 billion by 2045, an increase of 50 percent that is expected to require 46 years.

Wait a second; did I read that right? "[P]opulation growth will continue into the 21st century, although more slowly.

Populations growth is going to slow down? What could that mean?

According to author Fred Pearce, global population is headed for a slow, steady decline. In his new book, The Coming Population Crash: And Our Planet's Surprising Future, Pearce predicts tectonic changes in world societies and the environment.

Pearce, environmental consultant at New Scientist and a weekly columnist and investigative journalist for the Guardian in London, claims that a middle-aged culture will replace our predominate youth culture, and that the eventual decline in the earth's population will help our environment.

In an interview with Salon.com 's Margaret Eby, Pearce challenges the theory that over breeding in poor countries is worse for the planet than the over consumption of resources by developed countries. He notes that fertility rates around the world have halved; not just in Europe and North America, but also East Asia. Fertility rates are stabilizing.

These are provocative theories, but what does it mean for us now, and for the workplace of the near future? Well, in the United States, the Social Security Administration already knows that there are fewer new workers coming into the work force that the baby boomers who are preparing to retire. And as the nation awakens from the recent recession, employers may find themselves facing a sellers' market for reliable, experienced employees. Smart employers will explore new strategies to attract and retain talent if they want to remain competitive.

There's a new world coming. What form will it take? And will you be ready?

Check out Fred Pearce during his recent appearance on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.

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Fred Pearce
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