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.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Fred Pearce
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Try A Different View

As we enjoy the colors of spring (despite the wild temperature swings), a friend was lamenting the return of a persistent cold that she thought she had beat.

Her throat was scratchy, her nose dripped and she maintained a dull ached above her eyes. All of her favor cold remedies were failing her.

I sympathized with her discomfort, since I was suffering with my reaction to the record levels of pollen floating through the air. I have had spring time allergies all of my life, and living in the Washington area only has made them worse.

"My eye are so irritated," I told her, "that I wish I could take them out of my head and rinse them off."

"Really?" she said. "That's exactly how my eyes feel! I never even considered allergies!"

Long story short -- my friend went over the her pharmacy, loaded up on antihistamines and eye drops, and found relief.

Sometimes it's just a word, a quick view from another perspective, that offers a solution.

Enjoy the spring, and don't be allergic to change.

Anti-Creativity Checklist

I can't even take credit for discovering this clever little video. However, I know enough to pass it on.

Just check on the start arrow. Works for both professional and personal lives:

My Anti-Creativity Checklist from Youngme Moon on Vimeo.

Quote of the Day

"You cannot find peace until you find all the pieces."

Well, maybe not the quote of this specific day, but a good quote nonetheless.

To provide some context: Oprah Winfrey recently did a show which featured super private investigator Troy Dunn. Dunn hosts his own show, The Locator, on WeTV cable network. Through his investigation and research, he helps people find and sometimes reconnect with long lost friends and family members. That includes reuniting adopted children with their birth parents.

As you might expect, the discoveries can bring a flood of tears -- some happy, some sad. Some birth parents don't want to be found. Sometimes there is no happy ending.

But whether the information brings joy or pain, it can offer Resolution. Closure. Completion.

As Dunn told Oprah:

"You cannot find peace until you find all of the pieces."

Oscar Woman / Oscar Wisdom

The Academy Awards continue to dominate water cooler conversation, whether at the work place or in cyberspace. Movie history was made Sunday night with Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker pulling off a David vs. Goliath win over ex-husband James Cameron's box office-breaking Avatar. Bigelow is the first woman in the history of the awards to win in the Best Director category.

Comedienne Mo'Nique's win for Best Supporting Actress was much less of a surprise, which is kind of a surprise in and of itself. From the time the film Precious debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, Mo'Nique has received almost universal critical acclaim for her performance as Mary Jones, the repulsively abusive mother of an illiterate pregnant teen mother.

Precious is a tough movie to watch. It takes the audience into some of the darkest places in the human soul, and the character of Mary Jones is the main tour guide. The reason that Mo'Nique's Oscar win was considered to be a lead pipe cinch is that somehow, she manages to cast a sliver of light on the humanity of her character; a woman who easily could have been rendered as beyond the reach of any positive human emotion.

On NPR's Morning Edition, correspondent Mandalit del Braco shares part of a backstage interview with Mo'Nique after her Oscar win. A reporter asks the actress how she could identify in any way with such a dark, toxic character. Mo'Nique turns the question around to reveal a larger, more universal truth, which forms the basis of her performance. The NPR transcript follows:

Ms. MONIQUE: Have you ever had a dark moment when you were unlovable? I'm asking you the question.

Unidentified Woman: Yes.

Ms. MONIQUE: And didn't you want somebody to love you through it?

Unidentified Woman: Yes.

Ms. MONIQUE: That was that thing for me. For as cruel as Mary Jones was, for the monster that she was, everybody - and I don't care who you are and what crime you've committed - everybody deserves to be loved, even when they're unlovable.

You can hear all of del Barco's report here.

How wonderful that amid the glitz and glamor of Oscar night there was a truth more grand and more beautiful than any red carpet star.

Do I See You? Or Me?

Executive Coach and author Russell Bishop explores a concept that readers of this blog have seen before, the belief that there is the possibility of perfection within each moment. Even within times of challenge, Bishop writes that there is positive learning in negative experiences.

It's an examination of the laws of attraction, yet from a different perspective than the current pop culture variety. Bishop employs an older concept, "the mirror:"


"The mirror concept suggests that when we perceive something in another, or react to something in another, what we are really doing is seeing a reflection of our own selves in the other person's behavior.

In fact, we may not perceive their behavior accurately, especially when it comes to intent. We may be seeing something, interpreting it through our own filters or self-judgments, and then reacting toward or against the other person. What we may truly be trying to do, however, is bring to our own awareness some aspect or quality of our own behavior that detracts from who we truly are, or how we would prefer to represent ourselves in the world."

You can read more of Bishop's analysis in this article on the Huffington Post.

And spend some time with the provocative question he raises:

"Just ask yourself if you are willing for things to be different, and, by extension, for you to be different."