The Str4 artist at work: Little Birds. © 2008 Dawn Wheat. Used by permission. Part of Richard Florida’s “Creative Class” theory is that the world has become “spikey”: certain cities draw almost all the top talent in the world, leaving everyone else to languish. (He who has will be given more; for he who has not, even what he has …
Get a Creative Class Job Through Manipulating Your Images, Part 2
They don’t know how to judge Creative Class performance so you have to dress like them. Manipulate your presentation of self and get the job.
Each Level of Work Has Its Own Key Value (Jack Fallow)
Jack Fallow had an excellent article in the recent GO Society book, Organization Design, Levels of Work and Human Capability: Executive Guide (“On Being Heard: Insights from complexity theory and values as touchstones for effective executive communication across the levels”). In it, Jack talks about the values that followers seem to expect from a leader who is supposed to be …
Creative Class Job Interview? Go with Stuff White People Like!
A client asks the question: What should I do to win an executive level interview? So let’s look at how to manipulate the forms that are expected by today’s uninformed managers. (I’d say “idiot” but there are too many lawsuits these days.) I’ll assume that you’re a heterosexual American guy who wants a job as part of Richard Florida’s Creative …
IQ and Success: What’s the Real Interaction?
Malcolm Gladwell reports that “the correlation between I.Q. and occupational success is between 0.2 and 0.3.” That’s more than no correlation at all but much less than we often think. (It also isn’t entirely accurate.) But it seems somewhat counterintuitive. Elliott Jaques has an answer. I’m betting that one’s current capacity of work (your level or work that gets measured …
Financial Collapse: "Just at the Beginning"
Sociopaths see the financial collapse as a way to despotism, with them on top. It’s an opportunity for Hidden High Potentials with moral compasses, too. Some notes from a colleague on what’s going to happen and how long it may last. One of my associates chimed in recently with his latest thoughts on the collapse. He’s had some interesting achievements, …
Top 2008 Biz Books
strategy+business, the Booz Hamilton rag, has some interesting folks listing their top picks for 2008 biz books. The list is interesting because the range of people picking them. Still, I’d rather hear from people I think are interesting. So, what did you read last year that you recommend? Post your list in the comments and I’ll do an interview with …
How the Disney World Model Leads to Top-Down Absolute Control
Did the American Evangelical megachurch adopt the unchecked executive model because it wanted to emulate Disney World and its fantasy of American small town life? It’s a charge that’s worth looking at because it can shed some light on this issue. I’m going to be unabashedly churchy in this, so comment if you need a translation of the Evangelical jargon. …
"You Can’t Handle Big Things Unless You Have An Organization"
Maybe it’s obvious, but humans built organizations because they helped them achieve things. Networks are nice, and very useful, but the Organization (which is a subtype of network) works in more specific ways. Daniel H. Burnham, the famous Chicago architect, felt something of this. Donald L. Miller, in City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of …
Celebrate Freedom with the World's Largest Democracy
With all my thinking about democracy and its underpinnings, it totally slipped my mind that the 60th Republic Day was approaching. It is worth celebrating any democracy’s robust survival. This Republic Day is especially important, following as it does terrorist attacks of last November. India, like its friend the United States, has many problems. Fortunately, many of the worst problems …