Last month, Michael Spencer posted a list of what he, as a religious person, wanted in a church. His readers, from a variety of denominations, all agreed whole-heartedly with his vision. And that’s the problem. Take a look at how using vague Universal Language (as opposed to even Universal Values) can lead to agreement where there probably isn’t any, whether in churches, companies or associations.
If Training is Lipstick on a Pig, At Least Make Sure They Aren't Hogs
Michelle Malay Carter over at Mission Minded Management recently wrote a post asking “Is Training Anything More Than Putting Lipstick on a Pig?” She raises some good points there’s more to the problem than she admits. Although the solution may be similar. Training class content matters. As does the student body. You gotta make sure you don’t mix your hogs …
Got Baby Boomer Executives? Here's the Succession Planning Solution
You’ve got a problem: your executives are all “baby boomers” and about to hit retirement. But so are the ranks just below them. How in the world can you get new executives in the pipeline who have industry experience and know your corporate culture?
Upgraded again
Which probably broke more things.
Growth Trajectories of Underachievers (or “Hidden High Potentials”)
Hidden High Potentials (2HiPo’s) and other “underachievers” can learn a great deal from work done on extremely high IQ children. Although Elliott Jaques & Katherine Cason describe these things in a more systematical way in Human Capability, these Gifted Children researchers provide a much needed human face. Stephanie S. Tolan, an “advocate for extremely bright children”, talks about the growth …
Notice: New Boss, Same As The Old Boss…
Warren Kinston needed to take the company in a direction that, at least for the next year or so, would preclude the work I had joined with him to do. We have therefore parted ways, and I wish him the best in getting his taxonomy into online products. Any questions about the future of the taxonomy should be directed to …
Contemplative Work
From Kinston, Warren. 1988. “A total framework for inquiry”. Systems Research, 5(1): 9-25. The inherent dangers in the Level VII' [the contemplative] inquiry include fixation on an incorrect idea and inappropriate messianism. Speculative ideas are not practically usable until they have been socially shared with the relevant community…. Scientific process occurs at this level through holistic syntheses which reframe or …
Time Span of Discretion and Naturalistic Decision Making
Klein, Gary. 1997. Making Decisions in Natural Environments. Alexandria, VA: Research and Advanced Concepts Office, U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. I’ve been reading up on Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM). Klein and his colleagues studied how experts such as fire commanders actually make decisions. In turns out that they don’t, if you think of formal decision …
New Directions Require A New Name
You might have noticed a subtle change on the name. It’s a harbinger of coming changes. Over the next month, everything at The Manasclerk Company will be undergoing a major (and much needed) overhaul to bring us inline with our original vision. I’ve let the company drift away from what the vision I originally had. Some of you are going …
Greybox Really Is a Popup Window That Doesn’t Suck
I’ve been evaluating several technologies for a small web project I’m working. One of the things that I’ve seen lately are these popup windows that display on top of the original page, graying out the original and “floating” on top of it. There are several neat implementations of this for images but I needed to popup little informational windows, something …