Jay Cross
The New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) is an independent educational and research institution dedicated to advancing the study of complex systems.
Jay Cross’s insight:
This Scoop.it is changing topics. This is a place for exploring complexity in the workplace and how to deal with it.
The book, Treading Lightly, describes how the ancient Aboriginal society organised for sustainability, their mission to keep all alive, non-herarchical leadership, eco-farming methods, four-level story-telling method and governance rules.
Jay Cross’s insight:
check out Accounting for a Sustainable World
Jay Cross’s insight:
with Jeremiah’s slides.
We live in turbulent times. We struggle to find ways to cope with this turbulence but many of our approaches only aggravate the situation rather than alleviate it. Case in point: portfolios and pivots.
Jay Cross’s insight:
The bottom line issue with both of these approaches is that they tend to undermine commitment to any particular course of action, or even any particular view of how a market or arena is likely to evolve. So, what’s wrong with that?
Magnifying risk rather than reducing it
What’s wrong is that we fall prey to one of the greatest risks in times of uncertainty. We become distracted by surface events and lose our focus on the fundamental forces that are shaping our surroundings. The more we pay attention to surface events, the more likely we are to shorten our time horizons and spread ourselves too thinly in a vain attempt to respond to the latest unexpected developments. We lose our ability to prioritize – everything seems to have equal urgency. In a turbulent sea, the worst thing that can happen is that we get buffeted from surface wave to surface wave and lose any sense of the direction of underlying currents that might carry us to safety.
Boyd Kershaw argues that happiness boosts productivity so much it could bring the UK economy out of recession.
Jay Cross’s insight:
“At Nixon McInness, social business consultants based in Brighton, employees can place tennis balls in one of two buckets - marked “happy” and “unhappy” - when they head home. This happiness barometer acts as an early warning system so that any looming problems can be identified and addressed early on.”
Maybe it’s time to reinvigorate my Happiness app.
Happiness is not about smiley faces, unicorns and light-hearted merriment. Nor is it about self-proclaimed gurus and their self-help anecdotes of supposed enlightenment.
Jay Cross’s insight:
Seligman says happiness is crossing the chasm. Thousands of authors, researchers, and business people agree.
I spend a lot of time thinking, writing, speaking and working in my own personal and professional venn diagram of: leadership development; social collaborative tools; and all things related to lear…
Jay Cross’s insight:
A provocative read (JDI). Marcia, Dan, and Kerry are right in line with my thinking although we use different terminology and approaches to get there.
A “Workscape” is the locus of work and learning (which are converging so rapidly, they are one and the same). It may be the factory floor, a home office, or a meeting at the customer’s site. The Workscape is the learning platform. Tinkering with it makes the whole system function better.
For example, the Workscape should provide easy way to seek and pinpoint needed information. Similarly, the Workscape should make it simple to find and collaborate with others. The Workscape culture must encourage experimentation. It even gets down to physical factors such as the availability of conference rooms and conversation nooks, wi-fi in the cafeteria, big monitors on the desks, and plenty of windows.
“Corporate learning” is fiction, an artificial aggregation of individual learning by workers and small teams. Hence, the focus shifts to personal development plans, supported by managers who assign stretch jobs that enable people to learn by experience.
People cement their knowledge by sharing it with others. The authors call this curation. I’ve thought of it as narrating one’s work. The result is the same.
Harold Jarche has been advocating these basic steps as individual practice for dealing with a complex world. Seek-sense-share. The authors’ learning nouveau is what results if everybody is doing their 3S personal knowledge management.
Personally, I applaud the notion that business needs fewer functionaries and most artists. I have the bruises and scars that show it’s a tough sell.
The Management Revolution That’s Already Happening: Formerly self-evident truths of leadership and management are being cast aside. Once sacred concepts are being declared obsolete.
Jay Cross’s insight:
Fantastic post. A keeper. The Management Revolution and its literature.
The basics:
a shift from a goal of making money to the goal of delighting customers profitably. Innovation and transformation are no longer options: they have become imperatives.a shift from controlling individuals to inspiring collaboration among self-organizing teams, networks and ecosystems.a shift from coordinating work by hierarchical bureaucracy with its rules, roles, plans and reports to dynamic linking, with iterative approaches to development with direct customer feedback and interaction with teams and networks.a shift from a preoccupation with economic value and efficiency to an embrace of values that will grow the firm and the accompanying ecosystems, particularly radical transparency, continuous improvement and sustainability.a shift from top-down directives to multi-directional conversations. Instead of telling people what to do, leaders inspire people across organizational boundaries to work together on common goals.I foresee a great sorting out of the companies that get it and those that don’t.
As a leader, do you honor and appreciate the power of We?* There’s been a lively discussion around my article earlier this week, The Best-Kept Management Secret On the Planet: Agile.
Jay Cross’s insight:
Rod Collins’ takeaways on agile:
A riveted focus on what the customers value and what’s most important to them.A preoccupation with group process rather than distributed tasks as in traditional management.A recognition that work is fundamentally iterative learning
Work and learning are becoming the same. You can’t reform learning without reforming working.
How are you seeking well-being? Are you a Life Twister, a Reinventionist, a Passivist, or a Traditionalist? New survey aims to determine what Americans now regard as success and fulfillment.
Jay Cross’s insight:
95 percent of Americans believe the road to success involves detours and unexpected changes, and that held true across all income levels and all generations, from boomers to millennials.”
Hence, the labels at the top of this column: Life Twisters (52 percent - they have a path mapped out but are open to veering off it); Passivists (25 percent - they don’t have a specific path, but go wherever life takes them); Traditionalists (13 percent - they have a path mapped out and are determined to stick to it); and Reinventionists (11 percent - they actively seek change in their lives to reinvent themselves).
“With consumers more likely to expect twists and turns, it’s no surprise that 65 percent of Americans report that their goals have changed many times over the course of their lives,” the report says. “This represents a much less linear life path than was once traditionally expected. In fact, an overwhelming 83 percent of Americans, including 79 percent of boomers, still consider themselves to be a ‘work in progress.’ Just as important, the majority of Americans say they are willing to take any number of roads less traveled to achieve their goals.”
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/20130602_Taking_the_measure_of_happiness.html#Z4rcM1LzzJjeRZQT.99
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Jay Cross’s insight:
“Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
“Only a life lived for others is worth living.”
It all depends on how you spend it. On stuff? Or on experiences, time … and on other people, according to authors of a new book on the topic.
Jay Cross’s insight:
Well, maybe. These are ways to get more emotional payoff from your money, but I am skeptical if they have much impact on my longterm happiness.
Science says just a tiny sip of beer can make you happy.
Jay Cross’s insight:
Is this news? “Following a lengthy, one-person study we conducted in our free time over the past decade or two, we’ve concluded that other alcoholic drinks that can make you happy include: wine, whiskey (and whisky), vodka, gin, Qream, tequila, rum, Lime-A-Ritas, absinthe, moonshine, ether (in a pinch), brandy, ouzo, Zima, wine coolers. But note: feelings of happiness with all of the above may be empty, fleeting.”
How the author Sonja Lyubomirsky — a psychology professor who hates smiley faces, kittens and rainbows — has become the latest apostle of mirth.
Jay Cross’s insight:
Sonja Lyubomirsky, happiness diva
Long-term stress can do a lot of damage to our bodies, but recent research suggests short bouts of stress may actually boost our brainpower and immunity.
Jay Cross’s insight:
There are times when I think I’d be much happier if I could spend the rest of my life lounging on the sands of the Mediterranean, having someone fan me with palm fronds while feeding me superfood grapes. In other words, life would be better without any stress. Or would it?
According to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, a little stress may not be so bad for us after all. While chronic stress may be harmful, acute (short-term) stress may actually boost our cognitive function. The findings are supported by other research suggesting a little bit o’ stress may have beneficial effects for our brains and bodies. The key, of course, is knowing when we’re too harried for our own good.
Gabrielle Bernstein I recently spoke to the wondering Gabrielle Bernstein, who is the New York Times bestselling author of May Cause Miracles: A 40-Day Guidebook of Subtle Shifts for Radical Change and Unlimited Happiness.
Jay Cross’s insight:
Forty days is not a long time.
In your book, you offer an action plan for people that takes 40 days. Why does it take that much time to bring out your best self? Does the amount of time required to transform your life change based on who you are?
Like any effective practice, true transformation occurs with daily repetition. Begin with a 40-day commitment and start experiencing positive results immediately. Why 40 days? Metaphysicians and yogis place much emphasis on the repetition of a 40-day practice. Mythical examples range from Moses’s 40 days and 40 nights in the desert to the story of the Buddha reaching enlightenment on the full moon in May after meditating and fasting under the Bodhi tree for 40 days. The number has scientific significance, too: research has shown that after repeating a new pattern for 40 days, you can change the neural pathways in your brain to create long-lasting change. So let’s take a cue from the mystics and scientists alike, and commit to this 40-day fear cleanse. It’s the simple, consistent shifts that count when you’re making change—so I’ve outlined May Cause Miracles to be fun and achievable. In the book I guide readers to keep it uncomplicated and stay on track. And one day at a time you’ll begin to experience the miraculous shifts.
Those who got less action than their peers tended to be less happy, researchers say
Jay Cross’s insight:
The findings raise the possibility that conversations with friends about sex — plus reading all those sexual surveys in popular magazines — create a perception about how much sex you should be having. If you have more, the study’s theory goes, you are more likely to be happier. If you have less, the reverse holds true.
However, the researcher pointed out that perceptions about sex vary, and so do reactions to it. “Obviously, we’re dealing with statistical averages here,” said study author Tim Wadsworth, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “I’m sure there are lots of people who aren’t having any sex, and are leading incredibly happy lives.”
The more face-to-face time you spend, the healthier you and your children are.
Jay Cross’s insight:
I LOVE THIS.
Everyone wants to be happy, but did you know that you should prioritize it as a business goal? Here are four ways that your happiness can be used to advance…
Jay Cross’s insight:
A simple but valid formula for happiness.
See on Scoop.it - Well-being
Toni Antonucci, Laura Carstensen and Debra Umberson talk about health habits and longevity.
