Great expectations

No one believes their life will turn out "kind of OK." We all think we are going to be great.

And from the day we decide to be surgeons, we are filled with expectation.

Expectations of the trails we will blaze, the people we will help, the difference we will make. Great expectations of who we will be and where we will go.

And then we get there.

You've got to wonder, "Why do we cling to our expectations?"

Because the expected is just what keeps us steady, standing, still. The expected is just the beginning.

The unexpected is what changes our lives.

— Grey's Anatomy, Thu, Jan 25, 2007, Eric Buchman screenwriter

Changing the world of non-profits

Tom Suddes tackles the increasing dissonance between the archaic goals of typical not-for-profits and the realities of business. Suddes challenges us to think differently about these organizations.

Suddes sights Tim Kight’s “Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results they are getting,” and Einstein's definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” as inspiration for change.

Stop defining in the negative (not- non-); focus on impact.

Let impact drive the income. Change the goal of the organization from fundraising to increasing size and scope of impact.

Ask for whatever it is that you want to accomplish. Just ask for help. Just ask for involvement. Just ask for feedback. Just ask questions.

Suddes' 9 guiding principles are outlined in a ChangeThis manifesto.

When culture gets stuck

"Classical music wasn't always 'classical,'" writes change agent Seth Godin.

Once something makes its way to the mass market, the mass market doesn't want it to change. And once it moves from that big hump in the middle of the market to become a classic, the market doesn't just want it to not change, they insist.

So classical music gets stuck because the new stuff isn't like the regular kind, the classics. French food got stuck, because no restaurant could risk its 3 stars to try something new. A convention can't change cities or formats. Schools can't start their curriculum over... the culture gets stuck because the masses want it be stuck.

Inside most fields, we see pitched battles between a few people who want serious change to reinvigorate the genre they love -- and the masses, who won't tolerate change of any kind.

Read more plus reader reactions in Seth's blog.

Laws of simplicity

Drowning in e-mail and other complexities of modern life?

John Maeda's new book explains 10 laws of simplicity, including principles of good design and how to tame complexity and reduce clutter in your life. At the book's heart is the Shinto belief in animism, the spirit in all objects. Nicholas Negroponte, one of Maeda's mentors, once told him to become a lightbulb, not a laser beam. This he has done; all this and more.

Go to the book's site.

Read the book review in the LA Times.

Dynamic lifecycle of a musician

Orchestra management consultant Drew McManus examines the impact Yale School of Music’s decision to go tuition-free for graduate students would have on the classical music business. Although Yale’s new policy won’t change the landscape of classical music all that much, it does draw attention to an undeniable fact: conservatories and schools of music are accepting and graduating more music majors than ever before. This trend will likely lead to increased competition for positions in professional orchestras and other groups. As a result, more musicians will need to find other outlets for their talents to generate income.

Systems Thinker columnist Bill Harris gives you a chance to try the associated model to explore these ideas further and to try out various approaches to stabilizing the lifecycle of the typical U.S. classical musician.

Read the article at Pegasus Communications.

Rush at the Met

Jaws no longer drop at the thought of paying $375 for a prime seat at the Metropolitan Opera. It's the $20 orchestra seats that have people gaping.

Read The New York Times article.

Valuing storytelling

The Australian consulting firm, Anecdote, is asking "When is storytelling valued within your organization?” Here are the results.

Hero stories – seen particularly for sales, customer service
Success stories
Inspirational stories
“Lessons/Learning” stories
“Who we are” stories – an embodiment of company values in action, not just espoused values
“How we got here” stories – stories exploring a companies history and foundations
“My time here” stories – provides insight into the individuals work/life history with the organization

Read more about when storytelling is valued.

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They also asked "When has storytelling been discouraged or frowned upon in organizations?” The broad themes that emerged are:

When stories are gossip
When there is a break down in trust and relationships
Where there is no time
When there are “bad news” stories
When it sounds like corporate spin

Read more about when storytelling is discouraged.

Harvesting employee-generated innovation

Innovation is a hot topic in today's management circles as businesses are organizing around the creation and implementation of new ideas. At Whirlpool, executives are held accountable not only for the development of new products and services, but also for the creation of processes and systems that foster innovation.

One tactic for engaging employees in the innovation process is something Carlson Marketing's Director of Performance Improvement Jennifer Rosenzweig, calls "appreciative inquiry." This is a technique for emphasizing a company's unique strengths (appreciative) while at the same time developing a meaningful and robust dialogue with employees (inquiry) that seeks to help management understand when the company is moving in the right direction or not.

Carlson Marketing's research shows that given the opportunity, nearly 50 percent of employees will engage in identifying and implementing ideas. But "squandered" or untapped ideas are a major source of employee frustration and disengagement. A recent Gallup report shows that 17 percent of all the employees it surveyed consider themselves "disengaged" at work.

Read how Whirlpool and Toyota are harvesting employee-generated innovation.

CrazyBusy

“Is it normal that my husband lays his BlackBerry down next to us when we make love?" asked a patient of psychiatrist Edward Hallowell. She thought she was entitled to her husband’s undivided attention.

From an expert in Attention Deficit Disorder, comes a new book for the rest of the world. CrazyBusy: Overstretched, overbooked, and about to snap - Strategies for coping in a world gone ADD by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., is a prescriptive guide that shows us how to survive in an ultra-competitive, ultra-fast, attention deficit society — and remain sane.

Gerald LeVan writes about CrazyBusy on the Friends of Positive Psychology list-serve:

Why do we keep so frantically busy? According to Hallowell, it’s because: we can be, we want to be, we must be, we imagine we must be, busy is fun, we overcommit, others overcommit us, we let technology run us, we work hard but not smart, being busy is a status symbol, we’re afraid of being left out or missing something, we’re afraid of not maintaining our standard of living, we can avoid the pain of life, we can avoid everything difficult we don’t want to do, we don’t have time to feel guilty about doing nothing, the devil finds work for idle hands, everyone else is busy, we have an excuse not to do what we don’t want to do, we aren’t bored when we’re busy, we don’t have to think too much, it’s better than not knowing what to do, it’s the best way to get where we want to go, we’re creating time someday when we won’t have to busy, we don’t know how not to be busy. All of the above.

Go to Hallowell's CrazyBusy web site.

“Please explain the problem to me slowly, as I do not understand things quickly,” pleaded Albert Einstein.

Seeking ideas that disturb

”So much more is possible if we can be together and consciously look for the differences, those ideas and perspectives we find disturbing,” writes Margaret Wheatley.

Instead of sitting in a group and looking for confirmation, what is possible if we listen for disturbance? Instead of looking for safety in numbers and noting those who feel like allies or fellow travelers, what might we create if we seek to discover those whose insights are the most different from ours? What if, at least occasionally, we came together in order to change our mind?

Read the full article on the Berkana Institute web site.

Culture shifts to collaboration at American Airlines

For his part, Gerard J. Arpey, American’s 47-year-old chief executive, has traded away the bankruptcy card used by most of his competitors — which gave them shelter to prune debt while also tossing out labor contracts and pensions — for the hope of trying to motivate workers. “Our fundamental objective is to make organized labor and our front-line employees our business partners,” he said, asserting that the world’s largest airline cannot become more efficient without such collaboration. “If they don’t want to do it, it ain’t going to happen. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are.”

Read the NY Times story from Sun, Jul 23.