For the 2011 Annual Management Improvement Blog Carnival, hosted by John Hunter, we (my son Hank and I) will pick our favorite posts from these three blogs:
See us hosts and the blogs we’ve chosen to review at this site coordinated by John and background on the carnival itself here.
I will start off our part in this Carnival with my take on Edge Perspectives. The author is John Hagel — a fellow with a background in law and management who caught my fancy for his passion about embracing change. I live by Apostle Paul’s advice (1 Thes. 5:14-22) to “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” However, as Hagel explains in his blog on Cognitive Biases in Times of Uncertainty uncertainty breeds fear for new technologies that offer big benefits. It’s amazing to see how much people vary in interest/aversion to new technology. For example, I recently made an impulse purchase of Sony’s Internet TV Blu-ray disc player. When I asked Hank to help me set it up in our master bedroom, he got really keyed up about how this device streams content controlled by a nifty remote with all the functions of a full-size keyboard. But then my wife tried to turn the TV on – not a good scene. She just needs a lot more time to embrace technological change than Hank or me.
A number of the 2011 blogs in Edge Perspectives provide in-depth reviews of books by other big thinkers offering their prescription for how Americans can regain their edge. To be honest, I am just too busy dealing with everyday life to work up the necessary energy to get a grasp on these huge issues. My attention gets re-engaged when Hegel delivers thoughts from the heart such as his Revolution from the Edge entry. Here he reports back from TED, nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading” that draws top thinkers from around the globe, one of whom is invited to turn the world inside out – aided by a $100,000 award. Hagel focuses his thoughts on the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, where a well-educated younger generation broke free of old ways enforced by rigid and repressive dictators. Having just come away from India, where democracy fosters technological innovation (if only the infrastructure could catch up!), I am keen on Hagel’s call for those in developed nations to do everything possible for removing the barriers of corruption, debt and environmental degradation that stand in the way of further progress by emerging countries.
“As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”
Mahatma Gandhi