As September 2015 is Before us....

Notations For the weekend: On Our World & #Katrina

As today is the 10 year anniversary of #Katrina, there are lessons to be learnt.   We reflected upon it when we released a "View of the Week" here in #Outsiders earlier.  The continued resiliency of New Orleans was also featured when +Federal Emergency Management Agency featured the recovery story here in a Twitter Feed we released on our daily Twitter curation:

We're featuring Hurricane Katrina recovery stories at http://t.co/oeuTvJ4cUS, along with photos, videos, & facts pic.twitter.com/yBQRgg056e

— FEMA (@fema) August 28, 2015

As we have been reflecting upon this we could not help as we finished our AM curation to share this about the beauty of our World as the +International Space Station continues to amaze us ever more: 

Finishing our Sunday virtual run w this high note 😄😄😄👏👏👏 https://t.co/Bn44YNr66a

— The Daily Outsider (@DailyOutsider) August 30, 2015

The Friday Musical Interlude: Keiko Matsui Plays Whisper Form the Mirror

It is Friday here in #Outsiders and time for the Friday Musical Interlude.    We hope all enjoy this selection from the artist of the week, Keiko Matsui:

Thought 4 the Week: On Leadership

One of a myriad of favorite sites we consult regularly  as part of our on-going work here @ #Outsiders is Simple Truth.    This "snapshot" we received earlier today was a nice simple retrospective on leadership which is as perceptive as ever as a lesson for us all.  Mr Maxwell's Book is available for purchase at the Simple Truth Site: 

Inspirational Books  |  Motivation  |  Gifts  |  Videos  |   Bestsellers   The Right to Lead Learning Leadership through Character and Courage by John C. Maxwell   The Right to Lead is about people who have earned the right to lead others. Because of the courage they found and the character they displayed, other people recognized their admirable qualities and felt compelled to follow them. This book shares many stories about leadership from unlikely sources and of leaders from all walks of life. An internationally recognized leadership expert and author, John has sold over 13 million books and trained over two million leaders world–wide.

Today we would like to share with you the preface from The Right to Lead by John C. Maxwell What gives a man or woman the right to lead? It certainly isn’t gained by election or appointment. Having position, title, rank, or degrees doesn’t qualify anyone to lead other people. And the ability doesn’t come automatically from age or experience, either. No, it would be accurate to say that no one can be given the right to lead. The right to lead can only be earned. And that takes time.   The Kind of Leader Others Want to Follow The key to becoming an effective leader is not to focus on making other people follow, but on making yourself the kind of person they want to follow. You must become someone others can trust to take them where they want to go. As you prepare yourself to become a better leader, use the following guidelines to help you grow:   1) Let go of your ego. The truly great leaders are not in leadership for personal gain. They lead in order to serve other people. Perhaps that is why Lawrence D. Bell remarked, “Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things, and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.”    2) Become a good follower first. Rare is the effective leader who didn’t learn to become a good follower first. That is why a leadership institution such as the United States Military Academy teaches its officers to become effective followers first—and why West Point has produced more leaders than the Harvard Business School.    3) Build positive relationships. Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. That means it is by nature relational. Today’s generation of leaders seem particularly aware of this because title and position mean so little to them. They know intuitively that people go along with people they get along with.    4) Work with excellence. No one respects and follows mediocrity. Leaders who earn the right to lead give their all to what they do. They bring into play not only their skills and talents, but also great passion and hard work. They perform on the highest level of which they are capable.    5) Rely on discipline, not emotion. Leadership is often easy during the good times. It’s when everything seems to be against you—when you’re out of energy, and you don’t want to lead—that you earn your place as a leader. During every season of life, leaders face crucial moments when they must choose between gearing up or giving up. To make it through those times, rely on the rock of discipline, not the shifting sand of emotion.    6) Make adding value your goal. When you look at the leaders whose names are revered long after they have finished leading, you find that they were men and women who helped people to live better lives and reach their potential. That is the highest calling of leadership—and its highest value.    7) Give your power away. One of the ironies of leadership is that you become a better leader by sharing whatever power you have, not by saving it all for yourself. You’re meant to be a river, not a reservoir. If you use your power to empower others, your leadership will extend far beyond your grasp. In The Right to Lead, you will hear from and read about people who have done these same things and earned the right to lead others. Because of the courage they found and the character they displayed, other people recognized their admirable qualities and felt compelled to follow them. The followers who looked to these leaders learned from them, and so can we. As you explore their worlds and words, remember that it takes time to become worthy of followers. Leadership isn’t learned or earned in a moment.

View of the Week (II) : On "Handful of Moderate Muslims"

For today's "View of the Week" our team chose this interesting snapshot courtesy of the Bridge Project at George Washington University in light of a recent comment by Governor Walker of Wisconsin on "reasonable Muslims":

View of the Week: On Transformation in New Orleans

It has been ten years since Katrina.   How New Orleans has changed is remarkable in many respects.    One interesting aspect of it is the Schools as noted in this Form the Heritage Foundation's Daily Signal and also noted in an interesting by Gloria Romero in a Column she did for the Orange County Register:

Here's How Hurricane Katrina Changed Schools in New Orleans

Before Hurricane Katrina, just over half of students in public schools in New Orleans graduated from high school. Now, the graduation rate for public and charter schools is 73 percent.

Watch the Video

An Opportunity to Make a Difference in the Life of a Child

Investing in any child's future is an investment in us.    KCIS is one such entity that helps to support Iranian Children which we here @ #Outsiders are supporting.    Each child they support has an opportunity to be in school and have opportunities that they would otherwise dream about.    

Thought 4 the Week-End: On the Purpose

Our team never tires of reviewing the daily complications of +Jonathan Huie.   It is required reading for us all.    For this edition of "Thought 4 the Week-End", we chose this to underscore some of the underlying driving force behind our work on the dawn of a new week:

View of the Week: On Leadership

As our team has been hard at work finishing off the "Friday Curations", we finished our latest edition of "Notations".  As we "went to press", we also wanted to share   insights from Verne Harnish.  His weekly newsletter is   one of the must reads for our team here @ #outsiders.  He sent out this on the Amazon mess which we selected as this edition of "View of the Week" in line with the mission of this channel:  To Educate.

We wish all a great weekend!!!


Amazon's Situation -- last weekend's New York Time's expose on the apparent brutal work environment at Amazon has encouraged a wave of responses, so I thought I would weigh in as well. Here's a link to my reaction in the Huffington Post. 

Three Key Points:

1. Founder Jeff Bezos must build his dream on the backs of silicon beings vs. human beings.
2. Their system for allowing employees to provide anonymous feedback on other employees (rat them out) violently violates everything we know about leadership (and parenting) 101, destroying the very trust they claim as one of their 14 rules.
3. Rank and yank has proven to be ineffective. If you need competition to fuel creative juices, seek it from the outside. Reread Jack Stack's Great Game of Business.

Core Values -- Jim Collins helped us understand that there are no "right or wrong" core values - they just "are." The key is for there to be congruity between actions and values. Amazon's anonymous feedback system fails this test, which is why serious cracks are forming in their culture. Bezos should have announced the end of this system the day after the NY Timesarticle.

Principles -- and supporting Values, which can vary between company and country cultures, is a foundational layer of Principles which, in turn, is the same across all organizations - something we don't talk enough about. In business, transparency and trust are two such principles. They are as sacrosanct as freedom of speech. No systems or values can trump these principles or there is long term danger.

Systems of Survival -- this is the title of one of my favorite books. Written by the late Jane Jacobs, she delineated a set of "moral precepts" she felt must underpin successful commerce. I think it's an excellent list - and have found in all my commercial dealings that when one of these precepts is violated, things turn out badly:

• Shun force
• Compete
• Be efficient
• Be open to inventiveness and novelty
• Use initiative and enterprise
• Come to voluntary agreements
• Respect contracts
• Dissent for the sake of the task
• Be industrious
• Be thrifty
• Invest for productive purposes
• Collaborate easily with strangers and aliens
• Promote comfort and convenience
• Be optimistic
• Be honest

It's this list that provides a foundational bedrock upon which you can build your own unique culture (core values) and company.  

The Friday Musical Interlude: Bob Baldwin's "New York Minute"

  It is time for the "Friday Musical Interlude" here in #outsiders.     We hope all enjoy our choice for this channel on this Friday!!!

Thought For the Week (Special Edition): An admonition to remember.....

For this week, our team released a "Thought 4 the week" to our Facebook Page earlier which we wanted to also share here. It reminded us of the profound mission we have as we continue to develop #Outsiders:

A "thought 4 the week".....

Posted by The Daily "Outsider" on Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Thought(s) For the Week: On Education & Leadership

 

I am defined by my curiosity and thirst for learning...I buy more books than I can finish. I sign up for more online courses than I can complete. I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things.

Satya Nadella

Microsoft CEO 

Our team is always on the prowl on candid thoughts and ideas to enhance the level of discussion.   This statement from Satya Nadella was so poignant on Education Today and how leadership has to factor it all in to live up to Bill George's admonition that, "...The hierarchical leader is out. The empowering leader is in...".  

This statement mirrored what one of the leading lights of leadership, Jim Collins, reflected upon when he coined the idea of "Level Five Leadership".     The idea of leaders being humble and thinking of themselves less while maintaining an open and engaging effort is the essence of transformation that organizations need.      It was interesting that Jeff Pfeffer took on Jim Collins  despite the reality to the contrary as epitomized by this on Indian CEO's--lessons to be learnt by us all. 

  

Notations For the Week-End: On Changing Our World

We hope this from +TED our team received in our Virtual Studios this morning is of interest--it speaks volumes about the art of the possible which is an implicit objective of ours: 

PLAYLIST OF THE WEEK

Small ways to change the world

The little things that you (yes, you) can do now (yes, now) to make a difference. Watch »

10 TED Talks • Total run time 1:51:18

The Friday Musical Interlude: Vincent Ingala

Welcome to the Friday here in #Outsiders as we hope all enjoy this selection from  our Artist For the Week, Vincent Ingala playing "Can't Stop Now"--underscoring our sentiment on the on-going development of #Outsiders:

Notations From the Grid: Thought 4 the Week

For this edition of "Thought 4 the Week" in the Education Channel, our team chose the "pinned tweet" available on the DailyOutsider Twitter Feed as a reminder of the art of the possible: 

a #thought4theday: Failure doesn't mean you are a failure... it just means you haven't succeeded yet. ~ Robert H. Schuller

— The Daily Outsider (@DailyOutsider) August 6, 2015

We had to be reminded of it collectively as we finished the "Daily Roundup" as we also wanted to share this as well:

“One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life
is to forgive everybody everything
every night before you go to bed.”
~ Bernard Baruch

Notations From the Grid: On the Possiblities of #Space

We have been quite busy with our Daily Roundup here @ #Outsiders.     Our Founder shared this with our team that Scott Kelley reported on from the International Space Station:

Working away and had to share this 🎉👏🏻💥💥 https://t.co/CbcxTf3sOh

— Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan) August 10, 2015

This is quite a development as planning is continuing on a fast and furious pass for the eventual trip to Mars. We could not help but reflect as to whether this would happen in our lifetime.

Thought 4 the Week-End: Never Fear

While on the "Prowl", our team settled on this we chose from the twitter feed of our founder:

Keep your goals in front of you and your fears behind you. - Tony Robbins #quote

— Mike Pouraryan (@mikepouraryan) August 9, 2015

Enough said..... 

The Friday Musical Interlude: Nelson Rangell Plays "That's the Way of the World"

It is time for the Friday Musical Interlude here in #Outsiders.    For this week, our "artist of the week" is Nelson Rangell as he plays "That's the Way of the World"--We hope all enjoy:

Thought 4 the Week: "Savour The unknown"

For this edition of "Thought 4 the Week" Our team chose this from our daily "must reads" courtesy of +Jonathan Huie .   It is about the Education Road and the pursuit of the possible which is at the heart of what we're trying to do here @ #Outsiders: 

We all have a fear of the unknown.

What one does with that fear will make all the difference in the world.

- Lillian Russell 

Have no fear of moving into the unknown.

Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you,

therefore no harm can befall you;

all is very, very well.

Do this in complete faith and confidence.

- Pope John Paul II

Fear of the unknown is

the greatest fear of humankind,

and death the greatest unknown.

Acknowledging these doubts and fears

is a powerful beginning.

It is liberating to say,

"Yes, I don't know, and yes, I am afraid."

Beyond that, the path to happiness

lies in living in the moment -

enjoying what you are doing today.

You don't need a reason to be happy,

just a choice.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

An #Outsider Newsflash: An Opportunity to Win $230K

With some of the challenges on Voting, our team wanted to share this interesting opportunity and hope that interested individuals or organizations will take advantage of it:

Dear Solver, Votem’s  $230,000 Mobile Voting Challenge aims to bring democracy back to the people and increase turnout in elections by ensuring the voting process is easier, safer and more secure for citizens around the world. To achieve this, they are looking for a mobile voting platform that will be judged on the following criteria: Security Identification and authentication with privacy Accuracy and verifiability Solutions to this Challenge will be in the form of detailed blueprints or descriptions of the architecture of a system that overcomes these obstacles in the best way possible. The deadline to submit is 22nd September 2015. To apply and for further details, please visithttp://go.innocentive.com/e/45092/1RS5zIY/3w945n/442925257. If you have any queries, please email grandchallenges@innocentive.com. Kind regards, InnoCentive INNOCENTIVE AND INNOCENTIVE CHALLENGE ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF INNOCENTIVE, INC. OTHER PRODUCT OR SERVICE NAMES MENTIONED HEREIN ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

265 WINTER STREET | WALTHAM, MA 02169 | USA CONTACT | WEBSITE | PRIVACY POLICY

View of the Week: On Pluto & @NASANewHorizons

 

 

 

New Horizons has left our Galaxy.  It has endowed all of us with images and ideas unforeseen.  For this edition of "View of the Week", our team chose this The Economist released on its' Twitter Feed earlier as we all continue to be fascinated by the World beyond:

What a ride New Horizons had past Pluto, and what a shot http://t.co/UzuLSQ72yi pic.twitter.com/B4tXj8dYZv

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) August 4, 2015

 

Tip of the Week: I can Predict Your Future

We here @ #Outsiders are fans of Darren Hardy.   This very perceptive "DarrenDaily" clip

our tem received today is so timely which we hope the team enjoys:

I can Predict Your Future

On the Tech Front: The Latest From Microsoft on Windows 10

Windows 10 has been released.   Our team has been assessing it throughout the Week-End and the features have been quite interesting to observe.     As the dust settles in, there is one interesting "twist" which we wanted to share with the #outsider community that was received courtesy of a member of our network which we hope all will take under advisement:

By default; Windows 10 will share your Wi-Fi network password(s) with:

- All of your Outlook contacts. I suggest that you should opt-out.

- All of your Skype contacts. I suggest that you should opt-out.

How-to opt-out?

- Start (button)

- (type) Wi-Fi

- (select) Manage Wi-Fi

Want to inhibit sharing of you WiFi Access Point?

- Add a "_optout" suffix to your SSID

To share you WiFi password with your Facebook friends, you must opt-in. It is an all-or-nothing opt-in.

As with all data stored in the cloud, it is available to govt without a warrant or notice.

Notations From the Grid (weekend edition): Thought 4 the W-End

"A problem is a chance for you to do your best." ~Duke Ellington #dailyqotd #qotd😁🎉 http://t.co/uAGAn0yRQI

— The Daily Outsider (@DailyOutsider) August 1, 2015