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Let's Do Lunch

TED2012

"A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will's freedom after it."
Aldous Huxley

 

While our colleagues are in Palm Springs next week enjoying the happenings at TEDActive and, more importantly, helping to support the TEDActive  Projects, another CN cohort will be at TED 2012 Full Spectrum in Long Beach, CA.

The Grandest of Collaborations at your fingertips...

Next week, CN will be joining several hundred participants at TED Active in Palm Springs, CA. We’re teaming up with the sponsors of Active to facilitate six projects that each focus on a big question that affects all of us in one way or another. Several of my CN friends and I will be the resident storytellers for each of the projects. What does this mean? During the week we’ll be listening, connecting participants to one another, and gathering participants’ big ideas as they relate to each of the projects.

I Think Your Idea Stinks

Over the last few weeks, I’ve detected a minor backlash against collaboration in the media, a rising tide of criticism of the “trend” toward working and learning in groups. The sense I’m getting may all stem from the recent NY Times article by Susan Cain, The Rise of the New Group Think. In her article, she decries the evils of the New Groupthink, which “has overtaken our workplaces, our schools and our religious institutions.”  

Collaboration and Music

(First in a multi-part series on collaboration and music.)

Broaden and Build Your Performance

You are a business professional. You know your stuff. Before tackling any major business task, you familiarize yourself with best practices, design a plan, organize the appropriate people and watch a clip from your favorite comedy. Like many people, you may find the last step in this list out of place. Yet, it may be the most important step you can take to maximize your effectiveness.

Inspiration Comes in Many Forms

Inspiration comes in many forms.

Sometimes you get in a rut. You feel uninspired or stuck or like maybe you’ve “lost it.” Maybe you’re a little rusty and don’t trust your skills anymore.

Do You Speak Infographics?

Infographics, data visualizations, visual knowledge…whatever you call it, it’s everywhere, and most of the time, it’s pretty interesting.

What You Can Learn From A Woolly Mammoth

At eight years old I was presented with a book that would dramatically impact my life several times over. In my adolescent hands it was huge and heavy; its hard covers seemed to have existed forever. Most avid readers will fondly recount canonic classics or nostalgic favorites revisited again and again over the course of one’s life, each time extracting new meaning, relevance and insight. For me, it is not Shakespeare’s Drama, The Old Testament or 1984, but David Macauly’s The Way Things Work.

Tools and Expectations

It occurred to me while I was preparing to carve our Halloween pumpkin last week: when did the expectation for an elaborate and detailed pumpkin character get so…high? When did the era of the jolly old Jack-O-Lantern end and the super snazzy CGI effects worthy pumpkin begin? I think the game changed somewhere around the time stores started carrying the “Pumpkin Masters” carving sets. If you’re not familiar, let me explain.

Reflection

tagged in

A couple of weeks ago, at the Fred Forum, I heard Col. Bernie Banks talk about the importance of reflection in West Point’s education model. They provide three kinds of learning to their cadets: new knowledge, experience and reflection. Their cadets get a combination of theory, application, and then the time to reflect and integrate what they’ve learned.