Scott Adams, through Dilbert, has been making fun of the cubicle ever since I’ve been reading him. Tonight I read a great story on CNN about the cubicle, it’s inventor, and the fact that before the cubicle’s inventor (one Robert Propst) died in 2000,
he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called “monolithic insanity.
It’s a great story worth reading about. A project that started in one direction and ended up somewhere very different. Initially Propst was trying to build something to increase productivity, blood flow and even stave off exhaustion. He called it the ‘Action Office’. But then economics took over and while it was never intended to cram as many people into one space as possible, it was inevitable that when the accountants got hold of it, it’s noble path would be re-directed toward cost saving.
“They kept shrinking the Action Office until it became a cubicle,” says Schwartz, now 80. As Steelcase, Knoll, and Haworth brought their versions to market, they figured out that what businesses wanted wasn’t to give employees a holistic experience. The customers wanted a cheap way to pack workers in.
He who pays the piper…
One of the “rules” of the schoolyard always seemed to me to be that the guys with the biggest muscles got their way. But there were at least three other rules in operation that have been good comfort to me over the years: (1) nature knows what its doing - most guys with muscles aren’t given much by way of brains; (2) brains (and now, increasingly, EQ) seem to win over muscles in the long term; and (3) the schoolyard isn’t the real world.
We’ve long since left behind the era of the “survival of the fittest/biggest/strongest” and the machinations of the Industrial era, and we’re drawing to the end of the Information age, too. We are entering a new era, the Connection economy. And the characteristics of the people/companies/nations that have been successful to date but in fact be the very cause of their downfall.
I’ll be honest… I am not particularly fond of America (by “America”, I technically mean the attitudes, policies and actions of the current American administration). Every time I look, it seems that GW has made another move towards reducing, rather than enhancing, America’s influence and connection in this connected world we live in. He really doesn’t seem to know the difference between power and influence, between might and right.
His latest adventure in destroying the American legacy is to tamper dramatically with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty by actively seeking to endorse India’s illegal nuclear ambitions. I suppose it would appear less moronic at any other time but now, while North Korea and Iran are rattling their nuclear sabres so menacingly. Once again, short-term gains and popularity politics win over reason, rationality and a global view.
For more on this story, see the editorial from The Economist of 9 March 06 (below). Picture from The Economist.
Continue reading ‘Breaking the rules, destroying connection’
“We have to stop letting businesses off the hook who talk about family values, but create policies where the employee, who puts caring for a sick child a higher priority than work, risks a promotion or their job”. So says, Ellen Bravo, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor (read full report here).
Bravo declared, “Now, repeat after me, ‘Housework is work to be done by people who live in the house. It is not mom’s work, with occasional assistance from others.’” She noted the major shift in American family structure. In the 1960s about 70 percent of families had a stay-at-home parent, almost always the woman - and dad was the sole wage earner. “Today, about 70 percent of families have both parents working and longer hours than other developed countries,” Bravo said. Men work an average of 48 hours a week and women 42, and that includes the 24 percent of women who work “part-time.”
Bravo urged companies to perform an internal audit to examine policies that may show a lack of flexibility when employees try to balance their work and family responsibilities. “This isn’t about doing a favor to women, but developing a better way of doing things and not losing talented women,” Bravo said.
Read more here.
This past week, France has once again been burning. This time, it is the anger of students at proposed new labour laws that is fuelling the days and nights of running street battles, car burnings and trashing of buildings. The government wants to change legislation to allow employers to dismiss workers under the age of 26 without notice, without providing reasons and without compensation or recourse - and all this can be done within the first two years of employment of the young person.
This past weekend an estimated 1 million people took the streets to protest. No matter what the issue, that many people protesting has got to tell you something!
The irony is that the French government’s intention is to open up employment to the youth (Youth unemployment is more than 20% because French labour law makes it difficult to dismiss even incompetent workers, resulting in a lack of vacancies). So, these riots have come to symbolise more than legislation - they are way for many disillusioned job seekers to vent their anger at a changing system.
It is my view that a liberal labour environment will ultimately be best for a country. The easier it is to hire and fire, the more likely it is that employers (especially small and medium sized companies) will take the chance on people (especially younger people, or under-skilled people). The real need, though, is for better education and skills-training for the technology dominated connection era of the 21st century. The other need is to not just target youth employment, but to look at deadwood throughout the employment ladder. By singling out the youth market, we simply edge closer to the looming generational war I am convinced will erupt within the next 20 years.
This article was posted on www.iol.co.za sourced from Ananova.com
These people were frozen while they waited for medical science to discover two things:
1) How to cure the disease that killed them.
2) How to resuscitate people who have been cryogenically frozen.
As I read the article I wondered if the son ever thought that by the time they had discovered the solutions to these two things they will probably also be able to deal will a little temporary defrosting. And as he realised that….how much of a prat did he feel like for pushing the ‘Ignite’ button
Continue reading ‘Cryonics founders cremated’
Whoah, what a night. This was certainly (and hopefully) the fringe of blogging. Even as wierd as Mike is, he didn’t even look like he fully fitted in with the ‘interesting’ human beings in the room.
Winner of best new blog, went to ‘peas on toast’, Mushy Peas on Toast. Interesting story that goes with this blog. You’ll have to do some work on your own to dig it up, but well worth it.
Our best shot was in the category ‘group blog’ and we lost out to a blog called Chump Style They’re well known for their ‘boobs of the week’. And they won three awards for the evening. Maybe says plenty about the aparent fringe of blogging? Mike thinks not, but that’s because ‘boobs of the week’ is his home page : )
Best lifestyle blog went to ’splattermail’ Splattermail These guys looked fairly normal and human. Maybe why they get to win that kind of award.
If you want to see all the winners and runners up and links to their site go to SA Blog Awards
Continue reading ‘SA Blog Awards’
In a survey recently completed by Ameriprise Financial, it was found that a majority of older workers said what they most needed was advice on how to teach their own children about money and finances. Advice on their own retirement and finances came second and third. In another survey by Hewitt Associates, looking at involvement in retirement savings schemes (known as 401(k)’s in the USA), “only 31 percent of Generation Y workers (those age 18 to 25) eligible to participate in a tax-deferred 401(k) retirement plan are doing so. By comparison, 63 percent of eligible Generation X workers (those age 26 to 41) are using these plans, while 72 percent of baby boomers (age 42 to 59) are doing so.” (See source here, New York Times, 19 March 2006).
In 2000, I wrote a book with two co-authors, “Mind Over Money” which looked at how generations interact with finances. Get the book online at Kalahari.net or at the TomorrowToday shop.
In an article entitled “They Won’t Grow Up“, Kevin Downey (Broadcasting & Cable, 3/20/2006) quotes Ken Dychtwald, head of San Francisco-based consulting firm Age Wave (a consultancy focused on the ageing Baby Boomers) as saying that Baby boomers aren’t quietly shuffling off into old age. The oldest of them—the ones born in 1946—turn 60 this year, but boomers are putting a new spin on growing older. And, they are essentially creating a new stage of life, which could be called middle-escence.
I like the phrase. Its nicer than what we mean by “having a mid-life crisis”, although the symptoms might look the same (opening more buttons on the open-neck shirts, wearing more jewelry, botox, buying flash sports cars or that Harley you’ve always wanted, exotic travel, etc).
The article goes on to give some interesting facts, especially about the US Boomers…
Continue reading ‘Middle-escence - a whole new stage of life’
In an article entitled “New ideas to ease into old age“, Roxana Popescu in the International Herald Tribune of 17 March, 2006, addresses the issue of what ageing Boomers are looking for in healthcare, and some of the trends and products and services emerging in this field. But she makes some great points that are applicable to every industry:
Unobtrusive, preventive, personalized and remote: Welcome to the future of geriatric health care. Increased life spans, more education and more disposable income than any preceding generation means that the baby boomers - those born between 1946 and 1965, the elder members of which are standing on the threshold of retirement - will demand technology as sophisticated as their expectations about aging.
According to estimates by the Metlife Mature Market Institute, the 78 million boomers in the United States are spending more than $1 trillion annually on housing, insurance, pensions, transportation and health care. And they are eager to invest in products that will allow them to feel younger and remain active longer, analysts are finding.
There’s hardly a business that can’t capitalize on the aging of the boomer population.
…good news for Apple as the Pope endorses the iPod. And speaking of iPods, even DA leader Tony Leon is getting in on the podcasting act. Other South Africans making a mark on the Web are AJ Venter, who’s just launched a blog on his site, and Stormhoek Winery, whose blog has helped them double their wine sales in less than twelve months.
Wells Fargo has made history by being the first major US bank to launch a public blog. Guided by History is an attempt to provide readers with resources to better prepare for the future, using the analogy of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake & Fire.
Google are busy buying, well, everything… the two latest acquisitions being Writely and @Last (who created Sketchup). Om reckons this is part of a much bigger plan, “Now buying Writely is in line with Google thinking of using browser for everything. I mean an online word processor, and online excel spread sheet…”.
The Web is abuzz following South Africa’s miraculous cricket win. Top cricket blog, The Googly, has some interesting comments.
And finally, if you really have nothing better to do, Ian’s Shoelace Site (I kid you knot), has more than 16 methods, brilliantly illustrated, to tie the average pair of shoelaces…
“Most people only know the one shoelace knot that they learned as a child, having been taught by either a parent, a sibling, a relative, a teacher or even another child. Many are surprised to learn that there’s more than one method, let alone sixteen!”
Highlight of the Week… Chuck fever!
?ic@TomorrowToday.biz is a blog that faciltates discussion about two predominant, important themes:
1. Thoughts and musings about the emerging Connection Economy
2. Rants about SA cricket. Ok, more specifically, Graeme’s rants about Jacques Kallis. And now mine, about Barry richards.
Amongst a vast array of sideline hobbies and activities that keep me busy, absolute obsessed cricket fanaticism takes precedence. Which is why you’ll understand that Sunday’s incredible, fantasy-like battle between our boys and the fine lads of Australia Fair had my synapses frayed.
Continue reading ‘A rant: Sport is about money’
Following the carnage of Sunday’s final ODI cricket match, the truth is slipping out.Here’s how we really won that match…
Continue reading ‘The truth…’
I’ve stumbled across an excellent article at KansasCity.com entitled The Bottom Line on Blogging which takes a look at some of the emerging stories from blogging and bloggers in the corporate world.
Our very own, extremely successful Stormhoek Winery blog gts a significant mention!
A snippet from the article:
“But blog watchers — and yes, there are blogs that track business bloggers — say 23 of the Fortune 500 companies now have formal blogs. The practice has been institutionalized at companies such as Microsoft and IBM.
Continue reading ‘The bottom line on blogging’
Dave Winer has come up with the idea for an unconference out of sheer desperation - conferences are malignantly boring. Here’s the full text, or you can read his post here.
“The idea for an unconference came while sitting in the audience of a panel discussion at a conference, waiting for someone to say something intelligent, or not self-serving, or not mind-numbingly boring. The idea came while listening to someone drone endlessly through PowerPoint slides, nodding off, or (in later years) checking email, or posting something to my blog, wondering if it had to be so mind-numbingly boring.
Continue reading ‘Unconferencing’
In a desperate attempt to curb the ever-increasing digital download problem the Music Industry faces, one indie label has opted to appeal to the inherent good nature of mankind - with a love letter. Read the full story at Boing Boing.
The ability to extract critical information from about-to-retire Boomers is absolutely essential. And now, the big boys are weighing in with consulting services to assist companies in the process. IBM is the latest to join the party.
From the Atlanta Business Chronicle of January 13, 2006, written by Randy Southerland.
The employees behind the desk and on the shop floor are a lot grayer than they used to be. And, this aging work force is starting to worry a growing number of companies as baby boomers near retirement and get ready to take years of experience and knowledge with them.
“They’re facing a risk that demographically they have perhaps the largest group of individuals who are going to be approaching retirement age that they’ve ever faced before,” said Eric Lesser, associate partner with IBM Business Consulting Services.
Continue reading ‘Before you go, tell us what you know’
Rob Millard has a great blog on Strategy. He has recently added an entire category for inter-generational issues onto his blog. Check it out here (I think there is only one entry so far, pointing to a recent post of mine, but it should grow nicely, and is worth watching).
This comes at the same time as my latest reading group is starting on TKB. I’m reading, “Getting Them to Give a Damn” by Eric Chester (buy it online at Kalahari.net and Amazon.com). You can read it with me and a group of other people by going to http://www.tomorrowknowledge.biz/Give_a_Damn.
This looks like a fantastic book from the author of “Generation Why”.
A good cyber-pal of mine, Duncan Macleod (no, not of the clan Macleod) from New Zealand runs a great blog site on Generational issues. He’s got a great global view on what’s happening with the Gen Xers and Millennials, and his site is well worth keeping an eye on. Check it out at: http://www.generations.postkiwi.com/
Please excuse me for being completely parochial and using this forum to eulogise my country’s cricket team. Unbelievable!! There’s no other way to describe it. Today, at the Wanderers, the records have tumbled - the biggest of those was the previous highest innings total in a 50 over game. Sri Lanka had set that in 1995 - it was 398. See the match summary here.
Australia won the toss, chose to bat, and scored a mammoth 434-4. South Africa hunted it down, beating that score with one ball to spare. Without doubt or fear of contradiction, the greatest single day’s cricket in history! I’m still grinning from ear to ear!!!
Well done, the Proteas. Now, go and win the Test match series.
Continue reading ‘Unbelievable’
Today I sit as a judge at the Gauteng contest of the annual Anglo American Sowetan Young Communicators Award. Hosted at the Apartheid Musuem, 30 years since the Soweto uprising on June 16th 1976, young talented speakers have come from English 2nd Language schools to battle it out for a spot at the National Final in June. As a 26-year old white male, it is my first visit to the museum and the first time I have heard participants of the 1976 riots speak publically. Murphy Morobe, one of the convicted organisers of the uprising spoke of his experiences in Soweto some 30 years ago.
Continue reading ‘30 years on …’
Ok not really. But Steve Rubel is using the term we usually associate with kings, Asterix and lengthy hollywood epics to describe an emerging business leadership phenomenon. The original blog post, at MicroPersuasion, can be read here.
From his post:
“What if leadership didn’t originate from the top of an organization, society or ecosystem, but from its middle? Thanks to a flattening Earth,
a declining trust in hierarchy, plus the rising prominence of mid-level
stars, we’re entering such an era. I call it ‘The Middle Ages.’
…It’s about technology-driven societal change that elevates people in the middle, not just goods. …People increasingly seek out each other as trusted sources. This is because leadership is shifting from the top to the middle.”
Bottom line, Steve is supposing that the Internet has democratised, connected, linked and shared information to such a degree (information = knowledge = power) that the ‘hotspots’ of cutting-edge thinking and innovation aren’t coming from the high-up-there places we’re used to. Ordinary people with extraordinary contributions are able to share, contribute and participate their magic thanks to the platform provided by the Web.
A good example? Me. (If not a self-indulgent one). 6 months ago I sold machine parts to construction companies for a living. Fair enough, it was good work, and I met great people. But I was dying inside. I had something to share - a whole lot to say - mostly useless stuff but with the odd sprinkling of magic that, thanks to the Internet - you are reading and (hopefully) deriving value from. I’m not HTML expert, no BSc Computer Science graduate, but the New Web is highlighting the fact that sometimes the most incredible insights and innovations come from the underdogs - the plebs - the East Randers.
I’m glad I live in the Middle Ages.
Earlier today, the 1000th entry was posted on this blog. Aiden Choles, a regular contributor and member of the TomorrowToday team, was the one who did it.
A big thanks to all the contributors up to now. This blog is truly something to be proud of.
There is a wonderful metaphor we can use to understand the differences between generations: Music playback medium … the gramaphone, LP Records, 8-track, Cassette Tapes, CD, and now the MP3, digital. Each one “belongs” to a certain generation.
However the nice thing about this metaphor is that it shows how generational cycles occur. i.e. Vinyl records are now a big part of Xer/Millenial dance culture … no longer are they just in the realm of Boomer taste.
Continue reading ‘Generational Metaphor’
The “cusper” generation between Gen X and the Millennial kids have been given a name. They’re the “entitlement generation” according to a great article on the West Texas A&M University website: Read it online here.
Born from 1979 to 1994, this generation was born during some of the most dramatic times of change ever experienced. And, they will dominate the job market for about the next 70 years! Read more below.
A quick summary of what companies can do to attract and retain them:
- Work-life balance (work is a “gig”, and they have other gigs, especially family, to attend to)
- Flexible schedule
- Meaningful work, with a structured feedback loop
- Opportunities to be creative
Continue reading ‘The Entitlement Generation’
I was watching the news a while back, and a story was featured on the Metrorail strike that is plaguing the commuter industry. The Labour court has just ruled that the strike is legal (wow, what a precedent!). The central issue in the strike, as with most in SA, is a dispute over wage increase. The Union is “demandingâ€? a 6.5% increase across the board while, and Metrorail is “offering” a 5.5% increase. And so, we have a deadlock. Neither party is prepared to move on the issue, let alone compromise. The Union is claiming that anything less than a 6.5% increment is unjust and underserved, while Metrorail is claiming that any increase beyond 5.5% will severely cripple its viability i.e. it cannot afford the increase. This scenario is typical of most strikes in SA, almost to the T. I ask Why is an annual increase seen as a right? Why should companies give wage/salary increases when there is not a related increase in their revenues?
Continue reading ‘The community employer’
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