Conferences with no power

Here I sit, at another conference without power. Don’t get me wrong – I am not talking about the content. I am at Gary Hamel’s latest thing: “The Future of Management”, a full day session with the innovation guru himself. “Live and in person”, just as the advertising promised! The guy is good, and probably the best academic on the issue of innovation in business. So, the content is great.

But in just a few minutes, my laptop is going to die, because I don’t have a power supply near my table. I came prepared – I have two extension cables, and if there was a power outlet within about 20m of my table, I’d be OK (maybe creating a few health and safety issues, but nevertheless I could finish this blog entry without worrying about my battery). But once again the conference organisers have just not thought about people who don’t use paper. I have been given a deskpad and another pen. I don’t use those things. I want to be able to type notes directly into my laptop. I want to be able to work on my computer. I want power!

This needs to be standard practice at conferences! It is the 21st century, after all. AND, today, it is a conference on innovation! If only….

(Let’s not even talk about the fact that there is no free wifi available here. They are giving us free toilet facilities, free water on every desk, free pens and deskpads, free coffee and tea, but no wifi connectivity!)
… Continue Reading

Hokule’a sets sail

According to Wikipedia:

HÅ?kÅ«le’a is a full-scale replica of a wooden sailing vessel (Polynesian voyaging canoe) used in ancient Hawaii. Its name means “star of gladness” in Hawaiian, and the name refers to the star Arcturus, a guiding zenith star for Hawaiian navigators, which falls directly overhead at HawaiÊ»i’s latitude.

It was built in 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and is best known for its 1976 voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti, performed without modern navigational instruments. Since then HÅ?kÅ«le’a has completed seven voyages to various destinations in Polynesia and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation.

Most surfers are aware of it because in it’s second voyage in 1978, Eddie Aikau was lost at sea. Our (TomorrowLeaders) interest is because of our link to the Asia Pacific Leadership Programme in Hawaii for the past 5 years. Nainoa Thompson, a Hawaiian Navigator who has led most of the voyages, is a guest lecturer in the APLP programme.

This year it sets sail once again to Micronesia and Japan and two of the students from the APLP will be on board for different parts of the voyage.

The Hokule’a is a great story to read up on. Below I’ve listed some links around the current voyage. From there the options are endless for your own voyage of discovery.

Nuf Sed

• The Honolulu Advertiser (stories around the current voyage)
• 2007 Voyages to Micronesia and Japan (a dedicated web site)
• Photo Gallery
• Latest position of the Hokule’a
• Polynesian Voyaging Society

The Coming Car Crisis

There are more and more cars on the road, and the complexity of these cars is ever increasing. Who is going to service them? Who is going to fix them when they break? Already, you have to book a few weeks in advance to get your upper-end car in for its regular service. And the quality of the servicing leaves something to be desired. This is a worldwide problem, as a report in “Tire Review online” suggests. Its in the 11 Sep 2006 edition, and is entitled: “Shops in Crisis? The Tech Shortage”, by Steve LaFerre. Read the report here.

Some extracts appear below, and you will see my interest in the matter, as it relates to generational perceptions of the automotive industry, engineering and mechanics as well as the need for knowledge/wisdom continuity from the soon to retire Boomers. If this isn’t dealt with, we’re going to see a trainwreck in this industry in a few years time.

… Continue Reading

Great presentations need great impact moments

Here’s one example from David Siegel – writer, speaker, strategist in the US:

The scene: a meeting of the Direct Marketing Association that took place last October. In a banquet room in Toronto, before an audience of roughly 2,500 people, Siegel is introduced as one of the world’s leading Internet strategists. Rather than begin his talk from the podium or unveil a deck of PowerPoint slides, he walks around the room and asks to borrow a nice watch. A volunteer named Ted offers his Rolex.

“Thank you, Ted,” Siegel says, taking the Rolex. “Now, this watch represents your existing business model: It’s finely crafted, and it runs like clockwork.” Then he takes out a clear plastic bag. “And this, Ted, represents your current distribution network. It completely surrounds the business model.” Siegel places the watch in the bag and then places the bag on the stage. Then he puts on a pair of safety glasses and takes out a sledgehammer. “And this, Ted, is the Internet.” He asks Ted if he thinks that his current distribution network can protect his business model from the impact of the Internet. Ted reluctantly says no. “Right!” shouts Siegel, as he brings the hammer crashing down. Then he removes his glasses and holds up the bag, which is now filled with hundreds of watch pieces. “Now, what have we learned at Ted’s expense?” he asks.

Source: Fast Company, August 2006

Women studying MBAs

It is a worldwide trend that women do not pursue MBAs as much as men. A recent Stanford lecture gave some insights.

Pursuing an MBA is a career choice. Its no use doing the degree without a plan for the next decade of career advancement. MBAs ratchet you up to a high-powered job, and career movement. And, MBAs themselves are particularly demanding courses of study. They require great commitment and understanding from families and friends.

Guest speakers at Stanford related stories about needing two nannies and a personal assistant to cope, and about not having set foot in a gym for 10 years. They also told stories of women deciding that you cannot have children and an MBA. “It can take 10 years to establish yourself before you feel you can take a maternity leave. Then you’re in your late 30s and infertility can be a problem.”

Such are the tradeoffs that women consider either before they seek an MBA degree or after they graduate. It’s the typical timeline for an MBA degree that most discourages some women from applying to business school. M.B.A. students tend to be about 27 years old, creating what one business-school official calls “a biological collision.” As they near 30, women who are focusing on marriage and children worry about how an MBA will affect their plans.

Medical and law schools attract more women in part because they can enter right after college, while most business schools seek applicants with at least four or five years of work experience. Some schools are starting to be more flexible to encourage younger women to apply, but it’s too early to detect any measurable impact on enrollment data.

Female MBA enrollment grew during the 1980s and 1990s, but has since leveled off at 25% to 30% at many schools. In its surveys of prospective students, the Graduate Management Admission Council found that women were significantly more likely than men to list the following potential reservations about attending business school: it might be intimidating or too stressful; it might force them to postpone marriage, children or other personal plans; it might require more experience than they felt they had; and it might severely limit available time for people who are important in their lives.

Inviting People to Grow

A universal truth about a group photo is that, once it has been taken and the picture developed, the photo is only as good as each individual thinks they look. Make sense? Next time you are looking at a group photo that includes you, take note of who you look at first, as you pick up the picture. Then watch yourself pass a judgement on the entire photo, based on how good or bad you looked. Forget the fact that there were 70 other people in the photo who may have looked amazing…

Where and what we focus on is important, especially when we’re talking about the growth of people. For too long, in many parts of the world, we have embraced what can be called a ‘medical model’ when it’s come to people growth and development. The term ‘medical model’ is clearly borrowed from the medical profession, and can be simplistically understood as you consider your last visit to your local GP.

Your GP invites you to sit on her examination table and then does an exam looking for what’s wrong with you. I have never met anyone who has gone to their doctor and said, “Tell me what’s right with me, Doc. I want to know all the places I’m fantastically healthy.â€? No, we visit the doctor to find out what’s wrong with us, and then our doctor assists us to get the wrong made right. It is also important to highlight that your doctor is not incentivised to make you super-human in the fixing process. Your doctor spent seven years studying the average human being. Their job is to simply make you average again. … Continue Reading

Unconferencing

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

Bridging the generation gap: A High School Sociology assignment

For all the teachers who read this, and are interested in generational theory, here is a great lesson plan that helps children develop a multitude of skills, and at the same time learn something about the generation gap.

There is an online assignment/lesson plan at: http://www.microsoft.com/Education/gengap.mspx. OK, it comes from the evil empire of Microsoft, so ignore the fact that their approach is to get your kids using their software – its still a good assignment.

Students get a real life lesson in Sociology as they create a hypothesis about the attitudinal differences between generations, test their hypothesis with a survey, chart their findings, and present their answers to the class.

Objectives: To introduce students to the process of creating a hypothesis and testing its validity, familiarize students with spreadsheet fundamentals, and encourage thoughtful discussion about generational differences.

College Courses – Then and Now

I was chatting to my business colleague, Keith Coats, the other day. His daughter, Tamryn, registered for university this past week. Keith was amazed at the choices of course packages that were available. This sparked a discussion. Keith was at varsity in the 70s. I was there in the early 90s.

In Keith’s days, there were no choices. You decided on your career, signed up to that professional faculty, and were told what your courses would be. When I was there, the core courses were prescribed according to faculty, and some cross-faculty courses were mandated. There were a few empty slots for courses from other faculties (in my Bachelor of Commerce, I had 4 slots for “Arts” courses. I had to get special Senate permission to philosophy as these credits). Tamryn, however, has a dizzying array of courses to select from a variety of different packages. She’s putting a variety of different courses from different faculties together in a wonderful combination of subjects.

This is a wonderful way to prepare Bright Young Things for the requirements of the connection economy. The danger is in making bad choices of subjects. But actually I wonder if its possible to do so… The subjects themselves are there to prepare us for being prepared for whatever can happen. Even “professional” subjects can’t keep up with actual real-life issues, so they are there to provide a foundation for a life of learning.

Oh, to be back at varsity again…

How about doing an unconference?

We have all been to them, we all know what they are like and yet nothing changes. I’m talking about conferences in general and in some cases the strategy sessions and planning sessions that go on in the corporate world. They are generally, to use an analogy, like last weeks rolls that have been warmed up in the oven. They seem to be good, they look good, until you bite into them and then you know they are stale. The same goes for company planning sessions and conferences, they are generally stale and boring. So what is the fix. Well, according to Chris Corrigan, an Open Space Technology practitioner, an unconference based on Open Space needs to be arranged.

So what is Open Space Technology? Here is a definition from a practitioner of it in the States called Michael Herman:

“Open Space Technology is one way to enable all kinds of people, in any kind of organization, to create inspired meetings and events. Over the last 15 years, it has also become clear that opening space, as an intentional leadership practice, can create inspired organizations, where ordinary people work together to create extraordinary results with regularity.

… Continue Reading

South Africa’s prospects

Image courtesy of www.lowveldnet.co.za

The Economist (14 Jan 2006) carries a report on investment in South Africa. They suggest: “Spend more but wisely” (read the full story here – login required).

Simply put, the article points out that South Africa’s economy is in good shape:

• Our tax collection service is the best in the world, and the government coffers are bursting
• The government is embarking on massive public works programmes (R 400 billion in the next 5 years)
• Inflation is low – 3.7%
• Current growth is 4.2% (officially, many suspect the actual rate of growth is higher) – the stated government goal is 6% within a few years from now
• Business confidence is exceedingly high – see previous post
• The business climate (legal, government, admin, finance) is better than most other developing countries, including places like Malaysia, Brazil, eastern Europe and China.
• Electricity is the cheapest in the world (the Economist just says, “comparatively cheap”)
• “Taxes are fairly low”
• “Red tape is no worse than in countries with similar GDP per capita”
• “Labour productivity is higher than in Brazil, Poland, Malaysia and even China”
• Most SA firms find it easy to borrow money, and are more profitable than most comparable companies, and have more cash reserves

With all this good news, why are many SA firms “so grumpy”, and why is investment only at 16% of GDP (the lowest in the list of comparable developing countries)?
… Continue Reading

Why you need an iPod for Christmas?

I just had a birthday. My amazing wife bought me an iPod Video. It replaces my iPod mini that’s given me hours of amazingness. I used my iPod mini for mostly travelling by plane to escape the mind-numbing experience of airline travel. As I discovered PodCasts I spent a lot less time listening to music, and a lot more time getting some great input from the various PodCasts I subscribe to. The iPod video will enhance my experience even more. (that’s the theory)

In our business we’ve started to video some of our presentations. We’re hoping it will not only share the knowledge of a virtual team, but act as a quality enhancement tool as well. We’ll now be able to give eachother contructive feedback on what we saw and heard.
… Continue Reading

Google Book Search – Librarian Revolutionaries

I have just been playing around with Google’s online book search & it is awesome.

They have indexed the actual content of millions of pages of books. When you run a search it actually returns the book to you. You can then go to the physical page in the book where the info is and read a few pages before & a few pages after [I think it is a total of 15 pages that you are able to view per book per search]. They are basically in the process of making libraries redundant.
To get to these pages [still in development form] run a normal search in Google and scroll to the bottom of the page. Click on the link that asks if you want to run the search in Google book search.

To quote Ace Ventura….”Yummy”

Computer Games at School – Your help needed

I do quite a bit of work with my girls’ school, and have convinced them to start a computer games club at the school – as an extra mural option for the girls at the school.

But, now, they’ve asked me which games I would recommend. What would you suggest?

They obviously would be interested specifically in multi-player games. What would you suggest?

Then, they have hardware constraints. Specifically, they don’t have great graphics cards. If you were limited in this way, what would you then recommend?

Futuristic Qualification

While many of us speculate, comment and muse on the future, there is a 50/50 chance we could be right, more likely an 80/20 chance we could be wrong, who predicted blogging would be so big?, or that the web would become so pervasive or even, more sinister, who could have predicted that the 9/11 attacks would take place (Funny thing, Clem Sunter actually DID predict this in one of his books on scenario planning!!) However, being a futurist is not an exact science!

So what is it that everyone wants to be a futurist? We all probably like the idea of looking beyond the horison and feel somewhat proud when our trend reading ability comes true and our predictions manifest themselves.

The role of futurist has become somewhat common nowadays and it seems that most corporates have a resident futurist in their hallowed halls. According to a Fast Company article, the next step is to become a qualified futurist. It seems that there is a drive to make the field more formal in its qualification and it is hoped that by 2009, there should be a formal course and recognised qualification on the table.

So, to all of us armchair futurists, there may be some interesting future (no pun intended) for looking into the great beyond, but then again, I think if you are reading this, you will agree already.

Defining the “Knowledge Worker”

The New Straits Times (Malaysia) is running a column today on “K-workers key to our survival” by Butt Wai Choon (MD of Microsoft Malaysia). The focus is on developing knowledge workers in the ICT sector of Malaysia. However, it starts with the following definitions which might be helpful as a “K-worker 101 primer” (emphases mine).

“But what exactly is a knowledge worker?

Many people tend to confuse the term with any skilled or trained worker, especially in the ICT sector, but this is not the case.

The difference lies in the understanding of what knowledge, information, tasks and skills mean. Information only becomes knowledge when you can utilise it to add or create value for your work and organisation.

Similarly, a knowledge worker is more than just an informed, trained or skilled worker. A knowledge worker has the ability to deal innovatively with the skills, tasks, training or learning acquired and has the know-how to enhance or create new value for his work.

A task worker, on the other hand, normally undertakes a rigid or structured process and follows a pre-determined set of tasks, often routine and repetitive in nature.

However, it does not mean that task workers are not essential for development. By their sheer numbers and volume of work, they are also vital for the maintenance of economic growth, and the aim is to ultimately move them up the value chain.

The term “knowledge worker” was first coined by well-known management guru Peter Drucker in 1959 (and refined over the next four decades in his books) to describe someone who adds value by processing existing information to create new information which can be used to define and solve problems.”
… Continue Reading

Enact GI Bill for workers

Here’s a thought from the DeMoines Register: Its time for America to enact another GI Bill – to give free education to “veterans”, to upskill them for a new economic reality. The previous time this was done was for veterans of World War II, who needed to be upskilled after the war. Most of them fuelled the emerging Information era over the following decades.

Now that the Information Age is giving way to globalised Connection Economy, maybe its time to do this again. Or so this particular report urges. Read the article here.

“What’s needed is a new GI Bill of Rights for a new century. It wouldn’t be just for veterans, but for any American worker who loses a job or simply wants to upgrade skills to get a better job. The concept has been called a GI Bill for workers. Any American who spends a given number of years in the workforce would be eligible…. Whatever the source of funds, retraining should be regarded as an entitlement that can pay for itself. That’s what happened with the original GI Bill.”

An update from TomorrowConnecting.biz

?ic@TomorrowConnecting.biz is a blog dedicated to understanding HyperNetworking Technologies (blogs, wikis, RSS, etc.) and their impact on society and business.

This week we’ll be running a Blogging 101 series – specifically designed to unpack (in plain English) what blogs are, how they work and why they are worth taking note of. Refer a friend, email a colleague, invite a family member. It will be a worthwhile exercise!

Microsoft SA launches Women in IT website

I picked up a post (more of a rant) by Rich…! at the always entertaining Jo’blog site referring to Microsoft SA’s recent “Women in IT” website launch.

In essence the site is a community platform for SA women either interested in, or working in, the IT field. Built-in mentorship programmes, annual bursaries and forums are a few of the prominent features. Rich…! has a strong point to make about the stereotypical design standards of the site, but I’m more interested in finding out why Microsoft are focussing so strongly on women in IT.

Is it just a marketing tool, another attempt at building brand loyalty amongst the geeky (predominantly anti-Microsoft) masses? Is it a corporate social investment project? Is it a weak attempt at a social network, and to what end?

What impression do our esteemed female colleagues get from the site?

Watching a Master

I have played the trumpet since I was 11, and even spent two years doing it professionally, including a year as lead trumpeter of the National Serviceman’s Orchestra of the South African Air Force (whilst conscripted in the late 1980s). I love the instrument, and still play to this day. When I was just out of the Air Force (at the “height” of my trumpet playing ability), I attended a concert by Phil Driscoll, one of the greatest trumpeters in the world. In fact, he is a genius musician, with a gravelly voice like Miles Davis, legendary trumpet and picolo trumpet ability, plays piano, bass and a few other instruments as well. Just oozes music. When he played the trumpet, it looked and felt like it was just an extension of his body. He was one with the instrument, and I was left dazed and in awe.

At that point, I had two choices. Part of me wanted to go home, sell my trumpet and never play again. The other part wanted to go home and practice for 10 hours straight. And do the same the next day, and the days after that. Being in the presence of a master is always humbling and inspiring like that.

To a lesser extent, I continue to try and learn from the masters – even those masters that infuriate me. For this reason, I often flick the satellite TV across to channel 77, which in South Africa is the “God channel” (TBN – trinity broadcasting network), which carries the televangelists, 700 Club, and many other similar evangelical Christian preachers doing what they do. Most often, these preachers infuriate me. Their shallow interpretations of the Christian message and their clear right wing politics and ethics often incense me. Yet, these are some of the world’s greatest communicators. Man, can these guys work a crowd!! I stand in awe of their abilities.
… Continue Reading

Blogging in the classroom

I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking around the plausibility of incorporating blogging in classrooms. The idea first struck me while catching up on my Biology skills with The Learning Channel on SABC 3 just the other day. I figure, if interactive television can have such a profound impact on learning, why shouldn’t the next phase of technology? To partly answer my own question, I understand that many disadvantaged learners do not have ready access to the internet, so this is obviously a stumbling block, but internet access is becoming a reality for more people across a wider demographic every day.

But I digress. The real reason I’m posting is to direct you to a fantastic St. Petersburg Times Online article published on the 9 Aug. The article tells the story of Pinellas Park Elementary School, whose Fifth Grade teacher, Mr. Roemer, encourages his learners to write about their day’s learning online.

… Continue Reading

The TomorrowToday.biz University

Post-graduate Programmes offered:

• Innovation

• Storytelling

• Leadership

• Diversity

• Generations

• Strategy

• Team dynamics

• Communication

• Learning

• etc.

Why not?

Finding Information on the Web

Original concept by Stephen Wildstrom from BusinessWeek, 25 July/1 August 2005 – (click here – premium content)

“Popular wisdom holds that you can find anything on the Web. And if you’re looking for information on products, transportation schedules, or tourist attractions, it’s probably true. But there is a vast body of knowledge hidden either in the so-called deep Web that browsers can’t find or in those archaic but wonderful repositories called books.

Two factors combine to make so much valuable and authoritative information inaccessible. The bulk of human knowledge represented by printed material — especially the portion that is more than 25 years old — does not exist in digital form. In addition, most books and other printed matter published in the last century are still under copyright, and rights owners want to know they’ll be compensated for the use of their material.

Yahoo! and Google are leading the way in efforts to open this world of print and proprietary material to browsing. Yahoo’s latest move, Yahoo Search Subscriptions (http://search.yahoo.com/subscriptions), provides easy access from a search screen to an assortment of publications and other materials available only to subscribers. For example, a Yahoo search of the Web for “Intel chipsets” returned over 2 million hits. A subscriptions-only search returned just 33, mostly from the archives of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and Forrester Research.
… Continue Reading

The New Generation Gap

Digitally savvy students learn differently than their analogue-trained professors are prepared to teach them. How do we bridge the divide?
By Susan S. Szenasy
Posted at http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1521 on July 25, 2005

“If I showed you a 1982 Memphis chair from Italy, you wouldn’t identify it as a product of the Dutch De Stijl movement from 1917, would you? Yet a distressingly large number of 20-year-olds are likely to do just that. In fact, such erroneous readings of designed objects–which speak to us about culture, time, and place through their forms and materials–are becoming the rule, not the exception. This fact made grading design history finals this spring a traumatic experience for me, just as receiving their mediocre grades must have been for the students.

I knew something was wrong at the outset of the semester. Only a few students took notes; most handed in weekly papers that were cut-and-paste jobs from Web sites. Class discussions were nearly impossible because of their shallow grasp of the subject and a general lack of interest in the people and the movements that laid the foundation of our design culture and their future professions.

What was different about this group?
… Continue Reading

The problem with HR doing leadership development

The more I deal with HR departments in various companies the more I have come to understand that if it is HR that is entrusted with leadership development (and it usually is) the more it is likely to fail. Let me explain what I mean by this.

Most leadership formation programmes I have encountered either are not working or will certainly fail to produce the kind of leaders needed in a connection economy. My concern is that even amongst the ‘professionals’ – the business schools – that several companies entrust with their leadership formation programmes, are also following down the same ‘dead-end’ path.

… Continue Reading

A Virtual Coach

A change of schools is usually a bit disruptive for most ten year olds. When it’s from a football playing English medium to and rugby playing Afrikaans one – the change can be traumatic. Playstation can change all that …

… Continue Reading

What is real education?

This week I have enjoyed several great conversations around leadership as I have accompanied Nick Barker to various meetings. Nick heads up the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) at the East West Center in Hawaii. Here is one memorable quote from Nick who was in turn quoting someone else. He said
… Continue Reading

11 Steps to a Better Brain

The New Scientist of 28 May 2005, lists 11 ways in which you can boost brain performance and/or slow the effects of ageing on your grey matter. See the full story here. In short, they are:

• Smart drugs – drugs that increase awareness, decrease need for sleep, etc
• Food for thought – certain food types stimulate alertness, especially by releasing certain vitamins and compounds
• The Mozart Effect – maybe the most controversial, but certain music enahcnes brain activity in vital cortexes of the brain
• Bionic Brains – implants ahead
• Gainful employment – use it, or lose it – we’re beginning to understand that the brain has RAM, too
• Memory marvels – using memory techniques – not just for super IQ’s
• Sleep on it – allowing your brain a chance to organise, file and process can lead to great results
• Body and mind – get your body in shape, it is your brain’s home
• Nuns on a run – researching the unnatural longevity and alertness of the School Sisters of Notre Dame on Good Counsel Hill
• Attention seeking – focus is critical
• Positive feedback – just tell your brain its great, and it will be

Reverse Mentoring

Every Monday morning, my 92 grandmother sits down at her computer and bangs out an email to all her children (2), grandchildren (7 + 6 in laws) and great-grandchildren (6 at last count), as well as a few nieces and nephews and their kids and grandkids. The whole family responds to her, as the matriarch, returning emails, sending digital pictures (which she prints and frames) and generally digitally interacting with her and each other. If she can do it, anyone can.

The use of technology is no longer an optional extra in the world. Everyone has to be able to use technology to a reasonable level. And being old (or “nearing retirement” is no excuse). Hey, if a seven year old can do it, how difficult is it anyway?

Jack Welch, the legendary CE of General Electric, had this problem a few years ago when the Internet, cellphones and email hit companies. He solved it by insisting on a programme of reverse mentoring. Simply put, he required all his older managers and executive team to meet regularly, one-on-one, with 20-something staff members, with the express goal of the younger person teaching the older person how to use the emerging technologies. They discovered that there was much more value than simply technology training in these relationships – but that’s a different story, for another time.

BBC News carried a story two weeks ago about Chris Wertheim, a dyslexic man, now in his late 60s. He had taught himself to read at age 25, and now had signed up for the Sixty Plus Intergenerational Computer Project in Kensington and Chelsea in London, which pairs teenagers with older people teaching them computer skills one-on-one in their own homes. It has been a brilliant success.

Just like in companies, the success is not just older folk who are computer literate, but younger folk who develop life skills and worldviews as they interact with the wisdom of the older generation. This should be done in more communities. And in more companies.

Read more about reverse mentoring:

… Continue Reading

Amazing opportunity at Tshwane University of Technology

Hi team, I had a great exploratory conversation with Hannelie Minnaar, the Assistant Registrar at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) this morning. I invited her to interact with us on this opportunity via our blogger so that these ideas can get a life of their own…as they usually do as soon as we start working through them.

The opportunity is this: To transform higher education in South Africa. The TUT understand the fact that we are entering a new world where relationships are critical and they want to totally transform themselves into a client-centered learning institution. Top management already bought into this although the new university Principle will only be appointed in the next two weeks or so. The opportunity is open for TomorrowToday to partner with the TUT throughout this process. They want to develop individuals that will be relevant and successful in the workplace of the future and they want us to help them on this journey.

… Continue Reading