A Song of Hope
A Song of Hope When deceit is rewarded When betrayal is customary When enemies gain power When dreams are burnt by malice When the chatter of others is alien When hope is a foreign thing When beauty ceases to be gentle When there are no longer mornings textured with familiarity
When despair remains despair
Be still and watch at your window
Listen for the sounds of richer times gathering and conspiring in a revolt with a might which will flood the mountains and overthrow this season
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Speed Kills - Running to Stand Still
It has been mooted that the ability to learn is far more important than any one nugget of knowledge (Near Future Laboratory, 2009). Increasingly, the assumption that the ability to learn faster than anyone else will be the key competitive advantage for those wanting to succeed in the 21st century is becoming commonplace. This kind of thinking is being reflected in practise where many are working longer hours, taking shorter breaks and multi tasking more than they have ever before. In fact, research on urban behaviour reflects that we are walking 10% faster and talking 20% faster than we did in the last decade.
What are the consequences of this drive to ‘go faster’ for the future of leaning? Already we are seeing organisational requests for contact hours to be shortened significantly, on leadership development programmes. Much of the responsibility for the uptake of knowledge is becomingly increasingly the responsibility of the learner in their assigned projects back into the work environment.My response to this is that going Faster kills Innovation. It forces us to focus on what we know. It creates Killing Fields. People who Know there is a different way are frightened to voice their opinion, and in this system, cut themselves and their vision off from what could be possible. It is a desperate and ill-informing response to the Attention Economy - a newly understood space which should really generate collaboration and collegial support. Innovation is concerned, or should be concerned with the Fascination with Wonder. Anything else lacks courage.
The Curious Paradox of Curiosity as a Learning Enabler
This is the abstract for a paper I am currently writing for a conference on The Future of Learning - What excites me about the notion of curiosity as an area for study is that it is an arena which is so often spoken of as something which re-enervates but is also an area which has so many conflicting opinions about what really consitiutes its becoming.
I suppose that if one is going to undertake an investigation of a field of study it is important to put a stick in the ground. For me, curiosity is something which helps to increase the quality of our attention. Interestingly enough I found Todd Kashan had the same idea in his 2009 book on Curiosity? I would really appreciate comments and recommendations for where else to start looking for material on curiosity as a filter for attention.
ABSTRACT Information consumes attention. In an age of information overload and ‘filter failure’ (Shirky, 2008), human attention has become a scarce resource (Lanham, 2007). In the realm of this attention economy, it is argued that the notion of curiosity emerges as a necessary regenerative foil to this attention deficit. For we enjoy our curiosity even when it is not sated (Schmitt & Lahroodi, 2008). Curiosity heightens levels of engagement with information (Harvey et al, 2007) but is paradoxically an effective response to regenerating attention, specifically in organisational contexts where attention is constantly under erasure. Thus the very nature of curiosity is a paradoxical enabler of learning. It requires the subject to both suspend judgment in the sense of Otto Scharmer’s Open Mind (2007) and simultaneously stimulates critical thinking through engaging with what is perceived as “the spiral of curiosity” (Harvey et al, 2007: 44). The paper concludes by evidencing ways in which curiosity can be construed, harnessed and applied as a continuous enabler in the learning mix. The Attention Audit, undertaken on many of our leadership interventions will be discussed to illustrate this point.
Curiosity as a response to attention scarcity
I have been mulling with the idea of curiosity as one of the few responses one can use to regenerate attention, specifically in organisational contexts where attention is constantly under erasure. I came across this gem the other day on four reasons why curiosity is important and how to develop it. As someone who has a deep fascination in transversing disciplines, curiosity seems like one of the few beacons which has relevance in almost every area I explore. As an enabler of my own learning and also as a way to enter places which I am unfamilar with. My goal for 2009 as part of my PhD work is to try and build some kind of toolkit that may be used in organisations to regenerate attention through the mechanism of curiosity. Not sure where I am even going to begin this genealogical journey but I don't think it is going to be in the annals of management literature. I think I am going to start by sitting in a park watching children play.
How Does Web 2.0 Affect the Way we Grow Leaders?
I have decided to continue using my blog as a space to share thoughts around my PhD topic on the Collision between Web 2.0/3? and Leadership Development in organisations. We have created a blog for the ongoing Business Acumen for Artists programme at http://gsbexecedblog.uct.ac.za/baa/ So those wanting to enrich their own artistic journey through a deeper undestanding of business acumen need just go there for updates and insights. It is a wonderfully engaging group of artists we have this year and I'm sure they won't mind you popping in and posting your own stumbling blocks and/or insights and questions. My blog is going to be solely around the question posed in the title.
I have decided to change my topic which was previously on Ecovation for a number of reasons...none of which I want to go into now. But I think this collision is one which is a good fit because leadership development is the area I work in and design programmes around, I am increasingly involved in open source and I see the visible changes that mass collaboration is effecting on senior leaders in organisations. So deep breath - into the wild...
Any leftfield Jack London commentary to start me on my journey?