Category: Pondering

Grappling with change – another sector talks about their environment

J., an anonymous blogger at AidSpeak, has a post talking through the tensions of military people taking on humanitarian work, which puts them into the place where civilian aid workers have been for a long time – Humanitarian Space (the final frontier).

Having uniformed, armed soldiers doing the same thing that aid workers do blurs the distinction between those whose primary job is building things up (aid workers) and those whose primary job is blowing things up (soldiers).

That creates confusion for everyone involved especially those on the receiving end of humanitarian aid who watched things get blown up.

J.’s post is dealing with the realization that various militaries probably won’t be dropping their humanitarian aid work anytime soon. That means it will be important for the aid community to figure out how to work with and deal with the military community.

Continue reading “Grappling with change – another sector talks about their environment”

Knowledge workers get to learn for a living!

(cross-post from my other blog, Attestation Update, with a few changes for broader application.)

That’s a key idea from Bill Sheridan’s blog post, Learn. Share. Repeat from the Maryland Association of CPAs.  His comments apply directly to all knowledge workers.

Knowledge workers need to have a lot of knowledge. And a broad base of information. And the wisdom how to use that knowledge.

We get paid for what we know! Cool!

Continue reading “Knowledge workers get to learn for a living!”

What three types of people should you fire tomorrow morning?

Those would be the Victims, Nonbelievers and Know-It-Alls, according to G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louse Viton, in their Businessweek article, Three Types of People to Fire Immediately.

Those types of staff will slow you down, block innovation, and discourage the rest of your team.

Continue reading “What three types of people should you fire tomorrow morning?”

Some change management ideas

A few weeks ago I attended the Dave Ramsey Live! event in Long Beach.

He had some cool things to say about change.  I will give loose quotes and then expand his ideas.

Some people stay in jobs they hate because they hate change more than they hate their jobs.

The fear of change can be so great that you’re locked into a horrible situation. Continue reading “Some change management ideas”

Simple illustration of how work is changing

Previous post gave a big-word description of how work is changing.  Megan McArdle extends Mr Kling’s concepts in her post, The New New New Economy.

She paints two alternative paths as a choice between risk and being an assembly line drone when she says: Continue reading “Simple illustration of how work is changing”

A big-word description of how work is changing

The nature of work is changing. Radically.

Here are two fancy ways of describing the change that is taking place all around us along with my simple explanation.

Arnold Kling says this in his post, The Job-Seeker’s Paradox: Continue reading “A big-word description of how work is changing”

Constant skill upgrade

The radical changes in the work world, which are very real today, are going to require constant upgrades to our skills.

The 9-10-11 edition of The Economist had a series of articles on the changing work environment. One article in particular, My big fat career, discusses the changes already underway.

One particular author, Lynda Gratton from the London Business School, suggests you will need to acquire a new skill or expertise every few years.  Continuous learning in other words.

Continue reading “Constant skill upgrade”

Locked in time or Continuous learning? Your choice.

If we are going to adapt to this rapidly changing world, we are going to have to be constantly learning.  Always picking up new ideas.  Continuously gaining new skills and knowledge.

The alternative is to get locked in time.

Continue reading “Locked in time or Continuous learning? Your choice.”

Free agent status for everyone!

The world of work has changed. We are all free agents.

Even if we don’t change jobs or stay with one employer for decades, we are all now free agents.

That will be the theme of a series of posts. Probably the theme for a new blog, since those discussions will wander far away from issues of immediate interest to the nonprofit community.

What has happened?

The nature of work has changed.

Continue reading “Free agent status for everyone!”

Convergence report from La Piana Consulting, networking and volunteerism trends – part 3

Previous post mentioned the first two emerging trends identified by La Piana Consulting in their report called Convergence- How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector.  Will discuss two more trends in this post.

As mentioned before, I will be quoting from their report.  Notice lots of quotation marks.

“Networks enable work to be organized in new ways” – Continue reading “Convergence report from La Piana Consulting, networking and volunteerism trends – part 3”

Convergence report from La Piana Consulting – part 2

Previous post introduced an article by La Piana Consulting, which discusses their report called Convergence- How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector.

In their report, La Piana identifies five emerging trends.  I will mention the five with a brief comment or two on each.  As I mentioned earlier, I will clearly identify the direct quotes from their article.

“Demographic shifts redefine participation ” – Continue reading “Convergence report from La Piana Consulting – part 2”

Convergence report from La Piana Consulting – part 1

I previously discussed an article by La Piana Consulting here and here and now would like to discuss their report  Convergence – How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector.

One of their key concepts is convergence.  That is the title of their report, so I guess it would make sense that is the overriding issue.  Their point is that not only are there some very major trends that are going to have a dramatic impact on the nonprofit community, but these trends will interact with each other to reinforce and compound change.

Continue reading “Convergence report from La Piana Consulting – part 1”

You don’t need permission to change the world

Wish I’d written this:  “Where, precisely, do you go in order to get permission to make a dent in the universe?”  Seth Godin said that and discusses it further in “Do you need a permit“?  To completely restructure his comment for our community — you do not need permission from anyone to change the world for Christ.  Go for it!