Bill Gates starts the ‘Innovate to Zero’ party
Posted by Sharon 19 February 2010
Thanks to Remo Guiffre from my favourite online shop REMO, for conneting me to Bill Gates’ latest TED Talk.
Bill believes that climate is even important than “vaccines and seeds” and is challenging us to “innovate to Zero” emissions. I love that he is using a positive word like innovate - rather than a call to wage another war. Bring it on I say and let’s see who can compete best and quickest in service to the planet.
Google’s Success formula - Lovable Stars vs Jerks?
Posted by Sharon 10 February 2010
Thanks to Ralph Kerle for the interesting comparison of creativity at Google and Microsoft. It makes me wonder if there’s something Google isn’t telling us about its hiring policy. One of my favourite articles for discussions with technical and professional staff is the Harvard Business Review piece on Competent Jerks, Lovable Fools and Social networks. According to the authors Casciaro and Lobo, there are two dimensions by which we judge our workmates - intelligence and likeability.
I wonder if Google has hit the recruitment jackpot in weeding out the jerks and hiring the lovable stars - people who are both smart and likeable. As you might guess from your own experience - there seem to be fewer stars than jerks in most workplaces. Perhaps that’s because all the stars are working at Google.
Are Bankers missing the fairness gene?
Posted by Sharon 7 February 2010
I laughed at Lynne Taggart’s blog about investment banker bonuses being announced in the same weeks that celebrities were trying to drum up donations from regular folk for the Haiti appeal. Most of us are brought up to value fairness - not investment bankers in the USA according to Taggart!
A friend of mine says, “I refuse to allow someone else’s meanness to determine my generosity”, so give now to Haiti if you have a few extra dollars.
Today’s Social Enterprise Ideas
Posted by Sharon 2 February 2010
Ideas for this week.
Check out Fast Company’s list of the 5 Social Capitalists for 2010 and their businesses. From a number of sources I am getting the message that mobile phones and the accompanying connectivity are life changing in rural areas, where landlines are non-existent.
Also check out Better World Books which recycles books.
How were you better today?
Posted by Sharon 27 January 2010
The cute video advertising Daniel Pink’s new book Drive, suggests we ask two questions:
1. “What’s my [epitaph] sentence? E.g. “She loved connecting people with ideas that their growth”.
2. Was I better today than yesterday?” …or the strengths-based version - “How was I better today than yesterday?”
Next Director - what is an NFP?
Posted by Sharon 27 January 2010
I am following a very interesting discussion on the Next Director community discussion on LinkedIn about how a new director can deal with a Chairman who appears averse to the CEO’s moves to shift the organisation from being a “loss leader” to operating on sound business principles.
I like a lot of the comments and found the comment by David Willcox from NEM particularly appropriate and amusing: Not-for-profit is a misnomer and most NFPs “would object if they were referred to as “for loss”. In reality, NFP are ‘not for distribution of their net profits, except in accordance with their constitution’”.
If you are interested in joining the Next Director community send an email to sharon[at]apassion.com.au and I will invite you to the discussion group.
TEDxSydney - the place to be May 22, 2010
Posted by Sharon 31 December 2009
Not one but two conferences to look forward to in 2010.
TED is coming to my home town of Sydney and I’m looking forward to getting involved before and during the event. If you know about TED, click here to find out about TEDxSydney.
If you don’t yet, know about TED, do yourself a favour and check out the TED site for some fabulous talks about “ideas worth spreading”.
Nurturing social entrepreneurs & enterprises
Posted by Sharon 31 December 2009
I’ve just finished a year long Salon for Social Entrepreneurs, in conjunction with Cheryl Kernot from the Centre for Social Impact, Julian Noel from Aware Business and an amazing group of existing and budding social entrepreneurs and supporters. We’ve learned a lot about what’s required to set up and build social enterprises and there’s lots more learning to come as our entrepreneurs put the ideas and contacts into operation.
Last night I finished my paper exploring the year’s lessons, which I get to present at the SLaM Conference: Feb 11-14. The paper attempts to answer to the question I’ve been asked all year when I talk about the Salon - “What do you mean by social enterprises?”
The real lesson for me has been how much I love nurturing and supporting these inspiring people and connecting them with ideas, contacts and access to support.
A new niche is opening for me personally and with A Passion for Results.
Positivity and the Magic Ratio
Posted by Sharon 29 November 2009
We’ve got the golden mean and the 80/20 rule. Now, thanks to Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity, we have the magic positivity ratio of 3:1: if you have at least three positives - thoughts, phrases or actions - for every one negative, your life will change for the better.
Medical, psychological, marriage and business research all seem to be converging on a similar prediction - that high performance teams, partnerships and individuals all have in common a three to one ratio of positives to negatives.
Australian Giving Week - give and you get the benefit
Posted by Sharon 29 November 2009
Thanks to Rainforest Rescue for reminding me that this week is Australian Giving Week. A perfect way to start the silly season by doing a big cleanout of “stuff”. As well as the groups listed on the Give Now website, here are two groups that I give stuff to. Please add your favourites to this page or the Give Now website.
Work clothes go to Suited for Work - a not-for-profit organisation that provides clothing, styling, presentation and interviewing support to disadvantaged women to help build their self esteem and support them to gain independence.
Items that aren’t good enough for sale can be listed on your local ReUseIt site - a website for people who have second hand junk that might be someone else’s treasure and who want to see less go into landfill.