3 Creative Leadership Methods to Spark the Next Big Idea - Focus

3 Creative Leadership Methods to Spark the Next Big Idea - Focus Innovation. Whether you’re watching a recent TED talk or looking up Forbes’ 30 under 30, innovation is a word that will come up over and over again. But as it turns out, it’s not just a buzzword. The likes of Snapchat, who claim to reach a mammoth 41%  of all 18-25 year-olds  in the U.S. daily, have seen huge gains from coming up with  and harnessing, that one bright idea. So we know that creative thinking within startups and companies is leading to growth. The questions is   how can you  create an environment in which any single member of your team could come up with the next winning concept? We’ve looked at a bunch of studies, and included a hint of personal experience, to collate three proven creative leadership methods. Try these three techniques in your company to promote and sustain creativity in your team: 1. Set up a Team Experiment To create an environment where everyone’s ideas feel welcome, companies should take a leaf out of science’s book. Belle Beth Cooper, productivity expert, believes that by viewing work in a more scientific way, and conducting ideas as experiments, we stand to learn a great deal: “A scientist hasn’t failed in their work if their hypothesis turns out to be incorrect. Rather, all they have to do to succeed in their work is run the experiment and collect data. That data helps them form new hypotheses and run further experiments. Compare this to the average approach to work. There’ll usually be a clear aim in mind and not a great deal of scientific process when it comes to getting the work submitted by a deadline. You either do the work well or not, and turn it in on time, or not.” Buckminster Fuller tried and tested  the experimental approach, back in the 1930s. By viewing every professional and personal decision as a micro-experiment, Fuller was able to turn his life around. He transformed from being on the brink of despair to becoming a famous writer, inventor, and designer of the architectural structures he’s remembered for today. You can apply this approach in your leadership too. To increase ideation, show your team that ideas are not only welcome but will be tried out as experiments.  Your team will feel more confident to contribute ideas knowing that suggestions won’t succeed or fail, but will simply be proved or disproved, like a hypothesis. Either way, the company will stand to learn, develop and grow. At MeisterLabs, we’ve experimented with a bunch of different methods in our office and company culture, to see what would boost our collaboration and creativity. Some have succeeded (yogi Mondays and Fridays in the office) and some we decided to scrap (not-so-hot-desking Wednesdays). We’ll be running a series of articles soon to talk through these company culture experiments but our MeisterLabs experiments don’t stop there. We also like to experiment with our products its in our name after all. Run a team competition As Michael Kranner, MeisterLabs’ own Growth guy, shared with us on the FOCUS blog previously, our MeisterLabs growth team is the link between product development and marketing. However, product experiments extend  outside of just the growth team. This year, the MeisterLabs team are running a competition where every team member is invited to propose a ‘growth experiment’ (or multiple) for either MindMeister or MeisterTask. Whoever comes up with the winning experiment will be awarded a trip to New York, on the company. The aim of the competition is to actively invite all employees, not just the growth team, to take the creative steering wheel. In turn, the company has come together to really be creative with how we think the products could be improved. Everyones suggestions are welcomed and appreciated, regardless of where in the company theyve come from. What’s more, there are no failures, as every idea is a growth experiment, from which the team can learn. Launch an idea competition in your office. Try asking non-marketing team members to come up with new taglines or customer support staff for ideas on how they think the homepage could be improved. Your next growth hack could be right on your doorstep. 2.  Inspire Your Team with Humility As MeisterLabs’ CEO, Michael Hollauf, wrote recently for Entrepreneur, our expectation that leaders should fill a room with self-importance and confidence, might actually be wrong. A study from the University of Aveiro in Portugal revealed, humble leaders actually make their teams more creative. The research team found that when team members considered their boss to be a humble leader, they felt psychologically safer. This, in turn, increased their “psychological capital”. These are the feelings of hope, optimism and resilience, which team members need to experience so they can perform at their peak. Data showed that when psycap rises, teams become more creative. “This capacity is especially relevant for leaders seeking to engender change. Dialectical processes are exemplified in cases such as Apple where leaders have devised a means to replace an existing order with a new oneA major source of contradiction in business is the need for the individual ego to assert itself and for the organization to contain egoism.” So Clegg, Pina e Cunha and Rego, of the University of Aveiro, recommend that for companies to enjoy the success of innovators like Apple, they should first look at  their own leadership. By aiming to control personal egos, the study claims that companies stand to achieve a great deal. How to try this with your team If you feel humility is not yet a leadership forte at your company, don’t despair. You can turn to your team for help. Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, draws on employee ideas to remain humble. What’s more, Kamprad takes these ideas seriously, no matter where they originate in the corporate organization chart. Kamprad once suggested: “the work floor is the best university”. He’s also known for telling people he doesn’t know everything and “has many shortcomings.” What’s the result? IKEA is booming and Ingvar Kamprad is said to have a net worth of more than $33 billion. Interestingly, Kamprad still flies economy. Successful but still humble. Follow the lead of famously humble IKEA founder, Ingvar Kamprad. Get out there and chat to your team at every level of the company, particularly the levels you wouldnt usually interact with. You never know what ideas they might have stored. 3. Establish Creative Parameters You may well have heard about Roy Baumeister’s theory of decision fatigue. Baumeisters study found that having too much free-range, and specifically too much choice, leaves people mentally depleted and unable to choose wisely.  Testing Baumeister’s findings, Johnathan Levav found that as decision fatigue begins to set in, people stop making decisions based on quality and instead go for the default option. In other words, Levav found that when provided with too much freedom, people within the study were actually taking the less creative decisions. We can recognize decision fatigue in creative workplaces too. When pushing for creativity, giving employees a completely blank slate, with no constraints, can backfire. Preventing decision fatigue in creative workplaces At FOCUS, we recently sat down with Wouter Zwarekant, Creative Director of the Dutch digital agency, We Brand Creative, to discuss how they successfully manage their creative projects. We Brand Creative handle concepts, strategies, designs and development, and do all of it in-house. As a result, creativity is absolutely central to their workflow. “Our team began small and this was a conscious decision. We’re a young team working in an informal, creative and open-minded atmosphere.” Wouter explains that the working environment was perfect for creative drive. Team members were able to bounce ideas off of one another and there was never any confusion over task division or deadlines. Wouter could simply lean across the table and ask about a project’s status.   However, as their creative drive and market niche began to pay dividends, this informal working process soon became hectic: “Due to a combination of this relaxed attitude and our steady growth, we gradually lost the ability to keep track of all of our projects.” Setting parameters Wouter decided that in order to meet project deadlines, without crushing team creativity by micro-managing, they needed to set out some basic boundaries within their creative projects: “We know from experience that creative projects can often overrun so we started looking for a project management solution. MeisterTask allows us to make to-do lists for every project element. All team members are able to view deadlines, set roles and track progression, via the shared project dashboards. With these parameters in place, we became much better placed to stay focused and work towards a great final product.” We Brand Creative’s efforts have pulled off. The creative agency is thriving, delivering concurrent projects to a high standard, ahead of the deadline and on budget. All while still retaining the secret sauce that got them to where they are today: creativity. To prevent decision fatigue and promote creativity, try using a transparent task management tool. With MeisterTask you can keep team members in the loop with project parameters, without crushing creativity by micromanaging. Whether you’re a small company aiming to direct team creativity or a large enterprise looking to shake up structures, there are a few different leadership hacks teams can use to spark new ideas and sustain team creativity long term: Invite employees to experiment with company culture and product development Practice humility as a leader and consult your team Channel creative endeavors  with a few parameters So those are our three tips for creative leadership. If you have any tips of your own, comments or questions, as always, reach out in the comments below! Creative team management made simple. Get started with MeisterTask Its free! Get started with MeisterTask 3 Creative Leadership Methods to Spark the Next Big Idea - Focus Innovation. Whether you’re watching a recent TED talk or looking up Forbes’ 30 under 30, innovation is a word that will come up over and over again. But as it turns out, it’s not just a buzzword. The likes of Snapchat, who claim to reach a mammoth 41%  of all 18-25 year-olds  in the U.S. daily, have seen huge gains from coming up with  and harnessing, that one bright idea. So we know that creative thinking within startups and companies is leading to growth. The questions is   how can you  create an environment in which any single member of your team could come up with the next winning concept? We’ve looked at a bunch of studies, and included a hint of personal experience, to collate three proven creative leadership methods. Try these three techniques in your company to promote and sustain creativity in your team: 1. Set up a Team Experiment To create an environment where everyone’s ideas feel welcome, companies should take a leaf out of science’s book. Belle Beth Cooper, productivity expert, believes that by viewing work in a more scientific way, and conducting ideas as experiments, we stand to learn a great deal: “A scientist hasn’t failed in their work if their hypothesis turns out to be incorrect. Rather, all they have to do to succeed in their work is run the experiment and collect data. That data helps them form new hypotheses and run further experiments. Compare this to the average approach to work. There’ll usually be a clear aim in mind and not a great deal of scientific process when it comes to getting the work submitted by a deadline. You either do the work well or not, and turn it in on time, or not.” Buckminster Fuller tried and tested  the experimental approach, back in the 1930s. By viewing every professional and personal decision as a micro-experiment, Fuller was able to turn his life around. He transformed from being on the brink of despair to becoming a famous writer, inventor, and designer of the architectural structures he’s remembered for today. You can apply this approach in your leadership too. To increase ideation, show your team that ideas are not only welcome but will be tried out as experiments.  Your team will feel more confident to contribute ideas knowing that suggestions won’t succeed or fail, but will simply be proved or disproved, like a hypothesis. Either way, the company will stand to learn, develop and grow. At MeisterLabs, we’ve experimented with a bunch of different methods in our office and company culture, to see what would boost our collaboration and creativity. Some have succeeded (yogi Mondays and Fridays in the office) and some we decided to scrap (not-so-hot-desking Wednesdays). We’ll be running a series of articles soon to talk through these company culture experiments but our MeisterLabs experiments don’t stop there. We also like to experiment with our products its in our name after all. Run a team competition As Michael Kranner, MeisterLabs’ own Growth guy, shared with us on the FOCUS blog previously, our MeisterLabs growth team is the link between product development and marketing. However, product experiments extend  outside of just the growth team. This year, the MeisterLabs team are running a competition where every team member is invited to propose a ‘growth experiment’ (or multiple) for either MindMeister or MeisterTask. Whoever comes up with the winning experiment will be awarded a trip to New York, on the company. The aim of the competition is to actively invite all employees, not just the growth team, to take the creative steering wheel. In turn, the company has come together to really be creative with how we think the products could be improved. Everyones suggestions are welcomed and appreciated, regardless of where in the company theyve come from. What’s more, there are no failures, as every idea is a growth experiment, from which the team can learn. Launch an idea competition in your office. Try asking non-marketing team members to come up with new taglines or customer support staff for ideas on how they think the homepage could be improved. Your next growth hack could be right on your doorstep. 2.  Inspire Your Team with Humility As MeisterLabs’ CEO, Michael Hollauf, wrote recently for Entrepreneur, our expectation that leaders should fill a room with self-importance and confidence, might actually be wrong. A study from the University of Aveiro in Portugal revealed, humble leaders actually make their teams more creative. The research team found that when team members considered their boss to be a humble leader, they felt psychologically safer. This, in turn, increased their “psychological capital”. These are the feelings of hope, optimism and resilience, which team members need to experience so they can perform at their peak. Data showed that when psycap rises, teams become more creative. “This capacity is especially relevant for leaders seeking to engender change. Dialectical processes are exemplified in cases such as Apple where leaders have devised a means to replace an existing order with a new oneA major source of contradiction in business is the need for the individual ego to assert itself and for the organization to contain egoism.” So Clegg, Pina e Cunha and Rego, of the University of Aveiro, recommend that for companies to enjoy the success of innovators like Apple, they should first look at  their own leadership. By aiming to control personal egos, the study claims that companies stand to achieve a great deal. How to try this with your team If you feel humility is not yet a leadership forte at your company, don’t despair. You can turn to your team for help. Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, draws on employee ideas to remain humble. What’s more, Kamprad takes these ideas seriously, no matter where they originate in the corporate organization chart. Kamprad once suggested: “the work floor is the best university”. He’s also known for telling people he doesn’t know everything and “has many shortcomings.” What’s the result? IKEA is booming and Ingvar Kamprad is said to have a net worth of more than $33 billion. Interestingly, Kamprad still flies economy. Successful but still humble. Follow the lead of famously humble IKEA founder, Ingvar Kamprad. Get out there and chat to your team at every level of the company, particularly the levels you wouldnt usually interact with. You never know what ideas they might have stored. 3. Establish Creative Parameters You may well have heard about Roy Baumeister’s theory of decision fatigue. Baumeisters study found that having too much free-range, and specifically too much choice, leaves people mentally depleted and unable to choose wisely.  Testing Baumeister’s findings, Johnathan Levav found that as decision fatigue begins to set in, people stop making decisions based on quality and instead go for the default option. In other words, Levav found that when provided with too much freedom, people within the study were actually taking the less creative decisions. We can recognize decision fatigue in creative workplaces too. When pushing for creativity, giving employees a completely blank slate, with no constraints, can backfire. Preventing decision fatigue in creative workplaces At FOCUS, we recently sat down with Wouter Zwarekant, Creative Director of the Dutch digital agency, We Brand Creative, to discuss how they successfully manage their creative projects. We Brand Creative handle concepts, strategies, designs and development, and do all of it in-house. As a result, creativity is absolutely central to their workflow. “Our team began small and this was a conscious decision. We’re a young team working in an informal, creative and open-minded atmosphere.” Wouter explains that the working environment was perfect for creative drive. Team members were able to bounce ideas off of one another and there was never any confusion over task division or deadlines. Wouter could simply lean across the table and ask about a project’s status.   However, as their creative drive and market niche began to pay dividends, this informal working process soon became hectic: “Due to a combination of this relaxed attitude and our steady growth, we gradually lost the ability to keep track of all of our projects.” Setting parameters Wouter decided that in order to meet project deadlines, without crushing team creativity by micro-managing, they needed to set out some basic boundaries within their creative projects: “We know from experience that creative projects can often overrun so we started looking for a project management solution. MeisterTask allows us to make to-do lists for every project element. All team members are able to view deadlines, set roles and track progression, via the shared project dashboards. With these parameters in place, we became much better placed to stay focused and work towards a great final product.” We Brand Creative’s efforts have pulled off. The creative agency is thriving, delivering concurrent projects to a high standard, ahead of the deadline and on budget. All while still retaining the secret sauce that got them to where they are today: creativity. To prevent decision fatigue and promote creativity, try using a transparent task management tool. With MeisterTask you can keep team members in the loop with project parameters, without crushing creativity by micromanaging. Whether you’re a small company aiming to direct team creativity or a large enterprise looking to shake up structures, there are a few different leadership hacks teams can use to spark new ideas and sustain team creativity long term: Invite employees to experiment with company culture and product development Practice humility as a leader and consult your team Channel creative endeavors  with a few parameters So those are our three tips for creative leadership. If you have any tips of your own, comments or questions, as always, reach out in the comments below! Creative team management made simple. Get started with MeisterTask Its free! Get started with MeisterTask

Why School Attendance Matters and Strategies to Improve It

School attendance matters. It is arguably one of the most important indicators of school success. You cannot learn what you are not there to learn. Students who attend school regularly improve their chances of being academically successful. There are obvious exceptions to both sides of the rule. There are a few students deemed academically successful who also have attendance issues and a few students who struggle academically who are always present. However, in most cases, strong attendance correlates with academic success, and poor attendance correlates with academic struggles. To understand the importance of attendance and the influence the lack thereof has, we must first define what constitutes both satisfactory and poor attendance.   Attendance Works, a non-profit dedicated to improving school attendance, has categorized school attendance into three distinct categories. Students who have 9 or fewer absences are satisfactory. Those with 10-17 absences are exhibiting warning signs for potential attendance issues.   Students with 18 or more absences have a clear cut chronic attendance issue. These numbers are based on the traditional 180-day school calendar. Teachers and administrators will agree that the students who need to be at school the most are the ones that are seemingly seldom there. Poor attendance creates significant learning gaps. Even if students complete the make-up work, they most likely will not learn and retain the information as well as if they had been there. Make-up work can pile up very quickly. When students return from an extended hiatus, they not only have to complete the make-up work, but they also have to contend with their regular classroom assignments. Students often make the decision to rush through or completely ignore the make-up work so that they can keep pace with their regular class studies.   Doing this naturally creates a learning gap and causes the student’s grades to drop. Over time, this learning gap increases to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to close. Chronic absenteeism will lead to frustration for the student. The more they miss, the more difficult it becomes to catch up. Eventually, the student gives up altogether putting them on a path towards being a high school dropout. Chronic absenteeism is a key indicator that a student will drop out. This makes it even more critical to find early intervention strategies to prevent attendance from ever becoming an issue. The amount of schooling missed can quickly add up. Students who enter school at kindergarten and miss an average of 10 days per year until they graduate high school will miss 140 days. According to the definition above, this student would not have an attendance problem. However, all together that student would miss nearly an entire year of school when you add everything together. Now compare that student with another student who has a chronic attendance issue and misses an average of 25 days a year. The student with a chronic attendance issue has 350 missed days or almost two entire years. It is no wonder that those who have attendance issues are almost always further behind academically than their peers who have satisfactory attendance. Strategies to Improve School Attendance Improving school attendance can prove to be a difficult endeavor.   Schools often have very little direct control in this area. Most of the responsibility falls on the student’s parents or guardians, especially the elementary aged ones.   Many parents simply do not understand how important attendance is. They do not realize how quickly missing even a day a week can add up. Furthermore, they do not understand the unspoken message that they are relaying to their children by allowing them to miss school regularly.   Finally, they do not understand that they are not only setting their children up to fail in school, but also in life. For these reasons, it is essential that elementary schools in particular focus on educating parents on the value of attendance.   Unfortunately, most schools operate under the assumption that all parents already understand how important attendance is, but that those whose children have a chronic attendance issue are simply ignoring it or do not value education. The truth is that most parents want what is best for their children, but have not learned or been taught what that is. Schools must invest a significant amount of their resources to educate their local community adequately on the importance of attendance. Regular attendance should play a part in the daily anthem of a school and a critical role in defining the culture of a school. The fact is that every school has an attendance policy. In most cases, that policy is only punitive in nature meaning that it simply provides parents with an ultimatum that essentially says â€Å"get your child to school or else.†Ã‚   Those policies, while effective for a few, will not deter many for whom it has become easier to skip school than it is to attend. For those, you have to show them and prove to them that attending school on a regular basis will help lead to a brighter future. Schools should be challenged to develop attendance policies and programs that are more preventive in nature than they are punitive. This begins with getting to the root of the attendance issues on an individualized level. School officials must be willing to sit down with parents and listen to their reasons for why their children are absent without being judgmental. This allows the school to form a partnership with the parent wherein they can develop an individualized plan for improving attendance, a support system for follow through, and a connection to outside resources if necessary. This approach will not be easy. It will take a lot of time and resources. However, it is an investment that we should be willing to make based on how important we know attendance to be.   Our goal should be to get every child to school so that the effective teachers we have in place can do their jobs. When that happens, the quality of our school systems will improve significantly.

Corporate Social Responsibility For Employees - 1473 Words

During the 1970s, the Business world became aware of damages engendered by the human activity, in particular environmental damages. For this reason appeared the notion of  « sustainable development  » in the Brundland report (1987). This notion can be defined as the mean to assure the development of the current generation without compromising the development of future generations. The Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) are in a sense the contribution of companies to respect the stakes of the sustainable development. The Corporate Social Responsibilities of companies base on social, environmental and economic concerns. This match the â€Å"triple bottom line† theory: â€Å"People, Planet, Profit†. Over the years, Corporate Social Responsibility expended and became very important in the Business organisation and a large number of companies take part in CSR initiatives. In 2004, approximately 90% of the 500 best performing companies according to Fortune magazine h ad invested in CSR efforts. However, we might wonder what are the pros and the cons of Corporate Social Responsibility for employees, management, organisation, society and environment? On one hand, I will deal with the dangers of Corporate Social Responsibility and on the other hand I will deal with the benefit of CSR. First of all, Corporate Social responsibility can negatively affect the stakeholders and the environment. Corporate Social Responsibility can beShow MoreRelatedâ€Å"Corporate Social Responsibility and Younger Generation Employees†3503 Words   |  15 Pagesâ€Å"Corporate Social Responsibility and Younger Generation Employees† Authors: Mrs. Mrinal Sanjay Rao, Mr. Masarrat Raj Assistant Professor Student of PGDM (Finance) Sinhgad Institute of Business Administration and Research, Kondhwa (Bk), Pune. Abstract: Today when competition has reached its peak, anything that gives competitive advantage is a matter of concern for the corporations. In such a situation, when businesses have realized that they owe something back to the societyRead MoreChallenges in Implementing Csr1580 Words   |  7 PagesChallenges in implementing CSR Corporate Social Responsibility can be separate into internal dimension and external dimension. Internal dimension and external dimension Internal dimension focuses on organizational practices with respect to internal stakeholders that should be aligned to corporate social responsibility standards. It includes human resource management, safety and health, environmental impact and corporate change. External dimension focus on an organization practices towards externalRead MoreCorporate Social Responsability, New Balance1449 Words   |  6 PagesAlthough New Balance owners did not have an official Corporate Social Responsibility policy there was a strong culture of â€Å"Doing the right thing† (Veleva, 2010). New Balance owners along with company leadership did realize that New Balance needed to engage in the next step, which was to develop a strong Corporate Social Responsibility. To do this New Balance promoted their senior corporate communications officer to the social responsibility manager. In addition, New Balance hired a firm outsideRead MoreThe Impact Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Business1626 Words   |  7 Pages In contrast, this research shows that the impact of corporate social responsibility can extend beyond public relations and customer goodwill to influence the way consumers evaluate a company s products. Specifically, this research documents that acts of social goodwill--even when they are unrelated to the company s core business, as in the case of charitable giving--can alter product perceptions, such that products of companies engaged in prosocial activities are perceived as performing betterRead MoreCorporate Social Responsibility Essay1313 Words   |  6 Pagesqualified employees, because these employees are a necessary component of the competitive advantage that organizations want to achieve (Greening Turban, 2000). Corporate Social Responsible actions of an organization can be a manner to attract highly skilled and qualified employees, because prior research assumes that organization’s CSR activities comprise a legitimate and compelling way to a ttract them (Bhattacharya et al., 2008). Previous research on Corporate Social Responsibility focused mainlyRead MoreLowes Stance on Social Responsibiliy1440 Words   |  6 PagesLowe’s Corporate Social Responsibility Asher G. Budka MGMT115-1301A-03 Instructor: Joshua C. Rhodes January 13th, 2013 Lowe’s Corporate Social Responsibility This paper is about Lowe’s Corporate Social Responsibility into today’s society. To be discussed is what is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, why should a company implement a CSR program, Lowe’s stance on Corporate Social Responsibility, connection between Lowe’s CSR and the Home Centers Industry, and who is Lowe’s responsibleRead MoreCorporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, And Approaches For Managing Culture And Diversity Of Employment Practices Essay1576 Words   |  7 PagesSummary: The following business report will examine some critical concepts which apply to all businesses small or large more specifically to the company of Tata. This report will provide an in depth analysis and evaluation of the areas of corporate social responsibility, sustainability and approaches to managing culture and diversity of employment practices of the company. The methods used to analyse these key areas comprise of the textbook, a wide va riety of articles, a quote and a youtube clip. TataRead MoreGe Case Study Essay1458 Words   |  6 Pages 1. Corporate social responsibility is defined in Chapter 5 as the corporate duty to create wealth by using means that avoid harm to, protect, or enhance societal assets. Did GE in the Welch era fulfill this duty? Could it have done better? What should it have done? I believe that Welch only fulfilled one portion of his corporate social responsibility duty. Financial results for GE show that Welch was very effective in directing a highly profitable company, but he did so at the expense of manyRead MoreSouthwest Airlines : Corporate Social Responsibility809 Words   |  4 Pagesof its employees, stockholders, consumers and the community as a priority. One company that is consistently recognized for their corporate social responsibility initiatives is Southwest Airlines. Southwest is a successful organization that perfectly blends operational focus with social obligations which translates into increased revenue and customer support. For several years, Southwest Airlines received recognition as one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Corporate Responsibility MagazineRead MoreThe Concept Of Corporate Social Responsibility Essay1696 Words   |  7 PagesConcept of Corporate Social Responsibility According to Pearce Robinson (2014), corporate social responsibility (CSR) is â€Å"the idea that business has a duty to serve society in general as well as the financial interests of stockholders.†(P.56) The concept of corporate social responsibility of the business operation must comply with sustainable development idea; the company should not only consider its own financial and operating conditions, but also think of its impacts on the social and environment

How Technology Affects Modern America Free Essays

The microeconomic picture of the U. S. has changed immensely since 1973, and the trends are proving to be consistently downward for the nation’s high school graduates and high school drop-outs. We will write a custom essay sample on How Technology Affects Modern America or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"Of all the reasons given for the wage squeeze – international competition, technology, deregulation, the decline of unions and defense cuts – technology is probably the most critical. It has favored the educated and the skilled,† says M. B. Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U. S. News World Report (7/31/95). Since 1973, wages adjusted for inflation have declined by about a quarter for high school dropouts, by a sixth for high school graduates, and by about 7% for those with some college education. Only the wages of college graduates are up. Of the fastest growing technical jobs, software engineering tops the list. Carnegie Mellon University reports, â€Å"recruitment of it’s software engineering students is up this year by over 20%. † All engineering jobs are paying well, proving that highly skilled labor is what employers want! There is clear evidence that the supply of workers in the [unskilled labor] categories already exceeds the demand for their services,† says L. Mishel, Research Director of Welfare Reform Network. In view of these facts, I wonder if these trends are good or bad for society. â€Å"The danger of the information age is that while in the short run it may be cheaper to replace workers with technology, in the long run it is potentially self-destructive because there will not be enough purchasing power to grow the economy,† M. B. Zuckerman. My feeling is that the trend from unskilled labor to highly technical, skilled labor is a good one! But, political action must be taken to ensure that this societal evolution is beneficial to all of us. â€Å"Back in 1970, a high school diploma could still be a ticket to the middle income bracket, a nice car in the driveway and a house in the suburbs. Today all it gets is a clunker parked on the street, and a dingy apartment in a low rent building,† says Time Magazine (Jan 30, 1995 issue). However, in 1970, our government provided our children with a free education, allowing the vast majority of our population to earn a high school diploma. This means that anyone, regardless of family income, could be educated to a level that would allow them a comfortable place in the middle class. Even restrictions upon child labor hours kept children in school, since they are not allowed to work full time while under the age of 18. This government policy was conducive to our economic markets, and allowed our country to prosper from 1950 through 1970. Now, our own prosperity has moved us into a highly technical world, that requires highly skilled labor. The natural answer to this problem, is that the U. S. Government’s education policy must keep pace with the demands of the highly technical job market. If a middle class income of 1970 required a high school diploma, and the middle class income of 1990 requires a college diploma, then it should be as easy for the children of the 90’s to get a college diploma, as it was for the children of the 70’s to get a high school diploma. This brings me to the issue of our country’s political process, in a technologically advanced world. Voting Poisoned Political Process in The U. S. The advance of mass communication is natural in a technologically advanced society. In our country’s short history, we have seen the development of the printing press, the radio, the television, and now the Internet; all of these, able to reach millions of people. Equally natural, is the poisoning and corruption of these medias, to benefit a few. From the 1950’s until today, television has been the preferred media. Because it captures the minds of most Americans, it is the preferred method of persuasion by political figures, multinational corporate advertising, and the upper 2% of the elite, who have an interest in controlling public opinion. Newspapers and radio experienced this same history, but are now somewhat obsolete in the science of changing public opinion. Though I do not suspect television to become completely obsolete within the next 20 years, I do see the Internet being used by the same political figures, multinational corporations, and upper 2% elite, for the same purposes. At this time, in the Internet’s young history, it is largely unregulated, and can be accessed and changed by any person with a computer and a modem; no license required, and no need for millions of dollars of equipment. But, in reviewing our history, we find that newspaper, radio and television were once unregulated too. It is easy to see why government has such an interest in regulating the Internet these days. Though public opinion supports regulating sexual material on the Internet, it is just the first step in total regulation, as experienced by every other popular mass media in our history. This is why it is imperative to educate people about the Internet, and make it be known that any regulation of it is destructive to us, not constructive! I have been a daily user of the Internet for 5 years (and a daily user of BBS communications for 4 years), which makes me a senior among us. I have seen the moves to regulate this type of communication, and have always openly opposed it. My feelings about technology, the Internet, and political process are simple. In light of the history of mass communication, there is nothing we can do to protect any media from the â€Å"sound byte† or any other form of commercial poisoning. But, our country’s public opinion doesn’t have to fall into a nose-dive of lies and corruption, because of it! The first experience I had in a course on Critical Thinking came when I entered college. As many good things as I have learned in college, I found this course to be most valuable to my basic education. I was angry that I hadn’t had access to the power of critical thought over my twelve years of basic education. Simple forms of critical thinking can be taught as early as kindergarten. It isn’t hard to teach a young person to understand the patterns of persuasion, and be able to defend themselves against them. Television doesn’t have to be a weapon against us, used to sway our opinions to conform to people who care about their own prosperity, not ours. With the power of a critical thinking education, we can stop being motivated by the sound byte and, instead we can laugh at it as a cheap attempt to persuade us. In conclusion, I feel that the advance of technology is a good trend for our society; however, it must be in conjunction with advance in education so that society is able to master and understand technology. I think technology has an important effect on us, the way we act, react, and take actions in society. We can be the masters of technology, and not let it be the masters of us. How to cite How Technology Affects Modern America, Papers

Writing to persuade Stop smoking leaflet Essay Example

Writing to persuade Stop smoking leaflet Paper Why do you smoke? That is the question that everyone asks when you stand out side for a cigarette. People usually say the same thing over and over again, but to be honest its all excuses. They all say its stressful, its cool, its something to do etc. But at the end of the day they are killing themselves very slowly. Back in the 1980s, people would have classified smoking as a fashion thing, but now, if a boy were smoking down the street, a vast majority of girls would find it off putting and so for all you smokers out there if you think you look good smoking, YOU DONT. The amount of reasons that people say not to smoke is so long, that it is basically never ending. But the main reasons for you not to smoke are that it makes you fingers smell, you get bad breath. It would also give you rotten teeth. The condition of your teeth would become really bad if you keep on smoking for a very long time in your life. It would become yellow and your teeth would fall out from an early age than usual. These are the basic reason not to smoke, but the next set of reasons is what smokers might not know. If you carry on smoking, your hair would fall out from an early age, your skin condition would be rough and your nails would be yellow. Your face would have wrinkles and that would make you look so much older than you really are. Your lungs would not be able to handle it as it would get worse and worse and eventually, walking to places like for example walking to the shops would make you feel tired. We will write a custom essay sample on Writing to persuade Stop smoking leaflet specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Writing to persuade Stop smoking leaflet specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Writing to persuade Stop smoking leaflet specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer It would slower heart beat which would mean it would take longer for fresh blood to get to the virtual organs. Your blood would have very little oxygen and would have an excess of nicotine. Smoking is the main reason for cancer because it affects the brain as the tobacco can affect your body badly. If you smoke and are planning to have kids then the chances of that happening would be limited as smoking does make you become infertile, which means it would prevent you from producing babies.

Essay Reflection Ultraviolet and Sun Exposure

Essay Reflection Ultraviolet and Sun Exposure Essay Reflection: Ultraviolet and Sun Exposure It’s undeniable that this year has been one of the hottest as we all have walked to class in t-shirts sweating in the middle of October/November. As our temperatures grow hotter- sun exposure is unavoidable. I chose the topic of UV light and prevention for my presentation because I wanted a topic that not just related to something we learned in class about sustainability but something everyone could take away with them that was beneficial. The biggest process of this project for me was trying to fit everything I wanted to say into 10 minutes. There really is so much more information that is useful but there just isn’t enough time to get it all out. In addition to the process of this presentation I felt like it was important to find the most reliable, trusting sources, with the most up to date information on them if I wanted to put an emphasis on the seriousness of the issue. I learned a lot from doing this project. Honestly, more than I expected. I did not realize how many things are sold to use on the market as sun protectants are mislabeled and misleading. I write this in regards to sunscreens, sunglasses, clothing, and hats that I mention/mentioned in my presentation. I felt some guilt along the way as well after I realized the sunscreen I used on my son this past summer was close to useless and really did nothing at all. It was an eye opener to me to pay closer attention to the fine print and do more researc h before just assuming labels on products are as they say

Business people are still lousy KISSers, Daily Telegraph - Emphasis

Business people are still lousy KISSers, Daily Telegraph Business people are still lousy KISSers, Daily Telegraph New research reveals that an inability or reluctance to use plain English or to keep it short and simple (KISS) is still the single greatest barrier to good business writing. The findings by Emphasis, who have been training business people how to write for over eight years, show that a staggering 99 per cent of the pre-training documents they receive from clients contain unnecessary business-jargon or overly-long and complicated words and phrases. And for 63 per cent of people, this failure to KISS represents one of the three biggest challenges to improving their business writing.* The research findings coincide with the announcement of the Plain English Campaigns Annual Awards on 12 December, where organisations and individuals are recognised for having genuinely made an effort to present themselves using clear and concise English. The research only confirms what we already knew from working with a broad range of blue chip companies and public sector organisations, says Emphasis chief executive, Robert Ashton. Despite the odd refreshing example of an individual or organisation really embracing the KISS principle, using plain English remains the exception rather than the rule. So why cant business people KISS? A major issue is the popular misconception that long words and elaborate phrases are somehow a sign of superior intellect or professionalism. But people are inundated with documents to read (an average company with 5000 employees produces a staggering 78 pieces of writing every minute). They are also overworked and short of time so they dont want to have to translate complicated words and phrases; they just want to get to the point. And this is only half the story, says Ashton. The other problem is management speak and buzz words. People are tired of reading about synergy and excellence, while cutting edge or innovative products and services are ten-a-penny these days. And as for raising the bar and low-hanging fruit, the first thing to spring to mind is some kind of tropical limbo challenge. People sometimes think that using plain English represents some kind of dumbing down. But short words are not lightweight or less useful. In fact, theyre often more powerful. Its just a case of having the confidence to use them. * (together with poor punctuation and overuse of the passive voice).