Blogging about Blogs
Week 3 lesson in creative leadership course is focused on leadership models found in nature and subsequent discovery of practical applications we as leaders can adapt in real life. Assignment 3.1 out of 3.3 (which coincidentally is comprised of 3 sections of our portfolio projects) is to reference and reflect on 3 leadership blogs we follow. As well as how they relate back to current lesson, forms of leadership in nature. I don’t know about you but I am loving this trajectory so far!
As I shuffled my time between news, assigned tasks and blog posts I follow, I had to stop and think about the role and immense power of technology. Everything is at our fingertips, knowledge, one click purchase or engagement in political or environmental activism. Instant gratification at its best service. Everything unravels in real time, right in front of our computer or mobile screens. Is this good or bad? Does it make us lazier or more intelligent? There is no time to process and digest information coming our way. We are either IN or OUT, HAPPY or MAD. We are either on team Make America Great Again or on team America Already Is/ Never Was/ Could Be Great.
Yet, the nature as primitive as we see it seems smarter and more advanced than we ever will be. Even without the high speed internet, blogs, news, profits and all other luxuries the nature thrives in harmony. One thing is sure! Regardless of what type of leadership model living habitats follow in nature they have one thing in common. A symbiotic closed loop life-cycle. A rotting tree provides shelter, food and soil for other organisms to thrive. During its lifetime the seeds it produced were already carried by wind or birds to other places more suitable for new growths. Mosquitoes are annoying blood sucking pests but they are necessary source of food for many animals and birds. If mosquitoes cease to exist so would those animals. What comes from earth goes back to replenish the earth. Output is input. Except for us humans. We don’t live in harmony with nature nor with one another. Could we live in symbiosis at least? We have a lot to learn from nature and it’s laws it seems.
No pun intended but I should probably LOOP back to my original goal. Blogging about blogs!
Blog #1, my fave so far is Set Godin’s Blog.
In the last 3 weeks there were a lot of good posts. I love getting an email blast and reading them eagerly the same day. They were so good it is hard to single only one out. Therefore I will mention couple of titles retrospectively as their sequenced objectives built one off the other. The tiles that captured my attention included
Appropriate collusion (organizing the weaker side)
This last post talks about corporate practices of price fixing and gouging as means to monopolize supply and trade of commodity services. Seth Godin suggests probing one’s conscious (the weaker side or the public) and turning tables by what he calls “I will if you will” contingencies coordinated by masses instead. In other words group or community organization for the greater good and benefit of all or none, not just some.
Impossible, unlikely or difficult?
In this post Seth talks about rational of possibilities. Even the hardest seemingly impossible goal or task is always possible in some way shape or form if we commit to breaking down problems into manageable chunks and taking them on one at a time. As if following a road map or a blue print.
This post is a great little read about differences between maximizing potential or resources and optimizing them. Often the two are confused.
Blog #2, I responded sympathetically to was The Guardian’s Leadership Hub for 2 reasons.
1) It seems that the Leadership Hub is no longer a heading or a category of it’s own but it is absorbed and cross pollinated within other categories.
2) Nonetheless, as I expressed earlier on I love foreign medial and point of view The Guardian offers more than plenty of topics on leadership, sustainability, business, world news and lifestyle. There is always something good to find and read about.
The top news post found under the business section is the news of the action-class complaint filed against Google just yesterday, on behalf of all women employed by Google in last four years. The complaint details accusations of withheld opportunities for promotion, monetary compensation based on solely on gender, sexual harassment and lack of diversity. Google of course responded with “that’s what she said” type of defense. I am curious how this will end and what if any type of shift it may create in a ripple effect. Will this be a real life example of Appropriate case Collusion by the weaker side? I certainly hope so.
Blog #3, the Zen Habits
In the wake of intense few weeks filled with natural disasters, terrorism and genocide as well as political and nuclear power one ups I needed to run to that place in my mind where I’m reminded to take a deep breath and take it one day at a time. 3 posts on Zen Habits blog in the month of September focused on building habits that increase self confidence. Second post had guided steps for staying focused and last one was about making the first step on the path to change. Thanks to these 3 posts my mantra for the upcoming week will be stop and breath, focus and go.