Emotion
He made things beautiful
It's not possible to be in the world this week without encountering the many reflections on Steve Jobs' life and death. One Twitter colleague commented that Jobs had been a significant part of his small child's life though Toy Story, the animated film his child watched repeatedly on his father's iPad. As a Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad user I'm a member of the self-confessed Apple generation (although I only took the belated leap about 3 years ago). What so ...
stories are just data with a soul
Maybe stories are just data with a soul
Brene Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity
You can't say, here's the bad stuff. Here's vulnerability, here's grief, here's shame, here's fear, here's disappointment, I don't want to feel these. I'm going to have a couple of beers and a banana ...
What if we taught emotional literacy?
After the riots in England earlier this month, emotions and education have loomed large in resulting social commentaries. One chief constable, Chris Sims of the West Midlands police, said of the Birmingham rioters that they were “not an angry crowd, but a greedy crowd”. Whether the problem is supposed to be greed or anger, or indeed despair, selfishness, rage, envy, ennui, or mindless criminality, it would seem that emotions are at the heart of this new social disorder. And, for ...
The value of helplessness
Without the experience of helplessness there would be no possibility of the experience of satisfaction. Without the possibility of satisfaction, life is futile......We can be competent but we are always helpless
I'm re-reading Adam Phillips' On Balance at the moment and am particularly enjoying his essay on Negative Capabilities (from which the above quote was taken). Although Phillips is not talking about organizations per se, his insight is particularly relevant to how we think about 'negative' emotions in organizations. I think ...
Pass me my crystal ball…
In reality, it is only the future that really matters when it comes to getting a mortgage.
Today's Irish Times carries an article on the availability of mortgages in Ireland. Apparently they do exist - but only if you can peer into the future, prove you will retain your own job and more to the point can demonstrate that your employer will continue to be solvent also. This kind of rhetoric deeply frustrates me. How successful have governments and banks been ...
Feelings at work – the bottom line
I have been re-reading the literature on positivity and emotional intelligence recently and can't seem to finish a page without muttering to myself. I'm all for tools that allow us to have a conversation about feelings and emotions but when the bottom line in business means that emotion has to be quantified in the same terms then it's a sad day all around. The relentless quest for optimism and positive feelings is going to disappoint - primarily because it's ...
On failure, disappointment and creativity
Conan O'Brien gives the commencement speech at Dartmouth College (2011) and in the process talks about his experience of disappointment. In between the humourous asides (even the Secret Service guys in the background are laughing from time to time) he talks about his personal failures and encourages the graduating students to learn from the inevitable disappointing episodes that life will generate. The funny stuff goes up to about 16 minutes, the serious stuff (still funny!) starts after that.
It is ...
Session archive of emotion in organisations – melbourne
Here's a wonderful archive of our presentation at the Melbourne Knowledge Management Group this week. Nicky Hawyard, using Storify has curated the text, photos and tweets to create a terrific session archive. I hadn't heard of Storify before but now I'm compelled to use it.
Failure hurts, it really hurts
I really like this short, but to the point, post from Johnnie (which I am going to reprint in full)
It seems like everyone is singing the benefits of fast failure these days. Avoid blame cultures! Throw mud at the wall! Just give it a try! If it doesn't work, no big deal.
I get it. We're so very agile, don't you know.
But I also sense a big disconnect between the theory and the practice - in my own life and in ...
En route to Australia and New Zealand
I'm currently en route to Australia and then on to New Zealand. First stop is Melbourne where I'm looking forward to meeting the Melbourne Knowledge Management Community on Wednesday when Ian Miller and I will be presenting some of our thinking on emotion at work at this event. If you're in the area please do join us. We're hoping to meet some more people at the Art of Conversation dinner on Thursday 16th June so once again, if you'd like ...
