This past week I spent some time with a&nbsp;company renowned for being a &quot;high tech systems integrator.&quot; 


It got me thinking just a couple degrees differently, so I thought I&#39;d pay the perspective forward. 


So often, an organization focuses on increasing trust, improving performance, incorporating best practices, etc.&nbsp; Yet generally, these efforts occur within isolation, in silos. 


It reminds me of Dr. Frankenstein&#39;s efforts: try as he might to &#39;create life,&#39; he inadvertently created a monster.&nbsp; &quot;The law of unintended consequences,&quot; to be sure. 


My advice? 


A rising tide lifts all boats, so step back--take some time--and work, as Michael Gerber <a href="http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1281983018&amp;sr=1-1">wrote</a> so eloquently, &quot;on your business, not just in or for your business.&quot;&nbsp; (Do the latter two and&nbsp;your business is master.) 


Ask yourself, &quot;If I were to start anew, from a blank slate, how would I design my organization?&quot; rather than, as Frankenstein did, &quot;If I stitch this onto here and attach&nbsp;that to the other thing...I wonder if I can &#39;create life?&#39;&quot; 


Gerber&nbsp;articulated so thoroughly that it&#39;s rarely about what we use on hand...the &#39;additive&#39; nature of mashing things together.&nbsp; This rarely proves successful and frequently convolutes. 


Far better to reconceive your company as if you were&nbsp;the unbiased&nbsp;systems integrator:&nbsp;&quot;What do I need?&nbsp; What do I have?&nbsp; What do I lack?&quot;&nbsp; And then,&nbsp;come to terms with&nbsp;scrapping anything and everything in order to design, sequence and overlay most efficiently. 


I know it&#39;s hard, because we&nbsp;all love our binkies.&nbsp; But as a wise man once shouted, &quot;You can&#39;t expect me to revolutionize transportation and insist that I keep the horse!&quot;

The Value of Systems Integration

"My friendship with the Hitch has always been perfectly cloudless. It is a love whose month is ever May."&nbsp; &mdash;Martin Amis, The Independent, January 15, 2007.
What gorgeous phrasing, no?
I just stumbled across it last night and thought you might enjoy. (Amis is describing his dear friend and the oft-irascible author, Christopher Hitchens, who was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer.)
It is a great reminder that, even for those of us who&nbsp;otherwise hide within our introverted caves, a friendship to survive the decades is precious as platinum.&nbsp;
Whether you postulate 3 people would attend your funeral&mdash;or 3,000&mdash;may however many tomorrows stretch out before you be bathed in deep, rich, abiding friendships with those who know you entirely and love you nonetheless.
"Life without a friend is death without a witness."&nbsp; &mdash;Spanish Proverb

Cloudless Friendships

In ancient Greece (469-399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom.&nbsp; 


One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who approached him excitedly and implored, &quot;Socrates, Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;Wait a moment,&quot; Socrates replied, &quot;before you tell me, I&#39;d like you to pass a test, the Test of Three.&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;Test of Three?&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;That&#39;s correct,&quot; Socrates continued,&nbsp;&quot;before you talk to me about one of my students, let&#39;s take a moment to test what you&#39;re going to say, shall we?&nbsp; The first test&nbsp;involves Truth.&nbsp; Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;No,&quot; the man replied, &quot;actually, I just heard about it.&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;All right,&quot; said Socrates, &quot;so you don&#39;t really know&nbsp;whether it&#39;s true or not.&nbsp; Then&nbsp;let&#39;s try the second test, involving&nbsp;Goodness.&nbsp; Is what you are about to tell me&nbsp;regarding my student something good?&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;No, on the contrary....&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;So,&quot; Socrates continued, &quot;you want to tell me something bad about him even though you&#39;re not certain it&#39;s true.&quot; 
&nbsp; 
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed. 
&nbsp; 
Socrates continued, &quot;Hope remains, though, because there is a third test, the test of Usefulness.&nbsp; Is what you&nbsp;desire to tell me&nbsp;regarding my student useful?&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;No, not really....&quot; 
&nbsp; 
&quot;Well then,&quot; concluded Socrates, &quot;if what you&nbsp;seek to tell me is not True nor Good nor&nbsp;Useful, why share it with me at all?&quot; 
&nbsp; 
Defeated and ashamed, the man&nbsp;said no more. 
&nbsp; 
This is one of the many reasons why&nbsp;Socrates was such a great philosopher and held in&nbsp;high esteem. 
&nbsp; 
It also explains why Socrates never&nbsp;learned that Plato was&nbsp;cavorting with&nbsp;his wife. &nbsp; &nbsp; 





(Sorry, some web-crumbs are simply too hilarious to keep to oneself.&nbsp; Come back tomorrow; maybe I&#39;ll be serious then.)

Socrates' Test of Three

Not quite true, perhaps -- but certainly a &quot;different&quot; life. 


&nbsp;

<div style="text-align: center">
<img style="width: 419px; height: 412px" src="/blogging/image.axd?picture=2010%2f8%2fCircleOfNoLife.jpg" alt="" width="385" height="412" /> 
</div>

The Circle of (No) Life

I had my own&nbsp;personal <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0061673730/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1281119197&amp;sr=8-1">Zen&nbsp;&amp; the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1281119262&amp;sr=1-2">Shop Class as Soulcraft</a>&nbsp;moment today, as I collected my&nbsp;&#39;ol bucket-of-bolts from&nbsp;my mechanic, Allen. 


Allen is equal parts eccentric, intellectual,&nbsp;fatalist, believer&nbsp;and martyr.&nbsp; (If only he were chubby, he&#39;d be the perfect little Buddha.&nbsp;&nbsp;Even without rubbing&nbsp;his tummy, existential wisdom&nbsp;emanates&nbsp;as from&nbsp;a fortune cookie.) 


Today, on his shop whiteboard, were 2 images that caught my eye.&nbsp; This being a Friday, my gift to you are these photos, each worth well over 1,000 words. 


&nbsp;


<img style="width: 206px; height: 207px" src="/blogging/image.axd?picture=2010%2f8%2fgood%2cfast%2ccheap.jpg" alt="" width="457" height="622" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; and&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img style="width: 217px; height: 205px" src="/blogging/image.axd?picture=2010%2f8%2fgoingtodie.jpg" alt="" width="383" height="290" /> 


&nbsp;


The first, a timeless reminder that we must generally choose two (not three)&nbsp;from among&nbsp;Speed (fast), Quality (good) and Cost (cheap). 


And the second, a reminder that -- yes -- there is light at the end of the tunnel.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; :-) 


&nbsp;


But meanwhile, there are really nifty toys and treats to anesthetize us along our journey. 


&nbsp;

<div style="text-align: center">
<img style="width: 426px; height: 301px" src="/blogging/image.axd?picture=2010%2f8%2fphoto+2.JPG" alt="" width="1376" height="1020" /> 
</div>

Gearhead Wisdom

Several days ago while differentiating <a href="../../blog/post/leadership-the-university-poor-vs-great-leaders">Good vs. Poor Leaders</a>, I&nbsp;committed to write a bit more about leadership.&nbsp;
In keeping that&nbsp;commitment, allow me to share the following model which has proven helpful for&nbsp;several groups over the years.
&nbsp;
<div style="text-align: center;"><img style="width: 471px; height: 392px;" src="../../blogging/image.axd?picture=2010%2f8%2fLeadershipModel.jpg" alt="" width="564" height="565" /></div>
&nbsp;
Beyond 'arguably,' there are&nbsp;certainly a number of key&nbsp;leadership competencies&nbsp;unaccounted for here (like systems thinking and change), but we can dive into those another time.
What the model here does do, and simply, is capture 2 key axes, 4 diverse endpoints...and all this while reminding the leader&nbsp;the importance of stability.
Let's start with the 2 axes, Results and Relationships.&nbsp; 
Notionally, the premise of Results and Relationships (like Yin and Yang)&nbsp;alerts leaders to mind these two very unique yet interrelated dimensions.&nbsp;
On the one hand, great leaders have got to be adequate (or, more ideally, exceptional) relationship-builders.&nbsp; For those&nbsp;leaders&nbsp;who like to think programmatically, linearly or&nbsp;via 'building blocks,' understanding that he or she can build relationships in two ways often proves constructive.&nbsp;
For example, on the one hand, a leader can&nbsp;build and&nbsp;improve relationships by focusing on how he or she Collaborates with others.&nbsp; Collaborate is a&nbsp;straightforward word -- it means to "co-labor" or "work together."&nbsp; Two practical ways to think about this include: (1)People do not resist their own ideas and (2)People like to see their photo...or 'DNA' in the scrapbook.&nbsp; In short, to be a better leader, co-labor with others in ways that allow them to contribute and see their contributions.&nbsp; It's as simple as that, and yet a huge portion of the 'leadership population' does not operate this way.&nbsp; Instead, they place themselves at the center of everything, marginalizing those around them as grunts and missing tremendous opportunities to facilitate dialogue, contribution, better solutions and support.
A second way for a leader to build and improve relationships is through Communication.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here's a neat way to think about communication: (1)Awareness occurs through the senses, (2)Understanding occurs in the mind, (3)Belief occurs in the heart and (4)Behavior occurs through the hands.&nbsp; Pragmatically, this means&nbsp;more than time&nbsp;permits us to unpack today...but imagine a company that seeks to 'communicate' through posters in the cafeteria, name badges, mouse pads or screen savers.&nbsp;&nbsp;Will people be 'aware' of the company's&nbsp;direction?&nbsp; Perhaps.&nbsp; But will they integratively understand, believe and demonstrate that direction daily?&nbsp;&nbsp;It's doubtful.&nbsp; To improve the odds, the organization should learn to communicate in ways that involve people and breathe life into the ideologies by animating and modeling&nbsp;beliefs and behaviors.&nbsp; The Confucius maxim, "I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand" holds water.
But communication is about a lot more than 'spewing or sensing.'&nbsp; I believe that, as is the case our entire lives, we learn more by doing than seeing or hearing.&nbsp; Said more plainly, if you want to communicate effectively, involve another person in the decision-making or delegation of a task.&nbsp; (Like mathematics, you don't really know whether I understand the problem's nuances&nbsp;until I show my work.)&nbsp; And while I have you here, let me add one more morsel: Deciding and Delegating are two of our strongest methodologies for Developing people.&nbsp; Lots of leaders 'miss' this, making too many decisions themselves or seeing delegation as a way to clear their plate.&nbsp; This is a huge mistake.&nbsp; Instead, approach each task and ask yourself, "How can this serve as a developmental opportunity for someone else, too?"&nbsp; Then, draw&nbsp;others into the decision-making process or delegation loop purposefully.&nbsp; (The sign of a great leader is increasing irrelevance.&nbsp; The sign of a poor leader is unending dependence.&nbsp;&nbsp;Great parents&nbsp;teach this, starting with removing the training wheels.)&nbsp;
Continuing now, any leader must accomplish results.&nbsp; I have&nbsp;often viewed results as occurring&nbsp;across two common categories of activities, distinguishable along a scale of management and leadership.&nbsp; The teeter-totter image below should prove a helpful tool for your further&nbsp;consideration&nbsp;of this idea.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<img style="width: 417px; height: 415px;" src="../../blogging/image.axd?picture=2010%2f8%2fL%26M.jpg" alt="" width="536" height="629" />
&nbsp;
At the core of the first model, though, are values &amp; ethics.&nbsp; These alone are an entire field of inquiry that Aristotle himself didn't finish pondering.&nbsp; One's own values and ethics&nbsp;warrant a lifetime of exploration and commitment.&nbsp; They&nbsp;unquestionably serve as our&nbsp;compass' True North position, without which we wander, wonder and succumb to all manner of&nbsp;mirages and temptations.
I&nbsp;know it's not true in the purest sense, but I have always been predisposed to believe that if it's easy or convenient, it's probably wrong.&nbsp;&nbsp;Those&nbsp;things in life which prove virtuous or right generally seem to be more difficult&nbsp;or inconvenient.&nbsp; Diet, exercise, discipline, meaningful communication, giving others the benefit of the doubt, turning the other cheek, being selfless, meeting others' expectations, checking one's work, proofreading, going slowly now to go faster later, saving money, finishing one's homework proactively rather than procrastinating, loving thine enemy, living a whole and undivided life (walking the talk), dying unto oneself, checking&nbsp;one's ego at the door, truly listening (vs. reloading), being creative rather than a revisionist....&nbsp; These are difficult things, and right.
In summary then, if you aspire to be a better leader, don't forget these 'minima:' Create better relationships through more purposeful collaboration and communication.&nbsp; Achieve results through a proper mixture of management and leadership.&nbsp; And all the while, drop your anchor deep into a stable, unchanging bedrock of consistent values and ethics.
Do these and you'll be more consciously-competent than half the leaders on the field.

Holistic Leadership

Remember 1982 and that brain-rut-inducing Thomas Dolby song, She Blinded Me with Science?&nbsp;
Science can be blinding--and blind--but today let's explore how Emotions can be, too.
(Science, of course, can be blind because it presumes itself to be the determinant of what is real.&nbsp; It is the great judge, jury and executioner.&nbsp; And yet, on matters such as art or ethics, science has little if anything to say.&nbsp; Genomes or no genomes, deconstruction is no panacea.)
But what do I mean by "Emotional Impairment" or "Emotional Blindness?"&nbsp; Simply put, I mean that emotions can swallow us whole and, once enveloped within their darkness it is virtually impossible to see our hands in front of our face.
There's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013TTK1W/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">a great book</a> that describes similar phenomena, but let me attack it this way...
Forget for a moment the limbic system and all the hormones (which play absolutely vital roles in emotion) and let's just focus on two psychological elements: (1)Loss Avoidance&nbsp;and (2)Commitment.
As denoted by the image below, when one's "Opposition to Loss" (loss avoidance) and "Commitment" escalate, we have a recipe to brew disaster.
&nbsp;
<div style="text-align: center;"><img style="width: 329px; height: 210px;" src="../../blogging/image.axd?picture=2010%2f7%2f5.png" alt="" width="603" height="442" /></div>
&nbsp;
Examples are ubiquitous, from gambling and airplane crashes to suicide and high-risk behaviors.&nbsp; Wherever we see an individual tied to high-stakes, we are right if we see trouble.
Let's take a&nbsp;current example, one that I'm sure has universal applications: War.
Whether we look at "Civil" Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq...or the thousands of wars that have been waged non-stop since the dawn of humankind, we see leaders in the crosshairs.&nbsp; Leaders like Lyndon B. Johnson, who felt a tremendous pull between the war in Vietnam and his commitment stateside to create the Great Society.&nbsp; Here's a great, representative quote from LBJ in 1968.&nbsp; At the time, America had 500,000 troops in Vietnam and there had been tens of thousands of U.S. casualties:
&ldquo;I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved.&nbsp; If I left the woman I really loved &ndash; the Great Society &ndash; in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home.&nbsp; All my programs, all my dreams to provide education and medical care.&nbsp; But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, there would follow in this country an endless national debate &ndash; a mean and destructive debate &ndash; that would shatter my presidency, kill my administration, and damage our democracy.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
What happens when we, as leaders, become consumed by Loss Avoidance while simultaneously Escalating our Commitment?&nbsp; We go blind.
We send more and more troops into un-win-able wars.&nbsp; We change mission.&nbsp; We broaden mission through scope-creep.&nbsp; We change the game.&nbsp; We change the rules.&nbsp; We change the scoreboard.&nbsp; We sell, we push, we spin.&nbsp; We beg for more.&nbsp; We ask and take and dicker and steal and we, along with all those around us, go up in flames.
I have a sweet friend whom everyone calls, "Zippo."&nbsp; Why Zippo?&nbsp;
Because every time he opens his mouth, he lights himself on fire.
He has no (in the words of my mother) "governor."&nbsp; No filter between his brain and his tongue.&nbsp; Or, perhaps too permeable a filter.
We all know Zippos.&nbsp; "Did he just say that?" we ask ourselves.&nbsp; And maybe, just maybe, it occurs to them after they've said what they've said..."did I just say that out loud?"
Beware your emotions.&nbsp; Yes, they serve a prehistoric purpose, without which you will win the <a href="http://www.darwinawards.com/">Darwin Award</a>.
As human beings, it is true that our emotions often supersede rational thought.&nbsp; We are reaction machines, our pulse often telling the story before we ourselves are attuned to our anger.
Be vigilant and self-aware, especially when--while reaching for the prize--you scale to the tippy-top of a precarious ladder comprised of self-justifying rungs named "I cannot lose" and "No turning back."&nbsp; The air up there gets very, very thin...and where so, we stop thinking, stop seeing clearly and become blind to our own emotionality.
Surround yourself with buddies, fail-safes, ejection seats&nbsp;and fire extinguishers.&nbsp; People who can say, "What are you thinking?&nbsp; What are you telling yourself?&nbsp; Why are you acting like this?&nbsp; Who have you become, Mr. Hyde?"&nbsp; And mechanisms designed to break the glass and douse the flames while you extricate yourself from your burning building&nbsp;and all that&nbsp;you have wrought.

Emotional Impairment

While literally countless important questions swirl around us every day, there are few that stimulate me as much as, "What makes a great leader?"
It's a loaded question, of course, because embedded within it is&nbsp;another question, "Are leaders born or made?"&nbsp; (The short answer, for today, is&mdash;"Yes."&nbsp; But more on that Russian doll another time.)
Leadership is such a perennially important issue and this year is no different.&nbsp; Every generation believes its time is unheralded and novel, and ours is not unique: we&nbsp;continue to live&nbsp;in undeniably tremendous times&mdash;an era of explosive growth, ceaseless change and limitless potential.&nbsp; (But again, the same could be said 4,000 years ago...2,000 years ago, and again during the Renaissance...it is no less true today.)
As always, we need great leaders and greater leadership if we are to continue progressing in fields and practices as diverse as geopolitics, science, economics, finance,&nbsp;spirituality (yes, spirituality), innovation and sustainability.&nbsp; From natural to man-made disasters in Alaska, New York, Sri Lanka and India&nbsp;to Thailand, Haiti&nbsp;and Louisiana, the importance&nbsp;and effects of leadership (or its absence) are&mdash;if we are fortunate&mdash;a broadcast away.&nbsp;
In future blogs, I commit to writing more extensively about leadership at large, but today I will limit my thoughts to the importance of formal education (e.g., the University) as a mechanism and greenhouse for creating and growing tomorrow's leaders and will then conclude with a&nbsp;rough&nbsp;table differentiating poor from great leaders.
My preliminary comments are <a href="https://charlierose.com/guests/6283">inspired today by John Sexton</a>, President of New York University ("NYU").&nbsp; My later comments are inspired by <a href="http://www.johnmaxwell.com/">John Maxwell</a>, author of 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (among other books).&nbsp; 
Though I believe there are indeed few 'new things' under the Sun, to the extent these men's ideas are held tenably together, I am to blame.
&nbsp;
Universities for Tomorrow
Describing the University for Tomorrow requires a few thousand dissertions and years of research, to be sure, so I will simply take a slipshod whack to get your mind whirring.&nbsp; You, along with millions of others who are already studying this opportunity, can do the remaining 99.9999%&nbsp;by filling in the gaps.
Fact #1: 70 of today's 85 oldest organizations are, in fact, universities.&nbsp; (Vatican City and Parliament are examples of the other 15.)
Fact #2: If you want to create a vibrant 'center of thought,' create a great university and wait 200 years.
Fact #3: The universities-within-walls which brought us this far will not lead us into the future.
<a href="http://nyuad.nyu.edu/">What NYU is doing in Abu Dhabi </a>is right on the money: it's primarily about people, programs, teaching and research (and just so happens to serendipitously be what my doctoral program was, but on steroids to the&nbsp;100th power).&nbsp; I attended the modest Union Institute &amp; University, the first&nbsp;"University without Walls" and participated in classes&nbsp;hosted in&nbsp;Brattleboro, Montpelier, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Miami.&nbsp; We regularly&nbsp;embraced eccentric&nbsp;professors on sabbaticals from the Ivy League&nbsp;who operated 'unfettered' from many of the restraints they described occurring in Cambridge, New Haven, Providence, Princeton, Philadelphia, Hanover, Ithaca and NYC.&nbsp;
...but I digress...
What&nbsp;encouraged me about Mr. Sexton's comments was the notion that&nbsp;tomorrow's university is an open, diverse, ecumenical, organic circulatory system of ideas and best practices that&nbsp;will focus&nbsp;on&nbsp;creative, exploratory thought and nuanced discourse.
I couldn't agree more.&nbsp;
Indeed, any university, even the ones mired in the past&nbsp;(the ones we revere, historically)&nbsp;are mandated to help students learn to think (and critically) for themselves.&nbsp; But&nbsp;my impression, far too often, is that university life can quickly become&nbsp;High School 2.0,&nbsp;packed to the gills with&nbsp;memorizing facts, completing rote work, regurgitating information or defending knowledge.&nbsp; Unquestionably, we should&nbsp;possess societal standards of 'minimum knowledge,' but&nbsp;I&nbsp;expect this work to occur more fully in grades K-12.&nbsp; The undergraduate years can round-out this process, but the fact that today's ACT and SAT tests still&nbsp;emphasize standardized knowledge, facts, reading, mathematics&mdash;and some writing (though many admissions boards admit they don't quite know what to do with this&nbsp;element yet)&mdash;I remain concerned that our perspectives are deficient.
While the United States is proceeding toward national standards in 48 of the 50 states, China is migrating toward a more exploratory curriculum designed to create great THINKERS and INNOVATORS rather than fact-regurgitators.&nbsp; The ideal approach is, of course, a hybrid that includes the best&nbsp;of both.&nbsp; We need a hygiene-oriented 'bare minimum' (which should be rigorous, not minimalistic; a 'threshold knowledge base' if you will) combined with strong creative and critical thinking skills.&nbsp; IQ has never been a predictor of leadership success and it never will be.&nbsp; Similarly, while&nbsp;standardized admissions are&nbsp;undoubtedly sufficient at predicting university success, they are representative solely of&nbsp;the coursework&nbsp;comprising undergraduate schoolwork&mdash;which illuminates my point and&nbsp;the&nbsp;'smallness' of what we expect today.&nbsp; Moreover, IQ&nbsp;and standardized metrics will never&nbsp;wholly predict&nbsp;a leader's ultimate&nbsp;societal contributions,&nbsp;service to humankind or&nbsp;general performance, so whatever the University of Tomorrow intends to look like, it must quickly learn to shed historic metrics in favor of indices that get at meaning, contribution and potential.
The single greatest determinant of student performance in the classroom is the teacher's expectations.&nbsp; Knowing this, we should ourselves have the highest expectations for tomorrow's teachers, educators, instructors, professors...and each and every one of them should be well-versed in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect">Pygmalion Effect</a>.
Finally, the university of tomorrow should be a bastion of&nbsp;deep discourse, not soundbytes.&nbsp; Mr. Sexton described at length the disadvantage that today's thoughtful politicians start from when they find themselves embroiled in conflicts with opponents adept at dumbing down exceedingly complex issues.&nbsp; The media loves sticky slogans (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_the_economy,_stupid">"It's the economy, stupid."</a>), but we must have an appetite for prolonged, nuanced,&nbsp;systemic dialogue if we are to more fully understand issues, one another and create students and leaders capable of doing the same.
&nbsp;
Poor&nbsp;vs. Great Leaders
Perhaps contary to popular opinion, the leader at the helm of such a university is not terribly dissimilar from the sort of leader who thrives in enterprise.&nbsp; In the comments of John Sexton and the work of John Maxwell, I see similar threads regarding how students, university officials and tomorrow's leaders interact with the world around them.&nbsp;
In this light, I conclude today's very embryonic blog with the following table&nbsp;differentiating 'poor' and 'great' leaders.&nbsp; I trust that it might prove handy somewhere along the line.
More on these and adjacent thoughts in the weeks to come.&nbsp;
<img style="width: 665px; height: 369px;" src="../../blogging/image.axd?picture=2010%2f7%2fPoorvsGreatLeadersPDF.png" alt="" width="741" height="202" />

Leadership, the University & Poor vs. Great Leaders

It has been raining for several days now.&nbsp; The weather is cool, there&#39;s a breeze in the air and the skies are overcast. 


Our entire family is recovering from what feels like &#39;weeks&#39; of events, parties, evening meetings and Saturday-Sunday commitments with no end. 


But today was different.&nbsp; 


We relaxed, read, turned on the television and tuned out. 


Somewhere in the afternoon, however, our&nbsp;daughter Lauren (who turned eight last month) gathered her pillow, some blankets and her pink journal...and created a really cozy &#39;nest&#39; in the bathtub of the bathroom adjoining&nbsp;our bunker for the&nbsp;day. 


This evening, over dinner, she shyly shared her notes with me. 


I found them to be wonderfully encouraging and thought perhaps you might, too.&nbsp; 


Here we go; her &#39;entry for the day,&#39; unfettered and unvarnished.&nbsp; 


&nbsp;


The Story of Life, by Lauren Leath 


8 Years Old 


Life is a simple message.&nbsp; 


People think that if they try, they will get it right. 


Sometimes that&#39;s not true. 


But people can change over time.&nbsp; They are not always the same.&nbsp; Maybe when they are 9, they like sports.&nbsp; When they are 35, they don&#39;t like to be outside. 


People don&#39;t always change, though. 


So, here are my 10 Rules for the Road: 


1. Life is to enjoy (so enjoy your life, instead of just having a boring old life) 


2. Take your time 


3. Be positive (make one choice and stay the course) 


4. Be bright (shine, show people what you can do, help others) 


5.&nbsp;Stand up for yourself (if someone&#39;s not treating you nice, don&#39;t take it, use your voice) 


6. Look at everything around you (don&#39;t focus on yourself, pay attention to other people) 


7. Encourage others 


8. Be your true self (don&#39;t try to be cooler than you are, because then something bad can happen) 


9. Always believe (just because the vet says Daisy&#39;s not pregnant doesn&#39;t mean she&#39;s not) 


10. Figure out who you are (don&#39;t spend your whole life wasting your time, figure out who you are and what you like and do it) 


These are my 10 Rules for the Road. 


...to be continued 


&nbsp;

The Story of Life, by Lauren Leath, age 8

<a href="/blogging/file.axd?file=2010%2f6%2fJohnWooden%2cRIP%2cJune4%2c2010.pdf">JohnWooden,RIP,June4,2010.pdf (130.19 kb)</a>

Rest in Peace, Coach John Wooden

On May 20, 2010 I caught a neat <a href="https://charlierose.com/search-results/?query=Nathan%20Myhrvold">episode of Charlie Rose </a>on PBS&nbsp;featuring an interview&nbsp;with Nathan Myhrvold of <a href="http://intellectualventures.com/Home.aspx">Intellectual Ventures</a>.&nbsp;
(Maybe you remember Nathan;&nbsp;he has been 'everywhere' the last couple years describing everything from IV's "mosquito-zapping laser" to their proposed "water hose&nbsp;in the sky,"&nbsp;theorized to&nbsp;minimize global warming.)
IV has been compared to "Davos...in Birkenstocks."
Whether you're creative, love people who are or fancy yourself a polymath, you'll totally dig Nathan. (Pun intended, given his fascination with paleontology and archaeology.)
It's fun, if only for a few minutes, to imagine how someone like him&mdash;and his "lab crew"&mdash;see the world.&nbsp;
Here's a great <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?printable=true">article</a> about Nathan by Malcolm Gladwell, along with a giddy <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_on_archeology_animal_photography_bbq.html">presentation</a> at TED.

Creativity & Genius: Nathan Myhrvold

The&nbsp;matter of 'workplace' and 'personal' motivation comes up a lot.
Here's one of the more pleasurable explanations that I've come across.&nbsp; My thanks to a dear colleague for sharing it.
Enjoy!&nbsp;
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u6XAPnuFjJc" width="290" height="150" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<a title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc</a>