Posts under ‘Society’

TED.com has exploded in popularity as an online place to hear and see ideas from really interesting people from the around the world. Now that TED.com has licensed their name to encourage independent TED-like conferences, us locals can also participate in person.
Last Thursday April 26th, a group of distinguished speakers and over one hundred attendees [...]

Last time, I provided a more detailed description of what leadership is. Today I wanted to explore this notion that leadership is more an ecology than a formal position or person.
In any organization, we all recognize that there are formal authorities (managers, directors, supervisors) and then there are informal authorities (people we would naturally go [...]

A wonderful counterpart to Ronald Wright’s What is America? is John Ralston Saul’s A Fair Country which tells us a far richer story about who we are as Canadians. Growing up, I developed two impressions of the aboriginals. The first is that the Europeans came, settled Canada, and unfortunately brought with them new diseases that [...]

Here is a short post on the dangers of hiring only people who are employed:
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/hbr/mcgrath/2009/07/hiring-the-already-employed.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-WEEKLY_HOTLIST-_-JUL_2009-_-HOTLIST0713
It’s worth highlighting how important that social contract of taking care of others who are down whether it’s because of circumstance or bad choices. Without an implied and explicit agreement about how to treat each other fairly, respectfully, and compassionately, society [...]

During a sunny weekend camping trip near Radium, my wife discovered that she had lost her asthma inhaler and thus had to take it easy on any physically strenuous activities. She continued on her trip untroubled by the implications.
I, on the other hand, was alarmed by the possibility that she could have an attack and [...]

Here is a short , but deeply personal expression of Diane Benscoter describing her experience of being inside a cult.

One might easily dismiss anyone who once was in a cult, but when she admits to knowing the appeal of killing the other, of genocide, it’s worth stopping and thinking: what about me is susceptible to [...]

Guide them by edicts, keep them in line with punishments, and the common people will stay out of trouble but will have no sense of shame.

Guide them by virtue, keep them in line with the rites, and they will, besides having a sense of shame, reform themselves.
- Confucius Analects Book II, Para. 3
Here is [...]

Let’s face it. Conventional economic theory needs a major overhaul. I’m not here to debate Keynesian or Friedmann economics because that isn’t necessarily the most significant challenge. The most significant challenge is that economics has become the dominant mode of dealing with opportunities and threats on a global scale and the field has no idea [...]

Earth Day is like Mother’s Day in some ways. Somehow, in the hustle and bustle of day to day life we forget about what is really important in life. Shouldn’t we be valuing Earth every day?
But it isn’t easy to remember. Sure, in the hunter and gatherer days, the Earth very clearly provided and thus [...]