Category: Innovation

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Power to the Middle

Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work by Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock and Emily Field.

Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work by Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock and Emily Field.

Bill holds a PhD in Management from Auburn University. He is a Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey focusing on organizational culture and change. Bryan holds a JD from Harvard University and is a Partner at McKinsey specializing in talent management and organizational development. Emily holds a BA in Political Science from Georgetown University and is a Partner at McKinsey focusing on data-driven organizational strategies.

Power to the Middle is one of the best books to read if you’re organization is even thinking of cutting midlevel managers in the new world of work. The real goal is to help leadership understand “Middle manager” in a post pandemic, AI driven world. The term is from our industrial era.

Yet Bill, Brian and Emily certainly reveals how this outdated term needs to change as our digital future demands it. They are also revealing how middle managers are closer to your workforce, and understand how to link them to your company strategy while also having the skillsets to engage your senior leadership.

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Artificial Intelligence Blockchain Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Unsupervised

Unsupervised: Navigating and Influencing a World Controlled by Powerful New Technologies by Daniel Doll-Steinberg and Stuart Leaf.

Unsupervised: Navigating and Influencing a World Controlled by Powerful New Technologies by Daniel Doll-Steinberg and Stuart Leaf

Daniel holds a BS in Engineering from The University of Manchester UK and Honorary Senior Research Associate from University College London. He is a lecturer at The Wharton School. He is co-founder and partner at EdenBase. Advisor to the UK Government and European Commission on innovation, growth, and education policy. Stuart holds a BA in Economics and MBA from Stanford. He is co-founder of the Cadogan fund.

Written by experienced technology fund managers, Daniel and Stuart are addressing the broad range of powerful new technologies which are disrupting and transforming everything. In fact their message is simply now is the time that you must act and adapt. This book was named a Bloomberg Best Book of 2023.

At first glance you may consider the focus upon Unsupervised Machine Learning, but that is way off base. Daniel and Stuart are providing an overview of how a core set of disruptive technologies have been developing at an accelerating pace that most of the world is not accustomed to seeing. They also question who is in fact in control of these technologies, and are emphasizing that these have developed for the most part without any supervision.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Doing Agile Right

Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos by Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez

Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos by Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez

Darrell holds a MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a Senior Partner at Bain & Company and is a founder and leader of Bain’s Innovation and Agile Practices. Sarah holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a partner at Bain & Company with a focus on agile transformations and organizational change. Steve holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a partner at Bain & Company specializing in technology and agile practices. As a team they provide a deep and well-rounded perspective on implementing agile methodologies while avoiding common pitfalls associated with chaotic transformations.

Agile is a project management and software development approach that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer-centricity. It breaks projects into smaller phases called sprints. This permits teams to adapt quickly to changes and deliver value faster. It certainly has the power to transform work, but only if it’s implemented the correct way.

This isn’t a product or goal in itself, it’s a means to becoming an efficient operation. This book is really a must-read for any organization making transitions. They addresses the challenges many organizations face when implementing agile methodologies. They emphasize understanding and applying agile principles effectively in order to to achieve real transformation without falling into chaos. Today this is a tall order indeed, more than ever before.

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Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Brave New Worlds

Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education by Salman Khan.

Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education by Salman Khan

Sal holds BS in both mathematics and electrical engineering from MIT. He holds a MS in electrical engineering also from MIT with a MBA from Harvard Business School. Sal founded Khan Academy after tutoring his cousin in mathematics in 2004 and launched online video tutorials in 2006.

He wrote Brave New Worlds in fact for general audiences to teach them about the AI revolution in education. He addresses the implications for parents and how to best address AI for good. Sal starts simple with ChatGPT, showing how it will transform learning. In fact, there is a roadmap addressing teachers, parents, and even students on how to engage our AI world. Sal demonstrates his AI-powered tutoring service Khanmigo which was obviously developed by Khan Academy.

Readers will also appreciate this is not an AI technology book. Sal is laying out the impact upon our society and implications from educational administrators, teachers, and guidance counselors, to hiring managers. Companies will certainly demand employees be AI aware in their education to make their workplace competitive.

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Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The DevSecOps Playbook

The DevSecOps Playbook: Deliver Continuous Security at Speed by Sean D. Mack.

The DevSecOps Playbook: Deliver Continuous Security at Speed by Sean D. Mack

Sean holds a BS in Computer and Information Sciences from UC Santa Cruz and MBA from Seattle University. He is CIO and CISO at Wiley, VP of Operations and Applications at Pearson, Director of Global Product Development and Delivery at Experian, and Senior Director of Technical Operations at RealNetworks.

In fact, the term Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) stands for a framework that integrates security into all phases of the software development lifecycle. Today more than ever before DevSecOps must deliver continuous security at the speed of business. DevSecOps can only succeed when the organization supports the triad of people, process, and tech to delver strong cybersecurity infrastructure and practices.

To simplify, DevSecOps emphasizes incorporating security measures from the beginning of the development process, rather than treating them as an afterthought or post deployment requirement. This approach identifies and mitigates potential security risks early on.

Sean outlines why it’s critical to shift security considerations to the front-end of the development cycle, how to do this, and how the evolution of a standard security model since the pandemic has impacted modern cybersecurity.

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