Tag: culture

Latest Read: Upstream

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date November 1, 2022

Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath. Today Dan is a consultant to Duke University’s Corporate Education program. Along with his brother Chip, the Heath brothers have been writing impactful books for over 20 years.

Dan is providing great thinking to modern problems. This is even more valuable in the age we live in today regarding opioids and COVID. Perhaps the idea of instilling his lessons of ‘Preventing Problems Rather Than Reacting to Them’ is the ground floor many organizations need today.

Upstream is certainly an excellent book that talks about the value of thinking in systems and finding/fixing the root cause of problems. In fact, our world today is simply more difficult and demanding. The daily ‘grind’ often forces groups to overlook their ability to see upstream.

So, here is a book addressing how we can begin understanding a process needed to mitigate the problem versus just putting out fires. There is certainly a lot of research across this book showing how how Dan certainly understands how colleges operate.

Secondly, Dan Heath has obviously done a lot of research on this topic and has come up with the gotchas that hit many organizations.

Tags change, culture, Dan Heath, Innovation, Upstream

Design Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Making Numbers Count

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date October 25, 2022

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. Chip is professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath, Karla Starr

Much to my surprise I looked up my first review of Made to Stick, Dan and Chip’s debut book. I read that book over 15 years ago. That book made such an impression that I have read their books without disappointment. However they recently published independent books and I will share Dan’s book Upstream shortly. His brother Dan is a consultant to Duke University’s Corporate Education program.

Chip presents multiple lessons to make numbers more meaningful to any group you are sharing data with in order to make an impression. This book is really one that should be not only on your shelf but also sharing with colleagues.

An interesting point is Chip’s message that nobody is really a “numbers person” as our brains cannot easily understand the analysis of very large number sets.

The focus is numbers in the billions. However, Chip documents how to understand and communicate the difference between one million and one billion that makes an impact within your organization:

You and a friend each enter a lottery with several large prizes. But there’s a catch: If you win, you must spend $50,000 of your prize money each day until it runs out. You win a million dollars. Your friend wins a billion. How long does it take each of you to spend your lottery windfall? As a millionaire….you go bust after a mere 20 days. If you win on Thanksgiving, you’re out of money more than a week before Christmas. For your billionaire friend….He or she would have a full-time job spending $50,000 a day for 55 years.
pg. 10

This example makes perfect sense in helping many users understand how to begin learning how to communicate their data sets.

Tags change, chip heath, culture, Innovation, Making Numbers Count

Education Reading

Latest Read: Invisible Walls

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date October 3, 2022

Invisible Walls: How to Create Deeper Connections Through the Purity of Experiences by Stephanie Zorn-Kasprzak. Stephanie holds a degree in Written Communication and Master’s Organizational Leadership from Lourdes University.

Today Stephanie is Executive Director of the Monroe County Opportunity Program in La Salle Township, Michigan. In addition, Stephanie is a part time professor at Eastern Michigan University. And most importantly Stephanie is my sister in law.

Stephanie is working to show readers how the pandemic shifted the world and not for the better. However the last two years have taught her that true, lasting bonds will be the key relationships and our own character.

The first Chapter starts boldly with a lesson one cannot forget. Stephanie shared the sudden passing of her older brother Tim. This included a passage how her Dad attempted to revive his son. This was so overwhelming for me to read. In fact, Mr. Zorn is a wonderful man that I have known for twenty years, so visualizing this event was very painful.

And yet, Stephanie makes this a powerful lesson: do not wait to live your dreams. This reminded me of Daniel Pink’s latest book The Power of Regret. In a later chapter in recalling a trip to Germany, Stephanie shares how visiting the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp created a life long impression.

Tags change, culture, Invisible Walls, Stephanie Zorn-Kasprzak, trends

Education Reading

Latest Read: The Witches Are Coming

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date September 20, 2022

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West. Lindy is a columnist at The Guardian, a contributor to This American Life, and a freelance writer appearing in the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vulture, and Jezebel.

She is the founder of I Believe You, It’s Not Your Fault, an advice blog for teens, as well as the reproductive rights destigmatization campaign #ShoutYourAbortion.

Following the release of her book Shrill, she launched a streaming show about her life. So, this book is a series of cultural essays and supports her previous book and TV show. Lindy is addressing Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo movement, Trump, climate change, misogyny, white nationalism, and even Adam Sandler.

As a follow up to Shrill, her social media hashtag launch #ShoutYourAbortion is further addressed. Perhaps the mission of her book is to indicate that America has not learned about the impacts of sexual abuse, fat shaming, rape culture, abortion, and the gender pay gap.

Yet, Lindy is accurate to document whenever a woman does stand up, the counter attack is the title of this book. At the same time, Lindy writes about how people are with Ted Bundy’s “charm and charisma”. Drawing a line that Bundy murdered women, somehow the judge leaned towards wanting to interact with him and basically buy him a beer.

Tags Bias, culture, influencer, Lindy West, The Witches Are Coming

Education Reading

Latest Read: The Coddling of the American Mind

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date September 4, 2022

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff. This book is the result of their very popular article in The Atlantic magazine.

Jonathan is a social psychologist and professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and he is focusing on the psychology of morality and moral emotions. Greg is an author and activist and is currently serving as President of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

Jonathan and Greg reveal how the following ideas became established after 2013: students’ feelings are always right, students should avoid pain and discomfort, and finally students should look for faults in others and not themselves.

They also address three specific untruths that are part of a larger philosophy in which students are certainly portrayed as fragile who must be protected and supervised by adults.

However, by setting aside all good intentions, they indicate untruths actually harm students by teaching them the opposite of the basic foundation of wisdom.

Admittedly, much of this is driven by social media. In fact, look at our recently finished mid term elections. In fact, candidates for public office actually campaigned stating students were identifying as cats and brining litter boxes to school.

Tags campus free speech, culture, Education, Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind, trends, trigger warnings