Tag: tipping point

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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Yet Bill, Brian and Emily certainly reveals how this outdated term needs to change as our digital future demands it.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 Reading

Latest Read: You’ll See This Message When It Is Too Late

You’ll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches by Josephine Wolff.

You’ll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches by Josephine Wolff

Josephine holds a AB, Mathematics from Princeton University and a MS in Technology & Policy and PhD in Engineering Systems both from MIT. Today she is Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy Associate Professor, Computer Science, Engineering and Director, Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs at Tufts University. She is also a visiting professor of Law at Yale Law School.

Josephine outlines a series in fact of highly publicized cybersecurity incidents between 2005 and 2015. She is able to map the entire attack cycle of each breach. This certainly leads to insights for identifying opportunities for more robust defensive intervention. There are three main motives: financial gain, espionage, and public humiliation of the victim. These are a consistent theme over the ten year timeframe.

During this decade, cyber attacks made the news regularity. The book discusses the legal ramification organizations face after a breach. Here the focus is including litigation, regulatory fines, and compliance issues. Josephine also analyzes financial ramifications including direct costs for remediation and legal fees and the indirect costs like customer trust and brand damage. Josephine documents real-world examples of significant data breaches and the various organizational responses and lessons learned.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Pat holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from Claremont McKenna College. He is President of the Table Group, and previously worked at Bain & Company, Oracle Corporation and was a former Vice President of Organizational Development at Sybase.

Regardless of where you work, even if your are a one person consultant or new startup, you will benefit from Pat’s book. This is about engaging people to achieve outcomes. Should this be your consultancy or new product, your future will in part be influenced by the people you engage.

This is a long time bestseller for a damn good reason. In fact, we see teams as a group of individuals striving to achieve success in perfect sync with one another and their individual daily tasks. However Pat is able to analyze the fundamental causes of why teams fail, their projects do not result in closure and the impact of organizational politics

Pat outlines identifies five interrelated dysfunctions that can undermine team performance which hinder team effectiveness and performance:

Absence of Trust:
Perhaps the most difficult to confront within any team is their unwillingness to trust one another regardless of how long they have worked together.

Fear of Conflict:
Teams without trust will result in limited discussions on their project contributions. The free flow of conversations is required to be successful. You must engage your team at 100 percent.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter

HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter by Harvard Business Review.

HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter by Harvard Business Review

Do you work within an organization that is meeting driven? Sometimes it can seem that every decision regardless of place in a project requires a face to face meeting, in person or online. Many times however results can be addressed via email.

Yet when meetings are indeed the best course of action, this book provides the overlooked simplicity to transform the ‘regular’ meeting (which is often ineffective into very productive working sessions.

This book does in fact address very common challenges employees face. In fact many can say first hand they have experienced meetings that felt made little effort for the amount of time set aside for multiple employees.

There are very valuable lessons to learn that can empower employees to move the needle. If you feel this sounds a bit off, then perhaps you cannot recall how a well planned meeting by anyone well verses in running meetings and controlling the discussions by simply presenting an agenda will leave you wondering why have you not engaged well run meetings all long?

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