Work needs more play – and not just because it makes people feel good. Play can make a person – and a company – more resilient, more creative and more innovative.
The Red Rubber Ball at Work does a great job of saying why play is important – from the points of view of many different people in business, from product designers to salespeople to Seth Godin.
For more information on play and its role in the growth cycle (from chaos to competence), see chapter one of the Jolt Challenge, an excellent book I’ve just finished. A review is coming your way soon!
Meantime, enjoy this review and I’d love to hear what you think!
In this review I explore (among other things) the connection between oratory and social media – particularly the ability to persuade. It touches on issues covered by Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody – the idea that whether we like it or not, everyone has the ability to influence, whether they’re right or wrong.
The answer? An informed public. It’s going to be a better world if we all understand how persuasion works – whether it’s through a speech, or through a blog.
The author of Great Speeches also runs a website called AmericanRhetoric.com, which is a remarkable education resource.
In this review I also look back at another oratory-related review, Say it Like Obama. Who knows, maybe January 2011 will bring yet another book review about speech-making.
Also worth watching/listening: JFK, MLK and Winston Churchill run through autotune. Sounds like a joke, but I found it surprisingly touching!
Education’s not working, whether it’s under-resourced classrooms in developing countries, or right here in New Zealand.
Could mobile phones be an answer? John Eyles thinks so. He’s part of the EON Foundation, a group dedicated to helping people use technology to really understand each other.
In this interview John tells the story of the Seuang River Experience, a project that combines entrepreneurship, much-needed aid, indigenous people determining their own destiny, and high school students from around the world discovering their own potential. And Twitter is involved, too!
Meanwhile, back in New Zealand, John looks at the demand for technology in classrooms. We can’t afford computers, say the schools, not realising that some pretty sophisticated technology walks in and out of their classes every day – in the hands of cellphone-owning students.
John takes us on a journey and lays down a positive challenge for educators in New Zealand.
What do you think? How could mobile phones be used to improve education – in New Zealand and around the world?
How do you handle information overload? One Austrian librarian had an interesting method – and an interesting explanation for it – in the book I review today, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.
While talking about the book (which I partly read, admittedly) I was reminded of Howard Gardner’s 5 Minds for the Future. Gardner talks about the need for a depth of discipline, even as we need to get more cross-disciplinary.
Such talk of deep discipline then reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, which says you can master anything if you put in 10,000 hours. Although I haven’t read the book, that’s okay, because I followed the advice in How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read … nicely completing this circular, three-for-the-price-of-one book review.
How does this affect us in our daily life and work?
Information overload is a fact of life. Do you remember the last time you wished there was more information in your life? Yet relevance is still a struggle. The first book has some surprising strategies.
Our fast-moving times require innovative, cross-disciplinary thinking, yet we still need a depth of discipline or we truly will be jacks of all trades, masters of none.
This means that to our initial discipline we must add the skill of collaboration. We must realise that we don’t hold all the answers, nor could we ever.
It’s summed up by a great quote I read today:
“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you recognize that your liberation and mine are bound up together, then let us walk together.” -Lila Watson
As we often point out, today anyone can be a consumer, creator or curator of content. If you’re reading this, you have the power. What are you doing with it? (Not a rhetorical question; we’d love to know your answer in the comments below)
Getting stuff done is pretty important. Richard Hollingum and Mario McMillan could have written a book about how to get stuff done, but they did the opposite: How Not To Do Things is a clever guide on exactly how you can accomplish nothing.
A great insight into why change sometimes just doesn’t happen.
Why cover it on iJumpTV? Because using social media in your organisation is about far more than getting the technology right. It’s about introducing and maintaining change – and you can’t do that successfully without knowing the barriers you’ll face.
What books have you been reading over the holidays?
Josie Campbell, Communications Manager at The EDGE Performing Arts Venue, tells us how she uses social media to build buzz and hold conversations with her customers.
Follow Josie on Twitter. And let us know what you think? How do you use social media for more than just one-way announcements?
Pocketsmith is a bootstrapped software startup from Dunedin. How did they reach a global audience and sign big overseas deals? The founders offer their secrets for building online community, what to blog about, and how they use Twitter.
Blinka.me is a “social reconnection service” launched in New Zealand and featured recently on ReadWriteWeb. We interviewed CEO Duncan Shand about what Blinka.me is, and how it came into being. Inspiration for all new startups!
In a nutshell: social media is essential to launch a new startup cost-effectively, but don’t forget a great, simple concept, good design and offline activity.
