In August, Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman stepped down over the hacking scandal embroiling his marital cheating website. In September, a user whose data had been leaked killed himself. Were the hackers justified in publishing the names, account details, credit card information and sexual preferences of some 32 million users (including many records with .gov emails and, unless it's fake, of former UK prime minister Tony Blair), or are they needlessly and gratuitously jeopardizing the lives of countless people and their families?
Fascinating article by Peter Fingar on Cognitive Computing and the breakthroughs the new technology makes possible. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, just watch the second video with Rick Rashid of Microsoft doing a demo of computer-aided real-time translation into Chinese. Think of the possibilities for cross-cultural understanding and uniting humanity. Of course technology is value-neutral, it can be used for good or for evil, so we will also need to think about how to prevent destructive applications of Cognitive Computing, for example robotic warfare that could get out of hand and bring down humanity as a whole. Peter concludes that "We must evolve a fundamentally new economics, one not based on the 20th century reality of scarcity but on a new 21st century reality of abundance..."
From Mozart to Picasso, geniuses deliberately shaped their workdays to produce breakthroughs in creativity and performance. Author Mason Currey has researched 161 great artists, scientists, writers, composers and philosophers across history and found that none of them relied on their talents alone: they designed daily rituals and used original tricks that could work just as well for normal mortals like you and me. What strategies do you use to optimize your productivity?
In 2014 Apple beat Google and Samsung to become the world's most valuable brand at $119 billion. And now the iconic company made $18 billion in three months. But how did Apple produce those record earnings? A report by the German weekly Spiegel Online shows four of the tech giant's questionable practices. Should brand value be tied to ethical practices, or does it not matter how you make profit?
The cold-blooded murders of Charlie Hébdo staff by Islamists pose a dramatic culture clash: On one side radical jihadists who want to avenge perceived insults against their prophet Mohammad; on the other Europeans who want to exercise their freedom of the press and poke fun at the mighty everywhere (be they Moslem, Jewish or Christian). Nothing can justify killing journalists. But do Moslems have a point? Have the Western media violated a fundamental taboo against depicting the prophet or does Islam need to lighten up and accept the universal human value of free expression?
At the threshold of a new year, it's a great time to step back, take stock of what we accomplished and learned, and see what we want to change. Instead of rushing headlong into the next year and learning nothing, for decades now my clients and I have used ten systematic but simple debrief questions that hold the power of genuine renewal.
How could Bill Cosby, the beloved US-entertainer, keep the sexual assaults of at least 27 women under wraps for three decades (if he is ever convicted though he has never been indicted and has declined to discuss the allegations)? He and his bigger-than-life persona, in cahoots with a horde of ferocious lawyers and media handlers, successfully controlled what could be said in public and what the media reported. But viral social media finally brought the full story to light: the other Cosby, the "liar" and "rapist." Should the story be laid to rest, should we leave a patriarchal octogenarian alone and move on, or should Bill Cosby meet justice?
The application of Big Data to Human Resources is transforming how companies hire, fire, and manage performance. The emerging practice of People Analytics allows companies to vet millions of resumes in a split second or monitor every moment of their people's lives. A great advance for unbiased performance management or a disastrous turn toward Big Brother?
I have long known about the power of mind over matter from my own marathons: we used to say that races are 10% physical, 90% mental. Now, in an unusual experiment at Northumbrian University in England, competitive cyclists went beyond their limits of performance. How? The researchers tricked the athletes' brains into believing they were not yet at their peak. Are there lessons for performance management in any field of human endeavor? On the other hand, do such small deceptions work in the long run? And are they desirable, or even permissible?
Want to be more productive? Take a mini mental vacation. There is growing evidence that regular breaks from mental tasks enhance productivity and creativity. The inverse is also true: skipping breaks can lead to stress, exhaustion, and even a shorter lifespan. The most distinguished leaders in history, from Churchill to Mandela, took time out for stillness to tune their moral compass and lead more decisively. (By the way, if reading this blog post distracts you from your work and contributes to your stress level, my apologies. I hope your future times of stillness off the grid will richly compensate you for any anxiety, guilt or other pressures I have caused you here.)
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