TEDTalks : VS Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization - Vilayanur Ramachandran (2009)

TEDTalks : VS Ramachandran: The neurons that shaped civilization - Vilayanur Ramachandran (2009): "Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it."

TEDTalks : Bertrand Piccard's solar-powered adventure - Bertrand Piccard (2009)

TEDTalks : Bertrand Piccard's solar-powered adventure - Bertrand Piccard (2009): "For the dawn of a new decade, adventurer Bertrand Piccard offers us a challenge: Find motivation in what seems impossible. He shares his own plans to do what many say can't be done -- to fly around the world, day and night, in a solar-powered aircraft."

TEDTalks : Tim Berners-Lee: The year open data went worldwide - Tim Berners-Lee (2010)

TEDTalks : Tim Berners-Lee: The year open data went worldwide - Tim Berners-Lee (2010): "At TED2009, Tim Berners-Lee called for 'raw data now' -- for governments, scientists and institutions to make their data openly available on the web. At TED University in 2010, he shows a few of the interesting results when the data gets linked up."

Herding Cool Cats: Lessons from Pop!Tech's Andrew Zolli

Herding Cool Cats: Lessons from Pop!Tech's Andrew Zolli: "

Sure, it's great to hang out at a hot-ticket business conference such as TED, Pop!Tech, or the annual meetings of The Clinton Global Initiative and the World Economic Forum. But these gatherings are steadily evolving beyond the standard conference model. They're going from feeding brain candy to a largely passive audience to creating and engaging communities to accomplish tangible results.

These conferences have year-round programs for their exclusive lists of attendees, to encourage the cross-pollination of ideas from leaders in the worlds of technology, the arts, the public sector, science, finance, and industry — the same carefully curated and diverse audiences who attend the conferences. The common goal: to push the big-think conversations that originate at the live events forward toward action, in terms of effective and profitable solutions for problems such as climate change. These events can serve as models for how to manage open innovation for executives in corporations, non-profits, or government.

Andrew Zolli, curator and executive director of Pop!Tech, held each fall in Camden, ME, offered me a set of open-innovation guidelines. He says he's gleaned these from managing the Pop!Tech event where ideas are exchanged, and now, creating from that base an active, year-round network to tackle specific business challenges. Pop!Tech is launching its first Pop!Tech Labs program this summer, in which top Nike executives will tap the Pop!Tech network to research new, sustainable materials that use less energy to produce than what's available today. Think of it as organized open innovation.



Here are Zolli's tips for managing open innovation among a diverse group of collaborators:

1. Create a social community among the participants. Have them gather, eat, and get to know one another. It's not just fun; it's to make sure they are comfortable before they start to work together.



2. Understand partners' motivations. Have everyone be as explicit as possible in terms of goals and what their individual interests are from the beginning.



3. Use design as a discovery tool, not just as a packaging tactic. Involve creative people — graphic designers, artists — from the outset. They might have new ways of looking at things. Often, they're asked to join at the end of a brainstorm as a means to come up with elegant promotional materials rather than contribute out-of-the-box product or service ideas.



4. Define 'innovation' collectively. What does innovation mean to each participant? Do these concepts match up? It's also important to come up with metrics for measuring innovation early and adjust them often.



5. Understand that failure is a measure of health. Collect stories of what didn't work. Recast these shortcomings as an audit, rather than failure itself. Then figure out how to improve them for future projects.



6. Leverage existing infrastructures when coming up with new ideas. Figuring out what resources are immediately available pushes innovation forward faster and cheaper, rather than inventing or implementing new technologies when coming up with a new product or service. What this means is asking each participant what they can contribute now, in terms of software and hardware, rather than to start from scratch — which can be tempting.



7. Choose a great team over a great business model. A passionate, engaged, dynamic team can adjust to new, unexpected challenges over time. Models can be both more rigid and more transient than teams.

Could other conferences become the engines for open innovation? What conferences will you be attending this year, and how could the communities they assemble go on to solve problems collectively — and year round?

"

Why Leadership Development in Asia Is Better Than in Europe

Why Leadership Development in Asia Is Better Than in Europe: "

A shift in leadership development has occurred. While it used to be that American and European companies had cornered the market on developing the leaders of tomorrow, our latest round of research shows that Europe is now second to organizations in Asia Pacific, with India making the fastest progress. And while US companies still excel at leadership development, companies from South America are developing homegrown models that chip away at North America's dominance of the field.



As with my last post, I'm going to dive deeper into the Top Companies for Leaders research that my firm, The RBL Group, along with Hewitt, publishes in Fortune magazine every two years.

How the Top Companies are Selected

First, HR executives from around the world are invited to participate in the study, which highlights companies that have gone beyond the basics of grooming strong leaders and have come up with new ways to test their employees in the global marketplace. It's open to organizations of all types (public, private, nonprofit) and sizes and from a variety of locations. From those invitations, 537 companies participated in the 2009 study.

To participate, each company completes a detailed 88-item questionnaire examining a variety of factors related to their depth and quality of leadership. Based on this preliminary analysis, 217 global finalists are identified. Each finalist company is interviewed to provide greater clarity about specific practices. In addition to HR and senior executive interviews, CEOs are interviewed in most finalist companies as well. All finalists are also screened for financial performance relative to their industry.

Armed with this common data set, a panel of judges is selected for each region. These judges are authors, academics and journalists from around the world who rank the companies for their region — North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America. The judges consider variables including the survey and interview data, company reputation, leadership culture and values, and business performance over a five-year period. Finally, a separate panel, comprised of one representative from each regional panel, selects the Top Companies for Leaders list.



The Geographic Breakdown

Making the global top 25 list is no easy feat. During the 2009 judging, one criteria was that 'leaders from this company would need to be candidates for senior leadership positions within any global top company.' There was little sentiment for trying to balance the results. Even so, the 2009 results continued the trend of more companies from outside of North America and Europe making the global top 25 list of Top Companies for Leaders. Regionally, North America led all regions with 16 companies with headquarters within their boundary. In the past, Europe has been second, but in 2009, Asia Pacific came in second with five companies; followed by Europe in third (with three) and Latin America in fourth (with one company on the list). Since most of us in North America are more familiar with North America and Europe, I'm going to focus more on Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Within Asia Pacific, India had three companies in the top 25. Two of these — ICICI Bank and Hindustan Unilver — were in the top 10, and the other company, Infosys, came in at #24. For the first time, China had a top 10 company on the list: China Mobile Communications in Shanghai, which was rated #9. The final candidate from Asia Pacific to make the global list was Olam, based in Singapore and ranked #18. Within Latin America, one company, Brazil's Natura Cosmeticos, made the global list, coming in at a very respectable #11.

What the Asia Pacific Companies Get Right

Because it's the fastest growing region in the world, Asian companies recognize the need for building leaders fast. Much of the focus in this part of the world is in developing and preparing the next generation of leaders through selection, talent development, and accelerated development opportunities.

Top companies for leaders in Asia are more intentional in who they hire — they have specific selection strategies directly tied to business needs. One hundred percent of the top companies in Asia Pacific have a specific strategy for developing leaders from within the company, compared to 89 percent of other Asia Pacific countries. Even more pronounced is that 100 percent of the top companies in Asia have a specific strategy for selecting leaders from outside the company compared to 70 percent of other Asian companies. The result of this is that all of the top companies in our Asian group report having a sufficient talent pipeline to be successful in the future, compared to 50 percent of other Asia Pacific companies.

When it comes to how they develop those hires, two things distinguish the top companies in Asia Pacific. The first is the attention to the specific development needs of the individual leader coupled with corporate needs to produce an agenda that generates strong leaders. The second is the speed with which the top companies accelerate the development of key talent through experience, exposure and custom training programs. The aim is to move leaders quickly through the right portfolio of development experiences.

What Sets Latin American Companies Apart

The need for Latin American leaders to help companies rebound from the global downturn and drive sustained growth is among the top issues for the region. Much of the focus in Latin America is similar to Asia Pacific's around developing the next generation of leaders through selection, assessment and development. The top five companies in the region were: Natura Cosmeticos (Brazil), Bancocombia (Colombia), WEG Equipamentos Eletricos (Brazil), CPFL Energia (Brazil) and Wal-Mart de Mexico (Mexico).

Top companies in Latin America have selection strategies tied to business strategy. One hundred percent of the top companies have a specific strategy for hiring from within, vs. 91 percent of others. Eighty percent of the top companies have a specific strategy for hiring outside of the company compared to 67 percent of the others. And 80 percent of the top companies in Latin America reported having a sufficient talent pipeline for the future, compared to 49 percent of other companies.

The top companies set clear expectations for their developing leaders. One hundred percent of top companies in Latin America have a common leadership competency model, compared to 76 percent of other companies. More importantly, they apply these competencies to select leaders from within the company compared to 39 percent of other Latin American companies.

Finally, the top companies here practice what we've called 'leadership brand.' One hundred percent of Latin America's top companies have a deliberate process to build reputation for strong leadership, vs. only 52 percent of other companies. This serves to attract top talent and ensures a steady supply of future leaders. It also includes an emphasis on values, ethics and contributing to the community at large.

In summary, this data supports the hypothesis that as the global economy shifts, so do the sources of strong leadership. It will be very interesting to repeat this analysis after the next round in 2011. I predict an even higher representation from the fastest growing regions of Asia and Latin America.

Norm Smallwood is co-founder of The RBL Group, a strategic HR and leadership systems advisory firm. He is author, with Dave Ulrich and Kate Sweetman, of The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By and with Dave Ulrich of the 2007 title Leadership Brand.

"

Managing Myself: Born to Learn

Managing Myself: Born to Learn: "

My earliest memories from childhood are of brushing my teeth and of looking up at a cracked ceiling. In the first my dad explains how I can tell if my teeth are clean: I'll hear squeaking, like birds chirping, when I run my finger across the tops of them. In the second I ask my parents why we're moving, and they point to the fractures in the plaster overhead.

Out of the all the moments in my infancy when I learned something new, these are the only two I recall with any sort of detail, and it's quite possible — perhaps more likely — that they're false memories constructed from photographs and hearsay.

As babies we gracefully ride wave after wave of new information, unfazed by the sensory surplus and smarter with each glide onto shore. Yet as adults we remember close to nothing of this intense period of learning. What is it about this time in our lives that makes us so good at managing information overload?

Advances in neuroscience, particularly improvements in brain imaging, have begun to answer this question.

A recent edition of 'In Our Time' on BBC Radio 4 provides a comprehensive look at the latest research in early childhood development. The most telling discovery is that the prefrontal lobe in a baby's brain is underdeveloped, which limits the capacity for internally driven attention and goal-directed behavior. The inability of a baby to ask 'How am I going to use this information later?' appears to be why they're able to absorb so much so quickly.

As Alison Gopnik, the author of The Philosophical Baby, says in an interivew in The Psychologist, "the evolutionary argument is that childhood — our uniquely protracted human period of immaturity and helplessness — is designed to give us a protected space in which we can learn and imagine."

As we get older, our brains mature to handle the increased demand for execution in addition to exploration. We're able to filter out extraneous facts and piece together only the necessary information for getting a job done.

Of course, critical thinking skills are essential for navigating the adult world, but I can't help but think our struggle with information overload is directly related to our not being to turn off the fronts of our brains. For me, at least, it's impossible to encounter a new piece of information without wondering how I will use it later. Maybe the key is to not wonder at all.

The experiments of Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer present an interesting possibility for regressing back to the sponges we all used to be.

In 1979, she recruited a group of men in their late 70s and 80s and asked them to spend a week living as if they were in 1959, talking about events and surrounding themselves with media and objects appropriate to that time. After seven days, Langer conducted several physiological tests and found that the men improved across the board, from lower blood pressure to better hearing and eyesight.

Considering these results, I'm curous what leaps we could make in managing information overload if we were able to cure 'infantile amnesia' and re-create a time when our minds weren't yet built for execution and we developed the crucial skills for living simply by taking it all in.

Rasika Welankiwar is an Assistant Editor with the Harvard Business Review Group.

"

Firing Is Too Merciful: How James Cameron Leads

Firing Is Too Merciful: How James Cameron Leads: "

If you sat through the endless list of credits for Avatar, you saw that it took about 3,000 people to make the CGI epic, which has now grossed more than $2.5 billion worldwide, shattering box office records, earning nine Oscar nominations and reinventing cinema for the digital age. The boss of all those people was director James Cameron.

While researching my book, The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, I watched the director's often controversial management style up close. One of Hollywood's most innovative filmmakers, Cameron is also one of its toughest taskmasters, a man who ran notoriously grueling sets for movies like The Terminator, Aliens and Titanic. After Titanic, Cameron spent years away from the movie business indulging a lifelong passion--deep ocean exploration. The experiences he had leading groups on the open sea tempered the director's management style. But working for Cameron is still roughing it by Hollywood standards. From my seat on the Avatar set, these are the rules he manages by:

Break New Ground

"It's Avatar, dude, nothing works the first time," read a whiteboard in the spare Los Angeles warehouse that served as the sci fi film's motion capture soundstage. Breaking new ground is Cameron's raison d'être — nothing interests this man unless it's hard to do. But innovation has also become a way of bonding his teams, both on Avatar and on his deep sea expeditions. 'We're out in the wilderness working far beyond the borders of the known,' Cameron says, comparing his CG and undersea projects. 'We're doing extraordinary things that outsiders would not even understand.' For Cameron, a sense of exploration isn't just personally enriching, it's a crucial tool for motivating and uniting his teams.

Firing Is Too Merciful

Everyone who has been part of Cameron's cast and crew has bitter war stories about working for him, and yet they all seem to forget them when they're clutching Oscars and cashing checks. Many Cameron alumni will share a story from their first film with him, a day they were sure they were going to be fired, almost hoped for it. But Cameron rarely fires people. 'Firing is too merciful,' he says. Instead he tests their endurance for long hours, hard tasks, and harsh criticism. Survivors tend to surprise themselves by turning in the best work of their careers, and signing on for Cameron's next project.

Lead from the Front

Cameron is almost comically hands-on. He does things elite directors don't do — hold the camera, man the editing console, sketch the creatures, apply the makeup. The truth is, he would do nearly every job on a movie himself if he could. But any film, much less one as ambitious as Avatar, relies on collaboration. Forced to lean on others, Cameron sets the pace. Among his 3000-strong stable of artists and engineers, he's the first to try a new challenge, the last to quit at the end of the day, and the hardest to please.

Good Enough Isn't

Avatar took more than twice as long to make as an average film. Much of that added time was due to the film's Herculean design demands and its reliance on untested technologies, but some of it was thanks to Cameron's perfectionism. Hours were spent on the smallest details, like getting alien sap to drip precisely right. A column in one special effects shot annoyed Cameron. After 15 minutes debating its placement while teleconferencing with weary Weta Digital artists in New Zealand, he declared, 'That column is worth $50 million of the domestic gross!' shaking his head at his own obsessiveness. It's hard to argue with Cameron's nitpicky style, however, when audiences thrill to immerse themselves in the richly detailed worlds he creates.

Hire People People

Aware that he can be a hard man to work for, Cameron wisely surrounds himself with amiable deputies. "I have my bad days, and on my best days I'm no Ron Howard," he admits. Cameron's closest associates, his producer, Jon Landau, and the head of his production company, Rae Sanchini, are management savants. They know when an exhausted crew needs a pep talk, when a wounded artist's ego needs soothing, when an anxious studio executive needs reassurance. And — a talent never to be underestimated — they know when to order the pizza, and tell the boss to quit for dinner.

Rebecca Keegan is the author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron.

"

From Dust to Dollars: Creating Value from Underutilized Assets

From Dust to Dollars: Creating Value from Underutilized Assets: "

The green movement focuses attention on numerous resources going to waste that could be turned into cost savings, revenue streams, and profitable businesses while saving the earth — wind power, solar energy, fuels from burning biomass. That sensibility signals an important new value proposition: From dust to dollars! Build innovation around existing but underutilized assets.

Waste was an industrial age motif. To have more of something than one could possibly use signified affluence and high status. That was the point of the impractical extra space at Donald Trump's palace, Mar a Lago, or the hundreds of pairs of shoes owned by former Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos. In that context, growth came from selling bigger portions, larger cars, and more of everything, guaranteeing waste. Of course, one person's waste was another person's waste management company; I know many immigrants who attained the American dream through scrap metal.

In today's less-forgiving times, it's not enough to hide conspicuous consumption behind gated communities, cloth coats, or vans instead of limousines, and to give up corporate jets and lavish parties. It is imperative (and good business) to better use underutilized assets, not simply to reduce waste.

Munch on some food examples. In Boston, order Peking duck, and get the skin and some meat. In Hong Kong, Peking duck includes the skin, meat, and broth in separate courses. In Beijing, Peking duck uses all of the above plus adds the bones — no waste. A Taiwanese executive friend who summers on Cape Cod visits the docks most mornings to ask fishing crews for the fish heads they discard. Creative cooks invent wonderful dishes out of leftovers, tossing the rest in the compost pile to enrich the soil.

Don't take me literally. The idea is unlock the hidden value of something that would otherwise be wasted. Used tires — a major pollution problem — are being used by Cemex in road beds in Mexico and by Brazilian artists in Sao Paulo to create attractive, comfortable furniture.

Companies recycle cans and bottles but rarely create innovations out of them. An entrepreneur friend made watch faces out of discarded soda bottle caps, selling them as fashion watches (at high margins considering the zero cost of the bottle caps). Students in a high school chemistry class in New Hampshire collected used cooking oil from local restaurants to convert into fuel that they hoped would run school buses, while extracting the glycerin to make soap that they sold to fund their experiment. Talk about synergies.

What byproducts have hidden value? Companies are experimenting with carbon capture that can reduce carbon footprints while being used for carbonated beverages. Zoos have been particularly creative with the kind of waste-we-don't-talk-about-in-polite-company (and I don't mean composting toilets, although that might be a good idea too). Toronto and Singapore zoos took the lead in creating a profitable line of fertilizers for home gardens by processing and packaging animal waste under the brand name 'Zoo Doo.'

Space often goes to waste. Companies can turn unused conference rooms into training centers for other organizations. Airports recognize that the areas between gates are retail sales opportunities; the Pittsburgh airport was among the first to be a destination shopping mall, not just a transportation platform. WPP grew to a global advertising giant from a company making wire shopping carts when managers realized the carts could hold advertising placards. Minute Clinics in CVS pharmacies offer routine health services in underutilized areas near aspirins and greeting cards. I've urged branch banks to give floor space to neighborhood merchants for displays and demonstration, building community value and bringing traffic to the branch.

Human energy can also be put to better use. Years ago I joked that communities could generate electricity by from runners on a giant treadmill. Then I discovered that this idea is the basis of actual experiments. Bicycles power computers for children in remote villages that lack electricity. So why not go further? What if every office had a health center connected to a generator? Employees could get exercise while displays show them how much power they are producing. Get fit and keep the lights on at the same time.

Of course, it's also essential to better utilize the most underutilized asset of all in many companies: brainpower. Employee imagination could be used to search for trash, literal or figurative, with innovation value.

Mount a campaign for the best ideas about using underutilized or discarded assets. There's nothing to lose — it's wasted anyway — and a great deal to gain. Besides, chairs made out of used tires are great for the beach, and compost plus Zoo Doo grow wonderful gardens.

"

IKEA Subway Display in Paris : An Insane Idea or A Genius Promotion Campaign?

IKEA Subway Display in Paris : An Insane Idea or A Genius Promotion Campaign?: "

From 10 to 24 March 2010, IKEA develops an interesting event in four important metro stations in Paris. Furniture collections are currently displayed in high-traffic spots, giving the potential customers a chance to interact with the brand by checking out the products. The subway walls are also filled with prints that showcase IKEA interiors. What a creative way to do advertising! Moreover, this action completely changes the way the Paris subway station look and creates a cool atmosphere. Imagine waiting for the train n a comfortable sofa! We are certain this is the sort of event that French people will talk of for years to come. What do you think of this idea?

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REVERSE GRAFFITI: South African Artists Tag Walls By Scrubbing Them Clean

REVERSE GRAFFITI: South African Artists Tag Walls By Scrubbing Them Clean: "

Graffiti is one of the most controversial art forms out there since it defaces public property – but what if graffiti artists actually cleaned up the walls they tagged up by etching their sketches into the grime that already exists on them? The delightful process, called reverse graffiti or “scrubbing” isn’t new – we’ve written about it here and here before – but awesome examples of it keep popping up. Case in point: one band of students in Durban, South Africa who’ve been gracing spaces with works of the subversive street art form in their area.

Read the rest of REVERSE GRAFFITI: South African Artists Tag Walls By Scrubbing Them Clean

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