Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson devoted his professional life to education. He fought tirelessly for a global overhaul of how we teach each other how to think but fail to encourage each other to dance, sing, paint, write, and worst of all, imagine.

Sadly, Ken passed away in August 2020, and we lost a good one! He had a razor sharp sense of humour, gets us to imagine Shakespeare as a 7-year old boy, and shared his unwavering passion for helping people realize their talents. I have included his three TEDTalks - which have been three of the most watched in history.

These are all well worth your time.

__________________________________________________________________

Changing Gears

There is much debate on whether the coronavirus pandemic is over. With over 450,000 new cases last week, I'd say it's not much of a debate. It's not over and may not be over for decades to come. 

Over six million have lost their lives since March 2020 and the reason it's not tens of millions like the pandemic of a century ago is because of scientific breakthroughs like vaccines. Despite the suggestion of some, the boogie man did not create this and magic rainbow dust did not find a way to save lives.

Shift and Pivot 

What I'm fascinated by is how many of my friends and close colleagues have taken the last two years to make a shift in their lives. Some have dumped that gig they hated and started something new; some are taking online courses to train in areas they've always wanted to explore; and others are still ruminating but have begun the process that will clearly bring them to somewhere much different than the former "normal". 

After a lot of discussions, I made a shift late last year, and as much as many would think it's a lot to take the leap, it doesn't mean you have to or are tossing all your experience away. Sometimes a small adjustment can give us an entirely new perspective. 

In my case, after over sixteen years in consulting, I returned to a role in a media organization. I do have a few decades of experience in many areas and this role gives me the opportunity to utilize all of them. But it took someone I've known for over twenty years to give me that nudge to take that leap.

Pump the brakes

In my case, I now have a boss and I work on a team and they rely on me as much as I rely on them. I worked for myself for a decade and a half and my boss was my clients. My other boss was the person writing this post who had to fight through self-doubt, ignored emails, dead end prospect meetings, and lots of Thursdays without a paycheck. 

We have had a lot of time to think about this over the past two years. If I can offer some advice; pay attention to the signs whether those are conversations with friends, articles you stumble upon online, or that big dream you promised yourself you'd reach for years ago. If we don't learn anything through this pandemic, then what was the point. 

Not one day of our lives is guaranteed and no one is coming to rescue us, so the question remains what we're going to do about it. You know you can do it. You know you want to see what else is out there for you. The question that remains is the key. 

Are you ready?

__________________________________________________________________

Schools and Wishes

As I prepared for my TEDx talk, which happened last week and I'll post the video when it's online, I watched a lot of TEDTalks and presentations. The difference between TED and others is the personal side. It wasn't easy to share my story and experience but it's what I love about TED.

If you ever get the chance, do it; it was a remarkable experience.

One of the talks I went to first was this one from the brilliant Dave Eggers from TED 2008 who shared his wish - along with the hundreds who have joined him since - of education and the creation of The 826 Valencia Writing Center in San Francisco.

If you haven't seen this, you need to, click play.


__________________________________________________________________

Making it a Reality

Between working on client stuff, meeting new potential clients, writing a book which has been quite an enlightening and soul searching process, and trying to figure out what this thing called life means, I've been approached to submit a proposal to speak at a TEDx event early next year. No humblebragging here, straight up, this is a huge honor.

The audience will be university students, professors, and guests. The theme of the day is theory to reality. At first I thought about the fact every company started with an idea. There are none that started without one, which is the theory.

Then the work begins...

But I think it happens more often than we realize. It might have happened to you today. An idea came to mind, you acted on it, boom it became a reality. So we may not want to minimize these moments as they can lead to the big things.

The other element I keep thinking about is kids and the chances they have as they embark on their journey of discovery and potentially a handful of different career paths. This lead me to Kiran Bir Sethi who is the founder Riverside School in India which teaches kids life’s most valuable lesson: I can. That's something we know-it-all scared adults seem to forget.

Watch this!


__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit
New Book out in 2016 – Details soon!

Experience and Letters

I was recently chatting with a colleague who is a highly experienced human resources director about education, training, and degrees. He was lamenting that his company has kept raising the bar for new applicants. Twenty years ago, experience was more important than degrees. Today, if you don’t have an MBA, you can’t apply for most of the openings in his organization.

This is not to say an MBA isn’t impressive – it is – but it’s just one metric. If you have a person who has shown their ability and discipline to finish six years of university, you should acknowledge that. But my friend’s point was that they were discarding those who didn't have the letters behind their names even though clearly they had the ability and experience to be considered.

One Size Never Fits All

In my work as a leadership consultant and business coach, I've worked with a man who has built three multimillion dollar companies on a high school diploma and an extremely bright MBA graduate who struggled with the human aspects of his business. There are always exceptions but the question I had for my HR friend, can we assume the education someone has attained is a fail safe way to determine business acumen?

It’s been said that education is a lifelong pursuit but keep in mind when you are looking at new people to join your team, there are various metrics to consider. Formal education is important but experience shouldn't be ruled out. And once they do join your team, what types of continuing education and training do you offer to help them continue to grow?

That Will Do

The chat with my HR colleague ended on an interesting note when he reminded me his MBA was earned in mathematics which has very little to do with his work today. His HR training was necessary to get the gig but without an MBA, he would have never even been considered.

On the Forbes 400 Billionaire list; 35 have their law degree, 29 have a masters in science, 21 have their PhD, and 63 (or 15%) of the richest humans on the planet only have a high school diploma.

Education is critical but if we only measure it from the perspective of formal settings, are we closing our minds to possibilities?

Something to think about if you only look at letters.
__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

Wonderment of Our Inner Child

When we're kids, we're told to be curious, to dream and play, and to pretend. As we age, the world gets more demanding and puts on more constraints.

Or do we do it to ourselves?

Sir Ken Robinson is a fascinating man who is a tireless champion for creativity, education, and possibilities. Watch his TEDTalk and replace teacher with leader and children with team and see if this may help for your career, team, and kids.


__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

TED | Sir Ken Robinson

The Power of Grit

What does success, excellence, and 7th graders have in common? Consultant, teacher, researcher, and psychologist Angela Lee Duckwork decided to figure it out.

Watch this.


__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

TED | Angela Lee Duckwork

The Face of a Leader

“Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.”

Much has been written, discussed, and said about the attributes of a great leader. It’s perhaps easy for us to look to sports or business for those examples because they are plentiful but how often are they right there, in the middle of real life?

Before October 9th, 2012 most of us had never heard of Mingora, Pakistan. It is located in the Swat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The landscape is stunning, the people are strong, and at one time it was a tourist destination. Queen Elizabeth called it the “Switzerland of the new Empire”. But fear and terror are now part of daily life in Mingora as the Taliban’s presence has replaced peace.

"I am not here to speak against the Taliban. I'm here to speak up for the right of every child."

Three years ago, a young Mingora girl began writing a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. Her perspective was simply from a girl who wanted to realize her potential and for those around her. The New York Times filmed a documentary of her life which created more exposure for her and her cause.

She gave television and print interviews and soon her real identity was known. Her work garnered a nomination for the International Children's Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu.

"The extremists are afraid of books & pens. The power of education frightens them."

Malala Yousafzai was a brave young girl who was simply sharing her feelings and telling the stories of her town. But the Taliban was paying close attention and October 9th, 2012 they attempted an assassination on her life.

While she was returning home from school, a Taliban gunman shot her in the head and neck leaving her for dead. Malala miraculously survived and has become more vocal than ever, speaking for the rights of girls around the world to gain a good education and realize their dreams.

"I am focusing on women to be independent."

United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a UN petition in Yousafzai's name, using the slogan "I am Malala" demanding all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015. Time magazine featured her on the cover as one of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World".

Malala has become the youngest person to ever be nominated for a Noble Peace Prize and has won the Pakistan National Youth Peace Prize, Sakharov Prize, and Simone de Beauvoir Prize.

"I raise up my voice – not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard."

In just over a year, she survived being shot in the head, written a book, shown her bravery in the face of terror, spoke at the United Nations, appeared on countless televisions networks, met with country leaders – including President Obama – to fight for woman’s educational rights, and created The Malala Fund to further the cause.

If you want to see leadership personified, meet 16 year old Malala Yousafzai.


__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

tribune | united nations

Our Ongoing Education

We live in a fascinating time. Technology, communication, collaboration, and knowledge bring us more changes every day to connect and grow. As far as leadership and business culture, it’s also an ever more complex time.

We have four and sometimes five generations in the workforce side by side trying to homogenize the experience through systems and processes, strategies and priorities, options and competing priorities. This is challenging for all of us.

I do subscribe to the mantra that education is a lifelong journey and that may be more important now than every before in our existence.

Sir Ken Robinson is a fascinating man who is a tireless champion for creativity, education, and possibilities. Watch his latest TEDTalk and replace teacher with leader and children with team and see if this may help for your career as well as our kids.


__________________________________________________________________
Kneale Mann | Leadership and Culture strategist, writer, speaker, executive coach engaging leaders, collaborative teams, and strong business results.

TED | Ken Robinson

Do You Enjoy What You Do?

It’s a means to an end, a paycheck or a way to get to the weekend. All explanations of how far too many people describe their career. Leadership can come from each of us but often that strength is squashed by spending time during the week to make money in order to pay the bills and perhaps have some fun once in a while.

But what if we got to enjoy our work?

Sir Ken Robinson did an 18 minute talk at TED2006 and to date, more than four million of us have watched it. As a lifelong educator, his subject was about the fact that the education system is killing creativity. He returned to TED in 2010.

You’d think he would tell us all to go to school. You may be surprised by his thoughts on the topic and how we best look to our passion and life’s calling of which few people actually do. Ken is entertaining, thought provoking and funny.

If you haven't seen this, watch it, then follow your dreams.


Kneale Mann

TED | Ken Robinson

Changing Education Paradigms

One of the most popular speakers to ever speak at TED is Sir Ken Robinson. He is clearly smart and very funny. He cares deeply about education. Here, he shares some of his thoughts on some of the most controversial learning topics today.



knealemann | email

video credit: TED | RSA Animate

Fear. Educate. Organize. Implement.

Your business is not a campaign and your people are not all the same.

I think the reason most organizations are having trouble navigating the new ways of communication stems from fear and that's okay as long as you recognize that. Once that happens, you can then educate yourselves with what is out there and how you can activate some of those ideas in your company.

Once you educate - which is an ongoing process - you can then begin to organize thoughts and departments and job descriptions. This is not an overnight process, but it is a process that needs to happen.

So you deal with the fear by educating and organizing then you need to implement some of what you've learned into your organization. Again, this won't happen right away. There are no quick fixes and everyone in your company has a different view of this stuff.

If you can implement some new ideas, then the review and revise process begins.

This is a cool video that was produced by Jesse Thomas or as many know him JESS3. If you are having trouble grasping the explosion of the Internet, social media, mobile and digital, this may excite you, this may scare you. Some of the stats are out-of-date but focus on the overall message.

This is about human behavior not theory. And if you embrace it, you may just be able to battle the fear, educate each other, organize what works and begin to implement. [video]



knealemann

The Fire Hose Gets Stronger

The nonstop information on the Internet was once described as a fire hose aimed at a teacup which remains a vivid and accurate image.

We are drenched by constant information and there is no hope of us ever being able to keep up.

Information, education, entertainment, humor, music, books, articles, websites. The choices are endless.

And this doesn’t include that little thing we call life.

How much time do we have?

Depending on the survey, the average person living to life expectancy (women 81 and men 76) spends six months in the bathroom, eight months having sex, eighteen months shopping, two years reading, two years exercising, three years doing housework, three years cooking, four years eating, four years on the phone, four years lining up, five years online, a decade watching television and twenty-five years sleeping.

So when you think about all the stuff we want to do as business owners, the competition is fierce and the least of our worries is our competition.

Time is our biggest adversary.

A Series of Tubes

There is no definitive way to determine the size of the Internet. It just turned forty and we have created something we can’t even measure that grows by the second.

With over a quarter of the world's population online, the fire hose won't be easing up for the foreseeable future.

So where does that leave us teacups?

knealemann
strategy. marketing. media.

image credit: afajournal

TED2010: Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson did an 18 minute talk at TED2006 and to date, four million of us have watched it. As a lifelong educator, his subject was about the fact that the education system is killing creativity.

Ken returned to TED for another talk this year and to no surprise, he was brilliant. He talks about a crisis that needs our attention immediately.



@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

Five Things: To Run A Business

Ideas are everywhere.

This one is as simple as they come and is the result of a conversation with a colleague.

Five is a tidy number, it's an amount that is manageable and something we'll investigate once a week.

A Strategic Plan
A realistic and executable road map for your business and your career.


Honesty With Yourself
Know your strengths, be aware of areas to work on, no one knows it all.

Honesty From Others
Find a group of 5-10 trusted advocates who will provide clear insight and feedback.

Honesty With Others
Others can see right through dishonest business practices.

Constant Education
Learning is a lifelong endeavor.

Agree? Disagree?
What are your five things?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

photo credit: therulesofwealth

Books | More Important Than Ever

How many books do you read?

I read and write every day.

But probably like you, I have become victim of the article mentality which consists of short pieces, websites, business manuals and research all tying up time that could be used to read a good book.

The publishing industry is changing like the music industry before it.


Creativity: More Important Than Ever

The ad agency, marketing and public relations models are distant cousins to those a decade ago and online channels are getting more crowded every minute. These are precisely the reasons why we need to read more books.

We are bombarded with material all day long. How much are we seeing and how much are we digesting? How has social media hindered this process?

How much of this content is worthy of our attention and retention?

When was the last time you read a book about your industry or business? How often do you disappear into a book simply to widen your horizons or expand your imagination and ideas?

Must Reads

I bought a bunch of books before the Holidays – all of which are on my ever growing “I really need to finally buy that one and actually read it” list.

And when I refer to books, those include the audio kind as well.

A stack of books resides on my desk. Each will be read (some will be re-read) and replaced by more from the list.

Read (or listen to) any good books lately?

@knealemann

image credit: flickr