As my interest in folk music deepens I thought it would be good to feature Pete Seeger today.
I recently read an article entitled How to tell when your boss is lying and it made me think about some of the problems encountered when bosses fail at leadership. A good leader should inspire their employees, but not through deception. Keeping your employees in the dark, or feeding them misinformation, is no way to inspire confidence in your leadership or create a healthy work environment.
I wasn’t entirely sure how to start this theme day, or whether to even do a religion/spiritual themed series of posts at all. However, having had the good fortune to find a congregation where I feel comfortable searching and growing my spirituality I figured I’d share my experiences and maybe what I share will be of some use to someone. However, just because I believe one thing does not mean I think that people who believe differently than I do are wrong. I just want to make that point clear, especially in these times of fear and intolerance of things that are different.
I never considered myself a very religious person, and therefore didn’t worry too much about spirituality either. The distinction that is often made, that religion and spirituality are mutually exclusive, is an argument that seems appealing on the surface, especially when one cannot find fulfillment in a “traditional” church. (I use traditional in quotes because my tradition, that of Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church, is certainly not the only one but it’s the one I know so that’s what I am talking about.) Actually, an article on Ask.com on Religion vs. Spirituality lays out very nicely some of the problems with trying to permanently separate the two. While I believe you can be spiritual without being religious, I have found (for me anyway) that being religious has helped me deepen my spirituality. It’s just that I had to find the right religion that worked best for me.
For me, that religion is Unitarian Universalism. My first introduction to this was Karen and I visited our local congregation, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Northern Chautauqua. I was intrigued. The main Principles were something I could immediately feel comfortable with. Some further reading on Spiritual Topics and more visits to our local congregation was when I realized I had found something special.
I am beginning to feel more comfortable with calling myself a religious and spiritual person. I am certainly just beginning my journey, but am excited to have found that this is a path I can take.
For more reading, check out the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations visitors page.
I enjoy presenting, teaching, and other things public speaking related. This comes to me as a huge surprise since I had always considered myself a rather introverted person when I was younger. I don’t recall ever having taken Meyers-Briggs or anything, but I imagine I would have been an I. Interestingly enough, now I am a solid E.
I came across a blog post with a title that made me have to read it: The Advantages of a 2,500 Slide PowerPoint Deck
I don’t really like Power Point (in the general sense; if I were going to use a program of that type I would prefer to use Microsoft’s PowerPoint). I feel that too many presenters do not use the technology properly and you wind up with Death by PowerPoint. If I do use a projector I tend to prefer using live examples, websites or programs for example, and marking things up liberally with a dry-erase marker as I go along. Of course this only works if I can project onto a whiteboard, which unfortunately seems to be a difficult setup to find. So I can understand why you might have to use something like PowerPoint, even if you would rather not.
The premise brought up is intriguing to me. I might have to start collecting my super-deck and give this method a try.
I’d be interested to hear if anyone has tried something like this or what methods you enjoy using.
I wasn’t sure exactly what to post about on my first Tech Talk Thursday, but this article from the NY Times seemed like a good place to start.
The term micro-moments jumped out at me. I don’t want my attention divided up into a million micro-moments. It makes it very hard to actually get things accomplished or get refreshed if you are only giving yourself a small chunk of time to do it. It is very difficult in these days of extreme multitasking to find a breath or take a break. Even when we are away from it all we have wi-fi at our campgrounds or facebook on our cellphones.
I always feel like I am in the minority, being an IT worker who doesn’t believe technology is the answer to everything. It is a tool, and it can be a very useful tool. I plan, in future posts, to give examples of the many useful ways technology can be implemented. However, it seemed like a good way to start would be with some delimiters. Sometimes you need to unplug, and it should be recognized that technology is just a tool not a life-sustaining element. So take a deep breath, take enough consecutive micro-moments to relax, and then we can focus on the positive ways we can use our technological tools.
There are many articles and examples of the growing inequality between the very rich and everyone else. I found this article from Business Insider to be pretty easy to digest since it is very visual.
The biggest problem with this is that the super-rich continue to gain more wealth and more power while driving a wedge between the rest of us as we fight for the scraps that are left over. I see attacks on labor unions and worker rights as deliberate attempts by the privileged few to keep the rest of us under control. Defined-benefit pensions, health insurance, and living wage salaries should not be controversial issues. These are the things every worker should have the right to. But instead of focusing on why we pay millions of dollars to CEO’s and entertainers, we are misled into attacking our fellow workers who are trying to support their families.
I read something in the Village Voice that reminded me that the NYC punk and new wave scene a la CBGB’s is as old as I am. Thanks to the people who upload stuff to You Tube and don’t disable embedding, I can share my three favorite bands from that era.
One of the failures of management can be to push forward with plans despite good evidence to the contrary. How can you avoid being the PHB? Listen to your employees. They are more than just cogs in a wheel, they are professionals with opinions based on facts, experience, and knowledge.
