Last Friday night, I sat down at home with the family to watch a film. Group consensus found us selecting "We Bought a Zoo", a brilliant 2011 film by Pearl Jam fan Cameron Crowe based on a true story. Benjamin Mee - rather tragically - loses his wife to illness and subsequently decides to ‘buy a zoo’ which then precipitates him to move his two children from city life to rural zoo life. You can visit Benjamin’s Dartmoor Zoo site to learn more and to find out how you can book tickets to actually visit their zoo. (they even have a European Reindeer) By the closing scene, I was a bucket of tears. And I wasn’t cutting onions. That of course got me thinking. Do you cry at work? In the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, President Obama wept during his press conference discussing the situation. Who wouldn’t? Who couldn’t? I did, and I was thousands of kilometers away in Europe on holiday. Is it ok to cry amongst your peers and team given difficult situations? Do you feel uncomfortable if someone cries in front of you? If President Obama cried with the entire American nation watching, does that make you think more or less of him? Do ‘real leaders’ cry? Do my current or past peers think more or less of me because I occasionally cry in a given situation? I’ll provide three personal examples for you to contemplate: 1997 - While watching the graduation class of St. Patrick Regional Secondary School march across the stage to collect their degrees, I was tearing up. When the Valedictorian spoke, by this point I was openly weeping. I knew it was the last time I was going to be a part of a high school graduation as I was moving on to other pastures. The students (and staff) didn’t know I was leaving until after they had celebrated their moment. It was tough but I believe they were ok with my waterfall. 2001 - I had to let someone go while working at BCIT. It was a painful decision, but one that had to be made for various reasons. During the discussion with the employee, I welled up. It was the individual who looked at me and said, "Dan, it’s ok. I get it." When I told the rest of the team that the individual was no longer going to be a part of our group, I welled up there as well. I don’t think this affected my leadership or the results of our team. I don’t have empirical proof it affected it negatively or positively, but perhaps I was viewed more humanely in the eyes of everyone. 2008 - I made the painful decision to leave SAP and a culture, team and ‘work family’ that was very dear to me, and my heart. When I informed my direct manager in California about my decision, I wept on the phone. When I gathered the leadership team together, I wept there too. And when I had to tell the entire team of roughly 100 members, I lost it … couldn’t even finish my sentence. After personally opening up in this space and describing a few examples of me weeping in front of various peers in various situations, do you now think less of me? I’m not suggesting, however, that I’m an emotional wreck, watering conference rooms after every difficult situation. That might be coined emotional unintelligence. But rest assured, I don’t think differently of those that cry at work. We’re all humans; get on the bus.   Related Posts:That Decision Is Above My Pay-GradeFlexible Working Worksthe second bookI Don’t Do GolfAutotelic: The Word of 2013

Soon after New Horizons passes closest to Pluto, it could pass through a ring of orbital dust. The post New Horizons’ Finest Moment Could be Its Hour of Destruction appeared first on WIRED.

Dear Employee, Re: your promotion Let me be clear from the onset of this letter; you will never be promoted at our organization in your current role or to another role elsewhere. The reasons why are plentiful. First, let me start with your attitude. In a nutshell, it sucks. You complain a lot about your peers, your workload, your parking spot and your desk location. You sit beside Jimmy who owns a cat. How can you hate someone with a cat? You’ve even complained about changes to the toilet paper in the bathrooms. Might I suggest you start bringing your own? (Please don’t share) You openly criticize organizational direction, not in a constructive manner but in a malicious and condescending way. In the kitchen I once overheard you say "I’ll likely see a new microwave here before I’m promoted." Second, your work ethic is impoverished if not stunted. Arriving at 10:00am, taking 90 minutes for lunch and leaving the office at 3pm seems rather selfish and foolish. Writing emails is a part of the job so stating they are a "time-waster" is nonsensical. Your colleagues complain about your missed deadlines and a lackadaisical attitude whilst in meetings. Your ambivalence and lack of drive is causing others to stress out by virtue of the fact they are carrying your load on top of theirs. This, I must state, is inexcusable. Even tennis players carry their own bags onto the tennis court. Third, although you seem to be disengaged, you also refuse to participate in our efforts as an organization to become more collaborative. Your online employee profile contains a picture of Bart Simpson (versus your own) and it is the only item you’ve managed to edit. In any of our collaborative technologies — backed by our open leadership framework — you refuse to participate. Could it hurt to mark ‘like’ — even once — on a post or comment anywhere? Even the octogenarian Marnie has over 1000 micro-blog posts not to mention over 30 self-made videos. And lastly, insubordination is not only a fancy word, it’s a hallmark of hierarchy. We are urging the organization to share, to openly communicate and to work together to achieve our collective goal of beating the enemy; our competitors … not each other. By going around our teammates, hiding information and purposely setting up roadblocks so others may stumble, you become locked into a path of mediocrity and — quite frankly — will remain magnetized to the metal chair you currently occupy. You will never be promoted. For the record, I placed an order at Costco and a new microwave arrives on Friday. Sincerely, Dad Related Posts:The Question I’m Most Often Asked …IT & HR: Should They Merge?6 Use Cases for Enterprise Micro-BloggingThe Social C-SuiteMicro-blogging can help build your organisational culture

The title of Chapter 6 is "Beyond the Connected Leader" This 91 second video snippet sees me (Dan Pontefract) describe the background to Chapter 6 of the book Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization. Building off of Chapter 4 (Becoming a Connected Leader) and Chapter 5 (Being a Connected Leader), Chapter 6 concludes the connected leader trilogy by introducing five more attributes that help you to go "Beyond the Connected Leader". Watch the video to find out what those five attributes are. Related Posts:Flat Army: Chapter 5 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 4 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 3 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 10 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 7 Overview

At London's Barbican, the multimedia artist is filming 150 visual artists and musicians getting creative---and posting the results on social media. The post Doug Aitken’s New Project: A Film Made of Instagram Clips appeared first on WIRED.

When I left academia in 2002 I also left the trappings of an office. When I switched organizations in late 2008, I also gave up a singular desk space. I’m like PacMan careening through a corporate game board collecting points at the desks, tables and rooms I occupy. I am a floater. I’m on a quest for the corporate floater high score. There are no ghosts in this game. Wherever the wind takes me — be it the road, various offices, home or coffee shops — I am working. I float. I’m like those bubbles we blew as a kid except I don’t pop when I crash into a wall. Too many childhood childish metaphors? With no office and armed with my laptop, tablet, mobile phone/headset, USB polycom and trusty whiteboard markers, I am good to go. Put me in coach. I’ll work from the moon. Filing cabinet? Please. Stapler? Staple what? Pictures of my family? Ummm, hello cloud? The Globe and Mail recently surfaced an excellent article entitled, "Even in hidebound offices, cubicle walls are falling". In it they profiled several organizations who are making the shift to mobile work environments. One line caught my attention from an example detailing efforts at the TD Bank: Thousands of other TD employees will be working in unassigned workstations in the future, too, as the bank joins a growing number of employers who are deciding that the traditional office - with a desk for every employee and an expectation that everyone will be in their place throughout the work day - is as outdated as teller’s cages and dusty ledger books. For you, the organization that continues to succumb to the false pretense that work only occurs if you physically see your employees, I abhor your archaic if not disengaging methodology of workforce culture. You do not float; you continue to control your culture by your own myopia and fears. There is cement in your shoes. Are you afraid of those ghosts in this game of corporate PacMan? Maybe you believe your bubble may in fact crash into the walls of your assigned cubicle seating plan. Whatever your demons, you’d be wise to wake up to the 21st century and realize work does occur without ‘official’ desks. Other than at a wedding, who does a seating plan these days anyway? Related Posts:Flexible Working WorksGoing Forward to the Past: Management Yahooliganism &…Friday Fun: You Don’t Have an Office?Virtual Worlds in an Organization are not a Time Waster (andThe Collaboration Commons Idea

Mexico’s one-peso-per-liter tax on sugary beverages is a model for its northern neighbor. The post Mexico’s Soda Tax Is Working. The US Should Learn From It appeared first on WIRED.

The title of Chapter 7 is "The Participative Leader Framework" This 86 second video snippet sees me (Dan Pontefract) describe the background to Chapter 7 of the book Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization. I think leaders need to become much more participative. (yes, it’s a mouth-full, but it’s important) I’ve devised a model called PLF - Participative Leader Framework - that depicts how one can become more participative. It has to do with networks, consumption, contribution and CARE. Click the video to find out more. Related Posts:Flat Army: Chapter 6 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 5 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 8 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 9 OverviewFlat Army: Chapter 11 Overview

In her first major speech outlining her economic platform today at New York City's New School, the Democratic presidential candidate vowed to crack down on "bosses misclassifying workers as contractors." The post Hillary Clinton Will Crack Down on the Contractor Economy appeared first on WIRED.

The University off British Columbia has awoken from years of gender pay inequity and decided to grant all 880 tenured or tenured-track female faculty a 2% wage increase effective immediately and retroactive to July 1, 2010. This act — costing more than $2 million — was in response to a study performed by the University’s Equity Office and although one-time in nature, does send a message that pay inequality will no longer be tolerated. One might argue that’s (finally) taking a stand even though it doesn’t fully address the inequality of pay between men and women faculty. Also in Canada, four of the country’s ten provinces are now (finally) led by female Premiers including: Christie Clark, British Columbia Alison Redford, Alberta Kathleen Wynne, Ontario Pauline Marois, Quebec These four provinces account for 83% of the country’s total population, a first for Canada. In the world of high-tech, Boards are (finally) giving the CEO pilot seat to females such as Ginni Rometty (IBM), Meg Whitman (HP) and Marissa Mayer (Yahoo!). Let’s not forget other fabulous women non-CEO leaders in high-tech organizations such as Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Padmasree Warrior (Cisco) and Selina Tobaccowala (SurveyMonkey). And on the global political stage, we’re very familiar (finally) with the outstanding work of Angela Merkel (Germany), Hillary Clinton (USA) and Julia Gillard (Australia). Pundits will scoff. Naysayers will assert this is merely a drop in the bucket and that true gender equality across pay, leadership and innovation is a far-fetched dream. But is it? Are we not (finally) witnessing ‘rise of the woman’? Well, not really. (and that is quite sad) Over twenty years ago in an HBR article entitled "Women as a Business Imperative", author Felice Schwartz found that 37% of managers were in fact women. Not great. Fast forward to 2012 in Canada and Statistics Canada reports female managers comprise 35.4% of the working population. Not good at all. Additional fodder. Although the aforementioned CEO’s (Rometty, Whittman and Mayer) may be great examples to highlight, has the actual percentage of Fortune 500 companies employing a female CEO increased over the past twenty years? It has, but only marginally. Whereas female CEO’s made up 4% of the Fortune 500 population twenty years ago, it now sits at a paltry 7%. Further studies by Catalyst indicate F500 Board composition is nothing to be proud of either. Current day female penetration of corporate boards is estimated at a measly 14.5% which is (thankfully) up from 6.2% in 1998. Let’s not mention the debacle that centered around female quotas on corporate boards in the European Union this past year. Personally, I’m pleased to see mainstream media highlight the stories of the women mentioned above. My problem? It’s not enough. We need more of it. Stories provide role models for both men and women to follow in today’s organizations. It also serves as a powerful teaching and inspirational tool for both boys and girls in the K-12 spectrum. Yes, we need more of it. And now I’ll get personal. Our daughters Claire and Cate (aged 9 and 5) need to enter the workforce without this ridiculous level of gender inequality. Our son Cole (aged 7) will grow up - at least in our household - knowing Marissa and Sheryl are as cool as any male counterpart in the high-tech arena. Our organizations should also be highlighting stories of female managers and directors — if they aren’t doing so already — such that a conscious effort is given to internally market and position leaders equally. It may be "The End of Men" but I believe we have a ways to go in the organization if we aspire to true equality. No one wants their work environment to be composed of or to be led by men only. (Unless of course you are a misogynist) It is time to help drive ‘rise of the woman’ inside the organization so that future leaders — like my kids, for example — don’t have to wait for the glacial pace of change as it pertains to an equal footing of female and male Managers, CEO’s and Board members. (finally) Perhaps President Obama’s White House Council on Women and Girls 2012 report says it best: "The success of American women is critical for the success of American families and the American economy. And in order for our nation to keep moving forward, women must be able to help provide for their families and contribute fully to our economy." Related Posts:The Wolf Pack and LearningBosses Should Shift From Scroll to SwipeFlat Army DedicationAutotelic: The Word of 2013Friday Fun: All That Jazz