Muni Wi-Fi now almost de rigueur
September 13, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
Interesting. Incumbents fought municipal wireless on many fronts..now they want deals with municipalities. Their motives may not be 'pro-consumer' but their wanting in is a good sign that muni Wi-Fi has great potential.
Less than two years after it first launched with a now-landmark Philadelphia project, the municipal Wi-Fi market is in full swing, attracting cities and towns nationwide and dodging much of the political controversy that stalled early projects. Within the last week, two major projects networks covering Minneapolis and Silicon Valley were finalized, and more networks of all sizes are being announced daily. Legislative efforts to derail municipal networks are dwindling, and although multiple business models have emerged, the public/private partnership approach is gaining the greatest traction. Perhaps even more telling, however, is that ILECs, led by AT&T, are getting in on the action. "
(Via TELEPHONY Magazine - Telecom News and Analysis.)
The Boss: Smart Is as Smart Does
September 13, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I love these little stories that use anecdotes to share learning - so much more powerful than "how-to's". I will encourage all my clients to write their short story and plan to do my own.
The Boss: Smart Is as Smart Does: "When Marcy Syms began her career in management, there was an assumption that she may not have earned her position."
If I learned anything over the years, it’s that it is not necessary to show someone how smart you are. It will come across in the process of developing a business relationship. When I became less insecure about myself, I didn’t try as hard. What I would say, with certainty and with a good deal of experience, is that you do get to use everything you learn. No training or experience, good or bad, needs to be wasted.
One experience that I learned something from was in the early 1980’s, before Syms went public. I had been working with the company three or four years, in charge of human relations and real estate and other things. I was persuaded, perhaps by the force of personality of the person presenting it to me, to go into a particular county in this new market, a county different from the one we were supposed to go into. I had to sell the decision to my father and a couple of other executives.
I succeeded, and we entered the market. It turned out that the future development of roadways didn’t happen in the way we were enthusiastically told it would.
What I did was not separate the merits of the project from the personality of the presenter. That’s a hard lesson, especially if you haven’t been burnt enough times.
(Via NYT > Job Market.)
Performance Review and Forced Rankings
September 13, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I see both sides here and don't see any easy answers. I think how a company does performance review will become part of its culture and values.
Under New Management: Performance Reviews: Many Need Improvement: "Only 3 in 10 employees believe their companies’ performance review system actually improved performance."
Some companies have tried to fix such problems by instituting forced performance rankings, also known as forced distribution or, less subtly, as rank-and-yank. Under this system, made famous by John F. Welch Jr. during his tenure at General Electric, managers sort fixed percentages of their employees into categories like “superior” or “needing improvement”; those in the top group typically receive the best compensation, training and promotions while those at the bottom may be denied raises or promotions, or even fired. The idea is that all employees understand where they rank, managers face up to personnel problems in their groups and the best employees are motivated to continue to excel.
Some skeptics question whether those companies that eliminate forced rankings can make reviews more effective. They challenge the basic concept of performance reviews by managers.
MARY JENKINS, a co-author of “Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead” (Berrett-Koehler, 2000) advocates a system in which employees themselves seek feedback from people they work with or who have skills they seek, then review a self-designed growth plan with their supervisor. She is using this approach at Genesys Health System in Michigan, where she is vice president for organizational learning and development.
But performance reviews are unlikely to disappear. Many companies believe that a paper trail of reviews can protect them against lawsuits from former employees, and many consultants and human resources executives contend that well-designed reviews, along with frequent conversations about performance, can truly help employees improve and develop.
It is instructive to note that critics of performance reviews have been around for a very, very long time. When the Wei dynasty in China rated the performance of its household members in the third century A.D., the philosopher Sin Yu noted that “an imperial rater of nine grades seldom rates men according to their merits, but always according to his likes and dislikes.” >
(Via NYT > Your Money.)
Early intervention to help minority students shift limiting self- beliefs
September 1, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
This is pretty amazing. A defining moment in a child's life that could align the child for a happier, and more successful life.Self-affirmation assignment boosts minority kids' grades / Study suggests that stress of stereotypes affects performance: "A simple 15-minute writing task at the start of the school year was enough to significantly improve the grades of African American students and close 40 percent of the 'achievement gap' with white students in one suburban school, researchers said..."
I do think some of the conclusions are missing the real value:Researchers said the results, though surprising, seemed to be consistent with previous studies hinting that small interventions sometimes can make a big difference in student performance. The findings also suggest that chronic stress felt by negatively stereotyped minority students -- the problem addressed by the writing assignment at the heart of the new study -- might be a more significant hindrance than generally realized. The writing task was designed to foster a sense of identity in students on the theory this might help them avoid getting tangled up by what the psychologists called "stereotype threat" -- in this case, the idea that poor performance in school would confirm negative preconceptions about the intelligence of African Americans, leading to even more stress at the first stumble.
I see it also as unleashing what is already there in the 'student'. And I do think it gives kids new skills, although not in the traditional sense of 'what are skills'. The skill that I see here has to do with self-leadership and that begins with increasing self-awareness which this exercise accomplishes. Hopefully, this great technique will not fall by the wayside because its results cannot be quantifiably measured.Researchers said the results, though surprising, seemed to be consistent with previous studies hinting that small interventions sometimes can make a big difference in student performance. The findings also suggest that chronic stress felt by negatively stereotyped minority students -- the problem addressed by the writing assignment at the heart of the new study -- might be a more significant hindrance than generally realized. The writing task was designed to foster a sense of identity in students on the theory this might help them avoid getting tangled up by what the psychologists called "stereotype threat" -- in this case, the idea that poor performance in school would confirm negative preconceptions about the intelligence of African Americans, leading to even more stress at the first stumble.
(Via SFGate: Top News Stories.)
Be defiant, live longer
September 1, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
Note to self: be extremely skeptical about all studies on health and aging. One year's dogma is next year's folly. So, like the 92 year old woman in the pilot study..don't sit still, and be a defiant tomboy.
The New Age: Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn’t Just in Genes: "Recent studies find that genes may not be so important in determining how long someone will live."
The scientific view of what determines a life span or how a person ages has swung back and forth. First, a couple of decades ago, the emphasis was on environment, eating right, exercising, getting good medical care. Then the view switched to genes, the idea that you either inherit the right combination of genes that will let you eat fatty steaks and smoke cigars and live to be 100 or you do not. And the notion has stuck, so that these days, many people point to an ancestor or two who lived a long life and assume they have a genetic gift for longevity. But recent studies find that genes may not be so important in determining how long someone will live and whether a person will get some diseases — except, perhaps, in some exceptionally long-lived families. That means it is generally impossible to predict how long a person will live based on how long the person’s relatives lived. Life spans, says James W. Vaupel, who directs the Laboratory of Survival and Longevity at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, are nothing like a trait like height, which is strongly inherited.
Mrs. Tesauro is in the pilot study. She had always been healthy and active, a self-described tomboy growing up who played tennis until she was 85. “I just can’t sit still,” she said. She was a woman who knew her mind, so eager to go to college that she defied her father, who thought it was a waste of money, and worked her way through. She ended up with a master’s degree in education and a career as a high school teacher. Her twin was different. She was the frilly type, Mrs. Tesauro said, and was not much of a student. She failed a grade in high school and barely graduated. Both Mrs. Tesauro and her sister married and had children.
(Via NYT > Most E-mailed Articles.)
Neil Young: master of defiance
September 1, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
Funny..I've been fixated on the word 'defiance' for months, maybe even a year since Katrina. I'm drawn to defiance and to anyone who shows it. Neil Young is at the top of my list and I was psyched to see him with CS&N last month. But it was an awful night; I left at intermission. It was not the band..they were awesome, especially the opening song: Flags of Freedom. But the crowd depressed me. They were appreciative, but they just didn't connect! They got up, and down, and up and down...to where, for what? cigarette break? beer run? cell phone? blackberry? They cheered for the band, but when the band played they sat and talked to each other! They were mostly boomers, but even the younger audience seemed like they were acting a part and more interested in texting their friends about being there than actually being there!
I never leave a show, but I just couldn't take it. I wrote it off to the bad energy of being in a casino arena and not my not being a big fan of the state of CT. But now I read this from the NYT about the same show at Madison Sq Garden and it was the same scenario. This writer blames it more on the younger crowd; but the Mohegan Sun audience was older. So I see it this way: its not the arena, its not the city, its not the age of the crowd, or CT... its the total lack of defiance or any real caring that makes us defiant. Maybe its the pharmaceuticals?. Or is it, as this guy claims, afraid of being called an appeaser? Anyway, I resolve to keep my defiance, to cultivate it and finely hone it every day for the rest of my life. I'm generally down on big pharma, but now I have new name for them: 'defiance killers'. As far as being called appeaser..well, has anyone ever hear a song more anti-appeasement than Neil Young's "Let's Roll" (about flight 93 and Todd Beamer)?
Editorial Observer: There Is Silence in the Streets; Where Have All the Protesters Gone?: "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young once echoed and personified a powerful political movement. Now their songs are just entertainment, something to leave behind in the concert hall."
It was a surprisingly political moment for a rock concert in 2006. But when those four men sang their protest songs four decades ago, their lyrics echoed and personified a powerful political movement sweeping America. Now they are entertainment, something to leave behind in the concert hall. There were a few political booths outside the Theater at Madison Square Garden. But the concert-tour T-shirt salesmen were getting all the business. The most noticeable sound was the cellphones being restarted by those few who had bothered to turn them off during the concert. This, perhaps, is the ultimate difference between the Vietnam generation and the Iraq generation: When you hear Young and Company sing of “four dead in Ohio,” their Kent State anthem, it’s hard to imagine anyone on today’s campuses willing to face armed troops. Is there anything they care about that much?
(Via NYT > Most E-mailed Articles.)