Every day, I see or read about innovations that force us to think differently about some part of the world.

Electronic cigarettes

One recent example is the electronic cigarette, which has been invented by tobacco companies to separate the unquestionably negative attributes of tobacco ingestion, the exhaling of smoking, the ingestion of tar and other hazardous chemicals, and the creation of fire hazards from cigarette butts and ashes, from other attributes that are important to tobacco marketers, but are less obviously harmful, such as the addictive qualities of tobacco.  The March 2 issue of The Wall Street Journal highlights the battle between proponents and opponents of electronic cigarettes, but it has the most difficulty with a vocabulary that is poorly suited for this product.  A lot of the terms we associate with tobacco no longer make sense, such as “smoking” or “lighting up a cigarette.

E-books

The electronic book has changed how we think about reading material.  Bookstores become showrooms for content we download instantaneously (possibly from a vendor other than the owner of the bookstore) and can take with us anywhere we have a portable electronic device.  That device can provide us with enlarged print, the ability to convert text to speech, and, most importantly, can give us the ability to carry a library with us everywhere we go.

(more…)

During my 35-year career at large organizations, the description of the goal of providing equal opportunities for women, people of color, and other disadvantaged groups changed from “equal opportunity” to “diversity.” Today, that word would be “inclusion.”

What is inclusion?

“Inclusion” means three things:

• building a diverse organization;
• respecting everyone in it; and
• welcoming and act upon their input.

Excelling at inclusion requires qualities Jim Collins describes in a Level 5 leader in Good to Great, particularly, the combination of modesty and strong will, and the ability to seek out market feedback, which he calls “confronting the brutal facts.”  Inclusion requires more listening than talking, and more consultative and less traditional “selling.”

(more…)