Hot Topic Friday: Oct. 11

Happy Friday! Here are my Oct. 11 Hot Topics and how they relate to advancing culture or leadership.

Hot Topic 1: Moving Away and Complicated Grief.

What It’s About: Margo Rabb, a best selling author, wrote a very touching and thought provoking piece in the Sunday NYT entitled the “Garden of Solace.” She begins the article with a painfully honest reflection on how she really felt having to make an unexpected move with her husband and young family from Austin to Philadelphia. The following captures so much: “I helped my children settle in to their new schools and our temporary rental house, but I couldn’t settle myself. My husband worked longer hours; on weekdays, we rarely saw him. I felt a sense of loneliness and isolation so deep that it seemed like someone had scooped out the insides of my bones. Among the boxes in our garage sat some that were decades old, filled with my parents’ belongings. My mother had died of cancer nearly 25 years before, when I was still in my teens, and my father died of a heart attack seven years later. I ached for them now in a new way, especially my mother. I longed for her guaranteed love, her saying, ‘everything will be alright.’”

Why It’s Important: Over my 40 plus year career, I moved my family a lot, as I vaulted from one job to the next. Edmonton to Seattle to Denver, and back to Seattle (with a commute in between to L.A.). And that’s just when the kids were living with us. When I landed in a new role/city, I immediately jumped into my exciting executive job and worked from the belief that my wonderful supportive wife and children would adjust. After all, we embraced adaptive resilience. Hmm. As I read Rabb’s work, it made my knees wobble a little. How compassionate and understanding was I? “It seemed like someone had scooped out the insides of my bones.” Ouch! If you are making a partner or family move, please be aware that adventure and loneliness are often uncomfortable roommates. If you are a company or organization moving someone, do you make sufficient allowance supporting the person outside of work? Do you have a caring support plan? Or is it easier to pretend that before and after work has nothing to do with the job? Do you wash your hands from your total investment? I hope not.

Hot Topic 2: Learning to Embrace More From Less.

Source: Inc.

What It’s About: MIT research scientist Andrew McAfee has an upcoming book, More From Less, that offers a positive view on modern capitalism—that the world is currently prospering economically by using fewer resources for the first time in history—and details what that means for the future of humanity and economies worldwide.

Why It’s Important: Regardless of industry, market geography or organization, smart, modern employees want to work for an employer that is intentional about using less to make more. Giving ones talent to organizations that advance humankind, including being capable of doing more with less, is important to top notch people with a choice. Waste or toxicity of any kind is UNCOOL! How much does your organization really embrace this mindset and value in your organization? Is it a competitive advantage because it’s the right thing to do and innovative? Or is it a worn out, narrow, cost reduction effort annually cast out by finance?

My Weekly Wine Recommendation (Thanks to Vivino):

Ru’s Farm Pinot Noir 2014.

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[Picture and ratings provided by Vivino].

And finally! Here’s Cecil’s Bleat of the Week!

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“Applying the science of phase transitions to the behavior of teams, companies, or any group with a mission provides practical rules for nurturing loonshots faster and better.” - Safi Bahcall.

Bye for now!

— Lorne Rubis

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Season 3 of Culture Cast.

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Happy Friday! Here are my Oct. 11 Hot Topics and how they relate to advancing culture or leadership.

Hot Topic 1: Moving Away and Complicated Grief.

Hot Topic 2: Learning to Embrace More From Less.

And finally! Here’s Cecil’s Bleat of the Week!

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