Today I turned 60 plus one day. Honestly I have been looking forward to this day for ten years. Now, that I have made it I am looking forward to 70+ 1. Why? I don’t dread living and feel it is great time to look at what I have yet to learn about: myself, the world, life, etc., you know that small stuff many try to avoid looking at throughout their lives. So here I go into the next decade of living. Stay tune for it promises to be quite interesting from here out. Mike
Archive for the ‘21st Century’ Category
A side note on age: 60+ 1 (July 12, 2010)
Posted in 21st Century, Life starts at 60 on July 12, 2010|
The 3 lessons
Posted in 21st Century, 5Careers Design, Apathy is a favorite tool of fools., Human or Cog?, Maturity is not a skill, Michael Mason Norman, The World Needs Your Talents, tagged Great Life on July 8, 2010|
“Lesson one, The world owes you nothing!”
“Lesson two, The country owes you nothing!”
“Lesson three, What do you owe yourself? A Great Life!”
The little girl looked up at her grandparents. Into their eyes she searched for more, but their eyes kept repeating the same messages, over and over. (more…)
The Life and Times of a Chief Humility Officer: On to Better Things
Posted in 21st Century Organizations, 21st Century Workplace, Chief Humility Officer, Michael Mason Norman, Thinking on June 21, 2010|
Handwritten note to Bill, December 24, 2010
Bill it was great working with you and we truly appreciated all the fantastic work you did for the organization.
Best of luck in your new endeavors that you are pursuing. Thanks, CEO and Chair
Company wide newsletter
January 2, 2011
Back page, bottom of column three
We wish to inform everyone that Bill_____ has decided to pursue new adventures with another
organization. Given our recent reorganizations after Christmas, the Executive Team has decided to discontinue
the position titled Chief Humility Officer and spread its responsibilities among the following departments:
Legal, Marketing, HR and Risk Management. If you have any questions, please contact the CEO’s secretary, Jonathan
________.
The theme of our next newsletter will be: Hiring Etiquette Practices
The Life and Times of a Chief Humility Officer: Challenge Three
Posted in 21st Century Leadership, 21st Century Workplace, Michael Mason Norman, On Whose Watch?, Thinking on June 15, 2010|
November, 2010
I closed the door behind me as I left the CEO’s office. I felt great as I was told that my work was exceptional and it was important that the publicity office write an article about me for the newsletter and the local newspaper. No other companies in town had a CHO and it was important for the company to herald its guy at the head of his class. (more…)
Hiring Etiquette: Another Perspective–The In-house Professionals
Posted in 21st Century Workplace, Human or Cog?, Impoverished imaginations, Organizational Imagination Deficit on June 14, 2010|
Caller: Sir, I sent in my resume and app two weeks ago and then had a phone interview last Thursday. But, even though I was told someone would call me on Monday, I thought it was best, since today is Friday, to call back and find out what was your decision?
HR: Uh, well I haven’t heard back from the hiring manager, so I don’t know what to say. Please, we will call you next week to let you know. Thanks for calling.
Two weeks later.
Caller: Sir, I talked with you two Friday’s ago and you mentioned you thought a decision would be made the following week, but I haven’t heard from anyone.
HR: Well, we are still thinking through what we want to do. Thanks for calling.
Three weeks later, the Caller notices an announcement about the job he interviewed for. It was found on the website: www……
It notifies job searchers that the job posted three months earlier for so and so type company, had been pulled. It doesn’t say if it were filled, nothing.
Two days later, the same job is reposted, inviting interested parties to submit resumes and applications.
The Caller (Dumb-founded and frustrated): Sir, Why didn’t someone have the professional decency to call me and let me know what was happening. Click on the other end of the line. Such is life in the hiring lane these days.
Is it fear of engagement or is it just not wanting to have to explain why someone was not hired. Time or lack of it could be a culprit, too. Should organizations call people or email them to let them know they were not under further consideration after interviewing them, especially if they were softly lead to believe they were still in the running for a position or possible further interviews?
What are your thoughts on this kind of situation for job seekers? Do organizations have any kind of responsibility to inform potential employees of hiring decisions or is that a legal taboo? What does this do to the hiring process in the future and who is going to believe HR people or their surrogate 3rd party vendors? Are there any hidden costs for organizations who run soft deceptions during the hiring process?
The American Work Ethic for the 21st Century
Posted in 21st Century Workplace, Dr. Michael Mason Norman, The Transition Recession on June 9, 2010|
Our American work ethic has normally been confined to thoughts about the Protestant work ethic. Specifically, it suggests that hard work is the key to success. Yes, work is a key to some forms of success, especially working hard to get what you are after. It is particularly true when you are in control of what you want to go after. Historically, people had a great idea of what they were after, it was a strong pastoral lifestyle of open air and open opportunities formed from living on the land. In today’s post-industrial climate, the setting for work is quite different and at least equal in challenge to the times of the pre-World War Two American farming society.
Many Americans, obviously not all, graduate from college and move into the ranks of normal working stiffs. Everyday, they jump into their cars, scramble aboard buses and trains, even a few ride bikes to work. Once at predetermined workplaces life moves into the scripts of routines. Work is now about doing things which may have consequences for the world, but more than likely the effort goes unnoticed. Farmers grow things, raise animals and hopefully serve as stewards of the land. When you are sitting in an office what are you are you doing that which resembles serving as a steward? Perhaps you are a steward of paper or information!
When I was teaching graduate level business students some years ago, I often asked them who was responsible for their success at work? A few said they were responsible, while others felt it was their supervisors’ responsibility to assure their success. The latter was a very curious response, as it placed the individual’s success in the hands of their supervisors. In so doing the respondents were also setting their own responsibilities for success outside of themselves. Consequently, from their viewpoints, success or failure at work where not their collective responsibility.
I have thought about this paradox for sometime. Unfortunately, I never asked my classes in who was responsible for the successes or failures in the rest of their lives? I now wonder if they would blame their parents, their significant others or even their children? It seems that both domains are now socially acceptable as status markers, they need origination from outside ourselves. Oddly, we seem to place our fates in the hands of those who shadow our lives. Is this simply a practice of each younger generation? Absolutely not! Old and young today harbor senses of dependency on others. Perhaps in a society where you clock in everyday, you sign a tacit agreement where you believe you relinquish your identity to others. Yes, that is what I believe happens when you deed away your success and failures to others. It is an odd work ethic worth exploring carefully and fully.
Let me suggest that if you know someone who is still in his or her twenties, that you sit down and have a heart to heart talk on who controls their lives at work and at home?
Our Transition Recession: Part Two
Posted in 21st Century Workplace, Be The Difference: Today and Tomorrow, Critical Thinking and Independent Action, The Transition Recession, The World Needs Your Talents, Thinking on March 14, 2010|
When you are over fifty you begin speculating about what life could have been when you were young. When you are young you speculate about what life will be like when you turn 35 and become old. Neither are spared their delusions as they journey onward. This is the second part of “Our Transition Recession.”
We begin with a comment on an interesting article by Reihan Salam (Time Magazine, March 22, 2010, pg.46, 47). Its title foretells the life stories for many in future generations: “The Dropout Economy, The future of work looks a lot like unemployment.” Whether or not present spectators of our times believe we are witnessing a tectonic shift in how the economic, social and political landscape is being reconfigured, we are definitely feeling the ground move beneath our feet. Incidentally, that big wall of water is not a mirage, it is a tsunami racing towards us to wash-away the doubters about change. Salam’s view of the future is not grim, nor sci-fi in its conclusions. He simply writes a picture board of images depicting what many of America’s tomorrow’s will look like. If those tomorrow’s are for the better or for the worse, they will depend upon how we prepare ourselves for unknowns, countless challenges and in how we energize ourselves to live–with reduced governmental and institutional support. (more…)
Perspectives on Leadership for the 21st Century 