United States – Page 22 – understand-culture

A half-century after ‘Mister Rogers’ debut, 5 facts about neighbors in U.S.

2019 – More than 50 years after the first episode of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Fred Rogers, the creator and host of the popular children’s TV show, is being memorialized on the silver screen. A forthcoming Hollywood movie, in addition to a documentary last year, are bringing renewed attention to Rogers and his familiar refrain, “Won’t you be my neighbor?”

A Pew Research Center survey in 2018 explored several aspects of community life in the United States, including neighborly relations. Amid fresh interest in Rogers and his show, here are five facts about how Americans interact with their neighbors, based on the Center’s survey:

Why Volunteerism Is an Essential American Value

The commitment to volunteerism has been a hallmark of American civic life since the country’s founding. It was Benjamin Franklin who formed the first volunteer fire department in 1736, and many American militias during the Revolutionary War were comprised of volunteers. Some of the most well-known American charitable organizations, such as the YMCA and the American Red Cross, were founded in the 19th century.

Many American youth today are exposed to volunteering through religious youth groups or scouting organizations, and many large companies arrange volunteering opportunities for their employees. Nearly every church, school, or local community center has volunteers who feed the poor, teach, tend to the sick and elderly, support political causes, coach kids, or rescue animals, among numerous other causes. Not only does volunteering allow people to help others through direct action, but it fosters an incredible sense of community as well.

Alexis de Tocqueville on American volunteerism

“Americans use associations to give fêtes, to found seminaries, to build inns, to raise churches, to distribute books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they create hospitals, prisons, schools. Finally, if it is a question of bringing to light a truth or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example, they associate.”

History of Volunteerism in America

The history of volunteerism in America is rich and complex. As long as the United States has been a nation, it has focused on helping and improving the lives of others, and this has produced a culture that deeply values volunteer opportunities.

Midwest Niceoff 1

Youtube comments:

“Charlie- ‘Cuts like butter’. Branch gets the sloppiest peel cut I’ve ever seen.”

“Lived in Wisconsin my whole life, can confirm this is a normal interaction. The polite wars that happen in public are just as terrifying. Just wait until you hold the door for someone that also wants to hold the door for you.”

“I feel like I could do this. My neighbor walks down the street and pulls all the garbage cans back to the garages.”

“Our neighbor mows our lawn in the summer, and we shovel her walk in the winter. True midwest neighbor-ness.”

Courage

Morgan Freeman, a greatly respected American actor.

Get things done

Getting Things Done by David Allen is one of the staples of personal and professional productivity. Getting Things Done, or GTD for short has been on the top sellers’ list for more than a decade (it first came out in 2001) and with good reason.

David Allen has managed to create a system that you can use both at work, at school and at home – it is almost universal. The book though is rather complex and lengthy and you can get lost in the nitty-gritty of the it all.

3 Situations Where Cross-Cultural Communication Breaks Down

The strength of cross-cultural teams is their diversity of experience, perspective, and insight. But to capture those riches, colleagues must commit to open communication; they must dare to share. Unfortunately, this is rarely easy. In the 25 years we’ve spent researching global work groups, we’ve found that challenges typically arise in three areas.

How To Break Down Team Silos At Work

As organizations have grown bigger and bigger, so have their divisions— both literally and figuratively. Specific functions have become decentralized and delegated. As such, the individual components of these organizations have become increasingly specialized and discrete in the form of team silos. Sounds good, right? Not exactly.

There’s one thing that organizations need more than specialization: collaboration and team building.

The hallmark of all successful organizations is effective communication and an atmosphere of collaboration. But team silos, or isolated teams, are formed when the groups work alone rather than together. This reduces productivity and efficiency and slows down progress.

Team building is vital to increasing operational efficiency. If individual silos are not broken down, a unified, productive, and communicative team can’t be built. We know it’s hard to bring teams together and break down team silos across an org, so here are some tips to help.

Blink

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. This influential non-fiction book explores the power of snap judgments and rapid decision-making. Gladwell argues that some of the best decisions are made in an instant, based on intuition and limited information, rather than prolonged analysis. The book is filled with real-life stories where quick thinking leads to effective outcomes, capturing the American preference for speed over perfection .