Motivation – understand-culture

10,000 ways that won’t work

From the Guardian article linked below: “One man that exemplified the science of taking massive actions is Thomas Alva Edison, an American inventor and one of the greatest innovators of all time. During his career, Edison patented over 1000 inventions, including the electric light, the phonograph and the motion-picture camera.

In the period from 1878 to 1880, after Edison had built a small laboratory in New Jersey, he worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. Many inventors had tried ever before him, but couldn’t produce perfect incandescent lamps.

By January 1879, Edison had built the first high resistance incandescent electric light, just as he desired, but still the lamp only burned for few hours. To get the perfect ‘filament,’ he went from one experiment to another, tested thousands and thousands of numerous materials to use for the filament, but they did not work with the tools available at that time.

He tested carbonised filaments of every plant imaginable; he tested no fewer than 6000 vegetable growths. He was never discouraged or inclined to be hopeless of success, despite his several mistakes. He finally discovered that they could use a carbonised bamboo filament that last over 1,200 hours.

After thousands and thousands of failures, mistakes and errors, Edison finally invented the first practical incandescent light. Though it took him about 10,000 trials to make the light bulb, he gave the world some of the best invention that has heralded the ‘modern’ world.

When a reporter tried to ridicule his various attempts by asking him how he felt to have failed for 10,000 times, he said something that stunned the whole world: “I have not failed 10,000 times; I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” He has an unbreakable record; he not only eventually succeeded, but established a system of electric power generation and distribution to homes.

Edison also developed the first movie camera and was the first to record sound. He gained worldwide acclaim for his inventions and continued working, even with advancing age and in frail health, amassing a total of 1093 patents, more than any other inventor at that time. His last patent was obtained at age 83 and he died at 84 on October 18, 1931 in New Jersey.

Three days later, on the night of October 21, as a national tribute proclaimed by President Herbert Hoover, millions of Americans turned out their lights to plunge the country into momentary darkness in order to illustrate how the world was before Edison discovered the light bulb.

When someone called him a genius, Edison made the famous reply: “Genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration,” a statement that testify to his virtues of tenacity and persistency even in the plethora of his errors. An overzealous reporter once wrote a headline about Edison: “God said, ‘let there be light’ and there was Thomas Edison.” He was a light to the world, for when Edison died, the lights were put out as a tribute to this legend that set the world aglow with the discovery of the electric bulb light.

Tony Robbins

Action Is the Key to Everything.

Quotes

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts. Perhaps the fear of a loss of power.” — John Steinbeck

“Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.” ― Dale Carnegie

“The object of power is power.” — George Orwell, 1984

“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.” — George Orwell, 1984

“Don’t trust children with edge tools. Don’t trust man, great God, with more power than he has until he has learned to use that little better. What a hell we should make of the world if we could do what we would!” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.

Harvard Information for Employees

A strong communication plan will help managers set expectations and successfully orchestrate a diverse group of distributed employees. A thorough plan ensures that employees get what they need to stay connected with their team, customers, stakeholders, and the University.

Discussions about communication tools, protocols, and the ways in which people use these to interact with one another are ideal at the onset of a team approach to flexwork; however, anytime is a good time to establish or revisit a communication plan. A successful plan requires shared understanding and commitment so it’s important for all team members to participate when writing or revising a team communication plan.

Please also see CWD’s “Leading and Managing in a Hybrid Work Environment Toolkit” which includes more in-depth and how-to advice for building skills for a culture of fluid communication in the context of flexwork. Teams should develop a communication plan that addresses:

tense, direct, transactional

Breaking Bad (2008-2013) offers a darker portrayal of negotiation in a scene where Walter White negotiates with drug kingpin Gus Fring. White, who is initially outmatched, uses his knowledge of chemistry and the production process to assert leverage, ultimately positioning himself as an indispensable asset. The negotiation is tense, direct, and transactional, emphasizing the American focus on maximizing personal gain, even at the risk of escalating conflict.

How to advance in a company

A small percentage of people in this world are lucky enough to be born rich. Even fewer manage to hit the lottery or somehow fall into large sums of cash. Generally speaking, the rest of us have to rely on good old-fashioned hard work if we want to get ahead. Unfortunately, not everyone who works hard will be rewarded for it. In addition to being dedicated and having the right skills, there are some important steps to take if you want to advance in an organization.

In your quest for professional promotion, the first stop should be your human resources or staffing department. Find out everything you can about the culture and values of your organization, so you can be sure you’re towing the company line. Equally important as you step onto the corporate ladder is having a strong sense of your own abilities and what you want to achieve.

Why Americans Are Moving to Germany for Work

Looking at how Germany and the USA treat types of “leave”, there is one universal truth: whereas Germany sees it as a basic human right, America sees it as a commercial bargaining chip… and the statistics in this video schocked us.

Looking at our contracts, our employment in Germany is so much more humane – with a work-culture that guarantees vacation time, maternity leave, sick leave, parental leave and more for all full-time workers.

YouTube comments:

“I think it is important to note that the benefits we enjoy in germany did not just fall from the heavens, but they are the results of many decades of struggle by the workers movement. Do not take these things for granted! Join the union and vote for worker-friendly parties.”

“Before every American now starts to look for a job in Germany, keep in mind, that this is not uniquely German. Nearly all European countries have similar regulations like Germany, sometimes a little less, sometimes even significantly better.”

“When I had my first baby, I was working in retail for a cosmetics company in Germany. They had to provide a chair and stretcher for me to sit/ lie down at all times. I wasn’t allowed to carry anything heavy and after 22 weeks of pregnancy wasn’t allowed to work standing up for more than 4 hours a day. At every doctor’s appointment, my OBGyn would ask me if I was still ok working or if they should give me a Beschäftigungsverbot (a kind of mandatory medical leave), which is fairly common in the last few months of pregnancy, especially for jobs that can be physically straining.”

Death by Robot

The first recorded human death by robot was in 1979, when Robert Williams, a 25 year old Ford Motor assembly line worker, was slammed by a robot arm as he gathered parts in a storage facility. The incident occurred in Flat Rock, Michigan, and Williams’ family was awarded 10 million dollars in damages after the jury agreed that Williams’ death was the result of a lack of safety measures on the part of Ford Motor.

These days, robots have become fairly commonplace, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes that robots are likely to become the focus of the next technological frontier. With increasing advancements in the field of robotics, more and more Americans are becoming concerned about these machines. The two primary concerns are that the robots will replace the need for human workers and that robotic intelligence may exceed human intelligence.

Robot: a real or imaginary machine that is controlled by a computer and is often made to look like a human or animal; a machine that can do the work of a person and that works automatically or is controlled by a computer. First known use: 1922. The word “robot” comes from the Czech word for “forced labor.”