Columbus Day & Human Progress?!

Columbus Day in the US is a celebration of Christopher Columbus. As an existential philosopher I think this a wonderful opportunity to #pause and celebrate globalization and human progress at large.

1) I have many friends who live between airports, hotels and the internet so I begin with

Ode to A Traveler ~ John O’Donohue

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,

And live your time away to its fullest;

Return home more enriched, and free

To balance the gift of days which call you…

2) I have a commitment to take my family on a trip once a year to a new country. Besides a book, travel is the next most mind expansive tool. Just in case you’d like some ideas New York Times is a great resource for bucket list design. Here are 52 suggested places to visit.

3) Ideas do not care about passports. They land where individuals have quiet time and environments rich in collaboration. If you want to get the innovation virus perhaps these countries are when you want to visit. Here are the 10 most innovative countries in the world.

4) In addition to where to travel it is important to address the mindset of the traveler. Articulate Alexandra Levit reminds us to see the world as a stage and gives us a nudge to expand our global mindset and fine-tune our global competence:

“If you’re employed by a decent-size company, ask to spend a few days in a foreign office, or for an assignment that involves close business dealings with other countries. Read foreign newspapers to gain insights into the daily goings-on of a particular country. Hop onto Skype and interview international colleagues to learn how your industry operates abroad.”

5) Complexity in the macro, requires simplicity in the micro. To navigate such significant shifts in how we work and where we work, it is more important than ever to hold onto your core. I find Gianpiero Petriglieri poignant as he urges the importance of moving around without loosing your roots. (yes, Gianpiero, still one of my favorites)

6) Ensuring your personal relevance in the rough water of macro change it is vital that you keep your pulse on the Fourth Industrial Revolution #4IR (although I personally feel we are in a post-industrial revolution).

7) There is a Copernican revolution in organizations and organizational thinking. The voice I seek to gain perspective in this new systems view in organizations is Fritjof Capra. I highly recommend his Systems View of Life :

At the very heart of the change of paradigms from the mechanistic to the systemic view of life, we find a fundamental change of metaphors: from seeing the world as a machine to understanding it as a network. This change has many facets. At the forefront of contemporary science, the universe is no longer seen as a machine composed of elementary building blocks. We have discovered that the material world, ultimately, is a network of inseparable patterns of relationships; that the planet as a whole is a living, self-regulating system. The view of the human body as a machine and of the mind as a separate entity is being replaced by one that sees not only the brain, but also the immune system, the bodily tissues, and even each cell as a living, cognitive system. Evolution is no longer seen as a competitive struggle for existence, but rather as a cooperative dance in which creativity and the constant emergence of novelty are the driving forces. And with the new emphasis on complexity, networks and patterns of organization, a new science of qualities is slowly emerging.

8) Now it seems the blue ocean that we are swimming consists of droplets of 1’s and 0’s as data artists take the stage. As an example Aaron Koblin suggests:

“Numbers can humanize us. You can use data to discover the patterns we make as a collective whole, so that we can better understand society and ourselves.”

9) In this era of big data I am reminded of the wisdom of Alfred Korzybski and his profound statement: the map is not the territory. There are limits to big data as Michael Schrage has great faith that human begins are still the killer app “the more data and facts one has, and the more predictions matter, the more important human judgment becomes.” I am not as optimistic as Schrage and am deeply concerned about the dangers of bias in algorithms. I think we need more scenarios of dystopian points of view.

10) Heinz Pagals says, “science has explored the microcosmos and the macrocosmos; we have a good sense of the lay of the land. The great unexplored frontier is complexity.” So I shall close my Columbus Day celebration in anticipation of our next frontier: Chaos, Complexity & Entropy.

I wish you safe travels in mind, body and spirit.

In the rigor,

Jennifer

♫ Listening to Edward Sharpe — Home ♫