Dan Erwin

The Purpose of College Is to Make You Uncomfortable

Is 'empathetically correct' the new politically correct?

Over dinner with some long-time friends, we were discussing the difficulty their grandson, a recent engineering grad, was having finding a job. Knowing that the religious school he attended was certainly not noted for engineering, I asked why he hadn’t gone to the University of Minnesota. At the “U” he would have gotten a far better engineering education, paid much less tuition and accessed the U’s magnificent engineering career network.  

 

“He wasn’t comfortable” with the University, his grandmother responded. Without thinking, I blurted out that I thought the purpose of college was to make the student “uncomfortable.” They were silent for a moment, then broke out into laughter, and agreed fully with my conclusion.

Disturbing the personal status quo
So I was both intrigued and delighted by a blog from Karen Swallow Prior in The Atlantic declaring that “Empathetically Correct” Is the New Politically Correct. Prior’s got her finger on a very important subject. It’s not an oversimplification to suggest that empathy is all about making people comfortable, not disturbing their status quo.

The recent list of those having to back out of commencement speeches because it would make the grads uncomfortable is...

On Target: Zakaria's Sarah Lawrence Commencement Address

It’s obvious, says Fareed Zakaria, that the conventional wisdom regarding a college degree is that a student should major in computer science, code at night, start a company, and take it public. Or, if you want to branch out, you could major in mechanical engineering.

What you’re not supposed to do is get a liberal arts education.

So here’s Zakaria, speaking at the quintessential liberal arts school, Sarah Lawrence College. What he has to say is dead center, and particularly for those who can think beyond their first job. Because his speech is “tl;dr” (too long; didn’t read), I intend to lay out the relevant excerpts. Zakaria clearly and obviously rejects the conventional wisdom on college education. But as I’ve argued in the past, never trust conventional wisdom without a very, very thorough analysis. In short, following in the path of conventional wisdom is not going to take you very far. But I’ve added an explanatory note at the end of this blog, illuminating the non-liberal arts grad.

Zakaria’s bio and the background for the speech may be necessary to set the stage. . . .

Three Questions About Questioning

Recently a couple business school academics engaged in an email conversation about a number of issues within the discipline of questioning. It was immediately obvious that neither had the slightest tacit, nor even consultancy, knowledge about what business people actually know about the technology of questioning. Their assumptions were completely wrong from the get-go: two completely false assumptions held by at least 90% of business people and faculty. A third issue they surfaced is not only a non-starter, but, well. . . stupid. Still, it too needs to be addressed and put to bed.

Two of the issues are exceptionally important. That’s true not least because in the 21^st century real influence grows out of having the right questions—not the right answers. Furthermore, creativity, innovation and research—today’s well-recognized drivers of business success—are built upon questions. 

To keep the email interaction confidential ...

Does Building a Network Make You Feel Dirty?

Although most of us believe that networking is a necessity for both our personal life and our careers, it sometimes has negative connotations. It “conjures up images of back-slapping, forced smiles, awkward conversations or brown-nosing.” Because of that, many people shy away from the process. Often to their loss.

In a spot-on and desperately needed study, Casciaro, Gino and Kouchaki examine the psychological consequences of building a network. 

As I worked my way through their research, I was reminded of related research by Stanford’s Jeff Pfeffer. Pfeffer found exactly what my own coaching has revealed: Though people have lots of job-related talent and interpersonal skills, they sometimes wind up in a position with little power and opportunity. Why? They are unwilling or unable to play the power game. As the study above shows, they view it as a dirty, moral issue that they don’t want to deal with. 

It’s not all dirty
In an illuminating analysis, the study distinguished between what I’ll call “clean” and dirty networking. Clean networking is that which comes about as a result of the pursuit of friendship or emotional support and emerges spontaneously. You’re sitting in the ...

An Intriguing New Role for Climate Change: Threat Multiplier

"Tribes are killing each other over water," said Defense Secretary Kerry in a recent interview. Most of us, with just a half-hearted attempt at informal research, are well aware of the local and national implications of climate change. It's incontrovertible that low-lying ocean-front homes and business on the East Coast are in trouble. But when the Pentagon gets in the business of assessing the problem, that's a different matter.

Here in the Midwest, Insurance companies, food companies and pet food companies have been adjusting strategy and acting on the assumptions and implications of climate change for years. Yeah, that's right--years. Grain buyers at Ralston Purina, the largest dry pet food company in the world, were making assessments and long-term purchase agreements based on climate change issues nearly twenty years ago. Of course, firms like that have meteorologists on their payroll. They recognize that smart grain planning is a significant competitive advantage. Knowing that climate will significantly impact their business, they can't afford to play the political games of climate skepticism to please the stupid and rack up more votes.

Pentagon report
As reported by Coral Davenport, the well-known energy and environment reporter, "The accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk to national security and acts as a catalyst for global political conflict," according to a military-research organization.

The impact study is lengthy and detailed:

Climate change-induced drought is leading to Middle East and Africa conflicts over water and food resources. That also includes coastal areas in eastern India, Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The consequence of that, which is already in play, is increased refugees.

A recent report also indicated that many arable areas of Africa have now been reduced to desert. Not just water, but also food are at issue.

The military is frustrated by the problem, and already planning for sea-level changes and storm surges around coastal areas for their own installations. Norfolk, Virginia, for example is the world's largest naval base and also home to nuclear submarine construction. That would impact jobs, and it would eventually have to go.

But the most significant issue the military will have to deal with is that "climate change is an active, driving force in starting conflict." There's a reason that many terrorists come from water-starved and food-starved areas of the globe.

Of course, the skeptics and crazies are still around. But as David Titley, a meteorologist and co-author of the military report, responded, the facts are indisputable: "The ice doesn't care about politics or who's caucusing with whom, or Democrats or Republicans."

I suspect that more and more it'll be a great time for architects, engineers and the construction industry. There's going to be a lot of rebuilding. And sustainability will factor into projects in unheard of forms.

Dollarphotoclub: Thomaz Kunst

A Simple Conversational Shift That Produces Great Growth and Development

All too often performance reviews, feedback sessions and updates devolve into frustrating and defensive shutdowns. They leave the participants in a worse place than where they were before the conversation. So how can you reshape these career sessions to produce change, growth and significant development?

The key is to shift the conversation from a problem orientation to a developmental opportunity.

Quentin Skinner, of the University of London, points out that any change of words is, underneath, a change of perspective or viewpoint. So the rhetorical shift from a problem orientation to development opportunity is the difference between looking backward and looking forward: looking backward focuses on blame, but looking forward can create high value. That conversational shift can also increase knowledge flow and creativity both for the individual and the organization.

The conversational shift looks like this:

               What went well? And what can I learn from that?

                What needs to go better? And how can I make those changes?

 Making the rhetorical shift will require us to develop a new and novel story, including how to interact around the new questions....

Update: Can You Change Your Personality?

In the popular mind, characteristics like introversion and extraversion are unchangeable. Although I’ve never explicitly pooh-poohed that interpretation, my career as counselor, university faculty and management coach long since brought me to the conclusion that personality distinctions like that are largely useless and often destructive. Yet people continue to believe that the personality is encoded in the genes, fixed, and unchangeable.

However, research now shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that personality is a flexible and quite dynamic thing. By personality, psychologists refer to those enduring, long-term patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that distinguish one person from another. That would include, for example, increased levels of self-confidence, warmth, self-control and emotional stability. It also includes the temperaments, the introspective and extraverted. Although these changes are more predominant in young adulthood (age 20—40), the research has demonstrated that personality traits can change at any age. So when someone tells you “that’s who I am,” don’t take it seriously. That may well be just who they want to be. Or that they believe that they can’t make those changes. Or that they’ve never given thought to making real changes, and certainly that they don’t know how to make the changes of importance....