Dan Erwin

Misunderstandings Can Be Very Good For You

There are few experiences that can drive learning more than misunderstandings with a business colleague. Misunderstandings happen all the time in organizations and in the best of relationships.  Actually, misunderstanding is more prevalent than understanding.  The reality is that consistently successful communication is especially abnormal in organizational settings.  And although the resulting emotions of embarrassment, threat, fear or anger can hinder us from being proactive and growing, just as often it can propel our learning.  

The reasons for misunderstandings are numerous in the organizational setting: levels of hierarchy, larger work teams, cultural, age, sex, gender, religious and value differences, struggles for power ...

Giving Employers What They Really Don’t Want

Sometimes what we think other people think is not what they think. Michael Barnes and Bob Sternberg studied the extent to which partners in an intimate relationship understood what each other wanted. What the study revealed was that people in intimate relationships don’t know very well what each other wants.

Research also reveals that same problem between colleges and businesses.

Here’s what educators think employers want:

Six Deep-Smart Accomplishments for Generations X and Y

In a recent column alluding to research revealing that ages 82 to 85 are among the happiest years of a person’s life, David Brooks takes issue with its “deterministic” emphasis. He’d rather think that people get better at living through effort, skill and mastery. I can’t agree more. So I intend to surface his six issues that make life much better and apply them to Generations X and Y. Why wait until you’re an octogenarian for a happy, good life?

Start with Aristotle’s unique theory of ethics. Aristotle doesn’t see ethics as following a list of moral rules. He believes that the virtues of justice, courage, temperance and so on are complex rational, emotional and social skills. But he also emphasizes “practical ethics.” ...

The Magic of Networks: Bigger Is Not Better!

It's not about size, but about quality.

Rob Cross often reminds us that it's not what we know, but whom we know.  The fact is that those of us with top-drawer networks are dealing with a lot of magic.  As Cross writes in an HBR Blog, there's a great deal of difference in networks. 

Work since the 1970s shows that people who maintain certain kinds of networks do better: They are promoted more rapidly than their peers, make more money, are more likely to find a job if they lose their own, and are more likely to be considered high performers.

The secret, or the magic of networks has never been about size.  Indeed, building mammoth Rolodexes or Facebook accounts can be harmful to your health and your performance. 

The people who do best tend to have ties with those people who are not connected to each other.  If you've got a network like that, you're more likely to hear about unique ideas--ideas that don't echo around in others' networks.