Dan Erwin

Gloria Steinem's New Category for Gory, Blood-and-Guts, Terrorism Filled, Male Movies

 

Maybe it's just the fact that we're both the same age--82 years--that causes Steinem and me to get a real bang out of creating new terminology and laughing at ourselves. She really did me one better a short time ago, revealing her ability to create new linguistic categories. I burst out laughing three or four times the same day, just thinking about her obscene category label.

Steinem was on a plane from New York to Seattle when a long delay on the tarmac prompted the airline to offer a free movie. When the flight attendant read the choices out loud, the man across the aisle from her said, "I don't watch chick flicks!" She knew the language as well as I...

Trump Was Predicted 18 Years Ago

If you've read the shock and surprise of the past two weeks, you'd be certain no one could have predicted the Trump and populist win. But you'd be wrong. Some commentators were alert to the electoral change. Both before and after the election, a passage from Richard Rorty's 1998 book, Achieving Our Country, circulated on the web.

Here's what he had to say:

Politically Incorrect

My eldest daughter, like me, is "kinda proud of her alma mater. Actually, very proud." Why? Her University of Chicago sent a note to incoming freshmen that they shouldn't expect "safe places" at their school. 

Here's the verbatim from the dean of students at the University of Chicago, pushing back against recent college trends. 

We do not support so-called trigger warnings, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial and we do not condone the creation of intellectual 'safe spaces' where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.

Think you can guess our political stance? ...

Is Your Thinking About Success Shaped by Delusion?

More than most other cultures, personal and organizational success are immensely important to Americans (You can toss the Chinese in with the Americans). Celebrity status, personal book sales, organizational profit and individual power and finances are inevitably touted—and by a lot more than the media. So I was amused by research focusing on theTiger Mother concluding that the theory of why people thrive is “finally rigorously debunked. 

Chua and Rubenfeld argued that three traits predicted personal success. . .

Cool It! The US Is, Was--and Always Will Be--a Messy Experiment

When those wise revolutionaries, the Founding Fathers, created our government, they referred to it as an "experiment," admitting to its potential for chaos and failure. Churchill's comment that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others, applies directly--and significantly to today's conflict regarding Trump within the Republican party.

The reality, however, is that the US, unique among nations, has a long history of self-correction. Indeed, you may be surprised to learn that about every 30 or 40 years we have had similar messes--followed by...

The Upside of Flip-Flopping

Are you a flip-flopper? Do you evolve, or just stay the same? “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything,” wrote George Bernard Shaw.

In career development, it’s usually the little things that derail a manager or exec. Thus, I typically focus on granular career issues. For example, I’ve never quite understood why, even when it’s done rarely, flip-flopping is such an evil. So I was intrigued to read Adam Grant’s recent article on the “virtue of contradicting ourselves.”

Flip-flopping and inconsistency, according to the well-known Wharton prof, can be virtuous. But...

Leadership Failure. . . and What Can Be Done About It

In his masterful study, Leadership BS: Fixing workplaces and careers one truth at a time, Jeff Pfeffer forces his readers to deal with the actual realities of leadership. The picture is not pretty. His description is both highly analytical and comprehensive, dealing with both leadership practice and thinking.

Acknowledging the truth of his description will be painful for most and often. . .

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.” ...

Five Ways to Screw Up a Job Change

Since people are beginning to make a job changes, have started looking for a different position, or are giving serious thought to moving to another company, now's the time to call your attention to a superb HBR article on "bungling" a job change.

The article, written by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams, reminds us that the average baby boomer will switch jobs 10 times according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Gen-Y, 12 to 15 times, or more). It also calls attention to the fact that the worker as free agent will be a reality regardless of economic conditions--all of which means it's incumbent upon us to take greater control of our own careers.  And since there are times when most of us have to accept a less-than-perfect fit for financial reasons, it's very important to remember ...

Nine Rules for Successful Personal Change

In several  of her astute blogs, Rosabeth Kanter of Harvard Business School, writes about change and emphasizes the difficulties of what she labels the "miserable middle."  Put it this way, it isn't change that does you in, it's the transition from where you are to where you want to get to. 

My clients have spoken to me often about the difficulty of their changes: getting a new boss, getting a new role, gaining new subordinates, working across different disciplines--and on and on.

There are times when I think that I've lived a charmed life.  When I went from parish minister to seminary professor, from a person with fingers in every hole in the dike, to a teacher with a narrow focus and motivated students, it was an easy transition.  I've talked about the difference as a "slide."  I just went down the slide to the teaching profession.  After all, a great deal of of parish ministry is about teaching.  Besides, I liked being free at night and not having to spend Saturday preparing sermons and Sundays preaching.  I loved my weekends with family--and occasionally, just skipped church.  In short, there was no miserable middle, no muddling around with the transition between my previous position and my new position. But when I went from teaching to consulting, now that was different. There was a long, frightening, questioning miserable middle of more than a year. And for most in major career transitions, the middle will be even longer...