I'm in Eugene, Oregon today to give the keynote presentation at the conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Eugene Water and Electricity Board. The gist of my message is that as impressive as progress has been in the past century it will pale in comparison to what is coming in the next two decades. [...]
Do You Live in (a) Detroit?
November 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I don't mean do you physically live in Detroit. Instead, I mean do you and your business live in an environment where you're surrounded by like-minded individuals. Living with — and around — people who think the same as you can be comforting but it can also be very dangerous. The fact that the "Big [...]
Stop, Yield & Unlearn
March 18, 2010 By 1 Comment
Recently, I posted an unlearning strategy which I entitled Engage in Some Situational Unawareness Training. Tomake my point, I started with a little quiz about the color of the yield sign. In this spirit, I’d like to share with you this short and informative TED presentation from Gary Lauder who proposes an innovative idea for a [...]
When Data and Decisions Collide: Unlearning Needs to Result
November 4, 2009 By 1 Comment
Fellow blogger and change agent, Seth Godin, has an excellent post today entitled "When data and decisions collide." In it, he recounts numerous examples of people ignoring data because it doesn't line up with their "hunches" — or what people think they know but "just ain't so." Godin is pessimistic about the time it will take most [...]
Unlearning the Escalator
October 28, 2009 By 2 Comments
Unlearning Traffic and Roads
October 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I pride myself on being open-minded. Nevertheless, I am constantly surprised at how often I find myself saying "I had never thought of that." To this end, a friend of mine recently introduced me to the concept of "shared space." In it's simplest form, the concept questions society's over-reliance on traffic rules and laws. This article in Salon [...]
