Month: December 2004

Change Antibodies

In his book, Leading Change: The Argument for Values-Based Leadership, James O’Toole, an expert in management and leadership, observes that great thinkers throughout the world agree that “groups resist change with all the vigor of antibodies attacking an intruding virus.” O’Toole examines a number of cases in which a potentially beneficial institutional change was resisted and finds that the resistance occurs when a group perceives that a change in question will challenge its “power, prestige, and satisfaction with who they are, what they believe, and what they cherish.” He asserts: “The major factor in our resistance to change is the desire not to have the will of others forced on us.”

If ideas are to take root and spread, therefore, they need champions — obsessive people who have the skill, motivation, energy, and bullheadedness to do whatever is necessary to move them forward: to persuade, inspire, seduce, cajole, enlighten, touch hearts, alleviate fears, shift perceptions, articulate meanings, and artfully maneuver them through systems.

I have a hunch that I will be doing a lot of the battling Jon is talking about in 2005.

Immersive projection

blue-c is a new generation immersive projection and 3D video acquisition environment for virtual design and collaboration. It combines simultaneous acquisition of multiple live video streams with advanced 3D projection technology in a CAVE™-like environment, creating the impression of total immersion.
i was wondering recently, after having read virtual reality, whether the VR community had been under a rock for the last 10 years. looks like they have emerged again..
while browsing around, i also found the virtual reality lab. what’s up with those images on their site? looks like someone over there is getting paid to play second life 😉

Best of wikipedia

wikipedia featured articles links to the cream of the crop at wikipedia. it will be educational to periodically review that page and assess whether the quality drive over there can produce top-notch articles in great numbers. one of the common critiques of wikipedia is that truly great articles are hard to emerge because the collaborative editing process is vulnerable to clueless editors. it is telling how many of the featured articles are in the realm of pop culture (where presumably, more editors can contribute meaningfully). i wonder at what point the growth of articles reaches a saturation point, and the editing process shifts towards refactoring?

Choice

our family decided a couple years ago to opt out of the holiday shopping craze, and i could not be happier about it. today i listened to this excellent presentation by barry schwartz on the psychological costs of choice. his main takeaway: that the relationship between happiness and choice is not monotonous, but peaks at some point. in other words, choice is good, up to a point, where too much choice becomes bad. here are some facilitation graphics.
i have found having to make choices that do not matter to me much (at the supermarket, at the coffee place, for investments) to be stressful, and stoicism to help. how do you deal with the choice onslaught?

Prison Trolling

i didn’t know what to make of the following letter in todays metro. one Robyn Bennis writes:

I agree with letter writer A.Primavera (“No place for black prisoners in print,” Dec 17). Prisoners give up their right to “safety” the moment they’re convicted. Is prison a punishment or a daycare?
We need to endeavor to find ways to make prisons more dangerous, not less. Inmates should be kept in constant fear of being stabbed, clubbed or kicked to death.
The issue of who does what to whom is secondary. Whites versus minorities, stranglers versus ax murderers or shirts versus skins – it’s all the same in the end.
And if the prisoners ever refuse to fight each other, I have a modest proposal of my own: hungry, wild animals randomly released into their cells at night.

where do they find these people? and why do i see their drivel in print?
updated: removed the phone lookup. as doug pointed out, the evidence was not strong enough
update 2005-09-16: Robyn Bennis writes to tell me that it had all been satirical. That’s good to hear, although one might be excused for coming to false conclusions with all these idiots running around.

You are invited

Heya,
Susan Kaup and I are hosting a dinner party on the evening of Thursday, December 9, 2004 at Casablanca, a mediterranean restaurant in Harvard Square located at 40 Brattle Street under the Brattle Theater and Cafe Algiers. The gathering is being held after the Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s kick-off event for their “Votes, Bits & Bytes” conference and the first meeting of the Boston Cocoon & Lenya User Group. Dinner starts at 20:30 and is dutch treat. You can expect to pay $25-$40 (meal, drinks gratuity). For directions and more information about the restaurant, visit Casablanca’s website or the local-i page of reviews and related tidbits. Please RSVP in the comments of Sooz’ entry or email her at susankaup@gmail.com.
UPDATE pictures of the event.