Early on in my career I took my first business trip to North Carolina where I participated in a ‘higher education’ conference. No, the conference wasn’t on the airplane although we were ‘higher’. Because it was North Carolina there was even a pig roast. Sadly, I couldn’t find an apple. To get from Vancouver to Winston-Salem, I took planes interconnected by the Star Alliance family – Air Canada and United Airlines – and since that trip I very rarely diverge from the family. I’m a loyal customer racking up (according to a recent personalized infographic sent to me by Air Canada’s loyalty program) over 2 million miles of business. Suffice to say that I’ve had a few apples in various lounges unlike Miss Piggy in
Culture Archive
We could learn a thing or two from Star Wars. Take for example what happens when you forget to brush your teeth, floss or use mouthwash. No one wants green slime oozing out of their mouth like Jabba the Hutt. I think some of it might have actually fallen on Princess Leia when she was shackled to Jabba’s throne while wearing what was the coolest bikini I had ever seen as a then 11-year old boy. But I digress. One aspect of Star Wars that goes relatively unnoticed is the galaxy-class mentoring program that is woven into the story arc. No, I’m not kidding. How do Jedi’s become a Jedi? It’s a masterful example of a mentoring program. Anakin Skywalker had Obi-Wan Kenobi as his
I’m not a very political man. You may even call me apolitical. I always vote, but I often vote based on the issues versus being tied to a political party. I’m politically Neapolitan. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you about a good story that involves Government, regardless of your or my political stripes. In my home province of British Columbia, Canada, there has been a program in place now — called IDEAS2ACTION — where citizens have been asked to get involved, submit ideas and help shape opportunities for skills development across the entire province. The process the Provincial Government followed is best summarized by the graphic found below: There have been over 125 ideas submitted and vetted, with a fantastic accompanying dashboard that
Corporate bullies. I’m fed up with them. In 2006, Sarah J. Tracy, Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik and Jess K. Alberts published an influential paper entitled “Metaphors of Workplace Bullying: Nightmares, Demons, and Slaves: Exploring the Painful” in the Management Communication Quarterly. In it the authors note: Based on qualitative data gathered from focus groups, narrative interviews, and target drawings, the analysis describes how bullying can feel like a battle, water torture, nightmare, or noxious substance. Abused workers frame bullies as narcissistic dictators, two-faced actors, and devil figures. Employees targeted with workplace bullying liken themselves to vulnerable children, slaves, prisoners, animals, and heartbroken lovers. I hope you weren’t drinking tea when you read that as it might now be all over your laptop or device. Seven years later,