March 2002 Flash Points

Harriet Rubin says, 'Before you learn what others know, you need to learn what you know.' What are some good ways to discover your own skills and knowledge? Do mentors automatically preclude you from self-discovery? Under what conditions could a mentor bring out your best skills, instead of replacing them with his or her own?
What makes a good mentor? Are the most fulfilling professional relationships the ones you seek out or the ones that naturally form over time and shared interests? Think of this as an extension to the 'nature vs. nurture' debate in the business world.
Evaluate Rubin's claim that mentors are a requirement for female workers. Should females feel pressure to have one? What advantage do males have in the workplace that precludes them from needing mentors? Should male mentors require a 'safe distance?' What might the result of this be on office gender politics.

Compare the type of high schools, undergraduate and graduate programs people in your CoF attended. If anyone attended a non-traditional school (without letter grades or different requirements) have them lead a discussion on the pros and cons of traditional letter grade-based academics. What life and business skills does such a setting help develop?
Alverno college is all women and faith-based. Could such a style of teaching and grading succeed in a secular, co-ed setting? Or at a larger university? What possible benefits exist to this type of academics when a school is small, religious-based or single-sex?

Ask your CoF members where they have overshot and undershot technology in their companies. What sectors do they think are just beginning to use technology like they should and where have we not begun to realize its potential?
Christopher Meyer of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young says they've 'undershot in terms of courage on the strategy side.' Evaluate that statement in the context of last month's article on courage, which explores post-Sept. 11 what courage means in business.
Thornton A. May says we should avoid 'technology Vietnams.' Have your group come up with examples that would fit under this category. What exactly does it mean to classify something abstract as a 'Vietnam.' Could our zeal for the Internet fall under this category?
What are the 'thou shalt' and 'thou shalt not' credos of your group members right now? How do you avoid the trap of letting technology make you 'stupid faster'? Where are the CIOs in your group concentrating in the upcoming months? What new technologies are they excited about?

Analyze old standards and deviances. What practices in business, culture, entertainment, life, sports, etc. do we call standard now that used to be 'deviant?'
Come up with a list of five recent cultural phenomenon and assess where they rank on the deviance continuum: realm of the cool, the edge, social convention, next big thing, etc. How does an idea flow from one stage to the next? How fluid are the constraints of the continuum?
Analyze the history of the Internet as a deviant technology. At what point was it fringe? What elements identified it in on the fringe, the edge, realm of the cool, and the next big thing? Is it safe to now call it a social convention? When did it become that and how do we know it's done evolving?

How will business run post-Enron? Will there be new definitions and standards of corporate responsibility? What has changed in your company in the past few months?
John Ellis is frightened that 'no one knows' what the next financial bomb will be. How is that no one knows these things in the age of information? Where might your company concentrate its efforts in order to avoid collapsing in post-Enron fears?
If Enron combined an old-economy product with a new-economy style of management, what does its failure tell us about the old and new economies? How can a company make a successful transition from old to new?

Daniel Richards contributed this month's Flash Points.

March 2002 Connexus | Flash Points | Next Steps