Five Hidden Strengths of Five Famous People

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In their latest book, Milo and Thuy Sindell discuss how people tend to either focus on eliminating their weaknesses (often a fruitless endeavor) or rely on their more obvious strengths almost entirely (so much so that they become a crutch) instead of developing their latent strengths. These latent strengths are ones that the individual demonstrates some aptitude for and have great potential for development into legitimate dominant strengths. By focusing on such strengths, individuals will add to their personal strengths inventory and expand their skill set even further.

Many of us have secondary strengths and most times, those strengths remain unknown to most others. Here are five famous people with skills you didn't know that they had:

1. Geena Davis: She is an Oscar-winning actress with countless other accolades that testify to her acting skills. What most people don't know is that she is a card-carrying MENSA member and was a semi-finalist for the U.S. Olympic Archery team in 1999. She was ranked in the top 32 archers in the country at the time.

2. Paul Revere: He is a well-known patriot who played a pivotal rule in fighting the British, but he was also a skilled dentist. In fact, he was able to identify the body of Major General Joseph Warren based on the fact that he could identify the dental prosthetic the general wore at the time of his death. This was the first instance in US history where a member of the military was identified through forensic dentistry (now a vital science).

3. Jimmy Stewart: He was a much-beloved star who still regularly appears in reruns almost every week. Stewart was an incredibly successful film star with an Oscar under his belt when World War II broke out. What most people don't know about is the fact that he not only enlisted with the military but took part in several high-risk missions and earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses. He was also considered an exemplary military leader and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the war ended, Stewart continued in the military and was promoted to Brigadier General. In 1985, he was presented with the Medal of Freedom and the rank of Major General by President Ronald Reagan.

4. Gerald Ford: We all know him as the former President but few know that if it wasn't for politics, Ford may have had an equally illustrious career in the NFL. He played football while at the University of Michigan and earned three varsity letters in the years between 1932 and 1934 (in '32 and '33 Michigan went undefeated all the way to the championships because of his skills). He even earned the MVP title in the Wolverines' disappointing year in 1934. Both the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions expressed interest in Ford but instead he went to get his law degree at Yale and get into politics.

5. Emperor Hirohito: The 124th Emperor of Japan was not very popular owing to the fact that he was in charge during World War II and escaped being court-martialled for thousands of war crimes and deaths. However, when he was not concentrating on politics, his passion was marine biology. No amateur, he established a marine laboratory and research space in his palace and hired numerous marine biologists to help with his research. Several decades after the war, Hirohito was so knowledgable about the marine sciences that he regularly published scientific research papers in journals about various types of marine life found in Japanese waters.

Five Scientific Reasons Why Singletasking Works (and Multitasking Doesn't)

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In Devora Zack's new book, she argues for the benefits of singletasking over multitasking. Put simply, multitasking is not the way to get things done properly, though our culture tells us there is no other option. There is another option, and it is singletasking -- focusing on one priority or issue at a time with complete attention all the way to completion.

But why singletask? Isn't multitasking effective? Nope, and here are five good reasons why singletasking is way better:

1. Your brain is built for singletasking: Neurologists and researchers have shown that your btain is capable of balancing only two things at a time at most. Overload it any more and it becomes overwhelmed and incapable of balancing concentration and attention adequately.

2. Multitasking makes you fat. Well, maybe not fat, but it definitely makes you put on weight. Studies have shown that those who tend to multitask at mealtimes or when they are hungry end up overeating. This is because the mind is not focused on the task at hand: getting nutrition, so you are less likely to know when you are full.

3. SIngletasking is the key to creativity. Extensive research conducted by academic researchers has shown the moments of creative insight and "a-ha!" instances only occur in an uncluttered mind. The more competition there is for the mind's attention, the less it wanders into creative and non-traditional areas and patterns.

4. Multitasking actually slows down productivity. One of the main reasons we multitask is so that we can get more done in less time. However, a study reported by the American Psychological Association actually indicates that switching between tasks actually slows down productivity more than focusing on each task one at a time.

5. Singletasking is real; multitasking does not exist. There have been countless productivity experts and scientists alike who have made this compelling argument: there is no such thing as multitasking. The very phrase "multitasking" suggests accomplishing several tasks simultaneously. However, all the evidence shows that the "tasks" are never done as competently or as thoroughly as they should be in most cases of multitasking, so what is really being achieved? Can it be called multitasking if the tasks are not handled?

Five Surprising Companies That Espouse Servant Leadership

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In Cheryl Bachelder's latest book, she addresses the importance of servant leadership at all levels and how it is not just a soft science but one that is necessary for real organizational growth and progress.

But is it possible to practice servant leadership in a large, publicly-held company with shareholders to answer to? Well, Cheryl did just that with Popeye's (of which she is the CEO), the international chain of fast food restaurants. Here are some other major companies that you may be surprised to find are servant leadership-based:

1. Balfour Beatty: It's surprising to have a construction company with a servant-leadership center but Balfour Beatty CEO Eric Stenman firmly believes that's the way business should be done.  Stenman's focus has always been on the "personal and professional success of all his employees."

2. The Container Store: CEO Kip Tindell has often indicated how he does not believe in the business mantra of maximizing returns to shareholders as a core focus. He always puts employees first and believes a thriving organizational community is the key to business success. Read his letter to investors here.

3. Marriott International: Founder Bill Marriott has always emphasized a culture of service -- both to customers as well as to others in the organization. His emphasis on "the spirit to serve" is what moves the multinational organization along to such heights.

4. Starbucks: They may be the bane of every indie coffee shop everywhere, but their service to their employees is legendary. Apart from offering many non-standard benefits, Starbucks recently also indicated that they would begin to help employees with free college tuition. CEO Howard Schultz believes a great company can only be built by linking shareholder value to value for employees.

5. Nordstrom's: The popular department store enjoys a loyal fan base thanks to their incredible customer-centric focus. What is not as well-known is their "inverted pyramid" organizational model that puts sales and floor staff at the highest level of importance and the executive team and directors at the bottom. Since the Nordstrom brothers themselves worked their way to the top (or rather, the bottom) from the stock room, this focus on the front-end is not surprising.

Five Women Who Stepped Up When No One Expected Them To

In her latest book, Helene Lerner talks about the need for women to step up and take the reins and be confident. The traditional myths that have always held women back (lack of confidence, feeling unready or unqualified) are just those and in order to crush those myths, women have to be willing to step up and assume control and convey confidence.

The following five women are examples of those who stepped up in unexpected ways and changed the lives of thousands or tens of thousands. You may not recognize some of the names, but their achievements are legendary:

1. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
In 1865, Anderson was the first female doctor in England and in France. Her entire life story is one of continually being refused admittance to medical schools and the medical profession but she fought the establishment every step of the way at a time when women were not permitted to practice medicine. Despite numerous times being told that she lacked the proper "skills" to be a doctor, she relented. She eventually became the first Englishwoman to qualify both as a physician and a surgeon in England, co-founded the first hospital staffed entirely by women, and became the first dean of a British medical school and also the first woman allowed to practice medicine in France. Her story is well worth reading.

2. Caroline Herschel
Herschel was the first woman to be paid for her contribution to science and to be awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Born in 1750, Caroline suffered from typhus at age ten which stunted her growth. She never grew past four-foot three inches. Her family assumed she would never marry or have many prospects in life and so she was trained as a maid, and later, as a singer. However, her keen interest in her brother William's work in astronomy eventually made her more than just a qualified and competent scientist. Despite the fact that many regarded her as someone not qualified to be more than a domestic servant, she went on to discover several comets and form theories and scientific hypotheses around various celestial movements. She was also the first woman admitted to the Royal Astronomical Society. Read more about Herschel here.

3. Helen Octavia Dickens
Dickens was the first African-American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons in 1950. She came from a poor background as the daughter of a former slave. Helen applied to all the best schools for medicine and was continually rejected until she managed to register at the University of Illinois and graduate in 1934. Dickens often spoke of always having to sit right at the very front in her classes because she otherwise could not pay attention to the instructor because of the mockery and insults directed towards her by her classmates. Dickens was one of the first doctors to encourage young women to empower themselves by conducting extensive research into teen pregnancy and sexual health issues. Read more about Dickens here.


4. Marlee Matlin, actress
Marlee Matlin received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1986 movie Children of a Lesser God, and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009. We can all agree that these would be amazing achievements for any actress, but we left something out: Marlee Matlin is also deaf. Her whole life she has had to work through the hardships and difficulties that come with not being able to hear in an industry that is as harsh as it comes, and she has triumphed. Learn more about Matlin here.

5. Sandra Day O'Connor
When Sandra Day O’Connor graduated from Stanford Law School, she was turned down for interviews by over forty law firms because she was a woman. For a time, she even worked for free in various law offices just to gain experience and get her foot in the door. Then she slowly began to ascend and in 1981, she became the first woman appointed to the US Supreme Court and served even through personal trials such as breast cancer. Read more about her here.

Five Indicators of the Damage Being Done By Our Current Narrative

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In his new book, David Korten explains how our current "story" is one of Sacred Money and Markets which emphasizes monetary gain and the use of the planet purely for resources. We need a new story, Korten says, or face our own demise.
We humans live by shared cultural stories that shape our common values and how we structure institutional power. When we get our story wrong, we get our future wrong.

Here are five ways the familiar Sacred Money and Markets story by which we currently live gets it badly wrong—with deadly consequences.

1. Money is wealth. Conditioned to believe that money is wealth rather than just a number, we forget that the only legitimate purpose of business and the economy is to serve living people and the rest of nature. We instead structure and manage them to make money as their defining purpose and allocate resources to maximize returns to money. The inevitable result is growing inequality, environmental destruction, political corruption, and poverty and servitude for all but the few.

2. Unregulated markets combine with the individualistic competitive drive for personal advantage to maximize wealth creation and thereby the well-being of all. We forget that humans survive and thrive only as members of healthy cooperative families and communities. We celebrate as a human ideal, behavior we might otherwise recognize as psychopathic.

3. Material consumption is the path to happiness. Thus misdirected, we live in indentured servitude to global corporations to feed insatiable addiction to consumption that destroys nature and deprives of us the true happiness of life as members of caring communities.

4. Earth belongs to us. She is our property to use as we find most financially profitable. We forget that Living Earth is our sacred mother, the source of our birth and nurture. We belong to her.

5. Corporations are just people and entitled to the same rights as any person. Publicly traded corporations are legal entities programmed by their legal structures to function as money-seeking robots that behave like psychopaths in response to signals from global financial markets that value only money and incessantly demand ever greater short-term profits without regard for the consequences for life.

Thus misdirected we believe we get richer as we destroy the living wealth foundational to our own existence to make money for those who already have far more money than could ever possibly use. Money prospers. Life withers. 

Our future depends on awakening to the reality that we are living beings born of and nurtured by a Living Earth itself born of a Living Universe. And that changes everything.

Five Famous People Who Refired Themselves Out of Retirement

In Ken Blanchard's latest book with his coauthor Morton Schaevitz, he explores the concept of refiring -- that is, how to live a more vital and energetic life in the post-retirement years.

There are countless people who un-retired themselves and went on to have vigorous and healthy second acts. Here are just five:

1. Frank Sinatra
Old blue eyes decided to call it quits in 1971 at the age of 55. However, his fan base was rather disappointed and continued to rally for his return. So, Sinatra did return just two years later in a television special. The TV special was so successful that he decided he would keep at it until the mid-1990s.

2. Clint Eastwood
This man has refired several times -- first he was an A-list actor, then he retired and went on to become the mayor of Carmel, California, and then he started directing and making films. He came out of retirement yet again as an actor in Robert Lorenz's "Trouble with the Curve."

3. Sugar Ray Leonard
In 1982, Leonard suffered a detached retina that was supposed to sideline him permanently. The problem was that Leonard just kept refiring. When he finally hung up his gloves for good in 1997, Leonard had retired and refired four times.

4. Stephen King
The famous horror-writer announced in 2002 that he was retiring due to the pain he continued to suffer from a 1999 accident. Despite the pain, he couldn't quite keep away and decided to take up writing again and has published more than a dozen novels since his announcement.

5. Michael Jordan
The retirement-refirement story almost everyone knows: In the fall of 1993, Jordan left the Chicago Bulls -- whom he had led to three straight NBA titles -- to pursue a career in professional baseball. When that didn't work out, he returned to the Bulls in Spring of 1995 to lead the team to three more championships. He retired again in 1999 but then made yet another comeback ion 2001 to play two seasons with the Washington Wizards.

Five Lessons from Five Astronauts

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In his latest book, astronaut Ron Garan teaches readers about the need for the orbital perspective -- a way of seeing things in the larger scheme where all things are interconnected and no one thing is without the influence of something else no matter how seemingly removed.

Ron is not the first astronaut to have important lessons for mankind. Here are five other lessons from five notable astronauts:

1. Buzz Aldrin: Emotions get in the way sometimes.
Like most astronauts, Buzz Aldrin was a fighter pilot. He famously said "Fighter pilots have ice in their veins. They don't have emotions. They think, anticipate. They know that fear and other concerns cloud your mind from what's going on and what you should be involved in." Aldrin was not advocating for us to be soulless automatons, but when quick actions are required, human emotions can get in the way of rapid responses to pressing situations. Oftentimes, it is a matter of seeing, anticipating, and acting more than anything else. Essentially, it's about moving from a focus on oneself and one's own thoughts to something that serves a purpose not directly related to one's own self-preservation.

2. Neal Armstrong: We should never look at our achievements within their own contexts but in the larger sense of things.
Being the first man on the moon is quite the accomplishment and yet Armstrong never saw his mission and achievement in such narrow terms. He said, "The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited." Achievements are not about themselves but emblematic of greater ideas and opportunities.

3. Linda Godwin: Always be thinking ahead of where you are thinking currently.
We have a tendency to look only for immediate needs and goals, but Godwin once explained the importance of thinking long-term by saying, "It's important to know that we packed right, because it is a safety issue for coming home." Most people think in terms of a goal as just reaching it, but equally important (especially if you're in outer space) is being aware of what comes next and what resources that requires.

4. Shannon Lucid: Always push for what you want no matter what others tell you.
Shannon Lucid has always been candid about her struggles getting into the space program as a woman: "Basically, all my life I'd been told you can't do that because you're female. So I guess I just didn't pay them any attention. I just went ahead..." She also said, "It was just really, really tough getting anything when you were a female. Basically, I just took advantage of everything I could..." Lucid fought every step of the way to make it to where she is despite what others told her.

5. Edgar Mitchell: Develop a global mindset and realize that our differences are petty and that a global consciousness can unite us.
Edgar Mitchell is certainly one of the most spiritual astronauts that ever existed but he said the transformation for him happened in space: "You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics looks so petty." Mitchell has gone on to become a powerful voice in various spiritual communities globally.

The unmistakable lesson that all of these astronauts also endorse is one that Ron Garan is talking about in this book -- the need for a bigger mindset that moves away from immediacy, shot-termism, and narrow, overly-focused thinking and instead moves towards...the orbital perspective.

The Three Pillars of Society

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In his latest book, Henry Mintzberg describes how our society has become imbalanced due to a lack of consistent and equal support from the three crucial pillars of society.

Below, Henry described what each of these pillars does and what happens if it exerts too much or too little influence.


Pillar 1: 
What is it? The Public Sector—governments in all their forms

What is it responsible for? Many things—more than some people care to realize. But mainly protections, for example policing and regulating.

What happens if there’s too much emphasis on it? That’s called communism (or for some people, government in any form). Governments can be crude: too much government leads to a cold, crude, bureaucratic society.

What happens if there’s not enough of it? People lack protections, private forces run rampant. If you live in America, look around.


Pillar 2: 
What is it? The Private Sector—businesses in all their forms.

What is it responsible for? Providing us with many of out basic goods and some of our necessary services, but not for lobbying, not for bribing politicians with political donations, not for advertising to influence public policies, not for doing what governments have to do—at least not in any society that wishes to call itself democratic..

What happens if there’s too much emphasis on it? This describes the state that many countries are in today. Businesses can be crude; our societies are becoming increasingly crude.

What happens if there’s not enough of it? That’s what happened under communism: people lacked for many basic goods and services. They craved them, and so were desperate for capitalism. How many of those people have remained so?


Pillar 3: 
What is it? The Plural Sector, better known as civil society, the third sector, the not-for–profit sector, and other inadequate labels. It comprises all associations and organizations that are neither owned by the state nor by private investors. Some, like co-operatives, are owned by their members; many others are owned by no-one—Greenpeace, Harvard, etc. Some are associations but not organizations, namely social movements and social initiatives.

What is it responsible for? This sector serves many of our needs for affiliation, especially in communities. These days I believe that it had better take responsibility for getting us out of the mess that imbalance in favor of the private sector has put us into. For problems like global warming and income disparities, corporate social responsibility will not do it, nor will governments, so many of which are now co-opted or overwhelmed  by private forces. We shall have to rely on social movements and especially social initiatives to bring in new ways of dealing with our problems.

What happens if there’s too much emphasis on it? It becomes closed, society becomes closed—think of the Taliban, or of the New England witch hunts.

What happens if there’s not enough of it? Then we lack affiliations, and a capacity for the radical renewal that we require. A healthy society balances the power of its public, private, and plural sectors.

Why Be Happy? Here Are Five Reasons

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The book Sustainable Happiness shows what makes us truly happy are the depth of our relationships, the quality of our communities, the contribution we make through the work we do, and the renewal we receive from a thriving natural world.

But is there reason to be happy about what is going in the world? Are there signs that our communities and the work we are doing is really helping?

Yes, there are, and here are just five of these signs:

1. We use Social Media Better

While older generations may bicker and complain that the millennials are not "connected" to the world and aware, research published by the New York Times actually shows that millennials are more likely to use social media -- specifically Facebook and Twitter -- for news than any other generation of users. This means we are getting smarter quicker.

2. Medicine and health standards are improving very quickly.

Infant mortality is down about 50% since 1990 and we have significantly reduced the number of deaths from treatable diseases like measles and tuberculosis as well.

3.  There's a rapid decline in poverty worldwide.
Since 1981, the proportion of people living under the poverty line ($1.25 a day) has decreased by 65%. 721 million fewer people were living in poverty in 2010 than in 1981.

4.  There is a decrease in war.
We seem to think that violence is present everywhere and that we are constantly embroiled in one conflict or another, but the facts are that overall, war is almost non-existent when compared to previous decades, and it is in further decline.

5. Violent crime is also down.
We see reports of gang violence and gun violence every day but the truth is that violent crime and murders have been on their way down in terms of rates since 2001.

Five Moving Statements About Prison

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In Maya Schenwar's latest book, she discusses how prisons in the U.S. do incredible damage not just to prisoners but also to society due to the inhumane way in which prisoners are treated which leads to them being released back into a society where they are neither welcome nor familiar with, leading to high recidivism rates.

While the facts and figures speak for themselves, here are five strong literary statements by well-known historical figures and writers about the nature of prisons and what they do to people:

1. "It had long been true, and prisoners knew this better than anyone, that the poorer you were the more likely you were to end up in jail. This was not just because the poor committed more crimes. In fact, they did. The rich did not have to commit crimes to get what they wanted; the laws were on their side. But when the rich did commit crimes, they often were not prosecuted, and if they were they could get out on bail, hire clever lawyers, get better treatment from judges. Somehow, the jails ended up full of poor black people."

-- Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States


2. "How feeble is all language to describe the horrors we inflict upon these wretches, whom we mason up in the cells of our prisons, and condemn to perpetual solitude in the very heart of our population."
                                                                       
 -- Herman Melville, Typee


3. "To live in prison is to live without mirrors. To live without mirrors is to live without the self."

-- Margaret Atwood, Marrying the Hangman


4. "No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones."

--Nelson Mandela, A Long Walk to Freedom


5. "There are worse prisons than words."

-- Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind

Five Pieces of Evidence Proving That Women Make Better Business Leaders and Partners

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Betsy Polk and Maggie Ellis Chotas' latest book argues for the need for more female partnerships in business. They dig deep to show how unfounded myths and shoddy social science has kept women from collaborating together for greater success.

Of course, there are bound to be many who may want to dismiss this sort of argument as "compensatory" or  being too "Yay! for women!" but not have any real substance, but the evidence speaks otherwise. So why not tackle this argument in the most male-centric corner of the economy: the entrepreneurial world? Here are five darn good (evidence-backed) reasons why women are taking the leading roles in independent and entrepreneurial business environments:

1. Women are better leaders. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman conducted extensive research on women in business and their findings are quite impressive: women build better teams; garner higher respect as leaders and managers and demonstrate better awareness of their actions and thinking. Two of the traits where women outscored men in the highest degree were in taking initiative and driving for results -- both of which have long been thought of as particularly male strengths.

2. Women deliver better company performance. A recent Dow Jones VentureSource report concluded that venture-backed companies with female senior executives were more likely to succeed than those companies with only men in charge. This finding was echoed by the SBA Office of Advocacy which reported that VC firms that invested in women-led businesses performed better than all men-led businesses.

3. Women are better money managers in the most volatile marketplace:tech. Female-led private tech companies achieve on average a 35% higher return on investment, and when venture-backed, bring in on an average a 12% higher revenue than male-owned tech companies according to research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation. Illuminate Ventures recently concluded their research showing that high-tech companies built by women are more capital-efficient than the norm and could achieve comparable early-year revenues as those companies run by men but using on average one-third less committed capital.

4. Women are becoming more prominent not just as builders but as wealthy investors.  Women angel investors account for just 22% of all investors but that's still a 50% jump ftp, 2011. Mary Quist-Newin's research at the The American College of Financial Services shows that not only that women represent more than 40% of all Americans with gross investable assets above $600,000 but also that 60% of high-net-worth women earned their own fortunes versus inheriting it and the rate of wealth-growth among women in the US is at twice the pace it is for men.

5. Many prominent men think women are the answer. There are many men who are looked up to as the business gurus to emulate but not many realize that these men have publicly stated that the nation's economic future rests mainly with women being at the helm. Warren Buffett feels women are the key to national prosperity while Vivek Wadhwa continues to argue that women entrepreneurs are the future of tech. Prominent male entrepreneurs and researchers such as John Gerzema and Michael D'Antonio, or male-led firms such as Zenger/Folkman weren't seeking to do research to support the effectiveness of women in business, it's just where the data took them.

Is that enough "hard" evidence for you?

Five Reasons for Optimism

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Everywhere you look, there is calamity and tragedy, and that is mostly because the media likes to focus on negatives. However, as Jurriaan Kamp shows in his latest book, there are plenty of reasons to actually be optimistic about the future. This is not foolish, blind optimism that overlooks the real concerns of our current situation, but the intelligent optimism that sees greater potential for good than bad in the long run.

To illustrate the point, here are five negative statements you probably considered to be facts but which are in direct opposition to the positive truth:

1. The global population is not growing out of control.

There have been cataclysmic prophecies and even books dedicated to how current population growth is out of control. Actually, this is not true at all. The average number of children per woman has been declining rapidly for decades. According to official UN data, the average number of children per woman worldwide for the period 1965 to 1970 was 4.85. Yet 40 years later, for the period of 2005 to 2010, that number dropped nearly 50% to 2.52. And the numbers continue to decline. Most experts predict that global population will level out by about 2100 at around 10 billion and may even decrease after that. And if we use our resources wisely, we can easily support that number of people.

2. Our dependence on coal, gas, and oil will destroy us (and the planet).

it certainly seems this way but only because major business interests and corporations rely on fossil fuels for their profit margins. However, as new trends become increasingly difficult to ignore, alternatives are popping up on the horizon. There are already many ways in which solar energy has been made cheaper. In Europe, solar energy is as cheap as grid electricity, and it is only going to get cheaper. Plus, there are many other resources we have not even begun to explore that hold a lot of promise. We have more resources than we think (or know).

3. Electronic media and mediums are detaching us from "the real world."

It's easy to assume that because we see people walking down the street staring into their phones that we are growing detached from people, but we are in fact connecting more meaningfully and more widely than ever before. Instant communication at almost no cost regardless of geographic location or time means that everyone is connected to everyone else and ideas and conversations move freely between continents in real time. Think about how connected you were to your family and friends before email and the internet took off (unless you were lucky enough to be born within the last two decades), and how connected you are now. Case closed.

4. Power is being centralized and growing larger in the hands of the elite.

Power has always been in the hands of the elite, and yes, it has grown, but a big part of the argument is what constitutes power? Is it material or economic clout or is it knowledge and information? The most powerful people and organizations can be taken down by a single person with a cheap cel phone. We live in an age where almost everyone has access to the technology that makes them a citizen journalist. This means that things that could once be hidden or kept in secret can no longer be and revolutions and injustices can be recorded and displayed to the world in color, with sound, and in real time. It's not that power and injustice is growing, it's just that now, we are more aware of it than ever before because of our access to information.

5. Violence and crime continues to grow globally.

Violent crime rates have been dropping dramatically for 20 years. Official U.S. Department of Justice statistics show that violent crime rates of 2010 were 1/3 the rates of 1994. Other countries are experiencing a similar decline. Consider also that just centuries ago, rape and pillaging were considered the natural spoils of war. War atrocities were once the norm, where today they are prosecuted in international courts. We are not only becoming less violent, we are stating unequivocally that we will not tolerate it, either.

Eight Reasons Why B Corps Are Superior to Other More Traditional Sustainable Businesses

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The B Corp Handbook lays out the plan for how anyone can create a better company that serves everyone (and the environment) with the highest levels of ethics and integrity -- a recipe for true profitability in every sense for every entity.

But what makes B Corps better than even other sustainability-touting businesses? Extensive research across the world into B Corp practices (and requirements) resulted in the following eight findings which prove the benefits that B Corps create for their communities and themselves over other such businesses:

1. B Corps are 68% more likely to donate at least 10% of their profits to charity.

2. More than half (55%) of all B Corps are more likely to cover at least a part of their employees' health insurance plans.

3. One-site renewable energy is more likely to be used by 47% of all B Corps.

4. B Corps are 45% more likely to give bonuses to non-executive employees.

5. B Corps favor suppliers from low-income communities and 18% of them are more likely to use such suppliers.

6.  Women and minorities are 28% more likely to be in management positions in B Corps.

7.  B Corps are four times more likely to afford professional development opportunities for their employees.

8. B Corps are over twice as likely to give employees at least 20 hours per year paid time off to volunteer in their communities.

Keep in mind that these differentiations are not between B Corps and "regular" companies, but B Corps and other businesses that self-identify as sustainable or socially conscious. It's a higher standard within the higher standard.

Three Ways to Fight Poverty That Don't

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Jeffrey Ashe's latest book delves into how savings groups are the answer for impoverished regions to get back in control of their own finances and expenditures and therefore become truly independent.

But do we really need another poverty alleviation method? Don't the ones we have already work? Unfortunately, no, they don't. Below, Jeffrey highlights the three most popular methods currently in use, and why they are so ineffective:

1. Donations and Charities: In principle these are good things -- money with "no strings attached" that is given to those in need so that they can secure food and shelter and other necessities. The problem, however, is that donations only secure an environment of dependability where people are not self-sufficient but completely dependent on the support of others. Given how charities boom and bust these days, there is no guarantee that money will always flow to those needy hands, and the consequences can be dire.

2. Microfinance: Another idea that in principle was actually quite brilliant but in practice was not as effective. Micro lenders need to make a profit on their loans and when they are loaning such small amounts, the profit margins are even thinner unless they charge a heftier interest. (A 10% interest on a $5000 loan is appealing, but a 10% interest on a $50 loan is a lot less so.) So interest rates are higher and lenders can often be ruthless about collecting payment or penalizing people for delays, and all this does is put borrowers in debt to the tune of many times more than the amount they initially borrowed.

3. Business Enterprise/Entrepreneurial Ventures: Introducing entrepreneurial techniques to those in need is certainly one way to make them self-sufficient and in control of their own financial destiny but there are two problems with such programs: (a) Entrepreneurial ventures fail more often than they succeed -- even in the developed nations the failure rate for new enterprises is over 70% within the first two years, but in this case, you are dealing with a demographic who stand to lose a lot more if their startup fails; and (b) resources are limited as are potential revenue-generators in many rural areas, which means one person could generate a decent income producing handicrafts and beads for export, but given the lack of other options, now twenty or thirty people will also have to compete with one another to sell handicrafts to the same markets. This benefits no one.

With savings groups, the money is kept within the group, and all stakeholders have an equal share and equal responsibility and reason for maintaining the savings, so there is no competition and no outsider trying to collect. That is why savings groups triumph where others have failed.

Five Methods of Motivation That Don't Work

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Susan Fowler's latest book is all about how to do motivation right. The problem, as Susan points out, is that we've been going about motivation entirely the wrong way with the carrot-and-stick metaphor when in fact research has shown us that there are far more effective methodologies.

Susan describes below five "traditional" methods of motivation that are still widely used today -- and why they are deeply ineffective.

1    1. Verbal  Cheerleading. "You can do it! Keep up the effort! Give me just one more!" Recent research finds that coaches who verbally encourage people in training sessions are significantly less effective than quiet coaches. The verbal encouragement generates external pressure, diminishing people's sense of autonomy and internal fortitude. Whether coaching athletes or individuals in the workplace, your cheerleading may be undermining your good intentions.

2     2. Competitions. Setting up a competitive situation to “motivate” people begs the question—why are people competing?  People’s creativity, innovation, and long-term productivity suffer when they are competing to beat someone else, gain power and status, win an award, or receive an incentive compared to competing as a means to learn, gain experience, and obtain insight into development needs. Most competitions generate external pressure that ultimately defeats people and undermines long-term skill building and sustained high performance.

3    3. Imposing values. The most well-intentioned and values-based leaders often do this: Through their own sense of purpose and passion, they unwittingly impose their values on others. It doesn't matter how noble your values may be, if you impose them on people you run the risk of eroding people’s sense of autonomy and the opportunity for them to explore their own reasons for acting.

4    4. Incentivizing. Despite compelling research on the undermining effects of rewards and incentives to positively affect and sustain behavior, leaders and organizations still use this technique as a way of motivating people. Here's the problem: People are always motivated. The question is why. Giving people an incentive to motivate them is akin to feeding them junk food. The initial energy spike quickly falls and so does the quality of people’s motivation.

5    5. Praising. It may seem counter-intuitive, but when you praise people as a means of “motivating” them, it often has the same implications as an incentive or a reward—externalizing the reason people take action (to please you)! Focus on providing pure informational feedback, trusting people to evaluate their own performance. (Don’t confuse praising with sharing your gratitude. A heartfelt expression of thanks is always appropriate.)