pretty much everyone who knows me knows nature & i are not buddies. especially here in AU where camping and hiking conversations are as normal as conversations about finding that cheap yet fab apt are in nyc. dislike of camping or hiking is pretty much UNHEARD OF so i constantly am told how much i should try it and how much i would like it.

um no.

but this post isn’t really about that… it’s prompted by the death of jane jacobs last week. for years i’ve heard about her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961. it’s been on my amazon wishlist for years and i finally bought it about a month or so ago (but haven’t gotten around to reading it).

i read one of richard florida’s books ( The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life ) a few months back where he talks about the creative worker movement and covers what makes a good place to live, or rather, what these creative innovative types look for in a place to live which then creates a particular type of community & economic growth. having lived in a few cities now, not liking nature plus my interest in online communities, i am getting more interested in what makes the physical city ‘liveable’ (oh… and melbourne is touted as being the most liveable city in the worlddue to a global survey. it is shoved down your throat by media & politicians and even the normal person on the street – and i disagree with that statement). so expect further posts about this subject when i get around to reading jane’s book. in the meantime, read more about her and her work.

and if anyone has suggestions for book or blog reading on the topic, i’d love to hear them.

i’ve read 2 flow books now, first the good business one, then finding flow: the psychology of engagement with everyday life which is the reverse to the published timeline (2003 and 1997).

flow is the concept of enjoying what you do and thus getting lost in it. that sense or feeling that everything is right in the world and you can experience flow in any aspect of your life.

IMO, finding flow wasn’t as interesting or detailed as good business. it’s a smaller book and hence a quicker read but if you want a better understanding of flow, read good business. it concentrates more on the idea of ‘happiness’ and ways you can create flow for your product, business, employees and self.

there was one bit of research mentioned in the finding flow book which drew my attention. a 1984 study by csikszentmihalyi and larson showed friendships ‘offer both the most emotionally rewarding contexts in the immediate present, and the greatest opportunities for developing one’s potential in the long run’. the authors then say ‘contemporary life, however, is not very suitable for sustaining friendships’ because of americans ‘geographical and social mobility’ and how we ‘reshuffle’ friendships based on our situation. for example, as we move from job to job or city to city or university to university, we change our friends. they state ‘lack of true friends is often the main complaint of people confronting an emotional crisis in the second half of life’.

i’m definitely a ‘shuffler’ in this is sense. i switch jobs, i have multiple degrees, i’ve moved cities and countries, meet people while traveling and develop friendships online. i have never thought of this as a problem (except i would love some better friend management technologies) and in fact, think this has greatly enriched my life.

this contrasts to what i have experienced in australia. here people have a circle of friends who have they made when they were quite young (elementary/jr high level) and they continue that friendship forever (ok, maybe not forever but you get the idea). australians travel a lot but they don’t seem to be as mobile in other ways. my impression is people stay in the same job longer. they don’t go away to university but attend uni in the same place (or nearby) to where they grew up. quite often they will go overseas for their working holiday but afterwards they come back to the same circle of friends and live in the same area.

it would be very interesting to see some research comparing flow or at least satisfaction of friendship/life using these differences in american/australian culture.

also, there was one bit in good business that i take exception to.

‘In a large organisation it is frequently difficult for a leader to have an accurate sense of the company’s affairs because reports are often afraid to be candid about problems. The head of a large multinational corporation employs the following strategy to keep the lines of communication and feedback open:’

i agree with this statement but i had to read the following quote a couple times to make sure i was really reading this correctly. remember, this is a quote to illustrate how to keep feedback and communication open in a large organisation.

Two weeks ago, I spent one entire week – five days – travelling to seven different cities and having meetings with employees. I talked to two to three hundred employees twice a day – different employees – for maybe an hour, giving them my views and then leaving an hour and half for them to ask me any questions they had. That’s how you keep your finger on the pulse.
… I’ve got to get out there and be with customers and be with employees and be in the field and watch what goes on and provide motivation. Last week I was in asia all week. The same thing. I was visiting our staff, visiting out plants, showing an interest in what they’re doing. That’s how you do it. You don’t do it sitting here.

i think, perhaps, this person has their heart in the right place. you do need to talk to your staff and show an interest in what they’re doing. what struck me as odd was the way this person went about doing it.

now math has never been my strong suit but if you spend 5 days in 7 cities, that’s less than a day per city. if you are talking to 200-300 employees twice a day (so 400-600 a day), that would equate to a minute per employee (10 hour day, 60 minutes per hour is 600 minutes). obviously this isn’t what was happening … they were in a group setting… but it’s interesting to look at the numbers this way. the person says they left 90 minutes per group to let the group ask questions of (after an hour of their presentation). again, obviously not what was happening but interesting to look at the numbers … 90 minutes divided by 200 people leaves everyone 45 seconds. 300 people get 30 seconds each – not including the leader’s reply.

while the leader in this quote was hoping for feedback and open communication, i doubt they were receiving much of it. IMO there needs to be more personalised communication to encourage the honest, open communication leaders would hope to have with employees. somehow i doubt these 200-300 person forums brought out in the open any issues and created the message that the company/leader was really concerned with problems/issues.

and that (to use an aussie phrase) gives me the shits.

while i was considering going back to school, i knew i wanted to do a thesis. once before, in ’95, i attempted athesis. i decided on a broad subject (online communities & the music industry) but really didn’t get farther than some reading. i was working full-time & eventually realised there was no way i was going to be able to do both. when i found out that i had enough credits to graduate without doing the thesis (or any classes or anything except pay the graduation fee), i decided graduation was probably the better option.

this time around i was thinking about cross-cultural communication, specifically in virtual teams. i have worked in many virtual teams over the years and like online communities, they fascinate me.

(to be continued)