#Michael Mankins

[a-solitary-sea-rover-backup]

The interesting thing about the copy of No Excuse to Lose that I got at the chandlery in Greenport is that it’s a reprint from 1987 to cash in on the celebrations, but the covers are the only thing actually updated (a photo of Conner in Stars & Stripes gear and the back cover summary “The Man Who Brought Home the America’s Cup Tells How and Why He Wins Races”), the book itself seems to be the original 1978 text. The book only goes up to the 1977 America’s Cup, and thus does not cover any later editions or the 1980 Olympics boycott.

This makes the book seem weaker to me, and probably to 1987 audiences as well— the book lays out Conner’s philosophies and strategies as-of 1978, but to someone who knows what happened afterwards, it’s hard not to wonder “And how did he react to having those philosophies challenged or contradicted later on?”

For example, when Conner says he doesn’t enjoy sailing unless it’s to race, and always wants to be in the top event of the year, how did he react to not being able to take part in the 1980 Olympics after the United States boycotted them?

Conner’s approach to competition overall is conservative*, focused on following known paradigms as well as possible rather than innovating, and his advice to young sailors is to do the same. But the approach of the Australia II syndicate that defeated him in 1983 was very much the opposite, and Michael Levitt and Barbara Lloyd’s book Upset has a paragraph something like “Liberty was a very good 12-Metre yacht, but Australia II was something beyond that, a ‘12.5’ or ‘13-Metre’.” How, we naturally wonder, did Conner react to seeing his philosophy so dramatically disproved? Did he reassess his approach? (Working with NASA on hull “riblets” would suggest he DID warm to trying new technological innovations.)

*Tactically conservative, that is. Conner’s sexist and homophobic comments during the 1990s editions of the America’s Cup certainly seem to have been socially conservative, but as there is no mention of female athletes here, that never comes up. The only (very faint) hint of any sociopolitics in No Excuse To Lose is Conner saying he wanted to prove to “the Eastern Establishment” that California “Wasn’t just full of hippies”, with “hippies” and “good sailors” implicitly presented as contrasting— something Bernard Moitessier probably would have disputed. What is somewhat surprising, given how much Conner appealed to American patriotism in later America’s Cup campaigns, is his description of the Soviet Olympic sailor Valentin Mankin as a respected friend and colleague. Their competition in the 1976 Olympics is not presented with a Cold War angle, and any such political context is not even mentioned.

The frustrating thing about this book in its reprint form, then, is the simple question “No Excuse to Lose— so what does it mean that you DID lose? Did that lead you to change your approach for the 1987 competition, and if so, how?” Surely, this must have been a top question in most readers’ minds in 1987, but they won’t find an answer here.

[cocktailsfairytales]

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[allavolodinayork]

Corporate Strategy (Improving Overall Performance)

Steering a successful company in the right direction is not an easy task especially if the management team is consumed by day-to-day activities and routine decisions. The proposed outline is built with management in mind as part of a corporate strategy workshop. Attending such a workshop will help management have a clear strategic framework as management continues to improve overall performance of the organization.

 Business Process Reengineering (redesigning and streamlining existing workflows)

-          Difference between Business Process Reengineering and Continuous-Improvement Programs

-          Examples of successful implementation of Continuous Improvement Program

-          Examples of successful implementation of Business Process Reengineering Programs

-          Evaluating programs against corporate priorities and ensuring consistency

 Revamping the value-chain system to achieve cost-efficiency

-          Value in revising value chain system (selling direct to consumers, streamlining operations by eliminating low-value-added activities, reducing materials handling).

-          Examples of successful companies that revamped their value chains and added value to shareholders

 Evaluating overall effectiveness of existing business lines

-          Quantitative and qualitative methods of measuring business lines�� effectiveness

-          Allocating financial resources to business lines (considering long-term versus short-term pay off, dividend payments to shareholders, cash reserves)

-          Allocating non-financial resources to business lines (including management, sales and R&D team resources)

Course reading (optional):  Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance by Michael Mankins and Richard Steele: https://hbr.org/2005/07/turning-great-strategy-into-great-performance

 Workshop outlines like this on Corporate Strategy are prepared by AllaVolodina and cover various business topics including marketing, strategy, finance, economics etc. You can also read other articles suggested by AllaVolodina(York University) here: www.allavolodina.com

[trustquiz]

When does el camino movie come out

#WHEN DOES EL CAMINO MOVIE COME OUT MOVIE#

#WHEN DOES EL CAMINO MOVIE COME OUT UPDATE#

#WHEN DOES EL CAMINO MOVIE COME OUT PASSWORD#

#WHEN DOES EL CAMINO MOVIE COME OUT SERIES#

Jesse returned to the apartment and tore it apart in search of the cash, eventually discovering it early in the morning, just as two "detectives" arrived to check out the place as well.

#WHEN DOES EL CAMINO MOVIE COME OUT SERIES#

The best bros also gave him some cash to help him get out, but it wasn't enough for Jesse's master plan.įlashbacks to Jesse's time in the cage at the hands of Todd ( Jesse Plemons) and Jack ( Michael Bowen) revealed that Todd kept a secret stash of cash in his apartment - a place that Jesse once visited on a tortured mission to help Todd get rid of the body of a housekeeper he had murdered. In 2019, Netflix and AMC gave us a shockingly unexpected gift: El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, a feature-length coda to what many consider to be the greatest hour-long drama series of all time. Pete helped Jesse get away by giving him Badger's Fiero, allowing Jesse to once again avoid the cops. Joe (Larry Mankin) showed up to tow the car but accidentally triggered the lo-jack.

#WHEN DOES EL CAMINO MOVIE COME OUT PASSWORD#

Old Password Enter the last 4-digits of your SSN.

#WHEN DOES EL CAMINO MOVIE COME OUT UPDATE#

When you sign in you will be prompted to update your password. Log in with your username and the last 4-digits of your SSN as the password. The next order of business was to ditch the Camino and get out of town, and this was where things started to get weird. Click the appropriate Student or Faculty/Staff option. His best friends let him get a good night's sleep, take a shower, shave, and return to a semblance of his former self. Jesse's next stop is at Badger ( Matt Jones) and Skinny Pete's ( Charles Baker) house. It's revealed later on that Walt was indeed killed by his machine gun booby trap, so those "Heisenberg Lives" conspiracy theories can be laid to rest.ĭiscover your new favorite show: Watch This Now! Their presence serves as a marker of Jesse’s changes over the course of “Breaking Bad.Jesse did encounter the cops as he sped away from the compound, but he pulled the Camino into a dark driveway and hid while the cops raced toward the compound to find Walt.

#WHEN DOES EL CAMINO MOVIE COME OUT MOVIE#

The pair are a welcome sight in the movie they remind us of who Jesse was when we first met him. First up - and I won’t spoil the whole movie, only some small bits - he finds his way back to Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) and Badger (Matt Jones), for some help getting rid of the titular car. We jump right into the action in “El Camino,” as Jesse, now a well-known fugitive, desperately begins a dark adventure that, he hopes, will get him out of Albuquerque alive. He also gives fans a long and satisfying list of character cameos and callbacks to “Breaking Bad.” I felt as though I was watching an extra-long episode of the show, which is less than I’d expect from a movie but still, not bad considering the quality of every hour of “Breaking Bad.” Gilligan gives us enough visual awe (with cinematographer Marshall Adams, not Michael Slovis from the original series) and enough hard-boiled suspense to impress. That said, “El Camino” is enjoyable as a kind of epilogue to “Breaking Bad.” It’s unnecessary, but it’s good enough to offer two solid hours of pleasure to anyone who loved the mother ship. Jesse’s last screen moments were thrillingly and precisely ambiguous, leaving us to imagine the future of a man who had, in some ways, been breaking good. Walt’s arc was complete, and so was Jesse’s, as far as it is for any character who’s still alive when the final credits fall. Jesse Pinkman is coming to the big screen. When “Breaking Bad” ended with the episode “Felina,” with Walter White dead on the floor and Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman on the road to a shaky freedom, it was a perfect end-stop. El Camino will bring the continuing story of Jesse Pinkman to limited movie theaters for one week starting October 11. The new movie, written and directed by “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan and now available on Netflix, is not an essential addition to the intimate epic that’s is one the best TV dramas of all time. In terms of “El Camino,” the answer is no - but not a damning no. Here’s the question that dogs every TV sequel, prequel, and revival: Is it necessary? Does the material - in this case, “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” - justify revisiting the original narrative? Was it worth undoing the ending of the series - and risking the greatness of its legacy - to deliver yet another chapter?

[creativespark]

Michael Aaron Mankin, Tulip #5.  Chillicothe, Ohio USA, 2018

[massmurdera]

2019 & 2010s Best/Worst

Because I like lists and cataloguing the dumb shit I cared about. As my brother once said after seeing and reviewing NOW YOU SEE ME on a lazy Sunday, ‘Some would say it was a waste of time, others might say it was a colossal waste of time.’     

I’ll admit, it’s a bit over-the-top. Particularly including the Pats, but yeah, in the Tom Brady era that started when I was 14 as a Freshman in high school to 33 years old now and wrapping up soon-ish (?), there’s not a chance in hell I’ll care as intimately about this shit. I grew up with it at just the right time.

2019 MOVIES  TOP TIER 1) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2) Uncut Gems 2nd TIER 3) Knives Out 4) Parasite 5) Little Women 6) Midsommer 3rd TIER 7) John Wick III 8) Ready or Not 9) Marriage Story 10) Joker 11) Irishman 12) Shazam! 13) Us UNDERRATED Ready or Not TOO LONG John Wick III; Irishman SOLID El Camino GOOD BAD 6 Underground OK 21 Bridges; Avengers: Endgame; Dolemite is my Name; Dragged Across Concrete; Fighting With My Family; Hustlers; Knock Down the House; Longshot; the Report; Two Popes MEH Always Be My Maybe; Death of Dick Long; High Flying Bird; Spiderman: Far From Home; Standoff at Sparrow Creek DISAPPOINTING Hobbs & Shaw; Toy Story 4; Triple Frontier SUCK Laundromat; Under the Silver Lake OVERRATED Ad Astra; Booksmart; the Farewell FUNNIEST SCENE Dicaprio flipping out in movie trailer BEST CLIMAX/ENDING Once Upon a Time; Uncut Gems HAVEN’T SEEN 1917; Apollo 11; Beach Bum; Dark Waters; Ford vs Ferrari; Honey Boy; Jojo Rabbit; the Lighthouse; Star Wars 2019 TV  TOP TIER 1) Succession 2) Fleabag 3) Watchmen 2nd TIER 4) When They See Us 5) Barry 6) Unbelievable 7) Chernobyl 8) Sex Education DAMN GOOD Big Mouth; the Boys; Brockmire; Derry Girls; Euphoria; Loudest Voice; Mindhunter; Pen15; Righteous Gemstones; Veep WATCHABLE Atypical; Bosch; Dark; Goliath; Karate Kid; Kominsky Method; Mandalorian; Mr Robot; Mrs Fletcher; Russian Doll; Warrior HIGH/LOW I Think You Should Leave SHIT END FOR ALL-TIME GREAT Game of Thrones HALF-WATCH Living With Yourself; Raising Dion; the Society NOT UP TO STANDARD Stranger Things; GLOW; Killing Eve; True Detective BAD Luther; Shameless; Silicon Valley; SNL SUCK 13 Reasons Why; Big Little Lies; the Witcher FUNNIEST Desus & Mero DOCS 1) Fyre: both  2) Ted Bundy Tapes 3) American Factory 4) Leaving Neverland STAND-UP SPECIALS 1) Burr 2) Chappelle 3) Jeselnik 4) Birbiglia 5) Gulman BEHIND ON SHOWS I DIG Brooklyn 99; Catastrophe; Corporate; Expanse; Good Place; It’s Always Sunny; Letterkenny 2010s TV  DRAMA 1) Breaking Bad 2) Game of Thrones 3) Justified 4) Mad Men 5) Hannibal 6) Banshee ANTHOLOGY/LIMITED SERIES 1) Fargo SII 2) True Detective SI 3) When They See Us 4) People Vs OJ Simpson 5) Chernobyl 6) Show Me a Hero 7) the Night Of 8) Honorable Woman COMEDY 1) Atlanta 2) Fleabag 3) Veep 4) Big Mouth 5) Parks & Rec 6) Rick & Morty 7) Nathan for You 8) Review 9) American Vandal HIT/MISS Black Mirror OVERRATED Boardwalk Empire; House of Cards; Peaky Blinders; Westworld UNDERRATED Banshee; Brockmire; Hannibal FUN HATE-WATCH Newsroom DOWNHILL Homeland; How I Met Your Mother; Legion; Sons of Anarchy HATED Girls; Leftovers; Rectify UNWATCHABLE Twin Peaks BEST ENDINGS Breaking Bad; Justified; Fleabag; Parks & Rec DUMBEST ENDING Dexter; Sons of Anarchy LATE NIGHT Desus & Mero POLITICAL John Oliver 2010s MOVIES 2010 Social Network Animal Kingdom; the Fighter; Four Lions; Inside Job; Jackass 3; MacGruber; Shutter Island; Toy Story 3; True Grit; Winter’s Bone 2011 the Raid Descendents; Drive; Fast Five; the Guard; Mission Impossible 4; Take This Waltz; Warrior 2012 Magic Mike 21 Jump Street; Argo; Cabin in the Woods; Chronicle; Django Unchained; Goon; Looper; Queen of Versailles; Silver Linings Playbook; Skyfall 2013 Wolf of Wall Street Before Midnight; the Conjuring; Gravity; Her; Inside Llewyn Davis; Prisoners; Short-Term 12 2014 John Wick the Drop; Edge of Tomorrow; Gone Girl; the Guest; Lego Movie; Nightcrawler; the Raid 2; Whiplash 2015 Mad Max 7 Days in Hell; Big Short; Brooklyn; Creed; Ex Machina; Fast 7; It Follows; Logan; Magic Mike XXL; the Martian; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl; Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation; Sicario 2016 the Nice Guys Deadpool; Edge of Seventeen; Everybody Wants Some!; Green Room; La La Land; Manchester By the Sea; Moonlight; OJ: Made in America; Popstar; Sing Street; Weiner 2017 Get Out Blade Runner 2049; Coco; Dunkirk; Lady Bird; Logan; Thor Ragnorak; Tour de Pharmacy 2018 Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse BlacKKKlansman; Den of Thieves; Hereditary; If Beale Street Could Talk; Minding the Gap; Sorry to Bother You

THE BEST Mad Max BEST DOC OJ: Made in America FUNNIEST DOC Tickled UNDERRATED DOC Weiner HORROR Hereditary FAVORITE/FUNNIEST PERFORMANCE Ryan Gosling (Nice Guys) DESERVED 5 SEQUELS the Nice Guys SUPERHERO Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse WAR Dunkirk BEST FIGHT SCENES the Raid UNDERRATED any Lonely Island project NICE TRY Dark Knight Rises; Inception; Interstellar; Widows STAND-UP 2010s FAVORITE Bill Burr NEXT BEST Ali Wong; Anthony Jeselnik; Kyle Kinane; Bert Kreischer; Marc Maron; John Mulaney; Patton Oswalt; Rory Scovel; Tom Segura COMEBACK Chappelle DOWNFALL Louis CK DIED BEFORE PRIME Patrice O’Neal, Greg Giraldo UNDERRATED Joe Derosa MUST-SEE LIVE Robert Kelly  PODCASTS 2010s  BEST/FUNNIEST/UNDERRATED Walking the Room RUNNER-UP 600 Dollar Podcast ONE-MAN RANT Bill Burr Monday Morning Podcast SPORTS Pardon My Take RIFFING Bodega Boys HISTORY/COMEDY Dollop HISTORY DEEP DIVE Hardcore History MOVIES Rewatchables HATE-WATCH CRITICISM West Wing Thing POP CULTURE/FILM Frotcast MIXED Revisionist History GOOD/BAD Joe Rogan: GOOD: propping up comic friends; BAD: useful idiot for propping up bad faith fascists who should be put out to pasture INTERNET CURIOSITY Reply All LEFTIST POLITICS Chapo Trap House TRUE CRIME In the Dark ADVICE Don’t Take Bullshit From Fuckers LAME Pod Save America OVERRATED Missing Richard Simmons DIDN’T LIKE S-Town SERIAL Season 3>Season 1 TRUMP Trump, Inc SPORTS SCHAUDENFREUDE Fuck the Chargers OKAY Bill Simmons WTF WITH MARON good when he talks to comics MURDER My Favorite Murder OTHER GOOD ONES Hound Tall; Press Box

2010s MUSIC  FAVORITE anything Brian Fallon ROCK BAND Menzingers SONG Robyn-‘Dancing On My Own’ POP-PUNK BAND Wonder Years LIVE ALBUM Horrible Crowes-‘Elsie’ HEAVY BAND Every Time I Die ELECTRONIC Chvrches SOLO Rihanna COVER ALBUM Dustin Kensrue-‘Thoughts on a Different Blood’ GO-TO AT GYM Story So Far OFF THE INEVITABLE & IRRECOVERABLE DEEP END Kanye KIND OF LIKE THE MUSIC/HATE THE PERSON: LIKE KANYE Taylor Swift, Bieber THOUGHT I���D HATE BUT DOES NOT SUCK Lana Del Rey; Post Malone OTHER FAVES 1975; Arctic Monkeys; Beach Slang; Black Keys; Bon Iver; Carly Rae Jepsen; the National; Thrice MIXED Chance the Rapper; Kendrick Lamar I’ll be honest I spent far more time listening to podcasts nearly all the time and just listened to mostly the same couple of things I liked. 2010s PATRIOTS  2010s BEST GAMES 1) Seahawks Super Bowl 2) Falcons Super Bowl 3) Ravens 2015 Divisional 4) Chiefs 2019 AFCCG UNDERRATED CLASSIC Ravens 2015 Divisional BRADY/GRONK GO DOWN LIKE CHAMPS 1) 2018 Eagles Super Bowl 2) Broncos 2015 AFCCG: Brady’ offensive line was a sieve EITHER WAY Giants Super Bowl: game changed when Brady’s shoulder got fucked up by Tuck FAVORITE PLAYER TB12 MOST FUN/DOMINANT Gronk HEART OF TEAM Edelman BELOVED Wilfork ROCK SOLID 1) Hightower 2) McCourty 3) James White 1st BALLOT HALL OF FAMERS 1) Brady 2) Gronk 3) Revis LATER BALLOT 1) Edelman 2) Scarnecchia 3) Welker 4) Wilfork 5) Slater MAKING AN ARGUMENT Gilmore PATS HALL ONLY 1) McCourty 2) Hightower 3) Mankins 4) White 5) Gostkowski 6) Mayo 7) Chung UNDERRATED/GOOD VALUE 1) Amendola 2) Vollmer 3) Ninkovich 4) Chung 5) Woodhead DESERVED BETTER Welker UNSUNG Slater OVERRATED 1) Solder 2) Brandin Cooks NO-SHOWS Dolphins (Dec ’19); Jets Divisional (Jan ‘11) BEST REGULAR SEASON WINS 1) 2013 Broncos 2) 2017 Steelers 3) 2013 Saints BEST REGULAR SEASON LOSSES 1) 2012 49ers 2) 2016 Seahawks 3) 2014 Packers 4) 2015 Broncos LOL Miami Miracle: saved by winning Super Bowl LEAST TALENTED TEAM 1) 2013 by a mile 2) 2010 3) 2011 4) 2018 BEST TEAM 1) 2014  2) 2016 BEST PLAYS (NON-GRONK) 1) Butler INT Seahawks 2) Edelman TD pass vs Ravens 3) Buttfumble Jets 4) Edelman catch vs Falcons 5) Walk-off TD vs Falcons 6) Dan Connolly kick return 7) Brady TD pass to LaFell 2015 Divisional POUNDED TABLE TO DRAFT 1) Lamar Jackson 2) Kittle 3) AJ Brown 4) Honey Badger 5) Stefon Diggs WANTED BUT OUT OF REACH 1) Aaron Donald 2) Quenton Nelson 3) Derwin James 4) Hopkins 5) TJ Watt 6) Saquon 7) Keenan Allen 8) McCaffrey 9) Gurley WOULD’VE WON IT ALL IF NOT FOR INJURIES 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017. That’s football HEALTHIEST SEASON 2018 ROPE-A-DOPED/GOT BY ON VETERAN GUILE 2018: Belichick’s best coaching FAVORITE PICKS AT THE TIME OF GUYS I WANTED 1) Gronk 2) Hightower/Chandler Jones 3) Shaq Mason MOVES I HATED THAT I WAS WRONG ABOUT 1) Stephon Gilmore 2) trading Jamie Collins MOST IMPROVED Marcus Cannon BEST FIND Kyle Van Noy MOVE I LOVED getting Blount back the 2nd time IF BUTLER WASN’T BENCHED, DO THEY BEAT THE EAGLES? Yes 100%. If only because, if nothing else, he can tackle BUTLER’s INT KILLED THE ‘LEGION OF BOOM’ SEAHAWKS WOULD-BE DYNASTY Yes DRAFT REACH THAT MADE NO SENSE Jordan Richards: Tavon Wilson 2.0 BAD DRAFT MOVES 1) Dominique Easley 2) Cyrus Jones 3) Dobson 4) Mallett DIRTY SECRET Belichick sucks at drafting in 2nd round WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD IF HE STAYED HEALTHY Malcolm Mitchell HATE TO SEE WALK BUT COULDN’T AFFORD 1) Trey Flowers 2) Chandler Jones 3) Jimmy G 4) Talib 5) Akiem Hicks DEFLATEGATE fraud/power trip job by Goodell/owners BRADY OR BELICHICK MORE VALUABLE Brady 100% DISAPPOINTING/GAMBLES 1) Ochocinco 2) Michael Bennett: got him 2 years too late 3) Fanene signing 4) Haynesworth BEST SHORT-TERM 1) Martellus Bennett 2) Chris Long 3) Revis 4) Brian Waters SUSPECT CHARACTERS/EDGY PERSONALITY MACHINES Brandon Spikes; Brandon Browner…SERIAL KILLER Aaron Hernandez PERSONALITY DISORDER DISASTER Antonio Brown: bad signing/unexpected HOW THE FUCK DID WE LOSE TO THAT GUY? Eli Manning/Nick Foles LIFESAVER Scarnecchia MCDANIELS Frustrating—but continuity matters REFS FUCKED OVER Gronk  MISCELANNEOUS 2010s GOOD/ENJOY Bernie Sanders/AOC: people who actually want to get good done that’s long overdue…Lebron James; Stephen Curry; Kawhi; Zion Williamson; Luka Doncic...Lamar Jackson; Pat Mahomes; JJ Watt; Marshawn Lynch…Coach Ed Orgeron...David Ortiz…2011 Bruins…memes…Don Winslow crime novels…David Roth writing on Trump…David Grann non-fiction…’Book of Mormon’ DID NOT ENJOY Kyrie Irving…Deflategate…LeBron on the Heat…Bobby Valentine DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE LIKE ‘Between the World and Me’…Elon Musk…Lin Manuel-Miranda/’Hamilton’ INDEFENSIBLY AND INFURIATINGLY BAD THE MORE YOU LOOK AT IT Facebook…Obama Presidency/Democratic Party Leadership EVERYDAY DISASTER Media: CNN; Fox; MSNBC; NY Times Op-Ed…Trump/Republicans: Trump presidency was basically 2010s 9/11 for inevitable disastrous fallout & consequences my generation will never recover from…Grifters Trojan horsing way in shamelessly (Trump administration; Ben Shapiro; Alex Jones; Milo; Jordan Peterson, Tomi Lahren, etc.) and no repercussions...Republican Party basically one goal: to troll libs even with shitty ideas that suck FAVORITES WHO DIED Bourdain; Elmore Leonard; Garry Shandling; Muhammad Ali; Robin Williams; Tom Petty BEST TALENT CUT SHORT Philip Seymour Hoffman SHITTIEST PEOPLE WHO DIED Antonin Scalia; George HW Bush; John McCain; Osama; Steve Jobs; Whitey Bulger I FORGOT THAT SHIT HAPPENED Charlie Sheen loses it JEFFREY EPSTEIN did not kill himself WHAT DEFINES 2010s Amazon/Bezos…Climate Change/Gun Violence inaction…Journalism being taken over by Bane Capital-esque vultures/local places dying...one-sided Class War by the uber-rich…#MeToo…Netflix…Opioids…Outrage/Cancel culture…Police Injustice…Silicon Valley…Social Media…Superhero shit…Your mom

[ericgilbertwilliams-blog]

2 Hidden Profit Opportunities For Your Business

READ THE LESSON: 

A business without a good operations team is like a hot looking 2019 sports car with a T-lizzie engine under the hood. All looks with no substance! And that means you could be leaving a lot of profit opportunities on the table. 

Now, I’m sure there are many among you that consider this rather obvious. So let me ask you this instead – when was the last time you took a step back from your sales or marketing strategies, and fine-tuned your operations team? Do you put as much care and attention into operations as you do in other departments?

Fine Tuning A Great Operations Team for Your Business

In 2017, Michael Mankins reported on the Harvard Business Review that the average company loses 20% of its productive capacity to operational drag. That means most small to mid-sized businesses lose about a day’s worth of work each week, just because their own cluttered work process and operational flow keeps tripping up their employees. You know those glorious margins your sales team was busting its backside to close for you last month? Say goodbye to them.

As a rule of thumb, you don’t want your operations team struggling because your business is mired by red tape – you want them struggling to keep up only because the demand for your product is that high!

Here are just a few of the many things a well-oiled operations team does for your business, it;

Creates strategies to constantly streamline your company’s work flow to cut out any step that’s dead weight, 

Allows your sales team to make competitive and sometimes outrageous promises for product delivery to prospective clients, and then figures out how to make them a reality, 

Micromanages individual steps in other departments’ operations so that you, as the boss, don’t have to do the same, 

Helps you safeguard and expand your profit margins, 

Is the reason why you don’t have dissatisfied customers, removing the need for customer service personnel solely tasked to deal with them, plus much more.

So how do you fine-tune your operations team to ensure that they can do all of the above, and more, for you? These two steps should be a good start.

1. Lay Down A Concrete Business Ideology For Your Operations Team

Most small to mid-sized business owners undervalue the need for a concrete working ideology because they believe ‘Make me money, aggressively’ suffices as one. That’s not a vision. Unless you’re running a non-profit, profits is the entire point of a business.

‘Make me money, by stripping costs as low as you can’ on the other hand is a different story. So is ‘Make me money, by minimizing internal and external time required to deliver a service or product’.

Figure out your mantra. Hammer it into your team members. The mantra may or may not change in a few months – but there should always be one.

The point of a clear ideology in the minds of your operations team is that it allows them to chalk out impactful long and short term goals, and then work towards them.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish” 

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The “Operations Playbook”, released in 2014 by the National Center for the Middle Market, breaks the operations team’s job into four major sub-systems: problem-solving, daily management, overall business strategy, and people development. Discussing all four of these as a priority with your operations team in your Monday morning meetings not only helps them identify key metrics for the week to come, but also lets you gauge whether those actions align with your long-term business goals for the coming fiscal year.

2. Take Your Teams Feedback, Often

A great operations team isn’t just made up of employees who provide a quick turnaround and product delivery to your clients. That’s a given necessity for survival. A great operations team is one that has people working for you that live and breathe the details of your business…with passion!

For smaller businesses that are doing well enough to stay in the black, the biggest danger is complacency. ‘Why change something that works’ becomes such an ingrained thought in the company’s work culture that when a new situation does come along, no one dealing with it is adaptable enough to come up with new solutions. This state is called ‘active inertia’, and it’s often the death of a business.

Now, if your business is doing alright but struggling to grow, then I can assume at least some of the following points are true for you:

You have people with the right mind-set in your operations team; 

You regularly discuss short and long term plans with them; 

You at least have some systems in place to gather data from all your different teams; 

You regularly keep an eye on key performance metrics in your data to see how your business is doing.

Here’s what you need to do to unlock your next stage of growth – take your operations team’s feedback, often. A 2016 Forbes article identified the boss’ ego and the employee’s fear of questioning the status quo as the two major reasons for complacency in a business. However, it’s erroneous to equate asking a question to your boss about their plan of action with challenging the operational hierarchy.

Naval submariners work in a culture where even the junior-most sailor can ask a question of the highest officer in command, with clear expectations of receiving a thoughtful answer. In turn, the questions asked of them often reveal to the higher officers the thought processes of their sailors, and help identify potential problems in the submarine before they arise.

‘Min-maxing’ is a fascinating term from video gaming culture. It means finding ways to produce the maximum output possible in a set time with the minimum required input. More so than any other employees, your operations team members are your sailors in the submarine. As such, they’re the ones best positioned to ‘min-max’ your work process and operational flow. If you believe you have the right people in place, you ignore their feedback at your own peril.

Min-Max Your Business: Maximize Your Profits

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe.” 

Muhammad Ali

If you take away just one thing from this article, let it be this – Your operations team is single-handedly responsible for both lowering your business costs, and maximizing the amount of work you can get done in a day.

Their job is to remove the pebble in your shoe. The potential profit margins that your sales team negotiates mean little if you’re throwing away valuable work hours into a black hole of redundancies and cluttered work processes.

Moreover, giving your operations team the importance they deserve will also very likely boost their own motivation, inspiring them to do better for the business’ success. And we’ve already seen how effective inspiration alone can be for productivity in a business.

However, if you’re wondering why I didn’t lay down specific key metrics and performance indicators that your operations team should concentrate on – that’s because they differ rather wildly depending on your type of business, your product, and your own vision for the company.

That’s precisely why I offer a complementary first consultation to any business looking to maximize its potential. Click here to book your free session, and let’s unlock those profits your business truly deserves.

by: Eric Gilbert-Williams

[leaderature]

Book 47 of Year 2017 – “Time, Talent, Energy” by Michael C. Mankins and Eric Garton

The real challenge isn’t to restructure existing units...

Official Title – Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power

Genre – Non Fiction

Book Length – 256 pages

Reading Time – 6 hours

Style/ Plot – This book focused on helping organisations/businesses/leaders manage time, talent and resources with the same care applied to managing financial capital.

There are a number of practical advices given. My…

[teeweezee]

Book 47 of Year 2017 – “Time, Talent, Energy” by Michael C. Mankins and Eric Garton

The real challenge isn’t to restructure existing units...

Official Title – Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power Genre – Non Fiction Book Length – 256 pages Reading Time – 6 hours Style/ Plot – This book focused on helping organisations/businesses/leaders manage time, talent and resources with the same care applied to managing financial capital. There are a number of practical advices given. My…

[skaiapentertainment]

Blast From The Past Development Listing

?= On the fence

↑= On the fence about moving them up

↓= On the fence about moving them down

Quarterbacks

SF Alex Smith, 22 yrs, Star 

ARI Kurt Warner, 35 yrs, Superstar

SEA Matt Hasselbeck, 31 yrs, Star

LAC Philip Rivers, 25 yrs, Superstar

CIN Carson Palmer, 27 yrs, Star

BAL Steve McNair, 33 yrs, Star

PIT Ben Roethlisberger, 24 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Brick Wall)

GB Brett Favre, 37 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Bazooka)

GB Aaron Rodgers, 23 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Gambler)

NYG Eli Manning, 25 yrs, Star

PHI Donovan McNabb, 30 yrs, Superstar

DAL Drew Bledsoe, 34 yrs, Star

DAL Tony Romo, 26 yrs, Star

NE Tom Brady, 29 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Pro Reads)

NO Drew Brees, 27 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Fearless)

ATL Michael Vick, 26 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (First One Free)

TEN Vince Young, 23 yrs, Star ? ↓

IND Peyton Manning, 30 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Pro Reads)

Runningbacks 

SF Frank Gore, 23 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Wrecking Ball)

ARI Edgerrin James, 28 yrs, Superstar ? ↓

LAR Steven Jackson, 23 yrs, Superstar

LAR Marshall Faulk, 32 yrs, Star

SEA Shaun Alexander, 29 yrs, Superstar

KC Larry Johnson, 27 yrs, Star

LAC Michael Turner, 24 yrs, Star

LAC Darren Sproles, 23 yrs, Star

LAC LaDanian Tomlinson, 27 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (First One Free)

BAL Jamal Lewis, 27 yrs, Superstar

GB Ahmad Green, 29 yrs, Star

NYG Tiki Barber, 31 yrs, Superstar

PHI Brian Westbrook, 27 yrs, Star

WAS Clinton Portis, 25 yrs, Star

NYJ Curtis Martin, 33 yrs, Star

NE Corey Dillon, 32 yrs, Star

BUF Willis McGahee, 25 yrs, Star

CAR DeAngelo Williams, 23 yrs, Star

ATL Warrick Dunn, 31 yrs, Star

JAX Fred Taylor, 30 yrs, Star

JAX Maurice Jones-Drew, 21 yrs, Superstar

Fullbacks

SEA Mack Strong, 35 yrs, Star

LAC Lorenzo Neal, 36 yrs, Superstar

TB Mike Alstott, 33 yrs, Star

Wide Receivers

ARI Larry Fitzgerald, 23 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Max Security)

ARI Anquan Boldin, 26 yrs, Superstar

LAR Torry Holt, 30 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Rac ‘Em Up)

LAR Isaac Bruce, 34 yrs, Superstar

DEN Rod Smith, 36 yrs, Star

DEN Brandon Marshall, 22 yrs, Superstar

OAK Randy Moss, 29 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Double Me)

LAC Vincent Jackson, 23 yrs, Star

CIN Chad Johnson, 28 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Rac ‘Em Up)

BAL Derrick Mason, 32 yrs, Star

PIT Hines Ward, 30 yrs, Superstar ? ↑

GB Donald Driver, 31 yrs, Star

GB Greg Jennings, 23 yrs, Star

NYG Plaxico Burress, 29 yrs, Star

WAS Santana Moss, 27 yrs, Star

DAL Terrell Owens, 33 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Double Me)

MIA Wes Welker, 25 yrs, Superstar

NE Deion Branch, 27 yrs, Star

TB Joey Galloway, 35 yrs, Star

NO Joe Horn, 34 yrs, Star

ATL Roddy White, 25 yrs, Superstar

HOU Andre Johnson, 25 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Double Me)

IND Marvin Harrison, 34 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Rac ‘Em Up)

IND Reggie Wayne, 28 yrs, Superstar

Tight Ends

SF Vernon Davis, 22 yrs, Star ? ↑

SF Delaine Walker, 22 yrs, Star

KC Tony Gonzalez, 30 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Max Security)

LAC Antonio Gates, 26 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Max Security)

BAL Todd Heap, 26 yrs, Star

PIT Heath Miller, 24 yrs, Star

NYG Jeremy Shockey, 26 yrs, Superstar ? ↓

WAS Chris Cooley, 24 yrs, Star

DAL Jason Witten, 24 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Max Security)

ATL Alge Crumpler, 29 yrs, Star

HOU Owen Daniels, 24 yrs, Star

IND Dallas Clark, 27 yrs, Star

Tackles

ARI Leonard Davis, 28 yrs, Star

LAR Orlando Pace, 31 yrs, Superstar

SEA Walter Jones, 32 yrs, Superstar

KC Willie Roaf, 36 yrs, Superstar

CIN Andrew Whitworth, 25 yrs, Superstar

CIN Willie Anderson, 31 yrs, Superstar

BAL Jonathan Ogden, 32 yrs, Superstar

GB Chad Clifton, 30 yrs, Star

PHI Tra Thomas, 32 yrs, Star

WAS Chris Samuels, 29 yrs, Superstar

DAL Flozell Adams, 29 yrs, Superstar

NYJ D’Brickshaw Ferguson, 23 yrs, Star

NE Matt Light, 28 yrs, Superstar

BUF Jason Peters, 24 yrs, Superstar

NO Jammal Brown, 25 yrs, Star

CAR Jordan Gross, 26 yrs, Star

TEN Michael Roos, 24 yrs, Star

IND Tarik Glenn, 30 yrs, Star

Guards

SF Larry Allen, 35 yrs, Superstar

LAR Richie Incognito, 23 yrs, Star

KC Will Shields, 35 yrs, Superstar

KC Brian Waters, 29 yrs, Superstar

LAC Kris Dielman, 25 yrs, Star

PIT Alan Faneca, 30 yrs, Superstar

DET Damien Woody, 29 yrs, Star

CHI Ruben Brown, 34 yrs, Star

MIN Steve Hutchinson, 29 yrs, Superstar

NYG Chris Snee, 24 yrs, Star

PHI Shawn Andrews, 24 yrs, Star

DAL Marco Rivera, 34 yrs, Star

NE Logan Mankins, 24 yrs, Superstar

TB Davin Joseph, 23 yrs, Star

NO Jahri Evans, 23 yrs, Superstar

CAR Evan Mathis, 25 yrs, Star

Centers

SF Jeremy Newberry, 30 yrs, Star

DEN Chris Myers, 25 yrs, Star

DEN Tom Nalen, 35 yrs, Star

CLE LeCharles Bentley, 27 yrs, Star

PIT Jeff Hartings, 34 yrs, Star

CHI Olin Kreutz, 29 yrs, Superstar

MIN Matt Birk, 30 yrs, Star 

NYG Shaun O’hara, 29 yrs, Star

DAL Andre Gurode, 28 yrs, Star

NYJ Nick Mangold, 22 yrs, Superstar

NE Dan Koppen, 27 yrs, Star

TEN Kevin Mawae, 35 yrs, Superstar

IND Jeff Saturday, 31 yrs, Superstar

Edge

SF Bryant Young, 34 yrs, Star

ARI Bertrand Berry, 31 yrs, Star

LAR Leonard Little, 32 yrs, Star

SEA Julian Peterson, 28 yrs, Superstar

KC Jared Allen, 24 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Unstoppable Force)

KC Tamba Hali, 23 yrs, Superstar

DEN Elvis Dumervil, 22 yrs, Superstar

OAK Derrick Burgess, 28 yrs, Star

LAC Shaun Phillips, 25 yrs, Star

BAL Terrell Suggs, 24 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Unstoppable Force)

BAL Adalius Thomas, 29 yrs, Star

CLE Willie McGinest, 35 yrs, Star

PIT James Harrison, 28 yrs, Superstar

PIT Joey Porter, 29 yrs, Superstar

GB Aaron Kampman, 27 yrs, Star

GB Kabeer Gbaja-Biamilia, 29 yrs, Star

NYG Michael Strahan, 35 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Fearmonger)

NYG Justin Tuck, 23 yrs, Star

NYG Osi Umenyiora, 25 yrs, Superstar

PHI Jeveon Kearse, 30 yrs, Star

PHI Trent Cole, 24 yrs, Star

DAL DeMarcus Ware, 24 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Unstoppable Force)

NYJ Shaun Ellis, 29 yrs, Star

MIA Jason Taylor, 32 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Unstoppable Force)

MIA Kevin Carter, 33 yrs, Star

BUF Aaron Schobel, 29 yrs, Star

TB Simeon Rice, 32 yrs, Superstar

NO Will Smith, 25 yrs, Star

CAR Julius Peppers, 26 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Unstoppable Force)

ATL John Abraham, 28 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Unstoppable Force)

ATL Patrick Kerney, 30 yrs, Superstar ? ↓

TEN Kyle Vanden Bosch, 28 yrs, Star

HOU Jason Babin, 26 yrs, Star

HOU Mario Williams, 21 yrs, Superstar

IND Dwight Freeney, 26 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Unstoppable Force)

IND Robert Mathis, 25 yrs, Superstar ? ↑

Defensive Tackles

ARI Darnell Dockett, 25 yrs, Star

LAR La’Roi Glover, 32 yrs, Superstar

OAK Warren Sapp, 34 yrs, Superstar

LAC Jamal Williams, 30 yrs, Superstar

CIN Justin Smith, 27 yrs, Superstar

CIN Sam Adams, 33 yrs, Star

BAL Haloti Ngata, 22 yrs, Superstar

CLE Ted Washington, 38 yrs, Star

PIT Casey Hampton, 29 yrs, Star

DET Shaun Rogers, 26 yrs, Star

CHI Tommie Harris, 23 yrs, Star

MIN Pat Williams, 34 yrs, Star

MIN Kevin Williams, 26 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Run Stuffer)

NE Richard Seymour, 27 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Run Stuffer)

NE Vince Wilfork, 25 yrs, Superstar

BUF Kyle Williams, 23 yrs, Superstar

CAR Kris Jenkins, 27 yrs, Superstar

ATL Roderick Coleman, 30 yrs, Star

TEN Albert Haynesworth, 25 yrs, Star

TEN Randy Starks, 23 yrs, Star

JAX John Henderson, 27 yrs, Star

JAX Marcus Stroud, 28 yrs, Star

Linebackers

ARI Karlos Dansby, 25 yrs, Star

LAR Dexter Coakley, 34 yrs, Star ? ↓

SEA Lofa Tatupu, 24 yrs, Superstar ? ↓

KC Derrick Johnson, 24 yrs, Superstar

DEN Al Wilson, 29 yrs, Superstar ? ↓

BAL Bart Scott, 26 yrs, Star

BAL Ray Lewis, 31 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Reinforcement)

CLE D’Qwell Jackson, 23 yrs, Star

PIT James Farrior, 31 yrs Star

CHI Brian Urlacher, 28 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Run Stuffer)

CHI Lance Briggs, 26 yrs, Superstar

MIN Chad Greenway, 23 yrs, Star

NYG Lavar Arrington, 28 yrs, Star

PHI Jeremiah Trotter, 29 yrs, Superstar ? ↓

NYJ Jonathan Vilma, 24 yrs, Star

MIA Zack Thomas, 33 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Run Stuffer)

NE Mike Vrabel, 31 yrs, Star

NE Tedy Bruschi, 33 yrs, Star

BUF Takeo Spikes, 30 yrs, Star

BUF London Fletcher, 31 yrs, Superstar

TB Derrick Brooks, 33 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Run Stuffer)

CAR Thomas Davis, 23 yrs, Superstar

ATL Keith Brooking, 31 yrs, Star

HOU DeMeco Ryans, 22 yrs, Star

Corners

ARI Antrell Rolle, 24 yrs, Star

KC Patrick Surtain, 30 yrs, Star

DEN Champ Bailey, 28 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Shutdown)

OAK Nnamdi Asomugha, 25 yrs, Superstar

LAC Antonio Cromartie, 22 yrs, Superstar

CIN Deltha O’Neal, 29 yrs, Star

CIN Johnathan Joseph, 22 yrs, Star

BAL Chris McAlister, 29 yrs, Superstar

BAL Samari Rolle, 30 yrs, Star

PIT Ike Taylor, 26 yrs, Star

DET Dre’ Bly, 29 yrs, Star

CHI Charles Tillman, 25 yrs, Star

MIN Antoine Winfield, 29 yrs, Star

GB Charles Woodson, 30 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Zone Hawk)

GB Al Harris, 32 yrs, Star

NYG Sam Madison, 32 yrs, Superstar

PHI Lito Shepard, 25 yrs, Star

DAL Terrence Newman, 28 yrs, Star

NE Asante Samuel, 25 yrs, Superstar

BUF Nate Clements, 27 yrs, Star

TB Ronde Barber, 31 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Shutdown)

ATL DeAngelo Hall, 23 yrs, Star

TEN Adam Jones, 23 yrs, Star

JAX Rashean Mathis, 26 yrs, Star

Safeties 

SF Mike Adams, 25 yrs, Star 

ARI Adrian Wilson, 27 yrs, Superstar

DEN John Lynch, 35 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Reinforcement) ? ↓

BAL Ed Reed, 28 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Zone Hawk)

PIT Troy Polamalu, 25 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Reinforcement)

MIN Darren Sharper, 31 yrs, Superstar

GB Nick Collins, 23 yrs, Star

PHI Brian Dawkins, 33 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Reinforcement)

WAS Sean Taylor, 23 yrs, Superstar X-Factor (Reinforcement)

DAL Roy Williams, 26 yrs, Superstar

NE Rodney Harrison, 34 yrs, Star ? ↑

BUF Donte Whitner, 21 yrs, Star

NO Roman Harper, 24 yrs, Star

ATL Lawyer Milloy, 32 yrs, Star

IND Bob Sanders, 25 yrs, Superstar

Kickers

ARI Neil Rackers, 30 yrs, Star

OAK Sebastian Janikowski, 28 yrs, Star

LAC Nate Kaeding, 24 yrs, Star

BAL Matt Stover, 38 yrs, Star

CLE Phil Dawson, 31 yrs, Star

CHI Robbie Gould, 24 yrs, Star

PHI David Akers, 32 yrs, Superstar

DAL Mike Vanderjakt, 36 yrs, Star

NE Stephen Gostkowski, 22 yrs, Star

TB Matt Bryant, 31 yrs, Star

Punters

SF Andy Lee, 24 yrs, Superstar

KC Dustin Colquitt, 24 yrs, Star

OAK Shane Lechler, 30 yrs, Superstar

DAL Mat McBriar, 27 yrs, Star

BUF Brian Mooreman, 30 yrs, Superstar

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[victoramoda]

Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power

by Michael Mankins and Eric Garton

Harvard Business Review Press

Charted Management Institute: Management Book of the Year 2018, Practical Manager Winner Promotion Video

This is the first project I worked on where I had focused primarily on 2D animation. i used After Effects for compositing and animation with Cinema4D being used to make and animate 3D assets. 

[intrpd]

Societal Readiness Levels: Ready for a new normal?

Monika Büscher

‘What gets measured gets done’ – a treacherous mantra of our times. As societies bend to a technocratic Gestell of indicators, their compliance feeds its power. In her critique of the New Urban Agenda’s call for urban resilience, Maria Kaika highlights how indicator-based planning can undermine communities. She cites Tracie Washington’s defense of disaster victims:

everytime you say, “Oh, they’re resilient, [it actually] means you can do something else, … We were not born to be resilient; we are conditioned to be resilient. I don’t want to be resilient …. [I want to] fix the things that [create the need for us to] be resilient [in the first place]

Tracie Washington, President of the Louisiana Justice Institute, in Kaika (2017).

Kaika shows how indicators designed to support resilience can end up supporting an ‘immunological’ ideology. A technocratic, managerial, solutionist smart city innovation agenda, she argues, ‘vaccinates citizens and environments so that they can take larger doses of inequality and degradation in the future’ (2017:89). The concept of ‘Technology Readiness Levels’ (TRL) is part of this agenda, as is the emergent concept of Societal Readiness Levels (SRL) (Fig 1). However, an affirmative critique (Braidotti 2011)of SRL may offer a lifeline off this self-destructive juggernaut.

Figure 1 Visualisations of Societal and Technological Readiness (Source: (Allwood et al. 2017)(right), (Schraudner et al. 2018)(left))

Developed by NASA as a ‘systematic metric/measurement system that supports assessments of the maturity of a particular technology’ and comparison between different types of technology (Mankins 1995), the TRL metric has spread to guide multi-trillion global innovation programmes. TRL embody a culture of solutionism (Morozov 2013), where technology is seen as a product designed to fulfill societal or operational needs or ambitions. SRL critique this technocractic focus. The SRL concept originates in debates about a transition towards low carbon futures (Allwood et al 2017, Fig 1 left) and the Danish Innovation Fund’s attempt to find a ‘way of assessing the level of societal adaptation of, for instance, a particular … innovation (whether social or technical) to be integrated into society’ (Fig 1 right). The two approaches are different in aim, one focused on a societal transformation where a socio-technical change of reduced material demand has become ‘normal practice’ at the highest SRL level, the other on measuring successful (profitable) embedding of (desire for) a product.

The Danish Innovation Fund’s SRL framework in particular has received interest from major actors like UK and EU research funding bodies. This indicates that concerns with the social dimension of innovation have become mainstream. The 2050 European Energy Roadmap, for example, recognises that citizens’ active participation in energy management is ‘as critical as technology to making the European energy system more flexible and sustainable’, and smart city innovation is scrambling to become ‘citizen-focused’. However, such citizen-focus all-too-often remains – at best! –at a ‘placating’ level (Cardullo and Kitchin 2019), at worst it constitutes cynical lip-service for moreintrusive commercial and security-driven exploitation of citizen data in ‘Lifeworld.Inc’ (Thrift 2011).

Mainstreaming attention to the social through SRL has failed so far. Why? Does this mean the very idea is ideologically corrupted like the New Urban Agenda’s resilience indicator-based approach? Or is failure down to a lack of societal readiness of the currently dominant SRL concept itself? Measurement and comparison have proved critical to societal transformation before (Mosley 2009). And as rapid societal transformation is needed to avert the collapse of humanity, could societal readiness be conceived differently? Allwood et al’s concern with a new normal as the highest level of societal readiness resonates with social science debates that the Danish Innovation Fund seems oblivious to. The summary below is designed to explore how we might give new direction to SRL.

Christensen’s recognition that innovation is often disruptive of existing socio-economic orders (Christensen 1997; Christensen et al 2015)highlights that technologies are not products to be inserted into a ‘context’ but catalysts for change. The concept of mode-2 science and society (Nowotny et al 2001)addresses this disruptive element and the unintended, un-known and unknow-able consequences of innovation. Mode-2 society and mode-2 science are based on interdisciplinary collaboration, and methods of collective experimentation (Felt and Wynne 2008), where scientists and citizens, organisations, technology developers and those who appropriate technology, bring together and contest social and technological innovation. Opportunities for such collaboration are often clustered at the implementation end of innovation, but calls to create them further upstream are beginning to define methodologies for citizen engagement on higher rungs of the ladder of participation (Arnstein 1969)to conduct Experiment Earth(Stilgoe 2016).

The result of such efforts should be more carefully radical and radically careful design (Latour 2008). Methods for achieving it cluster around experimentation, creative, artistic disruption and the strategic power of ignorance and surprise (Gross 2010). Gross suggests that given our inevitable ignorance in the face of complex systemic disruptions and unintended consequences of innovation it is critical that we generate as much surprise as early as possible. Simulation, play, broad-base dialogue and collaborative learning are essential for this. Introna (2007)adds an ethical dimension with his call for disclosive ethics and a focus on reversibility – it is important to not allow innovations to settle too fast. Recent efforts to define a digital ethics by the European Data Protection Supervisors’ Office address this need to give ethical issues a broader than regulatory exposure, including public consultation (EDPS 2015; 2018)

What is the role of the social scientist in this? Braidotti's (2011)demand to move beyond critique and into constructive endeavours or affirmative critique, require the courage to ‘stick one’s neck out’ and make value-based normative recommendations for how things should be organized in better ways. Failure and being wrong are obvious dangers. But there might be ways of doing it playfully and in safe spaces, experimentally, creatively, and collectively, which resonates strongly calls for an experimental sociology (Thrift 2011), inventive and speculative methods (Lury and Wakeford 2013; Michael 2016). It also sits well with suggestions that it is not necessarily deliberation or consensus that should be sought. Instead participatory designers and action researchers are calling on us to engage in infrastructuring for participation, seeking to include and enable dissent, debate, ongoing experimentation (Ehn 2008; Dantec and DiSalvo 2013)

Levitas’ utopia as method (2013)provides perhaps the most integrative framework for these endeavours. This is a creative appropriation of utopia not as a blueprint of a ‘better’ world designed by experts, but a method to engage diverse stakeholders in making better pockets of the world together, all the while remaining open to experiencing how and for whom this worldly constellation is (not) better and how. Collective narrative methods and visual story-building methods are particularly suited (Porritt 2013; McKay and Dickson 2016; Popan 2018)

None of these contributions have so far made it into definitions of SRL. The Danish Innovation Fund’s focus on validation, testing, deployment supports experimentation, but it is driven by a concern with social acceptance (and not the acceptability) of innovation, based on a deficit model of poor public understanding of science and technology. To ask, with Tsing(2015), and through research and innovation, ‘what if the time was ripe for sensing precarity?’ and ‘what constitutes living with it well?’, SRL need to be co-created, they need to measure how innovations enable a good ‘new normal’, and this needs to be open to contestation.

References

Allwood, Julian M., Timothy G. Gutowski, André C. Serrenho, Alexandra C. H. Skelton, and Ernst Worrell. 2017. ‘Industry 1.61803: The Transition to an Industry with Reduced Material Demand Fit for a Low Carbon Future’. Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences375 (2095). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2016.0361.

Arnstein, Sherry R. 1969. ‘A Ladder Of Citizen Participation: : Vol 35, No 4’. Journal of the American Institute of Planners35 (4): 216–24.

Braidotti, Rosi. 2011. Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti. New York: Columbia University Press. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nomadic-Theory-Portable-Braidotti-Paperback/dp/0231151918.

Cardullo, Paolo, and Rob Kitchin. 2019. ‘Being a “Citizen” in the Smart City: Up and down the Scaffold of Smart Citizen Participation in Dublin, Ireland | SpringerLink’. GeoJournal84 (1): 1–13.

Christensen, Clayton M. 1997. The Innovator’s Dilemma. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.

Christensen, Clayton M., Michael E. Raynor, and Rory McDonald. 2015. ‘What Is Disruptive Innovation?’ Harvard Business Review, 1 December 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation.

Dantec, Christopher A Le, and Carl DiSalvo. 2013. ‘Infrastructuring and the Formation of Publics in Participatory Design’. Social Studies of Science43 (2): 241–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312712471581.

EDPS. 2015. ‘Opinion 4/2015: Towards a New Digital Ethics. Data, Dignity and Technology’. https://edps.europa.eu/sites/edp/files/publication/15-09-11_data_ethics_en.pdf.

———. 2018. ‘Public Consultation on Digital Ethics’. https://edps.europa.eu/sites/edp/files/publication/18-09-25_edps_publicconsultationdigitalethicssummary_en.pdf.

Ehn, Pelle. 2008. ‘Participation in Design Things’. In Proceedings of the Tenth Anniversary Conference on Participatory Design 2008, 92–101. PDC ’08. Indianapolis, IN, USA: Indiana University. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1795234.1795248.

Felt, U., and B. Wynne, eds. 2008. Taking European Knowledge Society Seriously. Vimodrone, IPOC: IPOC di Pietro Condemi. https://sts.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/i_sts/Ueber_uns/pdfs_Felt/taking_european_knowledge_society_seriously.pdf.

Gross, Matthias. 2010. Ignorance and Surprise | The MIT Press. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ignorance-and-surprise.

Introna, Lucas D. 2007. ‘Maintaining the Reversibility of Foldings: Making the Ethics (Politics) of Information Technology Visible.’ Ethics and Information Technology9 (1): 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-006-9133-z.

Kaika, Maria. 2017. ‘“Don’t Call Me Resilient Again!”: The New Urban Agenda as Immunology … or … What Happens When Communities Refuse to Be Vaccinated with “Smart Cities” and Indicators’. Environment and Urbanization29 (1): 89–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247816684763.

Latour, Bruno. 2008. ‘A Cautious Prometheus ? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design’, September. https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00972919.

Levitas, Ruth. 2013. Utopia as Method - The Imaginary Reconstitution of Society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230231962.

Mankins, John C. 1995. ‘Technology Readiness Levels. White Paper’. NASA. https://aiaa.kavi.com/apps/group_public/download.php/2212/TRLs_MankinsPaper_1995.pdf.

McKay, J, and B Dickson. 2016. ‘Dreams of a Low Carbon Future : Doctoral Training Centre in Low Carbon Technologies’. Leeds University. https://lowcarbon.leeds.ac.uk/dreams-of-a-low-carbon-future/.

Mosley, Stephen. 2009. ‘“A Network of Trust”: Measuring and Monitoring Air Pollution in British Cities, 1912-1960’. Environment and History15 (3): 273–302.

Nowotny, Helga, Peter Scott, and Michael Gibbons. 2001. Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Re-Thinking-Science-Knowledge-Public-Uncertainty/dp/0745626084.

Popan, Cosmin. 2018. Bicycle Utopias: Imagining Fast and Slow Cycling Futures. London: Routledge. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bicycle-Utopias-Imagining-Changing-Mobilities/dp/1138389188.

Porritt, Jonathan. 2013. The World We Made: Alex McKay’s Story from 2050. Phaidon Press. https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-We-Made-McKays-Story/dp/0714863610.

Schraudner, Martina, Fabian Schroth, Malte Juetting, Simone Kaiser, Jeremy Millard, and Shenja Can der Graaf. 2018. ‘Social Innovation The Potential for Technology Development, RTOs and Industry.  Policy Paper’. Fraunhofer. http://www.thertoinnovationsummit.eu/en/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/20181220_RTO-Innovation-Summit_Policy-Paper-1.pdf.

Stilgoe, Jack. 2016. Experiment Earth: Responsible Innovation in Geoengineering. Boca Raton: CRC Press. https://www.crcpress.com/Experiment-Earth-Responsible-innovation-in-geoengineering/Stilgoe/p/book/9781138691940.

Thrift, Nigel. 2011. ‘Lifeworld Inc—And What to Do about It’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space29 (1): 5–26. https://doi.org/10.1068/d0310.

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10581.html.

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The Rules of Management A definitive code for managerial success

Some people find management so easy. They glide effortlessly onwards and upwards through the system, the politics, the people problems, the impossible targets and the work overload. They always seem to say the right thing, do the right thing and know instinctively how to handle every situation. These golden principles show you how to inspire your team to perform (and what to do when it doesn't). They reveal the secrets of managing yourself and your team in a way that gets results. Your life will be easier. Your successes will be greater. And when you are headhunted or promoted (again) nobody will be surprised. Least of all you. Good to Great Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't

The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? The Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck. The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good? Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The FindingsThe findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap."Some of the key concepts discerned in the study," comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people." Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings? Time Talent Energy Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power

Managing Your Scarcest ResourcesBusiness leaders know that the key to competitive success is smart management of scarce resources. That?s why companies allocate their financial capital so carefully. But capital today is cheap and abundant, no longer a source of advantage. The truly scarce resources now are the time, the talent, and the energy of the people in your organization?resources that are too often squandered. There?s plenty of advice about how to manage them, but most of it focuses on individual actions. What?s really needed are organizational solutions that can unleash a company?s full productive power and enable it to outpace competitors.Building off of the popular Harvard Business Review article ?Your Scarcest Resource,? Michael Mankins and Eric Garton, Bain & Company experts in organizational design and effectiveness, present new research into how you can liberate people?s time, talent, and energy and unleash your organization?s productive power. They identify the specific causes of organizational drag?the collection of institutional factors that slow things down, decrease output, and drain people?s energy?and then offer a pragmatic framework for how managers can overcome it. With practical advice for using the framework and in-depth examples of how the best companies manage their people?s time, talent, and energy with as much discipline as they do their financial capital, this book shows managers how to create a virtuous circle of high performance. ‘The authors suggest investing time as carefully as you invest money, and have concrete suggestions.’Business Traveller, February 2, 2017 by Tom Otley “If you are reading this during a meeting, you are not alone. Web browsing is just one example of dysfunctional meeting behaviour chronicled in Time, Talent, Energy. The book cites studies showing such distractions cause a fall in IQ twice as great as that achieved by smoking marijuana.”Financial Times “The book's great insight is that companies utilize a plethora of tools to manage money, and manage financials to the nth degree, but that approach is less successful than companies which put a greater focus on managing employee time, talent and energy.” Forbes “There are some good examples of successful companies and the strategies they have employed within these pages – not all of them well known – and some great quotes.” Business Traveller “Time, Talent, Energy hammers home the link between making better use of the hours at work and the Holy Grail of productivity. Mankins and Garton [point out] that time is just one component of human capital. Companies that effectively manage not just time but also their talent find themselves with the additional energy that is a crucial differentiator between them and their competitors... Quite simply, companies with inspired employees perform better than the rest.”Forbes.com Secrets of Success at Work 50 Strategies to Excel

Why do highly successful professionals know that the rest of us don't? Do they have a secret recipe for success? Is there a special alchemy at work? The Secrets of Success at Work reveals the 50 things you need to know to achieve all your professional goals, whatever your ambition. Some will surprise you, and all will inspire you. Put these 50 simple strategies together and you have a recipe for success in teh workplace, a proven formula that will unlock the secrets and uncover your potential. business books, best business books, top business books, business books to read, best business books 2019, manage booking, best business books to read, new business books, top 10 business books, business books 2019

[junker-town]

Is Super Bowl 53 going to be Gronk’s last game?

Rob Gronkowski’s lofty salary cap hit in 2019 may mean he doesn’t get to play with the Patriots again even if he decides not to retire.

Rob Gronkowski has only played in nine NFL seasons with 100 regular season starts and another 16 games in the playoffs. That’s a long time, but it isn’t even close to the 16 and 17 seasons that Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez played, respectively.

That’ll inevitably matter in “Greatest Tight End Ever” debates, because it’s really possible that Gronkowski won’t play a 10th season in the NFL. And even if he decides he wants to play another year, the Patriots may decide Super Bowl 53 was his last game with the team.

Regardless, Gronk has a very real case as the best ever at his position.

Since arriving as a second-round pick for the Patriots in 2010, he has played football like a T-800. Gronk’s been bigger and stronger than whatever poor defender has been given the unfortunate assignment to cover him. It got him a ridiculous 74 touchdowns (including the playoffs) before he even turned 27. It took Gates — the all-time leader in touchdowns for a tight end — until he was 31 to reach that number.

Why would Gronk consider retiring?

The downside to Gronk’s fearless play is that it has been more than enough to accumulate a long list of injuries. He’s had surgeries to repair his knee, his forearm, and he’s had several operations on his back — which started giving him problems in college.

Now, he’s a few months away from his 30th birthday and he’s basically held together by duct tape. Gronk caught only three touchdowns during the regular season and tallied 52.5 receiving yards per game — his lowest average since his rookie year. The playoffs showed he can still make a difference when it matters most, but it looks like his best, most dominant days are well in the rearview mirror.

He was asked days before the Super Bowl if retirement is a possibility, and gave a perfectly Gronk answer. Via NFL:

“Yes. No. Maybe so.” Then laughed.

Last year, he spent a couple months considering retirement after Super Bowl 52. He also threatened to walk away when the Patriots came close to trading him to the Detroit Lions.

That means you shouldn’t be surprised if Super Bowl 53 was the last game for Gronkowski in New England — and possibly, the NFL.

Gronk’s contract will be too expensive for the Patriots’ taste

The Patriots aren’t exactly sentimental. Many of the most important pieces of their nearly two-decade reign of terror have been shipped off or released before they got too expensive to keep around.

Logan Mankins, Richard Seymour, Wes Welker, Vince Wilfork, Ty Law, and Mike Vrabel are just a few of the Patriots legends who had to finish their NFL careers elsewhere.

So it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the Patriots decide Gronkowski’s $11.86 million salary cap hit in 2019 is too high. It would actually be shocking if they didn’t. He’s one of only four tight ends in the NFL — along with Jimmy Graham, Zach Ertz, and Travis Kelce — due to count more than $10 million against his team’s salary cap next season.

New England can recoup $9.86 million of that cap space by parting ways with Gronkowski. That’d make sense, because — save for a few flashes of his former self — Gronk has mostly looked like a tight end worth a fraction of his current price tag.

It doesn’t help either that the Patriots reportedly believe Gronkowski’s preparation for the 2018 season is partly to blame for his difficult year.

Did Gronk hurt his own cause before the season even got going? #Patriots pic.twitter.com/5hzAJdcBbv

— Michael Giardi (@MikeGiardi) February 3, 2019

“Internally, the Patriots feel like Gronkowski brought some of this on himself,” NFL Network’s Mike Giardi said Sunday of Gronk’s recent injuries. “When he reported, he came in not as strong, not as fast, and not as explosive. While he had a very good first game against the Houston Texans, then — all of a sudden — the injuries popped up to the ankle, to the Achilles, and to the back.

“The Patriots feel as though if he had maybe done it their way as opposed to the TB 12 way — of which Gronk is devoted to — maybe things would’ve been different.”

It’s possible the Patriots will ask Gronk to take a pay cut to bring that salary hit down. But that’s asking a player who is already verging on retirement to come back for more punishment at a discount price.

Will Gronk be willing to return for less, or for a different team?

The 2011 season is the only time in Gronk’s career that he started all 16 regular season games. He missed three games this year, two last year, and eight the year before that.

It’s not often that a player retires at age 30, but not many have taken the punishment Gronk has in such a short amount of time. Here’s a quick recap of the injuries he’s accumulated in the NFL:

2011: Sprained his ankle in the AFC Championship against the Ravens. He played injured in Super Bowl XLVI and had surgery later that month.

2012: Broke his forearm causing him to miss five games and have surgery.

2013: Broke his forearm again in January, and missed the Patriots’ playoff game against the Ravens. He had three more surgeries on his arm due to infections.

2013: Underwent surgery for a fractured vertebra, missing the preseason and six regular season games.

2013: Tore his ACL and MCL in December, and missed the final three games of the year and two playoff games. He was also reportedly concussed in the game he hurt his knee. He had surgery on his knee in January 2014.

2015: Missed one game due to a knee strain.

2016: Missed preseason and the first two games with a hamstring issue.

2016: Missed a November game with a bruised lung.

2016: A herniated disc in his back required surgery, causing him to miss the last five games of the year and the playoffs.

2017: Missed one game due to a thigh injury.

2017: Suffered a concussion against the Jaguars in the AFC Championship.

2018: Missed three games due to a lower back sprain.

All that punishment makes his 2018 contemplation of an early retirement perfectly understandable. He also reportedly dealt with Achilles tendinitis, an ankle problem, and a bulging disc in his back this season. It makes you wonder if he’d want to come back even if the Patriots wanted him back for nearly $12 million.

They probably won’t, though. Will he be further dissuaded from another year of NFL hits if the Patriots try to pay him less? And would he be willing to play for another team if he’s released or traded?

Gronk’s already said that he doesn’t want anybody throwing passes to him except Tom Brady.

Rob Gronkowski confirmed he threatened to retire when the Patriots considered trading him to the Lions: “Yeah, it happened. Brady’s my quarterback.”

— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) September 24, 2018

If Gronkowski really is done, it’d likely be a rare case when a truncated NFL career was still enough to deserve a spot in the Hall of Fame. That tremendous, but relatively short run with the Patriots may end Sunday with one last game against the Rams.

[bearsofair]

Looks like this guy had a run in with Brienne of Tarth.

Studio 13 Tattoo - Michael Mankin @manakinskywalker