Friends of Dave #203: sassy justice
Cause you gotta have faith....gotta have faith, faith, faith.
How was your week? Pretty boring right???
I posted some of my (mostly non-partisan) initial post election thoughts on Twitter this Wednesday AM. That tweetstorm serves a bit as a prologue to this preamble.
Since then, I have found myself thinking a lot about a topic that is both relevant to the events this week and for this space: the importance of faith.
Now, I have to confess that I am not a particularly religious person, so I have been thinking about it more secularly as a cultural and organizational construct.
Faith, by definition, is having confidence in a person, thing or concept without really knowing for certain.
If you think about it, faith unconsciously plays a big role in our daily lives. For example, faith can be as simple as expecting water to come out of the shower head in the morning as we get ready to start our day.
We have faith that when we drive somewhere, other drivers will abide by the rules of the road so we can get to where we are going safely. We have faith that our schools will keep our children safe and properly educate them.
When it comes to work, we have faith that not only will we be fairly compensated for our efforts, but, optimally, also that our work is contributing to something bigger that is in line with our personal goals, interests and/or beliefs. We also put faith in our colleagues and ask them to put faith in us as well.
And as citizens of a country we have some measure of faith that everyone adheres to the same code of conduct and shares a common appreciation for laws, fairness and values that have been established. We also place a great deal of faith in our leadership to proactively and relentlessly uphold these ideals as well.
If you think about it, there is so much more ambiguity than certainty in our daily lives. None of the things I mentioned above are required.
It's our ability to have faith (both consciously and unconsciously) that can maintain our sanity, keep us going and can lead to us to accomplish great things -- sometimes things we wouldn't expect would be possible if we stopped to consider them.
But when we find that we have lost faith, it can be extremely difficult to get it back. We question the trust and confidence we once allowed ourselves to have -- often we will then even go out of our way to look for reasons not to have faith.
It's hard to be successful at anything if you lose faith.
I'll confess that I experienced feelings both of hope and of sadness this week. Regardless of who you voted for, you may have felt the same way too.
It's understandable because it has been easy to become so cynical: about our leadership, about our democracy and, most sadly, about each other.
How we got to this point really is not important. What is important is remembering that having faith can be a choice.
Let's find a way to start there and see where things go. What do we have to lose?
XOXO
Dave
Think on This...
This study explains why humans are creative
Creative epiphanies, or “aha!” moments invoke the same activity in some people’s brain reward centers as delicious food, addictive substances, and sexual pleasure.
For as long as we can remember, humans have exhibited characteristics of being creative. But why? This is a fairly quick read with a link to the underlying study.
For Your Day Job...
Quiet People in Meetings Are Incredible
Quiet people change the world because they hear things others don’t.
The person who talks the loudest and the most in the meeting is usually not the smartest. Some great observations here for you to test during your next meeting.
What the best podcasters can teach us about how to have a good conversation
Substantial conversations leave us feeling informed, connected, and inspired. This points out how you can have more of these discussions in your everyday life. Great companion to the previous article too.
Getting Started with Data Orchestration for B2B Marketing and Sales
“It's not just about one set of data …. It’s really about context and stitching data together to really understand our customers and our prospects.”
Having your data organized and connected to specific processes will help you to better understand what’s working, why and ways to optimize efforts.
Your Weekly Dose of Randomness...
*KEY RACE ALERT* French bulldog named Wilbur elected mayor of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky
FYI: the name Rabbit Hash may derive from the historic use of the local rabbit population as food....
The creators of South Park have a new weekly deepfake satire show called "Sassy Justice"
If you like South Park snark or are interested in seeing some seriously cool deepfake technology, this is an absolute must see......I'm cereal.
Batteries and Fuel Cells Powered by Spinach
Pretty safe bet that Popeye NEVER gets down to one bar on his phone....
And The Last Word....
Unbundling Harvard: How The Traditional University Is Being Disrupted — www.cbinsights.com
From alumni networking to grad school research to undergraduate admissions, here’s a great breakdown by CB Insights on how Harvard University is being unbundled and how traditional higher ed may be changing for good.
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