Alternative news sources offer a different perspective on what’s happening in the world than mainstream media. If you’re thinking of turning off news altogether, consider checking out options like these instead:
Centre for Research on Globalization (independent research group and organization of writers, journalists, scholars and activists)
Democracy Now! (independent daily news report)
Independent Media Centre (collective of independent media organizations and journalists)
By Jim Selman | Bio
I have enjoyed my short stay in Kiev immensely and am looking forward to more exploring in this part of the world in future. I had the opportunity to have fairly intensive conversations with only 60 or 70 people, representing a reasonable cross-section of the country (from what I can tell). Aside from it being a very different culture (in terms of language, alphabet, history and architecture), it was evident to me that the people of the Ukraine share the same concerns, dreams and issues that we have in our part of the world.This may be
obvious to anyone who has lived and worked in different cultures around
the world. But for those of us who have not, we sometimes live with the
unchallenged assumption that our differences are larger than our shared
ways of being and our common concerns. For example, much of the success
of European/American enterprise has been based in the power of the
Cartesian Paradigm—the worldview that everything in the ‘objective’
By Shae Hadden | Bio
I’m sitting at my desk, watching the sun set behind the mountains, listening to the city winding down at the end of a long, hot summer day. My big move is now complete: all boxes unpacked, everything put away (at least somewhere, for now), cupboards stocked, and fresh linens on the bed. Three months ago, when I chose to relocate, I had no idea it would be such a circuitous route to my new ‘home’. But now that I’m here, I’m glad for everything that showed up in my
By Kevin Brown | Bio
Earlier in the spring, I wrote an article titled The Care and Feeding ofIs the possibility of being a ‘Change Agent for Aging’ in your future?
By Jim Selman | Bio
I am in Kiev, Ukraine this week. This is my first time here. In fact, it is the first time I have been in this part of the world or to a country using the Cyrillic alphabet. I am not prepared to write a travelogue since I just arrived a day ago, but sometimes first impressions are fleeting but useful. In this case, my first impressions are reflections on an ‘old’ country that (from what I can tell) has yet to be discovered by the tourism industry. Even at one of Ukraine’s
The following segment from Tom Freston’s 2007 commencement speech to the graduates at Emerson College contains four pieces of wisdom about ‘being in action’ that are timeless. This man built MTV and Viacom’s cable empire, was fired by chairman Sumner Redstone, accepted a $60 million severage package and is now helping Oprah build her new TV network while you travels to Afghanistan, Burma, Rwanda and beyond and works with Bono to reduce global poverty and AIDS.
One.
By Jim Selman | Bio
Yesterday I was coaching a friend of mine. I was sharing a bit of how important it is to ‘come from’ your vision for your life. Our future is always a product of our actions, and our actions are always a correlate of how we relate to the future. When we act as if the future has already happened, then it is only a matter of time before that future is realized or we learn what we need to learn to achieve it. Her response was, “Well, you make it sound so simple, but it is too abstract and I need to know ‘how’ to have what I want in the future.” This was my response. "I understand. Everything is abstract until we learn it.I
don’t think learning a new way of being or a different way of observing
the world is simple. I think it is clear when we can set aside our
conventional wisdom and ‘try on’ a different mindset. Not easy, but
clear.
If you are 100% focused on ‘how’ and ‘doing’, then it is impossible to learn a different way of being.
We
normally try to BE different (or become resigned that we can’t change
the way we are) by trying to change what
By Kevin Brown | Bio
The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers to be aware of charity fraud. Legitimate charities use direct mail, telemarketing and email campaigns to raise funds; unfortunately, scam artists do too. If someone asks you for money on behalf of a charity, take time to:
By Jim Selman | Bio
In 1976, I was working with some government employees in Virginia trying to implement a new system for integrating human services—a kind of one-stop shop for all the various services offered at that time. I had just finished the est training the previous July and was overwhelmed with my own experience and the idea that a person could transform themselves and their relationship to everything. Until then, I had bought into the belief that people don’t really change in fundamental ways, that personalities are fairly fixed, and that it requires a major crisis to shift our perceptions of reality. It was during that period that I formulated the idea that there were things that could be managed or taught and other things that could not be managed or taught but that could be “coached”. The difference had to do with how we observe others and ourselves and how we relate to power and responsibility.This was a time before the concept of organizational culture had appeared in the business lexicon. I don’t think I even heard the word ‘paradigm’ until about 1980 or so. Peter Drucker was about the only popular writer on the subject of management. This was a time when people thought in terms of careers spanning a lifetime and many even expected to work for one or perhaps two companies for life. Tom Peter’s landmark book,