Surviving in a culture obsessed with emotions 
Have you noticed that the ‘appropriate’ question to ask someone today about a proposal is, “How do you feel about that?” Not, “What do you think of that?” or “Do you have any ideas on that?”
At least on this, US, side of the Atlantic, we live in a culture [...]

“There’s plenty of evidence impatience causes us to spend inordinate amounts of time and energy repairing, re-working and re-doing what we did when we were impatient,” Peter Vajda writes. “Sadly, we live in a culture of ‘hurry up’. We act as if delay spells d-e-a-t-h. Why not try the alternative?”

“We need to re-think the culture of risk-taking,” writes John Fletcher. “In today’s bureaucratized and corporate world, individuals rarely suffer any major damage if the risks they take lead to disaster. Heads they win, tails we lose.”

“Crucial conversations” are the kind of tough, day-to-day interactions with people in which the stakes are high, there are conflicting viewpoints and emotions run deep and strong. Can you handle them? Here’s some help.

No stick-and-carrot, reward-based system of ethics ever works for long. Rewards lose their value and people find ways to avoid the punishments. True ethics arises when people take the time to think and question what what standards are needed for a civilized society.

Carmine Coyote is taking a break.

“While many of today’s leaders have lost their way due to moral and ethical missteps, just as many are facing a dead end due to their inability to see the big picture,” writes Peter Vajda. “These leaders are intelligent, but, unfortunately, not wise.”

“Economic Gloom” is a popular phrase found today in many newspapers. It smacks of ‘depression’ and ‘sadness’. But do recessions really make people sad? Are they inevitably unhappier as a result of an economic slow-down? Simon Oates argues that tightening the purse-strings has almost no effect on the true causes of happiness.

Many leaders don’t accept how bad they are at understanding the risks they undertake. If they did, they could do something about it. Instead they do what all macho managers do to avoid admitting a weakness—resort to mindless bravado.