- T
 op managers
sometimes bypass rigorous, analytical thinking altogether. When a problem is difficult,
tangled and novel, leaders often feel their way and go with their gut feelings.
But what if they are wrong?
"Whenever I make a decision, I start out by recognizing that there is a strong
likelihood that I’m going to be wrong." Said Fletcher Byrom, shortly after he
retired from the presidency of the Koppers Co. "To worry about it puts obstacles in
the way of clear thinking."
Daniel J. Isenberg, Harvard Business Review,
617-496-1449
Stressing
Out????
 Next
time you are feeling the stress of a difficult situation, ask yourself how your favorite
cartoon character...perhaps Bart Simpson....would handle it. This might cause you to pause
and chuckle.
SUNY Health Science Center, Syracuse, NY
Summary of the
World
If we could, at this time, shrink the Earth’s population to a
village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, it
would look like this:
There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western
Hemisphere (North and South) and 8 Africans
|
We
have been working with several businesses this summer that want to move into the
educational arena. They are dedicated, conscientious, hard-working people who have the
interests of children at heart. Their ideas sometimes have trouble getting off the ground
because they think that all "education" is the same, or they have an idea that
just doesn’t move the envelope far enough. In other cases these businesses will do
well, because they have the support to keep going. As parents and educators, we often
support them when we don’t take the time to carefully examine the service or product,
instead we are persuaded by the glitz. We don’t know the right way for businesses to
serve education......their probably isn’t one. We do know that education has had its
share of "shufflers" over the years. Merely moving the parts around, is not
going to get the job done in this era of information. Profound change, through business or
the public system, will probably scare us to death, but I believe it will be necessary to
prepare our young people for a world that is constantly changing. 
regret is that the visits are not long enough
or frequent enough. But, none the less, this is the summer that we will put in our ledger
book, and as we get together in the future, we will pull out these legends to laugh and
enjoy, once again, the fun times we have had. 
Can a
teenager really learn while the radio’s blasting? If your teenager says he or she
concentrates better with music in the background, what is meant is the teenager is in the
habit of studying with music on. 
The
average elementary student spends less than seven minutes a day reading silently at home.
These same students spend an average of 130 minutes each day watching television. Make
sure your child has time to read by setting firm limits on television viewing.
The
way top leaders make decisions is different from what you might expect. Three surprising
facts have emerged from research:
This
‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of
communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." Western Union internal
memo, 1876
"A
cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America like crispy
cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." Response to Debbi Field’s
idea about starting Little Debbi Cookies.
"So we
went to Atar and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some
of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or, we’ll give it to you. We
just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said,
‘No.’ So, then we went to Hewlett-Packard and they said, ‘Hey, we
don’t need you. You haven’t gotten through college yet.’ " Apple
Computer Inc. Founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
