Stats Canada reported that based on current trends white people could be a visible minority in the cities of Vancouver and Toronto by 2017.

How cool is that?  And who cares about the color of your skin, your cultural or religious practices.   Living together peaceably and enjoying each other is the foundation of great societies the color of your skin or historical background mean little to me.

Here’s another interesting statistic

Stats Canada reported there are more adults than children in Canada right now.  Less children now mean less adults later.  If the older adults need younger adults to help support them this could mean trouble, maybe the children will take care of them.

Changing Demographics, Good or Bad

I don’t consider the shift in populations, age, skin color or cultural background to be either beneficial nor detrimental.  I include the shift to an older population but I can see some challenges arising with that shift.

Overall though, it is just change, a very natural occurrence.   I alluded to this in yesterday’s post about innovation, change in and of itself, whether the specific results are positive or negative is on the whole, good.

” Change is good” is a personal value of mine and I embrace it.  Change is a foundation of a vibrant life.

Diversity makes Canada great

Whether you are a member of the majority or a minority is irrelevant.   The collective whole of a diverse society leads to vibrant population with a powerful depth of knowledge and experience.

I for one am looking forward to 2017, it’s enough to get me to move to Vancouver or Toronto (both great cities, which I have lived in and enjoyed in the past).

Now I just need to find two million dollars to buy a shack to live in.  Maybe house prices will level off in those cities by 2017.

The most common definition for “innovation” is the creation (including implementation) of a new idea, more effective device or process.

What’s the personal benefit of being an innovator?  I guess the first question should be “Is there a personal benefit to being an innovator?”   My own answer is yes, read on for more.

Corporate Innovation

There is a lot of information about the value of Corporate level innovation to your country, province or city.  Basically the introduction of a new idea, more effective device or process is linked to economic growth.  The region benefits from economic growth so innovation is good.

In the reverse, lack of innovation lets your competitors get ahead of you and obviously that can be detrimental.  A classic recent case of this relates to mobile phones.  The company Research in Motion (now called Blackberry) came out with the smart phones predecessor and made millions ultimately becoming a technology company with a market capitalization in the multi-billions.  This was followed by Apples innovation of the actual smart phone which blew Blackberry out of the water and today people are asking “Where are they now?” about Blackberry.

This example has both cases.  First the positive where innovators are making lots of money and creating a positive economic influence (in this case for their country, province and city).  And the negative where lack of innovation led to rapid decline.

Back to the Personal Concept

Can we apply the innovation logic at a micro level, that is to you personally.  I believe so.    One of my favorites quotes is Albert Einstein’s definition of Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Innovators by definition do something different.  Are the results always positive, not necessarily but if you don’t try something different don’t expect improvement, that is probably nothing will change.

So if you want to be the driver of positive change, you must to some extent be an innovator.

My assessment is personal innovation won’t always be positive but lack of innovation will most certainly be negative or at the least static in it’s impact on your personal goals.

Personal Innovation – give it a try!

From wikipedia:

“Conversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people. Typically it occurs in spoken communication, as written exchanges are usually not referred to as conversations. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization.”

When an email topic exceeds two messages – the original message and a response, it in effect becomes a conversation.   The main problem with trying to have a conversation using e-mail is the typical conversation skills and etiquette is lost.

Conversation, by definition, does not occur in written form, however, when an e-mail trail runs to ten or more messages (which is very common in an institutional environment) it seems to me it should have been a conversation.   What I mean is, while technically this is not defined as a conversation the type of communication needed is interactive and two-way; e-mail is not the place for that.

With dozens of people copied on e-mail messages I always think to myself,  ” Get a room, please”.   Often when I am copied or forwarded these horrendous e-mail trails I feel like an eavesdropper, albeit not secretly, as they know I am there.

Most Important Reason not to hold e-mail conversations

Conversations, e-mails, blogs, social networks, and so on, are all ways we communicate with others.  The basic objective of communication is to either tell someone something or for them to tell you.   The communication method depends on what is being communicated.   Email is best for capturing agreements or documenting facts – this allows for one response – I agree or I do not agree (which can be followed by a conversation).

As soon as the topic requires ongoing interaction – that is beyond one reply/response – almost as a rule e-mail is the wrong vehicle.  A key reason for this is discussions, debates and arguments all need to have standard conversation etiquette applied to them if they are going to remain civil and also succeed in achieving the ultimate goal – a meeting of the minds.

A simple suggestion

I recommend you always go voice to voice or face to face if you get an e-mail reply you want to respond to.  That is, one message -one reply – end of trail.  At that point is more discuss is needed have a conversation in person or by phone.  After that conversation, if a point of agreement needs to be captured in writing send a new email documenting the agreement, at this point the old e-mail trail is over and should be left alone.

I wonder why it has taken me so long to get around to posting some of my thoughts on leadership.  I had a conversation today about getting things done within a corporate environment or other bureaucracy.  For me one of the key drivers to success in these environments is leadership.

Of course there are a myriad of  factors that influence whether a goal is achieved, how fast and the quality of the results.  For me, without question – good, effective leadership sits on the top of all those variables.

Consider some examples

Would Germany have overcome Great Britain in the Second World war had it not been for Winston Churchill?  India peacefully left the British Empire, could this have happened without Ghandi?

The examples of a goal achieved against overwhelming odds because of a great leader are numerous.  Each of us can probably name a number of great leaders we have observed during our lifetimes both famous and not famous, that is leadership applies not just to global historical figures but to local environments as well.

What are the key attributes of successful leaders?

Think of those leaders you admire, maybe it is even yourself.  What are the key qualities you observe?  Here are some of my thoughts on the top attributes:

• exhibit high levels of emotional intelligence, that is things like; self awareness, compassion, honesty,  sincerity, self assurance, personal initiative and this list goes on but research shows the EI attributes I have listed here to top the list.
• ability to communicate, not only be heard but also to hear
• strength of conviction – knowing what the objective is and believing in it
• capability to leverage the leader within for all their followers,  this is sort of like the leader following the followers to catch up with them.
• Strategic Vision – seeing the way before others do

Mostly though, when asked about the key thing people notice about a leader they admire the most common response is it was someone they liked.  Strong and effective leaders are always above all likable.

What happens without strong leadership?

My personal observation of many situations both workplace, personal and political is a leadership vacuum invariably leads to poor results  while good leadership leads to positive high quality results.

My faith in large corporations customer service capabilities was restored by this uplifting story I heard the other day.

An expensive on-line tread mill was purchased through Amazon.ca.  The product included a one year manufacturers warranty.   The purchasers received the product, shipped and as when expected.  It was set up and the exercising began, to everyone’s satisfaction.

Having some home exercise equipment can be very help to keep ones self in shape.  Personally I am not a big practitioner of home exercise preferring to exercise by walking at least 10,000 steps a day (A goal which I consistently exceed).

For about four months the tread mill performed as expected and then, alas it stopped working.   The manufacturer was called (toll free) and a conversation ensued.  It turns out the original manufacturing company went under chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States and was sold.   The purchasers canceled all existing warranties.   Unfortunately that included the warranty on the machine in question.   The option was to purchase a $700 part and install it themselves.  It might fix the problem or it might not.  The part could not be returned, so it was a crap shoot.

This led to a call to Amazon.  Just a, “hey, bought a large item through your service and it broke, warranty was canceled due to bankruptcy, is there anything you can do.

After waiting for some time well the service representatives briefed their supervisor, the response came back.  Amazon offered to pay for the part and follow-up in four weeks to see if it worked and if not would consider future assistance.  They were asked if it would be okay to use the $700 to purchase another tread mill and give up on this one since it was not clear if it could be repaired.   After further consultation with a supervisor this arrangement was approved.  And the part cost reimbursement went through.

So, there is only one thing to say – kudos to Amazon.