Today is dedicated to
the letter D: a critical component of the words "Dynamic" and "Discuss".
These aren’t just D
words, these are Big D words. Here’s
why.
There are many ‘Big D’s’
being actively discussed and debated in media, boardrooms, and classrooms these
days. These Big D’s are Big Dynamics.
I won’t spend a ton of
time on each of the Big D’s; that’s not the purpose of the post. But here’s some of what’s floating about in
the physical and digital conversation spaces these days.
The European Union Political and Economic Instability. European countries and their fiscal austerity
policies, are enraging their citizenship, particularly their grossly
underemployed youth citizenship, and leading to political mayhem. Said political overhaul is illuminating the
old-as-the-hills left vs. right political divide and igniting global debate.
Employment as well as
the organizations that employ is upside down.
Youth the world over are suffering from gross underemployment in many
parts of the world, including right here in Canada.
Many wonder if entrepreneurialism will rise to unprecedented levels, if
start-ups are the key to a new economy. In
the meantime, big organizations struggle to determine how to organize, or
should I say re-organize. What should
leadership look like in a collaborative economy? Is ‘strategy’ the new bad
word, replaced by ‘do and iterate’? How to set vision? Build culture? Does it
even matter?
Education as the possible
panacea to all ills. Stanford, Harvard and MIT now offer free courses over the Internet,
and hundreds of thousands sign up. Code Academy wages a mainly-social-media-based campaign whereby thousands sign up to learn
to code. ‘New Education’ is all the
talk: Design Schools, with their emphasis on Design Thinking, Business Schools now graduating policy-makers, Schools of Life,
Bold Academies, The New School,
even schools that don’t grade. Education is all the rage these days.
On the topic of
social-media-based campaigns, another Big D regards whether social media is making us lonely. This is really a subset of a deeper
discussion about the impacts of technology on our humanity. As we bury our heads in screens for the vast
majority of our days, are we losing the art of face-to-face communication? Are
we so amazed and impressed by the ‘story told’ social media lives we bear
witness to that we suffer personal insignificance? As machines come to permeate
our lives, do our human experiences of love, tears and laughter weaken in
consequence?
And entirely related, we
could very likely have a growing Technology Divide. There are those who can multi-task
with multiple media devices like they are switching between a fork and a spoon
and there are others who simply don’t have the luxury of 6 costly Apple devices
in their hands and their homes.
If access to information as critical as
your health record, or your wallet continues to evolve without choice towards
technological provision, many may be lost, and consequently end up the new disadvantaged.
Finally, and certainly
not least importantly, we have women’s rights on the public agenda again like I
haven’t seen since the early 90’s.
International development discourse places focus on the women and the
girls of communities. Access to
reproductive control, always an issue in developing countries, is back on the
table right here in North America. And
women are coming out from behind their desks, or their stoves, to take stands,
led and inspired perhaps by Melinda Gates, Oprah Winfrey or even Angie Jolie. We may see another feminist revolution yet.
There’s lots going on; there are lots of Big D Dynamics today. Lots to
talk about, think about, and debate.
And here’s where the
second Big D comes in: Big D Discuss.
With so much to talk
about, are we really talking enough?
Have we gotten out from behind The Voice, Game of Thrones, or the new comic
adventure flick to talk about these things? As we sit down with a friend and a
coffee, do we get past the new Stella line at the Gap? In the commercial break of the big game, do
we move past the disappointment of the team’s unending losing streak?
Are we Big D Discussing?
I toyed with writing a
post that begged for more ‘Doing of Something’ (another important D by the
way), but I decided Discussing is actually what we need. That with the discussing might come the
meaningful Doing of Something. But that the Doing of Something in absence of the
Discussing might be a recipe for disaster.
I realized that while
the Doing of Something is a noble pursuit, what’s actually most important is
that we NOT continue on with the Doing of Nothing. This Doing of Nothing is in fact the greatest
travesty. While many countries of the
world suffer times of strife, as youth sit under-used and unhappy, as women and
girls the world over just want the opportunity to be able to contribute to
change, and as people, communities, organizations and countries look desperately
for paths through difficulty, there is no room to put one’s head in the sand
and Do Nothing. There are lots of Big D
Dynamics active in the world today, and they involve every one of us humans,
lucky enough to inhabit this planet.
My hope is to see the
conversations that are being had in the media, in the boardrooms and in the
classrooms of the world take root in the coffee shops, the kitchens and the street
corners of the world.
My hope is to see
everyone start Big D Discussing, discussing the big D Dynamics, over coffee and
a bagel, while the kids play on the monkey bars at the park, during the
commercial breaks of the big game.
My hope is that we not
Do Nothing, that we acknowledge the Big D Dynamics and pursue the Big D of
Discuss, and let that be the Doing of Something.
That’s what I’d love to
see, brought to you by the letter D.
