Beware the "Highly Organized" Individual - Karen Conlin, M.Ed

So often in profiles for a desired candidate companies will emphasize "highly organized" in the job description. This may need some further thought. Discipline and tenacity may be better choices.

Having observed many "highly organized" individuals in various industries and positions, there seems to be a common thread in addition to their orderly skills. They all seem to be highly motivated to keep everything in place and are uncomfortable if something is not where they want it. They seem to complain more about various issues and never seem to be truly happy. More time is spent on organizing and less on creating, interacting or team play. While this is a generalization and certainly not an attempt to psychoanalyze behaviors, it does bear consideration in a candidate.

Schools put so much emphasis on grading and rewarding students for memorizing facts but very little on collaboration and creativity skills. Studies have shown that more cheating in school is done by "A" students because they cannot accept failure. Parents who "demand" A's from their children are missing the point of education. It's all about educating the whole child and not just regurgitating what they have been told. Watch the students who have been labeled with ADHD or not good at testing and see who they become as adults.

Richard Branson, Hoda Kotb, and Oprah Winfrey are examples of people who experienced rejections and never had the label of highly organized. What they have in common is discipline, tenacity and creativity. Who wouldn't want these individuals in their organizations?

My View:

Some interesting perspective for sure, but much like extroverts trying to push introverts into being more outgoing I think its important to recognize that success in business is a result of a variety of skill sets all contributing their unique strengths and abilities in the efforts of a company working toward achieving a common set of goals.
The tendency to put creativity above organization is a flaw, you need a balance along the spectrum. Some people land more on one side or the other of the spectrum, but don't forget that the organized folks are usually the one the form a foundational 'glue' that helps keep the creative chaos organized and helps move ideas through to completion. Maybe that is one of the reasons why all big names mentioned in the above article have some great teams of organized people who have seen that the Ideas meet their due end. Hence this theory cannot be applied on all.

The Evolving American Dream: Why Millennials Aren't Buying Cars

Jacob Davidson has written an interesting article for Time entitled, "10 Things Millennials Won't Spend Money On". Among the things the current 14-34 year old generation won't lay out cash for or put on credit are mass market beer, bulk warehouse club goods, weddings, homes, and cars.
The beer issue has to do more with personal taste choices. Davidson notes that 43% of millennials say craft brewed beers taste better than the mainstream bottled by the likes of Bud, Coors and Miller. 50% of them have drank craft beers versus 35% of the overall US population.
On the other hand, the avoidance of the Sams Clubs of the world is more related to the evolution of the 'American Dream' as it's been preached over the last half century. For various reasons having to do with economics and attitudes, they aren't buying into it. To benefit from patronizing a big box store, you need three things: a large family, a large home, and an automobile, preferably an SUV or minivan. Virtually none of this applies to many Millennials. They are, as a group, marrying far later in life than their earlier cohorts. Where 48% of Baby Boomers married between 18-32, only 26% of Millennials had married by that time, according to Pew Research.
So, if you're single, who needs a house? Even if you are married, only 42% of Millennials say they plan to have children. That's down from 20 years ago when it was 78 %. Davidson notes that…

"It’s not that millennials don’t want children (or homes, or weddings, or ponies), it’s that this whole recession thing has really scared them off any big financial or life commitments. Most young people in the above study hoped to have kids one day, but didn’t think their economic stars would align to make it happen."

It's the economics of the time that is holding a lot of these kids back. I'll bet that tall, trim, bright young man with the Brompton folding bicycle, with his messenger bag on his shoulder, and a sack of groceries in his hand, likely has a college degree. If he does, he is also saddled - assuming he's the average 2014 college grad - with around $33,000 in college debt, more depending on which state his school is located in.
As Davidson points out, studies show that Millennials would like to have kids, a home, maybe a car someday, but they are constrained by economic reality: they can't afford them. Increasingly, they also don't see them as that important, especially the home in suburbia and the car(s) that life requires. Their attitude towards television watching illustrates this. It's number one on David's list of ten things they don't buy.

"The average American still consumes 71% of his or her media on television, but for people age 14-24, it’s only 46%—with the lion’s share being consumed on phone, tablet, or PC. Many young people aren’t getting a TV at all. Nielsen found that most “Zero-TV” households tended toward the younger set, with adults under 35 making up 44% of all television teetotalers."

If you're not watching television, you aren't being bombarded by an endless stream of car commercials, so you aren't being manipulated into the car buying cycle. And since you can't afford a home in suburbia and, instead, live in a urban apartment, you really don't need a car to get around. Quoting the Atlantic, Davidson writes:

"In 2010, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 bought just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, down from the peak of 38 percent in 1985."

This may account, in part, for Bill Ford, Jr.'s recent OpEd in the Wall Street Journal in which he states in the title, "We Can't Simply Sell More Cars."
Ford's executive chairman and the great-grandson of its founder, writes that his industry needs a "change in our view of the car as an individual object to seeing it as part of our broader transportation network."

"It also requires a fundamental change in how we think about transportation," he notes, presciently observing…
"Forward-looking companies will redefine themselves and move from being just car and truck manufacturers to become personal-mobility companies. We will be thinking more intelligently about how the vehicles we build interact with one another and with a city's infrastructure, which includes trains, pedestrian walkways, buses, bikes and everything else that helps us move through urban centers."

Urban centers also just happen to be where many of those Millennials find themselves, either by choice or economic necessity, which may help explain why Ford Motor Company recently partnered with Dahon, makers of a similar folding bicycle to the Brompton in the photo, as well as with Pedego on offering Ford-branded electric bicycles.
It seems not a little ironic that Henry Ford's first 'automobile' was, in fact, called a 'quadricycle' because it was built largely from bicycle parts.
So, even for Ford, the America Dream is evolving, just as it is for the Millennials who are now America's largest demographic group. Jacob Davidson observes in the subhead to his article, "By 2017, millennials will have more buying power than any other generation."
Figuring out how to cater to their needs and wants will, as Ford notes, present both a challenge and an opportunity.


- Courtsey: Above Article featured in LinkedIn

She is Woman and She is not Weak!!!

Twenty first century has brought in its trail a new hope for women. Dramatic changes have happened in the role, ambitions and attitude of women in the last few decades of twentieth century. Women have departed from their traditional role of reproducers, mothers and wives only. From a non-entity, they have been able to establish an identity of their own in the modern society.

It is very important to state here that every living human being the first person they had everseen is/was a women. So how did she become a weaker section of the society ? is she really weak ? The answer is no..

Margret Thatcher Indira Gandhi Mother Teresa were women leaders who had shown the world that they can achieve what men never thought about and can plan ahead of their times to benefit their nations of millions/billions. And very recently we witnessed a 15year old girl fighting and challenging Taliban all alone and coming out as a winner, Malala Yousafzai... What made them so different ? 

The common denominator was the people around them talked about freedom of thoughts and right to express and discuss them which doesnt exist in our society as a whole whether it west or east or north or south .. Sadly true !!

The society is yet to evolve and accept the idea of women leaders and entrepreneurs and that’s why often women are referred as  a weaker section in the society and most of the time it is projected in all media/articles/movies is because of their emotional side. Which believe it or not is not entirely true. Men are more emotionally weak/dependent as compared to a women.

Then why is it that women are fighting for equality or their rights if they are not weak and infact very much capable ?

The answer to that is shocking and something which is always ignored by all, which is lack of awareness, education and focus. Why Focus? Because we all think and believe that by passing laws etc it will provide more security/independence to women of our society which is not correct. The laws may form the guideline but what would those laws/rights mean if the society is unaware of the same, Nothing !! The Focus should be upon educating and making both the sexes of the society independent, by just focusing on one section is the same mistake we are committing which our ancestors did.

The “Nibhaya” rape incident when the students from all colleges/schools walked to the President’s residence had both the sections of the society and the common denominator was they were educated and well aware of their individual rights and had the Indian Government under question mark. This was an example the whole society came together to fight for her and many more. Why to divide them again on the basis of sex again ?

 In the West, since beginning its focus was on establishing an independent identity of a woman free from male domination. The feminist movement in the West laid great stress on the freedom and liberty of women. It resulted in reacting aggressively against patriarchal system of society and male chauvinism. Since Feminist movement for liberation and other revolutions took place in western world, the western society realized much earlier the need to improve the position of women in society. There the governments and the society made many efforts/reforms – legal, social, economic and political  gave to women more and more freedom and liberty to take their own decision without being influenced by the men-folk.

We followed them without realizing the fact that our cultural set up is far diverse and different from theirs and without proper analyzing it we implement a lot of changes. Result is now there is imbalance. We have now 2 sections of the society where the first section talks about the century old traditions and values and the second one which is following the west. But neither knows where they are headed and if you ask them they become aggressive and start using the terms like feminism, male domination etc .. words they dont even understand completely..

I often counter question my friends who say that women in India are oppressed and have a very little say as that is just not true and now has become a fashion or a way to over sensitize themselves. When you question the same people (women included) what makes them feel this way as there are many who have achieved which no men has ever. Immediately they would divert their focus to the uneducated section of the society with a focus on only females. Not to forget, the same section of the society has males who are also uneducated. but they divide them to project how under privileged women are... This is just to be in the lime light with no intent to benefit any section of the society.
Most of them are either female politicians or some frustrated activist from Gandhian era who have no clue that today’s generation is not looking at them.. rather believes in taking things in their own hands as they have very little tolerance as they know what is right or wrong.

One of my friend from South Afrcia, told me that she would never ever come to India, as indian men are lunatics. To my surprise I asked her what makes her say this ? she said look at all the rape cases. She was right to a certain extent but not completely, with women (victims) and their families aware of their rights have now started voicing it out which wasn’t the case before. All this made me think that maybe we all are missing the core issue, it wasn’t the women empowerment we needed, we needed social and educational liberation of all along with women empowerment.

So how can one make a delicious cake with great icing and stale dough ?

But today'ss women (urban) are more modern and has aspirations and lot of ideas and aggression too ..and they are well aware of their surroundings and often question if they feel something is not right.

Women today are like any men walking on the street ..Here is an incident of weaker women of our society:

Couple of days before I was driving on Delhi roads and I took a turn to see an old couple were trying to reverse their car, I stopped and allowed them to pass, suddenly another SUV stopped next to me rolled the windows down and said some abusive words. No it wasn’t a “He”.. Instead a “she”… Initially I thought to ignore it, but I don’t know why I drove right behind her, and on a traffic signal I got down from my car and asked the lady to down her window, and asked her (very gently) “I didn’t hear you properly would you mind stating exactly what were you trying to say” she got really nervous and asked her not to abuse and walked away.

If this was a guy in her place, he would have been behind bars (with non-bailable arrest) on the account of eve-teasing. Women of society are very well aware of their rights and they know when to 

exercise them too. 

I have often heard people complaining about the Indian cops/police not doing anything. As a regular tax payer I was upset with this and that is why I asked my grandfather who smiled and called up the SP of police to visit him for tea in our ancestral home of Churu. When he did, my granddad called me up and put the phone on speaker and asked me repeat my question.

I was simply stunned by his response. In delhi itself we have 1 constable (police) on every 100 people... So I stopped blaming them as they are not to be held responsible.
We have to do something on our own..  

The real question is what about our society ? why isn’t there an equilibrium ? why not create more opportunities ? why still there is a caste system Dalits, Schedule castes/ Minorities etc. and with all these social gaps we dare to think of being a super power ????

Due to lack of education, medical facilities, inflation, jobs people have started becoming more impatient and for government it is becoming nearly impossible to provide for such increasing population. We talk about various issues but the core of everything lies in lack of awareness which is due to education.

  In the end, I just want to say to stop blaming and cribbing about the status of each other in the society as WE are the society. If we change are attitude so will the people around us. if we pitty ourselves and our socio-economic conditions and do nothing about it, we have no right to expect others to do it for us....