Author: Jim Lawless
If we are going to do new things to survive in the Industrial Age, we are going to meet uncertainty. If we are going to meet uncertainty, we are going to discover risk. A show of hands… How many people, when you were 12, 13, 14 years of age, had a mother or a father […]
If we are going to do new things to survive in the Industrial Age, we are going to meet uncertainty. If we are going to meet uncertainty, we are going to discover risk.
A show of hands…
How many people, when you were 12, 13, 14 years of age, had a mother or a father or whoever cared for you at this stage in your life who would wave you off to school in the morning and say:
“Bye bye my darling…
Have a wonderful day at school today!
Be sure and take a risk or two at school today!
If nobody in the class knows the answer, there’s huge uncertainty, it’s a new topic, don’t be worried, just stroll out in the middle and have a go, it doesn’t matter if you get it wrong in front of everybody.”
Who had that, anyone have that when they were waved off to school?
Genuinely, working in the Bay Area we can get 50% of the hands in the room going up.
But in the rest of the world… The rest of the world…
I think whenever one or two stray Californians are here, sometimes they popup in EMEA we get one, but they are the only people who will respond.
We were raised for the Industrial Age, ladies and gents.
We were raised to work in great organisations with great heritage – beware here – where the machine worked and our job was to show up, get it right first time to the satisfaction of an authority figure who could define right.
Who knew what it looked like.
He wasn’t asking questions because we’ve never been down this path before.
They knew what right looked like.
They could define it.
Our job at school was to show up and get a tick, wasn’t it?
In my school, green pen for ticks, red pen for… You knew as you opened the page, just by the color scheme, whether you were in trouble or not. If there was writing, “See me after class”…ouch…
Our job is to get it right first time.
From the age of four through college, for most people maybe not in all cases, and into our careers.
And now we’re operating in this disruptive, VUCA, age of uncertainty, leave the comfort zone, embrace risk and uncertainty, do things we’ve never done before…
We have not been taught how to do this!
Contact Us at WeSpeak Global and follow us on Facebook
Author Profile
Video
The articles, video and images embedded on these pages are from various speakers and talent.
These remain the property of its owner and are not affiliated with or endorsed by WeSpeak Global.
Kevin Gaskell seems to be meeting more and more people in business at the moment who are concerned that the economy is a bumpy ride and unpredictable. You can certainly feel a lot of turbulence in the air; Brexit, Trump, FX rates, inflation, Russia, Middle East, fake news etc. The truth is that if you […]
3 Ways to Tap into Emotion During a Pitch and The power of emotion is something that has a universal appeal and can breathe life into simple cold facts. Have you ever pitched something you knew was great, only to have it shot down? Of course you have. We all have. And though the rejection […]
The old saying, “What got you here won’t get you there,” applies as a Skill You Need to Master to your professional life today. The world is quickly changing as well as the competitive landscape. Whether you are running a business or trying to increase your career equity, ramping up your skill set is important. […]
No doubting Lock-down has been a challenging time for almost all South Africans as We can travel again… Perhaps less so for government officials, seen attending funerals puffing cigarettes, and others who have been on full salary, but for most of us a very difficult time. The President’s announcement of easing restrictions to Level 2 from […]
Ways to Use Authenticity is so much more than “being yourself”, and how you can use it as your new career playbook. It was a teeny bit embarrassing. I had just kicked off one of the most important negotiations of my career. I was brand new in the COO role for my company, and one […]
WHAT MAKES A WINNING TEAM: 4 key lessons from the lion pride and the victorious 2019 RWC Springbok rugby team It was an exceptional result that captivated a nation. One year ago this November South Africa’s national rugby team, the Springboks, lifted the Webb-Ellis trophy into the Yokohama sky, winners of the 2019 Rugby World […]
BEING MINDFUL OF MINDSETS and The Power of a Growth Mindset by Grant Driver In July 2019, I experienced one of the most significant and yet most daunting moments of my career as a professional speaker. I had been invited by Discovery Healthcare to present a 3-hour workshop to thirty Neurosurgeons on my research into […]
WIFU: What’s in it for you, to read this? If you are ‘time-poor’, and therefore don’t have time to read this article right now, then simply use the acronym: BOOST© to ask yourself five questions: B = Bed- Do you wake up refreshed? O = Oxygen- Do you get enough oxygen to your brain throughout […]
Our Mission
© All rights reserved 2025. Created using VOXEL THEME
