Jeremy Au: Pay It Forward

fastcompany:

Here is a quick peek at Fast Company’s From Phones To Tablets: 23 Apple Designs That Never Came To Be

Frog design’s founder Harmut Esslinger talks about the developmental process and history of Apple in the new book Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change.

Here are a few of the designs that never came to fruition…

Apple Snow White 3, “Macbook,” 1984

The Apple Snow White 2, “Americana,” 1982.

Apple Snow White 3: the prescient “Macphone,” 1984, featuring a tablet screen

Apple Snow White 1, “Modular Mac,” 1982

Apple Snow White 1, “Lisa Workstation,” 1982

Truly history in the making… for more click here. 

estimfalos:

Na Pali meets Pacific, Frank Boisvert

(via condenasttraveler)

fastcompany:

The 5 Characteristics Of Great Leaders

1. Being flexible.
2. Being able to communicate.
3. Having courage to stand alone, the tenacity to not succumb to pressure, and the patience to keep fighting until you win the day.
4. Humility and presence. Acknowledge and respect all of your employees.
5. Being responsible. Accept blame and give credit when due.   

What are some other characteristics that make a great leader?

[Image: Flickr user Suvodeb Banerjee][Post: M.Cecelia Bittner]

the-hero-of-ages:

gdfalksen:

Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.

The awesome things I learn on tumblr

(via medicalstudentconfessions)

fastcompany:

The True Meaning Of Power

Innovation expert Kaihan Krippendorff kicks off a discussion about power saying: 

“Power is a tool that carries no innate moral value. What matters is the reason behind using that tool.” 

“Power becomes destructive when we seek it out for its own sake; when we view power not as a tool but as an end in itself, when we seek power just for power’s sake.”

and,

“The opposite, of course is dedicating power to causes that improve the world: Mohandas Gandhi convinced Great Britain to leave India, Nelson Mandela used power to end apartheid, and Martin Luther King Jr. was powerful enough to “change the rules” and end segregation. Therefore, power is freedom. The more power you have and the more skillfully you use it, the greater impact you can have.”

Krippendorff concludes with three exercises that can help you address and change any negative associations you may make with the term “power.”

1. I associate the word “power” with the following (list any words, emotions, or opinions that come to mind):

2. Create a noble cause (if you had greater power, what positive impact would you want to have?):

3. New associations (what alternative, positive, associations can power have?):

Here are some other places that Fast Company talks about power:

• Are You A Power Poisoned Boss?
• Don’t Be A Power Hog
• Why Sharing Power At Work Is The Very Best Way To Build It 

[Image: Flickr user Mohammad Haleeque][post by m.cecelia bittner]

ibmsocialbiz:

Video is the Social CEO Hotspot
More than ever, CEOs are using video to promote their company narratives and connect. In  2010, video was used by only 18 percent of CEOs. Today, the rate of video usage has more than doubled, with 40 percent of CEOs now appearing in corporate videos. Growth in video is nearly evenly divided between CEOs appearing in videos on company websites and on corporate YouTube channels. 

via Weber Shandwick

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 25 January

Happy Birthday, W. Somerset Maugham, born 25 January 1874, died 16 December 1965

13 Quotes on Reading, Writing, & Life

1. To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
2. There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
3. The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.
4. There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless. 
5. He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.
6. She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.
7. Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.
8. Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.
9. Writing is the supreme solace. 
10. When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me. 
11. The crown of literature is poetry. 
12. The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.
13. Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it. 

Maugham was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. Born in Paris, he spoke French before he spoke English. His parents died when he was 10 and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage. He became a qualified physician, but writing was his true vocation. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.

by Amanda Patterson from Writers Write

(via mithich)

fastcompany:

How SAS Became The World’s Best Place To Work

Current statistics say that over half of Americans hate their job. Not so at the analytics software giant SAS, which was named the 2012 world’s best multinational workplace by The Great Place to Work institute.

More than anything, SAS has found that by being an especially benevolent and respectful organization, they consistently produce the most optimal workplace performance. Their highly nontraditional insight is that workers instinctively and positively respond to an organization that routinely demonstrates that they matter and are individually valued.

Here are four of the unique leadership values that have made SAS an especially great and productive place to work:

1. Value people above all else.

Founder and CEO Dr. Jim Goodnight told Fast Company that,

What makes his organization work are the new ideas that come out of his employee’s brains. Therefore he therefore holds his employees in the highest esteem. 

2. To give is to get.

SAS employees have amazing perks like free access to gyms, health care, and counseling.

Keeping in mind that SAS just as easily could give people more pay and forgo all the unique programs and benefits, Goodnight long ago figured out that perks are symbolic representations of how he and his company values its people. 

According to Jack Poll, a 28-year SAS employee and director of recreation and employee services, “when people are treated as if they’re important and truly make a difference, their loyalty and engagement soar.”

 3. Trust above all things.

“While we say we have a 35-hour workweek,” says CMO Jim Davis, “I don’t know anybody who really works 35 hours. The reality is if you trust people, and you ask them to do something—and you treat them like a human being as opposed to a commodity where you try to squeeze something out—they’re going to work all sorts of hours. But they’re going to enjoy those hours as opposed to ‘slaving in the office.’”

4. Ensure that employees know the significance of their work.

Goodnight intuited that everyone thrived on doing significant things, and from knowing their work had inherent value. And ever since, he’s seen it as his role to ensure his employees take great pride of ownership in all the work they do knowing “what they produce will be used all over the world, by people all over the world.”

What other tactics make your company a great place to work?

[Image: Flickr user Justin Hogue][Post: m.cecelia bittner]

fastcompany:

Here is Fast Company’s ultimate guide to navigating conversation in the modern workplace.

- Turn a bad idea into a good idea by asking “why?”

- Win the mind game.

To harness the power of others’ unconscious brains, kick off every important dialogue with your pearly whites. “If I smile at someone, mirror neurons mimic that behavior. To some extent, that person smiles inside.”

- Cut the urgency BS. “High Priority” emails will get you no where.

- Tackle failure. 

• Avoid blame.
• Ask questions.
• Make failure a regular part of conversation.

- Understand your quiet colleagues. 

- Explain an idea. 

• Keep explanations clear and simple. 

What are some other tips for navigating conversation in the workplace?

Want more from Fast Company on conversations?

• How Do You Foster Intelligent Conversation?
• Talk Is Cheap. Let’s Have A Conversation
• The One Conversational Tool That Will Make You Better At Absolutely Everything

[Image: Marekuliasz via Shutterstock][Post: m.cecelia bittner]