List of events that have occurred during my blogging absence
Posted in current events on 09/29/2009 04:59 am by karenOld refrigerator broke. New refrigerator arrived. Cop was shocked by price of refrigerators these days.
The Cop was in traffic accident. Broadsided. While in unmarked police car. Karen keeps giggling about what a drag it’d be to hit another car, only to have a uniformed cop emerge from said vehicle. (He wasn’t hurt in the crash, BTW.)
Work has been utterly crazy. So much so that The Poetess (who wanted to get in earlier to do her own practice) has been opening the door for me at 5:30 instead of 6. Yesterday I practiced until 7 AM, stepped outside the room to take a short conference call, then went back in to finish up.
Maxine is having health challenges. She’s an ancient dog! She’s hanging in. Has taken to being picky about food. I figured out how to tempt her, though. Two bacon snacks sandwiching a blob of peanut butter. I call it “The Elvis.”
I am reading Marcus Buckingham’s book, Find Your Strongest Life. I am NOT a self-help kind of reader, but I was very curious about this book. Apparently he suggests we ditch “balance” in our lives — trying to have everything and then balance it is more stressful than just figuring out what you really want/are good at and then focusing on that. That idea sounds SO appealing.
09/29/2009 at 10:27 am
I think there may be a market for PB&B Elvises at fairs. It seems like a franchisable idea.
09/29/2009 at 1:47 pm
I guess am not really interested in balance.
Can you say more about the book… why does it assume women have different capacities and needs than men? Are women envisioned in mostly supporting roles? Are there still some remnants of the help-mate model of feminity? (If so, totally understandable and not necessarily bad).
I am usually suspicious of role typologies, even though there’s truth in them. But they usually seem to flow backwards from organizational needs, rather than forwards from individual strengths. And… often the roles individuals fall in to in groups aren’t based on our strengths, but rather on habitual weaknesses. Still, if you like it I am sure his role typology is better than most….
09/29/2009 at 3:43 pm
hi Karen
i imagined you were really busy for not writing. that’s good that the Cop didn’t get hurt in the accident. i’d be tempted by Maxine’s sandwich too (minus the bacon). haha. food at fairs can be hilarious. isn’t there someone that finds a way to freeze fizzed-up coca cola, put batter on it, then fry it before offering it? something crazy like that (and deadly too.)
hugs
Arturo
09/30/2009 at 5:35 am
MB was with Gallup for a while, so interested in big, popular research. He is involved with the “playing to your strengths” school of OD. He is also a successful product developer. Put this all together and you get a book that leads with long-term life-satisfaction studies. In this case, the opening of the book takes a look at cuts by gender and from that springs the question that underlies this particular product: why does life-satisfaction for women go down as they get older, whereas satisfaction for men increases?
I’m not using the term “product” to diminish this at all. I’m a product developer, so I can see the design of this product: a) question based on satisfaction research cut by gender, b) premises around why the results are as they are, c) strengths-based perspective on how to increase satisfaction. Oh, and d) internet test for individuals (excellent marketing device and, from what I can see, a psychometrically sound product), and e) somewhat disappointing informational micro-site.
He’s looking at large, popular research studies, but seems to toe the line in terms of responsible presentation and interpretation, which I appreciate. This is, though, clearly a pop book. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I appreciate it as a well-crafted popular product.
He points out that this isn’t about ALL women, nor does it exclude men. He’s not naive to the implications of his work, but he also seems pretty a-okay with popularizing (i.e., simplifying) it. I’m interested in that.
“I am usually suspicious of role typologies, even though there’s truth in them. But they usually seem to flow backwards from organizational needs, rather than forwards from individual strengths.”
I tend to read metaphorically — so I’m probably not as discerning about role typologies. And obviously, given my line of work and organization, I’ve been brainwashed to see the flow going both ways at all times
(Feel free to call foul on that and we’ll discuss more if you want.)
If nothing else, there is an opportunity for mindfulness about one’s individual strengths in real time. Specifically, he encourages attention to flow states. I am super-interested in the idea of flow states in the workplace (and yes, I recognize that’s a crazy privileged perspective).
There’s also a test associated with the book that reveals your strength type: I was surprised with what I got as results from the test, and kind of impressed. The types are simplified, but I was actually most curious to see if it’d identify my “original” strengths or my (learned) professional strengths. Sure enough, the original ones were the main result, with the learned ones identified as the “supporting” type.
And for further nerdish curiosity, I took the test again a couple of weeks later, and after reading a portion of the book. It gave me the same results. I make quizzes/exams, among other things, as a product, and respect tests with high reliability. The test looks very simple, but it’s working with some sophistication.
So I give this high marks as a popular product. One caveat: it seems to presume that its readers are interested in professional careers.
Sorry for the first-draft book report: have to run to practice, but got all answery when I read your question, Owl.
09/30/2009 at 10:09 am
Fascinating.
I took the test and it told me I was a catalyst or something (someone just told me my Mayan birth symbol is the same, meh). So I dug deeper and found out that none of the nine categories is a full-on executive identity… what would the test tell Hillary? So my response to the most simplistic aspect of the project spurred the question.
Putting it in context, I’m really interested in the work. And I’m fascinated that it resonates so strongly with women (looking at the Amazon reviews) who have fallen in to the have-it-all trap and wound up with dissatisfaction/mediocrity on all dimensions. Will look in to it more. Not quite ready to recommend it to friends who are actually experiencing the problems he identifies… but intrigued. It’s really hard to see brilliant women get in to their 30s and 40s and start to feel extremely underappreciated and dissatisfied… may be this is a huge, unacknowledged problem in western culture. Unhappy, undervalued women.
Side note: I used to get in to flow states daily when I waited tables, and when I worked on an assembly line. Teaching seminars too. And nothing compares to the mental state of teaching mysore. Meanwhile, what is deeply painful for me is admin (some people can go in to the zone with it) and SALES. Interestingly, a lot of the self-help lit was developed for entrepreneurial white-collar workers, especially salespeople. I don’t mean to romanticize the working class, but if it’s not back breaking (which everything now in janitorial and food prep is), mechanical work can be mentally pleasurable. It’s tricky to talk about this as a “marxist” sociologist of work though.
09/30/2009 at 6:02 pm
I was thinking about what book to suggest to underappreciated and dissatisfied women… This book? The Tao? Atlas Shrugged? Csíkszentmihályi’s Flow?
And then I read this (really, I’m not baiting you with the name of this blog!
) http://www.hrcapitalist.com/2009/09/your-external-locus-of-control-is-driving-me-crazy.html
Is it possible that the dejection of the underappreciated and dissatisfied is a locus of control issue?
Can someone be in a flow state *only* if they have an internal locus of control? Are the externals locked out of flow? God, I’m tempted to say “yes” (wildly sifting through possible examples to the contrary…).
Yoga requires internal locus of control. Otherwise the practitioner will feel victimized by the practice. Likewise mechanical work. Well, and pretty much anything else.
Chitta vrtti nirodha = flow state = internal locus of control?
09/30/2009 at 9:56 pm
I knew I was called over here for some strange reason. someone mentioned bacon.
09/30/2009 at 10:20 pm
shoot! I don’t have time to really read all of this… just popping over to say hi and I’m glad the Cop is okay. Laughed so hard thinking of wrecking into an unmarked police car and seeing a cop get out!
10/01/2009 at 4:28 am
Laksmi, superhero of the blogosphere, appears wherever bacon is mentioned.
Hi Liz, I know you’re in super work-mode. No more reading! Get back to that sewing machine!