By Joseph S. Nye, Taipei Times, February 12, 2012 Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is “yes.” He says: “Over the long sweep of history, women have been and will be a pacifying force. As mothers, women have evolutionary incentives to maintain peaceful conditions in which...

A wise man once said, a lack of commitment is the high cost of low living. For some reason this stuck with me. It went deeper into me than all the other platitudes about commitment I’ve heard, and it got me reflecting. I noticed with clarity the areas of my life where a lack of commitment was having an effect, a pull down effect. There were some glaring areas. Yet, at the same time, I could see the...

I have an invitation for you. Come with me on a journey into the unknown, right here, right now. What is unknown is what will follow these words—at this point, for both of us. For this article I have no clear idea at all, at most a vague concept. What I know is that I’m compelled to write, so I am putting my fingers to the keyboard and letting it flow. What I can promise you that there will be...

The great peace-loving nation of Canada (of which I am always happy to call home) celebrated another successful national election the other week. Canada’s elections do not create much fuss or fervor, barely a blip on the international radar, yet with so many nations today locked into vicious struggle over who should lead, it’s worth noticing when a people pass the torch well. So it caught my attention...

Excerpts from Happiness Is a Focused Mind, By Jenifer Goodwin, EXECUTIVE HEALTH November 11, 2010 New research shows that when people’s minds drifted from the task or activity at hand, they reported being less happy than when they were fully engaged in whatever they were doing. The human mind is uniquely capable of wandering — that is, to ponder things that have happened, to anticipate...

Imagine for a moment that you are the leader of one of the North African nations currently under siege by “your people” seeking to dethrone you. The masses are swirling around the base of your power, rampaging through the streets, destroying buildings, and demanding your immediate and unconditional resignation. What would you do? Would you flee the country without a fight like Tunisian...

Just a few weeks into the new year and already I find myself looking at the calendar wondering where January has gone. But the other day, in the middle of that thought I paused and realized: what a futile exercise that is. As busy, move, go as we may be, does it matter where time has gone? The reality we’ve painted for ourselves is that everything runs by the clock. Time blinks away on our wrists,...

This holiday season I’ve got Obi-Wan Kenobi on my mind. Obi-Wan, Jedi Master, mentor of Anakin Skywalker, teacher of Luke, is on my mind precisely because a client of mine hooked me. She said, “I’ve got to get my Obi-Wan on.” I liked that!  Immediately it got me thinking: what does that look like, to get your Obi-Wan on? I’m greatly attracted to this whole image of Obi-Wan...

By Audrey Watters / August 10, 2010 ReadWriteWeb.com IBM recently surveyed 1500 CEOs across 60 countries and 33 industries, and these executives said that creativity – more than rigor, management discipline, integrity and even vision – was the most important competency skill for effective leadership. According to the survey, 80% of CEOs expect their work environments to grow significantly...

By Audrey Watters / August 10, 2010 ReadWriteWeb.com IBM最近訪問了60個不同國家、涵蓋33種產業的1500位執行長，他們說：談到有效的領導力，創意是最重要的能力，超越嚴謹、管理能力、誠信，甚至願景。根據問卷結果，80%的執行長們期待他們的事業環境的複雜度將會大幅提高，但只有半數不到的執行長認為他們的組織具備能有效面對這個變化的能力：「這是經八年的研究所發現領導力最大的挑戰」。 問起執行長與高階主管是否「真心願意採取能培育出真正的創意與創新文化所必需的改變性行動」，The...