Lessons in Implementing and Sustaining Organizational Change: The Rise & Decline of Portugal’s Innovative Drug User Policy… plus a few upbeat links
This article of mine just dropped on Knowledge@Wharton, a Wharton business journal. It’s a quick read (under five minutes) with lots of links if you want to learn more and/or to check my work. Rarely, does one see such a clear illustration in the same case (ongoing) of how to attempt change successfully and how to unravel success. Behind it all lies the importance of systems thinking, my favored approach to understanding reality and to inoculate against either/or, i.e., binary, thinking which dominates so much of our discourse about so much…and generally not to good effect.
Is Portugal's Drug Decriminalization a Failure or Success? The Answer Isn't So Simple
Also, for those, like me, in search of the uplifting….
13 year old and 18 year old busker singing "Hallelujah"
(An 18 year old and a 13 year old singing in the streets of Dublin and demonstrating that great and heartfelt singing will continue, recent deaths of prominent singers notwithstanding).
Emma Kok singing "Voila"
(A 15 year old singing in a concert ‘hall’. The 2.5 minute, multilingual introduction serves to make the performance even more notable.)
David Draiman on why concerts are special
The portion of the clip described below covers the first 5 minutes. (The second 5 minutes are only for aficionados of the genre!) Heavy metal isn't everyone's preference in music, to state the obvious. The group Disturbed formed in 1994 and continues to play before large crowds. Yet, to the point of where music takes us, or at least where it can take us, consider the video below when Disturbed's imposing lead singer (David Draiman) breaks from his concert role to attend to 'greater business'--something all leaders should take under consideration. He redefines the work at hand. He's still who he is, but explicitly moves to a different role, leading and taking responsibility for a different work, handling a different and, as enacted by him, more important type of situation...namely, a young girl in tears.
As for diversity--it comes in so many forms--as do our biases, including re: a large, aging, shaved head, dual ear ringed, white lead singer of a heavy metal group ... who happens also to be a father.