Improve your Urban Technology/Policy Explorer/Entrepreneur Efforts 100%

After doing the usual consumer homework, I chose the Lenovo ThinkPad 1838. It's touchscreen-operated, has similiar size & weight of an iPad. Fortunately, it exceeds the iPad in functionality, making it a full alternative to a laptop (ie., if choosing the 64GB model). A big enticement for me was the fact that it is compatible with Kindle. Some have bragged about iPad has a few more bells and whistles with the touch features, but this device responds faster. iPad offers the instant sharing of music, etc, among Apple devices---but why be constrained by limited sources. We live in diverse universe so Lenovo allows users freedom of choice. I am very happy with the choice and value in that I'm now using it in lieu of having 3 devices I might have separately acquired (for much greater monetary outlay): a kindle, an iPad, and an alternative/backup home computer/laptop. If there's an equivalent device in price, size, weight, and options currently on the market, I am unaware of it.

Why are we blaming the children?

The following reading should be purchased as a pair. The first should be used to get a background about the sources of that causes the blame game.



The second should be used to get a method that could be used to change the rules so that the blame game can't be used.

Thinking fast and slow when childhoods are unequal

Challenging the rational model of judgment and decision making when unequal childhoods still exist has not changed our education system. If these books are written by our most important thinkers then we all can learn from the content. The ideas may come frrom interdesplinary fields —including economics, medicine, and politics—but whatever it takes lets consider for the sake of urban communities.

Happening in a urban classroom, community, or city near you!

No matter what you think you're saying, your words, gestures, and tone of voice can actually communicate something entirely different. Look for the signals when you are among friends and foes. Often, negative micromessages undermine morale, opportunities, and ultimately your health. In my opinion, micromessages can reveal a lot about our own insecurities. Learning how to constructively address these behaviors can bring about positive change. Young offers a common language for encouraging cruicial leadership skills and how to acquire them, universal cultural issues and ways to speak fairly, not falsely.  Enjoy the reading and share your comments about the ride.

Case Study Research about Leadership

My colleague argued that you can case study anything so I suggested leadership. I received an email today recommending this book. Stay tune for my findings!

Leadership in urban communities listening?

My Leadership for the Common Good course inspires me to ask urban leadership questions. The challenge is working on how to get them to listen and face the difficult converstations that surface when inspiring equity. The following are some of the literature that I have found helpful.
Listening: A Framework for Teaching Across Differences(Paperback)
by Katherine Schultz




Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most [Paperback] Douglas Stone (Author), Bruce Patton (Author), Sheila Heen (Author), Roger Fisher (Foreword)

Urban Leadership using diversity as power

Using diversity as power will be mandatory if society is to achieve prosperity and leadership will need to provide guidance. The guidance can start with good literture and users of that literture verifying the content of the books knowledge. If the following literture needs further verification then I will return your purchasing cost.

Our Power is in our Diversity - Stand together or Fall Alone?

Geraldine Brooks' "Nine Parts of Desire." and Author Ann Jones, are going to change the way women are treated and the world will be a better place when tjey do. Violence against women is violence against humanity and no traditional ultraconservative attitudes toward women or for that matter minorities should be tolerated. ..  Read Kabul in Winter and become part of the movement!

Derrick Bell a Diversity Leadership Legend

In 1980 Bell became the first African American to ever head a non-black law school. He resigned several years later over a dispute about faculty diversity. Bell then taught at Stanford University for a year and returned to Harvard in 1986, where he staged a five-day sit-in in his office to protest the school's failure to grant tenure to two legal scholars on staff, that claimed legal institutions play a role in the maintenance of the ruling class' position. Bell's sit-in galvanized student support but sharply divided the faculty. Hiring practices at Harvard surfaced again in 1990, when he vowed to take an unpaid leave of absence until the school appointed a female of color to its tenured faculty. At the time, of the law school's 60 tenured professors, only three were black and five were women. The school had never had a black woman on the tenured staff.

To some observers, Bell's lament about Harvard amounted to a call for the school to lower its academic qualifications in the quest to mold a diversified faculty on the campus. But Bell argued that academically able faculty were being ignored and that critics of diversity invariably underplay the value of a faculty that is broadly reflective of society, and, more importantly, that the credentials demanded by institutions like Harvard perpetuate the domination of white, well-off, middle-aged men. He also argued that the system was self perpetuating. As he commented in the Boston Globe, "Let's look at a few qualifications--say civil rights experience ... that might allow [a chance at a tenured teaching position for] more folks here who, like me, maybe didn't go to the best law school but instead have made a real difference in the world."

Read more about a power example of Diversity Leadership;

How does Culture, Leadership and Organization mix?

I don't claim to have the answer but I'm advised from a professional in the domain of Leadership that the following is one of the best sources to clarify the integration of the three. Please share your view and opinions with others after reviewing the book.