“The world is getting too small for an Us and a Them. Us and Them have become codependent, intertwined, fixed to one another. We have no separate fates, but are bound together in one. And our fear of one another is the only thing capable of our undoing.” – Sam Killermann

I picked up this quote from our friends at Orion Magazine. His assertion that our fates are bound as one and that fear is the only thing that can undo us got me thinking.

If fear is the only thing capable of our undoing, then its opposite might be capable of knitting us together.

But, what is the opposite of fear?
Article: What is the opposite of fear?

The fastest way to change is to slow down and engage your stakeholders first.

Their contribution is priceless, and their sense of engagement and ownership will ensure that the change is lasting and meaningful.
Article: Why the longer road is often the shortest path.

The most important value that you can embrace as part of your innovation programs is diversity.

Ideas rely on collisions with other ideas, and the most disruptive and transformational changes come from unlikely combinations and challenges to one another’s original conceptions. Enter diversity.

Article: The Importance of Diversity in Innovation: 3 Tactics to Enrich Workplace Diversity

Hate might win the battle, but love will win the war.

Poem: Love Will Win the War

Compassion is a potential tool for communicators who want to build support for government climate change actions across the political spectrum.

Curbing carbon emissions demands personal change for the sake of strangers. It also requires regulatory revisions. Two researchers explored whether support for government intervention to mitigate climate change could be bolstered by feelings of compassion.
Article: Compassion Can Help Us Cross Political Boundaries.

Design and branding firm gets political.

Sagmeister & Walsh, The NYC design firm known for audaciously fresh brand identities, commercials, websites and apps, has launched Pins Won’t Save the World, an audaciously fresh online swag store that commits all of its proceeds to supporting progressive causes that are under threat by Trump and his administration.
Article: Pins and Ts raise money for charities that support causes under threat by Trump.

Teamwork is more capable than economic coordination or central decision making.

Complex systems scientist Yaneer Bar-Yam is convinced that all forms of governance are failing their citizens — dictatorships and communism failed in the last part of the 20th century, and in this century democracies are not meeting citizen expectations. No matter which leaders are chosen, the systems themselves are failing. He suggests that we need a metamorphosis of social organization in which leadership no longer serves the role it has over millennia. He predicts that a different type of existence will emerge, one that will enable us to live in a complex world. At the heart of this new model is teams, teams that range from a few individuals to many, in one place or spanning the globe.
Article: Teams: A Manifesto

Playlist

This week Nora Jones’ latest album, Day Breaks, has been on the office speakers a lot. It’s true jazz, meaning it’s a groove stew of pop, R&B, soul and spices hard to name. Her touring band includes Jason Roberts on guitar, who helps make her jazz rock, too. Here she is with that amazing band performing live on KCRW.

Images of the week

The small photo in the headers by Muhammed Muheisen is of Syrian refugee girl Amna Zughayar, 9, from Deir el-Zour, Syria. She is posing at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. The larger image by Carlos Barria is of President Barack Obama dancing a tango during a state dinner hosted by Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri in Buenos Aires, on March 23, 2016. These are two of the images The Atlantic posted as 2016: The Year in Photos. Have we ever seen a president so cool?