Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Independent Thought and Rate of Change

When the rate of cultural change is maximum, individual thinking is not prized. As a consequence, we go with the flow. The problem is we spin as individual thinking ideas that looked more closely we would see for what they are -- a way to manage risk by aligning with the crowd. Risk management is not just the domain of organizations. Uncertainty affects how we think about the future and thus our appetite for making decisions proactively. But understanding the nature of risk and learning to make better decisions can help us become a better driving force of what we... Read more →

Meaningful Actions: a Manifesto

We work at different levels -- for example, strategic, tactical -- in many dimensions -- for example, past, future, sometimes present -- alone and together, with stages, methodologies, processes, and so on. The unifying view in all of this is how we show up. Our values and personal culture shine or bleed through in our work and lives in the form of “this is how it feels like to [interact, communicate, be with us].” A couple of years ago, I wrote this Meaningful Actions Manifesto as a reminder of what I value and a compass to navigate the complexity of... Read more →

Five Books for 2016

To discover and experience new horizons, we should participate more in what we learn. When we read comparatively we involve other aspects of learning -- like reflecting and connecting -- which in turn engages our creativity. It's akin to learning by doing for the mind. Reading on a variety of topics helps us expand our thinking while it contributes to our ability to discover patterns across different disciplines. On my reading list this holiday season is a short list of five books to add to previous lists of 21 books worth reading, 12 books that changed my life, and the... Read more →

Time will Tell: Content Marketing Predictions for 2016

Our ability to see into the future well enough to make good predictions is more the product of diligent work than tea-leaf reading (with all respect to useful ways of doing that.) According to Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner, “it involves gathering evidence from a variety of sources, thinking probabilistically, working in teams, keeping score, and being willing to admit error and change course.” In Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Tetlock and Gardner say open mindedness, flexibility and an ability to move quickly between different viewpoints is essential to good forecasting. Other lessons include: striking a good balance... Read more →

The Most Valuable Skill that Nobody Teaches: How to Listen

Although most of us acknowledge the importance of listening to improve our understanding, learn new things, we fall short of that ambition. In social settings and in business, the act itself is often more akin to monitoring conversations for opportunities to jump in and/or to store information. Rather than a muscle we can build through practice, it becomes a way to keep score. The reason why is that listening is hard because it involves several steps, including the ability to think critically. Adding to the difficulty is that written words do a lot of heavy lifting for us these days,... Read more →

Brian Eno's Reading List for the Manual of Civilization

A long time contributor to understanding the value of ecosystems, music producer, artist, and thinker Brian Eno is on the Founding Board of Long Now foundation, an organization that was established to “provide a counterpoint to today's accelerating culture and help make long-term thinking more common.” Eno was the first contributor to a new project by the Foundation -- a Manual for Civilization collection, a new space, The Interval, that has since been funded and opened its doors in San Francisco, June 2014. The artist designed a custom sound and light installation for The Interval. The floor-to-ceiling library includes the... Read more →

The Science of Personality, What Drives Introversion and Extraversion

Answering the questions of what makes us feel good about work has been the object of endless fascination. In business, uncovering what motivates us is a major lever to affect results. The popularity of Myers-Briggs type assessments is at an all time high. “This year alone, there have been close to 100 certification sessions,” says an article distributed with the October 18 issue of Learning Habit. Our interest in personality types has wider appeal than the promise of business applications. It's become quite common to talk about being introverted or extraverted* in social circles as a way to explain how... Read more →

Yes, Virgina, There is a Santa Claus

In 1897 eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, Francis Pharcellus Church. It was her father who encouraged her to do so. Her question was simple -- does Santa Claus really exist? The letter says: Dear Editor, I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says “if you see it in The Sun it is so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? The Sun printed Church's quick response as an unsigned editorial on Sept. 21 of the same year: Virginia, your... Read more →

Six Memos for the Next Millennium

Italo Calvino wrote five "memos" (there was supposed to be a sixth) as Harvard's Charles Eliot Norton Lectures in 1985-86. Titled Six Memos for the Next Millennium, they were meant to be an investigation into the literary values he wished to give to future generations. He died before delivering his thoughts about the pending millennium. His thoughts about why read the classics were also published posthumously in 1986. In the opening of Six Memos he says: The millennium about to end has seen the birth and development of the modern languages of the West, and of the literatures that have... Read more →

The Paradox of our Age

The essay was born as a “The Paradox of our Age.” Its true author isn't George Carlin, Jeff Dickson, or the Dalai Lama, nor is he anonymous. Credit belongs to Dr. Bob Moorehead, former pastor of Seattle's Overlake Christian Church (who retired in 1998 after 29 years in that post.) In May 1998, Jeff Dickson posted the “Paradox of our Time” essay to his Hacks-R-Us online forum, loosing it upon the Internet. That essay has since spread far and wide and has commonly been attributed to a variety authors. The backdrop to the spreading was the aftermath of the 1999... Read more →