Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Understanding the Link Between Creativity and Attention

When we experience creative flow our mind fills with original associations -- one idea leads to the next almost effortlessly. Our behaviors change, too. We know we are in that mode because we remember where we put our keys, that package we wanted to drop off, and Monday morning's traffic doesn't bother us as much. Its opposite is easy to detect -- we move drone-like in autopilots through the morning and wonder whatever happened in between home and work. In that mode, we do not even marvel at getting there in one piece, given how mindless we were. Attention plays... Read more →

When People Believe in Boundaries

“When people believe in boundaries, they become part of them.” [Don Cherry] Don Cherry was was an American jazz trumpeter known for his association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman in the late 50's. Unafraid of breaking away from convention, he became a pioneer of world fusion music in the 60's, incorporating funk and different ethnic styles in his music. Cherry used a pocket cornet -- a shrunken cornet -- to get an open, quiet sound. In the 70's, he taught at Dartmouth College, lived in Europe (Sweden) and the Middle East, and continued to play in festivals with other musicians all... Read more →

Unwritten Rules of Management Started out in Engineering and Didn't End up Well for the CEO

It could have been worse for all involved. In early 2006, the Interwebs were abuzz with talk of a little booklet William H. Swanson, the then Chairman and CEO of American defense contractor Raytheon, had authored. The spiral-bound booklet's title was Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management. Raytheon financed the publishing of thousands of copies of Mr. Swanson's booklet and gave them out free to virtually anyone who wanted one. I wrote in and received my free copy with a nice thank you note (image above.) In the introduction Swanson says: Since I joined Raytheon in 1972, it has been my... Read more →

Living our Way into the Answers

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.” Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet is up there with his Letters on Life on my list of books that changed my life. I have treasured both as part of my poetry collection ever since university where my course programs included a full study of the Duino Elegies in German. A young Rilke wrote the Elegies at around the time the Great War... Read more →

The Difference Between Power and Status

Hierarchy is a fundamental aspect of social life -- it often emerges spontaneously from the interaction between people. In organizations, hierarchies are both implicit and explicit. We can identify two major dimensions in social hierarchy -- power and status. The differences between the two are not as subtle as it might meet the eye. In a paper for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology#, NYU Stern professor Steven Blader and Cornell University professor Ya-Ru Chen describe the conceptual differences between power and status along similar lines. They say: “Status: prestige, respect and esteem that a party has in the... Read more →

Using Curiosity to Break Bad Habits

“People who have better control of their attention, emotions, and actions are better off almost any way you look at it. They are happier and healthier. Their relationships are more satisfying and last longer. They make more money and go further in their careers. They are better able to manage stress, deal with conflict, and overcome adversity. They even live longer.” [Kelly McGonigal] Most of us have at least tried meditating at some point. Which is how we learned that a simple instruction like “pay attention to your breath” is difficult to follow. Our mind wanders, we bring it back,... Read more →

Why Bullshit is a Greater Enemy of the Truth than Lies

“It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.” [Harry Frankfurt] Harry G. Frankfurt is one of the world's most influential moral philosophers. In a deeply satisfying book On Bullshit, which he followed with a more complex reading on why truth is important to us, the Princeton professor defines bullshit as something designed to impress without concern for the truth. Which is how it differs from lying -- a deliberate attempt of the liar to manipulate and subvert the truth. A recent research paper on the reception and detection... Read more →

An Incomplete List of Verbs

According to Umberto Eco, “We like lists because we don't want to die.” He says lists create culture: “The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063,... Read more →

What Holds Companies Together?

“Our greatest struggle is within ourselves. Whatever sense we have of thinking we know something is a barrier to continued learning.” [L. David Marquet] Leadership does not exist in a vacuum. It is participatory -- leaders and followers are in a mutually beneficial relationship where each adds to the effectiveness of the other. There needs to be mutual understanding and collaboration to achieve greater results. There is a reason why the phrase culture eats strategy for breakfast has become so popular -- culture, how we work, is as important as what time dependent choices we make, our stategizing. In Why... Read more →

On Strategizing

“Because we think we know we stop looking.” [Alan Judd] Questions not only open up our thinking, but they also direct and focus it. Which is why we should become more aware of the power of inquiry and learn to ask the right questions. Asking A More Beautiful Question is the heart of discovery in science, philosophy, medicine -- and a powerful way to renew our shelf-life, says Warren Berger. Why does everything begin with Why? This comprises the first stage of innovative questioning -- first confronting, formulating, and framing the initial question that articulates the challenge at hand, and... Read more →