While past values are continuously challenged to define better solutions, at times through difficult compromises, social links enable individuals to gain further credit in organizations. With global warming as a ringing alert for all, the world is slowly shifting towards flexible, interconnected and community based knowledge sharing to create intelligent solutions, including the development of machines and systems which can learn from failures and mistakes.
1 Disbelief in Western democracy
“No, liberal democracy and Western values are not as universal as we have wished since the end of Cold War. They are growingly questioned throughout the world.”
2 Austerity being pushed out
“Indeed, on last November 10th, three non confidence motions have been filed by left-wing parties, who hold a majority of seats in Portuguese Parliament, as a way to reject the newly formed right-wing government coalition. President Anibal Cavaco Silva is now forced to name Antonio Costa, Socialist Party leader, as Prime Minister.”
3 Employees taking ownership
“The bottom line: job crafting happens everywhere. And it’s likely happening at your company, whether you like it or not. So Wrzesniewski (and Google) say, it’s far better to bring it out of the shadows and support it. Not only will you save yourself a fruitless battle, but studies also show job crafting increases happiness, work satisfaction, commitment to the job, and employee performance. In short, it’s good for the organization as well as the individual”.
Jessica Stillman, INC
4 Organizations going social
“Internal social media can help flatten the organization and drive transparent dialogue across levels, functions, and geographies. Although leadership participation can be a challenge, according to another study we conducted on companies with “social CEOS,” 73% of them said that CEO social participation gave more employees the chance to communicate directly with the CEO, while 72% said social engagement helped the CEO understand what was happening inside the company”.
Sarah Clayton, HBR
5 Climate change reaching climax
“Met Office announced, on the basis of the nine first months of the year, that 2015 will be the first year in which temperatures exceed 1°C warming compared to pre-industrial era. Between January and September, the average temperature on Earth is superior by 1,02°C compared to those registered over similar periods in the last decades of the 19th century.”
Stéphane Foucart, Le Monde
6 People looking for knowledge
“According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, low-income and minority Americans are far more likely than others to assert that they would be negatively affected if their local library closed. The survey suggests that this has much, or more, to do with access to computers and the Internet—which is critical for job searchers and entrepreneurs—as it does with the opportunity to check out books. Public libraries aren’t just educational destinations; they also provide access to economic opportunities available through few other venues.”
Jacob Brogan, Slate
7 Work available from anywhere
“Enabled by advancements in communication technology, the remote-first structure provides a variety of conveniences. For example, research by online freelance marketplace Upwork suggests that finding and onboarding talent in the brick-and-mortar world takes an average of 43 days, compared with three days in the virtual world”.
Jared Lindzon, Fast Company
8 Machines learning on their own
“A bot that can learn from watching other people could also fine tune its own actions through trial and error, essentially learning from its mistakes. That’s what researchers at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland had in mind when they developed a self-adjusting welding system“.
Aidan, WT VOX
9 Businesses growingly interconnected
https://plus.google.com/+WeAreInnovationblog/posts/eSUt5Kq5boc
“The number of enterprises that are expected to be interconnected will double between now and 2017, according to a recent survey from Equinix. The report, titled “The Enterprise of the Future: Unleashing the Interconnected Enterprise,” indicates that companies are transitioning to IT/business models to obtain instant collaboration with partners, employees, customers and data sources—thus creating this state of interconnectivity”.
Dennis McCafferty, CIO Insight
10 Experts creating communities
https://plus.google.com/+WeAreInnovationblog/posts/SCmnadgHWUm
“And I think the more you put yourself out there in social media, really defining what’s important to you, the more you end up attracting the kind of entrepreneurs who resonate with your thinking”.
Heidi Rozen for Loren Mooney, Stanford Business
We Are Innovation 