For teaching us that falling only makes us stronger. For giving us the encouragement to try again. Thank you, Mom; P&G Made An Awesome Sequel To Its Tearjerker ‘Thank You, Mom’ Ad From The 2012 Olympics

P&G Made An Awesome Sequel To Its Tearjerker ‘Thank You, Mom’ Ad From The 2012 Olympics

RICHARD FELONI

Olympic athletes not only represent their countries — they also represent their families. Last year, consumer goods giant P&G saw the potential in this idea, and created the “Thank You, Mom” campaign for the 2012 London Olympics. The commercial “Best Job” offered a poignant look at how the mothers of Olympic athletes assisted their children every step of the way from childhood to greatness. It became a hit among consumers and critics alike. The ad agency Wieden + Kennedy produced the commercial, and has released a sequel for February’s Sochi Winter Olympics. Incredible balance is a common trait among every winter Olympian, whether their sport is skiing, snowboarding, skating, or hockey. “Pick Them Back Up” shows how the moms of athletes like gold medalists Lindsey Vonn and Evan Lysacek were always there to do just that:

As part of the campaign, P&G is sending $1,000 Visa gift cards to each of the 357 Olympic athletes’ moms, intended to help them travel to Sochi. Last year’s “Best Job” ad won the Emmy for Best Primetime Commercial, as well as two Gold Lions and three Silver Lions at Cannes.

信。约 – 唐山到南洋 The Journey: A Voyage; 人生再多波折 逆风而上 只要有希望 就挺起胸膛 那是因为有爱 一直在身旁

信。约 – 唐山到南洋 The Journey: A Voyage

主题曲：《家乡》作词：乐声 主唱：沈志豪

惜别了家乡 远渡过海洋
沿途风雨险阻 往心里放
看日月交换 欣喜和惆怅
眼睛就算迷惘 汗水会擦亮

收拾起行囊 把思念带上
人生再多波折 逆风而上
看笑泪交织 聚散多无常
只要有希望 就挺起胸膛

这天地茫茫 何处是我家乡
要让命运看我 从来不投降
荆棘满身缠 挡不住渴望
一旦认定了 决不回头望

这天地茫茫 何处是我家乡
相信总有一天 会云开雾散
不朽的故事 岁月会流传
那是因为有爱 一直在身旁

这里有希望 这就是家乡

‘Identity-Based Goals’ Are The Only Way To Make Good Habits Last

‘Identity-Based Goals’ Are The Only Way To Make Good Habits Last

JAMES CLEAR, JAMESCLEAR.COM
JAN. 5, 2014, 1:43 PM 7,465 1

If you want to get in shape, you have to believe you’re the type of person who never misses a workout. Change is hard. You’ve probably noticed that. We all want to become better people — stronger and healthier, more creative and more skilled, a better friend or family member. But even if we get really inspired and start doing things better, it’s tough to actually stick to new behaviors. It’s more likely that this time next year you’ll be doing the same thing than performing a new habit with ease. Why is that? And is there anything you can do to make change easier? Read more of this post

The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence; In some jobs, being in touch with emotions is essential. In others, it seems to be a detriment. And like any skill, being able to read people can be used for good or evil

The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence

In some jobs, being in touch with emotions is essential. In others, it seems to be a detriment. And like any skill, being able to read people can be used for good or evil.

By Adam Grant

Some of the greatest moments in human history were fueled by emotional intelligence. When Martin Luther King, Jr. presented his dream, he chose language that would stir the hearts of his audience. “Instead of honoring this sacred obligation” to liberty, King thundered, “American has given the Negro people a bad check.” He promised that a land “sweltering with the heat of oppression” could be “transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice,” and envisioned a future in which “on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” Read more of this post

24 Charts Of Leadership Styles Around The World

24 Charts Of Leadership Styles Around The World

GUS LUBIN

JAN. 6, 2014, 9:45 AM 2,972 2

Different cultures can have radically different leadership styles, and international organizations would do well to understand them. British linguist Richard D. Lewis charted these differences in his book “When Cultures Collide,” first published in 1996 and now in its third edition, and he teaches these insights in seminars with major corporate clients. Read more of this post

How To Disrupt Yourself: The High Cost And Benefits Of Hiring Misfits

HOW TO DISRUPT YOURSELF: THE HIGH COST AND BENEFITS OF HIRING MISFITS

BY BUD CADDELL

Many creative companies talk about hiring “different” talent. Strategist and “change agent” Budd Caddell discusses the realities of hiring outsiders and allowing them make a difference to your culture and end product. Read more of this post

When will businesses learn the lessons of the innovator’s dilemma? The perils are dire and well known — yet companies seemingly can’t stop putting themselves at risk

When will businesses learn the lessons of the innovator’s dilemma?

January 7, 2014: 5:00 AM ET

The perils are dire and well known — yet companies seemingly can’t stop putting themselves at risk.

By Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large

FORTUNE — If absolutely everyone in business knows about the innovator’s dilemma — how it works, how it often dooms big, successful companies — then why is avoiding it still so extraordinarily hard for business leaders? Read more of this post

20 Simple Secrets Of Happy Families — All Backed By Science

20 Simple Secrets Of Happy Families — All Backed By Science

ERIC BARKER, BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE
JAN. 6, 2014, 6:59 AM 6,626 2

Via 100 Simple Secrets of Happy Families:

People who are highly satisfied with their neighborhood are 25 percent more likely to be highly satisfied with their family life.

-Toth, Brown, and Xu 2002

Open Communication Is A Must

Via 100 Simple Secrets of Happy Families:

The less open the communication between adults and children, the more pessimistic the children are likely to be and the less likely the children are to feel secure in their family relationship. This is nearly doubly as significant in stepparent-children relationships.

– Al-Abbad 2001  Read more of this post

Making Better Decisions over Time; The technique of deliberate practice can dramatically improve performance, but knowing its limits is as important as understanding its value

Published: January 6, 2014

Making Better Decisions over Time

The technique of deliberate practice can dramatically improve performance, but knowing its limits is as important as understanding its value.

by Phil Rosenzweig

Managers make a wide range of decisions, from routine calls they face on a recurring basis, to large-scale strategic decisions they may encounter just once in their careers. For issues that are often repeated, the technique of deliberate practice—which involves action, feedback, modification, and action again—is a powerful way to boost performance. The technique works when a decision is part of a sequence, in which feedback from one part can improve the next. Not all decisions work in this manner, however. Knowing the difference is crucial. Read more of this post

Want to Stop Arguing and Change Spouse’s Behavior? Start With Mirror; Studies: People Motivated to Be in Relationship Will Alter Behavior to Be More Like Partner

Want to Stop Arguing and Change Spouse’s Behavior? Start With Mirror

Studies: People Motivated to Be in Relationship Will Alter Behavior to Be More Like Partner

ELIZABETH BERNSTEIN

Jan. 6, 2014 7:16 p.m. ET

Want your partner to exercise more? Drink less? Your best chance of getting your way is to change yourself first. WSJ’s Elizabeth Bernstein explains why, and guest Steve Miksis explains how he changed for the sake of his marriage. Photo: Kike Arnal for The Wall Street Journal. Read more of this post

Competence, Creativity, Mastery, Genius: The Essential Role Of Risk

Competence, Creativity, Mastery, Genius: The Essential Role Of Risk

01/04/2014 16:52 -0500

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

When risk vanishes, so does creativity.

Which characteristics lead to success? Which lead to greatness? Let’s start by pondering companies that were once dominant in their respective fields: Microsoft and Nokia. Microsoft recently bought Nokia’s mobile phone business, once valued at $240 billion, for $7.2 billion. Nokia’s share of the global smart-phone business is around 4%. Microsoft’s share of the global smart-phone software market is less than 1%, despite spending billions of dollars developing and promoting its mobile software. Read more of this post

Use your head when going with your gut; When to go with your gut instinct; How to make on-the-spot decisions

January 5, 2014 2:08 pm

Use your head when going with your gut

By Rhymer Rigby

In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell asserted that snap decisions could be better than decisions made slowly and with considered analysis. Since its publication in 2005, a number of people have come forward to argue that this is not the case or that only some (usually trivial) categories of decision are suited to being made without much thought. Detractors include Michael LeGault, author of the book Think. Read more of this post

Don’t Abandon Innovation — Simplify It

Don’t Abandon Innovation — Simplify It

by Ron Ashkenas  |   8:00 AM January 6, 2014

My fellow HBR blogger Bill Taylor recently made a pitch for all of us to stop using the word “innovation” in 2014.  Despite his plea, I suspect this word isn’t going anywhere.  It’s too important as a driver of growth and renewal. What can be done, in the spirit of Bill’s admonishment, is to stop getting tangled up in all of the variations, nuances, tools, techniques, models, frameworks, and paradigms of innovation.  Somehow we’ve taken a simple concept — the idea of systematically finding, encouraging, and implementing new ideas for growth — and we’ve made it horribly complex.  And of course, by complexifying innovation, we’ve probably started to kill it. Read more of this post

Here’s Why Eliminating Titles And Managers At Zappos Probably Won’t Work

Here’s Why Eliminating Titles And Managers At Zappos Probably Won’t Work

ALISON GRISWOLD

52 MINUTES AGO 362

As you’ve probably heard by now, Zappos is in for a radical restructuring.

The online retailer is nixing all job titles and managers as it shifts to a super-flat structure known as “Holacracy.” When CEO Tony Hsieh first announced the shake up in November, he described Holacracy as a “self-governing” system that would boost transparency and streamline operations, Quartz reported. In the place of bosses and managers, Zappos will create hundreds of committee-like “circles” filled by employees.  Read more of this post

Zappos and the collapse of corporate hierarchies; Online shoe retailer Zappos’ plan highlights pros and cons of a manager-less system

January 6, 2014 4:29 pm

Zappos and the collapse of corporate hierarchies

By Andrew Hill

Online shoe retailer Zappos’ plan highlights pros and cons of a manager-less system

You come back from holiday to find your chief executive has given up power to a central constitution. Your team has been disbanded and your title scrapped. You are now all partners, each with an agreed role and a duty to support others whose work overlaps yours. Instead of allowing tension to fester internally, you will raise problems openly at regular meetings that promote positive action. Read more of this post

The Relationship Between Anxiety and Performance

The Relationship Between Anxiety and Performance

by Scott Stossel  |   11:00 AM January 6, 2014

I choked.

It was just a middle-school tennis match against a manifestly worse player, but I became overwhelmed with anxiety. Before we’d started, the most important thing was to win. But during the match, I just wanted to get off the court fast. Burping uncontrollably, afraid of throwing up, I hit balls out. I hit them into the net. I double-faulted. And I lost 6-1, 6-0. After shaking hands and running off the court, I felt immediate relief. My distended stomach settled. My anxiety relented. And then self-loathing took over. This was a challenge match for a lower-ladder JV position. The stakes were low, but to me they felt existentially high. I’d lost to the overweight and oleaginous Paul (not his real name), and the result was there on the score sheet, and on the ladder hanging on the locker room wall, for all to see. Read more of this post

When Human Judgment Works Well, and When it Doesn’t

When Human Judgment Works Well, and When it Doesn’t

by Andrew McAfee  |   10:00 AM January 6, 2014

My last post here, the descriptively-titled “Big Data’s Biggest Challenge? Convincing People NOT to Trust Their Judgment,” generated a fair amount of commentary. So I think it’s worthwhile to devote a couple follow-on posts to the reactions, questions, and objections raised in response to my contention, which was (and is) that we should generally be relying a lot less on the judgments, diagnoses, and forecasts of human ‘experts,’ and a lot more on the outputs of cold, hard, data-driven algorithms. Read more of this post

Hong Kong Media Mogul Dies at 107; Run Run shaw Helped Popularize Martial-Arts Films in the West

Hong Kong Media Mogul Dies at 107

Run Run shaw Helped Popularize Martial-Arts Films in the West

JEFFREY NG And PRUDENCE HO

Jan. 6, 2014 10:46 p.m. ET

Hong Kong film stars shown with Run Run Shaw in 1959. Associated Press

HONG KONG—Media titan Sir Run Run Shaw, who co-founded dominant broadcasterTelevision Broadcasts Ltd. 0511.HK -0.79% , died Tuesday morning at the age of 107, the company said. Read more of this post

It’s So Cold, This Guy Threw Boiling Water Into The Air And It Instantly Turned To Snow

It’s So Cold, This Guy Threw Boiling Water Into The Air And It Instantly Turned To Snow

ROB WILE

JAN. 6, 2014, 9:28 AM 13,598 15

Meteorologist Eric Holthaus just posted this insane video of him turning boiling water into snow. Shot in Viroqua, WI, near La Crosse, it was -21°F with a wind chill of -51°F.

Chris Meledandri, the man who has made millions from Minions

January 5, 2014 2:00 pm

Chris Meledandri, the man who has made millions from Minions

By Matthew Garrahan

Gofer made good: Chris Meledandri’s ‘Despicable Me 2’ was 2013’s top-grossing animated movie

As a boy growing up in 1970s New York, Chris Meledandri never saw any cartoons or animated movies. His early film experiences came courtesy of Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, rather than Walt Disney. Read more of this post

How EADS Became Airbus; Fifteen Years in the Making, Plane Maker’s Transformation Fraught With Sturm und Drang

How EADS Became Airbus

Fifteen Years in the Making, Plane Maker’s Transformation Fraught With Sturm und Drang

DANIEL MICHAELS

Jan. 5, 2014 3:36 p.m. ET

Airbus just lost some baggage.

With the new year, the plane maker’s parent company dropped one of the corporate world’s most unaerodynamic names: European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.EADSY -1.18%  It is now rebranded as Airbus Group NV. The Dutch-registered French-German-British-Spanish multinational’s transformation was 15 years in the making, fraught with the Sturm und Drang of Europe itself. Read more of this post

Thomas Chrystie, Creator of Cash Management Account, Dies at 80

Thomas Chrystie, Creator of Cash Management Account, Dies at 80

Thomas Chrystie, the Merrill Lynch & Co. executive who developed the Cash Management Account, a 1970s innovation that drove the firm’s growth into a full-service financial provider, has died. He was 80. Read more of this post

‘Polar Pig’ Threatens Coldest U.S. Weather in Two Decades

‘Polar Pig’ Threatens Coldest U.S. Weather in Two Decades

The coldest air in almost 20 years is sweeping over the central U.S. toward the East Coast, threatening to topple temperature records, ignite energy demand and damage Great Plains winter wheat. Read more of this post

Harnessing the power of extreme consumers; Product designers are using extreme users to glean ideas

January 6, 2014 4:41 pm

Harnessing the power of extreme consumers

By Alicia Clegg

Micah Melton has strong opinions about ice. The water to make it must be double boiled; small dense cubes are best for shaking cocktails; a 9-inch shard of ice chills a gin and tonic to perfection and imparts just the right dilution. Read more of this post

Spain king’s daughter summoned over financial crimes

Spain king’s daughter summoned over financial crimes

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 – 21:52

AFP

MADRID – A Spanish court summoned King Juan Carlos’ youngest daughter Cristina as a suspect in alleged tax and money-laundering crimes Tuesday, a historic first for a direct relative of the monarch. Read more of this post