Living in More Than One World

“I have been reading for years the acceptance speeches of Nobel prize winners.” – Peter Drucker, 1969.

Photo credit: Bigstock

There is little wonder why Peter Drucker found inspiration in reading about winners of prestigious prizes. When he wrote the above, nearly 50 years ago in his book The Age of Discontinuity, it took some effort to find this information. Now, much of it is readily available on the Nobel Prizes’ website. We are at this time of year awash in inspiration, especially from the ongoing announcements of winners for the various Nobel Prizes. In addition, there is the MacArthur Fellows program (AKA ‘Genius Grants,’) which I wrote about in Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way and in my October 8, 2012 post “Become Your Own Genius Grant Fellow.” In September, the Drucker Institute announced that We Care Solar, of Berkeley, Ca., was the winner of the 2017 Drucker Prize.

I was saddened recently to learn of the August 8th death, at 92, of Max De Pree, who had an illustrious career as CEO and Chairman of the innovative furniture/design company Herman Miller.

In 1989, after he retired as CEO but while remaining as Chairman, he also started a parallel career as a best-selling leadership author; particularly with his first book, Leadership is an Art; the follow-up Leadership Jazz, and in 1997, with Leading Without Power: Finding Hope in Serving Community. These slim volumes are eloquent, full of wisdom of various types, and spiritually reflective of De Pree’s deep Christian faith.

September 14 marked the 150th anniversary of the original, German-language publication of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, later published in English-language editions (in multiple volumes) as Capital. What I find particularly interesting is that it was largely written in the reading room of the British Library (at the time located at the British Museum). Marx’s long history of using the library for reading, research and writing is detailed in the recent British Library European studies blog post by Izzy Gibbin, “150 Years of Capital.“

In Germany, the land of Marx’s birth, the international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) recently published “Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ still fascinates after 150 years,” a Q&A with author/journalist Bernd Ziesemer.

Most people take for granted the wonders surrounding us, including the accumulated inventions of many centuries that make our lives safer, easier, more productive and more satisfying. We rarely stop to think of who invented things that are indispensable to daily life. If you want to open your eyes to a richer appreciation of the world of invention and inventors, and the psychology and thought processes that underpin this discipline, turn to Pagan Kennedy and her 2016 book Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World.

Kennedy has written a number of books and countless freelance articles in a variety of publications.

Soaring executive pay. The future of health care. Disappearing manufacturing jobs. Information overload. These are all hot button topics today. They were also subjects written about by Peter Drucker during the mid-1970s to early 1980s, as shown in his 1982 book The Changing World of the Executive. While Drucker contributed to many publications on a regular basis, and published a number of collections of his writings, as I wrote about last year in my post “Peter Drucker: Freelance Writer,” this anthology came primarily from his columns written for the Wall Street Journal between 1975 and 1981.

Although the original book had gone out of print, The Changing World of the Executive was reissued in 2010 by Harvard Business Review Press, as part of its series “The Drucker Library.”  Drucker divides the book into five sections: Executive Agenda, Business Performance, The Non-Profit Sector, People at Work, and the Changing Globe.

My teaching semester at the Catholic University Department of Library and Information Science ended last month and I’m not teaching this semester. But I’m taking the opportunity to tap into the blank-slate beginnings of the new semester to revisit/update/revise self-management strategies for teachers and students that I wrote about in 2013 and previously.

These strategies are also applicable beyond the campus, even if you are not teaching or enrolled as a student:

Photo credit: Bigstock

1. Learn about and practice WOOP. This is a simple way to think differently about goal-setting and positive thinking, developed by NYU Psychology professors (and married couple), Gabriele Oettingen and Peter Gollwitzer.

Jorge Luis Borges was born 118 years ago today, on August 24, 1899. The Borges Boom shows no signs of decline: his literary influence remains strong, he is quoted and referenced in a variety of contexts, and books by and about him continue to be published. Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the Argentine author’s death. On December 7, 2016, the Library of Congress presented a fascinating conversation, now available on video, with Borges’ widow María Kodama and University of Maryland professor and longtime Borges scholar Saúl Sosnowski. (I wrote about my connection to Saúl, author of Borges y La Cábala: En búsqueda del verbo, in the 2010 post 111 Years of Jorge Luis Borges.)

In the spirit of my 2013 post 7 Self-Management Secrets of Jorge Luis Borges, consider these strategies, which I contend were crucial to Borges’ success (during his life and beyond); even if he may not have considered them to be strategies!

Despite all the changes and challenges facing librarians and information professionals, there are many opportunities to make a difference within organizations and society at large. That was one of the major takeaways from the 20th Special Libraries Symposium, held on July 27th, at The Catholic University of America Department of Library and Information Science. I produce the Symposium each semester I teach as an adjunct professor at the school, for the students in my class, LSC 888, The Special Library/Information Center, and invited guests.

{All photos courtesy of SLA}

The most recent year I wrote about the symposium was in 2012.

Last week, my summer teaching semester ended for LSC 888, the Special Library/Information Center, at the Catholic University of America Department of Library and Information Science. It was an intensive experience: two classes a week for six weeks (other than July 4th); each for three hours and ten minutes. Although there were only four students, it was a lively and engaged group. Each student brought a varied set of work and educational experience to the class, and they developed a strong rapport with the guest lecturers who joined us throughout the semester: James King, National Institutes of Health Library; Marie Kaddell of LexisNexis; Kimberly Ferguson, Library of Congress; Amanda J.

If you’d like to make your mark on the world during your lifetime, with the hope that your influence extends beyond your death, a perfect role model is Jane Jacobs. Perhaps best known for her classic 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she was a major urban activist over a long period of time (she died in 2006, at 89). Her influence reached beyond urban affairs to economics and more, and continues to grow. Last week, in my post about Tom Butler-Bowdon’s new book 50 Economics Classics, I noted that Jacobs was included, even though she was not an economist, for her book The Economy of Cities.