Living in More Than One World » lectures

Last Lectures and Guest Lectures

bruce — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:38:44 +0000

The poignant and powerful example of the late Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch brought considerable attention to the concept of the last lecture. However, relatively few knowledge workers will have the opportunity to make a final, summing up address to a class or audience, let alone one that also turns into a bestselling book. But many of us can deliver a guest lecture at the college or grad school level. It is an activity that has the potential to benefit many people at the same time: the guest lecturer, the regular teacher in the class and the students. It is a great way to share knowledge, and to test-drive a possible career in teaching, either as a full-time professor or as an adjunct. I got my start in the latter at the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science partly as a result of giving a guest lecture in 1995. I’ve taught there once a year since 1996, and as you can see from the syllabus for the course that starts later this month, The Special Library/Information Center, I have a number of guest lecturers scheduled to speak to my class, something I have been doing for many years. All are library and information professionals in the Washington, D.C. area, and a few are even my former students. These lecturers can bring to the class up-to-the-minute knowledge about their area of the profession. They have invariably been generous not only with their time, knowledge and expertise, but also with their willingness to network with students during and after the semester. If you are already teaching, adding guest lecturers broadens what you share with your students, and can provide a valuable opportunity and outlet for local professionals. If you want to do a guest lecture, think about what you’d like to speak about, and how you can add value to a class. Talk to someone who is teaching a subject that would be a good fit. If they are open to having you as a guest lecturer, find out the requirements, and prepare for what could be a life-changing experience.

The Energetic Tony Schwartz

bruce — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:47:56 +0000

Many of us sense a gap between where we are now, and where we’d like to be, personally and professionally. If you’re in that category, the January 31 post from Tony Schwartz, The Exhilarating Power of Purpose, makes for inspirational reading. In a mini-biography, Schwartz details his journey from frustration to fulfillment. His earlier career was totally based on writing. Now, he still writes — The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working was a bestseller last year – and he is also the CEO of his own company, The Energy Project. I don’t know him personally, but I still treasure my inscribed copy of his book What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America. I went to a talk he gave in April, 1996 at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, where the pastor for 52 years was Norman Vincent Peale, author of the classic The Power of Positive Thinking. The paperback of Schwartz’s book had just been published, and the talk was given in a sort of annex/church basement, for a weeknight lecture series. He interviewed and profiled many people for What Really Matters in a highly personal cross-country odyssey to learn more about personal growth, human potential and mind-body work; including Ram Dass, Betty Edwards, Michael Murphy, Helen Palmer and Ken Wilber. Another interviewee was the pioneering sports psychologist Jim Loehr. Years later, Schwartz became a business partner in Loehr’s company, Human Performance Institute, and a co-author with Loehr of the bestseller The Power of Full Engagement, in 2003. (I reviewed Loehr’s Stress for Success for USA TODAY in 1997.) Eventually, Schwartz made the leap to starting The Energy Project. In his post, he says that the joy and satisfaction he gets from running the business reinvigorated his writing, which somewhat surprisingly, he had come to dread. In the inscription to me when I bought a copy of What Really Matters at his talk 15 years ago, Schwartz wrote “To Bruce-Hoping this serves your journey! Warmly, Tony Schwartz.” Thanks, Tony; it did, and it still does.

Reflections on The Drucker Lectures

bruce — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:28:03 +0000

This is the first of an occasional series I’ll be writing on the Peter Drucker book The Drucker Lectures: Essential Lessons on Management, Society and Economy,published earlier this year. Many of the ideas and concepts will be familiar to his longtime readers. But these talks, from 1943 to 2003, two years before his death at 95, have not been published before. Each of the seven parts represents a decade, from the 1940s to the 2000s. In 1989, there are five knowledge lectures. Five years later, he returns for “The Knowledge Worker and the Knowledge Society.” In 2003, there is the four-part “The Future of the Corporation.” The collection was edited and has an introduction by Rick Wartzman, the Executive Director of The Drucker Institute, who writes a column, The Drucker Difference, for Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Rick also answered questions for a 2 ½ page Q&A in my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. Although many of the lectures were given at The Claremont Graduate University, Drucker’s home base for the last 34 years of his life, the settings for some of the others are impressively varied. For instance, “What We Already Know About American Education Tomorrow,” was given as the William T. Beadles Lecture for the American College of Life Underwriters, in 1971. “Management in the Big Organizations” is from a 1967 lecture at a workshop for YMCA managers, in Estes Park, Colorado. “On Health Care” comes from a 1996 speech at the Harvard Medical School. Drucker’s voice rings true, and that’s good news, no matter what subject he tackles, or where the words were spoken.

The Aspen Ideas Festival for Those Who Can’t Be There

bruce — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:44:52 +0000

A nice place to be this week, starting two days ago and running through July 5, is the Aspen Ideas Festival. A large and diverse group of big thinkers from academia, business, law, science, government, nonprofits, the arts, architecture, media and more have converged in Colorado for what looks to be a highly stimulating event. Since most of us can’t be there, the next best thing is following it online at the festival’s website and on the blogs from Atlantic Online. The Atlantic is a co-sponsor of the event, along with the Aspen Institute. Just a handful of the more recognized names from the 200 speakers and moderators: Madeleine Albright, James A. Baker III, Stephen Breyer, David Brooks, Marian Wright Edelman, Thomas L. Friedman, Howard Gardner, Frank Gehry, Alan Greenspan, Sandra Day O’Connor, Tim O’Reilly, Susan Rice, Charlie Rose and Eric Schmidt. You can see the entire list of the speakers and moderators, with photos and thumbnail descriptions, on the festival site. The Aspen Daily News has an interesting piece reflecting on the first day of the festival, and looking to possible highlights from the upcoming speakers. You can view videos from the festival on the Audio Video Library portion of the festival site. One of the several that are available now is Google Looks at the Economy: In Conversation With Eric Schmidt, in which Google’s Chairman of the Board and CEO is interviewed by Kai Ryssdal, host of “Marketplace,” on American Public Media. We are fortunate to live in an age where we can have a virtual experience of these major events (including music and literary festivals, and to some extent, professional conferences) that we can’t attend in person.

Get Ready for the BBC’s Reith Lectures

bruce — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:32:05 +0000

I’ve read many references over the years to the BBC’s Reith Lectures, which have been given yearly (except in 1992) since 1948, to “advance public understanding and debate about significant issues of contemporary interest,” in honor of the BBC’s first director-general. But I didn’t realize how much material was available on past lectures – and the upcoming series – until finding producer Jennifer Clarke’s BBC Radio 4 May 25 blog post ‘Multiplatforming’ the Reith Lectures. Clarke explains that this year’s lectures, “A New Citizenship,” by Harvard government professor Michael Sandel, in addition to the traditional live lectures and broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, will also have an array of social media and BBC radio, podcast and website activity. Sandel will be continuing a tradition that started with the philosopher Bertrand Russell (“Authority And The Individual”) and that has included many other distinguished lecturers, including the historian Arnold Toynbee (“The World and The West,” 1952), economist John Kenneth Galbraith (“The New Industrial State,” 1966), historian and former Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin (“America and The World Experience,” 1975), the poet-playwright Wole Soyinka (“Climate of Fear,” 2004) and the conductor Daniel Barenboim (“In the Beginning Was Sound,” 2006). Sandel’s lectures will be broadcast beginning June 9 on BBC Radio 4, and June 13 on the BBC World Service. You can also listen to the 2008 lectures, “Chinese Vistas,” by Yale professor Jonathan Spence, and selected earlier lectures linked from that page. For the great majority of us who can’t be there in person, this sounds like a great self-education opportunity for the summer and beyond.