Please come and read my new blog when you get a chance! I will be writing about the wisdom of managers, scholars, and OD and change management consultants. This new blog will be a continuation of the themes of this old blog that focused on "the working world" and "the relational dynamics of managing change". My new blog will be less oriented toward my students, and more oriented toward a general business audience.

Undergraduates interested in living together under the common theme of "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" are invited to contact via e-mail Ed Caner from the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program, or Gary Wnek from The Institute of Management and Engineering. An application for special interest housing will be drafted in early March, with Caner and Wnek as faculty advisers.

I hope some prospective management, accounting, and economics majors will investigate. I can envision several different themes for special interest housing in future years.... Click through to the Case Daily page to email the faculty advisors for more information.

* at the Peter B. Lewis building on the Case campus, for work
* at Sergio's or That Place on Bellflower
* at Phoenix on Lee for tea on my birthday
* at the UUSC on Saturday night for Joe Jencks concert
* at a doctoral student's final qualifying meeting
* headed back to the airport after lunch on the 15th

"By now we know top-down change is not always good change, nor is it even more than temporarily efficient. The editors (all organizational behavior, Case Western Reserve U.) and their contributors, primarily US academics, argue for "transformative cooperation" (TC), which they define as a systematic and compassionate method of partnering with like-minded individuals and organizations to produce sustainable alternatives and promote a higher stage of moral development; in the real world this translates to businesses working with governments and non-profits on global concerns. Their topics here include the reasons for using TC in creating a more inclusive capitalism, the transformational nature of compassion at work, ego and identity as barriers to TC, creating TC through positive emotions, applying TC to leadership, designing transformative learning, including researching elementary and high schools for management education, and TC as a generative possibility. Includes case studies and avenues for further inquiry. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)"

It's interesting, being first editor of a book.

If you'd like to buy a copy for yourself, here's the link via Stanford University Press: Handbook of Transformative Cooperation

1 - Inform your colleagues of your normal work hours, and if you anticipate the possibility that they may need to reach you outside of your normal hours, leave a clear message on your office voicemail about how to reach you outside of your normal work day.

2 - Be aware and respectful of your colleagues' normal work hours. For instance, do not leave a message after the end of business hours in your colleague's time zone, asking him or her to accomplish something by the start of business the next morning in your time zone. If your need is that urgent, you will already have your colleague's cellphone number. Keep calling till you reach a live person, and then apologize for intruding on their non-work hours.

3 - Be especially careful about calling a colleague's cellular or home phone in the wee hours of the morning. Aim to avoid this except in the most dire emergencies.

4 - Do not send emails about routine issues in the morning in your time zone, and then call three hours later asking why no reply has been sent to your email. It may still be the beginning of the work day for your colleague!

5 - Keep careful track of appointment times when you are tele- or video-conferencing. Make sure that each confirmation email lists the correct appointment time in all relevant time zones.

Without identifying the relocation company that has "helped" us "manage" our cross-country move, let's just say that they need to train their employees to follow these rules. Calling me at 7 pm my time to inform me that movers will be at my house the following morning at 8 am, and will expect payment in the form of a cashier's check -- that's *just* *not* *professional*. Likewise, calling my home number at 6:30 in the morning -- *promotes a *negative* *association* with your corporate brand.

You can read more of my rant about our moving experiences, focusing on the drama of dealing with "professional" unpacking assistance, over at Relocation: The Bane of Balance at Work-Life Chronicles (my new blog).

Apparently, they were thinking that the government would be on their side, because Ms. Ledbetter had not smelled the rat quickly enough. She did not receive any hints from coworkers until late in her career that she was not receiving fair compensation.

A jury found evidence of pay discrimination, and awarded Ledbetter back pay and damages. Goodyear appealed that judgment and it was reviewed this year by the United States Supreme Court, where it was overturned on a technicality by a 5-4 vote. The majority justices were Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas.

On June 20, CA representative George Miller introduced a bill to remove that technicality for all future workers; it has already been approved by the House Education and Labor committee. His cosponsors in the House of Representatives included Andrews, Berkley, Capps, Clarke, Davis of IL, DeLauro, Farr, Hinjosa, Hirono, Hoyer, Kucinich, Loebsack, Maloney, McCarthy of NY, McCollum, McDermott, Nadler, Norton, Sanchez of CA, Shea-Porter, Slaughter, Van Hollen, and Woolsey. A press release from the Education and Labor Committee last month provides more details about the bill.

On July 22, MA Senator Edward Kennedy introduced the bill in the Senate as well. Cosponsors of the bill include Senators Boxer, Clinton, Dodd, Durbin, Harkin, Leahy, McCaskill, Murray, Mikulski, Obama, Snowe, Spector, Stabenow, and Whitehouse.

If your district representative and senator are not both on those lists, then I join with Law Blogger David S. Cohen in urging you to call the congressional members for your district and state to urge passage of the bill. If you happen to run across a chance to ask any other presidential candidate a question, ask them where they stand regarding pay discrimination -- with employers in covering up, or with employees in seeking protection within a reasonable time period after learning about potential discrimination.

More information about the case and the proposed law is available at CorrectTheCourt, along with an easy web form for contacting your legislators. Of course, a phone call or "snail mail" letter may have more impact than a form-based email.

Kudos for Lilly Ledbetter for continuing to combat injustice and to stand up for future generations who might face unfair compensation in US companies.

"An enhanced executive MBA program and a revamped MBA program will roll out in fall 2008, he said. ... The second year of the program [will] incorporate specialties that would be taught across the curriculum, which would make Weatherhead stand out among other MBA programs, according to Dr. Reddy. Some specialties the school is considering are social entrepreneurship [and] business sustainability. ...

With Cleveland’s population and corporate footprint shrinking, Dr. Reddy said it’s important to create an executive MBA program that appeals to students from outside Northeast Ohio. He said he’s beginning to meet with faculty and advisers now to figure out how Weatherhead can accomplish that goal.In the meantime, he said he’s also in talks with universities in China and India to create joint master’s degrees in areas such as organizational development and science and technology."

As I wrote last December, Mohan is a powerhouse. Stay tuned for positive results in the next year.

I am delighted that Terrence Seamon found this blog, via my earlier post about managing change. Thanks also to Bill Harris, who pointed my way to the ideas about managing change in my earlier post!

Support
Temerity
Awareness
Reflection
Trying Again
Notes
Options
Wise Action

To read more about each of the labels in the START NOW framework, and some funny stories about my adventures learning to ride my Vespa, click through to read "a different take on setting and achieving goals".

Please let me know what you think of the new blog, too! I'd welcome you to add it to your blogroll, or subscribe to the RSS feed, if you find the first few posts interesting.

New Books:

Businesspundit highlights Ben Casnocha's My Startup Life: The Story of a Teenage Entrepreneur. It was interesting to get a glimpse into what Ben has been up to, since I joined the chorus in the summer of 2005, trying to convince him not to write off college. (Here's my old post on graduation speeches and the value of college.) It's good to know that he's entering his freshman year this fall, even if he couldn't pull himself away from California -- he will be attending Claremont McKenna, in LA.

SophistPundit offers a critique of the notion of the right price in Sunstein's book, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge.

Organization and HR Management:

Leon Getter of SoxFirst identifies five warning signs that you are working in a psychotic organization, so that we can watch for the telltales and get out before too much damage is done to ourselves or our coworkers.

Wally Bock at Three Star Leadership reviews the apprentice process in his post on Are Leaders Born or Made?

Jim Stroup at Managing Leadership discusses knowledge management in his interestingly-titled post on Pushing the string. (I've always liked this metaphor of management as trying to play a piano with spaghetti instead of hammers to strike the piano strings!) Jim offers valuable guidance about how to implement a knowledge management system effectively.

Wayne Hurlburt at Blog Business World on problems that can arise when employees do not receive equitable treatment, in his entry Employee relations: Separate sets of rules. Wayne provides an excellent reminder that while intentional rewards for high performers may make sense, sloppy preferential treatment and discrimination won't pay.

On a related note, at MoneyWalks, how to avoid employee lawsuits offers some practical guidance on staying away from legal trouble.

Steven Silver at Scatterbox writes about the proliferation of C-level titles and offers his theory for who is to blame.

InventureGlobal offers a post on What Big Oil Can Stand to Learn From Google.

Jeffrey Stain of SavingAdvice sends this link with excellent tip for maximizing efficiency: The Stand-Up Meeting, the Best Meeting You'll Ever Attend.

Charles H. Green at Trusted Advisors asks Attract and Retain: People Strategy, or Roach Motel Ad?

Self-Management:

FreeMoneyFinance explores consumer ethics in a post asking what do you do when a business makes an error in your favor?

This week, Randy's career advice is to learn to invent and reinvent your future.

The Work-Life Chronicles blog explores work hours of professionals, and asks how people manage their work routines so that there is also time to "play hard" -- click through if you'd like to share your approach to this eternal dilemma.

At the Scratching Post, read musings about the connection between Craig's List and the cost of living.

From QueerCents comes a post on Using Cash in a Cashless World, and a story about financial self-restraint that reminds me of how my grandparents stayed on track with family finances for their 65 years of marriage (hint: it's either in the envelope, or it isn't.)

From College and Finance come 7 surefire ways to save serious cash in college, with some potentially unpopular, but straightforward, strategies for keeping coins in your pocket. (My other tip: The library is free, or at least included in your tuition!)

Business startups and entrepreneurship:

At Grad Money Matters, consider reading this interview with real-life student entrepreneurs. (There is also a collection of frugal living tips in the left sidebar at Grad Money Matters, if you are still looking for suggestions after reading the College and Finance post about saving money in college!)

Matt offers an answer to the question, Is traditional publicity dead? at his Creative Advertising Blog.

Jack Yoest offers an answer to the question, "What is the best way to get a referral?"

From B2B Revenue Generation comes an analysis of the role of revenue in cash flow, in which Jim Logan reminds us that "the time to worry about cash isn’t when you need it" and suggests some ways to think ahead (including always aiming to generate referrals and other new revenue leads!)

On offer from Good Customer Service Blog is a very memorable story about why customer service matters, entitled the president murdered grandma! And from Small Business Buzz comes a post on how to differentiating your business via quality customer service.

Scott Allen at Entrepreneurs.About.Com is preparing for an interview, and wants to know what questions should I ask the founders of OneCoach? We hope that several readers will click through to share their questions with Scott.

Managing risk:

From The Digerati Life comes 8 different ways to diversify and manage risk, which discusses alternative strategies for intentionally varying the types of investments in your portfolio.

From Atlantic Canada's Small Business Blog comes Small business risk management strategy, providing a helpful guide to identifying and analyzing risks in the small business context.

Investing:

At Trader's Narrative, a useful fuide to investor networking sites is on offer.

At Finance Is Personal, Debunking Mutual Fund Naysayers makes a case that investing in mutual funds is still worth considering. (This was a great relief to me, since all my retirement investments are in mutual funds!)

On a related note, The Skilled Investor offers 18 low-cost S&P 500 index funds.

Econbrowser explores the pros and cons of oil shale as a potential source of gasoline in the post entitled oil shale hits a freeze.

Davis Freeberg criticizes the ad that was run in Investors Business Daily on June 1st in his post, Golden Dragon or Sleeping Snake?

The Time and Money Group blog asks the question, Is it too late for Eric Bollinger's agriculture stock play?

At CapForge, the next Starbucks is a healthy restaurant business -- think Pinkberry's, or McTasty's. If you're looking for a market niche, be sure to read this post!

At Starting a Small Home Business, learn more about licensing as a path to wealth.

Public management and politics:

Public Diplomacy Watch comments on the creation of a new category of Fullbright fellowships in the post MTV diplomacy.

From Divided We Stand, United We Fall comes a thorough report on how investors respond to our current state of US politics, concluding that Investors still love divided government. (Don't miss the animation of the elephant cozying up to the donkey.)

Zenofeller thinks their may be a need for some policy regarding shopping websites, despite the manifest advantages of obsessive compulsive disorder.

Bob Vineyard at Insureblog asks what's in your wallet? with an interesting report on preferences for different forms of healthcare.

Forex Blog explores the question How does terrorism affect your investing?

That's all in the carnival of the capitalists for this week, folks! A host is still needed for next week, so if you are interested, read the hosting instructions over at Bizosphere and consider putting your hat in the ring.

Perhaps I was not that far off base in considering the iPhone as a rival for the Blackberry in my previous post about the iPhone vs. the Blackberry and the Treo. There was another article in the WSJ highlighting how much pressure business IT managers are getting from their employees. Many current Blackberry users want to ensure that they can buy a new iPhone on their own, and still access their Blackberry-based work email when they want. Whether Apple and Research in Motion will work out a patch that satisfies security concerns is an open question... I'm fortunate that the outcome of that negotiation will not affect my ability to use an iPhone for email.

I do still want to know what the monthly charge will be from AT&T for data charges, though. That would make me think... but not for very long. I hope there are still some iPhones available in Cupertino on Sunday, July 1!