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28 Sep 08

Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Palin and McCain’s Shotgun Marriage

By FRANK RICH
Published: September 6, 2008

SARAH PALIN makes John McCain look even older than he is. And he seemed more than willing to play that part on Thursday night. By the time he slogged through his nearly 50-minute acceptance speech — longer even than Barack Obama’s — you half-expected some brazen younger Republican (Mitt Romney, perhaps?) to dash onstage to give him a gold watch and the bum’s rush.

Still, attention must be paid. McCain’s address, though largely a repetitive slew of stump-speech lines and worn G.O.P. orthodoxy, reminded us of what we once liked about the guy: his aspirations to bipartisanship, his heroic service in Vietnam, his twinkle. He took his (often inaccurate) swipes at Obama, but, in winning contrast to Palin and Rudy Giuliani, he wasn’t smug or nasty.

The only problem, of course, is that the entire thing was a sham.

As is nakedly evident, the speech’s central argument, that the 72-year-old McCain will magically morph into a powerful change agent as president, is a non sequitur. In his 26 years in Washington, most of it with a Republican in the White House and roughly half of it with Republicans in charge of Congress, he was better at lecturing his party about reform than leading a reform movement. G.O.P. corruption and governmental dysfunction only grew. So did his cynical flip-flops on the most destructive policies of the president who remained nameless Thursday night. (In the G.O.P., Bush love is now the second most popular love that dare not speak its name.)

Even more fraudulent, if that’s possible, is the contrast between McCain’s platonic presentation of his personal code of honor and the man he has become. He always puts his country first, he told us: “I’ve been called a maverick.” If there was any doubt that that McCain has fled, confirmation arrived with his last-minute embrace of Sarah Palin.

www.nytimes.com/...07rich.html - Preview

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12 Mar 08

Change or Die | Fast Company

www.fastcompany.com/...open_change-or-die.html - Preview

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Changing the behavior of people isn't just the biggest challenge in health care. It's the most important challenge for businesses trying to compete in a turbulent world, says John Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor who has studied dozens of organizations in the midst of upheaval: "The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people." Those people may be called upon to respond to profound upheavals in marketplace dynamics -- the rise of a new global competitor, say, or a shift from a regulated to a deregulated environment -- or to a corporate reorganization, merger, or entry into a new business. And as individuals, we may want to change our own styles of work -- how we mentor subordinates, for example, or how we react to criticism. Yet more often than not, we can't.
Kotter has hit on a crucial insight. "Behavior change happens mostly by speaking to people's feelings," he says. "This is true even in organizations that are very focused on analysis and quantitative measurement, even among people who think of themselves as smart in an MBA sense. In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought."

17 Feb 07

Hey! TV writers, are you listening? | csmonitor.com

www.csmonitor.com/...p11s01-altv.html - Preview

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Whether the rounds of applause or boos are coming from studio executives, critics, fans, or even Aunt Martha, TV writers quickly
learn to listen to feedback. Never mind that one of the industry's favorite sayings is: "Nobody knows anything." For every
staggering hit – such as "Seinfeld," a show about nothing – there are just as many star-driven bombs. (Think: Matt LeBlanc
in "Joey," or Heather Locklear in "LAX.") TV writers have been dealing with critics since the dawn of the medium. But these
days everybody's a critic – the explosion of Internet blogs and fan websites has amplified viewers' reactions to everything
from a boring plotline to the death of a favorite character. In this glut of feedback, the creative minds behind a season's
lineup are finding they must learn which voices to heed and which to shut out.