Thoughts and Perspectives on Occupy Wall Street

1) #OWS is a massive system that cannot and need not be easily understood. I don't agree with everything I see or read. There is no central body of leadership or canon of perspectives. Nor is there a standard code of conduct - I don't agree with violence, vandalism, or the other harmful activities that have occurred.

2) For me, the central message is that there is something very wrong with our democracy and current iteration of capitalism.

3) Wall Street is a symbol of our current iteration of capitalism.

4) Corporations are being targeted because there seems to be an imbalance in power. I don't think all corporations are bad. I don't think corporations should have equal opportunity of personhood under the law. The corporations that hold the majority of capital, those that are too big to fail, gain privileges not afforded to all citizens and all groups. Why do big banks get bailed out for making bad financial choices in a macrocosm when individuals making the same bad choices in the microcosm achieve no recourse.

5) I don't think the police are being targeted beyond protest for wanton abuses of power and unnecessary use of force.

6) I think that government and the corporate structures of capitalism are being held equally responsible. Again, Wall Street and our current iteration of capitalism has become the symbol for the injustices of a system that has failed to support equal opportunity for all.

7) I don't think the majority of protestors are asking for a hand out. I think the majority are asking for equal opportunity and justice towards those that deny this opportunity.

8) The demographics of this movement make this movement a cultural expression of frustration. Equal democrats and republicans. Equal men and women. All brackets of education are represented equally. All income brackets are represented equally. There are business people, veterans, active military personnel, politicians, mothers, blue collar workers, unions, and students.

‎9) This is not a movement of hippies, liberals, and socialists. This is a movement of Americans.

10) Capitalism as symbolized by our market has failed to provide the opportunities capitalism promotes because there is an imbalance in power. Point of case, our traditional remedies and guarantees have failed and this movement is the market in radical reorganization and correction

A Case of the Mondays

It’s inevitable. Monday morning in the elevator I hear a variety of the following:

“The weekend was too short.”

“I can’t believe it’s Monday.”

“I’d rather be home in bed.”

“This sucks. Do I really have to work already again?”

On Wednesday:

“Thank god it’s hump day”

“Just two days left.”

On Friday:

“It don’t come quick enough.”

And the classic, “Thank god it’s Friday.”

I love the weekend as much as anyone, of course. And, come Monday morning I am truly excited to go to work. I am excited about my projects. I am excited about what I am doing. And, what I’m doing is requiring me stretch and grow - I have to step up. My work is my practice.

I’ll step out on a limb and say, if you’re not excited about your work you’re not living your full potential nor are you living on your evolving edge.

Find out what the world needs from you and what you’re passion about. Do that and the Monday elevator ride is a joy not a problem.

Why Excel Analysts Aren’t Good Analysts

I love data. And I love data analysis. I also love spreadsheets. Making a great spreadsheet with complex formulas, multiple workbook links, and fancy macros brings me great joy. The simplicity that rests on rigorous complexity is very satisfying to me. There is nothing more comforting than knowing a function or an object will do exactly the same thing each time, and that the spreadsheet does exactly what you tell it to - the spreadsheet produces exactly what you want.

The predictability and consistency is near perfect.

As much as I appreciate perfect predictability, and as much as I value a solid body of data to make business decisions, I’ve really come to terms lately with the simple truth that life is not a spreadsheet and that the universe rarely functions logically, predictably, and consistently.

Of course there are trends and patterns. And of course making decisions with consideration of bodies of data analyzed and pivot-tabled to pristine perfect is a good idea. We can’t rely on just opinion, which is sadly what most do even in this day and age of pie charts and graphs.

The opportunity is to sense forward. Intuition is becoming an ever greater necessity in this day and age of the unpredictable and uncertain. And, after years in logic and predictability, our excel analysts (coupled with out dependency on them) have a lot of of catching up to do.

How I Raised My Klout Score By 40% In Four Days and What This Has To Do with Anything

I’ve been a bit obsessed lately with social media metrics. Partially because I’m a bit obsessed with metrics in general and partially because I’m a bit obsessed with the impact I have in the world. Impact is important to me. In certain terms, my life is about impact. And more specifically, intentional impact.

I’ve been playing with social media measurement tools the last few weeks. I have also created a few of my own social media measurement tools (specifically around blog posts, Facebook posts, and Twitter updates). I’ve been in an analytic wonderland which has been fantastic.

There is a key component of this wonderland that I’ve grown fond of - Klout.com. I’ve played with Klout a bit before, but have never spent much time with it. Over the last five days, I’ve checked my Klout rate often - like, six times a day. As I said, obsessive (and probably compulsive).

Checking in with Klout has added a loop into my social media engagement process: it’s inspired me to engage more. And in the last four days, my clout score has gone from 31 to 43. Actually, scratch that, I just checked again and it’s now 44. That’s a 41.935% increase!

Klout also says that I’m influential in yoga, spirituality, moms, and culture. I’m a bit bummed I’m not influential in business and social development. I’m a bit confused about why I’m influential in moms, but assume it’s because @jessicagottlied and I reply sometimes.

Having such a substantial increase in just a few days hasn’t been difficult, challenging or mysterious. The increase in my social media clout, at least on Twitter, came down to a simple thing: engagement.

Specifically:

• I posted more
• I replied more
• And I retweeted more

That’s it. I simply became more engaged with those around me.

This got me thinking more about impact: how active am I with those around in other environments? Am I offering the same engagement, attention and value to those I sit with face-to-face? (My fiancee would probably say no).

The environment of life is more challenging than the environment of twitter. Twitter is fairly linear and it transcends time to a certain degree - I can look backwards at tweets to catch up. Secondly, here’s not a face-to-face Klout scoring system I can reference.

Given my experience the last few days, I am now more inspired to offer value face-to-face in the same way I do on Twitter. In walking life, this looks like:

• Being present and participating with those around me (no mobile device distraction)
• Responding which requires real listening. A lot of listening, and
• Reflect what others or saying and doing

What’s your impact?

The Yoga of Business (And The Business of Yoga)

In a recent dialogue with Yoga Teacher and Ayurveda Practitioner Cate Stillman we worked with a group of teachers, healers, and visionaries to unravel the challenges of being a visionary sole proprietor, and delved into the opportunity of operating a vision business.

From Cate's Blog:

“Getting over the illusion that business is non-yogic, non-spiritual, I think is one of our next frontiers in the evolution of yoga.” – Kris Nelson

Most yogis don’t have a goal of making a enough money to have a sizable impact. Most yoga teachers I know would be quite pleased with themselves if they can buy organic kale, dark chocolate and travel to study with their chosen teacher. What is the impact of our yoga teaching community investing more in their yoga than in their business planning & business skills? This is one of my favorite conversations. And the person I go to to have this favorite conversation is Kris Nelson, who doesn’t hold back from addressing skills we need to cultivate to make a bigger difference.

To listen to the dialogue:

Your Business is Yoga (with Kris Nelson)