How’s this for an operating definition of outside-the-box thinking? You have the most to learn from people who are least like you. It’s an easy enough idea to understand, but an exceptionally hard one to act on. A career counselor who was interviewed for an article in this issue put it well: “We all have comfort zones several sizes too small.”
因此，将这个问题的公司作为我们扩大您的舒适区德赢提款域的尝试。我们的目标是向您介绍新朋友，新想法和新实践，并指出查看通常工作世界之外的世界的好处。如果我们是对的，那么等待创建的混合动力 - 融合了您的观点及其替代方法 - 比任何一方都可以单独生产的混合动力。
在我们的封面故事中获取信息，停止战斗！收听当今大多数公司内部的演讲，您会听到两代人的声音：二十多岁和四十多岁的人都以不信任，无视甚至不喜欢的方式互相看着对方。对于二十多岁的人来说，四十多岁的人在可悲的情况下是不酷的。对于41人来说，二十多岁的人令人沮丧地经验不足。这种冲突可以阻碍组织的成长，甚至将其拆散。
But listen carefully, and you’ll hear another sound out there: The fight is over! In some companies, the twenty-somethings and fortysomethings are bridging the generation gap to create a best-of-both-worlds hybrid. That hybrid blends one generation’s experience and another generation’s energy. Ultimately, all we are saying is, Give peace a chance!
You can read about a company that offers an example of the power of hybrid thinking in Roberts Rules the Road. Roberts Express Inc. is a fast company in a slow industry – a state-of-the-art trucking company that is as much in the information business as it is in the transportation business. Roberts Express has a passion for customer service – it has to, with customers like NASA depending on it to deliver sensitive cargo needed for Senator John Glenn’s return to space! But what Roberts Express really shows you is the way talent and technology cut across every industry and every job to reinvent the way we all work.
Want more evidence that the world has gone hybrid? In genius at work, you’ll meet Bill Strickland, president and CEO of the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and the Bidwell Training Center – two programs in Pittsburgh that are reinventing how we think about social change and urban revitalization. Think of Strickland’s work as “social entrepreneurship” – even the term is a hybrid, blending the worlds of philanthropy and activism with the worlds of capitalism and economic growth. And that’s precisely the approach that Bill Strickland is pioneering, coupling the artistry of a trained potter with the instincts of a natural deal-maker to save lives, build community, and produce change.
Finally, if you’re looking for one last example of how much we all can learn from those least like ourselves, check out Women’s Ways of Mentoring. Mentoring is, of course, an old subject – which is exactly the point. The way mentoring was practiced in the past ignored the rule of hybrid thinking. In fact, it tended to assume the opposite: The person who can teach you the most is someone most like you – except they’re a few years older and a few rungs higher up in the company. Women have brought a new look to the world of mentoring – call it “wo-mentoring” – and one of the first new rules is, the best match is a mismatch.
So, we hope you’ll use this issue to make some mismatches of your own – to apply ideas and practices from outside your comfort zone to problems in your work and life.