They do, of course (see links, below*).

Can you harness a significant amount of that power, skillfully and systematically, to build your career and business, in an economy of complexity and information overload?

Can you guide your team to use that power? Can you direct this capacity towards the things that super-computers can’t do: innovation, effective communication, relationship-building, collaboration and results?

Brains are wonderful, but they have two drawbacks.

1. They don’t come with a users’ manual. There is a widespread scarcity of training for leveraging their real capacity. This is serious, because thinking tools are needed for single users, or for those who need to think effectively in collaboration with others.

2. Power in any form is intimidating. Brains are very powerful, and success creates expectations.

Those who think well often acquire new responsibilities for problem solving, conflict resolution, project success etc.

If you have a good toolbox of thinking strategies, you may be expected to guide others through complexity, or show them how to step up to 21^st century challenges.  This can interfere with hobbies, community service or relaxing on the sofa in front of TV. There are many people who are not really interested in learning how to think well, because their comfort zone would be disturbed by their true abilities.

*1: Video: Your amazing brain: http://www.ted.com/talks/henry_markram_supercomputing_the_brain_s_secrets.html

2: Read: We have no computers today that can begin to approach the awesome power of the human mind: http://insidehpc.com/2009/03/12/even-supercomputers-not-yet-close-to-the-raw-power-of-human-brain/

3: Browse: Google “human brain power supercomputer teraflops.”

Tampa, Fla. – The National Association of Tourism and Conventions (NATC-TV) covered the 4th International Business Summit that was held on March 11th here in Tampa Bay. The event bought together nine multicultural Chambers of Commerce, Coca-Cola, the Tampa Port Authority, and other corporate sponsors. The NATC knows it witnessed something that will inspire the world to collaborate and cooperate with Tampa Bay’s business community,  not only to prevent chaos but create a beloved community. In short, the NATC knows it witnessed a model for unlocking the potential of the global economy.

Therefore, on Friday March 26th 2010 at 7pm, the NATC will be broadcasting this event on www.natc-us.com so that the world can see its vision reflected in the summit.

The NATC says the reason why it is sharing the exclusive coverage with the world with so much passion and conviction is because in times of great racial and international conflict along with explosive economic tensions at home and abroad, the world needs to see overwhelming American leadership and direction. The International Business Summit in Tampa Bay was an example of how American business can be a symbol of liberty and prosperity throughout the world.

Moreover, the NATC asks itself with will happen to Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, corporate America, and the commercial real estate industry if all Americans and the rest of the world didn’t see what happened in the summit. The answer to this question was so frightening the NATC said to itself it had better share what happened in Tampa Bay and do it in a hurry.

That’s why everyone should go to www.natc-us.com on Friday, March 26th to view the highlights of the annual International Business Summit. Let’s all see how we can reshape America’s potentially great business institutions to create more of a people centered global economy instead of a profit centered global economy.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Donald Hallback
813-625-0103
Email Donald@natc-us.com
Website www.natc-us.com

• British-American Business Chamber: www.babctampabay.org
• Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce: www.cacctb.com
• Chinese-American Chamber of Commerce: www.ccctb.com
• French-American Business Council: www.framco.org
• International Business Board: http://ctr.usf.edu/ibb/
• Indo-US Chamber of Commerce: www.indo-us.org
• Tampa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: www.tampahispanicchamber.com
• Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce. www.paccoftampabay.com
• Russian-American Association: http://russianamericanassociation.org
• Scandinavian  Trade Association: www.scandbalt.org
• Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce of Tampa Bay:www.tcctf.com

Preamble

Diversity is defined in a broadest sense by TBIBC. The bi-national Chambers of Commerce and Trade Associations primarily bring the resource of (a) bi-national life experience and (b) new or wider connectedness to the West Central Florida economy.

TBIBC believes that differentness of all types is an economic resource. Diversity of gender or thought style, hobby or generation, occupation or religion, disability or nationality, language or personality type, veteran or parental status, industry background or learning orientation, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, networks or cultural knowledge… each different orientation, set of life experiences or perspectives offers wealth for our economy.

Organization Name: _________________________________________________________________
Contact Person: ____________________________________________________________________
Email: __________________________________________________________________________
Tel (Office): ___________________ Tel (Cell)___________________ Fax: ______________________
Address: _________________________________________________________________________
City: _________________________________________ ZIP: _______________________________
Preferred Chamber Contact(s): _______________________________________ (Not required to win)

The Selection Committee is looking for Diversity, Collaboration and resulting Prosperity.

Diversity

Selection Criterion: Nominees looked for, supported and leveraged human differences as an effective business and economic resource.
The Selection Committee is interested specifically in any actions that took people or organizations out of their existing comfort zone(s), towards new behaviors or systems, using diversity (of any type) as problem solving or growth strategy.

Evidence of diversity might include:

• a diverse staff – in terms of gender, race, culture and ethnicity, national origin, religion, language, gender orientation, veteran status, thought style etc.
• diverse management – if the organization is large enough, this diversity will be seen at varying levels of responsibility.
• a relaxed atmosphere around the issue of diversity and inclusion.
• an awareness of the value of differentness and of the road blocks that differentness can create in economies. This will show in systematic use of strategies such as small or minority business supplier programs, mentoring of minority talent (e.g. women, racial minorities and unusual thinking styles), soft landing programs for new US residents, training in understanding the cultural differences between occupational groups, divisional, organizational and regional cultures, multi-national cultural preparation for those visiting other cultures on business etc.
• support for community projects that promote the acceptance and celebration of differentness from an early age (e.g. www.communitytampabay.org)
• creation of a community matrix or environment that is welcoming to difference (e.g. support for soft landing programs, development of an environment where diverse people and communities may thrive etc.)
• other evidence of diversity in this category.

Concrete examples:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Please feel free to add additional pages or evidence in support of your application.

Collaboration

Nominees encouraged collaboration between diverse people or groups to achieve business or economic objectives. The Selection Committee is interested specifically in on-going or systemic examples of collaboration, or successful culture change where collaboration is becoming (or has become) entrenched in an organizational culture. If management is consciously driving growth towards collaborative systems or processes, or supporting a collaborative culture where this is appropriate for their business and industry, this meets the criterion of Collaboration.

Evidence of collaboration might include:

• the emerging of new products and/or new services, suitable for either existing or new customers,
• process and systems improvements that arise from multiple sources within the organization,
• an innovative culture,
• easy cross-functional communication,
• openness to new ideas, irrespective of their origin,
• high employee engagement,
• a strong employment brand,
• low staff turnover relative to the rest of the organization’s industry.
• other appropriate signs of a collaborative environment.

Concrete examples:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Please feel free to add additional pages or evidence in support of your application.

Prosperity

Nominees achieved real measurable results, in terms of top-line revenue or cost-effectiveness (bottom-line profitability) as a result of their active investment in diversity and collaboration.
Evidence of prosperity arising from collaboration and diversity might include:
• new or increased revenue streams from innovative products or services, or from the development of new markets by innovative and collaborative processes,
• new or increased revenue streams developed by collaborative and innovative marketing, or as a result of collaborative networking, especially through diverse demographics,
• bottom line profit increases as a result of cost-effectiveness. This may be because of more efficient processes, or systems improvements, brought about by innovation and collaboration. It may reflect improved productivity resulting from team engagement, improved understanding and cross-functional communication
• improved productivity and execution from attracting and retaining talented people (because of being seen as an innovative, collaborative and diverse organization)
• cost-effectiveness from lower staff turnover (but should be resulting from high employee engagement, not from recession fears)
• products or services that make the region more attractive to diverse demographics.

Concrete examples:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Please feel free to add additional pages or evidence in support of your application.

Appendix: Further examples/ideas

Diversity

• All project teams are pre-assessed to ensure sufficient diversity of thought style.
• Diverse teams use regular process analysis to ensure that minority members (members of minority ethnic, gender, unusual thought-style groups etc) are heard. (This example illustrates that “minority” simply means statistical minority- e.g. in a predominantly female group, a minority group simply means men, who bring a different set of life experiences, world views and assumptions to the group.)
• Sales teams have concrete, specific annual multi-cultural community networking goals, and training in cultural diversity.
• The organization reviews the local soft-landing program when conducting an innovation brain-storm.
• A company with a foreign branch, manufacturer or call center operation sets goals to meet with the relevant bi-national Chamber and attend events to understand their international colleagues. (This example illustrates that the award is not only about Chambers and Trade Associations that are part of TBIBC.)

Collaboration

• The organization established or made good, economically-beneficial use of a supplier diversity program, perhaps with small, local, women-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned etc businesses.
The metrics are in line with, or above, the benchmark 7% savings achieved by NASA, Disney etc.
• Projects were measurably more successful than previously, as collaboration and communication improved between different business levels, silos, regions and/or divisions.
• The organization reached out to other industry players, perhaps through regional structures, to find ways to grow in ways that were not possible alone.
• Deliberate collaborative efforts have led to organizational rebranding, new products, new services, process improvements, staff engagement and retention, or other successes.

Prosperity

• An organization in the Tampa Bay/Lakeland/Sarasota/Bradenton region worked with a bi-national resident or bi-national resident group, to establish successful trade, manufacturing, innovation or any other cost-saving or revenue producing initiative that would not have been possible without collaborating across differences.
• A cross-functional group in an organization has measurably improved a process, solved a problem or worked together to create a new service/product or marketing campaign. Their different resources (perhaps including networks) were combined in a way that achieved unforeseen, positive results.
These results are visible in ‘hard’ income increases, real cost reductions or other measures such as share value, company expansion, market share, job creation etc.

Please contact glynis[@]c-psolutions.com, or the presidents or administrations of any of the Chambers if you need assistance in applying for consideration for the award.

Please note that the judges’ decision is final, and the TBIBC Board cannot enter into any discussion about the award choice after the final judgment is made.

Gabrielsen’s focus has not been on gender equality. His interest is in “the fact that diversity is a value in itself, that it creates wealth.” He is part of a movement has led to a law that requires all listed Norwegian companies to have at least 40% of women on their boards.

Despite much outcry about the law, research findings show that companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams perform better financially than groups with the lowest female representation. The Norwegians have therefore made diversification mandatory, on the basis that  increased profits can be, and are, achieved through diverse boards, and that a company’s primary responsibility is to act in the best interests of its shareholders by maximizing profits.

One board chairman commented: “Now we have much better preparation before board meetings. You don’t see Board members opening their working papers in the elevator on the way to the meetings. The quality of decision making has also really improved.”

A Norwegian researcher, Mariel Hood, has done research to show that female participation has also created younger, more educated and more innovative boards.

In New York, Ilene H. Lang, a Harvard MBA, has shown how a lack of gender diversity hurts business, and how profitability increases with gender-diverse management teams and boards. Her organization has recorded jumps of 34% to 60% in profits, in  transparent and verifiable studies, when gender diverse teams have been created.

Peter Collett, a British psychologist, has studied diverse-gender teams, and analyzed why they are more effective.  His findings shows that mixed gender teams are more collaborative, broader thinking, take big picture positions  (as opposed to getting into minutiae), and regularly review contextual factors. His research shows that such teams are much more likely to encourage contributions from all group members than are single-gender team.

There is one limiting factor when bringing women into management teams or onto boards. A single woman is less effective on bottom-line metrics. It is much more effective to bring several women into the group/ This avoids isolating, stereotyping and therefore limiting this economic source of profitability and wealth. The women do not need to have board experience to create the wealth results. Hence the Norwegian legislation.

Sweden is in the process of introducing legislation to follow Norway’s example.

For details of numbers of women directors in various countries, follow the European thought leadership updates, e.g. http://www.egonzehnder.com/global/thoughtleadership/hottopic/id/78402633/article/id/11900485

Only a small percentage of our workforce are trained in the skills needed to manage information overload, and to communicate effectively by “e-writing.”  We have developed this relatively new form of writing to control the avalanche of text in business, and to:

- get responses, drive action and results,

- build collaboration and teamwork, facilitate collaboration etc.

Studies show two trends amongst those who can both e-write, and do the thinking work that lies behind good writing.

a) Good skills in writing for the 21st business environment save knowledge workers 30 – 90 minutes per day, and improve productivity, service, effectiveness and teamwork  quickly and easily.

b) Those who can write (and think – because writing is the result of thinking) are significantly more successful in their careers. They are more employable, climb the ‘career ladder’ more quickly, earn significantly more than those with similar qualifications and are much more likely to reach positions of major responsibility.

Who is likely to have text-email-information overload problems?

1 – People who report being pressured, “doing more with less, and struggling to be more productive.

2 – Those whose phone calls often go to voicemail.

3 – People who cannot attend meetings or even training – even on-line meetings. They are so pressured for time that they do things like call in to meetings from nearby offices, so that they can get work done while still being “present.”

4- People who work odd hours, in different places and time zones, or while traveling or telecommuting. Engineers or safety inspectors who lack good writing skills may burn out as their reports eat into personal time.

5 – Project managers and those on task-forces. Tasks are more complex, so there are often many people involved in projects, email goes to multiple people at once, or there are multiple documents loaded onto central servers. The degree of overload shows in misunderstandings, project delays or other problems.

6 – Organizations with multi-generational employee profiles (i.e. a growing Generation X and Y employee base) often struggle with mountains of text. The GenX/Y text-based culture often intimidates the Boomers. Gen Ys are often intimidated by their inexperience in beginning a task from a pile of text, or preparing for a meeting from preparation documents. (The generational cohort may need a “pre-meeting” to go over the meeting documents, and to work collaboratively to process the documents into a mental framework. Boomers are more likely to send out the meeting documents, and struggle through them alone, to be prepared for a meeting.)

How can you see systemic e-writing problems, or assess the business impact of skim-reading and multi-tasking?

You can assume that most people are overloaded with text-based information, and “doing more with less.” Most people skim-read, usually while multi-tasking. You will notice that:

7 – Hours of careful writing and graphics often go unread, or achieve patchy results.

8 -  New employees may produce time-consuming, careful writing and document design. They later start banging out the quick, low-quality communications, that are often unplanned, unclear, incomplete or ineffective.

9 – Email is used as a low-cost, low-quality “write and hit send” way to communicate. The results is mis-communication or communications are ignores as irrelevant.

10- Weak E-writing impacts relationships: you will see casualties such as trust, collaboration and teamwork.

11- Communication lacks effectiveness: you will see a lack of responsiveness, cooperation, action and results.

Good skills in writing for the 21st Business environment save knowledge workers 30 – 90 minutes per day, and improve productivity, service, effectiveness and teamwork  quickly and easily. CPS open courses are available in Tampa and at USF Lakeland. In-house and custom courses are available anywhere.

The new writing skills gap:
21st century business people do not need 20th century “business letter writing skills.” They need writing solutions that make the most productive use of their time, and give them solid skills to:

• Communicate clearly-thought, well-structured, complete and accurate messages, quickly and effectively,
• Elicit responses (e.g. encourage replies or get cooperative assistance),
• Drive action,
• Build relationships and trust, even when written contact is the only communication channel,
• Maintain collaboration and teamwork.

Open and in-house CPS workshops:
CPS offers one-day scheduled open workshops Most open workshops are scheduled at the Centre Club, Westshore, Tampa. There are also workshops in Lakeland at USF Polytechnic.
In-house workshops are available, and can be customized as needed. Multi-national/multi-lingual organizations might find a different CPS workshop more suitable. This workshop is called Communicating over Differences and Distances.

Funding: Funding is available for groups of 10 or more on open courses, and for all in-house courses. Some problems exist in certain non-profit situations. It is especially easy to get funding for non-profit healthcare organizations.

Lakeland: This program, and other CPS programs, are available through USF Polytechic in Lakeland. Please contact nboyer[@]poly.usf.edu and support the growth of your local business economy and educational programs. There is no price difference, but Glynis is basically staff here, so most of your payment will go towards building Lakeland educational resources.

Further information:
The business case for 21st writing skills is discussed further at: http://c-psolutions.com/2009/07/the-business-case-for-writing-skills/.
There is a quick and easy sign-up page for Tampa workshops at: http://c-psolutions.com/category/workshops/. Please sign up for Lakeland courses directly with USF.

Please contact glynis@c-psolutions.com or Glynis  813-598-9184 (direct) or  Hilton 813-598-9180 (direct) or Hilton@c-psolutions.com. Hilton will help with funding requests. We look forward to working with you, and your team members.

IBS is in its fourth year, as an annual event that brings together the diverse communities of Tampa Bay to build economic prosperity for the Tampa Bay/Suncoast area. It is organized by the Bi-national Chambers of Commerce and Trade Associations, including the British, Caribbean, Chinese, French, Hispanic, Indo, Philippine, Scandinavian-Baltic, Swedish, etc. Please see www.ibsummit.org.

IBS provides three tracks for education (the Collaboration, Diversity and Prosperity tracks) and is relevant to both local and international businesses.

Local businesses benefit from the valuable opportunities that lie in our diverse community. Support, learning, resource contacts and information are exchanged, and IBS creates connections – e.g. purchasing agents from many major small business and diversity supplier programs come to IBS to meet new vendors.

More globally-oriented business people can explore paths to new business ideas and prospects. Local partners  can provide international connections, cultural knowledge, business mentoring or partnerships for international business people and projects.

Major events in the IBS day are:
1.    The plenary opening and breakfast. The Mayor of Tampa, Pam Iorio, has confirmed that she will deliver the Summit welcome. The Plenary Keynote Address, by Dr. Rengen Li, Manager of Global Supplier Diversity and Global Procurement and Trading, of the CocaCola Company, will cover the subject of how small and medium sized businesses can do business with large corporations.
2.    Nine breakout learning sessions (two sessions before lunch, one session after lunch).
3.    The lunch – Brent Willis will be the keynote speaker.
4.    The speed networking (very popular).
5.    The International Panel. This is led by Dr Maria Crummett, head of the USF International School of Business. The panel includes Louis Miller (CEO Tampa International Airport), Jim Pyburn (Head of Port of Tampa), Frank Hibbard and other transport and transit experts.
7.    The Awards and Cultural Reception, including open bar, heavy hors d’oeuvres and cultural entertainment. This will include final remarks on the Summit by Gene Gray and Mike Meidel, Economic Directors of Hillsborough and Pinellas.

The continuing theme of IBS is prosperity, through collaboration and diversity.

2010 focus: Putting Tampa Bay on the Map.

IBS is a full-day event, held in beautiful, graceful surroundings. Higgins Hall has ample parking, and our caterers provide excellent food, beverages, elegant linens, service and flawless organization.

IBS attendee numbers: We expect 400 – 550 people at the 2010 event.

Sponsorships. The Lunch,  International Panel, and The Cultural Reception and Awards Sponsorships are taken.  There are still a  sponsorships available. Recognition sponsorships begin at $500.

Our thanks to the current confirmed 2010 sponsors, including:

Premier Sponsor: UK Trade and Investment. Gold Sponsors: Brighthouse, Fowler White, Nielsen, Ogletree Deakins. Silver Sponsors:  Tampa General Hospital, Ikea, Coca Cola, Partner Sponsors: SHRM, Tech Data. (If you have confirmed since the last update, please accept my apologies.)

The larger sponsorships include:

• A five to eight minute presentation at the start of the sponsored event.
• 6-8 full day tickets for staff and clients, including breakfast, all workshops, lunch, speed networking, and the Cultural Reception with open bar.
• If desired, an exhibition table to promote business objectives during the Summit, advertising banner etc.
• Sponsor Company logo and details, links etc appear on the IBS website, in the program and in all IBS marketing. A write-up also appears in the program (size depends on sponsorship level).
• Sponsor Company logo displayed throughout the summit.
• A complete list of all attendees at the Summit, and their contact details.
• Invitations to Bi-National Chamber events throughout the year, as we strive to promote our sponsors in the bi-national and diverse community.
• Year-round time with connected members of the various Chambers, so that we can help to build your connections in the Tampa Bay area.
• Assistance with your entry for the Brighthouse-IBS Collaboration Diversity Prosperity Awards.

There are many photos of IBS 2009 on-line, and pictures of Higgins Hall on the Hall website. www.stlawrence.org/higginshall/gallery/

Contact: Potential sponsors and media personnel can contact Hilton Ross-Munro at hilton[@]hiltonrossmunro.com or Glynis at Glynis[@]c-psolutions.com. Hilton’s cell phone is 813-598-9180.

To contact the IBS Board President: Grant Petersen of Ogletree Deakins. Joanne L. Cornell is his Assistant and International Paralegal: 813.289.1247 Office or 813.221.7243 Direct Dial. Email joanne.cornell[@]ogletreedeakins.com.

Sincerely,
Glynis Ross-Munro
Secretary
International Business Summit
www.ibsummit.org
813-598-9184

Today, international studies of managers who develop and implement operational plans show that the following key competencies are required for this process:

Planning                                   Risk management
Delegating                                Networking
Involving others                         Innovating
Consulting                                 Communicating
Influencing and persuading         Monitoring
Evaluating                                 Setting objectives
Building consensus

These reflect the entwined issues of complexity and collaboration.

When seeking a competitive advantage, many opportunities for improvements exist in pieces, with different people, in different parts of a business. These may be the pieces of better customer satisfaction, higher quality, cross-functional process tightening, problem solving, innovation and internal entrepreneurship.

One piece of the puzzle presents itself to one person or team. Another piece of information or insight can only be seen at another level of the organization (perhaps where a specific job is being done).

Management may be distanced (by time, place or communication) from other managers or employees who hold key pieces of information or insights. All the pieces, together, can make significant differences to the business process.

The organization that finds many of the pieces does better than its competitors. It finds the productivity, effectiveness, creativity, and employee engagement that are the leading edge of profitability, often by using collaborative processes during operational planning.**

**CPS offers custom programs in both operational planning and internal entrepreneurship. All programs are eligible for state funding.

CQ, or collaborative intelligence, combines the ability to think well, and to think collaboratively with other people. It is a key to innovation, corporate earnings, individual wealth and national success in the 21st Century.

CQ is also a core factor in managing knowledge workers, nationally and internationally. High collaborative intelligence often includes skills for managing different generations, as different cohorts interact differently, share knowledge in different ways, and have differing ways of using technology.

CQ often has hard skills components too. These include the ability to write clearly and quickly, and to use communication technology easily and confidently. For instance, your business may have a very valuable,  knowledgeable, and highly-skilled thinker. This person might, however be a Boomer or older GenXer who is seriously under-performing simply because s/he lacks training and confidence in using in web conferencing or use of wikis, on-line project  management etc.

CQ and other ‘New Economy” skills developments are well-funded by local government programs in the Tampa Bay counties. CPS is ethically committed to help any company seeking funding for either “new” and “old” economy skills training or career retooling, whether CPS is a supplier of the training for the required skills or not. Please email glynis[@]c-psolutions or call me at 813-598-9184.

Yet they are all one story. Someone, somewhere is saying “me! give me more… and more… and more”. There is a never-ending stream of takers, hands stretched out for more. Often, when the accounting is done, the hands belong to people who own more houses than they can live in, more cars than they can drive, more clothes than they can wear… but they want more.

It seems self-evident to me that these takers and grabbers do not understand economics. They confuse prosperity, which brings long-term comfort and security, with riches, which guarantee little except fear.

Prosperity is always community based. Personal prosperity and success require a safe, affordable and well-organized environment that supports other competent people, who can be partners in maintaining prosperity.

This type of environment includes schools, workforce education, reliable infrastructure, healthcare, transport systems, law and order etc. This all costs money, but when many can contribute to the economic base, the cost burden can be shared in a manageable way.

In a prosperous community, people know that it is in their interest to spend time and talents to have a good, secure life, but also worthwhile to invest in the well-being of their economic area.

The opposite approach, of “gimme gimme, more more” results in some people grabbing as much of the economic pie as possible, and holding on to it fiercely. Those who succeed in grabbing as much as possible (irrespective of need or ethics), then experience fear. Will someone grab it back? Is there a new tax, a litigator, a desperate thief, or a conman around the next corner?

All energy is then spent on defending one’s piece of the pie, rather than making the whole pie bigger, or the community base more prosperous.

There are two important casualties of the grab-as-much-as-I-can philosophy. These are trust and collaboration. This is especially significant because the new economy is being built largely by those who are willing to share knowledge and creativity.

Many problems today are complex, and demand a high degree of collaborative intelligence, and mutual give and take. The grabbers-and-runners short-circuit the whole process of innovation and growth, and make it much harder for others to stay the course in collaborative and trusting relationships.

Sometimes, I find that people recoil from helpful collaboration. They’ve been bitten before, and are looking for the catch, waiting for the snake to appear in the open hand offering ideas and support.

I’m not sure what we most need to learn: economics, ethics or history. Perhaps all three. But we need to learn it soon, and we also need to find some way of embedding the lesson in our community.