ARE:A Renewal Enterprise

Why You Need To Learn To Learn

We are living in exponential times:

There are 540,000 words in the English language. About 5x as many as during Shakespeare's lifetime. It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. (Did you Know?, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman)

What does this mean? For starters, it means this: You (and the organization you care about) need to learn more than facts these days. 

You need to learn how to learn. 

Lessons For Life & Work From The Dinner Table

(Posted by Tana Kjos) We are not sure when it happened, but children’s menus have taken over the restaurant landscape and our psyche as well. The messages they send have invaded every aspect of our lives:

• Don’t try anything new. 
• Don't try anything that looks weird or scary. 
• Take the path of least resistance (i.e., don't try to get other people to try anything new or scary, either!); you don't want trouble.
• Keep it painfully simple (even if it's boring and bland). 

An article in the New York Times this week got us thinking about the way children's menus are sucking the creativity and courage out of people. There's a reason our moms told us to “Try it. You’ll like it.” Their approach to the dinner table has shaped the way we do life and work. 

Here are four more helpful things we've learned from the dinner table:

7 Ways To Prevent Your Team From Leaving For Greener Pastures

Here's something you probably haven't heard many people say lately: I quit. According to researchers, however, that is about to change. In fact, the Wall Street Journal is reporting this week that some staffing firms are "preparing for a massive reshuffling of talent at all job levels in all industries." We believe them. Even at our little company, we get multiple inquiries every month from really talented people looking to make a move to come work with us. 

If this doesn't scare you, it should.