March 18, 2024
Good morning!
7:20 AM CDT on purpose this morning… easing into it.
We have survived, in chronological order, Pi Day (no pie here!), The Ides of March, The Macro View of The Madnesses, and The Feast of Patrick… whew!
Wanna revive and restore your city’s center?
Host a few basketball games.
Minneapolis hosted a few games the last two weeks = $11.5 million in hotel revenue alone — nearly 100% of hotel rooms sold (9,991) — all those people gotta eat — keep it goin’!
- Hold on to your ash.
- Trees, that is — Green, White, Black, doesn’t matter as we’re told they are all equally susceptible to the dreaded Emerald Ash Borer.
- And, they is here, right here, and headed north. The varmints, that is.
- Remember those pesky varmints from Holland and what they did to millions of our Elms? Prepare to be devastated.
- Perhaps it’s part of our DNA from back in the Neanderthal days?
- We tend to notice change, even the slightest change, and almost always we are alarmed or concerned.
- We notice a flicker of light, movement, things not quite where you left them, a ransacked closet or drawer, our desktop rearranged = danger!
- The work place is changing, but from all the data thus far — since the plague started four years ago — many of the changes are small and/or short-lived.
- For example, men are working about 1.5% less than four years ago… women are working about 0.5% more — in terms of hours. (Lee, Etc., et al., 2024)
- Transformative? Probably not, but maybe it is if you’re hypersensitive to change; e.g., “we always did it this way.”
- There are trends that, IF they continue, might be transformative, but for the most part, it’s too soon to tell.
- Four day work week? Maybe. But, still 40 hours? Maybe, maybe not.
- By the way, who invented the forty-hours work week — or at least who was arguably the biggest influencer of it? (Answer down below if you don’t know.)
- One change that probably is here to stay? Flexibility
- Seems to be the #1 biggest desire from workers — and the biggest change — over the last four years.
- And, maybe close on its heels? More overt opportunities for growth, promotion, compensation, recognition… think about it.
- Seems to be the #1 biggest desire from workers — and the biggest change — over the last four years.
- Nothing surprising, but here are the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024:
- Texas, Phoenix, and Atlanta are creating and adding jobs like there is no tomorrow… an explosion of growth…
- … and the old rust belt, all the way to and including Chicago, is losing jobs — though at only about 10% of the rate those other places are adding them.
- The implosion is slower, torturous, more painful.
- Here is one other piece of good news. (Omeokwe, 2024)
- The gains made by thousands of lower income workers the last four years are likely to stick and not backslide, at least from a macro perspective; a rare gain.
- “Trust between people is not enough to make delegation work; leaders must also scrutinize the level of trust in the process…” (Humberd/ Latham)
- Transferring responsibilities to someone else often creates worry, friction, or unsatisfying results.
- Individuals and organizations can’t grow unless people learn how to effectively delegate both tasks and decision-making.
- Trust in people is nothing new… However, trust in organizational processes is an equally important but underappreciated consideration in delegation decisions.
- If the underlying organizational process that is central to the delegation is erratic or undeveloped, delegations tends to break down.
- And so, to what extent do I trust the people?
- And, to what extent do I trust the process? (We tend to NOT think about this.)
- Process is a measure of organizational functioning and speaks to whether a way of doing things delivers consistent, predictable, and actionable outcomes.
- This deserves lots of thought.
- We promised a little bit more on education; a volatile topic, we know.
- According to senior McKinsey partners, Jayaram and Sarakatsannis (Grading Global Education, 2024), Kenya is getting a fair return for its ~$1,000 per year per pupil (U.S. $)…
- … whereas for its ~$7,000 per year per pupil expenditure, Saudi Arabia gets a relatively poor return (460 HLO* vs. 400 HLO student score).
- Vietnam on the other hand gets a very good return for its investment of ~$3,000 per year per pupil (~520 HLO score).
- Is it money — or is it something else?
- Wanna dive into it? The solution gets you a Nobel Prize.
Global Education *Harmonized Learning Outcome – recognized internationally by UNESCO
