Reading List
Global Gender Gap Index 2013
No Country On Earth Has Closed The Gender Gap, But A Few Are Coming Close
Urbanization and the evolution of cities across 10,000 year
About 10,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers, aided by rudimentary agriculture, moved to semi-permanent villages and never looked back. With further developments came food surpluses, leading to commerce, specialization and, many years later with the Industrial Revolution, the modern city. Vance Kite plots our urban past and how we can expect future cities to adapt to our growing populations.
The Real Work of Knowledge Management
We really do live in the Information Age, a revolutionary era when the availability of information is changing everything. Nothing is the same since the world was networked together and information became instantly accessible. Information has destroyed boundaries, borders, boxes, distance, roles, and rules. The availability of information has dissolved the walls of repressive governments, secretive executives, and is creating the greatest mass empowerment of all time.
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%)
Women in parliaments are the percentage of parliamentary seats in a single or lower chamber held by women.
Irregular payments and bribes
Average score across the five components of the following Executive Opinion Survey question: In your country, how common is it for firms to make undocumented extra payments or bribes connected with (a) imports and exports; (b) public utilities; (c) annual tax payments; (d) awarding of public contracts and licenses; (e) obtaining favorable judicial decisions. In each case, the answer ranges from 1 (very common) to 7 (never occurs).
Introduction to Knowledge Management
A brief introduction to the basic elements of knowledge management for non-practitioners interested in understanding the subject.
The Countries That Can Best Handle Change, From Earthquakes To Technology Revolutions
Short-term shocks, like natural disasters, and long-term shifts can both undermine a nation's economy. What happens next depends on the country. Wealth helps--but it's a lot more complicated than that.
San Francisco Invents The Tech Chamber Of Commerce
A group of tech companies is banding together not only to help lobby for their interests with the city government, but also to offer their expertise in hopes of making the city work better.
The Bechdel test
The Bechdel test asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Many contemporary works fail this test of gender bias.
Are You Weird if You Play as the Opposite Sex?
Are you weird if you're a guy who likes to play as a female avatar? Or a woman who likes to play as a male character? It's not unusual for gamers to play avatars that look nothing like them, often even playing as the opposite GENDER! But why do we decide to do this? Is it about winning? How other players treat you? Or is it a reflection of identity? The anonymity of videogames makes them safe spaces to explore gender options. At the same time, gender swapping can allow you to use to your advantage the sexism already in existence. So, is it really that weird to gender swap? Watch the episode to find out more!
Are Bronies Changing the Definition of Masculinity?
You might assume that the animated TV series "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" is for little girls, but Bronies would beg to differ. Bronies are adult men who sincerely LOVE the show, and aren't afraid to admit it. Many people are baffled, even angered, by Brony culture. With their unabashed appreciation for "My Little Pony", Bronies are challenging our perception of gender roles, which may be more fluid than previously thought!
Turning Around Negative Attitudes
Given the current economic environment and air of uncertainty that persists, negative employee attitudes and beliefs that tend to surface during these times need to be addressed because they can create a culture of failure. These attitudes which can typically be linked to organizational trauma, like down-sizing, budget restraints or workload increases, also can evolve over time with no apparent reason. The negative organization is characterized by increased complaining, a focus on reasons why things can't be done, and what seems to be a lack of hope that things will improve.
The Learning Executive
Jim Collins, the celebrated author of several best selling business books, penned an article for Inc. magazine more than a decade ago about becoming a learning person that seems even more relevant in today's constantly changing global environment.
Activate Your Entrepreneurial Leadership
Martin Zwilling is a veteran startup mentor, executive, author, and angel investor who has often stated that creating and building a business is not a one-man show, even though it usually springs from the mind and determination of one person. But taking an idea to a business success requires many people to work together effectively, and that requires entrepreneurial leadership.
Unleashing the Ideavirus
Unleashing the Ideavirus was Seth Godin’s 3rd book (after eMarketing and Permission Marketing) and follows on from Permission Marketing. In Permission Marketing Godin explained how to turn strangers into friends and friends into customers. The book was based on marketing to people who had shown an interest in your product/service.
Use a Power Hour to Take Care of Nagging Tasks
Taking care of recurring tasks is usually just a matter of building a habit around them. But what about those little one-off tasks that aren't urgent, but still sit there in your to-do list waiting their chance to get done? Try using a "power hour."
10 characteristics of a great KM Sponsor
Depending on your KM strategy, sponsorship is always important and often absolutely critical to the success of a knowledge change programme – and let’s face it, most of our work as practitioners is all about creating change and making it stick. So here’s what I learned from my various Change Management gurus about the ten characteristics of effective sponsors.
What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge Management Consultant, Chris Collison defines knowledge management, and explains the breadth of tools and techniques which underpin this discipline.
Knowledge Management: An organisation's weapon of choice
Knowledge Management as a strategic partner in developing solutions to strategic challenges, such as competitive advantage, sustainability, resilience and adaptive capacity
Why You Need a Daily Prioritization Meeting
We live in a culture of urgency, constantly throwing our emotional energy into the latest public scandal, emergency, or cat video. Most of us work in always-switched-on companies where everything feels urgent. Call backs, emails, and meetings are wrought with peak energy. How quickly do you expect a response to an email or changes to a report?
Sheryl Sandberg to Teachers: ‘You Are Training Future Leaders’
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg -- the author of Lean In -- addresses teachers at an annual education conference called Edmodocon. The book Lean In is focused on encouraging women to pursue their ambitions, and changing the conversation from what we can’t do to what we can do. LeanIn.Org is the next chapter. We are committed to offering women the ongoing inspiration and support to help them achieve their goals. If we talk openly about the challenges women face and work together, we can change the trajectory of women and create a better world for everyone.
The Aesthetics of Reading
A study by psychologist Kevin Larson. who spent his career researching typefaces and recently conducted a landmark study at MIT about how font and layout affect our emotions.
Knowledge management system
Knowledge Management System (KM System) refers to a (generally IT based) system for managing knowledge in organizations for supporting creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information. It can comprise a part (neither necessary nor sufficient) of a Knowledge Management initiative.
Learning about Measuring Advocacy and Policy Change: Are Baselines always Feasible and Desirable?
This paper captures some recent challenges that emerged from establishing a baseline for an empowerment and accountability fund. It is widely accepted that producing a baseline is logical and largely uncontested – with the recent increased investment in baselines being largely something to be welcomed. This paper is therefore not a challenge to convention, but rather a note of caution: where adaptive programming is necessary, and there are multiple pathways to success, then the ‘baseline endline’ survey tradition has its limitations. This is particularly so for interventions which seek to alter complex political-economic dynamics, such as between citizens and those in power.
Monitoring and evaluating civil society partnerships
Key findings: This report lists and describes tools used by NGOs to monitor the quality of their relationships with partner organisations. It begins with a brief analysis of the types of tools and their approaches, then describes each tool. This paper focuses on tools which monitor the partnership relationship itself, rather than the impact or outcomes of the partnership. While there is substantial general literature on partnerships, there is less literature on this particular aspect.
The Science of Evaluation: A Realist Manifesto
Evaluation researchers are tasked with providing the evidence to guide programme building and to assess its outcomes. As such, they labour under the highest expectations - bringing independence and objectivity to policy making. They face huge challenges, given the complexity of modern interventions and the politicised backdrop to all of their investigations. They have responded with a huge portfolio of research techniques and, through their professional associations, have set up schemes to establish standards for evaluative inquiry and to accredit evaluation practitioners. A big question remains. Has this monumental effort produced a progressive, cumulative and authoritative body of knowledge that we might think of as evaluation science? This is the question addressed by Ray Pawson in this sequel to Realistic Evaluation and Evidence-based Policy. In answer, he provides a detailed blueprint for an evaluation science based on realist principles.
What Each of Facebook’s 51 New Gender Options Means
For ten years, the social network limited billions of people identifying as either male or female. Now there are dozens of terms to pick from. Here’s how to understand them all.
Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Controlled Trials
‘Test, Learn, Adapt’ is a paper which the Behavioural Insights Team is publishing in collaboration with Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science, and David Torgerson, Director of the University of York Trials Unit. The paper argues that Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), which are now widely used in medicine, international development, and internet-based businesses, should be used much more extensively in public policy.
Behavioral Design: A New Approach to Development Policy
Successful development programs rely on people to behave and choose in certain ways, and behavioral economics helps us understand why people behave and choose as they do. Approaching problems in development using behavioral economics thus leads to better diagnosis, which in turn leads to better-designed solutions. This paper sketches how to use behavioral insights to design development programs and policies. It distills the key insights of behavioral economics into a simple framework about the constraints under which people make decisions. It then shows how this framework leads to a set of behavioral design principles whose use can improve the reach and effectiveness of a variety of development programs.
24 Applicants Were Terrified To Do This Job. Then They Found Out Why Billions Already Do It.
Do you have what it takes to handle the World's Toughest Job? It requires more than 135 hours per week, constant mobility, keen coordination and adept communication. There are no breaks, no holidays off, and there is no pay.
The Real Revolution in Online Education Isn’t MOOCs
Online competency-based education is the key to filling in the skills gaps in the workforce.
PSTD Magazine: Celebrating 50 Years
As PSTD turns 50 this year, it is just right that we start the year by offering our members, like you, new ways of learning about the different trends in our industry and the activities of PSTD.
3ie’s How-To videos
3ie’s How-To videos on impact evaluation use a simple step-by-step approach for explaining theoretical concepts. The videos draw from examples of impact evaluations to show you how to apply technical concepts. The videos in this series explore various topics related to designing, implementing and using impact evaluations.
Prosperity, stability and poverty reduction: Australia's minister in triple call to action
The change of Australian leadership from Tony Abbott to Malcolm Turnbull not only brought about a new face to the role of prime minister, but also a shift in ministerial responsibilities.
How to make a Whiteboard Animation
How to make a Whiteboard Animation by the Whiteboard Animation Studio. WA has made thousands of minutes of animations worth of videos and we've won multiple Telly awards years in a row. We work with small business and fortune 500 companies.
Hand Drawn Videos, A Quick Guide to Making Them
Demonstration of how to make a whiteboard video, a simple explanation and step by step drawn sequence of the process and results.
Top 10 tips for shooting an interview
If you're starting out, the chances are you will have to shoot a fair few interviews. These tips will help you along the way and will assure that you nail it every time.
Australia Awards Laos The Application Process
The Australia Awards Scholarship are prestigious international awards offered by the Australian Government to the next generation of global leaders for development. This video explains the Australia Awards application process for candidates from Laos.
The Australia Awards Scholarship Story
People-developing, mind-expanding, life-changing--is the motto of Vientiane College's English for Academic Purposes Pre-Departure Program for Lao development scholarship awardees. As the motto implies, the year of intensive study is much more than an English language course. Watch students explain the challenges they faced and the changes and personal development that resulted as part of the program in their own words, to understand more about the program as well as the pivotal role of critical thinking in Vientiane College's educational philosophy.
Australia Awards Lao Filling In the Application Form
The Australia Awards Scholarship are prestigious international awards offered by the Australian Government to the next generation of global leaders for development. This video gives hints and tips on how to fill in the application form for candidates from Laos.
FREE FLIPBOOK: 50 EXAMPLES OF BRILLIANT HOMEPAGE DESIGN
Download this free flipbook for some design inspiration.
BBL analysis
ter decades of armed struggle for self-determination and numerous failed attempts at forging peace, the Bangsamoro people are given another chance at peace with the submission on Monday, July 17, of a new draft of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to President Rodrigo Duterte. I hope the President will immediately certify it as urgent and announce this when he faces Congress for the second time and deliver his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 24.
Never Push Loyal Employees to the Point they no longer Care!
People don’t leave bad companies. They leave bad bosses. The worst place an employee can be, is stuck in an organization with a micro-manager that doesn't care and there are no opportunities for growth and advancement.
