fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Weeknotes 05.12.2020
By: Mary Stevens
Tags: Weeknotes, Environmental Justice, Trees

This week is national tree week, so returning to our trees work has been an important part of this week’s story. On Tuesday I spoke at our Tree Summit — following directly on from Lord Deben to tell the story of our Woodland Opportunity Mapping. It was a real ‘dream big’ moment for my team: imagine if when we’d started this work we said “within 18 months we want to have gone from a local prototype to a national tool, influencing policy-making and grassroots change and be the showcase for our trees campaigning”. I’m not sure we’d quite have believed it. It’s a good prompt to be ambitious — but also to remember that by building the relationships, iterating and enquiring, good, big things can come. Working collaboratively with Guy was also super important in clarifying the narrative: our policy work shows that something (in this case doubling tree cover) is necessary, our experiments help show that it’s possible.

Zoom face.

Meanwhile, the spin-offs are often the bit that really matters. Off the back of this talk I was able to reconnect activists in south Wales pioneering a Tiny Forest (lovely future-casting blog here) with Bristol City Council who are planning something very similar in Southmead. And the progress we’ve made is also helping us support the Vana project — both our projects have now, slowly, matured to a stage where we can be genuinely helpful.

On Thursday I had hoped to take the day to support Black2Nature with a tree-planting day, but sadly they cancelled due to poor weather. In the middle of Tuesday’s tree summit I did plant my own tree: a fig, air-grafted from our neighbour (what an amazing frugal technology). Our front garden now boasts: an olive, an oleander, a fig tree and a cherry. It faces south west, so can get very hot in the summer, but it was only in putting in the fig that I realised just how much we have already internalised a set of assumptions about what might need to change in our immediate ecosystem in the next decade.
Write poems;
Tags: Trees, Poem, Poetry, Poetry On Medium

Write poems, then uncage them, up into the sky flying with doves, they owe nothing to you. On pages, they are letters, Arranged for a cause. A leaf untethered in autumn by the deciduous tree to nurture the earth.
Ferris Jabr, The Social Life of Forests Jabr also cites Richard Powers, from The Overstory: - Stowe Boyd - Medium
By: Stowe Boyd
Tags: Ecology, Quotations, Forests, Ferris Jabr, Trees

The razing of an old-growth forest is not just the destruction of magnificent individual trees — it’s the collapse of an ancient republic whose interspecies covenant of reciprocation and compromise is essential for the survival of Earth as we’ve known it.
What if all the trees of the world disappeared?
Tags: Oxygen, Climate Change, Deforestation, Trees, Medicinal Plants

Image Credits: Pixabay.com

Can you imagine our planet with NO TREES? Scary! isn't it? Trees are the reason for the existence of living beings including the super intelligent social animals we - “Humans”. But what if tomorrow you wake up and get to know, all the trees in the world just disappeared.

Imagine there would be no lush green plantations, no beautiful canopies, no juicy fruits, no beautiful flowers, and cool shades. The first thing that may come to your mind may be an image of a desert or barren land which may not have seen water in a while. However, the impact is much more than we could possibly imagine.

Trees are an integral part of our ecosystem. They are one of the major natural sources of oxygen and the other being phytoplankton found in the ocean beds. They are a crucial part of the Carbon cycle, thus constantly purifying the air. Trees also prevent soil erosion, absorb pollutants in the air, helps with rainfall, etc. The benefits are beyond description. So a world with no trees is unimaginable.

This can be a drive for all of us to fight against deforestation, a threat to life on earth.

Image Credits: Britannica.com

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the annual rate of deforestation is about 1.3 million square km per decade. Thereby also endangering the world's biodiversity. The trees act as a crucible to absorb the CO2 in the air, so no trees mean more CO2 in the atmosphere which is already been experienced as the ongoing climate change.

According to many reports the slowly disappearing trees in the forests which include many medicinal values are also observed to be getting extinct already.

Another unintended threat associated with this is the loss of discovery and analysis of medicinal plants that are unknown to us. The tropical rainforest destruction claims that scientists have been able to explore only 1% of the medical benefits of the tropical trees.

Almost 137 species of tropical plants and trees are becoming extinct every day, causing an unknown level of destruction of insights and data for the pharmaceutical industry. As these plants form the potential basis for drug discovery against many diseases it could be lost long before even discovered.

Conclusion:

It's a human tendency that whatever one gets free or complimentary, we don't care much about. But this shouldn't be the case with this gift from nature.

Having no trees around, mere the thought drives chills through the spine. And the dreadful after-effects can be horrible beyond explanation. We have already started experiencing the bad effects, so why the wait.

It's our duty to protect our planet and keep it livable. Plant more trees, stop deforestation and act responsibly.

What are the efforts you would take to prevent such a situation in the future? Let me know in the comment box below.
Top Tree Service Tampa
By: The Real Pink Tree Service
Tags: Tree Removal Tampa, Tree Service Tampa, Tree Service, Trees

If you are looking for professional arborists in Tampa, we are at your service. Both for a small tree and for an entire garden. We are your partner if you are looking for professional and affordable arborists in Tampa. We advise, we do the maintenance, we can and we cut trees both for individuals and companies as well as for public institutions. We also like to find solutions together with our clients.

Our strengths

· Affordable rates and prices for tree service in Tampa

· Knowledge of trees of Tampa

· Professional Tree Services in Tampa

· Emergency Tree Services in Tampa

· Tree Pruning in Tampa

· Stump Grinding in Tampa

· Garden Cleanup Service in Tampa

· Clean-Up Service in Tampa

· Garden and Landscaping Service in Tampa

· Garden Cleanup Service in Tampa

· Tree Professionals in Tampa

· White Oak Tree in Tampa

· Loader and Mini Excavator Hire Services in Tampa

· Arborist in Tampa

· Tree Service Expert in Tampa

· Tree Expert in Tampa

· Tree Shaping Tampa

· Tree Shaping Experts in Tampa

· Tree Maintenance Tampa

· Tree Care Company Tampa

· Palm Tree Removal Tampa

· Hedging and Yard Work In Tampa

· Debris Removal Service in Tampa

· Pine Tree Service in Tampa

Proper Tree Pruning in Tampa

Proper tree pruning in Tampa is one of the great things that can be done to a tree, unsuitable pruning is one of the poorest things that can be done to a tree.

Tree pruning with competent advice

The correct maintenance of a tree begins with good advice. The Real Pink Tree Service would like to advise you on making the right decisions for tree service in Tampa. We are tree specialists of Tampa who love trees and work with good knowledge and experience. We have worked on many projects in the field of tree pruning in Tampa and other cities all over Florida.

For complete Tree Services in Tampa please contact The Real Pink Tree Service.

985 W Jefferson Spring Hill, FL

352–942–0028
The White Sycamore
By: Anna Blendermann
Tags: Scuzzbucket, Poetry, Life, Trees, Poetry On Medium

Now then, she sits with pride

Her roots withering beneath

The earth, squirming with the lively bones

To find the stores that grant her peace

She grasps the salvation of her bottomless pits

Creeping, seeping, straining

For just sips of the life that lies beneath

And will lift her branches from an outlook bleak



Higher, higher she drags her saving grace

Sloshing and slipping along her

Dry innards, appeasing the rigid chalky seams

Breaking her soulful cries into relief



Washed away from her sorrows and pain

A sweet, momentary stillness

She gains posture, enough to feel the sun

Breaking over her albino shoulders again
Blossoms, Woodlands
By: Keppie Clarke
Tags: Summer, Nature, Trees, Poetry

A Poem

Photo by Michiel Leunens on Unsplash

The city,

waking from

a warm deep sleep,

smiled

slow and lazy

eyes hooded and dreamy;

The white blue

forever twilight of June

with its balm and silk

and toothless shadows

tarmac hot to the touch;

And ever more

in her mind’s eye

blossoms

a sea cast across the sky

opening, opening

spinning white and pink

across the blue:

And beneath she is dancing.
Sports, Judaism, and Nature Poetry From the 2017 Annual Tiferet Poetry Challenge
By: Kimberly Burnham
Tags: Nature, Poetry, Sports, Soccer, Trees

Poems from the April 2017 Daily Poetry Challenge with Tiferet (Week Two)

Found A Soft Evening’s Read

The editor collected poems

people who have cared

loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease

The writers range

prize-winning poets to amateurs

share in common a passion

experience evokes

emotions

rest in the crystal of poetry

the dark terrors

reveal an ancient truth

love is stronger

than …

A found poem: “Their poems illuminate the dark terrors of this most disabling and dehumanizing disease, and, perhaps surprisingly, reveal an ancient truth: that love is stronger than death.” — Coe, F. L. (2011). “A sudden lift of wings” Poetry and prose about Alzheimer’s disease.” Perspect Biol Med 54(1): 106–114.

Trees poetry and sports poems with Kimberly Burnham. Photo by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash

Trees

Without the wind …

A landscape without trees

reaches for the horizon

No seeds blown here or there

all sits still

Rain clouds do not sail from the West

drenching a parched earth

Oxygen giving trees no longer

breathe life into our world

Soccer poetry and sports imagery with poet Kimberly Burnham. Photo by Emilio Garcia on Unsplash

Soccer

The soccer ball pure white sails

powerfully propelled now

the goal zooms closer hearts pump

as it catches net

Offering

selflessly

looking into another’s eyes

generous money

sharing time and effort’s rewards

setting aside

one’s own desires an exchange of joy in a child’s face

education

giving out without bound knowledge experience wisdom

yearning

for that sense of being special in the beholder’s sight

Piano

Solid it rises in the hallway

where she plays a few notes each time

she walks by

another child yells

stop

she doesn’t

knowing she must practice

and happy

just a little

that she is taking up space

in this cacophonous world

Standing Before Freedom

The light just right

like a wood cut

block painting

she stand before the Torah

looking into the face of freedom

The lines of her black and white shirt

a zentangle of crisscrossed lines

white and black mingling gathering

strength in the shadows set off

A black skirt high heels

dark hair with a little salt

contrasts the clear white

of her kippa

Beside her the blue and white

of the rabbi’s tallis shines out

below golden hair

women … and men prepare

Two days before the journey to

freedom starts again in pink

and white of spring blossoms

a counterpoint to green

outside the window

the light just right

Originally published at https://tiferetjournal.com on April 8, 2017.
Taking Wing
By: Cindy Landers
Tags: Wind, Poetry, Wind Chimes, Music, Trees

Until at last, the lone tone on a light breeze

flies home again to join the

choir that chimes beneath the oak.
The Unyielding Oak
By: Adam Ray Cronk
Tags: Haiku, Poetry, Blue Insights, Trees, Poetry On Medium

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Until The Forest Can Hold Us Again…
By: Michele Grieve
Tags: Nature, Poetry, Love, Lockdown, Trees

A Poem of Lockdown Love

Photo by Jose Escobar on Unsplash

I yearn for the day

I can walk with you again,

tracing our ancestral paths

through the glens and wilderness

of Nature’s cathedral.

To share the same breeze gently caress our face,

languish in the psithurism, whispering secrets

for us to relish and decipher.

Inhaling your scent, intoxicatingly entwined

with the petrichor of our souls’ heaven.

To simply hold your hand again

as the forest holds us,

is, my love, the treasure that haunts my heart.
Aim for the root
Tags: Roots, Quotes, Sequoia National Park, Self, Trees

‘Once I felt like glass, then I improved and felt like wood. But now, at this very blessed moment, I feel like a tree. Rooted and ancient, branches pointed towards the sky.’
Maximum Depth of Binary Tree — Day 37(Python)
By: Annamariya Tharayil
Tags: Coding, Python, 365dayschallenge, Leetcode Easy, Trees

The question requires us to find the maximum depth of the tree, which means we have to find the height of the tree. To find the height of the tree we would have to start from the root node and go until the leaf node. There can be multiple leaf nodes, we need to find the maximum among the recorded heights. We will be using recursion to solve this problem.

Before we use recursion, we need to understand what needs to be our base condition.

When the root is None, we should return 0.

Okay, now let's look at the code snippet.

class Solution:

def maxDepth(self, root: TreeNode) -> int:

if root == None:

return 0

return

max(self.maxDepth(root.left),self.maxDepth(root.right))+1

Complexity analysis.

Time Complexity

We are visiting each node once and hence the time complexity is O(N) where N is the number of nodes in the Tree.

Space Complexity.

We are visiting each node recursively, hence the space complexity is O(N).
Burn A Tree. So the question is as follows.
By: Mayank Aggarwal
Tags: Competitive Programming, Interview, Computer Science, Datastrucutre, Tree

So the question is as follows:

Given a binary tree denoted by root node A and a leaf node B from this tree.

It is known that all nodes connected to a given node (left child, right child and parent) get burned in 1 second. Then all the nodes which are connected through one intermediate get burned in 2 seconds, and so on.

You need to find the minimum time required to burn the complete binary tree.

Problem Constraints

2 <= number of nodes <= 105

1 <= node value, B <= 105

node value will be distinct

Input Format

First argument is a root node of the binary tree, A.

Second argument is an integer B denoting the node value of leaf node.

Output Format

Return an integer denoting the minimum time required to burn the complete binary tree.

Example Input

Input 1:

Tree : 1

/ \

2 3

/ / \

4 5 6

B = 4

Input 2:

Tree : 1

/ \

2 3

/ \

4 5

B = 5

Example Output

Output 1:

4

Output 2:

4

Example Explanation

Explanation 1:

After 1 sec: Node 4 and 2 will be burnt.

After 2 sec: Node 4, 2, 1 will be burnt.

After 3 sec: Node 4, 2, 1, 3 will be burnt.

After 4 sec: Node 4, 2, 1, 3, 5, 6(whole tree) will be burnt.

Explanation 2:

After 1 sec: Node 5 and 3 will be burnt.

After 2 sec: Node 5, 3, 1 will be burnt.

After 3 sec: Node 5, 3, 1, 2 will be burnt.

After 4 sec: Node 5, 3, 1, 2, 4(whole tree) will be burnt.

C++ Code:
Elephants
By: Patrick M. Ohana
Tags: Poetry, Elephants, Love, Hunting, Trees

Elephants

Photo by redcharlie on Unsplash

I never loved elephants

I only liked them as I do most other animals

that is until I saw one up close

and finally understood that

their trunks are their hearts

What majestic creatures they are

dearest elephants alive

the whales of the ground

I’m sorry inside my heart

for all we’ve done

because of your ivory tusks

I wish I could hunt your hunters

and take out their front teeth

Maybe you can help

but you’ll have to learn to hide

Not an easy task given your size

David Copperfield could help

I’m sure he’ll agree to join our quest

for a world where elephants

roam free from predators

But I’ll have to teach you

to respect all trees

They’re food I know

and we’ve done them much worse

But after you eat their leaves

let their long hands live
The Story of a Plum Tree Called Connie
By: Jack Glendenning
Tags: Story, Narrative, Family, Connie, Trees

Connie the plum tree

The following story is a fictional narrative that was written with a moral that you will find at the end of the story. The tree, you will notice, is called Connie because I recently bought a new pair of Converse sneakers. Hopefully you enjoy it and you find it a good read ❤

Cheers,

Jacky G

— — — — —

Hi, I’m Connie and I’m a plum tree out the back of the Smith’s house. They have a backyard and I’m right in the middle of it. I’ve been here for a while as a tree and I’ve been enjoying my time growing nice plums for them to eat.

One day, I heard Mr Smith talking quietly and staring at me more often than usual. It took a moment for me to notice, but he was looking to get rid of me and replace me with a pool. It wasn’t a bad idea. I mean lil Smith was just getting into swimming practice and I heard he likes the water. More swimming for him. But what about me. And what about them. No more plums.

At the moment I had no plums on myself and I knew that if Mr Smith was looking to cut me down he might change his mind if I gave him a plum. So I conjured up all the energy I had and grew a plum at the bottom of my branches so he could reach it.

Mr, Mrs and lil Smith came out to the back yard. Mr Smith was now talking to me about the plan. A few of my leaves dropped in reaction and I pulled a stern look on my bark. Then Mrs Smith came to the rescue and said a few things. “What if we keep the tree and just take lil Smith to the pool more often during the week. He might get to see more of his friends,” said Mrs Smith. Mr Smith didn’t say anything and he looked at the last plum on my branches.

The wind came along and lowered my branch to Mr Smith. He reached out for the plum and picked it off my branches. It was very quiet. He took a bite of the plum I had grown very quickly. He looked at me then back at Mrs Smith. “You know what Mrs Smith… this tree of ours is pretty much a family member and I don’t know how it produced a plum for me so quickly. It was a tasty plum. Maybe it turns out that it knew about our plan to replace it with a pool. I think that we should keep the tree because its plums taste so nice.

Lil Smith and Mrs Smith filled with glee and so did I. More leaves fell from my branches as I filled with tears. They all headed inside and went back to their normal day.

As a tree I’ve always done my best to provide for the Smiths. Lil Smith is set to become a good swimmer with those swimming lessons of his. Hearing Mr Smith say I’m like part of the family and changing his mind about getting rid of me for a pool made me very happy. To me I’ve learnt the lesson that you’ve just got to try your best. Growing that plum so quickly took a lot of energy but it was definitely worth it. A message for all the plum trees and people in the world, I have is that you never know what you’ll get when you put the effort in ❤
Edition 73: what we’re sea-ing from space
By: Ellen Minkin
Tags: Newsletter, Archive, Internet, Email Newsletters, Trees

ENVIRONMENT

Why we need start counting and mapping trees

Fri Nov 20

Trees provide a lot of benefits to humans such as helping to decrease pollution and heat, but racist housing policies in the U.S. have kept some neighborhoods from reaping the benefits.

What do trees have to do with housing policies and race?

A practice called ‘redlining’ warned mortgage lenders and insurers of Black communities by outlining them in red on maps. Although the practice was banned in the 1960’s, it still has compounding effects that have isolated Black communities. As a result, more resources, funding, and attention typically went to White neighborhoods — which is why you see more tree-lined streets in higher-income, White communities today. So interestingly enough, if you look at a map of tree cover, you can also effectively infer the income and race of an area.

To help combat this inequality, American Forests has started counting trees. They’re assigning “Tree Equity Scores” to cities and counties with the hope of both addressing this systemic racism and fighting climate change.

So far the group is testing three regions: Maricopa County, the Bay Area, and Rhode Island, but they hope to cover 70% of the population by 2022. Google also released a new tool that maps tree coverage called Tree Canopy Lab, which is being tested in Los Angeles. L.A. plans to plant 90,000 trees in areas most impacted by extreme heat by next year.

📣 From the Soapbox: This month, we’re partnering with Soapbox Project, a media company that gives you action plans for social causes you care about. >> Take Action with Your Holiday Shopping! Put The Color of Law on your holiday reading list. You can buy it from an independent Black-owned bookstore here. The book documents how the U.S. government segregated America, including the creation of zoning laws that put Black communities in the same zones as toxic waste sites, a practice that still continues today.

SOURCES: Grist, Fast Company, Google, Brookings Institution
I Found a Magical Treehouse in the Brazilian Jungle!
By: Lakshmi Parthasarathy
Tags: Jungle, Adventure, Creativity, Travel, Trees

Araras Treehouse @ Mariri Jungle Lodge in Brazil

I have always dreamed of living in a treehouse. So this past Thanksgiving, while sitting in my apartment in Brasilia, I did a little googling and stumbled on Araras, a 26 meter high treehouse situated in the Brazilian jungles of the Chapada dos Veadeiros Park.

So I rented the last available automatic car in the city — which happened to be an elite full-sized SUV — and set off on a 4 hour road trip through the Brazilian countryside in a far too large vehicle, far too late in the day. To reach my destination in the jungle, I navigated for miles in the darkness over bumpy dirt roads where there was no cell reception and over little bridges with no guardrails, where Google maps at a certain point wanted me to drive into a tree 😂.

I had made the whole journey with the simple goal of being able to one day just wake up on a tree branch. I never really thought about why I wanted that — I just knew that I did, so I decided to make it happen. I also never put much thought into what the treehouse itself would look like, other than it being a wooden box-shaped structure of some sort. So this place, with its beautifully decorated walls and glass windows that opened out to a balcony overlooking the entire Chapada, took me by surprise. While gazing out at the incredible view of endless jungle terrain and mountains, I had an odd feeling, like I found something I didn’t realize was missing.

Here, surrounded by only the sounds of birds and buzzing insects and green palm trees (and no WiFi connection), I wanted nothing more than to pick up a pencil and write or draw something. Or just do absolutely nothing and simply stare off into the distance and think. Here, in this place with nothing but trees and clouds and colorful throw pillows to keep me company, I felt inspired to be more reflective and creative. And it was this feeling that I realized I had missed.

In the concrete jungle where I usually live, I spend most of my time endlessly consuming content — but never thinking too deeply about anything, or using my imagination to create something of my own. It takes far less energy and originality to consume someone else’s thoughts and ideas than it does to formulate and express my own; and it’s certainly much easier to judge other people’s words than it is to put my own out into the world. Anyone can read a book, but very few will ever sit down to write one.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that a jar of pens & a notebook had been placed neatly on a small decorative shelf in one corner of the treehouse. Clearly, the creator of this space knew I might having this feeling here!

All the food is vegetarian here!

Assuming I can keep up this creativity streak, follow me (Lakshmi Parthasarathy) for more content like this! And please comment with any thoughts or criticism :)
Smart
By: Ripley Davenport
Tags: Christmas, Smart, Trees, Cars

It’s not every day that you see a Christmas tree drive by the window with a Smart Car strapped to the bottom of it.
Never Give In
By: Arpit Ravichandran
Tags: You Matter, Never Give In, Life, Genius In A Bottle, Trees

Never Give In

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

A tree stands tough and alone

Its roots firmly dug deep in the soil

Time and tide eat at its world

Yet it proudly stands and serves

Its branches still reach out for the heavens

Its roots bare and washing away

To others, its fate has already been sealed

But it stands ready to face each day

For one more day, it replenishes our air

For one more day, it provides shade to the weary travelers

For one more day, it stands ready

Ready to rise to the occasion

When we look deep into our own soul

The world seems to try us, each and every step of the way

But when the world tries and tries to wear us away

We can bend, but never give in
Trees, Central Park
By: Keppie Clarke
Tags: Central Park, Nature, Trees, Poetry

A Poem

Photo by Jack Skinner on Unsplash

Who ever thought a skeleton beautiful?

Black and reaching against a riot of colour

Suffused with light

All the world around it golden

But it is the skeleton

Dark as death

As much as its yellow leaves

Its burgeoning green

That casts beauty in its wake.
Derretir la resistencia para generar ganas de innovar
By: Diego Pons
Tags: Innovation, Change Management, Leadership, Innovación Organizacional, Innovation Management

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Political and medical leaders are not following the science of behavioural change.
By: Tom Koor
Tags: Covid 19, Change Management, Behavioral Science

Political and medical leaders are enabling large numbers of deaths, hospitalizations, and massive economic damage by not following the science of behavioural change.

Political and medical leaders are expecting the public to make major behavioural changes E.g. wearing masks, reduced social gatherings, and social distancing. Most leaders are taking the approach of telling or dictating to people what they must do. This is not science based. The result is that many people are not doing as they as told, which is the natural result.

A science-based approach requires communicating to people why they, as individuals, have an urgent need to change. E.g. avoid them or their friends and family dying. There are more components to a science-based approach, noted in the further reading section below.

I don’t know why political and medical leaders are taking a non-science-based approach and enabling massive harm. Perhaps they have not asked the experts for advice. Perhaps they have rejected the advice. Perhaps they’ve decided to take the easy approach and just dictate to people.

COVID-19 may be the greatest failing of our political and medical leaders in the past 100 years.

What can you do?

Reach out to the political and medical leaders you know to help them understand the science of behavioural changes. It’s not too late to save lives and reduce economic destruction.

Further reading

The following three articles focus on major behavioural change within business organization. The same principles apply to the major COVID-19 behavioural changes: wearing masks, reduced social gatherings, and social distancing.

The science of change management

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2016/08/12/10-change-management-strategies-that-are-backed-by-science/?sh=8a845b42bd63

The four building blocks of change — McKinsey

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-four-building-blocks--of-change

Managing the people aspects of change

https://res.torontocentre.org/guidedocs/Managing%20the%20People%20Aspects%20of%20Supervisory%20Change%20FINAL.pdf
Adopting Change
Tags: Lifestyle, Change, Productivity, Change Management, Mental Health

The thing with change is that it doesn’t alert you ten minutes before it arrives with a neat little phone notification. No, change can be sudden and indelicate, not caring about your holiday plans or goals.

So how to embrace shifts in our lives? It is an active decision to adopt change. It takes thought process and signals racing through synapses and it takes time. There has to be a conscious agreement with yourself to co-operate with the adversity in front of you. And that’s tough. Because change is sometimes an entity you’ve never before come up against and perhaps don’t know if you can tame.

And that’s where the perseverance enters the stage. I know, it’s a word thrown around a lot, a sort of umbrella term for ‘try, try again!’. Yet, admittedly the basis of the word rings true. You can’t expect to get it right the first time you grapple change. You probably won’t the first time or maybe the second. The unknown enemy needs to be studied in order to be defeated. So study your opponent. Break it down. Make it manageable.

And perhaps what’s the best method for finally making peace with change is accepting that it is inevitable. Nothing in this world lasts forever, nothing is stagnant or still. So, take that and apply it to yourself as well, to not remain stagnant but keep moving forward. And that way, that way you’ll always be comfortable with change.
Why Moving from House to House Will Increase Your Performance
By: Paco Cantero
Tags: Growth, Productivity, Inspiration, Change Management, Mindset

Why Moving from House to House Will Increase Your Performance

Photo by JCS Chen on Unsplash

13 houses, 13 homes.

That’s what I made my whole life.

Each and every house I’ve lived in became my home, no matter if it was old, new, big, or small.

Home is a concept we draw into our minds. It’s totally subjective. I love subjective things because they give you power.

The power to choose how you’ll manage that item, that thought.

Nobody can convince you a house is not your home. It’s 100% up to you.

I love when things only depend on me. I learned throughout my life that it’s possible for everything.

When you achieve that state, life changes. You become a calm person. You feel well, comfortable, confident. Everything depends on you, how you see things and the world.

I love when a year finishes because feeling everything starts from scratch again is indescribable.

If you combine:

Looking back and forgetting everything…

… with looking forward and imagining everything…

… it gives you that sense of freedom we human beings appreciate so much.

Releasing yourself from the bonds gives you fuel for your ambitions, productivity, and performance.
Biological Systems, Organizational Systems, and Catalyzing Change w/ Matt Craig
Tags: Agile, Change Management, Agile Transformation

Recored by Dave Prior

In this episode of SoundNotes, Matt Craig joins Dave for a discussion that centers around comparing the way biological systems and businesses function and respond to change. In a biological system, enzymes bring elements together that catalyze reactions and keep iterating until they find an effective response. (Think of the body’s immune system learning to fight off a cold.) At LeadingAgile, our coaches and consultants serve in a similar manner helping to catalyze change within our client’s organizations. Matt is a Principal Consultant at LeadingAgile and he specializes in strategic and sustainable organizational health and improvement. But his background also includes the study of medicine and this has led to compelling insights into the parallels that exist between biological and organizational systems and how they respond to foreign elements and change.

Contacting Matt

Contacting Dave

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Building a System Where Agile Can Thrive
Tags: Agile, Change Management, Agile Transform, Agility

Transformation is really about forming teams, building backlogs, and producing working, tested product. At scale, it’s about defining structure, and creating governance, metrics, and tooling strategies that support Agility.

Anything that gets in the way of doing any of these things is an impediment to Transformation. But the actual work of the Transformation is getting rid of all the organizational things that get in the way of doing that-and to do that, you need the right system in place, an ecosystem where this can happen.

Teaching people the basics of Scrum and telling them to self-organize, except in possibly the smallest of organizations, isn’t going to lead to Agility. Most companies will need more guidance.

If we define it as a culture problem or a process problem… we fail.

If we recognize it as a systems problem… we have a shot at fixing it.

In the absence of simply telling people to self-organize, where do you start?

Understand where you are and where you want to go.

Agile fails because the underlying preconditions that must be in place for organizations to get the benefits of Agile are not clear. Luckily, creating the conditions necessary for Agile to thrive in an organization is a science that can be understood, planned, executed, and measured. We need the right systems in place that provide enough structure, accountability, and transparency that good business decisions can be made at the lowest appropriate level.

As the overall understanding of the underlying mechanisms of Agility increases, and real impediments are removed, dependencies are broken, business Agility will improve across the entire enterprise. But it all goes back to having a system you can trust. Because Agile, implemented only at the team-level doesn’t work.
Which change sustainably happened in your organisation?
By: Niels Brabandt
Tags: Change, Change Your Life, Change Management, Leadership, Changemaker

True Sustainability

No, it was not only about age. Demographical aspects, of course, play a role when it comes to evaluating how open-minded individual key decision-makers are for changes. Still, the often-quoted principle of “young = good” and “old = bad” is a generalisation which turns out to be untrue. If your organisation was heavily relying on so-called “networks” in recruiting, you most likely did not do too well. Depending on non-diverse networks from and old buddy network never was a good idea as a recruiting strategy, and now it turns out that your organisation is not innovative enough to face today’s problems. Do not blame you, employees. Most of them told you so before, but the tone-deaf decisions from senior management overheard their suggestions for years, which made them stop to suggest any innovation.

Are your leaders only supervisors of others who have to work in specific physical spaces? Or are your leaders genuinely interested and qualified to lead, communicate and deliver results no matter from which part of the world your people contribute to your projects?
Drivers of Change to Detect the Root Cause of Business Problems.
By: Ivana Yael Currá
Tags: Change, Business Strategy, Change Management, Driver, Business

Photo by Fabien Bazanegue on Unsplash

When a company is in difficult times, some comments often appear inside and outside the companies related to having ineffective leaders, or comments blaming external factors such as changes in the market situation or reducing costs to compete in the market. It is true that these elements are contributing as factors. But the reality is all of these are symptoms. The root cause is often internal.

If the company is in the middle of a difficult time, it is better to look internally to identify the real problems: is necessary to detect the root cause of the problems in difficult times to drive a change.

There are the four drivers of change.

1. People

Photo by Min An on Pexels

They must clearly establish what the expected behaviors are and ensure that there are consequences for all of them. Make sure positive feedback is punctually specific and personalized. Rather, when is necessary, make sure you have a conversation with someone who is not acting correctly. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation, but it should be timely, private, and focused. To make people feel like they’ve been treated fairly, make sure your positive feedback relationship is constructive.

2. Process

Photo by Digital Buggu on Pexels

Identify which processes can make your organization more productive and efficient. You can also use this for expected behaviors, especially when task coordination is critical and work is routine in nature. Rather, think about where you can eliminate the process to allow autonomy and flexibility fulfilling customer needs.

Perhaps there are processes that can be automated from technologies such as custom software, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Contact specialists on these areas to find the best solution for your business.

3. Rewards

Photo by Ariel Besagar on Unsplash

Make sure there are real consequences for fullfill and exceeding expectations. It is necessary to clarify that this does not have to imply an economic compensation. This can be as simple as acknowledging that people receive some form of praise and recognition each week. Also, make sure there are no indirect rewards for not meeting the minimum limits. You should not accept that mediocrity is fine.

4. Structure

Photo by Robby McCullough on Unsplash

Make sure your structure supports a strategy and not the other way around. The strategy comes before the structure always. Resist the urge to reorganize before thinking about how all levers are interdependent.

Currently, with agile methodologies, for organizations that come from traditional methodologies, they need to be restructured in order to correctly apply with a digital transformation. Do this process step by step, following guides from specialized agile coaches and of course taking the interdependences in consideration. Do not attempt to make this change without advice. Avoid creating chaos at the organizational level.
Designing your life
By: Olga Selina
Tags: Personal Development, Design, Change Management, Positive Thinking

Designing your life rather than letting it happen

One of John Lennon’s most often quoted lines is "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. ” It’s from a song called “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” that he wrote when his son Sean was born. It’s a wonderful song, but I’m not sure I totally buy into what Lennon is saying. First – and this is just a technicality – Lennon didn’t actually say it. The quote was originally published in Readers Digest in 1957 and written by Allen Saunders (journalist and comic strip cartoonist). There’s no information confirming if John or Yoko were avid Readers Digest subscribers.

Second, my interpretation of the quote is that while you’re making plans to make life the best it can be, you are likely missing out on what’s happening around you. I agree that you need to appreciate what’s going on around you (though might want to just skim past the COVID stuff), but what if you are looking for change? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could approach your life as a design project ? And do that for career shifts, moving, or finally taking the plunge and committing to ballroom dancing?

I think so — and want to share talk from Stanford University’s Design Program. It offers up life-changing advice about, well, changing your life — by debunking myths about how difficult it is to do, and providing a 5 step strategy to follow your dreams (or at least test them). My favorite exercise was imagining 3 parallel lives and making plans to make each fulfilling. Well nowadays any life that doesn’t involve sharing workspace with 3 yo would fulfill me…
Embracing ‘Out Of Orbit’ Thinking To Help Your Team Grow Through What They Go Through
By: Christopher Washington Ph.D.
Tags: Change Management, Leadership, Leadership Development, Transitions, Nonprofit

Embracing ‘Out Of Orbit’ Thinking To Help Your Team Grow Through What They Go Through

This Forbes.com article suggests how one can apply life sustaining mindsets from astronauts and space enthusiasts to the task of leading teams through periods of disruption Christopher Washington Ph.D. Dec 10, 2020·1 min read

Leaders and their teams are dealing with the challenges of adapting to economic volatility, greater social isolation, and other disruptions to their everyday lives. What lessons can we learn from astronauts who live, work and play in outer space? Presented here are 8 ideas to that may aid you and your team in effectively transitioning to a new normal during and after periods of disruption. Here is the link to the article:
Dilemas de la innovación: El efecto soda batida
By: Diego Pons
Tags: Innovation, Change Management, Leadership, Innovación Organizacional, Management

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Announcing the Catalyst
By: Virtually Hijacked
Tags: Security, Cybersecurity, Education, Change Management, Programming

Galaxy-wide policies for programmers have always existed, of course, but there was something about putting an emergency order in place that felt different. Maybe that was partially because this plan was so wide sweeping.

Every new student was going to have traits programmed into them, in an attempt to make them better able to fight the virus. I shook my head; I could already hear some of the older game masters muttering about how “Back in their day” something like this would have never been necessary. And even though I was going to push hard to make it happen now, there was some truth to it.

Students in the past had never gotten infected with a virus like this. They had been able to see trickery and deception for what they were and steer clear. But now, something has changed. I dared believe it wasn’t something wrong with the students, but instead spoke to the power of the virus, running rampant through the VLG world.

What had impacted students in the past didn’t matter now. Whatever was different for this generation, it was real, and it was wreaking havoc. The new students needed new traits to be able to cope with, and hopefully override, the fear that was being generated in the system.

The masters we’re still going to get their chance, however. The second phase of the program was to deeply increase the number of game masters actively inside the program. I know that many of them will be eager to do their part to find out what is going wrong, and to bring back updates and information about how they could work from outside the game to fix it.

And finally, there would be a catalyst. A single player, chosen to enter the VLG and trained to awaken within the game.

This part was completely off-script. None of us had ever specifically chosen a student and tasked them with waking within the game, and there was no way to know if it would work like we hoped. A small part of my mind wondered if we were really about to sacrifice yet another student, losing them to the virus we still didn’t truly know how to defeat.

And yet….we needed someone to get inside the game and give us that chance.

Raella was a young programmer, filled with promise, and from what I had heard she might be exactly what we needed.

Intelligent, curious, knowledgeable. She loved questions, puzzles, and mysteries, and was naturally inclined to ask questions, observe, and figure things out. She was also young; she came from the generation being targeted, so she didn’t have the been-there-done-that attitude a game master might bring, however unintentionally, into the process.

The night before I had been sleepless, but now that I was preparing to announce Raella as the catalyst, I felt a glimmer of hope. It was possible we might make it through this, and that it might even bring us into deeper levels of peace than we had known before.
Change Your Question
By: Max Shiyaz
Tags: Change, Positive Thinking, Change Management, Business Advice, Positive

When running any type of business, the problems are inevitable. It is how you deal with these problems which makes or breaks you. You have to find solutions as soon as possible or else you will hate the process of running a business. What helped me the most is when I changed the question I asked from:

- Why does this always happen to me?

- How can I find any good cleaners? No one is reliable?

- Why can’t cleaners work properly?

TO

- How can we fix this problem so that it does not happen again?

- How can we improve our hiring process so that we have more efficient cleaners

- How can we setup proper inspection procedures using digital channels to check on the work of the cleaners after every clean.

Once you start to ask more positive questions, your brain automatically adjusts to being more positive whatever the problems you may face. If it is not for changing my questions to more positive ones, I would not be able to grow my cleaning business. When you grow any business, the problems you face double in size and you have to be able to handle it as quickly as possible without going insane.

Changing your question does not happen overnight. If you have been continuously looking at the negative of everything that happens in your life, chances are it takes your brain quite a while to train to become more positive. Most people grow up in such negative environments that it is passed on from their parents, friends, etc and it is hard to change this instantly when it has been imprinted in your brain for years.

Take small steps towards becoming more positive. Change Your Question To Become Positive & Happy.
La crisi dell’immaginazione e gli ostacoli al cambiamento nelle organizzazioni.
By: Imagination Design Coaching
Tags: Cambiamento, Change Management, Adaptive Leadership, Strategia, Adattamento

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Free Jira Service Management
Tags: Jira Service Management, Problem Management, Itil, Incident Management, Change Management

Are you Small or Medium Company

Have Atlassian Jira Service Management Free for 3 Agents and unlimited customers

Agents and project admins can add new customers to a project at any time by including their email address in the “To” or “Cc” field when replying to a request’s email notification.

By embedding a lightweight request form, your customers can send requests directly from any website you control or your portal URL.

For configuration Steps as free plan use Atlassian Community (Self-help forum) or contact for suitable fee.