Lessons from the Greg Mortenson Affair
April 18th, 2011 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Institutions, Nonprofits, Public Leaders, Public Values
LONGMONT, Co, April 18, 2011 — Count me among those saddened by the 60 Minutes expose uncovering improprieties and debunking many of the stories told by Greg Mortenson, best-selling author of Three Cups of Tea. The “60 Minutes” investigation alleges that the multimillion-seller Three Cups of Tea is filled with inaccuracies. Additional accusations are that co- author Greg Mortenson’s charitable organization, Pennies for Peace, has taken credit for building schools that don’t exist. My family purchased his books. My wife [...]
Read more...Community engagement: What’s the purpose?
March 24th, 2011 by John Creighton in Projects
Tags: Citizen Centric, Culture-Structure, Democracy, Institutions
Community engagement is a public sector buzzword. Engagement is hailed as a key strategy to help keep institutions such as public libraries relevant now and in the future. But was does community engagement mean? And, more important, what is the purpose of community engagement? Community engagement often is translated as a set of activities and/or events. People attend book readings, film screenings, a community dialogue. Attendance at these events becomes the purpose of engagement as well as the measure of [...]
Read more...21st Century Institutions
February 2nd, 2011 by John Creighton in Projects
Tags: Citizen Centric, Institutions
A recent contribution to SLA FutureReady 365. * * * 20th Century centralized institutions were created to solve a specific set of problems: Scarce resources, high production and carrying costs, cumbersome logistics and limited (by today’s standards) communications. Traditional libraries are a perfect example of a centralized institution. The cost to produce and store books, periodicals and other information was expensive and required a large amount of space. Very few people could afford to purchase their own reading collection or [...]
Read more...How do you define work ethic?
November 8th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Culture-Structure, Institutions, Work
LONGMONT, Colo. — Baby Boomers often lament the deficient work ethic of young people. Is the problem that young people are spoiled? Or, is our definition of work ethic out of date? The video games Pacman and World of Warcraft are excellent metaphors for the changing nature of our institutions — the workplace and schools among others. Pacman is like our 20th Century institutions. You are given are predefined task and a prescribed amount time in which you can do [...]
Read more...No-activities Wednesday
October 29th, 2010 by John Creighton in Dispatches
Tags: Boundaries, Culture-Structure, Institutions
Is it strange that the Iowa Republican Party supports a “no-activities night” in its platform? Or, do Iowa Republicans express a tension felt by most Americans of all political stripes? Section 4.33 of the Iowa Republican Party platform reads, “We support the establishment of a no-activities night on Wednesdays.” Section 4 of the platform pertains to education so one might infer that the Iowa Republican Party does not want public schools to schedule activities on Wednesday nights. It is easy [...]
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