General Professional Development

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: Books Revisited

Haig Chahinian

This feature is called “Books Revisited” because the titles are typically out for a while before we get to them.

In 2007, Daniel Pink spent two months researching the manga industry in Japan. Fast forward a year, and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need was published.

We want to tell you about it because upon finishing the last page, we thought of about ten people to whom we’d like to give this book.  It’s what great non-fiction in 2010 should be: concise, insightful and from the heart. Yes, non-fiction from the heart!

We aren’t completely sure of Pink’s motivations — is he an avid manga reader? does he love comics in general? — yet a career advice book presented as manga is certainly novel. Plus he accesses his experience in Japan and uses it to interesting effect.  That he’s the first writer of a manga-inspired professional development book suggests the idea may be born from the heart, rather than the product of a trend.

Listen to what Pink reveals about Johnny Bunko on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show”:

We could repeat in this post the six (6) main themes the author outlines in his text. However, we’d be doing our readers (all 4 of you!) a disservice. Viewing each page comprises an emotional experience of processing the ideas presented, to the extent that you’ll likely retain them long after you’ve put the book down.

Have you read it? What do you think?

How to Innovate Using Only Rocks and a Bike

Haig Chahinian

Your Facebook friends on the East Coast may be talking lately about the gorgeous fall weather, and this past Sunday was both colorful and warm.  We took the opportunity to go to the playground.

While watching our daughter navigate a maze-like climber, we saw a cyclist. Riding on the rocks above the playground! We quickly called her to look at the wondrous sight of two elements that don’t typically belong together: a bicycle and a big rock. Of course she was nonplussed, and soon returned to her own climbing.

Yet this man continued to maneuver over the schist, elegantly manipulating his bicycle like it were a horse. Just look at him! To us this represents the utmost in innovation.

When we bring together two disparate ideas, something new happens. In our case, we began to view the mound of rock as a conduit rather than an obstacle. And we saw the bicycle as a vehicle to scale uneven and high terrain. From here, our mind was open to build on these concepts and consider more and newer possibilities.

It started with this man’s desire, pure and simple. He wanted to ride his bike over these rocks, which propelled him over each and every bump and chasm. The prospect of getting what we want can be a powerful motivator, and often when we pursue something simply because we want to, great things happen.

Switching up the typical context of our world is a foundation for how we can innovate in our organizations. Then allowing ourselves to seek what we want, we’re free to experience the unexpected and wonderful results.

Have you innovated by leveraging something out of its context?

How to Show a Little Love

Haig Chahinian

We know that Courtney Love appears to thrive as a media spectacle, and that her artistry is unparalleled.

Eric Wilson spent some time with her recently, chronicling the interdependence of Love’s stardom with the fashion world. As usual, she’s aware of her self in the world, a little messy, and very charming.

At the end of the many exchanges between Wilson and Love, she texts him regarding their experience as subject and interviewer.  Her final message is:

“I trust you understand that our hearts can take us all to dark and ill timed places. Warmly, Courtney. xx.”

Her candor is engaging, totally disarming, and comes from a place of love, so to speak. What could the world of work be like if we all felt free to share our intimate thoughts on the work we’re doing?

We think it’s worth striving for, so we can find out.

Have you shown love at work? What resulted?

Image via

Your Whole Self on LinkedIn?

Haig Chahinian

LinkedIn can seem to be a dry and sometimes less than interesting place. Why?

We understand the need for LinkedIn to pass through strict business firewalls so employees in more conservative organizations can access profiles and update their statuses during the workday. And it makes sense for there to exist a social media site specifically for professionals to connect with one another. The main problem lies in our collective definition of what “professional” means.

Just as many people can be shy about referencing the books they read, we fear that joining an extra-curricular group or posting an update with more personal feeling may demonstrate a lack of professionalism. The problem with categorizing life into “personal” and “professional” buckets is that we miss out on the beauty that emerges from integrating the two. And splitting the personal from the professional takes precious energy away from managing work tasks, and strips us of our human nature.

So go ahead: join KnitLinked, a group “for anyone who loves to knit and crochet;” attach the link to an article you read about endangered coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico; and broadcast that extra set of tickets you have to Saturday’s football game. Upon careful analysis, you’ll see there are valuable attributes these details indicate about you as a professional.

Now consider: if we collectively revealed more of ourselves via our LinkedIn profiles, the resulting network could be a much more interesting place.

Is there something you’ve considered including in your LinkedIn profile, but which you continue to hold back?

What Would the Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Mean for You?

Haig Chahinian

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Comptroller Robert Hale | Sec of Defense Robert Gates | Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen
The American workplace will likely be getting sexier. And more productive.

In a report headed for President Obama’s desk, the Pentagon concluded there is minimal risk to lifting “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.  Indeed earlier this week Defense Secretary Robert Gates said repealing the ban is inevitable. Yay!

So the leadership of one of the largest and most powerful organizations in the world–which historically has forced its members into the closet–will be saying it’s OK to bring your sexual identity, of any stripe, to work.

What does this mean for the American workplace as a whole?

On an unconscious–yet very real–level, it will give the rest of us permission to bring our own sexual identity, of any stripe, to our place of work. It may take a while to experience, yet the freedom to exist as sexual beings at work may spark a wave of increased productivity across the nation.

Sounds crazy? Pop singer Ricky Martin felt “a floodgate of energy and creativity just really exploded” after he came out as a gay man, according to his producer Desmond Child. Proclaiming his sexuality to the public, essentially his work environment, has directly impacted his output. His memoir Me is currently among the Top 100 Amazon “Bestsellers in Books.”

One problem in considering the broader implications of bringing sexy back to the workplace is our inclination to quash feelings of sex on the job. Rather than prompting cases of harassment or extra-marital affairs, our sexual energy can be harnessed in service of our task, as long as we’re grounded in our humanity. This may take the form of bringing us closer to our colleagues or clients, for example, and making our day-to-day moments more fun. Imagine this!

Sexuality in the workplace is a complex issue, and one we will continue to explore.

In what ways have you accessed your sexual energy in service of a work task?

Photo of Martin via

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Come Out at Work: With MS

Haig Chahinian

Symptoms of multiple=

Coming out with multiple sclerosis must be a harrowing process, and coming out with it at work has to be even more distressing. Cathy John relates the complexities of coming out with MS, and explores some of the issues specifically related to coming out at work with the condition.

She explains:

…A poll reveals 74 per cent of the public believe MS is fatal… Such misperceptions make a pretty good reason to be tight-lipped – anticipated death is not so hot for your career. Fear of the disease eclipsing their professional reputations and making it difficult to be promoted or recruited, makes people hide their MS for as long as possible. This often then forces people to come out when their condition is rapidly deteriorating, reinforcing negative misconceptions about MS’s aggression. Yet even if employers do have a reasonable understanding of MS they might shy away from a candidate who needs modifications to be made to the workplace, time off sick due to relapses or treatment, and whose fatigue may force them to eventually work part-time.

The Independent article has more insight on this patient’s story about managing the slow onset of MS.

How has multiple sclerosis impacted you in your workplace?

Wearing Shorts to Your White-Collar Job Can Advance Your Career

Haig Chahinian
Eric Schadt at work in uniform.
© Andy Reynolds andyreynolds.com

Despite what Columbia Business School students are hearing, dressing down at work can be a boon to your career. In the words of Eric Schadt, former executive scientific director of research genetics for Rosetta Inpharmatics:

“What I have to do every day is push super hard on the thinking front and on the doing front,” he says. “It’s much easier to push and think hard if you don’t have to think about other things that don’t matter so much.”

It prompts us to evaluate how we spend our energy in preparation for our work day, and how comfort in the workplace relates to hard work, or in Schadt’s case, super hard work.

How comfortable is he on the job? According to The Scientist he owns about 30 identical white polo shirts and 10 pairs of identical khaki shorts, and wears this combination with white socks and Birkenstocks. Read the full story here.

Wearing shorts to work has indeed been lucrative for Schadt.  The organization he helped build was sold to Merck for $620M in 2001.

Columbia students would be impressed.

Shout-out to our friend Piro who initially told us about his friend Eric.

How do you get in gear for your workday?