Do we really have too few businesswomen?

  I am sure that all girls have ever heard such a thing in their life – “You are a girl, it’s not your place; you should be in the kitchen laying a table”. This is what we call gender discrimination and I think that we and the next generation will not hear this sentence any more. Let’s see what Sheryl Sandberg thinks.

  Sandberg (2010) presents a speech about why we have too few businesswomen. She has been the chief operating officer of Facebook since 2008, prior to which she has been the vice president of Global Online sales and Operations at Google. Moreover, before joining Facebook she was considering becoming a senior executive for the Washington Post Company. She is a successful businesswoman and obviously has the dignity for that. While imagining these positions and the responsibilities tied to them, we may think that women are not in a so bad situation as the topic implies. However, Sheryl thinks that women are not reaching the top of any profession anywhere in the world. She believes that women are dropping out of the Fortune 500 CEO jobs or other equivalent positions and there are a few reasons for that:

•  women underestimate their abilities
•  women do not negotiate for themselves in the workforce
•  women attribute their success to external factors

  She is right in a sense that there is still the influence of historical mentality about women being the housekeeper and the men bringing the money. Consequently we need time to get out of that shackles. Nowadays the picture is completely different and will be much better after a few years. For already a decade women are very active in terms of their careers and I have many bright examples of successful businesswomen. Not going too far, I am working in a company the director of which is a woman for already 15 years. We have three departments two of which are headed by women. Two weeks ago we had an order of writing business plan for a Policlinic the director of which is again a very successful businesswoman. One might think that they are extremes, but such examples are too many to be extremes. This is Armenia, which is a country with people still having conventional mentality. I guess in more developed countries women do not stand down. Moreover, if you open the door of any classroom in any University, 60-70% of the students are girls and if not all of them, but at least 10% will succeed in their careers.

  According to Sheryl, women do not succeed because they do not believe themselves, they do not think that they deserve promotion and they don’t even understand their own success. The fact that Sheryl stated and I think is more likely to be the major reason of women escape from workforce is the family and child. Statistics shows that women of higher positions either do not have children or have not more than one. On the contrary higher positions do not affect the number of children that men have. As Sheryl notes this is because men do not share the housework with women. I think that this is true especially for Armenia.  

  Overall I liked the podcast; the topic was relevant to the image of Sandberg as a woman on the peak of her career and giving women an advice to be self-confident.  

                                                           

                                                            You choose !

How to manage your choices?

Yes or no? - This is the hardest question that people confront with. It becomes even harder with the increasing number of alternatives. We make many choices every day, every week and over our life thus altering the direction of the latter. We eat, study, shop for new dresses, we work, take a nap, we return a phone call, we meet people and on and on. Some people enjoy decision-making/choice-making process and think that they are good at choosing; hence they do not take the situation seriously. Usually do-and-see attitude towards important decisions result in irrevocable consequences. On the contrary some people get confused when they are faced with decisive situations. As many alternatives you have as harder it is to make comparisons, cost and benefit analysis, to do tests, judgments, etc. Nowadays market is filled with different types of innovative products with different options, the majority of which are not uniquely differentiated though. It becomes harder and harder to choose even a simple product or service.

I usually become nervous when there are dozens of non-differentiated alternatives, because it is harder to manage those choices. I liked Sheena Iyengar’s podcast “How to make choosing better”; she speaks about choice overload, the negative consequences of that and proposes techniques to businessman for attracting customers and making it easier for them to choose and more importantly buy the products.  Sheena Iyengar is S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division of the Columbia Business School; she is the author of “The art of Choosing” book, which is one of the Amazon.com’s Top 10 Books in Business & Investing.

I liked her clear English and her way of communicating with the audience. Interestingly all the facts she mentioned were based on studies conducted by her. In the result of one of her experiments she has found out that people are more inclined to stop near the shelf with more types of the same product to sample one, but on the contrary they are more likely to buy when they encounter less choices. She has made studies since her graduate years and compiled them in her book. According to Iyengar (2012), people are more likely to delay choosing or make worse choices due to choice overload: it is impossible to compare all the hundreds of alternatives. Iyengar brings the example of Walmart andAldi: Walmart today offers 100,000 products, but the nineth largest retailer in the world today is Aldi, and it offers only 1,400 products – only one kind od canned tomato sauce.

In the end Iyengar suggests businessmen the following simple techniques to mitigate the choices overload problem and thus attract more buyers:

·         cut - get rid of the inessential choices

·         concretize the choices so the customer understands the difference between them

·         categorize - have more categories but less choices

·         condition for complexity – gradually increase
the complexity  

For more details about Sheena Iyengar you can visit www.sheenaiyengar.com

What is wrong with what we eat?

I have a simple recipe for designing my day ration and advise everybody to use that: a protein and fiber rich breakfast, meat/fish/poultry for dinner and only plants/ vegetables/ fruits for supper. I never have problems with my stomach and don’t gain excess weight. Last year I had a paper-based project which was related to the importance of eating a balanced diet. I found out that indeed a diet based on plenty of fruits and vegetables, some protein-rich foods such as meat, fish and lentils, some milk and dairy foods, and not too much fat, salt or sugar, will give your organism all the nutrients it needs. But is that way of eating well for our environment, don’t I harm my surrounding in any way? Unfortunately when deciding what to eat we usually do not think about the consequences that our decisions may have on the nature; we are self-centered and think of only our preferences and delight.  That is the nature of the humankind.

In his podcast Bittman (2008) talks about what is wrong with what we eat and the interconnections among eating too much meat, obesity, global warming and other negative consequences of our behavior. I find him trustworthy because he is an author of several books in the area of food and cooking, a professional journalist, a writer of The New York Times, and the senior writer of Cook’s Illustrated (presenting the best methods of preparing food).

The point of Bittman is quite accurate and clear: We should take care of what we eat and advocate others to eat a better diet: less meat, less junk and more plants. Overconsumption of meat causes heart cancer and has a direct relation to the altered atmosphere. There are many studies on the effect of rising livestock production on the global warming. Global warming is vital and we know that the biggest share of CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere is due to energy production and transportation. Bittman notes that the third contributor of altered atmosphere is the increasing livestock production as a result of increased demand for meat and dairy products. More of the planet's capacity is devoted to growing grain for meat and dairy animals, more land and water is devoted to supporting livestock and more water and atmosphere is polluted from the excess nitrogen and greenhouse gases we create to grow crops fed to animals for meat.What he suggests is not to give up consuming meat; he even mentions that he will never stop eating it, the goal is to hinder the steady increase of meat consumption and even reduce it say from half a pound per day to half a pound per week.

Bittman also describes the development of population from the era of self production to the era of industrialization. At first people were producing locally and were consuming their own food, because no supermarkets existed and minimum food was transported. Then fresh and frozen food began to be shipped for the first time; fast food, semi prepared food was produced and home cooking was cut back. The market became more industrialized, people became more civilized, preferences were changed and demands were increased. These progressions had also their side effects on the environment and need considerable attention to be given both by all countries united for a general purpose and by individual households in their daily decisions.

The podcast is quite interesting: Bittman thoroughly explains the reasons for reducing the consumption of meat, brings interesting examples and photos that make his speech more convincing. Nevertheless this is just an informative and awareness rising speech; there is no need to pursue anything; everything is more than clear and evident.

Do video games make kids smarter ?

    Recently I and my classmates were discussing an article related to video games in our Analytical Writing class, where the author, Kris Sage, speaks about the educational benefits of video games. He tells that while enjoying the excitement of playing he has acquired different skills: reading, writing, analytical and communicative. As Sage (2009) interprets, playing video games is a process of thinking, judgments and analysis, when one should be cautious, flexible, and able to quickly orientate and respond to challenges. Nevertheless he is not pursuing; he only offers to have a thought before prohibiting the child to go near to the joystick. 

There are many contradicting opinions about the subject; therefore I searched for other points of view trying to strengthen my opinion that negative impacts of video games offset the positive impacts. I found a podcast on TEDTalk.com about how video games make kids smarter. Gabe Zicherman is an author, leader, well-known public speaker and eventually an entrepreneur; he is a board member of StartOut organization dedicated to facilitate and develop entrepreneurship. He is the author of two books on the subject of gamification - “the process of using game-thinking and game-mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems”, is the chair of gamification summit and the creator of gamification blog. Zicherman (2011) shows how video games develop the multi-tasking and problem-solving skills among the players (children). He presents himself as a vital example of turning the lifestyle of playing video games into a career that pays money. It is predictive that 10 000 hours of his life he spent playing Civilization. I remember how my elder brother for 5 years was playing a similar type of game – Age of Mythology. I played it as well and can assure that it is really a very interesting and sometimes difficult strategic game, which is based on speed and logic. He introduces articles that he read in newspapers about the effects of video games on kids and with persuasive examples assures you that video games are what children need. His experience is really substantive, which is revealed in the cogency of his speech.  However taking video games as the best way to develop those skills is not right; there are many other ways to do that without all the negative effects: finding the real world uninteresting, cutting back from simple face-to-face communication, distraction of attention from other important knowledge that can be acquired only in schools, health effects of sitting long hours in front of computers, etc.

Small (2009), Director of the ULCA Center on Aging, made a similar finding that multi-tasking and problem solving skills are developed and brain is activated when doing internet searching, in this way our brains adapt to new technology.

Another example presented by the Zicherman is how a successful business-person, educator Ananth Pai, placed a standard curriculum in one of the schools of Minnesota, where children were given computer games that taught them math and language.  Within eighteen weeks of game-based learning Ananth’s class went from 3^rd grade level in reading a math to a 4^th grade level. When interviewed children said that learning was fun.

The truth of Zicherman’s statements is that video games may help kids to interpret text and voice, operate characters, manage objectives and more importantly manage interruptions by parents while playing. By no doubt today kids are smarter than before; they are independent and self confident, they have different interests and expectations. The technology, innovative products, surroundings, people, communication, all of these has their effect on today’s ever smarter children. The era of reading old books is over and it is time of digital world. Nevertheless the findings are not conclusive and there is a need for further examination.

My conclusion is that the only prescription is as follows: get into the game with your kids, try to understand the context of the game, what they feel, why they play, do not just fight against them, listen to your kids, play with them and give directions. By communicating with children you will be able to give them advice, set them in the right direction, rather than just prohibit.

Lying as an inseparable act in our life.

A month ago I watched a film or more precisely an American television series – Lie to Me, which consists of 48 episodes and each episode has its logical beginning and end. In the show the local and federal law enforcement parties assign Dr. Cal Lightman and his colleagues in The Lightman Group to detect criminals by their body language, postures, facial expressions and other psychological indicators. It is very interesting, because the actor is simultaneously explaining and interpreting the indicators.  After watching the movie I started to pay attention to those expressions while talking to people and noticed that indeed there are signals that give you lots of information even if the person is silent.

I found this video in TEDTalks and it interested me a lot, because the author is speaking about how to spot the liar and as I have a big experience due to Dr. Lightman (Tim Roth) it was interesting for me to make comparisons.

Pamela Meyer is a social media expert, founder and CEO of social networking company who has made a research on deception over several years, took advanced courses on deception detection and summarized her knowledge, findings and experiences in a book called Liespotting, which has a high rating in Amazon.com. In this podcast she speaks about lying, tips of spotting a liar and man’s endeavor to seek the truth. I liked the way she was explaining: at first a picture or a video was shown, then she asked a question to think about and in the end she explained the answer. She speaks clearly and it is a pleasure to listen to her. More information and updated research findings on liespotting can be found on her blog, www.liespotting.com

Meyer (2010), presents her findings about the liars and deception, according to which lying is a cooperative act and it is only our choice to believe the liar and get involved or dismiss it. We are against lying, but all of us lie and not always we have bad intention. However most often we are lied to unwillingly which may have high costs for us. Meyer’s study showed that on a given day we are lied to 10 to 200 times including lies with good intention, but most interestingly we lie more to strangers – 3 times within the first 10 minutes of meeting,  than we lie to our friends, colleagues.

Lie spotting is a science of practical and proven analytical techniques guaranteed to detect lying and all other forms of verbal deceit. Those techniques were developed by American national espionage, intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies over the last 75 years. 

While listening to Meyer and searching for other articles on deception detection I separated the following not exhaustive list of indicators that signal a deception:

•  looking too much or too little into your eyes in order either to convince you or to avoid eye-contact
• hesitating to response, repeating the question, mispronouncing the words
• over-emphasizing trivial details and tending to avoid important details
• using nervous and/or unusual body language
• lowering vocal tone
• fidgeting and touching the face while talking

Eventually it does not matter who is the liar and of what nationality he/she is; we all use the same expressions and techniques when lying. Above mentioned are just behaviors and the presence of any of them does not necessarily mean that the person is lying. However if you notice clusters of them, you should go deeper, ask hard questions, walk into curiosity and follow the gestures, expressions. Nowadays even technology is developed enough to investigate what the truth looks like. Nevertheless, if we combine the science of liespotting with the ability to look and listen, we will never be engaged in the act of lying and will create our little honest world, which is a step forward to the truth.

   A man with a facial expression like the first smiley is inclined to lie,
    while a person with a natural smile is most likely telling the truth.

Source:  Meyer, P. (Social media expert). (2011, July). How to spot a liar. TEDTalks (Video podcast). Retrieved from http://castroller.com/Podcasts/TedtalksVideo/2635076

Let's use new methods of education with more interaction and communication.

  While trying to find some interesting podcasts on education, Salman Khan’s TED Talk interested me a lot; he was bringing the educational process to a platform completely different from the conventional one; emphasizing the role of computers, videos, online tutorials and interactive educational web sites in an efficient process of education. I am the advocate of the latter and for two years was reaping the benefits of this approach.

  Before coming to ATC I was studying in Yerevan State Agrarian University, which is one of the oldest Universities in Armenia. It still adheres to the traditional understanding of the education process, student-lecturer relationship and lecturing techniques, when the lecturer and the student interact only during the exam, and when the lecturer is the main speaker in the classroom and the “historical” notebook of the lecturer is the only “source of reference”. On the contrary, ATC is one of the few Universities in Armenia where open-mindedness, the aspiration to adopt the successful education methods and the interactive classes are the cornerstones of the studying process.


                                                                                                                             

     From monologue-                                                                To interactive
                lecturer                                                                            group-work
                                                                              

  Though Khan was developing the topic in order to advertise or more precisely introduce its non-for-profit organization – KhanAcademy to the audience, however he was speaking about a phenomenon which is vital for everybody and in the end is of strategic importance for the whole economy.  KhanAcademy is a portal for the provision of world-class online education to anyone anywhere. I went there and was really influenced with the large amount of mathematical and scientific information available. Many school districts are using it to share their knowledge and experience and always be in touch with each other. In ATC we as well have used interactive portals within the frameworks of different courses. In this curriculum we are using the Pearsonopenclass within the framework of our Analytical Writing course; it is a simple version compared with KhanAcademy. Therefore, all the benefits that Khan was listing were familiar to me. People are satisfied with the service they provide, which was obvious from the comments that Khan read and I could check under the wide range of videos/lessons that would not be delivered without a demand. The great advantage of having access to online tutorials, videos is that even if you have missed the lesson you can feel yourself as attending it by watching the video, pausing it, going back and ahead as many times as you wish until you get the message. You can make tests, fail, watch the material, test again and so forth; you don’t have to show mastery, it’s just a learning process. As one philosopher stated, failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.

  I really enjoyed watching this podcast. The moral was that we should be flexible to keep pace with the developments and opportunities of new technologies in order not to waste our time on writing lectures, but using that time for a little more communication, interaction and new experiences. It will be more interesting to sit at your home comfort and do a group work with people from different countries and different nationalities, won’t it?  

Source:  Salman Khan. (Educator). (2011, March). Let's use video to reinvent education (Video podcast). Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html