Patriotism, Work and Comment.

After a busy week on the road, a few catch-up items ...

Patriotism Canadiana Style- The Olympics provide an opportunity for national pride and flag-waving. In my journeys through various cities, hotels, and airports, I have observed a significant percentage of the population adorned in patriotic colours and paraphanalia - much more than one typically encounters in Canada. While Olympic ratings numbers are very high and will only increase with the hockey craziness this weekend, the more significant measurements in my mind are those that are observable in behaviour. Last night I was flying aboard a Westjet flight to Calgary when the women's hockey final was on. It appeared that 99% of the TVs were tuned to the hockey game and when the final buzzer sounded, the plane burst into applause. A creative flight attendant's adaptation of Tom Connors The Hockey Song engaged the entire audience and it was a moment of spontaneous Canadiana patriotism, at 38,000 feet. Cool.

Work - A fascinating lunchtime conversation at our staff meeting provoked worthwhile insights about how our views on work impact not only our persona's but also the workplace. Talking about how to create buy-in and enthusiasm within a company, one of my colleagues insightfully observed that "Freedom 55" mindset and preoccupation with retirement and what we will do after work reinforces an assumption that work is something to be enjoyed for what we get out of it, rather than the inherent satisfaction that the project provides. That individual attitude is reinforced by corporate mindsets which hire and layoff based on short term economic cycles, communicating a lack of inherent loyalty and investment in the person. So we end up with two parties, neither of whom has a real loyalty or investment in each other and commitment to achieve a mission together, engaging in pretended corporate rah-rah exercises, supposedly expecting enthusiasm and high performance to be the outcome. (Thankfully there are many exceptions but the prevalence of this is clearly too wide-spread.) Some of our problems are clear systemic.

Recommending Comment - Most everything that is included in the fine publication of Comment is worth recommending (albeit I can hardly be described as a neutral observer), but if you are not a subscriber receiving our recent print edition, you are in my view missing our best yet. The print edition requires a paid subscription which of course I highly recommend. Today's email edition includes a fascinating take by David Greusel on the Olympic success of Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue. Enjoy.