Emotional Intelligence: EI-EI-Oh!

When I am working with new employees, I usually ask them to do some form of personality or behavioral assessment.  These assessments help us figure out what type of work they most enjoy (so we can match them up to the right job), where their strengths and weaknesses lie (so we can help them create a development plan), and what their current “emotional intelligence” - EI -  score is.  We measure emotional intelligence to determine a person’s ability to handle himself and interact with others.  A high score indicates

Caring vs. Justice? What's Your Ethical Style?

In class this week, I had to complete an ethical orientation questionnaire. The quiz was 9 questions evaluating whether I tend to use a "Caring" or a "Justice" mentality when dealing with ethical situations. My score was 5 for the "Justice" orientation and 4 for the "Caring" orientation. At first, I thought this was probably a bad sign - that my scores were split down the middle. Using an ethic of justice might remove some of the emotion from a decision, lending it to a right vs. wrong outlook. Using an ethic of caring would allow for each situation to be examined on an individual basis. After I read a bit more of the explanation, I realized that an even score would probably benefit me, since I can see both perspectives, and I hope that I would use the appropriate amount of caring and justice to determine the right decision for any given situation.

Sixth Sense Technology - and a good book!

A couple of weeks ago, I finished the book, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (2012).  It follows the story of the author, Cheryl Strayed, as she, a novice hiker, sets off to hike a large portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.  Along the way, she goes through stretches where she is far removed from civilization – and food and water.  Cheryl has to rely solely on her guidebook (a printed-paper copy of an actual book) to provide information about available resources and things to watch out for along the trail.  She hiked the trail around 1995, so this was in the early ages of the internet and way before smartphones.

As part of my assignment for class this week, I watched this incredible TED talk about Sixth Sense technology. I could not stop thinking about what a difference SixthSense technology would make for campers and hikers.  Of course, it would have made a difference for Cheryl Strayed in 1995, but even today, with all our technological advancements, there is not a product that brings these tools of the trail into one seamless experience! 

The original TED talk was in 2009 - 7 years ago! Can you imagine the progress researchers have made?