CED

September 2013

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Editor's Note More Than Ever Before, It's All About MEI Only the motivated, entrepreneurial and inspired thinkers will be truly relevant going forward – do you have MEI leaders? By kIM pHELAN I've had an iPhone 4 for about 18 months and only about a week ago did I finally upload two generations of available updates – and I use the term "I" loosely for, in fact, it was my colleague Jenny who more or less took matters in hand. I don't consider myself the technology moron of the universe, but nor do I deceive myself that I rank among the "advanced." (Truth be told, I gaped like Christmas morning while my kid gave me the 60-second, thumb-zooming tutorial on my phone's new functionality.) Geeze, I can't believe how much things are changing – and how fast. Thankfully, I'm not the only one who says so. Thomas Friedman, best-selling author and columnist at the New York Times, was keynoting at the American Public Works Association Congress Aug. 25 in Chicago, my own backyard, so I went to check it out. Turns out, the volume and velocity of change in our world has caught his notice, too. Friedman, who wrote "The World is Flat," in 2004, as well as "That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back," says that something big happened, something of Guttenberg (think printing press) proportion, that has completely and forever altered the world. That "something" was the merger of globalization and IT. When he wrote "Flat," he observed the powerful convergence of three big technologies – the PC, the Internet, and workflow software – the combination of which, for the first, time enabled individuals to author their own content digitally, share it for free anywhere, and collaborate with anyone, with one click. When he sat down to write another book in 2011, he discovered that in a entrepreneurial in thought and deed mere seven years' time, the world was than, indeed, any of our forebearers. not the same place it had been in '04. I can't honestly say that I would Think about it: In 2004, believe it or characterize most 18- to 28-year-olds in not, we didn't have Facebook, Twitter, these terms. Surely there is a disconnect LinkedIn, Skype, "cloud computing," or between the people we are (and are anything close to the power we hold producing) and the people for whom in our palms today – the smartphone, the hyperconnected world is screaming. or its hip younger sibling, the tablet. Therefore, I find Friedman's five tips Friedman's New York Times predefor survival quite timely and true. cessors of the '60s, '70s and '80s used 1.) Think like an immigrant. They to come to the office each morning are "Paranoid Opportunists," taking wondering what their seven media action to find a better place but taking competitors would choose to write nothing for granted. Stay hungry. about that day. He does the same 2.) Think like an artisan. They thing today, he said; only he comes to made each item one at a time and the office each morning wondering then carved their initials on their work. what his seven billion competitors will Take pride in what you do. be writing about. 3.) Always be in beta mode. Be Essentially, we have gone from bea work in progress, keep reinventing ing a connected (or flat) world, he says, yourself, keep learning and stretching. to becoming a hyperconnected world. Never think of yourself as "finished," or And no generation has ever known you will be. anything like it. 4.) Remember that PQ + CQ > IQ. Now, my kid and yours can run Your passion quotient and your curiobroadband circles around anyone sity quotient trump the intelligence born prior to, say, 1988, but while all quotient – always. this technology change (and depen 5.) Think like an entrepreneur, dence) has been going on, there have and always give a little extra. also been changes occurring in the 6.) I shall add a final tip of my own: marketplace that are redefining who Do not pass up the very special and what will be relevant both now opportunity AED is offering your and in the future. company's next gen leader to Let me just say that again: Technology experience the business wisdom and this hyperconnected world are of Disney Institute – it will be deeply changing who will be relevant. Relevant worthwhile to attend the Leadership meaning employable. Relevant meanAcademy this November. (aed-leadering successful, productive and happy ship.com). in their work. Relevant meaning set Thanks for checking it out, and apart; leading instead of following. thanks for reading. To be relevant, says Friedman, we Kim Phelan (kphelan@aednet.org) all – and especially the young – must is the executive editor of Construction be better critical-thinkers, better comEquipment Distribution and director of municators, more motivated, more programs for AED. inspired, more creative, and more September 2013 | Construction Equipment Distribution | www.cedmag.com | 7 7_editors note_KP.indd 7 8/28/13 12:50 PM

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