Whether you are on a journey of self-reflection or wish to influence others, this definitive guide to cross-cultural engagement will help you to understand your own cultural narrative and better connect with people of other cultural backgrounds.Curious about Culture by Gaiti Rabbani invites readers on a journey of introspection to discover the multitude of cultural influences that shape their view of the world.Culture is not geographically bound. It is about more than just where you were born and where you live. Gender, generation and language, among other factors, all contribute to your cultural lens and how well you can connect with others.Improving cross-cultural engagement starts with understanding yourself. You will uncover your own cultural drivers that will help you cultivate meaningful cross-cultural conversations. We all have multiple facets to our identities and some of them are likely to be stigmatised. The author encourages readers to be curious and dive beyond the apparent cues when engaging across cultures, highlighting the pitfalls of drawing upon assumptions and defaulting to stereotypes.Anecdotes from the leading cultural intelligence specialist, Gaiti Rabbani's rich personal and professional experiences along with research-based insights, create a relatable, insightful and thought-provoking read. Whether you are on a journey of self-reflection or wish to influence others, this book will help you to understand your own cultural narrative and better connect with people of other cultural backgrounds.Curious about Culture is a practical reference for the enterprising and curious professional.
In this striking social history, Barbara M. Benedict draws on the texts of the early modern period to discover the era's attitudes toward curiosity, a trait we learn was often depicted as an unsavory form of transgression or cultural ambition.
Everyone is born curious. So, what happens? Why do some people become less curious than others? For individuals, leaders, and companies to be successful, they must determine the things that hold curiosity hostage. Think of the most innovative companies and you will notice they employ people who do not accept the status quo, they aren’t reluctant to change, they evolve with the times, they look for problems to solve, and focus on asking questions. Drawing on decades research and incorporating interviews from some of the top leaders of our time, Hamilton examines the factors that impact curiosity including fear, assumptions, technology, and environment (FATE). Through her ground-breaking research, she has created the Curiosity Code Index (CCI) assessment to determine how these factors have impacted curiosity and to provide an action plan to transform individuals and organizations to help improve areas impacted by curiosity, including innovation, engagement, creativity, and productivity. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious” – Albert Einstein
Colonial America presented a new world of natural curiosities for settlers as well as the London-based scientific community. In American Curiosity, Susan Scott Parrish examines how various peoples in the British colonies understood and represented the natural world around them from the late sixteenth century through the eighteenth. Parrish shows how scientific knowledge about America, rather than flowing strictly from metropole to colony, emerged from a horizontal exchange of information across the Atlantic. Delving into an understudied archive of letters, Parrish uncovers early descriptions of American natural phenomena as well as clues to how people in the colonies construed their own identities through the natural world. Although hierarchies of gender, class, institutional learning, place of birth or residence, and race persisted within the natural history community, the contributions of any participant were considered valuable as long as they supplied novel data or specimens from the American side of the Atlantic. Thus Anglo-American nonelites, women, Indians, and enslaved Africans all played crucial roles in gathering and relaying new information to Europe. Recognizing a significant tradition of nature writing and representation in North America well before the Transcendentalists, American Curiosity also enlarges our notions of the scientific Enlightenment by looking beyond European centers to find a socially inclusive American base to a true transatlantic expansion of knowledge.
The Spy Museum, the Vacuum Cleaner Museum, the National Mustard Museum—not to mention the Art Institute, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Getty Center: museums have never been more robust, curating just about everything there is and assuming a new prominence in public life. The Return of Curiosity explores museums in the modern age, offering a fresh perspective on some of our most important cultural institutions and the vital function they serve as stewards of human and natural history. Reflecting on art galleries, science and history institutions, and collections all around the world, Nicholas Thomas argues that, in times marked by incredible insecurity and turbulence, museums help us sustain and enrich society. Moreover, they stimulate us to think in new ways about our world, compelling our curiosity and showing us the importance of understanding one another. Thomas looks at museums not simply as storehouses of old things but as the products of meaningful relationships between curators, the public, history, and culture. These relationships, he shows, don’t always go smoothly, but they do always offer new insights into the many ways we value—and try to preserve—the world we live in. The result is a refreshing and hopeful look at museums as a cultural force, one that, by gathering together paintings, tropical birds, antiques, or even our own bodies, offers an illuminating reflection of who we are.
For the first time, the pioneering book that launched the study of art and curiosity cabinets is available in English. Julius von Schlosser’s Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance (Art and Curiosity Cabinets of the Late Renaissance) is a seminal work in the history of art and collecting. Originally published in German in 1908, it was the first study to interpret sixteenth- and seventeenth-century cabinets of wonder as precursors to the modern museum, situating them within a history of collecting going back to Greco-Roman antiquity. In its comparative approach and broad geographical scope, Schlosser’s book introduced an interdisciplinary and global perspective to the study of art and material culture, laying the foundation for museum studies and the history of collections. Schlosser was an Austrian professor, curator, museum director, and leading figure of the Vienna School of art history whose work has not achieved the prominence of his contemporaries until now. This eloquent and informed translation is preceded by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann’s substantial introduction. Tracing Schlosser’s biography and intellectual formation in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century, it contextualizes his work among that of his contemporaries, offering a wealth of insights along the way.
The Curious Advantage is an exploration of the behaviour of curiosity and its central role in the digital age, taking the widest possible exploration of all things curious-historical, contemporary, neuro-scientific, anthropological, behavioural and business. Curiosity has profound implications for organisations, leaders and individuals inhabiting the digital reality. The Curious Advantage provides pragmatic tools and case studies and makes the case for how curiosity is the greatest driver of value in the new digital age. Curiosity is at the heart of the skills required to successfully navigate our digital lives when all futures are uncertain. The Curious Advantage introduces the 7C's of Curiosity model-a useful tool for anyone wanting to lead a curious organisation or who wants to challenge themselves to be actively curious. In this wonderfully pragmatic book, Paul Ashcroft, Simon Brown and Garrick Jones provide the roadmap for curiously navigating and unlocking the opportunities of the new digital reality.
Fifty of the world’s most creative people share their stories and inspirations in this volume created by the Exploratorium science museum. What do music visionary Brian Eno, kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen, science writer Mary Roach, Mythbuster Adam Savage, and Pulitzer-winning journalist Thomas Friedman have in common? They are all game-changers: scientists, artists, entertainers, and activists who revolutionized their fields with bold new perspectives and approaches—and they all had transformative, course-setting experiences at the Exploratorium science museum, the San Francisco landmark visited by a million people a year in person and by millions more online. Join them and forty-five more brilliant thinkers and doers in a wonderfully playful, insightful, and sometimes incredibly moving journey to see how you, too, can harness your powers of observation, inquiry, and engagement to be the change you want to see in the world—regardless of who you are or what you do. Interviewees and subjects include: Oscar-Winning Sound Designer Walter Murch on observation Laurie Anderson on art as a way of knowing Memory Expert Elizabeth Loftus on how we learn Oliver Sacks on perception Mary Roach on how she learned to ask the right questions Adam Savage on the fun of finding things out Mickey Hart on the art of playing to learn, and learning to play California Governor Gavin Newsom on the importance of science Community activist Randy Carter on finding joy in the worst of places . . . and dozens more interviews, insights, and activities suggested by artists, scientists, poets, and politicians, in a book that can help you become more creative—and maybe just change the world.
There’s a growing pattern of not just individual leaders, but entire cultures rebelling against old and ineffectual ways that have long defined what it means to lead. At the heart of rebel leadership is the emergence of five patterns seen in leading organizations across sectors. Together, these patterns outline a framework for how to successfully meet this turbulent new century and thrive. Rebel Leadership will not only reveal these patterns, but will teach the reader how to tap into the power of this framework and make it their own. More precisely, Rebel Leadership will teach readers: • What lies at the heart of success, no matter how much the environmental conditions might change • How leadership is counterintuitively at its most powerful when it moves across individuals and cultures • That, inevitably, there is only one truly sustainable competitive advantage in uncertain times • Where leaders can find the best source for lowering risk in a changing world • Why a long-term view has less to do with the long-term and far more to do with this moment than you’d ever imagine “There are few skills as important as leadership—a skill we must constantly relearn, every one of us, now more than ever. This book is your guide and compass.” Kevin Guskiewicz, Chancellor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “There is no more timely or more important book for those who lead in these uncertain times. Uncertainty is our new normal, or as Robertson writes, our new abnormal—leaders either accept it or they perish. This brilliant, forward-thinking book, its vivid examples, and deep insights, will help you to not only survive uncertainty, but to thrive in it.” Tom Koulopoulos, author, Revealing the Invisible and The Gen Z Effect “We live in times of change and rapid adjustment. Many aspects of how we do things will require sensible and well-thought-through revisions. Our approach to leadership must change as well. The question is how. Larry Robertson’s newest book gives that question the needed time and attention it deserves. The result is at once insightful, revealing, and instructive. The lessons are relatable and powerful. The stories make you feel a part of them. And when you finish, you don’t just feel prepared to lead in a new way, you realize he’s already launched you on your journey. Read this book.” Milena Z. Fisher, Ph.D., President, Co-Founder, The Creativity Post “Bob Marley was a Soul Rebel. Ruth Ginsburg was a Gender Rebel. In his new, must-read, book, Larry Robertson challenges us all to embrace ‘Rebel Leadership.’ In the post-Covid era, we’ll need to run toward new ideas about how to create lasting change, and as usual, Larry charts a course we can follow with daring and audacity.” Robert Egger, Founding Board Member, World Central Kitchen “Rebel Leadership offers a refreshing approach to leading in an environment where we can no longer wait to ride out the waves of uncertainty. With a blend of surprising insights, actionable ideas, and vivid storytelling, it’s a must-read for leaders looking for new ways to navigate an ever-changing business landscape.” Teri Evans, former Columnist Desk Editor, Inc. Magazine “Whatever role you fill, whatever game you play, to be at your best, you’ve got to take a bigger view. Seeing beyond your own position, but also beyond the game itself, is so important—never more so than today. When that’s your habit, you see more options, make better decisions, and set yourself up to lead with excellence—no matter what role you play. In Rebel Leadership, Larry Robertson takes the meaning of all this to a whole new level. You’ll come away inspired and wiser for the read. It’s a book worthy of your time and attention, no matter what game you play.” Terry Malone, Football Coach, New Orleans Saints, Michigan Wolverines, Bowling Green Falcons “Leadership isn’t a title needing to be filled. More than ever, it is a true responsibility, both individual and collective. The ripple effects of the choices we make matter as never before. Larry Robertson’s Rebel Leadership reflects this understanding, and opens our minds up to a new and necessary way to approach leadership. He sheds important light on why some organizations are thriving in this new and deeply unpredictable landscape, and offers important and rarified insights into the true sources of organizational power and adaptability. The book will change your view, but more importantly, it will increase your return on leadership.” Janeen Gelbart, CEO, Co-founder, Indiggo/Return on Leadership® “As change and uncertainty accelerate, today’s organizations risk being engulfed by chaos or denying reality. Rebel Leadership gives us the framework to actively engage and build a more adaptable and agile culture in which to thrive. With page-turning prose and compelling stories and examples, Rebel Leadership gives you a new, better, and more impactful view of leadership.” Tripp Eldredge, President, CEO, DMR/Interactive
