Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Articles

The Organizational Culture of…Umami Burger

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2012-10-31 18.10.21

I visited Umami Burger Pasadena, a hipster burger restaurant in old town Pasadena. As I was being seated, I could not help but notice how open and sleek the restaurant felt. The doors were wide open and the front of the restaurant was covered with all windows. Even the kitchen in the back was open – there were no dividing walls in sight. The white and silver colors definitely made the restaurant feel modern, while the plastic fork covered lights gave the restaurant an aura of hipster. The paintings on the wall were abstract and incredibly simple, nicely integrating with the rest of the feel in the restaurant.

2012-10-31 18.04.48

Every Umami Burger Restaurant has the same menu, except for a signature burger that is unique to each location. I decided to dive in and have the signature burger unique to this location – Le Cordon Bleu Burger designed by the local culinary arts students at the Pasadena College of Culinary Arts. It was an expensive, yet delicious delicatessen burger.

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Book Review: The Starfish and the Spider – Brafman and Beckstrom

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The following is an analytical review of Ori Brafman’s and Rod Beckstrom’s The Starfish and the Spider.

Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom are both authors, entrepreneurs, and MBA graduates from Stanford. Brafman is not only interested in thinking and writing about leadership and organizational dynamics, but he also is a practitioner who has put many of his principles into practice. For Beckstrom, his areas of specialty are cybersecurity, global issues, and organizational strategy and leadership. Furthermore, he has diverse leadership experience that ranges from being a CEO to working for the US Homeland Security.

The Starfish and the Spider is a compelling book that uses the symbolism of a starfish and a spider to describe the importance of decentralization in life, culture, and economics.

The thesis is that every organization needs to move towards decentralization, in some manner or form, if they are to not only exist, but also thrive in the future – in other words, the rules have changed.

Spanning across the book, the authors outline eight principles of decentralization, which they use to explain their thesis: [Read more…] about Book Review: The Starfish and the Spider – Brafman and Beckstrom

Book Review: Built to Last – Collins and Porras

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The following is an analytical book review of Collins’ and Porras’ Built to Last.

Jim Collins is a prolific researcher, writer, and teacher of enduring great companies. He graduated from Stanford University with degrees in business administration and mathematical sciences. He also used to research and teach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Jerry I. Porras is the Lane Professor of Organizational Behavior, Emeritus, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Like Collins, he is also interested in the characteristics of visionary companies, especially focusing in on the organizational components. He received his BSEE from Texas Western College, his MBA from Cornell University, and his Ph.D from the University of California.

The authors have two primary objectives: to develop a conceptual framework based on the common dynamics and characteristics of highly visionary companies, and to effectively communicate these concepts so that they are useful to others (Location 459). In doing this, they discovered that all visionary companies have a core ideology, an unrelenting drive for progress, and an organizational structure to preserve the core and stimulate progress (Location 4974). The specific methods that companies use to implement those requirements may change and are the topics in part two of the book. [Read more…] about Book Review: Built to Last – Collins and Porras

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence

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The most innovative business educators will, we hope, recognize the importance of emotional intelligence in higher education for helping their graduates become leaders instead of mere managers.

Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, Annie McKee – Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence

Who are the new Untouchables?

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Those who have the ability to imagine new services and new opportunities and new ways to recruit work…are the new Untouchables. Those with the imagination to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies will thrive.

– Thomas Friedman – The World is Flat

A Deliberate Waste of Talent?

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Current approaches to education and training are hobbled by assumptions about intelligence and creativity that have squandered the talents and stifled the creative confidence of untold numbers of people. This waste stems partly from an obsession with certain types of acadmic ability and from a preoccupation with standardized testing. The waste of talent is not deliberate…

The waste of talent may not be deliberate but it is systemic. It is systemic, because public education is a system, and it is based on deep-seated assumptions that are no longer true.

– Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds: Learning To Be Creative

Changing Education Paradigms – RSA

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Watch this talk by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award, about changing education paradigms. He raises a lot of insightful points regarding the apparent and non-apparent outcomes of the enlightenment educational paradigm that has dominated our learning landscape.

He argues that “great learning happens in groups” and that “collaboration is the stuff of growth.” He also brings forward the argument that the habits of our institutions need to be altered, if significant change in education and, in turn, our society is to happen.

What would it look like if we thought differently about human capacity?

Watch this short film to learn and be amazed.

Book Review: The Mentor’s Guide – Zachary

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Book jacketLois Zachary does not only set out the basic principles and best practices of mentoring in The Mentor’s Guide, she actually goes a step further and helps readers discover their own personal mentoring style and preferences.

Through many exercises, she guides the reader through introspection and action. Thus, she not only conceptually ties mentoring to adult education, but she actually writes in a manner according to the principles of adult education.

Consequently, she challenges the prevailing myths of mentoring, and proposes a model of mentoring where both mentor and mentee are fully engaged and learning from one another. Her proposed model is one that is based on critical reflection and application, rather than knowledge transfer and acquisition (Location 300).

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