 | Welcome to the fitting room of reality for Academics |
So you are an academic? Great! Let's just measure you up and see what we have in your size today then shall we? |
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The free flow of ideas and adding to the general sum of human knowledge is your objective?
This is future pacing with real style.
Pure science and pure knowledge make a rarefied atmosphere.
There is so much of it and it is increasing exponentially.
Applying it to business creates learning organisations.
Maintaining a connection between the theory and the practice has always been the challenge.
Which does come first though, the chicken or the egg?
Can they be bound, as Paul Simon claims, in a mother and child reunion, a chicken omelette?
Is necessity the mother of invention or are mothers necessary for invention?
Which is the mother, knowledge or experience?
While you ponder whether I am actually referring to the mind body problem do have a glance at our style recommendations.
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Exciting styles
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Classic accessories
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Sartorial faux pas
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- Clear and concise communication of knowledge
- Alchemical transmutation of knowledge to wisdom
- Curiosity and an open mind
- Epistemological renew-ability
- Knowing the value of everything and respecting the cost
- Pruning away superstition and mythology mercilessly
- Getting to know students and teachers and what inspires them
- Understanding and predicting consequences based on cause and effect
- Respecting what you might not know
- Understanding that being wrong tells you more than being right
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- Communication skills
- Negotiating skills
- Collaboration
- Compromising well
- Coaching skills
- Planning skills
- Estimation skills
- Prioritising skills
- Separating opinion from observation
- Effective listening
- Decision making skills
- Recognising progress
- Ability to focus
- Occam's razor
- Einstein's pliers
- Courage
- Honesty
- A sense of humour
- Optimism
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- Dependency on syllabus
- Relying on tradition
- Being 100% certain
- Academic protectionism
- Fear of change
- Pursuing dead ends
- Feeding live students to dead knowledge
- Underestimating colleagues
- Arrogance
- Impatience
- Procrastination in the face of readiness
- Isolationism
- Unwarranted secrecy
- Indiscretion
- Divide and conquer
- Looking but not seeing
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The trousers of reality has a particularly academic twist. It is primarily an exploration of knowledge and a plea to the business world and the person in the street to
reclaim philosophy, art and science as the cornerstones of civilised, progressive society.
It takes traditional methods along with Agile, Lean and a host of others and challenges them to step up to the scientific method.
It explores the consequences of tribalism and the effect of marketing on sincerity.
It confirms that principle based approaches preserve useful knowledge. It explores the dangers of blind acceptance on one hand and
gullibility on the other. It extols the virtues of reason and collaboration across all disciplines and the value of learning organisations.
Your readiness to learn and adapt is the critical measurement. What you need to do is to get really good at knowing what to learn and how, where and when to use it.
You need a trousers with lots of pockets for all the handy tools you pick up as you go.
You need a trousers that comes with a toolbelt that you can simply use straight away but that will become more and more effective as your own skill grows.
Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned veteran you will feel refreshed as you climb up out of the fog of detail and look back at the proud history of ideas.
The fact that you have the courage to put knowledge ahead of belief tells us that you are ready for grown up trousers.
So try these trousers on and as fashions change you can find that they are functional, comfortable, elastic and flexible in ways that you have only dreamed of.
Your trousers - the trousers of reality.....
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