No Children Left Inside
By Terrance Malkinson

It’s time to reconnect our children with the outdoors, where there are no electrical outlets and no technology.  Instead of passing summer months hiking, swimming and telling stories around the campfire, children today are more likely to attend computer or weight-loss camps or the movies. 2008 Audubon Medal recipient, Richard Louv describes in his book, Last Child in the Woods, a phenomenon called nature-deficit disorder. His book has sparked a national discussion about the disconnect between children and the natural world.  Louv believes that the lack of nature experiences in the lives of today's wired generation leads to disturbing childhood trends, including increases in obesity, attention-deficit disorders, depression, as well as other disorders.

Louv's book brings together a new and growing body of research indicating that early exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development, and for physical and emotional health extending throughout adulthood. Louv offers practical solutions and simple ways to heal today’s broken bond with nature.

Last Child in the Woods makes a case for a return to an awareness of and appreciation for the natural world. Nature will teach children science and nurture their creativity. Participants will become more aware that they are part of a greater ecosystem not bound by social customs and norms. Participants can be true to themselves, and are able to see others as valued individuals, regardless of race, class, religion, and so on. Lessons learned will be important when they reach adulthood for career success, as organizations increasingly understand and embrace environmental sustainability into their products and services.

Further Reading:

Henley, T., Rediscovery: Ancient Pathways – New Directions, Lone Pine Publishing, ISBN 1-55105-077-3, 1996.

Louv, R., Last Child in the Woods, Algonquin Books, ISBN 156512605X, 2008.

Miles, J., and S. Priest, Adventure Education, Venture Publishing, ISBN 0-910251-39-8. 1990.

Priest. S., and M.A. Gass, Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, Human Kinetics, ISBN 0-87322-637-2.  1997.

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the engineering community:

• Innovation is critical to economic growth.  Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton Christensen, in their article “The Innovators DNA” (Harvard Business Review, 87(12):61-67, December 2009. www.hbr.org), discuss how innovative entrepreneurs differ from typical executives.  They found that five “discovery skills” distinguish the most creative executives.  In a second article in the same issue “How Open Innovation Can Help you Cope in Lean Times” (pp. 68-76) Henry Chesbrough and Andrew Garman discuss five “inside-out” strategic moves that reduce cost and facilitate innovation by opening up projects to investment and development by outside interests.

• “The penalty for lack of financial savvy is severe” states Annamaria Lusardi and Peter Tufano in their forethought article “Teach Workers about the Perils of Debt” (Harvard Business Review 87(11):22-24, November 2009, www.hbr.org). They polled a representative national sample of 1,000 consumers and found that only 36 percent of the respondents correctly answered a simple credit card financial question.  The authors suggest that it would be wise for employers to provide training in debt literacy to their employees. 

• Mentoring refers to activities that an experienced person engages in to help other person to do a job more effectively and to progress in their career. The mentor is usually someone who had "been there, done that" and the mentee is often a new employee or an employee who is seen to have great potential with the organization.  Laura Francis in “Shifting the Shape of Mentoring” (Training and Development, 63(9):36-40, September 2009, www.astd.org) provides a case study of an organization that is creating a global mentoring culture by listening to employees’ needs and embracing cutting edge technology. Benefits and best practices of their e-mentoring program are discussed. A second article in the same issue “The Guiding Hand: Mentoring Women” (pp. 32-35) Michael Laff discusses the importance of, and designing of, a mentorship program for women.

• The most widely quoted definition of sustainability and sustainable development, that of the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,  (www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm) In a special report of the  MIT Sloan Management Review  (“The Business of Sustainability: What It Means to Managers Now,” 51(1):20-26. Fall 2009), Maurice Berns et al. discuss how sustainability pressures are altering business competitively and how business is responding.  The authors conducted in-depth interviews with more than 50 global leaders followed by a survey of more than 1,500 executives and managers on their perspectives.  The article itself contains the high-level findings.  A link is provided in the article to the in-depth research reports. 

• Christopher Steiner provides his perspectives on hiring in companies across America in “Early Risers” (Forbes, 184(9):118-130, 16 November 2009, www.forbes.com).  An interesting article that will provide you with valuable information on business recovery and important implications for managing your career. While on the theme of business recovery.  Michael Copland in his article “My Business is Booming” (Fortune, 159(12):64-66, 8 June 2009) provides six success stories of entrepreneurial business.

• A series of seven articles in the November, 2009 issue of Policy Options [30(10)] discuss health care reform.  Antonia Maioni in the article, “The Presidential Bully Pulpit and the Continuum of US Health Care Reform” (pp. 16-24) provides a historical overview of the policy continuum of American health care reform starting with Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.  Canadians support the principle of universal health care with the government being the single insurer.  Nik Nanos in the article “Canadians overwhelmingly Support Universal Health Care; Think Obama is on the right Track in the United States” (pp. 12-14) reports on the findings of a recent poll of Canadians. 

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