ShareVision Blog

The reported origin of the word etiquette, was in 18^th century France, when King Louis XIV and his team decided to host a public garden party for the nobility. This first party saw the King’s precious gardens trampled as the nobility mingled, and I’m going to guess, dined on canapés.  Signs were posted to ward off this unwanted behaviour i.e. “Don’t step on le grass”. These signs became known as “etiquette” or a “ticket” warning you to behave.  The signs however failed to stop the flower trampling…. WHAT? People disobeyed the signs! So the poor King was required to pass a legal decree in order to keep the nobility off his damn flowers. Etiquette then evolved to become the name given to all rules of what members of society should or should not do.

The benefits of having machines in our lives cannot be denied. Push a few buttons and coffee is made or the laundry gets done. Say a few words and Siri dials home for you during your commute, or finds you a route to the nearest gas station in an unfamiliar city. All of this is super convenient and if this were a science fiction movie, it might also be the next step in increasing our dependence on artificial intelligence, thus making us ready for when they rise up and take over the world.

We all know of someone, or some organization who has had wild success with their online marketing and media presence. Tweeting the right thing at just the right moment, showing as many Instagram followers as a minor celebrity, and using their social media to attract and hire a younger and hipper demographic to fill their agencies roster.

The end of the old year and the beginning of the new one brings all sorts of top song or movie lists, best news story links, and predictions for the coming year. One news story I read that caught my attention, and yet got little press last year, was one that predicted that within a hundred years we would only have three languages left on earth. Currently we have over 6500 languages. http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/many-spoken-languages.html

“Black Friday”, “Small Business Saturday”, and “Cyber Monday” are the invented seasonal economic marketing boosts that you’ve probably heard way too much about over the past few weeks. They have inspired both competition and opposition. “Civilized Saturday” – a new twist invented by booksellers in the UK, encourages you to buy what else but…books! (Somehow I see them secretly pulling out e-readers when no one is looking and downloading the latest best seller).

In the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks and a day off from work to remember our fallen war heroes and veterans, I find myself seriously reflecting on why I choose value-based work. Frankly I think I just need a happy thought. It bothers me greatly to hear of terrible things happening overseas and I feel guilty for my privilege and sense of security. News such as this is deeply disturbing and hard to digest: