Photo of NIC's Comox Valley Campus(Provided by North Island College)

North Island College is taking part in its first annual Thrive Week next month, which focuses on student mental health and well being.

Thrive Week is an initiative started by the University of British Columbia and has been adopted by many post-secondary institutions as a way to celebrate community, encourage self-care and promote mental health literacy.

NICs Director of Student Affairs, Felicity Blaiklock says good mental health is very important for students to be their best, both in school and in their own lives.

Thrive seemed like a wonderful opportunity to promote mental health, reduce stigma around mental health and help create that supportive campus culture. That engagement, that connection is a fundamental part of well being.

We all experience challenges in our lives at a certain time and college students are just the same as everyone else. They also experience challenges and struggles that may be to do with their academic studies or they may be to do with something completely different outside their lives.

Blaiklock adds that having healthy facility and staff who can support these students is also essential for the foundation of academic and personal success.

All of NICs campus will be taking part in the festivities, which will feature food on campus, first nations storytelling, activities where people can move their bodies, some trail walks, and some yoga from February 3rd through the 7th.

For more information on Thrive Week and NIC, visit http://www.nic.bc.ca.

Excerpt from:
North Island College launching Thrive Week across all its campuses - My Comox Valley Now

World number one Ash Barty's on-courtsecret weapon may be her slice backhand but it is her mental game which is helping her most to win, her mentor and leadership coach Ben Crowe says.

It's no surprise for Crowe that Barty thanked her team and joked she was sick of seeing her own face after advancing to the third round of the Australian Open, where she will play Elena Rybakina on Friday.

Crowe is the mindset coach restoring the fortunes of the Australian Cricket team, after helping the Richmond Football Club to two premierships and also mentors world champion surfer Stephanie Gilmore and fellow tennis ace Grigor Dimitrov. He also works with many CEOs and corporates.

"Ben has become a massive part of my team ... helping me with my mental application, and changing my perspective of things in both life and in sport," the young Aussie star has been quoted saying.

Crowe says the key to Barty's humility and mental strength is the separation between her personal and professional worlds.

"Ash knows tennis is what she does, it is not who she is," Crowe told The Australian Financial Review on Thursday.

There is a whole generation of 50-plus alpha males who have achieved success but are not fulfilled.

Ben Crowe, mindset coach

"Ash has captured the hearts and minds of Australians but also the whole world because she is showing how you can achieve professionally but still have perspective personally which I think the world is craving."

"Especially after the Hayne royal commission, there is a whole generation of 50-plus alpha males who have achieved success but are not fulfilled. Achievement without fulfilment is the ultimate failure in life," he says.

Ash Barty celebrates her victory over Polona to advance to round three on Friday.Eddie Jim

"That is why the separation between the personal and professional is so important."

Crowe, a former international marketing director for Nike,shares many of the same lessons with CEOs, executives and boardrooms, emphasising three key mindsets.

"The first is around purpose mindset," he says, which shifts your perspective from "I to we" or money, fame and status to intrinsic motivations.

"You stand for something, you believe in something, there is something that lights you up and there is a contribution or legacy you want to leave the world which at your funeral will be celebrated about you."

Our greatest failures can lead to our greatest success because it unlocks humility and learning.

Ben Crowe, Ash Barty's mentor

Secondly, connection mindset is really embracing vulnerability as a strength which gives people inside the organisation permission to be imperfect but unconditionally worthy.

"Often leaders put on a mask or armour for self preservation because you think you have to be this perfect CEO."

"The reason our greatest failures can lead to our greatest success is because it unlocks humility and learning. It is also why our greatest success can lead to our greatest failures because of ego, pride and identity."

Finally, performance mindset means totally focusing your attention in the moment of performance on the best version of yourself and the things you can control and letting go and accepting the things you can't control which cause anxiety, stress and worry."

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Meet the man helping Barty ace her mental game - The Australian Financial Review

It was January 19, 1997, and Steve Austin was alone in the ring at the Alamodome in San Antonio, taking full advantage of a rare moment of solitude during the usually crowded Royal Rumble. He sat on the top rope and checked the watch that wasn't on his wrist, obnoxiously signaling his impatience in waiting for his next opponent and in the process creating one of the images that would become iconic for his reign in WWF (now WWE).

Less than a year earlier, Austin had been known as The Ringmaster, a disastrous character that had almost sunk his chances at a big-time wrestling career. Now he was on the verge of superstardomfully inhabiting a new Stone Cold character he'd crafted, inspired by an HBO special on mob killers, as a blend of old-fashioned ass-kicker and hilarious, noxious lip. No one was safe from the bottom of his plain black boots when he was inclined to stomp a mudhole, and his motor-mouth silver tongue spared neither hero nor villain.

And fans couldn't get enough of it.

It was a kind of wrestling character that had never really existed before. Even WWE owner Vince McMahon, the sport's most influential and successful promoter, was confounded. No matter how dastardly, how vile, Austin's behavior was, his popularity only grew.

"I was supposed to be a heel. They weren't supposed to like me," Austin says now, revealing that the conundrum even led to a discussion with McMahon in a parking lot in Lowell, Massachusetts.

"I said, 'Vince, I noticed when I'm watching the show back, you guys are editing a lot of things that I say on commentary.' And he goes, 'Well, quite frankly, Steve, you're popping the guys in the truck.' The TV guys who have seen and heard everything were laughing and getting a kick out of what I was saying. And to Vince, that didn't work. ...

"I told Vince, 'Hey man, you got guys here, 6'10", 7-foot, 300, 320 pounds.' I said, 'I'm 6'2". I got black trunks, black boots, bald head and a goatee. If you take my personality from me, I cannot compete with anybody here. But if you give me my personality, I can.'"

McMahon, to his credit, had taken in what his budding new star was saying and, faced with floundering ratings and a competitor in WCW challenging his supremacy for the first time in a decade, he'd decided to take a chance on something outside his regular collection of stock wrestling characters.

"That's when he took the restrictions off and I started really growing into that character, finding my confidence, flipping people off, flying the bird," Austin says. "And for some reason, I just think people wanted a different brand of entertainment than they had been used to. And I broke from the mold of being a traditional babyface. I was a guy that was running in the gray area. You didn't know what Stone Cold was going to do, but you knew he was going to be wildly entertaining."

Austin walked the fine line between good and evil, and it was one of those magical combinations that led to a boom in business for WWF.

Sitting on that top rope in San Antonio, he had become bigger than the tropes that previously defined professional wrestling.

He was announcing himself as the chosen one in a field of Hall of Fame talent and in the process helping create a whole new era in wrestlingthe "Attitude Era," as we now know itin which the stars were a little more personal, a little more real, and heroes could be villains because sometimes what the world needs is a little righteous justice.

"I was operating as someone with an extreme attitude, and that was highly entertaining to the people just because of the energy I was emitting or giving off," Austin says. "It was captivating, and, in the end, the people thought it was awesome.

"I don't like to sit here and blow smoke up my ass. I just think people were ready for a change."

And his performance perfectly encapsulated how he would deliver that change.

The Royal Rumble match is more than just a vehicle to launch a new star or reestablish an old one. It's an attraction in its own right, an elegantly designed brain child of McMahon's longtime consigliere Pat Patterson. Himself a wrestling star in the 1970s and early '80s, Patterson had marvelled at the yearly success of the Battle Royal in the San Francisco territory when he was there.

The match typically gathered every star in the territory, imported superstar slabs of beef from outside promotions, like Andre the Giant, and threw them into the ring at the same time. The last one left standing without being tossed over the top rope was the winner. Patterson's unique twist was to have each wrestler enter the ring individually every minute or so until all 30 had walked the aisle. The resulting series of countdowns, surprises and WWE's dazzling entrances made the match, now entering its 33rd year, immediately iconic.

"I think it has resonated because of that excitement factor. It's an hourlong match that just keeps building on itself. There's always something happening," says Paul "Triple H" Levesque, WWE's executive VP of talent, live events and creative. "Just when it seems to settle down, the buzzer goes off and a new surprise comes out and everyone says, 'Oh my God.' The dynamic just keeps changing for the whole hour."

While the bones of the Rumble have remained the same for three decades, WWE has perfected the match to the point it's almost its own art form. Today, rather than having Patterson come up with all 29 eliminations like he did for the first Rumble, it takes a team of WWE's top producers to keep the match moving. Every wrestler goes into the match knowing when they are going to be eliminated and by whom. The rest of the canvas, down to the most minute details, has to be painted every year, with the goal of keeping the crowd energized and the action moving for 60 minutes or more.

"It's a huge, huge team effort," says Seth Rollins, who won the Royal Rumble match last year and will be one of the 30 competitors in the 2020 event this Sunday. "You've got all the producers backstage coming up with ideas. Everybody in the match is trying to make moments for themselves too. It's a big, big undertaking, and I think, when it comes out good, everybody feels a huge sense of relief, and then we're moving on towards WrestleMania.

"I give a lot of credit personally to [producer] Jamie Noble. He has been instrumental in really kind of laying groundwork for these things and being the guy that everyone goes to to make sure that the things are sorted. He's one of those guys who's always been real crafty when it comes to seeing things before they happen in the ring. He's been one of the guys in charge of the Rumble matches for as long as I've been up here."

For the performers, the match can be alternatingly chaotic, thrilling and boring. There's a huge spotlight on them, especially when they first arrive in the ring, but then there are also minutes at a time where the entire goal is to stay out of the way and let others shine.

"I think they're fun to work, but at the same time they're a pain in the ass to work because there's a lot going onthere's a lot to remember," Austin says. "You're always going to have a couple of guysI've been there myselfjust standing around in the corner 'trying' to throw the other guy over the top. Doggone it, they just can't leverage him enough, you know?

"Sometimes the ring is so crowded, you really can't lock into anything because if someone tries to do something, it inevitably turns into a cluster because there's too many guys in the ring. They are tedious."

Rollins, while putting it a little more delicately, agrees that it can be easy for a wrestler's eyes to glaze over, especially when they are going to be in the match for 30 minutes or more.

"There's so many stories that are interweaving and going on throughout the course of the matchup that it's hard to get lost in the moment in the match," Rollins says. "There's a timeline for how many people we want to be in different places and at what times during the match. There's so much going on that doesn't involve you that it can be easy to lose focus.

"Whereas in a one-on-one match you have to be focused at all times, sometimes in the Rumble you're in there and you find yourself almost just watching to see what's happening around you. It's almost like an out-of-body experience; you become an observer, a fan in a way."

The match is also an opportunity for wrestlers beyond the eventual winner to make their mark. Each year, someone stands out by working just a little harder than their peers, tossing themselves around for an appreciative fanbase that is savvy enough to recognize the hard work.

"You can really make a case for yourself," Austin says. "Winning sets you up for a designed push, because they've designated you as that guy, but man, if someone goes out there and just shines, like Kane did when he eliminated 11 guys [in 2001], it's like, 'Holy smokes, this guy's badass.'

"That was a planned thing. But you can go out there and ad lib your way to success by doing a lot of things that are entertaining. It's a litmus test. It's an eyeball test. If you do it right, everybody's thinking: 'That guy did pretty damn good. We might be able to do something with that cat.'"

And if you don't do it right?

Mistakes happen, sometimes requiring the carefully scheduled match to undergo some real-time revisions. Austin still shakes his bald head at his first Rumble appearance, in 1996, an opportunity to announce himself to the WWE Universe he badly botched.

"I was supposed to be like the fourth-to-last guy left in the ring, a pretty damn good spot and a pretty good shove from the company for a guy coming in," Austin says. "I did a clothesline spot with Fatu and was going to hang onto the top rope and come back in. Well, the thing was, everybody was wearing baby oil in those days, so the ropes and everything were very, very slippery, and I couldn't grab the top rope, and I ended up on my ass on the floor, eliminated early.

"I had to get Shawn Michaels' attention and let him know I was out. He had to figure out how to fix my mess. I go back to the back, and I'm thinking, 'OK man, here's this company taking a chance on me, and I blew it.'"

The 1997 Rumble was a chance to make that rightand start a revolution.

In some ways, Austin was portrayed as a babyface in his iconic 1997 Rumble, standing tall against all comers, a man apart, even among the baddest men on the planet.

He was the fifth of 30 competitors to enter, and he went the distance, lasting more than 45 minutes and eliminating a then-record 10 opponents along the way.

But just as important as any of that was how the match ended, with Austin reestablishing himself as a heel. After being "eliminated," Austin sneaked back into the ring, unseen by the referees, and dispatched the promotion's staunchest protector of good, Bret Hart, attacking him from behind and throwing him over the top rope and then basking in a glory he hadn't truly earned.

Only the fans still didn't turn on him.

"I didn't feel that I was performing as a babyface. I thought I was totally performing as someone who didn't give a rat's ass, so to speak," Austin says. "God dang it, man, I tried to entertain people whether I was heel, baby, whatever I was, I tried to be that 120 percent, and I believed everything that I was doing was completely real.

"It was all about attitude, just chucking people over the top rope, dropping down and giving them the bird. And then of course, yeah, I cheated at the end."

Twenty-three years later, fans still haven't turned on him. His iconic "Austin 3:16" is still a staple T-shirt for fans at live WWE eventsand beyond the wrestling world. Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard even went viral dressing as Austin for Halloween last year.

Wrestlers, too, still feel the impact of Austin and the movement he got rolling at that Royal Rumble.

"I think a huge, huge part of his popularity had to do with his struggles," says Rollins, who grew up watching Austin in his prime. "That's something our audience can relate to. I think everybody in their life in one way or another feels like they're the underdog, and so to have someone like Steve who embodied all your fantasies of wanting to stick your middle finger in your boss' face or punch your boss in the face...he was an every man, the guy who just drank beer and didn't give a damn about anything."

Rollins even plays a part in spreading the gospel of Austin to up-and-coming wrestlers.

"I have a wrestling school, and one of my big things we teach is, when all else fails, What would Stone Cold do? Sort of like WWJD, it's WWSCD," Rollins says. "If you're in trouble in a match, and you don't know what to do, What would Steve Austin do?"

If there is a wrestler today best living up to Austin's legacy of success at the Royal Rumble, it must be Kofi Kingston. No, he's never managed to win, but each year he does something we've never seen before to avoid elimination and commands the audience's attention.

"He's almost made himself a legend in Royal Rumble lore," Rollins says. "It's one of those things that the audience looks forward to every year ... Who's going to win? Who's going to start? What kind of surprises do we have to look forward to? And what's Kofi going to do? How's he going to top himself?"

"The margin for error on that stuff is so slim, but yet somehow he pulls it out every time," Triple H says. "He's a remarkable athlete. He creates these moments where, yeah, you remember the winner, but fans are like, 'Oh my God, Kofi walked on his hands and jumped on a table.'

"There used to be this prevailing notion when I first came into the company that if you weren't winning it, you don't want to be in the Rumble. Now wrestlers recognize you can get over and become a star. You could make the argument that those moments that Kofi had in the Royal Rumble are things that led to him becoming WWE champion. Because without those moments, I don't know that he would have been in that position."

For Austin, the 1997 Royal Rumble win set up a feud with Hart that would carry over to WrestleMania 13. Austin lost that match but was on his way to becoming the headliner who would win two more Rumbles, become a six-time champion and change WWE forever.

"His impact on our industry, on what a babyface looks like, what a good guy, a hero looks like in our stories, it's forever changed because of him," Rollins says. Without him, the business wouldn't be where it is today."

Today, it's well-established that the Rumble can have that type of impact. It's an event that sets the tone for the first half of the year, establishing the key players leading into WWE's yearly showcase of the immortals, WrestleMania.

While 30 superstars may enter, only a handful are viable potential winners capable of headlining the biggest show of the year. When the final body hits the floor, WWE will have made its case to the fans, asking them to accept the winner as worthy of the honor.

Sometimes that decision holds. Occasionally, it is hastily rewritten to better serve the audience. Either way, it's a statement of intent and a unique vote of confidence that tells both the talent and the wider world of wrestling who WWE sees as the most compelling superstars on the planet.

"As the match wears down and gets into the end, you begin to see, 'All right, here's what they're focusing on,'" Triple H says. "It's almost like in football where, as you start to get to the end of the season, you realize: 'All right, these are the teams that are really good. This team had a lot of hype, but the season didn't pan out. Now you're getting into the playoffs, and we see who's really there.'

"By the end of the Rumble, you're saying, 'Hey, here's your top five or six people in the company right now.' And sometimes there's a surprise that you didn't see coming. Sometimes it's exactly who you thought. When it's done well, there's almost nothing more exciting. You can really make it into something special."

The 2020 Royal Rumble streams live on the WWE Network this Sunday at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @JESnowden.

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A Rumble to Remember - Bleacher Report

As business leaders adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), which marries physical assets and advanced digital technologies, leaders are now taking responsibility for developing the skills of their workforce.

Getty

According to Deloitte Globals 2020 Readiness Report, The Fourth Industrial Revolution: At the intersection of readiness and responsibility,preparing workers to meet the demands of Industry 4.0 continues to be a fundamental business challenge, and leaders lack confidence in how their organizations are faring. Only 10 percent of executives surveyed said they have made a great deal of progress in understanding what skills will be needed in the future, and only one-fifth completely agreed their organizations are ready.

To meet this challenge, executives are focusing on training and developmentand looking to hire people with the appetite for continuous learning. In fact, according to the report, three-fourths of these executives are now making workforce development a top Industry 4.0 priority and plan to make their biggest investments in this area. And more than 80 percent of executives say they have created, or are creating, a corporate culture of lifelong learning.

Thats a stark difference from the hands-off approach of the past.Two years ago, executives, suggested there wasnt much they could do to ready their people for the skills required in the Industry 4.0 era; only 12 percent of executives said their organizations could influence education, training, and lifelong learning to a significant degree.

Companies are starting to understand that if they want to succeed in Industry 4.0, they must create agile work environments and modernized workplace cultures where employees can continuously acquire new skills to keep up with the changing nature of work," says Michele Parmelee, Deloitte Global Chief People and Purpose Officer.

The skills of the future

While technical proficiency is an obvious and evolving need, its critical that people also cultivate so-called human skills, which will have even greater value in a more-automated workplace. Not only will developing these soft skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, and empathy, create a more adaptable workforce as jobs are restructured, but it will also help human workers specialize in areas where machines are less likely to excel, says Parmelee.

According to IFTF research, the top skills that future employees will need to be successful include contextualized intelligencea nuanced understanding of society, business, culture, and peopleand an entrepreneurial mindset.

While many human skills are often considered to be innate traits, they can actually be taught to future workers and are linked to improved performance. According to a Harvard research study, social-emotional, non-cognitive skills are malleable into adulthood and can be developed with the right resources, environment, and incentives.

Young professionals are eager for this kind of training, according to Deloittes Millennial Survey. They understand that automation can free them from repetitive and mundane tasks to focus on assignments that require a more personal touch, Parmelee explains. So, theyre especially seeking help building confidence, interpersonal skills, andparticularly for Gen Zethics aptitude.

However, millennials do not believe their employers are focused enough on nurturing soft skills. More than a third said it is essential to a companys long-term success that its employees and leaders have strong interpersonal skills, but only 26 percent said they were offered much help or support in developing them. They said similar support deficits existed in the areas of confidence, integrity, critical thinking, and creativity.

Universities and companies are starting to take note and develop their own emotional intelligence, or EQ programs. Stanford University, for example, offers a Compassion Cultivation Training course to help people develop compassion and empathy for others, while one of the courses in Deloittes internal leadership program is The Art of Empathy, which helps leaders learn to walk in the shoes of others.

I think the best way we can serve our organizations and our people is to create a company culture that actually trains and equips people to be flexible, self-reliant, and empowered, says Pierre Naud, CEO of nCino, a software company that provides cloud solutions to financial institutions. And they should feel that they can use their own brain power and experience to actually mold their jobs as we go forward, to adapt at the pace of change.

Visit link:
The Best Job Skills For The Future Are Inherently Human - Forbes

Sometimes you just have to kill the zombie.

We learned Wednesday that Boeing has abruptly decided to end its participation in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencys Experimental Space Plane (XSP) program an effort intended to build and fly a reusable rocket ten times in ten days.Admittedly, its a bit personal for me, since XSP comprised a significant portion of my space portfolio during my most recent stint at DARPA.

The program got its start back in 2013, right around the same time Elon Musk decided to build a Falcon 9 that can land itself. The difference? Musks rocket works. He and his team worked overtime for three years and they figured it out. XSP, on the other hand, has already consumed over six years of engineering effort yet never managed to get beyond an engine demonstration, and had Boeing not walked away would still be years away from first flight.

Rendering of an Experimental Space Plane (Phantom Express")

High-tech projects, whether they involve building a new aircraft, a complex software application, an autonomous car, or a rocket, tend to take on lives of their own, and almost never in a good way. Often, a seemingly elegant concept collides with the harsh reality of poor technology forecasting, a totally predictable lack of resources (human, budgetary, and otherwise), vague or badly understood requirements, and most critically no clearly stated way to know when youve done all you should and its simply time to move on to something else.

I cant emphasize this last problem enough. Hard projects become agonizing slogs if you arent meticulous about designing test events (gates) that unambiguously shout succeed or fail. Why? Because the project team and its patrons desperately want to keep trying theyre invested, theyve fallen victim to sunk cost, they grow increasingly risk-averse and as a result their programs become de facto zombies, eking out a twilight existence for year after miserable year, despite mounting evidence suggesting that whats being attempted is not a good idea after all, and that it would probably be better to go back to the drawing board or shut down altogether. Knowing when to kill a bad idea has become something of a lost art.

The U.S. Air Force's U-2S, the upgraded version of Kelly Johnsons original U-2, in service today.

On July 4, 1956, after a few preliminary overflights of Eastern Europe, a U-2 pilot flew the jets first operational mission over the Soviet Union. The black-as-pitch U-2 (now nicknamed Dragon Lady for its notoriously difficult handling characteristics) was and is an Air Force reconnaissance aircraft designed by famed Lockheed Skunk Works aerospace engineer Clarence Kelly Johnson. Johnson and his team designed the plane to fly at an altitude of 70,000 feet, hoping to evade interceptors, ground-based radar and surface-to-air missiles that would pose unacceptable risks to lower-flying airplanes and their crews.

The U-2 was a very good idea.

Unfortunately, while the Soviets interceptors and missiles were unable to climb high enough to engage the U-2, the U.S. quickly discovered that it was trackable on radar. Thus, it would only be a matter of time before the Russians would come up with a way to down the Dragon Lady. And, indeed, this tragedy finally occurred in May 1960, when Francis Gary Powers U-2 was struck by a Dzina surface-to-air missile.

But before that eventful day, and indeed not long after it became clear that the U-2 was not invisible to Russian radar after all, a group of scientists and engineers led a crash program to develop a stealthy U-2 almost two decades before Lockheed built the first prototype of what would become the F-117 stealth bomber. This one-year effort, nicknamed Project Rainbow and lovingly memorialized by Paul Suhler in From Rainbow to Gusto, resulted in a slew of hardware modifications to the Dragon Lady. None of them were particularly pretty. The engineers glued radar-absorbing structures to the aircrafts fuselage and strung assemblies of wires over the wings leading edge, between the nose and fuel tanks on the wing, and elsewhere. Pilots derided it, calling it the dirty bird.

As it turned out, not only were the Project Rainbow modifications ineffective at defeating radar, they also dramatically reduced the planes operating range and altitude. More disturbingly, the radar-absorbing material acted as a very efficient insulator and overheated the U-2s cockpit, resulting in a pilot fatality. And so, unceremoniously, Project Rainbow was consigned to the wastebasket a bad idea or, perhaps more charitably, an idea before its time.Its team pivoted, laying the groundwork for an entirely new aircraft, one that would fly both higher and faster than the U-2 the SR-71 Blackbird. Others began working on reconnaissance satellites that would fly higher and faster still.

Rainbow could have become a zombie. Its proponents could reasonably have argued that theyd made some mistakes but had come close, that a little more funding and time would get the U-2 to an acceptable end state. After all, returning to square one and designing a new plane could take even more time and more money and might still fail who could say with certainty?But this team was endowed with uncommon wisdom. They recognized the deficiencies of their approach and dispassionately halted their efforts when it became clear that their success criteria werent going to be met. And they recognized that a stay the course decision under these circumstances might have resulted in many years of onerous work and, worse, could have ceded the lead to the Soviets. Whats more, the Rainbow team arrived at this decision in May 1958, less than two years after identifying the problem.

Technology developers hear the term fail fast so often that many have developed an immune response to it, but this suggests a misunderstanding. Tom Peters is credited with the original, and far more clarifying, phrase: Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast. Figure out what your problem is, design a solution, and test that solution as rapidly as you can.

Why? Because you want to know as early as possible if you are on the right track. Decent success criteria and a well-designed test will tell you but you cant just keep playing with new technology, postponing that test, and hoping that all the tweaks youve come up with will give you an ultimate solution.Get into test with what you have and fail now if you do, youll immediately learn something vitally important. And now you can adjust. That adjustment might be a minor change or a complete reboot.

Lessons from the last century abound. Vanguard rockets, MiDAS missile warning satellites, and the F-16 fighter all experienced failures in early demonstrations but were able to rebound quickly to adjust and try again without losing a beat. MiDAS launched seven spacecraft before it was able to obtain missile tracking data but every one of those satellites was launched in a three-year period between February 1960 and May 1963.

Contrast the MiDAS programs speed with contemporary missile warning satellite development, whose test campaigns dictate seven years or more to reach orbit. Such a glacial pace is hardly conducive to innovation. If you require a decade to test a product and, after all the effort you put into it, it still fails, itll take you no less than two decades to get to a solution and thats a problem in a world of more and more capable companies and nation states. Relearning the art of test fast, fail fast, adjust fast isnt just a good idea, its a crucial survival skill.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage touches down at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Landing Zone-1

Some have adopted Peters maxim and are demonstrating remarkable success. Elon Musks dream of a reusable first stage was widely panned as impractical or pointless, yet he and his team soldiered on, in much the same way the Vanguard and MiDAS teams did, testing and failing and testing again over just twenty-six months, until, finally, a scorched Falcon 9 rocket landed proudly upright on a Cape Canaveral launch pad on December 21, 2015.Few detractors remain. The value of multi-use rockets has been demonstrated, and even Musks arch-competitor and one-time reusability skeptic, United Launch Alliance, is investigating ways to reuse some of its gear.

Sadly, test fast isnt making inroads everywhere. Aircraft carriers that cost nearly $15B and take more than twenty years to get to sea trials may end up vulnerable to hypersonic missiles developed by China in just the past five or ten years. Weve embarked on yet another round of increasingly expensive stealth fighter and bomber development efforts despite growing concerns that our adversaries have figured out approaches to defeat stealth. This might be alright if we were rapidly generating new solutions. But were not. Programs like the F-35 and F-22 have taken decades to get from initial requirement to first flight. Can we say with any credibility that a design that had its origins in the early 1990s is still relevant today? These all represent failures to test fast, fail fast, and adjust as threats evolve. And it cant go on.

Perhaps the next team that tries to build a spaceplane will incorporate a test fast mantra as a prerequisite. If not, it will likely face the same fate as Boeings and DARPAs doomed XSP six years of work and not much to show for it.

Project Rainbow left us with an invaluable lesson: When you spot a zombie, shoot it and move on.

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Boeings Exit From Space Plane Project Is A Lesson In Why We Need To Kill Zombies - Forbes

Starting a company requires a lot resilience, determination, curiosity, not to mention all the financial and operational know-how. But what's the most important trait?

Many of Dreamers // Doers' members are founders of companies, so we asked them. A resounding theme was passion: passion for solving a problem, for filling a market gap, for creating an ideal work environment, or for being on the bleeding edge of future innovation. When the challenges of entrepreneurship inevitably surface, it's this passion that serves as the fuel to keep going.

As shown in the journeys of the following 27 founders, their companies are built on a foundation made up of far more than their products or services alone. Each of these women have a clear "why" a reason for being that propels their visions forward.

Here are the stories of their "aha moments," along with their No. 1 piece of advice for those who've ever thought about starting a similar company.

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27 founders share how they knew what type of company to start - Business Insider - Business Insider

Charlotte Payne-Townshend is not exactly a household name.

In fact, in todays celebrity-obsessed culture, its very possible one might hear it and think Will and Kates four-year-old daughter has only gone off and adopted a bizarre double-barrelled street name to shake off her royal duties.

But for most normal folk, its met with an empty stare, a dismissive shrug and a puzzled, Who the heck is that?

Dont fear - Mrs Shaw Herself is here to answer that question.

Created by musician Helen Tierney and actress Alexis Leighton, this one-woman play is an intimate glimpse into the life of Charlotte Payne Townshend, Irish heiress and activist - who also happened to be the wife of the legendary George Bernard Shaw.

Tierney seeks to restore the spirit of this unsung hero, whose achievements have historically been outshone by the glare of her husbands.

An affluent political campaigner who championed the education of women, Charlotte was one of the key Irish players in the feminist movement of the early twentieth century.

Rather than hoard or squander her riches, she exploited her privilege to benefit others.

She single-handedly funded a scholarship for women at the London School of Economics and even donated a hefty 1000 to the establishment of its Shaw Library in 1939.

She was also a driving force in the Fabian Womens Group, which promoted suffrage equality for women through debates and publications.

And yet, despite her major contributions to society, she has yet to receive the acclaim she so evidently deserves.

This hour-long production lifts Charlotte from the pages of her husbands writings, granting her a platform to speak freely and express her individuality to her audience.

By weaving the script exclusively out of genuine diaries and letters, every line drips with authenticity and passion.

Tierney explains this decision to rely on primary sources.

Its an hour where they can get to know her in her own words. We want people to have a real sense of her when they leave the play.

To truly nurture this sense, Tierney splashes the play with the voices of Charlottes friends and acquaintances.

Chameleon actress Leighton embodies an array of different characters, playing Charlotte, George Bernard Shaw, Beatrice Webb and more.

This metamorphosis not only softens the potential stagnation of a one-person play, it enhances the audiences understanding of Charlotte.

As Tierney explains: We learn about her from other peoples words.

Its a panoramic view of Charlotte Payne Townshend - a 360 degrees rotation of a woman who has hovered as a 2D background character for too long.

The message is simple - the most important part of Mrs Shaw, is in fact, herself.

Tierney hopes that that this portrayal will exemplify Charlottes multi-faceted personality. Her marriage to a notorious playboy may have drew some concerns, but it never inhibited her pursuit of success and happiness.

Tierney explains that the play emphasises this independence, explaining: Shes not a victim. Shes feisty, she has ideas of her own.

In many ways, it was this unyielding gumption that fuelled her unconventional relationship with one of Irelands most beloved writers.

Despite their practice of celibacy, Charlotte and George remained together for over 40 years.

It is said that their bond was cemented by their mutual respect for each others endeavours - she helped him craft fiction, he helped her actualise realities.

Their marriage may have been sexless, but it certainly wasnt loveless.

Tierney argues that their story lends a glimmer of hope to a society blotted by billowing divorce rates.

Its a tale of a marriage that survives. He could be infuriating to live with and maybe she wasnt easy either, but they both gave things to each other that are really positive. Often you dont see that side of a marriage.

By recognising her as both an individual and a partner, the play tackles the widespread misconception that the combination of feminism and marriage is incongruent.

Charlottes role as a wife was a part of her, but it was by no means, all of her.

Mrs Shaw Herself will be performed in London on February 1 as part of the Herstory Light Festival.

Inspired by one of Irelands patron saints, St. Brigid, this three-day long event celebrates the Irish women of our present and our past.

Tierney believes this is an ideal environment to stage the play, comparing the silencing of Charlottes achievements under the volume of her husbands legacy to how St. Brigid has always been in the shadow of St. Patrick.

This homage to Ireland is reflected in Tierneys Celtic harp playing, which gently punctuates each scene and embellishes the effect of Charlottes words.

Charlotte has been introduced to over 30 audiences in the United Kingdom, and Tierney is now planning to bring her home to Ireland. She reveals her hopes to perform it in Cork, where Charlotte was born and raised.

With just one actor, minimal props and modest staging, Mrs Shaw Herself is the farthest thing from a glitzy pantomime.

Viewers wont come away with ringing ears and dizzy eyeballs, high on the rush of high-budget spectacles.

This play doesnt seek to overdose your senses, and, led by such a powerful character, it doesnt need to.

What it does do is introduce you to one of Irelands most underrated heroes, luring you into the depths of her psyche and colouring in the blank her name once drew.

Having sat down with little to no knowledge of Charlotte Payne Townshend, youll stand up with that profound feeling of having met someone you feel like youve known for years.

Rather than cheering bravo after the final scene, you might just find yourself waving goodbye.

Mrs Shaw Herself is at The Intimate Space at Hornsey Church Tower at 2.30pm on February 1. Tickets 10 and 8 on Eventbrite.com.

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One-woman play tells tale of the overlooked wife of George Bernard Shaw - Irish Post

How did you get on? .... Winnie the Pooh and friends, from The Best Bear in All the World (see 16.4). Photograph: Egmont Publishing

1 Jess Willard (the Pottawatomie Giant, lost world heavyweight title fight to Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler/Kid Blackie) 2 Ignacy Jan Paderewski (prime minister of Poland) 3 Somerset Maughams The Moon and Sixpence 4 Suzanne Lenglens (La Divine) at Wimbledon 5 John Alcock and Arthur Brown (from Winston Churchill following transatlantic flight) 6 HMY Iolaire (hit Beasts of Holm off Stornoway, 201 servicemen drowned) 7 The Childrens Newspaper (Arthur Mee) 8 Death of Prince John (their fifth son, aged 13) 9 Theodore Roosevelts (Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far) 10 Nancy Astor (succeeded her husband as MP for Plymouth in byelection)

1 Patrick Gordon (1635-99) 2 Croagh Patrick 3 Sir Patrick Cullens (George Bernard Shaw, The Doctors Dilemma) 4 Fino San Patricio (Garvey, Jerez) 5 Sir Patrick Spens 6 Patrick OBrian (Aubrey and Maturin in Master and Commander) 7 Patrick Sellar (Highland Clearances) 8 Percy FitzPatrick (Jock of the Bushveld) 9 Patrick Pearse (St Endas/Scoil anna) 10 Patrick Kavanagh (The Great Hunger)

1 Thomas Bond (Jack the Ripper, murderer of Mary Jane Kelly) 2 Francis Camps (Erle Stanley Gardner. The Case of the Duplicate Daughter) 3 John Glaister Junior (Buck Ruxton murders) 4 David Bowen 5 Alec Jeffreys (Colin Pitchfork, Narborough, 1983) 6 Paul Uhlenhuths (Ludwig Tessnow, Rugen, 1901) 7 Donald Teare 8 Keith Simpsons (Mrs Durand-Deacon, victim of John George Haigh, acid bath murderer) 9 Bernard Knights (Karen Price, Cardiff, 1989) 10 Sir Bernard Spilsbury (Operation Mincemeat deception, 1943)

1 Count Jovian (John Buchan, The House of the Four Winds) 2 Count Paris (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) 3 Count Ribbing (Giuseppe Verdi, Un Ballo in Maschera) 4 Count Joseph Dumoulin (consul-general of Swedish Pomerania in CS Forester, The Commodore) 5 Count Fosco (Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White) 6 Count Vronsky (Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina) 7 Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas, Edmond Dants) 8 Count Folke Bernadotte 9 Count Orgaz (El Greco) 10 Count Basie (Earl Hines and Duke Ellington)

1 Van Houtens cocoa 2 Wonkas Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight (Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) 3 La Cleste Praline (Joanne Harris, Chocolat) 4 Anthon Berg 5 Frys 6 Henri Nestl (Daniel Peter) 7 Drostes (Jan Missets Nurse) 8 My chocolate cream soldier (George Bernard Shaw, Arms and the Man, act III) 9 Thorntons 10 Ritter Sport

1 Lord Jesuss (hymn) 2 Cameron Highlands, Malaya (Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists) 3 Maud (Alfred Lord Tennyson, Maud) 4 Hatton Garden 5 Letchworth Garden City 6 Mr McGregors (Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit) 7 Misselthwaite Manor (Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden) 8 Percy French (song, Come Home Paddy Reilly) 9 TE Brown (My Garden) 10 Johnny Crows (Leonard Leslie Brooke, Johnny Crows Garden)

1 Cheltenham (John Betjeman) 2 Dursley (Dursley and Midland Junction Railway) 3 Berkeley Castle (Christopher Marlowe, Edward II) 4 Lechlade 5 Gloucester (Beatrix Potter, The Tailor of Gloucester) 6 Chipping Campden 7 Tewkesbury (King Edward IV) 8 Slad (Laurie Lee, Cider with Rosie) 9 Fairford (St Marys Church) 10 Stow-on-the-Wold

1 Jos Canalejas (November 1912) 2 Joselito (Jos Gmez Ortega, matador, May 1920) 3 Pope Calixtus III (Alfons de Borja) 4 Alfonso XI (The Avenger, 1350) 5 Sancho II (Zamora, 1072) 6 Felipe II (singed beard in Cadiz by Drake, 1587) 7 Francisco Goya, Enrique Granados (Goyescas) 8 Santiago Ramn y Cajal (Nobel prize, 1906) 9 Tio Pepe (Gonzales Byasss Fino sherry, Uncle Joe) 10 El Bilbanito (CS Forester, The Gun)

1 Midshipman Hornblower (CS Forester) 2 Horn of Plenty (fungus) 3 The Golden Horn (GK Chesterton, Lepanto) 4 East Hohenhrn (Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands) 5 Battle of Little Bighorn 6 Weisshorn (John Tyndall, physicist, August 1861) 7 Horning (Arthur Ransome, Coot Club) 8 Horncastle (William Marwood, hangman) 9 The cow with the crumpled horn (This is the House that Jack Built) 10 Hornbill

1 Henry Purcells (Dido and Aeneas) 2 Jeremiah Clarke (Prince of Denmarks March, aka Trumpet Voluntary) 3 Thomas Arne (Ariels Where the bee sucks, there suck I, The Tempest) 4 Hubert Parry (Jerusalem) 5 Edward Elgar (Nimrod, Augustus Jaeger) 6 Ralph Vaughan-Williams (Down Ampney, hymn tune, after Bianco da Siena) 7 Gustav Holsts, Thaxted (Jupiter) 8 Benjamin Britten (Noyes Fludde) 9 William Waltons (Belshazzars Feast) 10 Arthur Sullivans (with WS Gilbert at the Savoy. The Grand Duke or The Statutory Duel)

1 Malgudi (RK Narayan, Swami and Friends) 2 New Delhi (Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger) 3 Madras (Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense) 4 Simla (Rudyard Kipling, Kim) 5 Allahabad (Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days) 6 Agra (Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four) 7 Calcutta (Patrick OBrian, HMS Surprise) 8 Darjeeling (Nel Coward, I Wonder What Happened to Him) 9 Bombay (EM Forster, A Passage to India) 10 Jhansi (Christina Rossetti, poem, The Round Tower at Jhansi, June 8, 1857)

1 Dram, Armenia 2 Rand, South Africa (Mary Rand Olympic gold in 1964 long jump) 3 Pula, Botswana 4 Sucre, Ecuador 5 Cordoba, Nicaragua 6 Lek, Albania 7 Birr, Ethiopia (telescope The Leviathan of Parsonstown) 8 Quetzal, Guatemala 9 Dong, Vietnam (Edward Lear) 10 Coln, Costa Rica

1 Lake Baikal (Baikal Teal/bimaculate duck) 2 Toplitzsee (Nazi forgeries of UK bank notes) 3 Lake Peipus (Alexander Nevsky, 5 April 1242) 4 Lac Lman (Lord Byron, The Prisoner of Chillon) 5 Lake Maggiore (Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms) 6 Lake Como (August Strindberg, Frken Julie) 7 Loch Morar (monster) 8 Loch Maree (Botulism, August 1922) 9 Lough Neagh (legend of Finn McCool creating the Isle of Man) 10 Lake Trasimeno (Hannibal v Flaminius 217BC)

1 Raidillon (Spa-Francorchamps, watchmaker since 2001) 2 Interlagos (Brazil, Bico do Pato, Mergulho) 3 Mistral (Le Castelet, Circuit Paul Ricard, France) 4 Remus (Red Bull, Spielberg, Austria) 5 Tosa (Imola, San Marino/Italy) 6 Monza (Italy, Vialone became Ascari) 7 Beckets (Silverstone) 8 Massenet (Monaco, premiere of opera Don Quichotte) 9 Knickerbrook (Oulton Park) 10 Tarzanbocht (Zandvoort, Holland)

1 Ind Coope (Double Diamond slogan) 2 Crosse and Blackwell 3 Holland and Holland (gunsmiths) 4 Winsor and Newton (paint brushes) 5 Patek Philippe (Calibre 89, celebrating 150 years since foundation) 6 Parker Knoll 7 Williams and Humbert (sherry) 8 Bryant and May (imported matches from Sweden) 9 Ratsey and Lapthorn (sailmakers, Cowes) 10 C and A (Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, Sneek)

1 Manhood Hundred (Selsey, within the Rape of Chichester) 2 Hundredweight (112lb in UK, 100lb in US) 3 Chiltern Hundreds 4 Hundred Acre Wood (AA Milne, The House at Pooh Corner) 5 The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014 film) 6 One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garca Mrquez) 7 Hundred Year Hall (two CD live album by the Grateful Dead, following Jerry Garcias death) 8 The Hundred Years war (Battle of Castillon) 9 WG Grace scored his hundredth hundred in 1st class cricket. 10 Your Hundred Best Tunes (1997 and 2003)

1 Tavistock (The Adventure of Silver Blaze) 2 North Walsham (The Adventure of the Dancing Men) 3 Shoscombe (The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place) 4 Mackleton (The Adventure of the Priory School) 5 Waterloo (The Adventure of the Crooked Man) 6 Forest Row (The Adventure of Black Peter) 7 Charing Cross (The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez) 8 Winchester (The Adventure of the Copper Beeches) 9 Chislehurst (The Adventure of the Abbey Grange) 10 Canterbury (The Adventure of the Final Problem)

1 Shane Long (scoring quickest goal in Premier League history for Southampton v Watford) 2 Jack Leach (92 runs in Test Match v Ireland) 3 Volodymyr Zelensky (president of Ukraine, following TV series Servant of the People) 4 Norwich Cathedral (George Irvins Helter Skelter) 5 George Mendonsas, (The Kissing Sailor, has died aged 95) 6 Unveiling of statue of Regis, Cunningham and Batson in West Bromwich 7 New Australian 50 dollar note (responsibilty) 8 Franky Zapata (Channel crossing by hoverboard) 9 Abdication of Emperor Akihito and accession of Naruhito to chrysanthemum throne 10 Denbigh plum

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King William's College quiz: the answers | From the Guardian - The Guardian

A FORMER teacher gave up his career to get on stage and into the spotlight.

John Griffiths acted in his spare time but in 1977 decided to dive into the deep end and make it his lifes ambition.

He told the Adver: Funnily enough I started out with the director Im working with now, at the beginning of my career in acting. He asked me to do a show in 1977 when I was a teacher as I was acting on the side, then I went ahead with making it my full-time career and gave up teaching.

I dont regret giving it up at all, its my two combined passions of theatre and travel. Ive travelled all over the world to places like Germany and Austria, its a great way to combine my passions.

John will be playing Major Metcalf in the play as he works alongside Gareth Armstrong for the second time.

Gareth has worked across the world as a director and actor.

Hes directed classics by William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Anton Chekhov, and Nol Coward.

I was a police officer in Agatha Christies Verdict and I was performing in Torquay. He asked me to join him and play a role in Under Milk Wood.

Ive worked in quite a few plays written by Agatha and now Im doing Mousetrap which is in its 68th year, its astounding.

The first showing of the renowned play at the Wyvern Theatre will be on February 10 to 15.

Tickets for the show are between 25.50 to 34.00 varying each night.

To book tickets visit the Wyvern Theatre website at swindontheatres.co.uk

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A former teacher took to the stage to pursue dreams of being theatre star - Swindon Advertiser

For the Year of the Parent, I have in mind a daily undertaking by children to validate their parents. Make a resolution to say something nice to Mum or Dad every day.

Parents can remember their own parents, now grandparents.

My agenda remains improved literacy. This mission could be the lodestone to reunite families and take our children back into our bosoms. Remember, praise is more productive than blame.

I notice, and welcome, an addition to us freelancers who sound off on our own domain specificities with the added bonus of getting paid for it. We write columns. Its not difficult, but its tricky in that were never sure what we cover is relevant. In education, I think the fuss made over matric results is just a media-driven event.

Each child who passes the exam deserves praise, not polemic about statistics that lump all candidates together into one melting pot for the purveyors of polemic and statistics.

One might reach the end of ones school years at matric.

It doesnt follow that we have given the learners anything, what with the cloddish OBE that has been transformed stubbornly and stupidly four times up to now.

George Bernard Shaw is noted for his observation: The time I spent in school interfered with my education.

To arm parents with my Year of the Parent project, I invite suggestions from my readers (how many are we now?) via my e-mail, WhatsApp (which I just love to hate) or telephone.

Im acknowledging that parents are the first teachers. Thats where the important start to education resides. Pundits call it the first epistemic encounter.

Given that we have not yet resolved the mother-tongue issue, I would like to refer to an interview with Makhaya Ntini, one of the best bowlers and most charismatic personalities this country has produced. He recounted his days at a school where only English was spoken. He recalled the terror of not knowing what was being said.

He remembers a white class-mate moving desk to sit next to him. This boy could speak Xhosa and he translated for Makhaya. I wonder whether he instinctively acted out of a premonition of the greatness Makhaya would achieve.

The point of that interview was that peer support is vital. Also, lessons should be child-friendly, or pedocentric, not top-down.

Here are a few interesting little shocks to the system which can flesh out your conversations with your children:

The word Pacific Ocean contains three cs. Each one has a different pronunciation. United means to bring together, yet it is also an anagram for untied, taken apart, separated. The following sentences read the same in English and Afrikaans: My hand is in warm water. My ink is in my pen.

* Literally Yours is a weekly column from Cape Argus reader Alex Tabisher. He can be contacted on email byact[emailprotected]

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.

Cape Argus

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Tips for year of the parent | Cape Argus - Independent Online