[This column was first published in Shift Age Newsletter #22]

One of the three major consumer trends I have been speaking about during the past few years is conscious capitalism.  Conscious capitalism is when a company takes on an altruistic cause, charity or practice and applies revenue to that endeavor.

Initially this behavior was mostly about creating a feel good halo around a brand.  Donating to or underwriting a charity has long been a way to allow a company to point to something that it was supporting to benefit it’s hometown community or a national charity.  Supporting a …

Guest Columnist:  Jeff Cobb

Did you know that 65 percent of the U.S. workforce of 2020 – a date to which so much planning about the future tends to be pegged – is already outside the reach of our elementary and secondary education schools?

Did you also know that for the slice of that 65 percent lucky enough to earn a college degree, the shelf life of that degree is only about five years?

There is a lot of passionate debate these days – and rightly so – about improving our K-12 and higher education systems, but even as these debates rage, the …

The politically delayed confirmation of Chuck Hagel to become the Secretary of Defense could well be a pivot point, and an essential one, for the future of the Department.  It is time for this most important arm of the government to become more aligned with 21^st century realities.

Much of the thinking in the United States, and particularly in Washington D.C., is what I call legacy thinking.  We have powered into the 21^st century thinking thoughts from the 20^th century.  Certainly if one is over 40 much of what one thinks was shaped in the last century.  If you first developed …

Since the beginning of the Transformation Decade in 2010, I have been saying that education at all levels will undergo transformation by 2020.  The book I wrote with Jeff Cobb, “Shift Ed: A Call to Action for Transforming K-12”, published in early 2011, called for nothing less than transformation.  Reform is an outdated word and is now not enough to make the necessary changes in American education.

Last week I wrote a guest column for CNN.com titled “Predictions for the Next Decade of Education”.  It provoked a number of responses to my inbox and many on-line as …