Encore Leadership Network

HARRIS WOFFORD: Encores for our own good and the common good

David Bank — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:03:25 -0500

Harris Wofford, who helped launch the Peace Corps and served as senator from Pennsylvania, spoke at a Capitol Hill briefing for congressional staff. Wofford is the national spokesman for Experience Wave, advocating for policies to make it easier for mid-life and older adults to stay engaged in work and community life, and a member of Civic Ventures’ board of directors. Excerpts from his remarks:

Today, at four-score-and-one, I’m the one who has come of age. As national spokesman for the Experience Wave, I can speak as an elder of the tribe who has been lucky to live through nearly one-third of the life of this nation. In this new role, I am still pursuing the old goal: to make citizen service a common expectation and experience for all Americans. But now, coming full circle, the focus is on older Americans, and particularly the baby boomer generation as it comes to the period of life that traditionally has been called retirement.

Encore Leadership Network

DON'T DROWN IN ENCORE EMAIL!

David Bank — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:21:03 -0600

The exciting discussions emerging on Encore.org bring with them an annoying downside — a flood of email notifications about every new posting or comment.

It has always been possible (and still is) to turn off ALL email from Encore.org.

Now we have a new option — a ‘digest’ of postings and comments from each of your Encore groups that we will send out as a single e-mail from each group on a regular basis, probably weekly.

Purpose Prize Innovation Network

ENCORE LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW with Sherry Lansing: "We’re at the tipping point of a huge movement"

David Bank — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:17:23 -0600

Sherry Lansing. Photo by S. Smith Patrick/Civic Ventures.

Sherry Lansing brought her warmth and passion – and her friend Sidney Poitier – to the recent Purpose Prize Innovation Summit at Stanford University. The annual award ceremony is one of her favorite days of the year, she says, leaving her “glowing and more inspired than ever.”

Lansing is pretty inspiring herself, and her encore career is evidence that there are, indeed, second acts in American life.

Lansing agreed to talk with Encore.org about her work, past, present and future, as part of our series of Encore Leadership Interviews. Click here to see the Q & A.

Encore Leadership Network

ENCORE LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW: David Galenson on Old Masters and Young Geniuses

David Bank — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:21:27 -0600

David Galenson, author of Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity

It turns out the baby boomers who wanted to change the world in the ‘60s may not be the same ones who will change the world in their 60s.

It is the persistent experimenters who are coming to the fore in the second half of their lives, and are emerging from the shadow of the fiery radicals and bold activists who defined the baby boomers four decades ago. Same generation, but different kinds of people.

David Galenson, an economist at the University of Chicago, has documented the distinction between such experimental innovators and conceptual innovators in fields ranging from painting to poetry to economics itself. In his book, Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity, Galenson says younger innovators are generally distinguished by conceptual breakthroughs, the proverbial light bulb going on overhead. Older innovators often have an experimental bent, an approach to problem-solving that relies on years of experience and improvement.

Galenson discussed his findings with Encore.org in the inaugural Encore Leadership Interview. In coming weeks, Encore.org will feature a series of provocative conversations with leaders in business, nonprofits, government and academia.

Purpose Prize Innovation Network

ENTITLEMENTS: Baby Boomers Not to Blame?

David Bank — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:41:44 -0500

The spiraling cost of health care, rather than an aging society, is the real culprit in the dire forecasts of staggering budget deficits in decades to come, suggests Dean Baker in a posting on the blog .common sense.

Encore Leadership Network

CENSUS BUREAU: More Older Adults at Work

David Bank — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:43:23 -0500

Wilma Melville, founder of the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, with training dogs Jem and Newton. Photo by Jonathan Alcorn for The Washington Post.

Much of the coverage of the U.S. Census Bureau’s report that more older adults are working highlighted those who have put social impact at the top of their priority lists.

Encore Leadership Network

CRR: Raising Social Security's Early Retirement Age

David Bank — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:52:07 -0500

When it comes to Social Security, for some reason, policy makers and policy analysts seem to prefer sticks to carrots.

A case in point is this issue brief from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, which makes the case for raising the age at which Social Security early retirement benefits can be claimed from 62 to 63.5.

Encore Leadership Network

TIME MAGAZINE: The Case for National Service

David Bank — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:54:35 -0500

Many encore careers will take the form of national service, whether it’s tutoring schoolchildren as a member of Experience Corps or signing up for a stint in the Peace Corps.

Thus, it was refreshing to see the contribution of older adults so prominently featured in Time magazine’s cover story.

Encore Leadership Network

ROBERT SAMUELSON: Facing Up to an Aging America

David Bank — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:37:04 -0500

Robert Samuelson of Newsweek has thrown down the gauntlet for the 2008 presidential contenders: What would they do about the huge budget costs of aging baby boomers?

Encore Leadership Network

DAVID BROOKS: Being Old, Then and Now

David Bank — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 18:14:41 -0500

David Brooks

David Brooks of The New York Times delivered another perceptive column on the intersection of social conventions and individual experiences, describing how he stumbled upon a long forgotten book, Autobiography of an Elderly Woman.