Welcome back to the eighth episode of our podcast series where we interview interesting Information Technology type people in South Africa. This week’s guest is Prof. Kevin Johnson.
During his career Kevin has been a bartender, CIO, academic and start-up founder. His most endearing feature is that he looks like Tintin. What I really like about him is that he is combining deep learning with real work. He brings theory and practice together as a whole.
Kevin epitomizes personal mastery for me. To quote Senge:
"People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never ‘arrive’. Sometimes, language, such as the term ‘personal mastery’, creates a misleading sense of definiteness, of black and white. But personal mastery is not something you possess. It is a lifelong discipline. People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, their growth areas and they are deeply self-confident. Paradoxical? Only for those who do not see the ‘journey is the reward’.”
I hope you enjoy this latest installment of our podcast series.
Ways to listen
SoundCloud: Tap/click here to listen via SoundCloud
iTunes: Tap/click here to listen via iTunes
You can also search for “new ways of working” to subscribe manually.
RECOMMENDED Subscribe to the podcast via your favourite podcast player:
If you subscribe to the Podcast via your phone, new podcasts will automatically be added to the list, which makes it easy to listen wherever and ‘whenever’ you are!
Tap here (if viewing this email on your phone) to subscribe to the podcast series.
Show Notes
00:00 - Intro… a very cool prof
02:54 - Keeping academic content up to date
04:24 - Academics gaining industry insights and experience
07:13 - Bridging the gap between academia and industry
11:22 - Lifelong learning
14:09 - Hiding behind academic journals
16:30 - A duty beyond fixing ‘The Silo’ - fixing the country!
17:31 - Building relationships between academia and industry
18:50 - Prof Kevin’s experiences in industry
23:06 - Advice to a 30 year old Kevin
26:30 - Favorite books?
27:34 - Spiritual animal?
Show Links
Teaching as a Subversive Activity
People
The list of our other podcast is available here.