The (J.C. Penney / Sears) Toy Catalog

 
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It arrived each October with a thud. The J.C. Penney holiday catalog was so thick it couldn’t fit in the mailbox. I would drag it in front of the TV on Saturday mornings while watching cartoons, quickly flipping past the clothes and home goods to get to the toys. Laying on my stomach, I’d wave my legs back and forth like windshield wipers, making my “wish list.” First, you’d fold down the corner of each page with toys of interest. Then you would circle each toy you might want. Finally, you’d mark the most desired with a big star. THIS was the official start of my holiday season.

Growing up, I would play outside till dark, coming home to the sound of my dad whistling. The next door neighbor’s home was always fair game for a few rounds of “Ding dong ditch.” Anytime you wanted a drink, you turned on the garden hose and gulped warm, rubber-tasting water. You caught lizards with them hanging off the tip of your fingers as they bit you. You built forts and made prank phone calls, asking “Is your refrigerator running? You’d better go catch it!”

We’d take photos with cameras and wait two weeks for the film to be processed, only to learn our thumb was in front of the view finder. As we got older, that expedited to one-hour processing. If we were daring, we’d check “double-prints” to give copies to friends. We would handwrite notes to pass in class, folding the paper into intricate shapes and mastering the yawn/stretch/drop it over our shoulder to the person behind us without being caught. We didn’t have digital video recorders or on-demand streaming for television. If you wanted to see A Charlie Brown Christmas, you had to watch the schedule and wait weeks for the broadcast time.

I’m always surprised how much technology has changed kids’ experience today. Caller ID has taken away prank phone calls. Notes aren’t passed in class; they are stealthily texted. The Ring doorbell took away the Ding dong ditch. The internet replaced catalogs and Amazon has mastered the digital wish lists. Britta filters replaced drinking from your garden hose. You are summoned home by a text on the phone tracking your location. Phone cameras create the perfect picture instantly. You can stream Charlie Brown in July if you want.

A year ago, I was staying with kids while their parents were out of town. While the kids were at school, I accidentally I locked myself out of the house, something I’ve never done before. I had no key, no phone and no one to help me for several hours. I was back to all the technology I had as a child: none. I didn’t know any of the neighbors and didn’t think any of them had a key. It was cold, and I sat outside sulking, thinking I would be out there for hours. Then I remembered their Ring doorbell. I pressed it and within moments, I was talking to one of the parents through the app on his phone. He could see and hear me on video and stopped laughing long enough to call someone with a spare key. Maybe this new technology isn’t so bad…Ding dong ditch wasn’t that great anyway.

Like most things nostalgic, we remember them more favorably in our fuzzy memory than in the light of crisp reality. I recently went online and found an old version of the JC Penney catalog and only saw white people. There was not a single Black person, person of color, or people with differing abilities. Every doll had white skin. Many people didn’t see their lives or wishes represented in these catalogs. What brought me joy each year brought others the pain of exclusion. Not to mention the trees and fossil fuels involved in printing and shipping the catalogs across the US.

So what if today’s forts are built in Minecraft and mix tapes are digital playlists? They still were created with the same curiosity, creativity and wonder. Today’s kids will look back on this time with the same nostalgia that I do for my childhood. It’s the same progress and cycle my parents experienced watching me grow up.

I’m often asked what leadership skills should be developed to prepare for the future. There is a fear and myth that AI will take away jobs and technology will take over. It will replace the repetitive parts of work. This only makes space for what machines can’t do: leaning into human emotion, vulnerability, inspiration and creativity.

Leaders that will thrive will demonstrate strength in empathy, navigating change, inclusion, and making data informed decisions without over-rotating. They will be willing to experiment, fail, make mistakes, and share them so everyone learns. They will take a global perspective and prioritize wellness, mental health and sustainability. They will work in jobs and fields that don’t exist today. They may not work inside an office. They may view commuting an hour in a car the way we did smoking on an airplane: taboo and unhealthy. Virtual work may mean working from Mars. Perhaps most importantly, they will be driven from curiosity and shift conversations from “We can’t do that” to “How might we do that?”

Leaders in the future will be successful because they will be adaptable and embrace technical advances. These skills require development and intention and are where companies should be focusing their leadership development investments.

Last week, Amazon mailed a toy catalog to our home. After months of higher-than-normal screen time, they opted for an old school approach. They brilliantly tapped into the nostalgia so we could share it with others. I picked it up with delight and remembered the countless hours on the living room floor marking up catalogs. This one had no people in it. But did display a more inclusive selection of dolls of color. No doubt creating another generation of kids laying on the floor, letting their mind daydream in wonder and curiosity.

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Everything I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten