A friend is setting up a new personal blog (yes, people still do that), and he asked me a few questions about the style and layout. But this got me thinking why it is that blogs are still valuable - at least for me.
Ask yourself some good questions, rather than worry about getting buried in information. This is the essential advice of Frank and Magnone's new book.
Context matters. I've said this for years. And now, Sam Sommers has a new book out that says the same thing. Plus a video introduction.
Interesting set of executive "habits" associated with failures from Sydney Finkelstein - originally published eight years ago. I like the "lack of respect" early warning sign.
To create change we have to move people to a new way of acting with each other (behaviors). The concept behind Viral Change is to make those behaviors infection: spread, copy, reinforce, and spread more.
A local paper has a great quote that is takes four times longer to complete two tasks effectively than to do each one individually.
James Slavet has an interesting set of "Five New Management Metrics You Need To Know" on the Forbes technology blog. Rather than look specifically at throughput, he suggests some internal metrics that might be leading indicators.
Dilbert cannot possibly focus on 25 things. Neither can you!
The 2011 MAKE awards for North America, Europe, Asia and the Global winners have been announced recently.
A tech firm has publicized their desire to phase out work email. That is a new way to reach Inbox Zero.
Great find by Michael Krigsman on project management lessons in an academic paper. Nice reminder that idleness is only a problem when it is attached to value in the organization: idle projects / products.
Christopher Avery's "Teamwork is an Individual Skill" may be ten years old, but it is a great resource. The short summary: I am responsible for the success of any venture in which I choose to participate
As most people know, today is Thanksgiving in the USA. It's a day for gathering with family and friends and food. It's also a day to reflect on what we have in our lives and be grateful. Here is an abbreviated list for me.
Are you starting your change effort with a focus on evolution or on revolution? How does this impact your way of thinking about the change you need to create? How does it impact your thinking about other change efforts?
Bill Dettmer has a new article on how management tools fit into the Cynefin framework. This builds on ideas I've heard directly from Dave Snowden as well as those discussed elsewhere by people interested in Cynefin as applied to various approaches.
Don't use milestones to manage your projects. Use buffers at key integration points and a project buffer at the end. This is a much more reasonable way to manage your project and the natural variability of execution.
Review of Eric Von Hippel's "Democratizing Innovation" which looks at the spread of user-inspired and user-created innovations throughout all industries. What creates it? What sustains it?