This website covers knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints, amongst other topics. Opinions expressed here are strictly those of the owner, Jack Vinson, and those of the commenters.

Interesting LinkedIn questions for 5 Sept 2007

Another set of questions from LinkedIn.  Answer if you can.

This one caught my eye for the title: The Pretense of Business Knowledge' and the author has stirred up a lot of discussion.  Essentially, he's concerned that new business management ideas are all just flavor-of-the-month.

If you were a manager, what could you do to make sure your team of experts finish their work on time?  Okay, this sounds like a loaded question, but there are already 77 answers (now 78 with my answer) on a question that is one day old!  Of course, the Theory of Constraints answer is to stop worrying about individual activities and focus on the success of the project or projects on which they are working.  It is the project that the team is getting paid to deliver, not individual activities.

Someone is thinking about growing their company.  What could be the top 5 priorities for a system integration company to become market leader in next 3 years?

From the same guy who had questions about managing a distribution center: What are the 5 most import metrics for measuring customer service (manufacturing, distribution or service environment)?  I don't have as witty an answer this time.

Trust and Identity in LinkedIn.  The author of this question has a thesis about trust in online social networks with an accompanying survey.  Some interesting discussion in the answers.

How should you name your blog?  This is an ever-popular topic, and the 21 answers suggest it continues to be a source of discussion.

A question inspired by Labor Day (in the U.S.A): Finding a job you Love... and it has inspired a lot of good replies as well.  I like what I do too, but I really need to find more people to pay me to do it!  The "job I love" should not be something I look back on and think I've wasted time.  So far, that is (mostly) true.

And on the hiring side of the equation, How much [weight] do you give to graduate/post graduate degrees when hiring someone:  Most answers are along the lines of, "It depends."  That PhD I have must be valuable, and my experience is that it really depends on what you are trying to do.  Sometimes the specific credentials are important, and other times it is more important that you have gone through the process of getting that advanced degree.

And then there is job hunting on LinkedIn: There are a number of jobs listed that include the phrase "knowledge management" in quotes.  And in the SimplyHired section, there are over 200 just in Chicago.  And while there aren't any on LinkedIn with the phrase "theory of constraints," there are over 100 listed in SimplyHired.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of production supervisor-type roles that are looking for people that know the ideas behind TOC.

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