December 2005
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Work with a partner
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3 min read
There are times when working with a single other person – pair management – is better than working alone or with a team. Some professions such as police have a long tradition of working in pairs. Recently software programmers have started to practice pair programming where two people sit together and alternate roles of writing…
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Work as a team
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2 min read
A group of people working as a team is often the best way to complete a project because teams can generate more work of higher quality than individuals or large groups. Do it now Form a team of people for a project requiring new ideas and more work than one or two people can do.…
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Work alone
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1 min read
There are times when working alone is more productive than working with a partner or a team. Working alone is useful when you need to expand on an existing idea, to carefully synthesize information, or do imaginative thinking. Working alone can also be useful to finish a familiar task quickly without interference. Working alone isn’t…
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Create by designing together
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2 min read
Working directly with other people to design or build something – co-creation – can produce significantly more productive results when creating a product than talking only. Do it now At the next meeting of your team, set a single goal for everyone to accomplish together. Post big sheets of paper on the wall and give…
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Jeep Launches Cellphone TV Channel
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1 min read
Now that’s a headline that made me stop and think… JEEP LAUNCHES OWN MOBILE PHONE TV CHANNEL Axe Deodorant Also Said to be Negotiating Similar Deal with MobiTV SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) — In an effort to harness mobile phone TV as a major branded entertainment medium, Jeep is launching its own mobile phone channel with…
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Call an expert or toss a coin?
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3 min read
Louis Menand reviewed Philip Tetlock’s new book, “Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?†which summarizes a twenty year study of people who make prediction their business. In short, their predictions are “worse than dart-throwing monkeys.” This is good news for strategists using future planning tools like scenario planning: they don’t…
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10 years of influential business ideas
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1 min read
To celebrate s+b’s 10th anniversary, they looked back at the conceptual breakthroughs that appeared in the magazine — and invited readers to vote on which were most likely to last. Execution The Learning Organization Corporate Values Customer Relationship Management Disruptive Technology Leadership Development Organizational DNA Strategy-Based Transformation Complexity Theory Lean Thinking
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The opposite of bad PR
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1 min read
If the huge oil profits caused PR and political problems for energy companies recently, it’s only logical that taking the reverse action could have the reverse effect, which is what Citgo (U.S. arm of Venezuelan oil) did, and is getting big media attention here this morning… Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez added New York City to…
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Old school look at innovation
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2 min read
There’s a flurry of innovation talk from the old school business guard lately. Reading through it, it seems like those concerned with innovation are repeating ourselves, possibly because we’re not aware of what other work has been done and because we’re using discovery tools that aren’t revealing anything new. Jaruzelski, Dehoff, and Bordia from Booz…
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SarbOx flawed, but fixable
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1 min read
James Surowiecki’s Sarboxed In?… The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was a political knee-jerk even the Republicans couldn’t avoid, in reaction to Enron, Worldcom, etc. The complexity of the new rules went too far, requiring six figure enforcement costs, and possibly hindering small companies from going public. There are now talks of easing enforcement or modifying the Act.…