A techie strip club would probably feature plenty of outlets, free wi-fi and dancers flinging off Geekologie-brand undies to a song of remixed iPhone ringtones. Calm down, pervs, there’s no plans in the works for nekkid techie discotheque (that I know of), but, in the meantime, get your dweeb kicks with the Nude Tech Calendar 2010. London’s top new media entrepreneurs stepped out from behind their computers and stripped down for the 24 picture, limited edition calendar. Proceeds go to Take Heart India, a charity that raises funds for IT education programs for blind and disabled…
Selected by dtrigueros
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Holy Kaw!
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Tech nerds take it all off
20 Nov 2009 | 12:28 pm -
6 principles of simple agile
20 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pmWhen it comes to agile software development, simplicity is key. To help you stay focused, here are the six principles of simple agile. 1. Collaborate. And what I really mean is - communicate effectively with each other. There’s no place in agile for a lack of clear communication, since the point is to work in a team. Try to keep conversations as close to real-time as possible and hopefully as high bandwidth as possible. 3. Honour priorities. Always, always work from a ranked product blog. Your team should follow the rule, “the next thing you do should be a task in the highest… -
Travel: How to pack under the weight limit
20 Nov 2009 | 11:57 amFrustrated at having to pay a scaling fee for each checked in baggage while you’re traveling, you may just flip out when you’re told you owe an additional fee for being overweight. In this case the overweight fee is for your baggage, but airlines have already begun charging double for the chubby, curvy passenger. For sensible packing, follow the 7 packing tips recommended by DeclutterYou.com. And, if you’re like me and need to work towards avoiding the other type of overweight charges, let’s focus on fitness and nutrition together. Permalink | Leave a… -
7 keys to reading faster
20 Nov 2009 | 11:27 amScott Young at Think Simple Now points out, “Speed reading is about controlling your reading rate, not just going faster.” Young shares the lessons he learned that helped him to increase his reading rate and consume over 70 books in a year. “Speed reading requires active reading. That means, instead of just assuming the information will jump out at you, you become an inquisitive, seeking animal. Before you start reading, prime your mind by asking what you’re hoping to get out of your reading session. Even if you aren’t 100% sure of what you’ll learn, this… -
Picture. Of. The. Day.
20 Nov 2009 | 11:10 amJust trust me and click on thru. Total Macintosh coverage. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Guy Kawasaki
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The 19 bloggers Inc. thinks you should read
6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pmInc. named 19 bloggers that you should read. We’ve aggregated them all in one place: Inc19.alltop. -
How to Get Found
4 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pmThe reality is that people and technology is getting better and better a blocking out unwanted interruptions—aka, “marketing.” Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, and he explains in my post on the American Express Open Forum “how to get found.” It’s all about creating great stuff and letting Google et al do what they do: find great stuff. -
How I tweet
2 Nov 2009 | 8:47 amBy popular demand (and some complaints), I’ve done a FAQ with myself about how I tweet. Hope this helps you use Twitter for your business too. I explain how I use ghostwriters and why I repeat my tweets among other “unusual” practices. -
Current Twitter Demo Script
28 Oct 2009 | 2:26 amThis is the set of links that I used to demo Twitter by going down through this list to show why Twitter is such a valuable marketing tool. Introduction Home page Profile page Monitor Search Guy Kawasaki or Alltop Starbucks VIA introduction Search for “Prius” or “Civic” Sell Dell Outlet Kogi BBQ Support Comcast Cares Engage JetBlue Virgin America Fandango Prospect Camaro Camaro near Palo Alto Advanced searches Surfing or skateboarding (shows how to eliminate extraneous results such as “surfing the web” How I Tweet - Find Alltop MyAlltop helped me find this. -
How to Avoid Twitter Cluelessness
26 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pmOver at the American Express Open Forum blog, I explain how to not look clueless on Twitter. The first five ways are: Don’t tell other people how to tweet. Don’t tell the world that you unfollowed someone. Don’t ask people why they unfollowed you. Don’t constantly tweet mundane updates and babble. Don’t use a small picture for an avatar. To read all ten and why they impugn your intelligence, click here.
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Principled Innovation
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Prepare your association for 2010!
1 Nov 2009 | 6:56 pmOn January 6, 2010, from 2 pm-3:30 pm EST, I am holding a Principled Innovation Briefing webinar on “Top 2010 Trends for Associations.” You will find the event detail from the registration site below. P.I. Blog readers are invited to register at a 10% discount (until December 1, 2009) by using the link above. This is going to be a great webinar, so I hope you’ll join me on January 6 and help prepare your association for 2010! EVENT DETAIL FOR JANUARY 6, 2010 P.I. BRIEFING WEBINAR 2009 has been a very tough year for associations and their leaders. 2010 can be better, but… -
P.I. Podcast: Interview with Tim Brown of IDEO
17 Oct 2009 | 6:31 pm“We need new choices.” I’m thinking this is the perfect mantra for association leaders as we approach 2010. Associations face complex challenges, and the current options for tackling them don’t really inspire too much confidence in our ultimate success. Not only do we need to think about our problems in new ways, but we literally need different strategies for solving them. In other words, we need new choices. Tim Brown’s excellent new book, Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, is all about how mindset and… -
What relevance isn’t
16 Oct 2009 | 4:26 amLast month, my friend and fellow blogger Jamie Notter wrote an excellent post on why relevance is not enough for associations. In his post, Jamie graciously mentions my continuing pushback against the relevance-oriented thinking (ROT) that is still framing the way most leaders in our community approach crucial decisions about the future of their organizations. We need to cultivate a fundamentally different leadership point of view, and this is what I think it should be: +Relevance isn’t a purpose–How will your association’s pursuit of relevance nurture an authentic… -
My Top Ten Favorite Things About #BIF5 Day One
7 Oct 2009 | 8:54 pmSitting in my hotel room in Providence, I’ve been thinking about the first day of the BIF-5 Summit. Wow, what a day! I missed BIF-4, and in my two-year absence, I think I forgot about the incredible richness of this experience. I’m inspired, and I’m thinking about even more new possibilities for my work. I’d like to share some of the experience, so here is my quick top ten list of favorite things from BIF-5 (#BIF5) Day One, with some help from my fellow Twitterers. (FYI, I’m @pinnovation) Thank you all for being so terrific. 10. We talked openly about… -
Live tweeting at #BIF5
7 Oct 2009 | 5:22 amI’ll be live tweeting for the next two days at BIF-5 in Providence. You can follow the hashtag on Twitter at #bif5…there will be many other people tweeting, blogging etc. so be prepared for lots of great stuff!
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Innovation Weblog
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The importance of storytelling in creative leadership: An interview with Michael Margolis
In this interview, Michael Margolis explains the importance of storytelling as part of the paradigm of creative leadership. -
Don't stop with the first 'right idea'
When many people brainstorm, they tend to get into the bad habit of stopping with the "first right idea." In other words, at the first sign of a promising idea, they decide that they're done brainstorming, and mentally "pack it up" and move on to another task. But this isn't very productive from a creative problem-solving standpoint. Here's why. -
Want to capture your ideas on the fly? There's an app for that!
As the number of apps available for Apple's popular iPhone have exploded, there are now a growing number of programs that are designed to help you to capture ideas in an organized way. -
New book helps professionals become outstanding creative problem solvers
Chuck Frey's new e-book, Creativity Hacks: Shortcuts to Help You to Crush Your Challenges and Live a Kick-Ass Life, is now available. -
The future of Chinese innovation
Today China may be behind in global innovation, but when will they catch up and what does that mean to the rest of us?
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Project Rethink
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Hello, My Name is Shawn Welch
For the past few months I've been meaning to update the look-and-feel of projectrethink.org. As you can see, this new design is much cleaner than the old look-and-feel. The primary goal of this redesign was to put more emphasis on original content. Another big goal of the redesign was to bring ... -
Let Viral Be Viral
Imagine this scenario. You are a major record label and you find that someone just uploaded a video to Youtube featuring a hit song from one of your artists. The knee-jerk reaction from most record labels is to declare copyright violations and have the video removed. Fortunately for Chris Brown ... -
Surround Yourself With Good People
Groups have interesting dynamics. I don't claim to be an expert on the psyche of a group but I can tell you one thing; good people bring good results. Surround yourself with good people. It's humbling, but try to avoid situations where you feel that you're the smartest person in the ... -
Piece-of-Junk Innovation
The trick with innovation is coming up with something "new". We have a tendency to iterate what we know; iteration is not innovation. There are a few companies who do this very well; Apple and Google typically come to mind. But I think there is an overlooked simplicity to the success ... -
Sticky Song: Susan Boyle
If you haven't seen Susan Boyle on the British reality TV show, "Britain's Got Talent", then over the last week you've probably successfully avoided social media sites, the news, or the Internet in general. This single video has been on Youtube for less than a week, and has already surpassed 26 ...
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Blogging Innovation
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Innovation and Idea Management
20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amFrom Ideation to Collaboration to Executionby Robert F. BrandsInnovation: What a great idea!Innovation thrives on a diet of news ideas. It needs fresh thinking and a different perspective from across the organization.We've noted that Innovation = Creative x Risk Taking. Setting aside risk for the moment, creativity is a central element to the innovation process. But it must continually be nourished with new ideas from a variety of sources.Ideation is not a single event. It doesn't originate from a single silo or one person or one department, although it can come from a single source. Ideation… -
General Mills' Open Innovation Initiative
20 Nov 2009 | 8:15 amby Stefan LindegaardAt a first glance, the G-WIN initiative by General Mills looks just like the many other open innovation portals that are popping up right now.So rather than just giving my two cents on this, I did an interview with Jeff Bellairs, who is director of General Mills Worldwide Innovation Network, to get a better understanding of the whys and hows of this initiative.This turned into a great learning experience that I would like to share with others. I kicked off the interview by telling Jeff that I was kind of neutral on their project. Some things looked good and others not so… -
Innovate or Die - Tactics #43-72 of 110
19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 amby Tom PetersThis is the third of four parts of the list of 110 Innovation Tactics.Click here to view Part One - Innovation Tactics #1-16Click here to view Part Two - Innovation Tactics #17-42Celebration!Celebrate! Innovative organizations are places where people enjoy their peers' work, good tries, good screw-ups, milestones reached, etc. Celebrating these events, large and small and very small, is a fullscale part of the "innovation culture."Celebrate failures. This peculiar form of celebration deserves particular mention. "Fast failure" is innovation's bedrock. Hence the encouragement… -
Nurturing Innovation by Focusing on What Went Right
19 Nov 2009 | 12:01 amby Paul SloaneIn looking for improvements and innovations we tend to focus our attention on what went wrong. We try to fix problems. A typical management meeting consists of a group of people who are looking at what is not working and trying their hardest to come up with ways to put things right. But in the process they are often allocating blame, arguing, becoming negative and getting frustrated. Most managers ask these kinds of questions:Why are sales down? What is holding up production?What can we do about customer complaints?What can I do about difficult staff?What is wrong with the… -
Are Facebook And Twitter Bad For Your Brain?
18 Nov 2009 | 1:30 amOr Does It Actually Make You A Better Person?by Idris MooteeHere is an old vision of a high-tech future. It is old magazine illustration in 1969 a Japanese Sunday magazine, which show life in the future, pervaded by computers. This illustration "The Rise of the Computerized School," by Shigeru Komatsuzaki is an illustrated scenario of what schools will be like in the future. Sort of Webex type of online delivery and interactive learning via a tablet. I always find it fascinating to go back to see the future, comics and movies are the best place to see the future. In those worlds, there are…
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Endless Innovation
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What Shaun White and Snowboarding Can Teach You About Innovation
18 Nov 2009 | 8:16 pmOne of the best articles that I've read about innovation this week actually had absolutely nothing at all to do with business innovation -- at least on the surface. Hannah Karp of the Wall Street Journal recently took a closer look at When Snowboarders Baffle the Judges. Faced with the prospect of judges that are not always on top of radical new snowboarding techniques, innovative snowboarders like Shaun White have a choice -- either keep their innovative snowboarding tricks under wraps until major competitions, or step-by-step unveil these innovations to the judges before the actual… -
Digital Trends for 2010
9 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pmI've been playing around with a staggeringly impressive presentation tool called Prezi. Above, I've uploaded a brief look at some of the DIGITAL TRENDS that I see coming to the forefront in 2010 -- real-time marketing, augmented reality, new mega-content companies to replace mainstream media companies, and interesting cultural trends like the re-invention of bank branding in the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. -
Digital Think-Ins for Brands
8 Nov 2009 | 8:43 amNPR Digital Think In Ed Cotton of Influx Insights recently highlighted an interesting experiment by global innovation firm Frog Design to spearhead new thinking about the future at NPR. Frog recruited 60 of the smartest thinkers in the world, gave them a brief about the current strategic issues facing NPR, and then set them free to to think about the future: "The Digital Think In is an incredible initiative pulled together for NPR by Frog Design. For one day only, Frog brought together over 60 thought leaders who worked on an envisioning new futures for NPR. It was an impressive list of… -
Crowdfunding Artistic Projects Through Kickstarter
3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmBrooklyn-based Kickstarter enables people to "crowd-fund" new artistic projects (books, movies, films, etc.) and then follow along the progress of the project through regular updates. In my first-ever Kickstarter project, I helped to crowd-fund a new book from Robin Sloan (a former Current TV exec and aspiring novelist) after reading about it on CNET:"I'm writing a book: a detective story set halfway between San Francisco and the Internet. And the more people who reserve a copy, the better each one will be! The basic setup is: Imagine a Sherlock Holmes for the 21st… -
WIRED Magazine's Map of the Future
2 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pmWIRED Magazine recently commissioned Italian design firm Density Design to create a Map of the Future based on the scenarios developed by the Institute For The Future in Palo Alto, California. The results are stunning -- an eye-pleasing amalgamation of trends from 7000 of the world's top thinkers in areas including politics, infrastructure, the environment, economics, and society (i.e. each of the brown tabs at the top of the image). Behance Network has done a nice job of deconstructing the entire map into its respective pieces -- just in case you'd like to peer deeper into one of…
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Creativity & Innovation
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Finland’s Innovation Economy
6 Nov 2009 | 3:38 amThis is my first posting from Europe, during my two-month stay as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge. I have about twelve guest lectures scheduled and I’ll be posting about my travels. This week I’ve been in Finland, giving a series of four invited lectures at four different universities.* If you have ever looked at those national rankings that come out every year, comparing how students in different countries score on math and science and other subjects, you may remember that Finland is usually number one. What are they doing that makes them so successful? Finland… -
Regional Clusters: More Complex Than You Think
27 Oct 2009 | 9:48 amEconomists have noted for over a century that similar firms tend to “cluster” near each other. In the last few decades, research on clusters has picked up dramatically, in part because they are associated with more rapid innovation. One of the best-known examples of a contemporary regional cluster is Silicon Valley and its cluster of electronics and software firms. Clusters are often assumed to work due to openness, collaboration, loose organizational boundaries, and information sharing. A new research paper* by Simon Bell, Paul Tracey, and Jan Hiede argues that it’s often… -
The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest
23 Oct 2009 | 2:50 pmSince it was founded in the 1920s, the New Yorker magazine has been famous for its one-frame black and white cartoons, each with a single one-line caption published underneath. For the last few years, the magazine has gotten readers involved in the art of cartoon humor: it publishes a one-frame cartoon, without a caption, and invites readers to come up with funny captions and submit them. The funniest caption is selected by a panel of judges and published two weeks later. Here’s a short article I wrote after interviewing a few recent winners of the contest, after being introduced to… -
Superstar Extinction
16 Oct 2009 | 11:36 amHow important is collaboration in scientific laboratories? A new paper by Pierre Azoulay, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Jialan Wang* studied what happens to research productivity when an academic “superstar” dies while they’re still actively engaged in scientific research. A superstar is a brilliant scientist who teams up with others to collaboratively conduct research and who co-authors with other scientists. The researchers analyzed the coauthors of 137 eminent life scientists. On average, each superstar had 73 coauthors. (That number alone is astonishing, and shows how… -
Design Thinking
10 Oct 2009 | 11:09 amClick here to order Change by Design, the long-awaited book by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, has just been published. And it’s getting a lot of press: it was excerpted in Business Week’s October 5, 2009 issue, and was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal on October 9, 2009 (“The shape of things to come”). The book’s genesis dates back to a legendary article in the Harvard Business Review titled “Design Thinking.” It’s IDEO’s approach to innovation–to focus on “new ways of communicating and collaborating.” Designers have always…
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Small Business Blog | Entrepreneur Blog for Business Owners
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Energizing Your Organization
13 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pmAs 2009 is starting to wind down and come to a close, many business owners and employees can look back and agree that with the tough economy, 2009 was a year full of challenges and some uphill battles. A lot of owners, however, saw how strong their companies are and can be as well as how incredible their employees are. As a business owner, you need to make sure your company is ready as well as your team for 2010 so you can reach your business goals.In a article posted on Harvard Business Blog, John Baldoni, talks about using your salesmanship to energize your employees. “What do Jerry… -
Protecting Yourself and Your Company from H1N1
6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmAs winter approaches, business owners may start seeing employees taking sick days as common colds and the flu start spreading. Business owners should be especially concerned with the spread of the H1N1 virus, also known as the Swine Flu.It is always a good idea to have a plan in place for your business should something like the H1N1 affect your office. You don’t want your business goals to be affected because of this. If the flu should affect several people in your office it can be detrimental to your business and affect your business success. H1N1 is contagious and is typically spread from… -
Top 5 Job Description Mistakes
30 Oct 2009 | 12:46 pmAs the new year approaches, business owners may be looking into or getting ready to hire new staff to start in 2010. It is important when advertising an open position that you have the correct job descriptions so the applicants you receive have the correct skill set that you’re looking for. It is important to make sure your job descriptions are in alignment with your business strategy to ensure your business success. TAB-Certified Facilitator and coach, Blair Koch, discusses on her blog, Alone at the Top, the top 5 job descriptions mistakes.“Job descriptions—just the thought brings… -
Rewarding Your Employees During the Holidays
23 Oct 2009 | 2:12 pmThe holiday season is just around the corner and business owners may be wondering if and or how they’re going to be able to give their employee a holiday bonus. With the tough economy , budgets are low and there may not be funds to give employees what they are used to around the holiday season. This is a time where owners need to be creative and use some of their best business ideas on their employees.Although you may not have the budget to hand out your normal holiday gifts and bonuses, there are other options available to reward your employees for their hard work through the year.Provide… -
Changing the Bad Customer’s Perspective
16 Oct 2009 | 2:21 pmNot only should it be a goal of the business owner’s to keep their customers happy, it is crucial to ensure business success. Problem customers not only create a problem for the business owner/manager to deal with when the problem occurs, but they can also create a larger problem by spreading a bad word to other current/potential customers and clients about your business. We all know it’s important to keep the customer happy but how do you turn an angry customer into an advocate for your business?In a post on their blog, Chief Executive Boards gives seven ways to turn what could be a…
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Seth's Blog
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The amateur scientist (that's us)
20 Nov 2009 | 2:41 amMany people buy a car (probably their single biggest discretionary purchase) based on slamming a door, kicking a tire and judging the handshake of a salesperson.We choose a surgeon based on the carpeting in his office and a politician by his hair cut.During the first week of swine flu vaccines in New York, most parents (more than half!) chose to keep their kids out of the program.Interviewed parents said things like, "I'm not sure it's safe," and "I wanted to see if it affected other kids..."No mention of longitudinal studies or long-term side effects. No science at all, really, just rumors… -
Embracing lifetime value
19 Nov 2009 | 2:46 amIf you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it's easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a… -
Some books for November
18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmRandom thoughts from all over for those of us hungry for new ways to think. This month's list is here. The previous list was blogged in September. -
The reason they want you to fit in...
18 Nov 2009 | 2:03 amis that once you do, then they can ignore you. -
Breakthroughs and drips
17 Nov 2009 | 2:25 amThere are only two ways to win in the market.You can create a breakthrough. A promotion so powerful that people can't help but engage. An innovation so remarkable, people can't help but talk about it. A pricing strategy or ad campaign that breaks the mold and is worthy of attention. This takes huge guts and substantial investment.Or you can win with consistent benefits, delivered over time. You win by incrementally earning share, attention and trust. This might take years.Almost all marketing attempts to do neither of these, and of course, fail. Painless and quick are rarely associated with…
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Business Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen Shapiro
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TEDx NASA
19 Nov 2009 | 11:08 amI am now in Newport News, Virginia preparing for my speech tomorrow at TEDx NASA. There will be 1700 aerospace engineers and scientists in the audience. My topics is titled “Innovation is in the Space.” I have only 6 minutes for my presentation. This may prove to be my most challenging speech yet! Blaise Pascal (not [...] -
FT Innovation Conference Highlights – Part 1
18 Nov 2009 | 7:24 amI just returned from a week in London where, amongst other things, I spoke at the FT Innovate conference. There was an impressive line-up of speakers including the CEOs of Jaguar, EMI and Best Buy. This is the first of two blog entries with conference highlights. Jaguar Land Rover David Smith, CEO, Jaguar Land Rover, [...] -
Complete Idiots’s Guide to Target Marketing
17 Nov 2009 | 10:42 amMy good friend Susan Friedmann just released her next book today, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Target Marketing.” Do you want to get the word out to buyers about all the great things your business has to offer, but a big-bucks marketing campaign just isn’t in your budget? Now you can get the expert information you [...] -
London FT Innovate Conference
9 Nov 2009 | 2:02 amMy schedule has been crazy lately! My work with InnoCentive, my speeches all over the planet, and a manuscript due in a few weeks. My blogging has become the victim of this. But that will change. This week I am one of the speakers at the FT Innovate conference in London. I will also be blogging [...] -
Content is No Longer King…Long Live the King (Part 2)
21 Oct 2009 | 1:05 pmIn an earlier blog entry on content, readers provided a number of interesting comments. If you haven’t already read that article (and the comments), you may want to do so in order to understand this new article. Many did not agree with my point of view. And that is great. I only wanted [...]
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djchuang.com
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How to find a mentor for yourself
19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmWhere have all the mentors gone? It saddened me to hear that Kyle Reed asked a dozen people to be his mentor, and to be turned down and rejected. What’s up with that? Watch this interview to hear what Kyle wants to do to change this situation: Kyle (on twitter @kylelreed) may very well be right, if a young person can’t find a mentor in their church for the Kingdom of God, they’ll find one elsewhere outside the church. So, add your comment below and get this conversation going! -
Let’s get missional, missional…
14 Nov 2009 | 7:25 amMissional communities are the conversations du jour among church leaders, escalating during the past few years. Now there are gatherings (conferences) that revolve around how we can be more missional. (Several local and regional gatherings have already happened, though I haven’t been counting.) A regional (free) unconference about missional churches is happening this weekend called Verge LA. I’ll be there most of today. Definitely want to hear Kevin Doi, currently scheduled at 1:45pm, and you can watch via livestream at ecclesianet.com. And, I’ll get to meet in person, JR… -
how a conflict played out in social media
6 Nov 2009 | 7:21 am“Conflict is something that will always be. It is neither good nor bad, it simply is.” [cf. Sam Chand] The incident regarding Deadly Viper had set the online world ablaze, and very uncomfortable words of pain festered in the open space [cf. read this summary]. My prayer was that the key leaders at the core of the conflict would resolve it privately, walking through their respective pains together with each other. This direct conversations has since happened offline in private, and an appropriate resolution is in the works. A public statement has been issued. I commend all involved… -
How to raise up minority leaders
5 Nov 2009 | 8:22 amAsian and Latino. Techie and Non-techie. Conference junkie and conference rock star. DJ Chuang and Rudy Carrasco. We’ve been friends online and offline. Now we’re thousands of miles apart. Web technology has kept us connected. And one of the burning issues we often banter about is raising up minority leaders. People and organizations say they want to collaborate and have more diversity in their leadership, but it’s so hard to find qualified leaders to work with. Why is that? We had a conversation about that in this wetoku-powered video. Watch it: I have a feeling this is… -
Impact matters more than intention
3 Nov 2009 | 10:25 pmWow. These blog post comment threads at here and here about unintentional racial stereotypes is blowing up. Big. Time. [cf. summary] I think that discussing highly-emotionally charged issues in an asynchronous public forum like the online blogosphere is mostly ineffective. One party describes the pain of the impact from the (alleged) offense, while the other party tries to describe the original intent, all sincere and good. To quote Sam Chand, “The difference between reality and expectation is conflict.” Both sides have unmet expectations. Both sides have different perceptions of…
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The Practice of Leadership
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Research finds leadership skills inadequate to meet current and future demand
16 Nov 2009 | 11:29 pmNew research from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) which surveyed 2,200 leaders from 15 organizations, in three countries between 2006 and 2008 produced some interesting findings. The research project was designed to answer the following questions: What leadership skills and perspectives are critical for success now and in the future? How strong are current leaders in these critical skills and perspectives? How aligned is today’s leadership strength with what will be the most important skills and perspectives in the future? A comparison of the leadership strength from the research… -
Leaders Take Risks!
1 Nov 2009 | 12:01 pmPhoto by schoschie The act and practice of leadership is a risky undertaking. Leadership is the act or bringing about positive change. This requires leaders to initiate, to blaze new trails, to venture into the unknown and unexplored terrain. All of this entails risk. Kouzes and Posner in their bestselling book, “The Leadership Challenge” describes it this way: “Leaders are pioneers – people who are willing to step out into the unknown. They are people who are willing to take risks, to innovate and experiment in order to find new an better ways of doing things.” Leaders take… -
10 reasons why you’re going to fail!
1 Nov 2009 | 11:50 amI can across a really stunning post on failure by Tony Morgan, “10 Reasons Why You’re Probably Going to Fail” that is really worth sharing, so here is Tony’s list… 10 Reasons Why You’re Probably Going to Fail It’s not your passion. If it doesn’t make your heart beat fast or cause your mind to race when you’re trying to sleep, you’re probably doing the wrong thing. You don’t have a plan. You need a vision, and you need to identify specific steps to make that vision become reality. That includes a financial plan. (I happen to believe you need direction from God on… -
The 2009 Most Influential Business Thinkers
1 Nov 2009 | 11:45 amForbes.com released their 2009 “The Most Influential business Thinkers” results. The consulting firm CrainerDearlove compiled this list of today’s top thinkers, by surveyed 3,500 people and a panel of experts to determine the 2009 edition of the Thinkers 50, the fifth edition of a biennial list of the most influential living management thinkers. This years results are listed below. Rank Name 2007 Rank Country Day Job 1 C.K. Prahalad 1 India/U.S. University of Michigan Academic 2 Malcolm Gladwell 18 Canada New Yorker Columnist 3 Paul Krugman U.S. Princeton Academic 4… -
Keeping your goals in focus
30 Aug 2009 | 1:39 pmPhoto by kevindooley The article “For This Guru, No Question Is Too Big” from the NY Times discusses the work of the best selling business author Jim Collins. Given the popularity of Jim Collins the article discussed how he allocates his time, which is as follows: “… in a corner of the white board at the end of his long conference room, Mr. Collins keeps this short list: Creative 53% Teaching 28% Other 19% That, he explains, is a running tally of how he’s spending his time, and whether he’s sticking to a big goal he set for himself years ago: to spend 50 percent of…
