Metaphors are powerful. They work because your conscious mind is limited in its bandwidth – it can focus on very few things at a given time. When someone uses a metaphor to describe something, the power is two-fold. First, you have the direct function of explanation – the person is engaging in description. So, when [...]
On the largest of scales, we rarely have the luxury of designing technological systems. Instead, technologies happen to us – our experience of them being ragged, volatile, turbulent and rife with unexpected interactions. Tim’s posts about the emerging internet operating system here, and here, describe a great example of this – the winner of that [...]
The following is a cross-post of something I wrote for O’Reilly Radar. Readers of www.readingaboutleading.com will see my cross-posts from O’Reilly two or three days after they are posted there. For the whole dialogue about Education 2.0, see http://radar.oreilly.com/edu2/ . O’Reilly’s blog is one of the best forums out there – I recommend a careful [...]
A good friend of mine sent this over and I found it to be a fascinating and helpful read. It is a presentation on Corporate Culture in Netflix. In particular, I liked its emphasis on managing poor or even average performance out of the organization – what may be the rarest skill I see in [...]
There is a lot of controversy right now about a new service called Unvarnished, a system that offers Facebook users the ability to provide personal business feedback for other individuals. There have been good discussions of Unvarnished (UV) at the LA Times, CNET, and TechCrunch (among many others). The service works by allowing users to [...]
I’m reading Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto right now. It is a detailed, thorough and comprehensive examination of why we so often fail at very simple things. Gawande’s researched based answer: we need to use more checklists. This reminded me of one of the simplest and easiest to use decision-making tools: the side-by-side pros and cons. I’ve [...]
A classic cartoon about gaps in our thinking: Also a very useful cartoons for leaders. Think how many companies during the dot com run-up had a “then a miracle occurs” component of their business strategy. If this happens for companies, it can happen for individuals as well. When thinking through problems, it’s that [...]
HR Bartender is one of the best blogs in this space and this month is hosting the leadership carnival – a collection of posts from all over about a wide ranging set of leadership topics. If you have the time, this is a great way to see a broad range of the bloggers in the [...]
Nothing can guarantee your promotion. Competition is fierce and new positions scarce. Opportunities for upward movement present themselves on a schedule you cannot control. There are, though, some specific things you can do to enhance your chances of promotion. A list of recommendations follows the jump.
This is a fantastic diagram from Great White Snark: (h/t O’Reilly). Its like MBTI for gizmo lovers!
