The idea that we must set personal goals and work relentlessly to achieve them, bothers me. There’s an implicit valuing of perseverance over flexibility, adaptability, ingenuity. Sort of like following the plan–no matter what!–rather than adapting to...
I spent a couple of days with the web crowd last week at Web Directions in Atlanta. Design matters on a website, where attention to user engagement can mean the difference between a flop and a million dollars. I live in the software world, mostly around agile...
Between Kent Beck’s post on Capital Efficient UI Design and attending a UI conference this week, I’m prompted to write down a few thoughts on incorporating UI design into development iterations. Establish critical design standards at the beginning and work...
If you have ever said to yourself “It couldn’t be X, Y, or Z” when trying to find an exploration, you’ve put options beyond belief. And that hampers problem solving. Let me tell you a little story, a true story. The Facts Some time ago my...
Came across this quote today–seems a propros the discussion of management and leadership. It seems to me that whereas power usually means power-over, the power of some person or group over some other person or group, it is possible to develop the conception of...
When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness A few months ago, I began writing a “Technically Speaking” column for this issue and just couldn’t make myself finish it. I...
From Bob Sutton’s Work Matters blog:15 THINGS I (Bob Sutton) BELIEVE1. Sometimes the best management is no management at all — first do no harm!2. Indifference is as important as passion.3. In organizational life, you can have influence over others or you...
From a CNN article:We’ve all heard the conventional wisdom about good work habits. Many of us have attended time management classes, participated in workshops and have been advised to “work smarter, not harder.”Work habits that might seem less...
I talked to an middle manager recently who promised his VP that his group would deliver a special project for the VP.Unfortunately, he made a promise on the basis of incomplete information. Once he talked to his group and ran the numbers, it turned out the work he...
Bob Sutton points to more research about prima donnas, prima dons, and jerks-at-work:Boris [Groysberg ] wrote me a pair of detailed notes about a series of case studies that he has done that track Lehman Brothers’ research department over a 20 year period. Boris...
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