Management
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Uncheck the Box
For over forty years, if you wanted to see the latest music in the UK you turned on “Top of the Pops.” New, up-and-coming bands eagerly awaited the validation of success that an invite to appear on the TOTP stage represented. When they arrived the band “played” the song but really they were miming to… Continue reading
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A Tale of Two Polar Bears
(a parable about risk-taking) Two polar bears — we will call them Bold Bear and Timid Bear — sit on an ice floe that is slowly drifting away toward open, warmer water. As their comfortable, known perch begins to melt they discuss their predicament: Bold Bear: “This ice floe has been great for the past… Continue reading
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The Power of Scarcity – Part 2
In startups, teams are — by necessity — small. I’ve worked on bootstrapped development projects where the same five people wrote code, tested, created documentation, and even did ads. (Turns out software engineers don’t make for good marketers, though a sketched ad featuring cavemen discussing ERP was pretty funny…at least to us). Once a company… Continue reading
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Decisions, Decisions
“I took the canal zone and let Congress debate, and while the debate goes on the canal does also” – Theodore Roosevelt The world is not black and white. Neither are most business or technology decisions. One of the most difficult things in any company is understanding where the line between “too much” and “too… Continue reading
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Change, Anchors and Rugby
“Change” is a commonly used term in organizations. We have “change agents,” “change process,” “change management” — all ostensibly in pursuit of making the organization work better. In business, in social groups and politics new efforts to effect positive change are begun every day. But many of these efforts ultimately fail. Organizations who have all… Continue reading