Practicing what you Preach

On Sunday the sermon was delivered by a visiting minister from Haiti. The message was good, but that is not what I want to write about. What I found particularly compelling was the personal passion with which he delivered his message, and the authenticity with which he conducts his own life. He serves one of [...]

Context and Intelligence

A few days ago I read a post by Doc Searls, Flattery, that pointed to an older post of his, Getting Flat Part 2. Getting flat: Part 2 is compelling reading. There is a lot there worth thinking about, but I just want to focus on one point. Doc talks about how we measure intelligence [...]

Context and Contrast

The other day I was watching Noggin ("television for preschoolers") with my 2 year old. They were singing a counting song and dancing around holding up cardboard cutouts of numbers. The number 4 was yellow, but they were holding it up in front of a mostly yellow background. My first thought was "pretty poor set [...]

Creating the Corporate Blog

A few days ago I wrote Starting the Corporate Blog. Today I read a post at e-mediators about a corporate blogging survey just released by Guidewire and iUpload. (The survey is free but you have to register.) I quickly downloaded it and sent it off to the team lead of our blogging effort. I won’t [...]

Shared Language

The longer I work the more I am convinced that poor communication is the root of all problems. And conversely, all jobs are fundamentally about communication. Most of the time spent in meetings, on the phone, composing email, etc. is about the creation of a common set of symbols to be used to share knowledge. [...]

Collaboration: Tools and Culture

Like many people, I have spent much of my adult life wondering what I was going to be when I grew up. I think the answer to that question may finally be coming into focus.
I just read Regina Miller’s post "Creating a Culture for Collaboration". I was really excited when I read it, not only [...]

Starting the Corporate Blog…

Debbie’s post, Blogging Backlash…, at Blogwrite for CEO’s couldn’t have been more timely.
I attended the first official meeting to discuss the use of blogs for my division of GSK today. This is a good sign. Unfortunately we collectively know very little about what we are trying to accomplish. I expect that we are typical [...]

Virtual Infrastructure

Web 2.0   /   Open Source   /   Long Tail   /   Social Network
The fuzzy outline of a new venture is starting to come into view. Organizations, particularly big ones, commit a lot of resources to provide captive infrastructure capabilities. Most infrastructure is not considered to be an organization’s core competency. Yes organizations ARE outsourcing, but that does [...]

Compelling Connections

Most of my posts tend to be more philosophical than pragmatic in nature. I have been thinking a lot about more tangible ways to imbed these philosophies into an organization. One idea that may have some promise is the process of actively building compelling connections into our everyday (work) lives.

As individuals, as managers, as [...]

The Existential Vacuum

I am reading Viktor Frankl’s book "Man’s Search for Meaning". He postulates that the process of an individual’s search for meaning is the centerpiece of their existance. Those that  are not actively seeking or do not have a clear understanding of meaning in thier own life are destined "…to do what other people do (conformism) [...]