January 2012
2 posts
Greater Than The Sum
Greetings all! Yes, it has been quite a long time since I posted something other than a picture of beer, or indeed anything of any such substance. External forces at work, etc.
I want to talk for a moment about the intangible ‘12th man effect’ that can and often does occur during moments of perfected teamwork. Like many organizations, success at my company requires huge collective...
December 2011
4 posts
Our City. Our Home. Our Cup.
Breaking from protocol for a moment, it would be completely remiss of me if I did not share the good news with as many people as possible…
November 2011
9 posts
Don't Agonize; Organize
It’s 4:09PM on Friday. It’s the last day in the office before a short business trip and then the Thanksgiving holiday. Ergo, it’s the last day in the office for 9 days. Your inbox is out of control and your phone has been ringing off the hook all afternoon with “can you just…” and “before you leave…” requests. It’s chaotic and out of...
Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #8
Beer Thought #8
When it comes to beer, there’s really only two opinions you can hold: Either you love it, or you’re wrong.
Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #7
Beer Thought #7
In wine there is wisdom, in whisky there is strength, but beer is the water of life.
More Than Machinery, We Need Humanity
The following passage is a transcript from Charlie Chaplin’s famous ‘democracy’ speech in ‘The Great Dictator’. In a fictional, comedic role, Chaplin provides for us a speech as inspirational as Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, or John F Kennedy’s moonshot speech before Congress.
My hope in posting this is that it will serve as a...
It Won't Fail Because Of Me
A few weeks before his Apollo 16 voyage began, Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly (who also flew on Apollo 13) went to the launch pad and took a look at his Saturn V rocket that would take him and two other crew members to the moon.
He understood the basic design.
He knew the parts and pieces that he absolutely had to know.
But the vehicle was comprised of several millions parts, each of which...
Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #6
Beer Thought #6
Always stick around for “one last beer”. That’s when things happen.
Be Courageous, not Fearless
Tough decisions require a courageous leader, particularly when the future can’t even be forecast, let alone accurately predicated. Unfortunately, too often we misinterpret ‘courage’ as ‘fearlessness’. This simply isn’t what courage is.
Fearlessness, more often than not, is blind. It’s a complete disregard for possible outcomes and consequences. It’s...
October 2011
6 posts
Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #5
Beer Thought #5
Never turn down a free beer, or complain about its quality or brand
Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #4
Beer Thought #4
An open bar serving free beer is a dangerous game. Respect it.
Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #3
Beer Thought #3
Cocktails demand food. Wine accompanies food. Beer IS food.
The Bigger Picture
The following video is a TV spot aired by T-Mobile in the United Kingdom as part of an advertising campaign.
How many times have we come to a conclusion about a situation based on partial information? It’s understandable that the people shown in the video were reacting without opening the parking ticket envelope, but that reaction was based on historical experience, not current information. Do...
Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #2
Beer Thought #2
It’s okay to drink beer alone.
Thanks, Steve
When Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO back in August, I wrote a short post on what a visionary he was.
Steve lost his fight against cancer yesterday, leaving behind two things; a Steve Jobs shaped hole in society that can’t and won’t be filled, and a legacy that will echo for centuries to come.
The Internet is full of eulogies and obituaries, and I’m not going to add to...
September 2011
6 posts
Friday Beer Thoughts: Thought #1
I’m starting a new series of weekly posts. The basics are as follows:
I love beer.
I have some interesting thoughts surrounding beer.
It’s vitally important that you know what these are.
Therefore, every Friday from now until my beer thoughts are exhausted, I will post a simple thought that relates to beer in some way for you to ponder and consider as you head out for your...
Risky Business
I spent last week in Washington DC, attending a series of seminars on risk management, and how to negotiate your way through and around high risk events during a project lifecycle.
During a couple of the seminars, opportunity was given to discuss real world scenarios with fellow attendees. It struck me quickly how afraid many people are of confronting risks and making decisions to address them.
...
Home Media Security
I’m breaking from the regular posts for a moment here to talk about technology. (Although, this does fit nicely within a series of posts I have coming up on T.I.M.E. - Technology Improves My Existance). Like many, I’ve gradually converted most of my entertainment media in to digital format. With the exception of movies on Blu-Ray, most of my movies and all of my audio are now contained...
The Artist's Changing Vision
One week from today, LucasFilm will release the entire Star Wars saga on Blu-Ray for the first time. As a big Star Wars fan, I’m very excited by the prospect of being able to see Star Wars in true high definition for the first time, and there are millions like me around the world who share in that excitement. However, news hit the Internet last week that George Lucas has not included the original...
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Last week, Steve Jobs stepped down from his CEO leadership position at Apple, Inc. The world already knows about Steve’s health issues over recent years, and though it’s pure speculation at this point (Steve is respectfully and correctly private about these things), most have concluded that Steve’s health issues are what led to this decision.
Steve Jobs is a man that I respect...
August 2011
2 posts
Say Something Nice
Has it really been over a month since I last posted here? Time flies when your schedule is crazy…
Today, I want to share a video with you.
The concept of this video is so incredibly simple: Put a megaphone on a small podium in the middle of New York City, then get out of the way. Leave it up to passers-by to use the megaphone to address humanity as they see fit. There’s only one...
July 2011
2 posts
Ideas vs Ideals
When I was a teenager, I played in a couple of bands that were initially very exciting and a lot of fun, but ended with fighting and insurmountable differences of opinion. In both cases, they started with a great idea – “Hey, James, we’re forming a band and we need you to play drums for us. Are you in?”. At some point along the way the ideas took second place to our ideals. What started out as a...
Jon Does Not Work At Staples
I came across this video today. At first I found it to be incredibly funny…
…but then it got me thinking about the things we use to identify ourselves, and more importantly, the assumptions we make about people based on their assumed identity.
Employees at my company take pride in our products. On any given day of the week, the majority of my fellow employees wear t-shirts,...
June 2011
4 posts
The Value of Work
Ever heard of the saying “You get what you pay for”? It’s normally uttered by those who feel it necessary to advise other people who’ve chosen cheaper alternatives to a brand name and have been burned by inferior service or product.
I think the concept of getting what you pay for translates well to the business place, particularly since a contract relationship or other...
Flashmob Friday #2
This is one my favourite flashmob videos. The stunt was organized by ImprovEverywhere, and involved a few hundred people freezing in place for 5 minutes at one of New York City’s busiest places, Grand Central Station.
Aligning Expectations
I’ve had two lunch meetings in the last two days, both of which were centered on misaligned expectations, and both of which had two very different outcomes.
The first meeting was with a colleague. We had both been equally disappointed with each other’s performance, but individually we had both been highly productive and consistently excellent. The meeting was an honest and progressive discussion...
How to Write a Manifesto
Today, we write a manifesto.
Today, our second sentence starts with the first word of the first sentence.
We write a short sentence.
Then a shorter one.
Then a really, really long sentence that maybe doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but is immediately followed by…
One.
Word.
Sentences.
Then we make our point even clearer.
By using fragmented prepositional phrases.
By...
May 2011
1 post
"We Are A People Company."
I’m currently reading ‘Onward’, the latest book by Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz. It’s quite an interesting and surprisingly honest introspective look at both the successes and failures of Starbucks under his leadership.
One thing that I’ve really started to understand at a more fundamental level is the importance of focusing on core values. In 2007 Starbucks...
April 2011
1 post
Excellence: Room for Mistakes
On November 7th, 1962, NASA awarded a contract to Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation to design and build the lunar landing vehicle for the Apollo missions. Over the next 7 years, Grumman’s team of talented engineers set about the mammoth task of inventing a product that would do something that nobody had ever done before. It was true, pioneering innovation, and Grumman completed their remit...
March 2011
7 posts
Are You Making Something?
This is a repost from Seth Godin’s insightful blog post.
Making something is work. Let’s define work, for a moment, as something you create that has a lasting value in the market.
Twenty years ago, my friend Jill discovered Tetris. Unfortunately, she was working on her Ph.D. thesis at the time. On any given day the attention she spent on the game felt right to her. It was a choice,...
Excellence: No Excuses
Following on from my post last week on “good enough” not being good enough, I’ve been thinking more about excellence; what the word really means, what the reality of the word really is, and why it’s something that I feel strongly about.
Bottom line: there is never a legitimate reason for lack of excellence. There are only excuses. In my opinion, ‘excellence’...
Flashmob Friday #1
One of my favourite ‘viral’ movements of the past few years is the flashmob; organized moments of synchronization between large groups of people that have the appearance of momentary coincidence or mystery. The team over at improveverywhere.com (yes, them of the ‘No Pants Subway Ride’ fame) really got the trend going, and it’s taken off.
The video below shows one of...
"Good Enough" Isn't Good Enough
There’s a societal epidemic that has become increasingly prevalent: complacent mediocrity. It’s the thing that drives us to take a look at our task, project, or process and say “good enough” and stop.
The problem with it is that it sets the bar so low that there is never a challenge or a motivation to do better. Think about this for a second. If expectations are low...
Putting the 'Why' before the 'What'
Today, Apple announced their latest product; the iPad 2. As with almost every Apple product launch, the blogosphere buzzed with news of the improved product, while Steve Jobs described the device as ‘magical’, ‘unbelievable’, and ‘legendary’.
The thing that I love the most about Apple as an entity is the way they sell their products, and the absolute belief by...
February 2011
4 posts
WatchHere’s an amazingly creative way of decorating. One white room and a couple of projectors.
Confidence vs. Motivation
Highly confident, highly competent people can quite quickly suffer a crisis of confidence, and the issue is almost always motivation. As a leader, it’s important to recognize it, and make sure that low motivation is dealt with differently than low confidence.
To build motivation, focus on achievements and the importance of the end result. To build confidence, drop reminders of past...
Destroying the Vacuum
About 9 months ago, I abandoned my blog. It wasn’t through lack of trying or lack of enthusiasm. I just felt that it had run its course, and since the blogging landscape had changed over the 5 years that I had been blogging from being about the blogger to being about the reader, it seemed right to wrap it up.
Ever since that day, the thought has popped up in my head several times; “I...