Robert Paterson: The Work PlaceWhat is it about traditional work places that is so stifling to the creative? Is reform possible? What are the alternatives?Selfridge's - The Physical eBay - Focus on the experience versus the transaction- July 31, 2003 Great article about the revolution at Selfridge's in London. Like eBay it now focuses on creating the optimal environment for brands and resellers to do their thing. Gone is a the bureaucracy and the sameness. Gone are in house brands. Gone are most employees - they work for themselves or for the brands. In is theatre and design and fun.http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/31/business/worldbusiness/31SELF.html?pagewanted=1&th In a fast changing world, communicating what is going on becomes key- July 31, 2003 An excellent article on the need to be open - there are no secrets anymore. Good link to the Military's work in the early weeks in Iraq How to Win the Information Battle &151; Lessons from a Modern WarBy David Newkirk and Stuart Crainer 073003Business leaders can learn a lot from how the military manages the flow of real-time information. The former British prime minister Harold Macmillan was once asked what made his job most difficult. &147;Events, dear boy, events,&148; he replied. In this...http://www.strategy-business.com/press/prnt/?ptag-ps=&art=60682621&pg=0&format... Is work in most organizations Slavery- July 31, 2003 My friend Andrew Clarke sent me this about Simone Weill's views that most work was in fact slavery "Here's the logic chain: 1. Work is of fundamental spiritual importance because it offers us an anchoring connection to the present. If we don't achieve this connection regularly, our minds become too "unchained" and roam around in the past and the future. This part is not too far from the whole Zen notion of the role of "every day living". 2. Work is always organized in...http://radio.weblogs.com/0107127/categories/theWorkPlace/2003/07/30.html#a692 (Untitled)- July 31, 2003 Thoughts on the Intersections of Social Capital, Virtual Networks, Enterpreneurship and Innovation I had mentioned a few days ago that I had to write a short essay outlining the main issues to be confronted in any attempt to understand the role of virtual networks in enhancing enterpreneurship and innovation, especially with respect to how social capital accumulates and impacts upon business dynamics. Here goes then: For the project to achieve fruition, there is a plethora of issues.http://radio.weblogs.com/0107127/categories/theWorkPlace/2003/07/30.html#a691 The retail revolution - eBay- July 15, 2003 Why Ebay Works. Meg Whitman: "We make our money one dollar at a time, literally $1.72 per listing, and a final value fee if the listed item sells." "our users are on track to trade $21 billion worth of merchandise. " "what eBay does is create efficient markets where there were quite inefficient markets before. We&146;re the major player in the two inefficient parts of the overall product life cycle bell curve. " If you want more details and don't my slogging through powerpoint check out.http://www.twbookmark.com/books/91/0316150487/ Organizational complexity - A New Math Required and New Tools- July 13, 2003 I am doing some OD work for a university. One of the issues confronting all universities today is a quantum increase in organizational complexity. My ingoing sense is that the mechanism's for managing complexity are poorly understood and that as maths changed at the turn of the century to take complexity into account, so we have to look for novel ways of managing complexity at universities. My thesis is that we manage today as if cause and effect were our universe. Our systems are too complex...http://www.irit.fr/COSI/training/complexity-tutorial/henri-poincare.htm Magic Numbers and Social Organization Is there a science here- July 13, 2003 I am reading Simon Singh brilliant book on Maths "Fermat's Enigma". (See link) Fermat's problem is based on the one equation that even the most dunce maths brain such as my own understand - in a right angled triangle, the Square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the square of the two other sides. - Fermat's problem is based on this simple equation. But that is not my point today. My point is that Pythagoras was struck by how the natural world, such as music and so on, was run by a series of...http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385493622/ref%3Dnosim/anybookcom-20/002-6420502-31... (Untitled)- July 12, 2003 Project Management and Horses. Project Management and Horses. Spotted this gem on Anders site: The tribal wisdoms of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that 'when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount'. However, in many companies as well as in the UN and NGO community a range of far more advanced strategies are often employed, such as: 1. Changing riders 2. Appointing a committee to study the horse ... It just gets...http://radio.weblogs.com/0107127/categories/theWorkPlace/2003/07/12.html#a672 Blogging and becoming Human- July 10, 2003 I was being interviewed today by a PHD Student who is working on the topic of Communities of Practice. We had a bit of an aha that I wanted to share It appears that the corporate model that most of us work in now squeezes out our humanity. We develop machine relationships - even odd corporate voices - not simply a use of lanaguage that is not human as described in Cluetrain, but a manner of speaking a "dead sound" where our real personality has been excluded as has emotion and feeling. This...http://radio.weblogs.com/0107127/categories/theWorkPlace/2003/07/10.html#a666 Are we neanderthals How can social software help- July 6, 2003 I wonder - have we become trapped in a type of culture that has turned us into Neanderthals What do I mean by this weird statement I wrote yesterday "Remember that we think that complex language was an adaptation to hunting on the savannah and hence was our start as homo sapiens - the tool maker. Our new ability to learn across tribes and across time, rather than only directly face to face in present time, gave us the ability to adapt to changes in the environment by using culture not...http://radio.weblogs.com/0107127/categories/theWorkPlace/2003/07/06.html#a658 |