Rules replace thought. If you know the rules, you always know what to do. Rules are comfortable. If you know the rules, you never have to stretch too far. Rules are safe. You probably won’t get fired for following the rules. Unfortunately, you probably won’t make much progress either. Rules work when the rate of… Read More
A couple of weeks ago in a posting on Tom Peters’ blog (look in March archives for the entry “Refine to Simplicity”, March 10th), Steve Yastrow proposed that customers are: Anyone whose actions affect your results In an information creation and management organization, how differently would you treat content providers (authors) if you considered them… Read More
I recently read Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow. Generally speaking, cows are brown or black and they basically all look alike. What if during your drive through the countryside you saw a purple cow? Now, that would be remarkable! Purple Cow is about actually BEING remarkable – not just having a great marketing plan or… Read More
Did you ever need to get something done (even something relatively small and simple) and have to go through an organizational gauntlet to get it started? Next time, don’t wait for permission – just do it. Spend the money or start the project or whatever it is you need to do. Why? Because if you… Read More
What do companies gain by supporting independent knowledge workers? Financially speaking, a company gets to hire a specific expertise with no increase in headcount, salary, benefits, or other salary related expenses (e.g. unemployment insurance, social security contribution, etc.). In companies that are pressured to reduce or maintain headcount this could be a great way to… Read More
Last July I decided that I wanted to change the relationship I had with my employer. I was starting to find my role limiting. I wanted more diverse work and more control over what I did. My CEO agreed and I became a contractor. Interestingly, we both gained financially. He reduced headcount, salary, and expenses… Read More
For the last week I’ve been in Puerto Rico visiting a friend. Guess what the most interesting part of my trip has been. Do you think it was the beach, or the forts, or Old San Juan? Nope. It wasn’t any of those. The most interesting part of my trip has been that I’m perfectly… Read More
This week I saw a posting on the Fast Company site about Craigslist. The post talked about how a segment on Nightline posited that the site is hurting the newspaper business. Craig Newmark, the site’s founder, said that “his site was serving customers in a way that newspaper classifieds can’t”. For those of you not… Read More