Month: July 2015

We don’t need an app for that

July 31, 2015

Computers have been pervasive in our lives for almost 20 years now. Many people find intrinsic value in digitizing every aspect of their life. But after at least 20 pervasive years, here are two things I can think of that no digital technology has been able to replace.

Overhead projector

Whiteboarding

Perhaps augment, but not replace. In the rush to find or create an app for that, sometimes we should step back and realize that doesn’t mean we need an app for everything. And ask what we lose in translation.

The trifecta of Es

July 29, 2015

Many organizations overly focus on how things are done. Often people debate about the amount of time that should be spent planning versus doing, to avoid wasted time planning what will inevitably change. Usually the debate is between planning for a long period of time (perhaps 1 year) versus planning for a short period of time (perhaps 2 weeks). But…

Prepare through immersion

July 29, 2015

Don’t Neglect Weaknesses

July 27, 2015

Many people talk of focusing on improving strengths and not trying to improve your weaknesses. Peter Drucker is the person that sticks out in my mind as the most stringent supporter of this mentality. It is true that it’s easier to make a competent performer an excellent performer, as opposed to making an incompetent performer competent. But, incompetency alone is…

Timely feedback, a novel concept

July 23, 2015

Accenture is apparently ditching their archaic, yearly performance review. And instead: “employees (will) receive timely feedback from their managers on an ongoing basis following assignments. What a novel concept, who would’ve thunk it. What bothers me is the following that was quoted in an article related to the matter, in the Washington Post: These companies say their own research, as…

You need regular downtime

July 22, 2015

If you miss meetings, always feel rushed, don’t know where the time goes in the day, or experience other indications of being overwhelmed, consider scheduling some slack during your day. If you book your day 100% every day, you’re always going to be overwhelmed. Or, worse, if you treat yourself as a worker attached to a queue of never ending…

Are you managing the wrong thing?

July 20, 2015

Far too often we worry about managing a product or a service. Hence the designation Product Manager, Project Manager, or Customer Service Manager. We’re trying to manage the quality of the product or service we provide. Managing the product is splitting up and dolling out work–micromanagement–instead of letting people do that. It’s translating output to input, and only providing knowledge…

EBay should focus on innovating after PayPal spin off

July 17, 2015

Once EBay completes the spin off of PayPal, and now their Enterprise unit, they should redouble efforts on actually innovating in the online market place experience. After nearly two decades of being in the business of helping buyers and sellers come together, they should’ve figured out quite a few things that they seemingly haven’t figured out. They allow bidders (buyers)…

It’s never enough to be good at what we do

July 16, 2015

If all we have in work is excitement about what we do, the skills we’re applying, eventually we’ll get good at what we do. And, bored with it, because then we’ll realize we’re not doing anything good with it.

Being productive with negative emotions

July 15, 2015

On my way back from New Jersey this week, two individuals from some religious organization approached me. They were polite and inquisitive about my religious affiliation. It had been a while since someone approached me to discuss religion so I found it rather interesting to reflect upon what they were saying. They got to the inevitable discussion of right/wrong, good/bad,…