On Leadership & Innovation...
Jedi Mind Tricks
If you have six minutes and forty seconds to spare, Paul Hebert’s pecha-kucha on influence is well worth your time…
(And for the record, Paul, I don’t wear socks in the summer.)
How to have a great meeting
How to Have a Great Meeting
1. Throw out the least necessary person at the table.
2. Walk out of this meeting if it lasts more than 30 minutes.
3. Do something productive today to make up for the time you spent here.
Hat tip to Jason Davis
Women in Tech
The MBA@UNC blog ran an interesting infographic a few weeks ago on women in the workplace. Not surprisingly, women are under-represented in both leadership positions, and particularly in the tech industry.
These statistics aren’t necessarily new, but a quote from Arianna Huffington jumped out at me (emphasis mine)…
Media pioneer Arianna Huffington cites lack of confidence as a killer to success for women. In order to advance their careers, women need to be comfortable seeing themselves as qualified leaders and risk takers.
As a man, talking about women’s issues, and in particular contradicting a very successful woman in business, has a very high likelihood of coming across as arrogant. I’m going to do my best to avoid that, but I respectfully disagree with Ms. Huffington. Keep reading…
Just the Essentials
Geek Wire on the success of Instagram…
Burbn had attracted a core following of users, but was not exactly taking off. Upon further evaluation the founders noticed that photo uploading was the strongest and most used feature. Instantly, they cut all other features, kept with uploading photos and moved forward with the newly minted Instagram.
Systrom resisted being all things to all people and in the end sold his 15 month old company for $1 billion. Think about that for a second. By removing most of his product and getting down to the essential, he drastically enhanced its value.
Brainstorming is B.S.
Lehrer goes on to point out that other studies have shown that the presence of criticism actually increases the flow of ideas. One experiment compared two groups: One which brainstormed with a mandate not to criticize, and another which had the license to debate each others ideas. The second group had 20% more ideas—and even after the session ended, the people in the second group had far more additional ideas than those in the first.
I can vouch for this. I’m working on a mobile learning app at work, and my team and I have been highly critical (in a respectful way) of each others work from day one. No idea is sacred, and eliminating the bad ones early has actually had two benefits:
- It’s allowed us to focus bringing a few great ideas to life rather than throwing a bunch at a wall and seeing what sticks.
- The process of criticizing has actually helped us create better ideas.
Here’s the secret: You can never just say, “I don’t like that idea.” It’s always, “I don’t think that idea will work because…” The “because” is the critical ingredient.
By identifying what’s bad about an idea, you have an opportunity to refine it early on in the ideation process. This let’s you dig deeper earlier, and pushes the creation process along rapidly.
After working like this, with a team that’s respectful but critical, I wouldn’t want to work any other way.
Caine’s Arcade
Caine Monroe is a 9-year old who built an elaborate arcade out of leftover cardboard boxes in his dad’s used auto parts store. Director Nirvan Mullick helped him have the best day of his life…
(At 10 minutes long, this video pushes the limits of what most people will watch on the web. Watch the whole thing. Trust me, it’s worth it.)
To learn more about the arcade, or to donate to Caine’s Scholarship Fund, visit CainesArcade.com.
Via Shaun Usher
Consumer-driven IT
One of the interesting things about technology in big business today is that decisions are being driven as much by consumers as they are by IT departments. Employees are asking their companies to support iPhones, Androids and iPads, and companies do.
What employees aren’t really asking for is more Blackberry options, which is probably why BlackBerry’s new strategy is to “refocus on Enterprise.” You can see it already in their “We want tools, not toys” ad campaign.
Here’s the thing, though: Business people do want toys. They want tools, too, no doubt. But if you’re going to carry one device, why shouldn’t it do a bunch of things really well?