Archive for the 'Analysis and Opinion' Category

The Advantages of Flexible Careers in the Enterprise

Posted on May 1st, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

I know a woman who has a PhD in biology, but now makes a living as R&D manager in a small electronics firm. And doing a great job, evidently. That’s flexibility for you. Used to be, if you studied biology, you’d be a biologist, and that was that. For most people, that’s the way it still works; but if you look around you’ll see a sizable minority of people who simply don’t care – they do a great job at whatever they feel competent to do. Me too, I suppose – I studied applied physics, went into forensic science and.. Read more

The Legitimacy – or Otherwise – of Ultra-brief Emails

Posted on April 18th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Individual Solutions, Organizational Solutions

A devious solution to email overload A friend pointed me to a post  that offered a simple and highly unusual solution to email overload: change the signature block on your desktop email client to read “Sent from my iPhone”. The idea, the writer explained, is that this will make you “feel more comfortable offering short, direct, and concise replies to incoming emails, thus improving your email productivity and freeing up time to do other more important work”. This is certainly devious, is probably effective, and the logic seems unassailable… but it raises a question: why would you need it? Surely.. Read more

How to Secure the Isolation You Need to Be Effective

Posted on April 10th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Individual Solutions

The acclaimed American novelist Jonathan Franzen has an unusual way of ensuring he can concentrate and be creative. To quote the NY Times: Some days, Jonathan Franzen wrote in the dark. He did so in a Spartan studio … behind soundproof walls and a window of double-paned glass. The blinds were drawn. The lights were off. And Franzen … wore earplugs, earmuffs and a blindfold. Kudos to the Franzen for being a touch typist, but here I want to focus on his statement: “It’s very, very hard to concentrate. You have to hold your mind free of all the clichés”… Read more

How to Create Memorable Lectures

Posted on March 27th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Lecturing has been one of my passions ever since I first entered the workforce 35 years ago. Wherever I was employed I’d volunteer to deliver lectures every chance I had: to fellow employees, to new hires, to visitors, to students, at conferences – and now that I’m self-employed I also do it for a living (though I still can’t resist volunteering to lecture for free if it’s in a good cause). I’ve delivered hundreds of talks on VLSI technology, Technical Leadership, Internet adoption, Information Overload, Social Media, the History of Computing, Innovation, Quality Assurance, Science… and it turns out that.. Read more

Responses to Common Objections to Telecommuting

Posted on March 21st, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

I’ve already posted my thoughts about Marissa Mayer’s announcement banning telecommuting at Yahoo. Since then I’ve noticed how – after the initial indignation had abated – writers across the blogosphere and media started raising arguments taking Ms. Mayer’s side. Some of them make sense, but many confuse problems with telecommuting with problems in company culture and management competence. Having battled many similar objections when I was championing this cause at Intel years ago, I can’t resist weighing in on the side of reason… and so should you when considering allowing your employees to work from home. Here goes, then: Objection.. Read more

What Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer May Be Missing About Telecommuting

Posted on March 13th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Last month there was a big hoopla  when Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, issued a ban on Work from Home by the company’s employees. Like troops retreating into the castle, Yahoos have been recalled to the office. All over the planet the media and blogosphere are abuzz with criticism and counter-criticism about what was seen as a regression from the reigning paradigm of workplace flexibility and Work/Life balance. Even the irrelevant fact that Mayer is a woman and a mother was used by some who painted her as a traitor to her gender. As a veteran driver of Telecommuting, let me.. Read more

New Insight Article: Lessons From the First Decade of Knowledge Management

Posted on March 5th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

I was very fortunate to hop on the KM bandwagon long before it became a bandwagon, before it was a trend or a buzzword, before it was even called Knowledge Management. This forced me to really think about what it really was all about; and it gave me the opportunity to share this thinking with others who were leading the exploration of this new territory. Today, 17 years and many projects later, I observe that most people don’t look beyond the Knowledge Management hype; entire organizations fail to address the layers below the obvious immediate aspects of KM. Thus, although.. Read more

Rosh Gadol: How You Can Manage for Initiative and Get Away With It

Posted on March 3rd, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

What on earth is Rosh Gadol? These are terms that every Israeli knows, and like much Israeli slang they come from the army: Rosh Gadol (literally, a large head) – a person who sees the bigger picture, takes initiative, and goes beyond the immediate task at hand or the orders given to ensure that the end goal is achieved. Rosh katan (a small head) – one who obeys instructions literally and avoids any initiative beyond their exact wording, often to the detriment of the intended mission. In Israel Rosh Katan is usually used pejoratively; in a culture known for its.. Read more

How You Should Listen to Your Employees

Posted on February 4th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Every respectable large company does Organizational Sensing. This is usually driven by the HR group, as a structured, formal process. It might include annual Organizational health surveys, Sensing interviews with a sample of employees, Focus groups, and so on. All of which is useful; it can spot major problem areas, and yields interesting data that can be used at many levels, from raising management awareness to defining solution interventions. All of which does not exempt you, if you are a manager at any level, from doing your own sensing, and doing it right – by listening to your employees. How.. Read more

How Communicating Across Company Lines Can Help Your Career

Posted on January 28th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

Check out my guest post on the Leader Communicator blog: Why and How to Communicate Across Company Lines Have you tried to communicate with your peers in other organizations lately? In this post I consider the importance of doing so, as I’ve been doing throughout my career, and I discuss the barriers posed to this important practice by corporate culture and inertia; I then share some experience on how to overcome the barriers without coming into harm’s way. But go ahead and read it over at Leader Communicator blog!