Thought Doodle

Don't Manage, Lead

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:52:00 -0700

Management and leadership. These two words are often used interchangeably, yet they mean entirely different things.

A manager is defined as a director, as someone who controls resources and expenditures while a leader is defined as a person who rules, guides or inspires others.

Managers are a reality in (pretty much) all of our worlds, these are the people who give us orders and direct our activities. You don’t always know why a manager is asking you to do things (and you may not even agree with what you’ve been asked to do) but you do know that based on your organizations hierarchy your supposed to follow their orders and do what they say.

Leaders are different. We all know leaders, however they may not be in a position of management. Leaders are the people who inspire us. They are the people that you do things for because you believe in them and their vision. Unlike with managers, you do things for leaders because you genuinely want to.

Some managers are leaders, but not all leaders are managers. You can find leaders in all sorts of different roles in your company. Leadership doesn’t generally come with the same perks as management, such as a fancy office or a quarterly bonus, but leaders are guaranteed something that managers aren’t - Respect.

Would you rather be known to your peers as a leader or as a manager?

What Happened To Recess?

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:36:33 -0700

It was the best part of your day.

The bell would ring and you would fly out of your seat to run straight to the playground with the rest of your classmates. In school, recess was a blast. It was a time when it was OK (and expected) for you to go outside to play and use your imagination. You could be the next great basketball star, an Olympic gymnast on the monkey bars or the next great detective during a game of hide and seek.

Yes - recess was fun. But, it was also important. Sure, it was time spent away from classroom learning but it was time spent learning how to be creative while building relationships with your classmates. Most importantly, it was a time to do anything you wanted to do with the only limit being the collective limit of the imagination of you and your friends.

What happened to recess as we grew up? If you substitute coworkers for classmates in the paragraphs above don’t the principals of recess still apply? You may not have tetherball in your office, but there are plenty of places to get away, take a break and let your imaginations run wild. Recess at work is time spent away from your required duties and time spent dreaming up the next big thing.

What do you think? Is there a place for recess in the business world? What do you do to take a break and encourage creativity in the office?

How do you set up the stuff in the second column? I'm trying to use this theme, but other than the ABOUT section, I can't figure tout how to post under that. Thanks!

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:15:50 -0700

My only frustration with Tumblr so far is that they don’t make adding custom widgets as easy as Wordpress. However, if you have a bit of HTML knowledge it isn’t hard to do.

To make a customization to your theme (like I did with the “Find Me Elsewhere” section) you’ll need to do the following:

Go into the customize appearance section of your blog from your dashboard
Scroll to where you want your “custom” widget to appear
Enter your HTML Code
Here’s what mine looks like (and also where I put my custom code) - http://bit.ly/x3Rjfg

Hope this helps!

Gravitate Towards the Impossible

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:33:00 -0700

The two most exciting words in the English language? How about…

“That’s Impossible”

Of course there are a few variations on these words, such as “That’s never going to work” and of course “The technology we have doesn’t allow for this” – But no matter how you say it seems to have the same effect on most people.

I think that the most common reaction that people have to these words is to give up and move on to something else. After all, you can’t conquer the impossible so isn’t your time better spent on things you can solve?

There’s a different reaction to this question, however, that is far more interesting. This response is when people don’t believe that something is impossible to solve (or better yet, don’t care) and instead show a burning desire to solve the impossible. This reaction is rarer than the previously mentioned one, but the people who default to it are much more likely to do something absolutely amazing in their lives.

I’m not implying that everything needs to be solved. For example, if your friend can’t make it out for drinks this weekend because it would be “impossible” to cancel date night, that could be one example of something that’s better left alone. But how about the big ideas? Do you think the first engineers at NASA didn’t hear from someone that it was impossible to safely send a man into space and return him to earth safely? Do you think Steve Jobs was never been told that creating certain (and now successful) Apple products would be impossible due to technological limitations? What would have happened if these people listened and stopped trying? For those that choose to gravitate towards the impossible with the intent of making things possible, several awesome opportunities present themselves.

You could be the first to solve a problem. I don’t think most people who act on ideas and build something awesome before anyone else were necessarily first to have the idea. Instead, they were the first to challenge the impossible.
Succeed or fail, you’re bound to innovate. Trying to solve the impossible is often blocked by technological limitations. Working towards your goal of solving the impossible probably means you’re going to have to innovate and build cool (and re-usable) stuff along the way.
Success. If you think of some of the most successful people in technology today, did they get there by giving up at “that’s impossible”? There are certainly some exceptions, but overall the trend is that the people who make it big and find the highest levels of success in this world are the people who have had the courage to solve something that’s never been solved before.

What are your thoughts on this? What’s your reaction to the words “it’s impossible”?

Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

Do You Do Your Best Work At Work?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:34:32 -0700

Do you do your best work at work?

For many, the answer to this question is no. Instead of doing our best work at work, many people are doing their best work in the evenings and on weekends. This is the time that truly belongs to us. We can do anything we want with this time and many of us make incredible use of it.

For some, it’s taking stunning photographs, painting or making music. For others, it’s building and creating. If you think about some of the awesome projects that come out of people spare time, it’s really quite impressive.

One of the best examples of this is the world’s most popular server operating system, Linux. This operating system is built (mostly) by people who love working on it and choose to do so as part of a community that works outside of their normal jobs and works for absolutely no pay. For most people working on Linux, I’d venture a guess that they would say that working on Linux is their best work.

But what motivates this? What motivates people to create and build the worlds most stable and secure software in their spare time and without any desire for income related to the task?

There are probably many factors that play into this but one likely answer is simply passion. Think of how much more interesting (and perhaps enjoyable) the world could be if every company encouraged all of their employees to work on their dreams and passions in addition to the companies next big project.

What if a company told its employees to pick the one thing each month they were most passionate about and to work on only that and furthermore to only apply that months work to the companies goals if applicable.

Is such a world possible? Would productivity tank or soar? Would these passions no longer be passions if we were instructed to do them? Let me know your thoughts on this. I’d love to hear from you on this topic!

How Microsoft Blew it With Bing 411

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:49:00 -0700

I miss Google 411, I really do. It was super easy to use, it got me connected with the business I was inquiring about in just a few seconds and didn’t burden me with unnecessary options. As luck would have it, the same day I was out running errands and wanted to call my favorite Chinese place in town for take out is the same day Google shut down their service.

Having heard of Microsoft’s free 411 service (1-800-Bing-411) I decided to give it a shot. The service itself worked fine, but was so much more complicated than it needed to be. This really got me thinking about software development and user experience. Getting the user what they are after in as few actions as possible is something that every application should strive for, yet I see time and again that so many simple workflows are blogged down with an overly complicated workflow.

Lets take a look at the differences in the user experience using these two free 411 services for the simple use case of wanting to look up and call a business

First, here’s how Google 411 worked

Google’s process is very straight forward. Much like typing into a Google search box, I can just say everything at once. Assuming a match is found (and it usually is) I am immediately connected with an extra second to say “More Info” where I could receive extra details if I wanted them.

Now, lets take a look at how Microsoft handles the same use case:

Wow, what a difference.

Right after connecting I am told about all of the extra cool things I can do with the service such as getting sports news or traffic updates. But there’s a problem here - this is a 411 service. I don’t care about any of these extra’s, I just want to be connected to my favorite restaurant so I can place my order.

It seems to me that Microsoft has taken what I’d have to imagine is the most common use case of a 411 service (finding a business and calling it) and made it significantly more difficult than it needs to be by introducing several options along the way. Google on the other hand focused on this use case and gave me what I wanted in just a few seconds, hiding the extra options until the end and making them something completely optional.

In all fairness, I’m not too upset at Microsoft. It’s a free service and it gets me what I want but it is a great example of a complicated workflow that could be made a lot easier, which brings me to this question…

What are some other complicated workflows that you’d like to see simplified? How could they be easier?

Are You Surrounded By Happiness?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:39:46 -0700

Stop what your doing.

Take a moment and look and whats on your desk. What do you see? Do you find that the majority of the items are things you care about? Or, do you find that they are items that serve a functional purpose?

Many of us would perform this exercise and find that we are surrounded by functional items. We have scanners, baskets organized by topics, files and a collection of notebooks. Our desks may look chaotic, but everything on them serves a function that helps to make us more efficient.

Its fine to have functional things (I have a PDF scanner at my desk that I couldn’t live without) but since the desk is where most of us spend the largest chunk of our day shouldn’t we also try to surround ourselves with things that we’d actually care to save in the event of a fire? What if we took the time to surround ourselves with items that exist only because we enjoy them. Would this make us happier? Would this increase productivity?

Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Thanks for the follow. Are you liking Tumblr compared to Wordpress so far?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:36:02 -0700

A little early to say, but so far it seems like I’ll enjoy it here. Thanks for asking!

4 Reasons To Love Popplet

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:24:40 -0700

A couple of weeks ago I received an invite to check out Popplet on the web. My conclusion? It rocks

In addition to being a useful mind mapping application, its also flat out fun to use. One thing I love about their interface is that from the minute you get into the service, you given complete control over anything you want to create. Trying to make a spider web mind map of ideas? Easy. Maybe a mesh of your favorite photo’s or videos? Also easy. Here’s the 4 things I really love about Popplet:

1) Popplet inspires creativity

Maybe it’s the colors or super cool interface, but Popplet makes me want to keep creating.

You double click on the map and get a new idea box. Dragging and moving lines generates new boxes and space for more thoughts. The entire experience of creating in Popplet is so fluid that it makes creativity come naturally.

2) It puts you in the drivers seat

There’s a million ideas floating around in my brain, sometimes it’s a total mess. Getting these ideas out should not be hampered by software limitations and concern about where things should go. Popplet understands this and removes all of the rules and limitations. I can connect any thought to any other thought, place things where ever I want on my canvas and really give total disregard to order and rules until I’m ready to think about those things.

4) Support for… Everything

I’m not limited to simple text with Popplet. Its very easy to upload images (or grab them from Flickr), add video, Facebook pictures and even video – I don’t have to worry about what goes in, I just do it.

4) Easy to share and collaborate

Actually, its super easy to share. This is really one of Popplets best features. I can invite people to collaborate, send a link or copy some simple HTML and embed my Popplet in any website I choose, or even a blog! Want proof? Check out this Popplet sample:

When I come across a site like this, I’m always impressed at how these places can take a concept done by others (in this case, mind mapping) and make it so much better. This brings me to the question:

What are some other revolutionary websites or technologies that you’ve discovered lately? What makes them better than their predecessors?

Why I moved my blog to Tumblr from Wordpress

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:37:00 -0700

Do things seem a little different? They should…

For the past year, my blog has been self hosted using Wordpress. Over the weekend, I decided to experiment and I moved my blog to Tumblr.

There isn’t really anything wrong with Wordpress, I’ve built several blogs (personal and professional) using the platform and think its the most customizable blogging platform in the world. However, there are two key things that I think Tumblr does better:

1) Ease of use:

Never again will I need to log into an admin panel and manually backup my database before applying 5 new plugin updates and a monthly update to Wordpress itself… Tumblr takes care of this for me.

2) A different kind of social:

There are a number of great plugins you can install for Wordpress to provide social integration however these things seem forced and secondary. Tumblr is “built social” and encourages you to create an account and follow blogs you like. This is a powerful distinction between the two platforms and I look forward to seeing how this works out to my favor (or detriment.)

The first two people I told about this change had the following two questions for me:

Isn’t Tumblr just for posting funny pictures of kittens?

Its not a “real blogging” platform is it?

My response… Say’s who?

Tumblr does a lot of things well and if one of those things is allowing people to post funny pictures they find then thats great! But, it also has all of the same blogging features as other platforms and I intend to prove that it can be whatever you make it to be.

So, for the next few weeks I’m going to be migrating the posts from my old site to the new one. For those of you who have been following me for a while you’ll see some familiar content but for anyone new to this blog let me say WELCOME and I hope you enjoy seeing my posts for the very first time.

Game Dev Story: 5 Business Rules Taught by a Video Game

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:28:00 -0700

Think you can’t learn anything from a game?

If you own an iPhone and enjoy simulation games, you may have already discovered Game Dev Story. The premise is simple; Your given a small office and a tiny budget to start a game development studio. If you find success and profitability, you can grow your staff and expand your office as you work towards total market domination.

This game is a lot of fun and highly addictive. After playing it for a while, I am seeing that some of the same principals that make for a successful company in the game can be applied to a real life.

Lets take a look at 5 business rules that can be learned from Game Dev Story:

1) Encourage exploration

Got a great writer on your staff? Great, put their talents to work and let them write for you. But also let them explore and try non-writing related tasks. Sure, this might impact productivity for a little while but a burnt out employee is the last thing you need. Don’t be afraid to encourage exploration, even at the expense of productivity.

2) Don’t be cheap

Always hire the absolute best people you can afford. Go after the rock stars and the people who can take your company to the next level.

Sure a nice big number in the savings account looks really nice, but if you use that money to hire the best people available and pay them what they are worth, that savings account will grow bigger than you ever imagined.

3) Train your people

People crave knowledge. Fulfill this need by allowing them to attend trainings or encouraging them to get involved in extra curricular activities. These will leave your staff feeling refreshed, increase their abilities and increase your bottom line.

If you have an employee who doesn’t crave knowledge, well, that leads us right to point #4.

4) You have to be willing to say goodbye

This one is tough. I’m not saying loyalty isn’t important (its extremely important) but if you have an employee who isn’t pulling their weight you need to be willing to say goodbye.

Hopefully this is a rare event. If your doing a good job bringing in the best people and encouraging training you’ll find that most people grow right along with the company. Some, however, will not and you’ll soon discover that better talent exists outside of the company. Unless your blessed with unlimited office space and resources, you may not have anywhere to put this new talent without letting someone else go.

Its your choice… Stay loyal to your existing staff or take the company to new places by bringing in better talent. Its not an easy choice, but one will lead to more of the same and the other will lead you towards producing the best products in the world.

5) Stagnate and die

Falling into a routine is easy. You’ve found success, your doing well in the market and people generally like your products. As new technologies emerge or better people become available it can be really easy to get comfortable and forget about being at the forefront of technology, even though being at this forefront is probably what got you where you are in the first place.

If you allow this to happen, you’ll fall behind much faster than you got ahead. If you wait too long, getting back to the top may be impossible.

Shake things up, innovate and evolve constantly.

Please leave your thoughts below in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!