Most recognize the importance of separating business and personal. Just because someone is tough to work with doesn’t mean they don’t make an excellent person to hang with after hours. Same goes for vendors or clients or anyone else. It’s important to focus on the context that we are dealing with someone in. It’s that…
Culture and how sometimes people just don’t fit.
I answered a LinkedIn question the other day on the topic of what’s more important: that they have knowledge or talent. The answer to this drives to the heart of your group’s culture. Some groups are driven by the sheer intelligence of their members, such as startups founded by several PhDs that simply can move…
The tried and true is a long and lonely road these days.
With all the talk of innovation (and sometimes I lead the charge) it’s easy to forget that there’s a reason clients like some grey hair across the table from them. Experience means that you’ve been there, done that. You know what can go right, but most importantly you know what can go wrong. Innovation leads…
Do whatever is you.
You know what one of the easiest ways to shortcut someone respecting you is? Being inconsistent. When you become what other people want you to be it’s difficult to keep that mantle of “who you are” up all the time. Especially if it changes from situation to situation. It’s easy for us to fall into…
Sometimes confusion really isn’t your friend
Seems obvious, right? But a lot of us go into meetings and intentionally try to take it in different directions (i.e. differentiate from others). Our goal at the start is to be different. What happens when everyone tries to be different though? The guy who walked in and just talked about what the client needed…
Lean Real Estate – the ultimate oxymoron?
Went through a Lean refresher yesterday and was thinking about how it applies to real estate (how doesn’t it?), technology and data. Pretty fascinating to think about applying waste reduction principles to what in many cases is a cost center. Should be a no brainer right? Some key points to ponder: Are your processes standardized?…
The story of our lives belongs to others.
Sometimes you read something that just stops you in your tracks. It’s been awhile since I came across one of those posts but yesterday. Wow. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/08/a-figment.html Go read it. Seth Godin lays it out very short and simple. Just in case you didn’t go, here’s the key: No, the falling tree in the empty forest…
A few Thursday Platitudes because Thursdays are Platitudes days.
Do your job. Be accountable. Deliver. Don’t wait for others to catch up. Be selfish.
When bugs are a good thing.
Sometimes problems with the current version don’t indicate real problems. Obviously a bug is something “broken” but what’s broke to one person isn’t necessarily a problem to someone else. What it really indicates is where people are spending their time. Bugs that exist in areas of the application that no one uses are still bugs…
How quickly does your solution break down?
Over the weekend my Keurig coffeemaker died. It was quite the traumatic event because it’s my lifeblood for awake-keeping caffeine. It didn’t die violently, it just sort of stopped accepting electricity and turning on. Imagine my surprise when I find online that this isn’t uncommon. Neither is my reaction – time to go buy another…