These tabs have been hanging around in my browser for a week or so and it’s time to put them into a post. Lots of good material here, even if absorbing it might take a few hours.
1. First, Seth Godin on Be careful of who you work for. This is a way to think of self-branding in the choices that you make in your work life and how it affects you. Good thinking about how to approach the problem of job choice.
2. Jason Fried’s talk at the 2008 Business of Software conference is worth watching. He just talks about ideas that he has about software development and how they have learned to work at 37signals. I don’t think that everything that he talks about is applicable at a place like Mozilla, where we have to work at a larger scale than they do at 37 signals, but there’s a core here that we share about action, simplicity and how we treat each other. It’s worth the hour to watch this talk.
(As a side note, I have never ever worked at a place that is as special as Mozilla. We have problems but it seems like humanity permiates the organization. Part of working in a fish bowl, I suspect.)
Two from Bob Sutton:
3. A quick quote from Harry Truman that rings true for me as well:
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
I try and do this every day although I had not seen this quote before. If I had to turn it into a quote I would say “delegate, celebrate, iterate.” Push decisions as low in the organization as possible, throw things away that don’t work (and don’t blame in the process!) and celebrate the work of others as much as possible.
4. The Importance of Killing Good Ideas. This has to do with focus and the ability of an organization to be able to do a few amazing things instead of trying to do too many things poorly. I’ve heard the story repeated that one of the first things Steve Jobs did when he returned to Apple was to kill off a vast number of projects that were going on at Apple at the time. (There were probably a lot of really good ideas mixed in there along with some bad ones.) I suspect, without a huge amount of evidence, that was one of the things that allowed Apple to get back on the road to growth + success.
I would also stretch this to hiring practices as well. Sometimes it’s important to say no to good people than it is to say yes to someone that you’re sure isnt good. It’s painful, but you end up with a better team when you do.
And two from Diego Rodriguez:
5. What is design thinking? In the context of business schools, mostly. A video interview with Roger Martin who gives a wonderful and succinct answer to the question. I would borrow from some old Red Hat friends on this one myself (Chris and David – hope things are going well!) who describe it as learning to think creatively instead of critically. A very important distinction.
6. Yet another in a series of How to drive a 911. I love the stuff that Diego posts in this weblog about racing and cars, but the thing that struck me about these videos was the choice that Porsche has made as a company. They don’t have their own racing team anymore. Instead they enable others to race using their equipment. That’s a wonderful decision and a wonderful business model for the company. Turning what is often a loss/R&D activity into something that enables others to celebrate the brand and give the company a chance to learn about their own products. Good stuff.
And that’s it. Happy that I can finally kill this window with these tabs in it.
Enjoy!