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Articles in Insight

Why I Don’t Check Voicemail or Set Away Messages in Email
February 13, 2013 – 12:29 pm | View Comments
Why I Don’t Check Voicemail or Set Away Messages in Email

With the rise of email and mobile telephony we have come to accept a state of permanent and immediate connection. Norms in business have implicitly shifted where response times are not measured in days or hours but in minutes.

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Social Profiling – The New Terms of Employment
November 4, 2012 – 12:45 am | View Comments
Social Profiling – The New Terms of Employment

Some key skills – inquiry, listening, systems-thinking, deep focus -are also character traits. That is to say they are wired into our personality – and they often run directly contrary to the social popularity contest that defines much of the Internet. Some of the best and brightest thinkers I know keep a low social profile.

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The Bicycle as Transformative Agent
October 8, 2012 – 12:53 pm | View Comments
The Bicycle as Transformative Agent

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Christopher Alexander, in his startling book, The Timeless Way of Building, asserts that our lives are shaped by no more …

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You Know When You Know
October 1, 2012 – 7:00 am | View Comments

If I were to write a self help book it would bet titled, “You Know When You Know”
The premise of the book?
We are all naturally endowed with an innate sense of what is best for …

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The Virtue of Products in a Service Industry
May 26, 2012 – 8:25 am | View Comments
The Virtue of Products in a Service Industry

While any nuanced thinker gets the fact that every professional services engagement is unique and therefore consultative in nature, any good consultant should understand the value of packaging their offering into products.

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On the Power of Clarity, Specificity and Persistence
April 21, 2012 – 5:26 am | View Comments
On the Power of Clarity, Specificity and Persistence

I just read read a fantastic Esquire article about Robert Caro, author of the magisterial, multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson.  Caro, despite being a self-admitted “fast writer” doesn’t begin his writing until he is perfectly clear on …

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The Problem with Exceptionalism – and Seeking Common Cause in Organizations
April 8, 2012 – 6:35 am | View Comments
The Problem with Exceptionalism – and Seeking Common Cause in Organizations

In my field it is clear that you need specialists (i.e. “exceptional” talent) for many initiatives you might undertake; for example search, mobile, ecommerce, privacy issues, social media and so on. No argument there. The problem is that exceptionalism tends to be the default setting within organizations; we begin by thinking we know more than others, that our problem is unique, that we have special needs.

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Considering the Power of Convenience
February 16, 2012 – 8:34 am | View Comments
Considering the Power of Convenience

It did make me wonder how often we fool ourselves that the game we are in (whatever that business endeavor might be) is about quality while ignoring the competitor waiting to eat our lunch with convenience.

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The Blurring Line Between Text and Speech (O’Reilly Radar)
June 16, 2011 – 10:51 pm | View Comments
The Blurring Line Between Text and Speech (O’Reilly Radar)

We are hurtling towards a world of total information capture where email, texting, instant message and mobile video are documenting our everyday speech and action – in effect rendering all speech as text. There will be few places to “talk” without that talk being given the weight and permanence of text.

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Collaboration Rules (For Forbes)
June 15, 2011 – 2:04 am | View Comments

Applied to business, Collaboration is the promotion of more efficient means of sharing knowledge and a more effective means of making decisions. Technology plays a big role in the former, but it isn’t the complete package. Technology alone doesn’t give an organization collaboration – it gives it information flow by connecting people. How an organization can effective decision-making is all about culture

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