Archive for October, 2009

Motorcycling can be an incredibly social activity. The experience, as an individual or group, provides innumerable life experiences. One of my favorites is sitting on the veranda, enjoying a cool beverage, after a long day’s ride. Over the years, I have collected a number of great motorcycling quotes and wisdom. What’s interesting is how well they cross over from a largely recreational activity into the regular world.

200 mph, no hands. Damn that’d be cool right before the part where you die.” A. Duthie

When was the last time you ran at the speed of light? When was the last time you thought about what you or your organization might achieve? When did you last allow yourself to day dream and think, ‘…what if…’ Read the rest of this entry »

This is a question that shows up in discussion periodically. For moto-enthusiasts, it’s about the same as starting a discussion on tire pressures, what oil to use, how often to change it, and so on. There are countless answers, an endless number of experts to given them, yet they all fall short. The reason is that there is no absolute answer. It is akin to asking, “…what should be in my resume?” Once you’ve decided what it is you want to do, then what you put in the resume starts to speak for itself. Read the rest of this entry »

• Outsiders think “Your State” = “Your Biggest City” = “Your State” = …

• You think 10% unemployment looks like a really good number.

• Tenants looking to rent, tell landlords, ‘…just looking to rent for a year until I can leave the state.’

• For every one person coming to your state (and you wonder why), two ran away!

• Even Sports teams are heading for the exit, finding Oklahoma a more enticing place to be.

• Apartments advertise, “One year free rent, with two year lease.”

• Your state has more public employees than does your state’s largest industry. (637K vs. under 500K in mfg)

• The Wall Street Journal says your state, ‘…is teaching other states how not to govern.’

• Your state makes front page news…in Australia!

• You feel relief, because your home has only depreciated 45% in the past year.

• You find someone’s actually written a book, ‘[Your State] Survival Guide.’

• Michael Moore’s considering doing a sequel in your state.

At some point, you just have to have fun with it all.  I’m actually a fairly positive, friendly, optimistic guy, as I’m sure friends would tell you. It sure be a lot easier to stay that way though if we didn’t have such a seemingly endless stream of ‘positive’ news.

“Free”
by Chris Anderson
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2290-8

A couple weeks ago at my local bookstore, I happened across Chris Anderson’s (Editor of Wired) new book, “Free.” Anderson’s book is focused on the notion that due to abundance, digital content of all types tends to gravitate toward becoming ‘free,’ or, as inexpensive as to not be worth measuring. Case in point, when was the last time you worried about how many MB or GB of data you downloaded last month? He contrasts today’s digital economics (bits and bytes) with those of the atom-based world (physical stuff).

Rather than do a ‘review’ I want to look at my own experiences and how they compare to being ‘free.’ Read the rest of this entry »

“presentationzen”
by Garr Reynolds
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-52565-9
ISBN-10: 0-321-52565-5

Can you relate to this? You’re attending a meeting, having spent a half-day getting there, its mid-to-late afternoon, and the presentation starts. The first slide features a blue background, too-small black font, and a slide counter in the corner promising you 143 slides. You groan. 5 slides into the presentation, you’re enjoying a slide with two columns of bullets, corporate logo(s), and you’re magically at slide 14/143.

Unfortunately, I’ve encountered this scenario more times than once. One time, my own boss was the offender. Doing my best to be kind, I pointed out his colors and font selection were terrible, I was simply met with, ‘…what’s wrong? I think it looks great!’ Read the rest of this entry »

So, what are your thoughts?  Earlier this year, it was with mixed feelings that I attended the first PowerPoint presentation where someone had Twitter running live alongside.

On one hand, for those who do not prescribe to the notion of Presentation Zen (by Garr Reynolds), this is great.  Not only may you have 7 bullets with 9 point font keeping your slide busy, you can have scrolling conversations going on at the same time, too!  On the other hand, I thought, Cool!  What a great way to interlace new media with old.

When executed effectively as a constructive component Read the rest of this entry »

A common starting point

The internet’s ubiquitous nature has made possible so much. If it were not for the internet (like the utilitarian ‘phone,’ it’s time to stop capitalizing ‘internet’) the notion of Software as a Service (SaaS) wouldn’t even exist. Yet while incredibly empowering, the internet can be incredibly devastating when it fails.

Saying, ‘…the internet is down…’ is often akin to using the ever popular Read the rest of this entry »

‘Removing Technical Impediments to Business Success,’ has clearly represented what I do, for a long time. In many ways it still does. But over time my focus has become more business, more leadership oriented, leveraging my comfort with technology rather than focusing on it.

Today, I am pleased to re-launch my blog, and my brand, focusing on Thoughtful Business Leadership!

The decision to adjust my branding, how I represent myself to you, came after a number of conversations with friends and colleagues. In particular, I would like to thank Susanne C., Andrew Stein, Paul Chandler, and my wife, Kimberly. Each of them were immensely helpful.

There are a couple challenges with Removing Technical… First, it was too long. A shorter message, more easily remembered, and without any potential hidden meaning was needed. Second, ‘technical’ for many folks seems to equate directly to ‘IT.’ Depending on what ‘IT’ meant to someone, I might immediately become mentally pigeon-holed as a ‘network admin,’ a ‘DBA,’ or similar.

Let’s look at the three words briefly.

• Thoughtful: Having intellectual depth; paying closing attention; considerate of feelings and well-being of others (above and below).
• Business: Principal activity.
• Leadership: Applying knowledge, wisdom, and common sense while influencing and motivating others.

So, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while (thank you), the general focus remains the same, the tagline’s simply more well-aligned.