Get Your Money’s Worth from Consultants – Ron Ashkenas – Harvard Business Review
I have personally worked on engagements in each of these types of consulting.
Are we having fun yet?
Seth Godin: The New Face Of Publishing « Radio Litopia
One of the most difficult things you ever have to do as a manager, executive or consultant is helping others to change. Follow this link to an interview with Seth Godin. It’s about 30 minutes long but well worth listening to. Godin’s thoughts about the future of the publishing industry are both scary and on target. Could there be another business so entrenched in the past, so tied to doing things the way they have always been done that its leaders are unable to see the changes all around us and that doing nothing becomes the perfect strategy for a slow and painful business death?
Productivity, Multitasking, and the Death of the Phone – HBR IdeaCast – Harvard Business Review
Great podcast. I may be biased so here are my disclaimers:
Find Job Openings | LinkUp Job Search Engine
If you’re looking for work try this job search engine. It pulls job listings from company websites.
Very cool.
The Six Secrets to a Bulletproof Career – Guest Blog Post by Andrew Neitlich | paulacaligiuri.com
Check out this blog post.
Information Arbitrage – Preparing for and adapting to tomorrow’s world
Read Think Apply Plan Act.
(hat tip abnormalreturns.com)
You may not agree with all of the authors’ recommendations (I do not agree with all of their points) but you’ll find some great food for thought.
Get Your Goals Back on Track – Heidi Grant Halvorson – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review
I think it’s important to distinguish between specificity and inflexibility. While I can’t think of a single study where specificity hurt performance, I can think of many where a dogged insistence on staying the original course proved harmful. People need to be able to respond to changing conditions. So one qualification might be “clarity is helpful when it does not rule out flexibility and responsiveness.”
Second, I think a lack of specificity at the organizational level isn’t quite the same thing as a lack at the individual level. Even in the instances you mentioned, the individual employees probably had some specific shorter-term goals they set for themselves. If you are trying out different strategies and exploring possibilities, you still benefit from having a clear idea what “successful” looks like, so you’ll know when a strategy is promising and when to switch to something else.
The slow yet steady shift from dead tree to digital versions of books is fascinating. One of my holiday presents was a Kindle. I have joined the movement.
Last year was a disappointing year in my personal book reading. I read just 30 books in 2010. The reason was simple to deduce. I spent too much time doing other things (like working).
And in recognition of the new reality I am not increasing my effort to meet my goal of reading a book a week. I’ve decided to approach this situation with more intelligence than I have in the past. Yes, I’m setting the bar lower.
Read a Book a Week is now Read a Book Every Other Week.
26 books this year should be doable, no?
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