Zero Email Policy

I think this is a great direction of a solution for "information overload" in a company setting, but I am not sure if it will not have a lot of "unintended consequences", just as the Blackberrys and iPhones have caused, of creating a 'constant need' for communicating.

 http://yhoo.it/thryKA

The Zen Master of Substraction

Another article about Steve Jobs, and his ability to focus.   Great example at the end of the article showing how he chose to prioritize.

http://bit.ly/rXtfy5

--
__________________________________
Santiago Velásquez Martínez

"Life is a constant word problem" - Michael Owen

The Steve Jobs Code

Matt May blogs about the Steve Jobs Code, or the main lessons from Steve Jobs, extracted from the official Steve Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson.

http://bit.ly/vvlcSb

Life of an Idea

Matt May of "In Pursuit of Elegance" shares some links of Toyota's "Ideas for Good" project, and also, a very nice video about the birth of an idea.

http://bit.ly/sbkqWj

Enjoy.

The George Constanza Approach

HBR talks about a Seinfeld Episode where George Constanza, the famous insecure character, decides to do the opposite of what he's always done and things start to work out really well for him.

http://bit.ly/vXGuHc

Seth Godin's great blog post of some years ago, "The Chief No Officer", is very similar to the approach described in the HBR article.   Here is an excerpt of Seth's writing at the time:

"Appoint a CNO—chief no officer. No longer can someone say no to an idea and leave it at that. If you want to turn something down, you've got to pass it on to your boss. Then either he says yes or gives it to his boss. For a "no" to be official, it's got to be approved by the chief no officer and countersigned by every manager along the way."

I guess it sometimes pays to be a contrarian, not only in the stock markets.

Beyond Budgeting

Henrik Matterson, TOC consultant in Europe, blogs about using alternatives to annual budget in corporations, just as Dr. Deming suggested, in his 14 Points of Management.

He also provides some book links with suggested solutions.

http://bit.ly/vFWLns

Stories - The Mobile Phone Story

Several men were in a golf club locker room.

A mobile phone rings.

"Yes I can talk," says the man answering the call, "You're shopping are you? That's nice."

The listening men smile to each other.

"You want to order those new carpets? Okay.. And they'll include the curtains for an extra five thousand?.. Sure, why not?"

More smiles among the listeners.

"You want to book that week on Necker Island?.. They're holding the price at twenty-two thousand?.. Sounds a bargain.. You want a fortnight?.. If that's what you want honey, okay by me."

Smiles turn to expressions of mild envy.

"And you want to give the builder the go-ahead for the new conservatory? Seventy-five thousand if we say yes today? Sounds fair.. sure, that's fine."

The listeners exchange glances of amazement.

"Okay sugar, see you later.. Yes, love you too," says the man, ending the call.

He looks at the other men and says, "Whose phone is this anyhow?.."

Taken from the web.

Haircut "Unrefusable Offer"

An example of 'getting creative' in your product offerings when there are significant market changes.   Similar to what Goldratt referred to as an "unrefusable" or "mafia" offer.

In this case, the offer is probably a very different way into thinking about the "haircut" business.

http://bit.ly/vBhxET

The Third Alternative - Steven Covey

I don't know if Covey ever read about Goldratt's Logical Thinking Process.  But his new book resonates a lot with Goldratt's ideas of "questioning assumptions" and finding superior solutions to conflicts at any scale.

Even though Covey's books are usually a bit long, this should be probably a good read.

http://blog.800ceoread.com/2011/11/10/stephen-covey-says-compromise-is-for-chumps/

Quotes that represent deep mental models

I found this compilation of quotes somewhere on the net (can't remember where).

Nice summary of the "essential teachings" of great personalities.

Evolution of Lean

A very interesting timeline of the different continuous improvement inventions that help develop LEAN.   For that sake, many of the events contributed to the development of several other methodologies such as Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints (TOC)

http://www.shmula.com/http://www.shmula.com/wp-content/uploads/Image/2010/10/evolution-of-lean-history-timeline-toyota1.png

Malcolm Gladwell piece about Steve Jobs

Gladwell writes a very interesting piece about Steve Jobs and the details of his character.   Very interesting read.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

  

Examples of Distortions of IT Allocation Costs

An article showing many of the distortions that occur when allocating costs, looked through the lens of an IT department.  

http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2011/10/20/musing-about-the-cloud-and-enterprise-cost-allocation/