What Is School For - Stop Stealing Dreams

Seth Godin, best selling author and marketing expert, has published a free e-book called Stop Stealing Dreams, where he expresses his ideas on on how schools should work, based on today's world and realities.  The general focus of the book is best described using his own quote, "Our kids are too important to sacrifice to the status quo".   

Many other authors and thinkers have criticized the current school system, and personally I like Alfie Kohn's work the most.   There was also an interesting Oscar winning documentary some years back, that exposed the significant problems with the current american education system called Waiting for Superman, which is also definitely worth a view.

What A Giraffe Can Teach Us About Change

Jamie Flinchbaugh, Lean expert and author, has shared an interesting video that one of his clients uses to "set the stage" for change initiatives.

Although it is a humorous animation, it explains in a simple and effective way the reaction that many of us have when going through changes.

Top 10 Counter Intuitive Psychology Studies

All of us that are involved in change efforts know that it understanding human behavior is critical to success, and psychology plays a major role in helping us understand why we behave in certain ways.

Covering topics from cognitive dissonance to multitasking, PsyBlog shares their top 10 counter intuitive psychological findings, with additional links to explore in detail.

The Basics of Kanban - LSS Video

The Lean Six Sigma Academy has again shared some of their introductory videos on Lean Manufacturing, this time, focusing on the basics of Kanban.  

Even if we know it continuous improvement efforts should focus on creating a culture of problem solvers, knowing the appropriate tools to do so if a very important step.

Want to Know More About Toyota Culture?

Mike Rother, the author of Learning to See, recently published a book called Toyota Kata, that provides an insider's view of the specific behaviors (or Kata) that take place in Toyota, and that make its culture, workplace and environment unique.   It is these specific Kata, that make it so difficult to emulate Toyota's success.

There was also a recent interview with Mike Rother explaining the basic concepts about the book.    His book is an excellent resource to understand better how things go on inside Toyota, and it is definitely worth its weight in gold.

Want To Sell Your Expertise by the Minute?

I ran into a new online application that allows you to sell your expertise online and charge by the minute.   You connect with your clients on a video conferencing application, that integrates with Facebook, LinkedIn and even your website.

It's called MinuteBox, so check it out.

Vertical vs Horizontal Marketing

Seth Godin, marketing extraordinaire, talks about the shift from Vertical Marketing to Horizontal Marketing.

Vertical Marketing is when you are in charge, and you decide what markets to target with your and what ads to run.    Horizontal Marketing, is when you focus only on building great products, and then you let the market decide what to do with them.

The latter, of course, is much scarier than the former.