Carefully Consider Which Chasm You Choose to Cross

February 17, 2008

Originally published September 19, 2006.
I’ve been writing about The Chasm. The Chasm is the skills gap that must be crossed to move from one area of practice into another area of practice—specifically the move from specialist competencies (like teaching, engineering, programming, and law) into general business competencies.
I like the metaphor of The Chasm because [...]

The Chasm

February 17, 2008

Originally published September 18, 2006.
You, my friend, have a problem. You’re a specialist (engineer, developer, teacher, designer, etc.) with designs on the big chair. But your aspirations of upward growth and ever brighter prospects have uncovered a chasm in the road before you.
This chasm represents the gap in your repertoire of skills and experience [...]

The New Rules

February 17, 2008

Originally published September 8, 2006.
The old adage goes something like this, 'Promote a good Engineer into management and get a poor Manager'. I've often wondered why this is the perception? (I'm absolutely convinced that the statement is partly a reflection of self-serving motivation held by the managers who utter it—but that's another story.)
A [...]

Coworking as Catalyst

February 13, 2008

Coworking is the most subversive influence in cubeland today. Even the Internet itself is less significant because the Internet is ultimately just a communication channel that is susceptible to filtering on its way into the office, while coworking is about taking the workers out of the office. Just try to filter that interface...
I [...]

The Onion on Management: “Failure Now an Option”… So Go Back to Bed

February 11, 2008

Former motivational speaker Dr. E.L. Kersten (Ph.D. Organizational Psychology), decided one day that he had had enough. On the stump, going from company to company, he concluded that he no longer believed what he said about motivation, teamwork, desire, loyalty, sacrifice, leadership, etc. All of the head-line topics of Organizational Behavior were, he thought, crap. [...]

I Just Got My MBA (Master of Being an Asshole)

February 8, 2008

Before I get too carried away, I want to make it clear that I know that not all MBA degrees are the same. I mean, some of them are had in person, some are had through the mail, and some are done online, some cost (lots) of money, some are free (I heard a [...]

Not an MBA Syllabus / Part 1

January 31, 2008

What is a currency binary? I don't know, but I'd feel really smart if I did? Finding out, surprisingly, is not very difficult. Yes, you can Google it, but you can also go to Investopedia and look up any possible word, term, or concept related to finance. Call it Finance 101.
What does [...]

Not an MBA Tools / Part 1

January 30, 2008

Kicking around the MBA degree is fun for a while, but after the novelty wears off it's time to talk about alternatives.
In my mind, an MBA confers three things:

Networking
Book learning
A coffee cup

It's no trouble at all to pick up a coffee cup online if you want to carry around a coffee cup with the logo [...]

Not an MBA

January 28, 2008

What do Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos, and Howard Schultz have in common? All of them are business leaders, many of them are well known innovators, and none of them have an MBA.
I'm sure you've heard of Bill Gates. He's number one [...]

Why do you say “fuck” so often?

January 23, 2008

I was asked, "Why do you say 'fuck' so often?"
I have many reasons. Here are three.

Business is upside-down
Business leaders devalued the process of creation and innovation and the people who do it. "Work" is now a dirty word (apparently it rhymes with "labor"). Ever heard the term "individual contributor"? It's the [...]