I attend a lot of board meetings. Some are good, some aren't very good. But I love the fact that, if you have two different meetings that are productive and successful, they may not be anything alike. A group here at work came up with this meeting evaluation that gets at some of this, and I thought it was interesting to be so transparent about these points that usually people don't even articulate to themselves. What do you think, dear reader?
• The purpose of the meeting was clearly stated at the outset. (Y/N)
• The meeting's agenda was available to all attendees. (Y/N)
• The agenda was followed during the meeting. (Y/N)
• The meeting's objectives were met. (Y/N)
• My personal objectives were met. (Y/N) Read more »
Making it through my pile again. Actually, I think this is older than that. But Fast Company has this really fascinating article on "generation debt." The article features online money-management applications, mainly mint, which it calls the "Axe Bodyspray of personal finance." Yucky image. But interesting statistics in the article, e.g. "Americans under 35 spend 16% more than they earn, on average." That is depressing. They quote Ramit Sethi, saying "there's this dull throbbing sense of guilt that we should be doing something, but where do we start?" The problem is it's not an easy answer, it's one that comes with hard work, discipline and knowing oneself. Read more »
Heh. My buddy Chris Brogan has this awesome list for what to do if you're looking for inspiration for things to do online.
My boss talked to me about Baldrige's Quality Criteria. It seems interesting. Anyone have any experience with this?
The TSA has a blog, and it appears to be interesting and useful. Now, if THEY can figure out how to get involved in the blogosphere, there's no reason why any association can't do it.
Since my last post I mean. Why is that? Well, I've had basically nothing to say. Life is wonderful, but I've had lots to learn on various projects, and things have been hectic.
Also, my lovely wife gave me lots and lots of DVDs for Christmas, and really, who has time for blogging when there are seasons and seasons of The Office to catch up on? Also, I have been reading again which you must admit is a healthy activity.
But seriously, my best for a happy new year to one and all!
I mentioned I'm in a leadership coaching program here in Washington, DC. I took some notes on the concept of double-loop learning. These are some interesting concepts. When you are having double-loop learning (which is preferable to the more basic single-loop variety), it looks like this:
Governing values include
Strategies include Read more »
In the November Fast Company, there's a great article from writer Alex Frankel. In the piece, he poses as a frontline employee in several different companies and recounts his experience. So often we hear businesses cite "experience" as a defining feature and yet the people who create those experiences aren't nurtured. I've often thought it might be an interesting model to set up a consultancy who hired bright youngish people and sent them around to be the uber-secret-shoppers. It would be great information, for those who cared to hear it.
From Techcrunch, I spotted this piece of news: Jupiter Media, a New York-based digital services firm, acquired the writing community Mediabistro for $23 million. To me this is interesting because mediabistro fills most, if not all, the needs an association would--including health insurance plans for its members. I have hung around the Mediabistro community enough to know they add real value. Jupiter media operates several other communities as well as this most recent addition.
There's an interesting piece in this month's Fast Company about three different companies who are taking steps to reclaim their employees inboxes. All of these seem like good ideas.
