This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
WTF? -- I don't know what ad or ads Google has served up over to the right as you are reading this, but there was a strange unrelated on there tonight. I can't click on it, but I wonder what it's all about.
posted by Frank - Permanent Link -
|
A Possible Reason For Light Blogging --
Too much input, not enough output. Wonder where it's going to. By the way, the two PM podcasts on the list have not really impressed me yet.
posted by Frank - Permanent Link -
|
Monday, November 21, 2005
Three Bad Habits that some people think are positive attributes...
- Multi-tasking
- Competitiveness
- High Utilization
Looking for: Info on Blog Platforms -- Looking for comments on ExpressionEngine (nee' pmachine) as the basis for a "corporate blog." I'm relatively familiar with Wordpress and Movable Type, but ExpressionEngine is new to me. Any users out there with strong yeas or nays?
Any suggestions about other platforms suitable for "corporate" blogging (multiple blogs, good admin capabilities, ease of integration into corp sites) appreciated as well.
React, Respond, Anticipate -- Laurent suggests how to watch out for those bad decisions I mentioned yesterday, which can only really be identified in retrospect...
"How do we act on problems early, before they become crises ? A nifty phrase I've heard recently is 'weak signals'. Devote some attention to spotting weak signals and amplifying them."
On the other hand, maybe during the decision process there's a weak signal to be detected...
"A good way to spot weak signals is to embed your objectives in a system of values. Then weak signals will manifest as feelings that something is slightly, vaguely wrong."
Off-topic News: Sony Recalling CDs -- Too many people are unaware of this, so spreading it here. (Another nail in the coffin of recording industry stemming from their tone-deafness regarding the reality of their market.)
posted by Frank - Permanent Link -
|
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." -- Ellen Goodman, American journalist (1941 - )
Communication: Keep it Simple -- My blogging style seems to be getting leaner and leaner. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as demonstrated in thesecomparisons.
posted by Frank - Permanent Link -
|
My Appearance on "The Cranky Middle Manager" Podcast -- A couple weeks ago, I had an interesting chat with Wayne Turmel, host of the Cranky Middle Manager blog and podcast, one of the few management-related podcasts out there that I not only subscribe to, but heartily recommend.
The subject was supposed to be Theory of Constraints, but he also got me into talking about the differences between working in the externally constrained Fortune 100 environment versus an internally constrained fast growing company with about 50 employees. He had a recorder going and tells me that the podcast of our conversation should be available this week is now available.
If you listen to the podcast, which I hope you do, you'll notice that I recommend a few resources, both book- and web-based. They included...
A book I should have mentioned... Deming and Goldratt by Domenico Lepore and Oded Cohen -- A great introduction to TOC concepts and thinking processes.
If you're visiting my Focused Performance weblog for the first time as a result of listening to the podcast (or if you've been doing so for a while, but haven't dug into posts from before your initial visit or RSS subscription), I encourage you to not only peruse the recent postings here, but also check out the "Best of the FP Blog Archive" over in the right hand column. Recent postings have been of the "link and brief comment" kind. The older pieces in the "best of" list o' links have a lot more "meat" to them. In addition, if you're a first time visitor, you might want to wander beyond the blog to the bigger papers found in the site's Project Management section.
Thanks go out to Wayne for the opportunity to be included in his podcast offerings. Add this to my appearances on Jeopardy and The Ed Sullivan Show, and one could say I'm getting around, media-wise.
