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.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Costs of Multitasking - From Johanna Rothman, who list a number of costs associated with flip-flopping from task to task and back and forth. She asks if she missed anything.
She did. Focusing on the set-down, set-up, and defect costs of the practice, Johanna did a good internal analysis of the task costs. But outweighing them, when this is a common practice among a number of people working on dependent tasks, is the cost of delays of hand-offs from tasks to task, which translate into delays of the completion of the final project. It's more than the additional cost of individudals' time. It's also the cost of late(r) delivery of the projects and their benefits.
posted by Frank - Permanent Link -
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Ideas aren't physical. Regardless of the legalities, treating ideas as possessions insults their vast combustive power. Jefferson put it best:
The moment [an idea] is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Ideas aren't worth jack unless other people can put them to use.
Ideas won't change the world unless others can improve on them.
Ideas grow by participation, not isolation.
Ideas change as they grow. Their core remains the same, but their scope enlarges with successful use.
Ideas have unexpected results. No one person can begin to imagine all the results of a good idea. That's another reason to welcome participation.
Nobody's going to "steal" your ideas, any more than they can steal your cerebrum. You're the source. Authority over the idea begins with you.
Authority derives from originality and respect. You can't get respect for your original ideas unless those ideas prove useful to others.
There are two reasons other people are going to "steal" your ideas. First, the only people qualified to steal your ideas are too busy trying to get their own ideas to work. Second, they already don't like your idea because it's not their idea. (But if your idea gets traction, maybe then they'll start to respect it.)
In the software world, patents are hand-held nuclear weapons. They may have some deterrent or "defensive" purposes, but they tend to hurt those who use them at least as much as they hurt others. Where would Linux be if Linus Tovalds decided to make it a proprietary OS? Where would RSS, blogging, podcasting or outlining be today if Dave Winer had locked his ideas behind patents?
