Friday, September 28, 2007

Blitz

Blitz is a fast game of playing chess game. You must use 40 moves in 5 minutes, as you think and when you go over time you lose. The objective of this tight restrains is to keep the game brief and focused.

It reminds me of stand up meetings (they are Blitz meetings) which give all the members a chance to express their thoughts in a few seconds.

In chess there is a timer to keep track of moves and time. In stand up someone needs to play the role of the timer. How do you make one lose if she goes into details?

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Committees

Some quotes on committees:

"A committee is a group that keeps the minutes and loses hours."
"The length of a meeting rises with the square of the number of people present."
"You'll find in no park or city a monument to a committee."
"Committee - a group of the unfit, appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary."
"A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled."

Sounds familiar?

Saturday, September 15, 2007

I wish had seen this 5 minutes clip before buying my new car

Rob Gruhl the car buyer expert gives some great, practical advice on how to buy cars.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Trust

Most corporate default company assumption is "Employees are NOT to be trusted!"

You can not use a DVD writer, portable devices, access blogs or certain sites. On top of that your computer will log off automatically whenever you walk away to drink a cup of tea (drinking coffee had the same side effect). Actually, company loses money on the policy by wasting its employee’s time and drives the creative one away.

"Do employees who aren’t trusted behave as nicely to the customers as those who are trusted? If we don't trust them why are we hiring them?"

The Healthy cycle

"Listen to your employees, listen to your customers. Do what they tell you."