Third Culture had published an excellent Meaning at Work Pattern Language. I’d like to thank C. Keith Ray’s MemoRanda for bringing it to my attention.
Category Archives: Work
The White Collar Revolt, Part 1
Related to my earlier post about saying ‘No’ (Some of the Passengers, Some of the Time) fed up computer programmers at Electronic Arts are suing their employer over “extreme job stress and health problems”. NPR had the story this past weekend on Weekend Edition. Employees are gaining more control over their work conditions with each …
Clicks vs Impressions
Eminent writer Bob Bly dissects the difference between direct marketers and non-direct marketers. In my experience, his analysis is spot-on. I had a client where both mentalities struggled for dominance. The incumbent mentality (non-DM) was all about branding, impression, design, and well known for it. A team of direct marketers was brought in to handle …
Job Security is the Ability to Get a Job
My sister and I recently shared a phone conversation on the state of work. While she finishes her undergrad, she’s working for a temp agency. She’s continually negotiating with the agency on work; she calls the temp agency with her schedule, they call her with jobs. When there’s a match, there’s a match. If not, …
Pajunas Hosts More Than Your Website
Like a midwestern version of Gate 3 Work Club, Allie at Pajunas is offering monthly office subscriptions. That’s right, for a couple hundred dollars a month, you can move your start up out of your house and into downtown St. Paul’s fantastic Renaissance Box. I spoke with her at the Pajunas open house tonight. We …
One Sheet Wonders
I’ve been reading Ricardo Semler’s fantastic book, Maverick on how he turned around SemCo in the 1980’s. Each chapter ends with a nugget of organizational wisdom concisely delivered in a sentence or two. This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier post, Once More, In Half the Time. In addition to also …
Gate 3 Work Club Opens
The Gate 3 Work Club officially opens this week in Emeryville, CA. The culture of work in the US is dramatically changing. No longer segregated to the industrial parks and office buildings, knowledge workers and other members of the Creative Class are more mobile, more collaborative, and more flexible with their work. This cultural change …
Yes, and – not But
Improvisational comedy, like all team sports is about effective, high-energy, spontaneous collaboration. One of the seven major tenets of Improv is building off each person’s comment and suggestion with “Yes, and…” rather than dismissing it with a “but…”. “Yes, and…” extends, explores, and enhances the previous suggestion – building trust among all the team members, …
Want Better Collaboration – Improvise
The earlier collaboration techniques post (Stop Asking Questions) was based a key to successful improvisation. This post digs further into the relationship between improv and collaboration. Good improvisational comedy teams believe a group of individuals working together can start with nothing and quickly create something engaging, desireable, useful, and valuable. From this perspective, the keys …
Talking is Marketing
Any time someone in your organization has any contact with your clients or prospects, they are performing a marketing function. Thanks to John Jantsch for this timeless thought.