From The Incompetence of American Airlines & The Fate of Mr X.

When I first learned about this, I was horrified. Mr. X is actually a good UX designer, and his email had me thinking there was hope for American Airlines. The guy clearly cared about his work and about the user experience at the company as a whole. But AA fired Mr. X because he cared. …

I know the value of good processes to reduce the chaos and avoid repeated mistakes. Many smaller business could benefit from some level of processification. Large corporations could, on the other hand, benefit from a reduction or loosening up of their processes.

Good processes by their nature seek to retard thinking – especially holistic thinking that accounts for matters outside those processes.

Good processes make organisations stupid!

Together with a …

This is a follow-on thought from my post on Daniel Pink’s TED talk.

Research has shown that the Carrots & Sticks approach to motivating people actually destroys their creativity.

What does this say about jobs where the issue of money, of being paid a decent salary, is very much based on such an approach? Such as in sales – the commission-based remuneration model is clearly a Carrots & …

This TED talk by Daniel Pink presents some counter-intuitive and interesting research on the relationship between motivation and performance in problem solving/creative thinking jobs.

More money or more threats only work on simple process-based jobs. Extrinsic motivation only works when the work does not really matter beyond doing it.

Intrinsic motivation, doing something because it is meaningful, because it matters, is what is needed to motivate the new set of …

Not surprising. Via tweet by Bob Jacobson.

http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2009/08/the-best-board-meetings.html

Boards need to be forward looking. Surely this is obvious. The people who steer the fleet must look forward.

But it is so much easier to look backwards. The majority of the way business operates is looking backwards. Most board members were trained as administrators, or worked themselves not visionaries

And because uncertainty is scary. And visionaries could be wrong.

“Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.” Bruce Mau.

Many of us as individuals spend so much time trying to be who we are not. Likewise, many (if not most) businesses spend great effort and resources on being who they are not.

It all stems from fear. We fear (as individuals and businesses or brands) rejection. We fear not attracting …

I was sitting in a web analytics meeting recently. It was very professional, informative, and interesting. The strategy is very relevant to what the client is doing on the web, and the new information the project can generate makes sound business sense.

But I cannot help thinking how this is a great example of how people are subsumed into serving the (perfectly logical and rational) needs of systems and …

Beware the people your passion attracts!

When I first read what Hugh MacLeod wrote in his book Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, it struck a deep deep chord:

“…as soon as they get a foothold inside the inner circle, you soon realise they never really understood your idea in the first place… And the weirdest part is, they don’t seem to mind sabotaging your original idea …

Marketing managers have now more or less learnt the topical key words – emotional engagement, authenticity, engaging in conversations…

But the doing of marketing is still essentially flawed – because marketing is still treated as a standalone function at the end of a linear service/product development pipeline. Marketing is still treated by many businesses a veneer/façade function, and thus necessarily shallow.

You want to be authentic, genuine, appeal to …

As we gain knowledge exponentially, we also uncover more ambiguities. We discover that life is not black and white, but rather infinite shades of gray.

To some of us, this is an incredibly exciting time. With infinite diversity, combinations, alternatives, and perspectives. To others, this is a time to be fearful. The simplistic comfort of the “good old days” has gone for good. There are no …