On a recent vacation I visited the Mingei International Museum in San Diego. During a tour by the museum director we were looking at a mid-1930′s Santo Domingo Pueblo (New Mexico) necklace. “Interesting about this necklace,” the director said, “are the ‘nots’– not coral, not obsidian (but old melted phonograph records for the black element). [...]
One of the big problems with successfully executing projects is that while we know projects are very different from each other, we often manage them and measure their success in the same way. Think for a moment about the oft quoted Standish reports in which project success is measured on the traditional iron triangle basis [...]
Discipline without freedom is tyranny; freedom without discipline is chaos (Cullen Hightower). Morning Star is the largest tomato processor in the United States with 400 employees and over $700 million in annual revenues. Morning Star’s CEO, Chris Rufer, built a successful company on the principle of self-management where everyone is responsible for coordinating with colleagues, customer, [...]
I’ve just returned from a busy 4-week trip to Germany and Australia, and then Chicago. In shaking off the jet-lag cobwebs I took some time to reflect on this trip and others over the last 6-8 months (UK, Brazil, and the Agile Executive Summit). On these trips I’ve talked with many, many executives and managers [...]
