Mark Brinkerhoff: Starting With a Sketch Saves Money
A great short briefing by Mark Brinkerhoff on how starting with a sketch saves money; he uses a simple HVAC design example but the technique is broadly applicable.
Change Initiatives
Andrew Grove on Recognizing Reality
An excerpt from Andrew Grove’s “Only the Paranoid Survive” shows Grove and Gordon Moore recognizing reality and exiting a money losing business, the memory business that had brought Intel so much early success.
Seven Insights from “Solving for Pattern” by Wendell Berry
In “Solving for Pattern,” Wendell Berry writes about organic farming principles. Still, he offers a systems perspective applicable to startups and growing businesses that need to develop both staff and technology to thrive.
Newsletter V2021 Issue 4: Shared Situational Awareness
In a dynamic environment, situational awareness is an important prerequisite to identify what needs to be done.
Angel Rampy on Influence Skills for Technical People
What skills do you need to influence the way other people think? Angel Rampy, business coach at Success Through Learning, covers the different levels from which we influence moving us from “telling” to “collaborating”. She shares tips for strengthen our ability to influence others. Here are a couple of interesting video snippets from her …
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Three Insights from Dr. Edward Baker’s “Scoring a Whole in One”
This post explores three insights from Dr. Edward Baker’s “Scoring a Whole in One.” First, individuals must understand the enterprise context they operate in; second, leaders must serve and connect; and third, practice is necessary for improvement but does not lead to perfection.
Markers That Startups Can Use to Identify Early Adopters
Sean Murphy recently explained to a client his perspective on change agents inside a business and the signals that he looks for to identify early adopters.
Just Sell the Results to Reduce Perception of Risk
Sean Murphy explains to a client why startups should just sell the results to reduce a prospect’s perception of risk in a new tool.
Scale by Understanding Your Value Stream: Slides and Video Recap
Martha Ryan and Terry Frazier offered a briefing on how to “Scale by Understanding Your Value Stream” at the Lean Culture Meetup on Feb-25-2021. Here is a recap of the event that includes slides and video.
Joe Rogan: Be the Hero of Your Own Movie
Some thoughts on heroes using Joe Rogan’s admonition to “Be the hero of your own movie. If your life was a movie and it started now, what would the hero do right now?” as a point of departure.
Jeff Allison: An Executive Briefing on Microservices
Jeff Allison offered an executive briefing on microservices at the SF Bay ACM Meetup on Wed-Aug-19. Here is the video, slides, and notes on the talk.
On-Line Mastermind Group for Intrapreneurs and Change Agents
We are looking for new members for our on-line Mastermind Group for Intrapreneurs and Change Agents.
Getting Oriented to a Subculture or Community of Practice
Birds of a feather flock together: in addition to asking for referrals, entrepreneurs exploring a new market are well advised to ask early prospects what groups or communities they belong to. Here are some techniques we have found useful for getting oriented to a subculture or community of practice.
Scott Berkun: How to Translate Observations and Creative Insight Into a Solution
In “The Dance of the Possible,” Scott Berkun outlines four tests for understanding the real work involved to translate observations and creative insight into a solution.
Q: What Makes a Product Attract Early Adopters?
The following is an edited version of a recent online conversation I had with a team of bootstrappers about how to make their product attract early adopters.
Learning from John Perry Barlow’s Principles of Adult Behavior
When John Perry Barlow turned 30 in 1977 he wrote a set of 25 “Principles of Adult Behavior” that he asked his friends to hold him accountable to. Here are a few I want to incorporate into my life.
7 Sets of Insights from “Organize for Complexity” by Niels Pflaeging
Here are seven sets of insights from “Organize for Complexity” by Niels Pflaeging that I found useful for entrepreneurs who scaling their startup and intrapreneurs who are driving change in large organizations.
Derek Sivers: How to Start a Movement
In February 2010 Derek Sivers gave a great talk on “How to Start a Movement” that offered some important tips for leaders and but offered the surprising conclusion that concluded that the most important and underappreciated key to a successful movement was the follower’s courage to follow and ability to show others how to follow.
Mapping Capability Development to New Product Design and Delivery
This is a first pass at development dependency “pinwheel” model for intrapreneurs fostering new capability development and executives adjusting a product roadmap for development risk.
Managing Change in an Organization: An Incomplete Resource List
Some models I like for change management in organizations. Startup entrepreneurs frequently have to navigate the challenges managing change as a part of the sales process. Intrapreneurs should find this list useful as well. I welcome any suggestions for additions, refinements, or improvements.