Another post at Harvard business is up - here’s an excerpt:

There is a difference between talk and action, and memos are 90% talk. We all know this. If a CEO at a 20,000+ person company wants to take action, he will, and most of those actions will surface through the executive chain. The corporate-wide memo is the most diffuse and overrated tool in an executive’s playbook, but since it’s the only play that most of the world sees, we naturally over-represent its significance. In every paragraph ask “Is this talk or action?” and you’ll see more clearly what the memo actually means, if anything at all.

Full post here.

Posted in Management, harvard business | 1 Comment »

I’m a travel whore, I admit. If I can go somewhere i haven’t been, and on someone else’s dime, I’m a happy man. So when I had a chance to speak in Milwaukee and the dates lined up, I said yes. I’ve been to 41 of the 50 U.S. states and this trip will make it 42.

I’ll be doing my famous full day seminar, Making things happen, based on the bestselling book. It’s a bargain rate: $125 for the full day, ridiculously inexpensive for any kind of full day professional seminar. Here are the details:

When: Friday Sept 19th, 2008
Where: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Description: Despite all the jargon, methodologies, and magic bullets, most software projects do not end well–certainly not as well as everyone hopes they will when they start. This interactive, practical, and fun workshop, based on the best selling O’Reilly book, explores the true reasons projects work. There are no trendy terms or magic bullets in this workshop. Instead, we talk about the tough situations that arise on every project, explore different ways great project managers have handled them, and nail down how to avoid the big mistakes even experienced leaders make. Bring your toughest situations, challenges, and experiences, and they’ll be worked into the workshop or discussed during breaks.

Registration and seminar outline here.

btw: I’m working out the details for a public talk on innovation in Chicago on Mon Sept 22nd. Stay tuned.

Posted in On Tour | Leave a comment »

I spoke last year at User interface 12, and I must have done something right. They’ve invited me back to do my full day seminar: How to lead breakthrough projects. It’s the only conference I know of that pays speakers based on performance, and it shows in the quality of speakers and workshops at the event.

When: October 13-16, 2008
Where: Cambridge, MA, USA

Other speakers include: Luke Wroblewski, Industry legend Bill Verplank, Peter Merholz, and more (full agenda).

Registration: For all four days is $2190, or pay by the day for $675. After August 14th, prices go up about 15%. Details here.

Discount: If you use my promotion code, berkun, you get $30 off each single day registration; if you sign up for all 4 days, you get a free limited-edition UI13 Flip Ultra video camcorder.

Posted in On Tour | Leave a comment »

• The 10 worst keyboards of all time. A great list that rivals the keyboard i claimed was the worst keyboard in the world a few months ago.
• IRA Glass’s Radio Manifesto. If you listen to This American Life (which you should), here is Ira Glass’ outline for how to produce good radio. Instructive for anyone who makes anything.
• The Beast - “I am the most annoying person to watch the Olympics with. I’m a condescending former elite athlete who loathes the armchair fan. I love sports. I love athletes. I hate fans.” A great essay from a competitive gymnast about what it’s like to deal with the average Olympic viewer.

Posted in Uncategorized, linkfest | Leave a comment »

I’ve received quite a few applications for this role, but there’s still time to apply. I’ll be closing the door this friday. Details on the role here:

Job opening for PM-Clinic

Posted in PM-Clinic | Leave a comment »

Recently Steve Ballmer’s FY ‘09 Strategy email was leaked. Out of curiosity I read the thing - and it makes an excellent case study in goal setting (covered in Chp4 of Making things happen).

Is it any wonder things are slowing at Microsoft with goals like these?

Ballmer writes:

Therefore, my priorities are consistent with last year. In FY09 we must continue to:

1. Invest in the right opportunities;
2. Expand our presence with Windows, Office, and developers;
3. Drive end user excitement for our products;
4. Embrace software plus services; and
5. Focus on employee excellence.

These are the same goals Microsoft has had FOR A DECADE. It’d be impossible to know this was written in 2008 if the lead in sentence were removed. Consistency of leadership can be great, but be consistent in vision, not at the goal level.

Worse, #1 and #5 are wastes of goal space. A good goal makes decisions easier to make. How does it help any of Microsoft’s 80,000 employees for the CEO to say “Invest in the right opportunities”? As if there are hordes of managers running around trying to invest in the wrong ones? The #1 slot is the big gun, the first shot, the lead idea, and in this list it’s fired into the ground.

Here’s my take on the other 4 goals:

2. Expand our presence with Windows, Office, and developers;

Windows and Office have been market leaders for years. The big goal for ‘09 is to expand presence? That’s the secret to the future of Microsoft? Getting the last .005 of market share left? First off, I don’t believe Microsoft executives truly believe this is the future, but they really don’t know what else to say. It is still a two horse company unwilling to confess, even inside the company, that all its attempts for a third horse have been qualified failures (MSN, Interactive TV, Mobile, XBOX, etc.) If they’d do a postmortem on these efforts and educate the company and what executives have learned from these efforts, the company would get 20% smarter (yes it’s a made up number), instantly. Microsoft has a ridiculous amount of untapped experience since they hide their failures internally and never share their big, expensive lessons (Bob, MSN, Search, etc.). If every VP and middle manager were forced to write a postmortem and publish it internally, Microsoft would instantly become a dramatically smarter company.

3. Drive end user excitement for our products

This is weird. It doesn’t say make great products. Nor does it say have amazing levels of customer satisfaction. It says drive excitement. If ever there were grounds for calling Microsoft products over-marketed and under-designed on purpose, this is it. Excitement for a thing can be generated in different ways, and only some of those are beneficial in the long term. How about “Make great products that drive end use excitement” or “Earn customer love through making people’s lives better” or some statement that connects a good cause with a good effect? That would clarify the valuable kinds of excitement from the fluffy kinds.

4. Embrace software plus services

Microsoft started talking about software as a service back in 2005, and years earlier internally. It was a big campaign back then and it led to the launch of Windows Update and similar services across the company. So what does it mean in 2008 to embrace software plus services? I don’t know. Haven’t they mostly been embraced already? And besides, an embrace isn’t the best verb to use in a goal. What effect do we want the embracing to have? That’d be a better goal. Any idiot can embrace something (a light post, a stuffed animal, etc.) but that’s not as impressive as doing something meaningful with it.

5. Focus on employee excellence.

Like Goal #1, this is a waste of goal space. Is there anyone actively focusing on employee incompetence? This goal, as written, suggests there is. And the verb, to focus, is not progressive. What if I’m already focused, should I be focusing more? A goal should be a horizon to chase. Words like improve, increase, grow, and develop are all stronger verbs.

If I were Ballmer’s editor, here’s the revision I’d offer of what I think is his message:

1. Make smart investments and evangelize the lessons we learn
2. Create great products that naturally generate end user excitement
3. Combine software and services to provide great customer experiences

Three goals. No fluff. Strong verbs. Clearer direction.

Caveats

• I’m not sure the above would be my leadership message if I were CEO. But it is an improved version of what i think he was trying to communicate in the goals.
• $60 billion in revenue in FY08 is a ridiculous level of success by any metric. Hard to say how long this will last since it’s largely driven by the two horses (Office, Windows), but while it does you can’t pick too hard on Microsoft as a business.
• Writing goals as a CEO for 80,000 company is quite different than writing goals for a 50 person software development project.

Posted in Making things happen, Management, Microsoft, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

One problem managers face, especially when their staff is divided into two or more project teams, is how do I distribute my most talented people? Do I put them all together, or distribute them evenly across the organization? It’s a question I’m asking on my Harvard business blog:

Should top performers work alone?. Interesting comments thread so far.

Posted in Management | Leave a comment »

I still have trouble with the use of the word blogging - Why can’t we just say writing? Sure, I agree that blogs have changed many things about how we communicate and what we expect from people who write online, but at the end of the day when someone puts words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs, the skill is writing. I don’t care where those paragraphs end up, or what technologies are used - the biggest challenge is to write well.

So here’s a most interesting experiment: what would happen if you’d take the diaries of one of the centuries greatest writers and post them online, in a blog, one entry per day?

Well someone’s doing it with George Orwell’s diaries. Will his writing style work? Will we notice something missing given that he died a half century before the first blog? Head over there to find out.

I’m convinced the future of blogging depends most on what we can learn from great writers from the past - and Orwell is a excellent place to start. However, its his diary. Something I doubt he wrote with publication in mind - so who knows what we’ll find.

(Hat tip filmoculous)

Posted in On writing | 2 Comments »

One easy way to break down all of this innovation stuff is to talk about experiments. What changes to you make at work where you are unsure of the outcome?

I make the argument in this Harvard Business post, titled, Do you experiment at work? that experiments are everything. It’s the easiest way to think about how positive change happens.

Give it a spin and let me know what you think.

Posted in Innovation, Management | 9 Comments »

The Personal MBA folks have released a update to their reading list, the core of their program for people who want an MBA style education without the formal program and bank-breaking costs.

I’ve asked the question, Was your MBA worth it over on Harvard Business. If you have an MBA or have thought about one, I’m curious to know what you think - head over a check it out.

Posted in Management, Teaching/Training, books | 1 Comment »

Five years ago I started a simple little discussion list called pmclinic. The idea was simple: e-mail out a real world management situation on Monday, discuss it all week, write a summary on Friday.

Unlike most discussion lists, the idea created a surprisingly high signal to noise ratio. As the months went by, without any PR or much of a web presence, the list grew. Today the list has over 1000 members. We’ve covered hundreds of situations, and the list is still going strong.

There are dozens of things that need to be done, from making the list archives public, to getting the list out of the technology dark ages. And the best way for that to happen is to hand the reigns over to someone new.

This opportunity could be great for either a veteran who’s looking for something fun and different to work on with big networking opportunities, or even a rock star intern, college student, or journeyman who’s looking for experience and to build a reputation.

Job title: Project Manager

Project: PMCLINIC 2.0

Description: Lead the planning, brainstorming, organization and development of a new online community for the 1,000+ community of leaders, PMs and managers who reside on the legendary pmclinic. Objectives include taking the list out of the technological dark ages and onto the web, while retaining the stellar signal to noise ratio, and e-mail only options, subscribers cherish. It’s a huge opportunity to play a rare leadership role on a high visibility project in the tech-sector, software development and project management communities.

The current forum has a ghetto web home: http://www.scottberkun.com/pmclinic/.

What you will get:

• Ridiculous amounts of autonomy and leadership opportunities
• Use of Scott Berkun, or other select list personalities of your choice, as your top henchman & aides
• Some funding for webhosting and other basic costs
• Serious industry fame and acclaim
• But no salary - this is a volunteer position

Skills required:

• Ability to lead a small virtual volunteer team
• Talent for recruiting, nagging, rewarding, and bribing volunteers
• Willingness to work without immediate financial reward
• Zero tolerance for bullshit / High standards for what you put your name on
• Pride, Passion, Attention to detail, Sarcasm, Mind-control, Omnipotence (optional, but desired)
• Skill with (at least some of ): web development, mailing list software, wikis, web design, mastering things you claim you know but really don’t until after you’re hired, networking with people who possess skills you do not

How to apply:

1. Re-read the above, carefully this time.
2. Send a brief note and a resume to info at scottberkun.com
3. No specific experience required. Just need to convince me you’ll kick ass in this role.

Posted in PM-Clinic | 6 Comments »

Stumbled across, via dive into mark, a clever tool for making word art from any text. For kicks, I plugged in the entire first chapter of The Myths of Innovation, and here’s what we got (click here for the full-size version).

The tool is called Wordle. It’s free and easy to use. Check it out.

Posted in Design, Myths of Innovation | 2 Comments »