Saturday, July 08, 2006

51.5 - How to be Creative (Hugh MacLeod) I have a friend named Phil.  Phil is a drummer but worked at Microsoft for a long time (longer than I've been at Microsoft) in developer support.  A few months ago, another friend of mine and I got together for lunch with Phil where he told us he was leaving Microsoft.  He was joining a band that was going on a long tour all over Europe. We talked about a number of things that day and one thing Phil mentioned that meant a lot to him and helped him decide that it was time for him to put music first in his life was a post called "How to be Creative" from a weblog by someone named Hugh MacLeod. How to be Creative is a collection of 31 short essays on various ideas related to creativity.  The basic ideas center around themes like: Trust yourself Don't be impressed by popularity Do the work etc. I go back and read this web page every so often to remind myself of these ideas.  You should too. I haven't talked to Phil since he left for the European tour.  I did get an email with a photo of him standing in Red Square in Moscow.  He looked happy. 7:50:16 PM    comment []

51.4 - Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars (Patrick Lencioni) This book follows the familiar formula Lencioni uses in his previous books.  Well.. at least the same one used in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the only other book I've read from this author.  It's an effective formula. The lion's share of the book consists of a fictional story (referred to here as a fable) meant to illustrate the problem that the book tackles and the proposed solution.  Following the story, the principles of the solution are explained (referred to here as the theory). In this particular instance, the problem that's being tackled is that of the different parts of an organization operating separately from and, often, at cross purposes of each other, making the organization as a whole ineffective.  Lencioni proposes a model for approaching the problem that is simple to understand.  The model came from noticing that a lot of the ineffective ways of operating disappear when the organization is in a clear crisis.  But why do most organizations have to wait for a crisis to get to the point of eliminating the non-productive behaviors? This book was very engaging and easy to read.  I finished it in less than a day.  Not a bad investment for the benefit I feel I got from reading it. 12:33:55 PM    comment []