Love is not… Love is…

If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.

Love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

Love does not demand its own way.

Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.

It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

May You Always Experience This Kind Of Love,

Dr. Howdy

Quality > Immediacy (in communication, at least)

Early 2004, Meg Whitman, eBay’s CEO took the drastic decision to banish all wireless devices from her Monday staff headquarters meetings. She then reported some push back from the eight top executives who regular attended. But she argued that “personal interaction is much important than instantly answering emails”.

Inspiration board

As I was looking for some visual “inspiration” in Flickr, I came across a number of posts entitled “inspiration board” or “wishboard”. Very appealing visually, these are also very good ways to focus your attention, creativity and presence on topics that are important to you

Do you think there is a way to use similar principles in a business context? Would the floral and zen images look too flimsy and unprofessional? Or, on the contrary, would it be a great way to spawn some extemporal creativity and step away from the focus on the immediate result?

A great way to grab the attention of people

I have been working in the new offices of nexB, in San Carlos. Their offices have a shared kitchen, managed by some really nice but unconventional people. Over time, daring ways to convey important admin messages have become a habit. The latest that caught inadvertently my eye was stuck to the fridge.

I could not resist and share it with you:

Now, obviously, you cannot always put such an intro on a slide, especially if you do not know the audience, or if you are trying to sell something, or if your position is not already establish, your credibility acknowledged. But you may find other words or expressions that attract the eye. a good way to do that is to try and catch yourself everytime you come back and check some advertisement, placard, or visual message. Then you can try them on others. These may include:

• funny situation pictures

• sweet animal pictures

• baby pictures

• words like raise, bonus, free stock options, free parking spot, etc.

What do you think? Have you ever used some similar way to make a point? What was the effect?

 

Green poem on a bed of shiny leaves

Keep dreaming your dream,
Stay true to yourself,
Choose the path of faith over fear,
Revise the journey as your intuition guides you,
Know that this life as you know it now
Will come to an end,
Live for today,
Live today,
Live.

Live creatively,
Be as unique as you want,
But not to be different, rather to be yourself,
Go for it,
Relinquish your doubts,
How would they help you?

Dance, play music, laugh, connect, write,
Every day God gives you.
Contribute.

Knowledge Management 101

What is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge Management is the process of gathering, organizing, refining, and disseminating knowledge.

What will it do for my company?

Have you ever had a knowledgeable employee leaving with some precious knowledge that only he or she had?

Have you ever had some new employees feeling a deep sense of loss in the face of the mountain of terms, projects, tools, and other conventions your team was using?

 

What could a software architect learn from a gardener?

One of my arguably time-wasting habits has been to run searches in Google Image. I would pick words and check them to get fresh ideas and perspectives. The immediacy and diversity of results, as well as the quality of what comes out, are very addictive to me - some people are really amazing at conveying messages visually.

This is not only a great source of inspiration, but also a way to get the “big picture” and the “lay of the land”. Browsing the results, you can get a sense for what people think, which people, messages and illustrations you relate to. It gives you a roadmap for further exploration, different from the mainstream; and an immediate basis for production, if you have a presentation to deliver or a meeting to facilitate.

Google is not perfect, but this produces two wonderful side effects: it tends to highlight the “new and talked about”, and still provides wacky results now and then. The emphasis on the fad is a great benefit. It permits to observe the bleeding edge, things you might otherwise miss in the mainstream media, simply because it is not quite ready for prime time, or has not been formalized enough to be published in a book yet.

The wacky results are important too. If you are a parallel thinker, you know what is to gain from looking at the fringes, or even way beyond the limits of your domain. Cross-disciplinary interaction has historically brought a lot of innovation. In science, technology, or philosophy for that matter, the main breakthroughs often occurred when two trains of thoughts collided.

Google image search is a great way to explore and navigate beyond the boundaries of a domain, and it produce some niceties. For instance, I recently looked for what was new on “project management cycle”, and Google came up with this:

As you probably did, I reflected: “Hmm… cute way of re-hashing the PDCA, or maybe the Agile concentric loops…” until I saw the word “permaculture”, that is. Then looking around the drawing, I realized that I was on a gardening expert web site. So I asked myself: What can I learn from a gardener? Is there a natural rhythm that we adopted without recognizing it?” (As a side-note, you can check this graph’s author’s website here)

There are many ways to do this, and Google Search is only one of them:

• Type words you know in Google image search and see what can astonish you

• Change search engine, from time to time

• Go to a library, into an isle you previously ignored and see what you can learn

• Go to a bookshop (this is different), meander, meet someone, ask them what they know and like

So let me ask you:

• What does this mean for you? How will you benefit from the wonders others create, in domains unknown to you? How can these people you do not know yet open your eyes to new possibilities?

• If knowledge is your trade, will you spend some time “looking around”? What domains are good candidates? Which ones are outrageous? Go there…

• If you are an artist, should you include some active “wacky search” time in your creative process?

The man who reinvented the corporation

I was recently reading an old article from the March 22, 2004 issue of Business Week. In a series entitled The Great Innovators, they were taking a closer look at the men and women who had left a mark in business, science, technology, government, etc.

This article summarized the life and contribution of Alfred Sloan. Although his name is not as famous as Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin, by far, his influence on the American, and global modern, society might be greater than you think.

Some of Sloan’s contributions include:

• breaking down responsibilities
•  

He wrote a book, The Organizational Study, referred to by Welch as the first management treatise.

Emergency numbers

For our last vacation, Ting and I went to Belize. The main reason was diving, with warm weather as a close second. Now, I will have to speak about this in a later post, given the fact that we are living in California, and we are supposed to live in a warm place. But that will be for another rant. Today let’s speak about a wonderful discovery.

The day we chose to leave the so-called “protection” of Ambergris Caye and go to Belize City was a rainy day. So, when we left the boat, we were starving, and the heavy rain forced us to choose a restaurant close by. Oh my, was it a good choice!

Beyond the warm, tasty and oh so cheap meatballs, soups, sandwiches and cakes, we also made a little discovery: a list of emergency numbers that you may have seen this before, but we had not. Since we have recently joined Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and are “searching”, this was a great discovery.

For ease of use, I have integrated this list with links to the Bible Gateway, so that you don’t have to look for the verses. Courtesy of your servant

… Emergency numbers …

When in sorrow	John 14
When men fail you	Psalm 27
If you want to be fruitful	John 15
When you have sinned	Psalm 51
When you are in danger	Psalm 91
When you worry	Matthew 6:19-34
When God seems far away	Psalm 139
When your faith needs stirring	Hebrews 11
When you are lonely and fearful	Psalm 23
When you grow bitter and critical	1 Cor. 13
For Paul’s secret to happiness	Col. 3:12-17
When you feel down and out	Romans 8:31-39
When you leave home for labor or travel	Psalm 121
When your prayers grow narrow or selfish	Psalm 67
For a great invention/opportunity	Isaiah 55
When you want courage for a task	Joshua 1
How to get along with fellowmen	Romans 12
When you think of investments/returns	Mark 10
If you are depressed	Psalm 37
If your pocketbook is empty	Psalm 37
If you are losing confidence in people	1 Cor. 13
If people seem unkind	John 15
If discouraged about your work	Psalm 126
If you find the world growing small, and yourself great	Psalm 19

Emergency numbers maybe dialed direct. No operator assistance is necessary. All lines are open to Heaven 24 Hours a Day!!! Feed Your Faith and Doubt will starve to death!! “When all else fails, read the bible!”

Ok so this is a post sample

And i say this and that in there…