Performance Zen

Author: spierzchala

  • The Tyranny of the Managers

    Sig hits for 6 with this post on the tension that exists between leaders and managers. [here]
    Where do exciting ideas, visions and concepts come from? Leaders.
    Who is responsible for stifling the unique voices of leaders? Command and Control Managers.
    The common thread I am reading on the business books I am pouring through right now is that you will get farther, be more successful, and get the chance to meet really cool people simply by being the person you are, and not letting your ideas be crushed.
    I have discovered that I can bring more to my company by doing less of my “job” and more thinking. I speak in an authentic voice, one that cries out to let our customers kick ass, be remarkable, and make an impact in the world.
    Ok, the last statment is not really the case: I really just help companies suck less, and understand how to do it more successfully.
    But by doing less jon and being more leader, I feel more fulfilled. And frankly, this role is how my mind is tuned anyway.
    Bring me your problems, and I will help you understand what the real problem is.

    Seth Godin has another take on this issue. Leaders are the management cultures worst nightmare. They show that the management culture is not necessary for success. In fact, you can succeed without the management culture.
    Now, if you think success is only monetary in this case, you are so wrong. For a true leader, making a ton o’ cash is secondary to helping shape how people think and how they behave.
    Think of the greatest leaders you know. How many were rich? How many became rich AFTER they had been recognized as successful leaders?

  • Another PowerPoint Nightmare

    The firm I work for is currently shopping around for a new PR agency. On Thursday of last week, we went over to one of the candidate firms to hear their approach and how they think they can help us.
    35 slides. Densely packed. No information. All about what they have done, not how they think they can help us.
    The density of the presentation took 3 days to sink in, and it was only this morning that I realized that this was not a good way to sell me on their potential. And I told the powers that be at our firm exactly that.
    The folks at this firm need Cliff.
    And a little dose of Kathy Sierra wouldn’t hurt! This firm was showing us how they had kicked ass (past tense), not how they would help us kick ass NOW!

  • And where would I be running to?

    Jeremy…things are getting weird at Yahoo. [here]

  • Non-Linear Thought: Leaving you changed

    I am noted for having an unusual way of approaching problems. In fact, over a decade ago, someone leaned across the cube wall to me at my first real project and said “I need your non-linear approach to help me solve this problem”.

    I still consider that the greatest compliment that I have ever received.
    Then I stumbled across this post, which quotes the paper Wicked Problems: Naming the Pain in Organizations

    “The natural pattern of human problem solving appears chaotic on the surface, but it is the chaos of an earthquake or the breaking of an ocean wave. It reveals deeper forces and flows that have their own order and pattern. The non-linear pattern of activity that expert designers follow gives us fresh insight into what happens when we work on a complex problem. It reveals that in normal problem-solving behaviour, we may seem to wander about, making only halting progress toward the solution. This non-linear process is not a defect, not a sign of stupidity or lack of training, but rather the mark of a natural learning process. It suggests that humans are oriented more toward learning (a process that leaves us changed) than toward problem solving (a process focused on changing our surroundings).”

    Have you and your team solved any wicked problems lately?

    Johnnie Moore extracts another salient quote from the original paper. He focuses on the last sentence of the large quote above.

    I am searching for those things that leave me changed.

  • Amazon Associates Bookmarklet

    Fred Wilson found this. I have been wondering how I could add my Amazon Associates information more easily.
    I love having my mind read.
    And to prove it works, buy Why Business People Sound Like Idiots. I just finished it. It helps to remind me that everything I try to do at work is right; that being myself, as insane and interactive as I like to be, works.
    On to the Purple Cow…then Blink…

  • Apache and mod_rewrite: More Zombified Idiots Dispatched

    I have been seeing a large number of hits with the following User-Agent string in my logs lately:

    Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 Firebird/0.7
    1. Firebird hasn’t existed as a browser for a very long time
    2. A build date of October 7, 2003???
    3. From 3 separate IP Addresses

    This Apache REWRITE rule took care of this issue.

    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} .*Gecko\/20031007.*
RewriteRule ^.*$ http://www.pierzchala.com:9080/ [R,L,NS]

    Try the URL…it points to this iptables rule.

    /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -i eth0 -s 0/0 --dport 9080 -j DROP

    I love Linux!

  • Nothing Interesting…Gotta A Secret?

    Is there anything interesting going on? Is anyone doing anything interesting?
    Bored…bored…BORED
    Sigh!
    Anyone got a secret they want to share?

  • Kathy Sierra on the Geography of Context

    Kathy Sierra writes on the geography of context. The main takeaway: North Americans remove objects from their context; Asians always consider the whole picture.
    A thought-provoking reminder of our differences as a species. I am defiitely guilty of removing objects from their context and looking at them in isolation. However, working with computer systems on a daily basis is one method that I find for helping maintain contextual grounding.
    Ok…the above sentence was hideous. What I meant to say is that workig with complex Internet systems forces a person to always think of devices, applications and configurations in the context that they exist.
    In fact, that is the main failing inside most of the organizations that I work with. There is no overarching understanding of how all of the systems work together.
    So, the culture of context can exist within an organization. I gravitate towards people who are able to bring in the whole picture.
    Who do you spend time with? Isolationists or Inclusionists?

  • Happy Birthday, Dave Winer

    Dave Winer, Happy Birthday. You’re 50..and I’m not.
    Unabashed attempts to drive traffic…

  • Ideas: Culture of Life?

    This has been rattling around in my head for a day or so.
    Bush and his cadre are promoting a culture of preserved life, not a culture of sustained life.
    Think about it and comment.
    Eschaton points out the hypocrisy in this quote:

    …Gov. Bush has appointed two more secretaries to lead DCF since the agency initially mishandled Moesha’s case under Ms. Kearney, but an unfair practice of valuing some lives more than others continues to hurt some of the neediest and most fragile Floridians. In 2003, after failing to protect a severely mentally retarded woman from being raped while in state custody, DCF fought to save the woman’s fetus. Similarly, late last month, after failing to protect a 13-year-old in state custody from becoming pregnant, DCF fought to save the girl’s fetus. While the state was fighting fiercely to save the unborn, it continued quietly fighting — using private lawyers — to avoid financial responsibility for a living child, one irreversibly harmed while dependent on the state for protection.