Einfach-Schnell-Klar » Methods (Com)

Learn from the Positive Deviants and Design Thinkers

Felix — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:13:56 +0000

“Best Practices” are often “Past Practices”. Moreover, they are also typically difficult to re-use due to the different context in which they have been created.

Thanks to David Gurteen’s newsletter I’ve come across the “Positive Deviance” method which is in use especially in development projects. This approach focusses on those people in a community who as individuals or as a group achieve a better outcome even if they face similar challenges and use the same resources. The book review by Kevin Bishop of Anecdote clearly shows the paradigm shift in consulting which the usage of this approach leads to: rely on local expertise.

The very strong article of the Stanford Social Innovation Review establishes the bridge between Positive Deviance and Design Thinking. Design Thinking addresses the needs of the people who will consume a service or a service. Design Thinking – and this is like closing the loop for me – is also taught by the Hasso-Plattner-Institute (HPI) in Potsdam. No wonder that the HPI will be part of the next Vision Summit in Berlin (April 2011). I’m looking forward to participating in this event.

Add Visual Thinking to Your Toolbox

Felix — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:49:13 +0000

I remember the days when I first used mindmapping to sketch ideas, gather requirements just-in-time or plan projects. First, people are surprised and relunctant: they have learnt e.g. that you take note in a digital order, bullet by bullet. So, the adoption rate of mindmapping was not that high in those days. Meanwhile companies like MindJet have sold more than one million licenses of mindmapping software packages.
I must admit that I’ve been a bit powerpoint-overeaten for the first two years with my present company. So, the “Back of the Napkin” hit my attention:

Visual Thinking is an extraordinary powerful way to solve problems, and though it may appear to be something new, the fact is that we already know how to do it.

Dan Roam has published this very useful book on how to make use of the visual thinking skills each of us has. His website outlines the basic toolset, the Google Talk session gives a vivid introduction (see below), and his book shows a lot of real-life examples for your “visual thinking MBA”.

Merlin Mann’s 4+ Years of Dedication to Inbox Zero

Felix — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:15:45 +0000

Very nice presentation by Merlin Mann on action-based email processing delivered at Google Tech Talk. I’ve rediscovered him thanks to the PresentationZen book of Garr Reynolds. Garr highlighted Merlin’s “Inbox Zero” presentation as exemplary: simple, highly visual, augmenting the presenter’s narrative. You may also have a look at Merlin’s “How To… What sucks…” page for more productivity tips.

Managing Organizational Change

Felix — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:37:32 +0000

Luc Galoppin and Siegfried Caems offer an excellent book on managing organizational change. The book focusses on SAP® Implementations, but the good thing is that the overall and detailed methodology, the templates, the structure along organization/communication/learning/performance-management streams also applies for the implementation of other large scale business process initiatives. A must-read for each knowledge or program manager.
It’s great that Luc also writes a blog on Organizational Change Management with the right mix of insights and visualizations.

Success Factors for Enterprise 2.0

Felix — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:48:01 +0000

Andrew McAfee enjoys the debates (A, B) with knowledge management expert Tom Davenport. Tom who last week after another meeting with Andrew at the FAST08 conference conceded that Enterprise 2.0 brings good points to knowledge management.
Andrew compiled a list of success factors that I would like to comment briefly from my experience (comments in brackets):
Enterprise 2.0 is more likely if…
Technologies

Tools are intuitive and easy to use (obvious)
Tools are egalitarian and freeform (challenge within a large company)
Borders seem appropriate to users (it’s not clear what is meant with ‘borders’)
At least some of the tools are explicitly social (agree)
The toolset is quickly standardized (agree totally)

Support for the Initiative

Incentives exist, and are soft (what is a soft incentive?)
Excellent gardeners exist (agree totally)
Patient and dedicated evangelists exist (agree totally)
Energy and activity are primarily bottom-up (agree)
Effort has official and unofficial support from the top (agree)
Goals are clear and well-explained (challenge within a large company and for a primarily bottom-up initiative)

Culture

People are trusted (agree)
Slack exists in the workweek (embed it in your daily work)
Helpfulness has been the norm (agree)
Top management supports lateralization (lateral management support is a key)
There are lots of young people (obvious)
There is pent-up demand for better information sharing (do you know a company where this wouldn’t be the case?)

Geschichten erzählen hat Zukunft!

Felix — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 20:56:12 +0000

Steve Denning gibt im ersten Kapitel seines Buches “The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling” eine Einführung in acht Muster für Geschichten, die im Business-Umfeld Wirkung zeigen. Seine Ansichten zu Knowledge Management sind aber im Gegensatz dazu schon sechs Jahre alt. Er hat sich seit seinem Wechsel vom Knowledge Manager der Weltbank in die Selbständigkeit ausschlie&szig;lich auf die Kunst des Storytellings konzentriert.

Steve Jobs und Bill Gates präsentieren deutlich anders

Felix — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 19:25:45 +0000

Garr Reynolds vergleicht in seinem Beitrag die Präsentationen von Bill Gates und Steve Jobs. Er selbst hat einige Tipps für Präsentationen auf Lager.

PowerPoint besser einsetzen

Felix — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 20:01:30 +0000

Viele Berufstätige arbeiten tagtäglich mit MS PowerPoint. Cliff Atkinson hat sich auf einen effektiveren Umgang mit diesem Werkzeug spezialisiert. Er gibt Tipps, wie jedermann bessere Präsentationen mit PowerPoint schafft (z.B. Five Ways to Reduce PowerPoint Overload).