AllBusiness.com - Slacker Manager

The new whistleblower

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:00:34 GMT

Check out this WaPo article about a Lockheed Martin engineer who blew the whistle on a Coast Guard project by making a video and uploading it to YouTube (here it is). That's pretty creative, and it ought to send chills down the spines of would-be Enron'ers. Whistleblowing is still hard work, but apparently YouTube just helped lessen the burden. I'm trying to imagine exactly how it would look if someone took this route in a corporate case. Instant lawsuit, for starters--irrespective of whether ...

How to find your stuff in Outlook

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:20:36 GMT

Note: this is basically a repost, but it bears repeating as long as this software still works... I don't use Outlook anymore, but I work with plenty of people who do, and sometimes I gotta help them find stuff. When I was using Outlook, one major gripe I had was that the built in search tool was really slow. And not so good at finding stuff. What good is never emptying out your inbox if you can't find anything? What you need is Lookout. It's free and Microsoft owns it. Maybe someday they'll ...

Decision roundup

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:18:47 GMT

I like reading about how other people make decisions. A reader, Dustin Walper, recently sent me a link to a post he wrote called "Fast Leadership - Stop Thinking and Start Deciding." He basicallly advocates a Gladwellesque "Blink" style of decision making, which I think has merit in the right time and place. It's a good post, but one thing I thought was missing was some kind of feedback mechanism that allows you to take stock of how your decisions worked out over time. Rob wrote a good post on ...

Interview with Lisa Haneberg

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 09:17:41 GMT

Lisa Haneberg interviewed me for a podcast that she's got up on her site right now. We talked about all kinds of stuff, including managerial excellence, a little bit about MBA programs, etc. This was the second version we did--the first one had some glitches and apparently, if it were to be used, Lisa would've had to increase the volume for her to be heard, but then it would've been so loud that you could hear me breathing. Lisa said it was creepy. I'm okay with creepy. :-) ...

PDA showdown: Blackberry vs. Treo 700p

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 10:01:32 GMT

The Treo 700p wins. For me, at least. I've been a user of Palm OS since around 1999 or so. About 9 months ago, or so, I got a Blackberry. I tried real hard to find some love for the 'berry, but it was tough going. There are relatively few third party apps for the 'berry, which was a surprising letdown. On the other hand, the 'berry did what it was supposed to do pretty well. It was an okay phone, though I always felt dorky talking into it. And it was an okay calendar and organizer, though I ...

Diigo may replace del.icio.us for me

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 09:23:38 GMT

I've been a huge fan of del.icio.us and I've tried and rejected many of the potential replacements for the service. Recently I read about Diigo and I figured I'd give it a try. Turns out I love it very much. :-) I use del.icio.us in three primary ways. Straight up personal bookmarks, as a service to power the sidebar links on the blog, and as a kind of personal search engine (I conduct searches there to see what other people have found on a given topic, and I have various types of del.icio.us ...

Berkun seeks innovation insights

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 04:36:12 GMT

Scott Berkun, author of The Art of Project Management (review) is doing some interviews for his next book on how innovation happens. He's conducting online interviews and, in order to sweeten the deal, is offering a $150 Amazon gift certificate to one lucky interviewee. Not to mention the fact that you may be further interviewed and potentially quoted in the book. Full details on Scott's blog here.

Basecamp vs. activeCollab

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 09:40:54 GMT

I've preached the virtues of Basecamp here in the past, and I still dig it for my own lightweight project management needs. Earlier this month, like everyone else, I noted the release of activeCollab and made a mental note to try it out. I kept remembering to try it out, but never quite got around to doing the download-and-install dance. Today I noticed that Dreamhost has bundled up activeCollab as a "one click install." That was the final impetus to try it out. This post is my quick and dirty ...

Book review: Management by Baseball

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:15:22 GMT

I mentioned a while back that I was reading this book and expected to review it soon. Well life intervened and it got lost in a pile until this past weekend. I've gotten back to the book and finally finished it off. What an interesting book! First, you've got to know that I'm not a baseball fan. It's not that I don't like baseball--I've got no beef with baseball, I just don't follow the game. Actually, I don't follow any organized ...

Mindful management

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:25:01 GMT

I just got turned onto Zaadz.com, which is a social networking site. Zaadz is kinda the MySpace for thinkers interested in changing the world. It attracts a fair chunk of the treehugger contingent (I say that with love for my treehugging brothers and sisters), but there are also a lot of straight up businesspeople interested in social justice, mindful living, etc. I've only been on the site for a day, but I'm really digging it. My page is at http://bren.zaadz.com and I've already started a ...