Clarke Ching's Rocks and Snowballs

The most important tool you own?

"For the record, an eraser was the most essential tool I owned."

- retired cartoonist, Gary Larson, author of "The Far Side Cartoons"
- from The Complete Far Side, Volume One, 1980-1984. 

Judging a solution

Eli Goldratt, in his webcast series on project management offers these 5 points for judging a solution

• Excellent benefits
• Win-win for all whose collaboration is needed
• Risk (multiplied by damage) is small relative to benefits
• Simpler than what we do now
• The sequence (of adoption) enables people to come on board - any clust of actions brings immediate significant results.

https://www.toc-goldratt.com/index_TV.php?cont=647&p=3&t=11

 

Watch the "The Goal" movie, free on line for the rest of the year!

If you've not got time to read Goldratt's "The Goal" but you do have 45 minutes to spare then Goldratt's video site is entirely free for the next few days.  The movie summarizes the book very well, in less than an hour.

http://www.toc-goldratt.com/TV/video.php?id=17&type=2

You'll need to register for the newsletter (or login if you are already a member). 

You'll get to watch the full 45 minute for free.  It normally costs hundreds of dollars.

But it only applies for the rest of 2010.  So be quick.

weekend holiday packing

We are heading off to Ireland this weekend.

I decided I'd type out a quick list of things I need to pack:

flip video

passports

laptop

kindle

iphone

underware

When I got to "underware" and realized I'd spelt it -ware rather than -wear and then scanned up the list and realized that apart from the passport the other items were gadgets ... that's when I knew I was a modern man.

Snowbound

I've been stuck home on snow for so long now that I'm starting to see
patterns - messages, maybe? - in the numbers coming from my VPN
security token.

Should I worry?

Snowbound

I've been stuck home on snow for so long now that I'm starting to see
patterns - messages, maybe? - in the numbers coming from my VPN
security token.

Should I worry?

Pianist Envy

I have pianist envy.  Ireland has bankrupt itself and some of the public servant salaries are being revealed.  Including a pianist who earns 225K euro a year. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1204/1224284774152.html

The govt has announced today, in its emergency budget, that they're decommissioning 1 of their government jets and not replacing another.  Ireland is a country of about 4.5 million people.  Why did the government need any jets, let alone more than 2?

Bailout Package

It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub. The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit. The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich tourist will not suspect anything. At that moment the tourist comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works.

[author unknown]

Harry Potter ...

My kids are watching one of the Harry Potter movies.  I'm reading something on my laptop.

I hear Kenneth Branagh come on - he plays Professor Lockhart - and announce that he is the new teacher of "defense of the dark arts".

And then I hear my 5 year old, Alice, gasp in horror, and say, "He said a rude word".

We quickly corrected her - "It's the dark ARTS Alice, the dark ARTS".

I'm secretly hoping it sticks though.

Who will do what by when?

If you've ever had the fortune to work for a truly great manager and you want to learn how they did it then ... read on.

I've just spent the afternoon reading Who will do What by When by Tom Hanson and Birgit Zacher Hanson.  It's a well written, fast paced little business novella about building trust and getting things done by using commitment based management principles.   It's more in the style of a Patric Lencioni book than a Goldratt book.  

It is brilliant.  

I started learning about Commitment Based Management in 2005 from consulting firm I worked with at the time.  I learnt a lot there but I really wish I'd had this book.  I've read it once today and I'll reread it again by the end of the year. I know how well CBM works - and every great manager I've worked for uses it, whether they know it or not - but this is the first book I've read which explains the fundamental principles in a way which I understand. 

You can buy the book from amazon or can download the book, for free, here: http://www.headsupperformance.com/.