Lots of places have a coffee setup that looks like this: (without the big red numbers) I am dismayed that so many people don’t understand this fundamental workflow. So, here it is: First, always pour from the right pot. The one marked with a big red 1. If you take the last of the coffee [...]
Archive for the ‘problem solving’ Category
Making Coffee
Posted in problem solving on September 5, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Polishing the Fossil
Posted in problem solving on September 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I read this a few weeks ago, and it’s been going through my mind a lot: Netflix Reference Guide on our Freedom and Culture One of the points in this document has to do with what happens when companies grow and react to their new size… poorly. Small companies and teams start creative. They are [...]
The Hudson Bay Start
Posted in problem solving on August 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I heard of this recently, and even if it is apocryphal, I love it. The Hudson Bay Company was created in 1670 and operated an enormous trapping and trading business all across North America. Their business was life or death; teams of trappers would leave HBC headquarters and travel for months in the wilderness trapping, [...]
Solving Big Problems: Get Some Ideas
Posted in problem solving, tagged brainstorming, management, problem solving on August 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Teams, groups, and companies are organic networks. When trying to make a Big Important Change, spot problem solving is about as effective as acne cream on a third degree burn. Addressing an organizational issue with a quick tactical fix just moves the problem somewhere else. Often that somewhere else is even more difficult or more [...]
