How to Write a Mission Statement That Isn't Dumb | Fast Company
via fastcompany.com

Here are four mission statements. Two are from real organizations. Two were created by Dilbert's Automatic Mission Statement Generator. Can you guess which ones are genuine?

1. It is our job to continually foster world-class infrastructures as well as to quickly create principle-centered sources to meet our customer's needs.

2. Our challenge is to assertively network economically sound methods of empowerment so that we may continually negotiate performance-based infrastructures.

3. To improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities.

4. Respect, integrity, communication, and excellence.

If you can't tell which is which (and you probably can't) then this article from fastcompany.com should be mandatory reading. Look at how sentimental, nebulous feelings have taken over from hard objectives in mission statements. As the article says 'Mission statements are like corporate Hallmark Cards'.

Make yours stand out by employing the 'BHAG' technique...

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Twitter links for the last 48 hours - 5th November 2009

Here are the links I have tweeted or Re-Tweeted (RT) over the last 48 hours or so

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Twitter links for the last 48 hours - 2nd November 2009

Here are the links I have tweeted or Re-Tweeted (RT) over the last 48 hours or so

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Two Musicians One Guitar

via neatorama.com

Watch an awesome display of guitar playing skills :- Two people playing the same Spanish guitar. Impressive enough when you see them playing their own bits on different parts of the neck. It becomes even more impressive when they start strumming one part with the right hand and fretting the other persons part with the left. Well worth 2:36 of your time.

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Eleven Easy Ways to Destroy Your Company - NYTimes.com

Businesses make hundreds or thousands of decisions every year, many of which seem inconsequential. But the smallest details can have business-changing or even business-ending consequences. Here are 11 of my favorites to watch out for:
via boss.blogs.nytimes.com

A great list of things to watch for when running your own business. Some are a little US-centric (given that this comes from the New York Times), but that's not altogether a bad thing.

How many of these do you have in your company?

Filed under  //   business  

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Ecofont - The green font with holes

After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well.
via ecofont.com

Ecofont is an environmentally aware font for your PC. it is based on an open source font and has been modified to add a number of small holes into each letter. At normal viewing (and printing) size the holes are not seen, but when printing on laser printers the holes mean that less ink is used on each page. This is environmentally sound as it reduces overall ink usage (and therefore extends cartridge life).

The font looks professional enough and installs really easily into your system (Linux, Mac and PC)

Filed under  //   environment  

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10 Things Corporations Can Learn from Pro Wrestling

Recently, writing about the death of the incomparable Capt. Lou Albano, journalist Phil Reisman with The Journal News wrote: "Somebody once said that to understand America, you have to understand pro wrestling."
via fastcompany.com

An insightful essay into the world of US corporations through the lens of Pro Wrestling (from Fast Company)

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Opt in and opt out (Seth Godin's view)

Opt in and opt out

I think there are a few general principles that could save us time and money and hassle:

  • If there's a public good involved from a certain behavior, the default should be opt out.
  • If the pressure or cost of opting out is high and it involves a civil right, then opt in is a better choice for our society. (Obviously a potential conflict to the first rule).
  • If a business benefits in aggregate and the consumer is penalized on average, then it's smart public policy for it to be opt in.
  • If your business is going to depend on this connection as an asset, opt in is the way to go. Opt out email is another word for spam.

via feedproxy.google.com

I don't usually push posts from Seth Godin for two reasons
1) His posts are generally just 'common sense' and nothing too enlightening
2) He has his own tribe of folks who can send out stuff on his behalf

But I wanted to make an exception for his 'Opt in and Opt out' post because I feel it actually has something worthwhile to say in a non common sense (but still very sensible) manner. Click the link to read it all

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Twitter links for the last 48 hours - 30th October 2009

Here are the links I have tweeted or Re-Tweeted (RT) over the last 48 hours or so

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Relative sizes of cells (Size and Scale)

via learn.genetics.utah.edu

An interactive demo from the University of Utah sowing the relative sizes of a coffee bean and a carbon atom. Pretty neat. Be sure to click the link and move the slider across slowly to the right to see things change.

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Writer, Actor, Blogger - and Business Process Consultant. Wierd eh?