Business
Research: How to Get Better at Killing Bad Projects (via Harvard Business Review)
Many of the stage gates (i.e., no/no-go decisions) may have information that’s unavailable or unreliable. Instead watch the market in which the assumptions rose to bring the product into existence. Will those assumptions still be correct when it’s time to launch?
3 Ways to Help Your Team Recover from Disruption (via Harvard Business Review)
- Get things done — regardless of who does it.
- Capitalize on distributed leadership.
- Realize the limits of your own expertise and seek help when needed.
Have We Taken Agile Too Far? (via Harvard Business Review)
Agile has helped software companies in particular reduce waste by not building things people wouldn’t want. However, this iterative style doesn’t always work, and is often used as a reason to avoid careful planning. This article proposes a strategy Amazon has used by working backward from the press release announcing a new product. Once everyone understands and is bought in, you work backward to make it a reality.
Culture
Turn Departing Employees into Loyal Alumni (via Harvard Business Review)
This article has several ideas being implemented by various companies that help people still feel valued when they leave the firm. Although, the alumni vibe is close, part of it doesn’t fit because people don’t join a school aiming to stay until it doesn’t work out for whatever reason. The goal “…is not to retain every single employee but to treat people respectfully, do what’s best for them, and in the process keep morale and productivity high.”
Danish
- skrædderstilling — tailor sitting; apparently this is the proper term for what I learned in school as “Indian style”
- himmelseng — four-poster bed; lit: sky bed (himmel + seng)
- kattepine — difficult situation, dilemma; lit: cat pain (katte + pine)
- at fare vild — to get lost; lit: to behave wild
- at finde sig til rette — to adapt to a new situation; lit: to find oneself right
- på egen hånd — without the help of a stranger, independently; lit: on even hand
- at tale op ad stolper og ned ad vægge — to drone on and on; lit: to talk up pillars and down walls
- at lave numre — to do something in which a person seeks to obtain an advantage or to tease or deceive; lit: to make numbers
- en rum tid — relatively long time; lit: a space time
- ulykkesfugl — unlucky person, klutz; lit: unlucky bird
- at sluge råt — to accept or believe something uncritically; lit: to swallow raw
Leadership
Managing a Chronic Complainer (via Harvard Business Review)
Venting in small doses is fine, but chronic negativity has ripple effects not only for those listening, but for the complainer themselves. Focus on gratitude or solving actual problems.
Technology
Say Goodbye to Cookies (via Harvard Business Review)
Many regulations and technical controls (i.e., lack of browser support) will end the era of using third-party cookies to understand users. Instead companies will need to be more direct with their audiences to understand preferences.