Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Prioritization

Last night I was torn between two programs on the television. The first one was on DW-TV about innovation in Germany and the Hasso Plattner Institute (interesting for me as I work for SAP). The other one was the Fight Quest on Discovery Channel (interesting for me as I was a keen practitioner when I was at school).

Both of them were too late at night. Both of them were running almost simultaneously. Both of them were attracting different parts of my attention. I ended up feeling just like in the good old school years with a lot of studying and fighting.

Eventually I made a choice to switch between the channels and to watch both of them. It was just like in real life - dynamically switching between tasks and balancing the priorities.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Dressed for Success - a practical example

People tend to change their attitude towards you based on their perception of your clothes.

To check this statement, I have made a simple experiment.

One day I went to buy fresh bread from the nearby shop, I wore a leather jacket (that actually makes me looks pretty nice). The next time, the morning was particularly cold, so I wore my skate boarding jacket. Interestingly people treated me with more respect when I was with the leather one, even though it is three times cheaper.

The reverse experiment is to go on the skiing slope. You get more respect based only on the correct choice of clothes.

So, no matter where you go, do your research and get dressed for success.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Deutsch lernen

Bill Gates asks on ted.com what makes a good teacher.

I think I know.

Two weeks ago I started studying German. I think that our teacher is an example for a good teacher. With her passion she encourages the whole group to think and learn in the early hours of the day before we start our work. So, if necessary, I can send Bill a video of her lectures ;- )))

Friday, February 20, 2009

good at Lobbying is not equal to good at Inventing

I watched a documentary on a Viasat channel about the Wright brothers. The story describes how they have managed to achieve what others backed by $ 50,000 of government funding could not.

This brought me to the obvious conclusion that:
"Good at Lobbying is not equal to good at inventing, nevertheless it seems that good at lobbying is equal to good at spending."

Check how the government money are used by the big companies during the crisis. It will not become obvious right away. We need to wait till someone involved starts to talk. But it will be just like the Wright brothers story - somebody small, based on enthusiasm will find and implement the solution, while big spenders will charm us with their heroically futile eloquence.

Check the 18 billion in Wall Street bonuses of the top bank managers, who needed urgently government backup... I suppose that they could have lived this year without these money.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Where are the people in BPM?

As I am reading through the second part of the BPM Roadmap, I cannot help but ask myself the question:

"Among so much information about processes and technologies, why there is no information about the people who will actually contribute to this revolutionary evolution?"

Is it just that I have not finished reading the book, or simply the people factor is not on the agenda?

Friday, February 13, 2009

On the first part of the BPM book

Some time ago I finished reading the first, theoretical part of the book BPM: the SAP Roadmap. It reminded me of the good old university years and the textbooks full of theories, history and new ideas. If you are not a believer in BPM, it probably will not manage to persuade you. For this, you will have to read the rest of the book. Probably a couple of independent source of information will prove usable as well.

However, this first part of the book will reveal you the enormous amount of effort behind BPM. You will feel the weight of the million hours of discussions and intellectual investement. The amount of experiments and improvements will finally dawn on you.

As a result you will feel the urge to continue reading it.
Just like I did.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Observations on People

To find out what is the population in a given area are, you should do what explorers are doing while researching different animal species. It is - visit the places where the subjects engage in the basic and most common activities. Simplistically, these activities are: eat (or buy food), drink (or have fun), mate (or have sex) and sleep. Note, that the values in the parenthesis describe the human equivalent to the animal activities.

From time to time I try to do such observations to get an idea about the society around me. Honestly speaking, the results are not promising.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Learning

I love learning.

Sometimes I just read or listen to new sources of information, just to check if they provide something new and interesting. I suppose this is the reason, why I was so happy when my wife pointed me to the UC Berkeley Webcasts

Watching the videos I can almost feel like I am actually there. At times I even feel like the Good Will Hunting.

Is it good, or is it sad?

I do not know. What I know is that I am grateful to the people at UC Berkeley for sharing their knowledge and culture of education with us. I hope to be able to pay them back some time (at least by spreading their cultural values ;- ))).

Monday, February 9, 2009

Confirm your information before acting upon it

One of the many advices in the Yes or No book is that you should research and confirm your information before acting upon it. This is an example of such a situation.

Yesterday I read in Powerful Reports and Proposals an advice about structuring your writing. Today I saw the very same structuring rule applied in the BPM book. This confirmed the theory that it is nice to warn your readers what to expect from the next part of your writing.

After that I prepared this post according to this rule.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

TED

This is one of the places I go, whenever I need to convince myself that life is not "all about the money".

This week they are holding their talks in California. Although currently you can view only Bill Gates, one of the other speakers is Shai Agassi. I am anticipating his talk on TED, as he really is a man of vision. What I remember from his time at SAP is his inspiring presence.

If you have the time, my advice to you is - watch it! Even if you do not fully agree with him, you can learn from the passion with which he supports his "ideas worth spreading" and makes us dream with him.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

"Let me see you make decisions...

...Without your televisions" - Depeche Mode


(Although I find it strange) I tend to watch television more, when I have to start working on a scary problem.

Based on this observation, lately I had to deal with a lot of such issues, since the last couple of evenings were wasted in front of the tube waiting for an answer...

So, the first phase, the realization of the problem, is successfully passed.

Do I have the courage to move to the next level - buy a book, talk to a friend and make up my mind?