Article: Numeric
In a data driven world we often want to present our arguments with numeric support. This article by Jane E. Miller, How To Communicate Statistical Findings: an Expository Writing Approach, goes step by step on how to interpret and communicate graphs and tables, giving examples of both good and bad along the way.
OK, so I rant and rave about this video: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation. Admittedly, I am a fan of all things TED.com, but I think Dan Pink particularly has touched on a topic that everyone in our organization feels strongly about. We are increasingly moving towards a world that is defined by right brained thinking. The bulk of my work revolves around finance and strategy. It’s all left brained stuff, right? WRONG. The VAST majority of what I do as a business leader is creative, visual, associative, and non-linear. Even the more left-brained projects we take on as a firm start as right-brained, creative project design sessions.
So, this begs the question: how do you motivate people in your organization who are increasingly being required to produce cognitively demanding work? I’ll let Dan Pink fill in the details, but suffice it to say that we believe you have to create a culture in which people feel passionate about what they do and naturally produce results.
For us this means massive amounts of autonomy — we let people work whenever, however, and from wherever they like so long as they are producing results. This is what Dan Pink refers to as the Results Only Work Environment (“ROWE”). We make sure we have strong processes in place on the project design and management front and that these are tracked and executed upon. But aside from that, we don’t want to meddle too much with our project teams, only encourage them to push the limits of their creativity, taking risks and often oblique approaches to projects where the very best result is a new lens through which to view and understand what is going on.
I’ve gone on long enough, but check out the video and let us know what you think!
This week I attended the Pushbutton Summit, a digital media conference in Salt Lake City. One of the presenters, Andrew Braccia from Accel Partners, gave a great overview of the evolution of the world of digital media. Essentially, we have seen the digital media world evolve along a few lines: 1. Portal (AOL, Yahoo) 2. Search (Google) 3. Social Media (Facebook, Twitter) 4. Mobile (Apple, Android)…………..
The mobile phase is where things are going to get really interesting (as if they weren’t interesting already). As a company we have moved to a mobile communications platform called Yammer which in many ways is replacing e-mail as the primary communication protocol within our business. It’s essentially a targeted, twitter-like application that uses microblogging to message specific individuals or groups within an organization.
I would recommend taking a look at Yammer for any organization that feels it is drowning in e-mail as it essentially forces users to limit the amount of information they include in a message. We have a 3 hour response time rule for any Yammer msg that requires a response from the person receiving the message. We call this the “High Velocity Communication Environment” or “HVCE”.
Also, strategically, businesses must start to consider what happens in a world where mobile applications form the foundation of how we operate and interact with our clients and colleagues.
As a postscript, here is an interesting research report from Morgan Stanley on there views of where mobile is going: Morgan Stanley says Mobile Internet Market Will Be 2X The Size of Desktop Internet — http://bit.ly/6Q6nsG
Data: Organized
Microsoft’s Pivot is an awesome way to look at visual data and to sort and comb through it. Check out their website’s video to get some ideas on how to harness this new tool.
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