Accountability

Posts Tagged ‘accountability’

Posted By Aly Juma / 8th May 2011

Welcome to this week’s links! And Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

A great post from Zen Habits blogger Leo Babauta reflects on the lessons learned so far over his 38 years. There’s some great points in there that I think apply to all of us, especially the very last one.

2. Obama @ White House Correspondent’s Dinner

Although the death of Osama took over headlines, I watched Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner on April 30th, which was quite enjoyable. I like how Obama is using humor to effectively communicate his messages, and its much more entertaining than a cut and dry speech.

3. The Risk of an Idea

When we have truly innovative ideas, its hard to discern if they really are that great or they’re absolutely ridiculous. The key becomes sharing the idea with others, but this can be a scary proposition for most. This articles touches on two ways an organization can create an environment open to ideas, both good and bad.

4. stickK

I’ve recently talked a lot about motivation, accountability, and incentives, and stickK seems to be a great tool to get us to start taking action. stickK is a web tool that allows you to define a goal, the stakes, referees, and supporters, all in an effort to help you accomplish your goals. I’m looking forward to trying it out and seeing if it works.

5. Death of a Terrorist: Responses

There’s been a wide range of responses to Osama’s death, which I touched on in a recent blog post. This being the case, New York Times has come out with this interactive graphic, showing the range of these responses based on comments made by readers – its pretty interesting to see visually.

And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.

Post-it Quote: Jeff Bezos

Posted By Aly Juma / 20th December 2010

So first let’s just clear up a few assumptions I feel Jeff made in regards to this quote. Sure there are people who could make a pizza go a long way, as well as those that could finish them completely by themselves, but lets assume he’s talking about your average joe that would eat about 3ish slices (about 6 people for two pizzas). Furthermore, I think its inferred that he’s specifically talking about startups or project specific work, rather than entire established businesses or corporations.

Despite all the variables, the key point he’s trying to make here is that smaller teams are key for success. This is true for a wide range of reasons, most importantly the fact that smaller teams are more dynamic, easier to manage, and are able to focus on important tasks at hand. When you get too large, just keeping track of everyone and their tasks is a job in itself. Furthermore, its harder to adjust to situations and shift gears when you get too big. Although the reasoning is endless, the key point is to keep your teams small when you’re starting a new business or project.