Rodent Regatta

Rob picked up on the departure of John Robb from UserLand and the disappearance of John’s weblog. Tonight, I noted that John’s name no longer appears in Dave’s blogroll.

Maybe another shoe is going to drop in this saga. Were it the playoffs, I’d say that UserLand is finding the momentum (ol’ Mo) has shifted to the Six Apart folks and the Blogger/Google combo.

Just speculation, though.

Michael Gerber, in his immensely successful (and worthwhile) 1988 book The E-Myth, states that most small business owners have three distinct ”personalities,” all three of which are constantly at odds with each other…[thoughtsonbusiness]

Too many organizations suffer from a ”been-there-done-that” mentality when it comes to improvement initiatives. They’ve seen and heard it all. They’ve been to the high ropes courses and they’ve played ”catch-ball” until they’re convinced that no program, plan or activity in business can turn dreadful places to work into places where we find joy.

There are two key components to changing this. First, there’s the attitude of the employee. Are they suited to their job? Have they got a ”fit” between their dreams, their skills and their selection of a place to work. Second, there’s the attitude of the company. If a company goes through many management fads and remains a place where trust is scarce, people are skeptical of everything ”management” says and ”we’ve seen it all” is the badge of tenure, then it’s time for a real transformation.

I’ve been rereading John Whitney’s book called The Trust Factor. It’s a recipe for corporate transformation. Using the principles of W. Edwards Deming, it teaches a leader how to restore an atmosphere of trust among employees, customers, suppliers, creditors and stockholders. Though it was written in 1994, clearly it never found a following at Enron, Worldcom or Global Crossing.

If you’re in a position to do something about a company’s culture, read this book. You’ll find it launches one of the most enjoyable adventures you’ve experienced in your career.

might need a different name – like ”web site.” For those of us who attempt to read a large number of weblogs, RSS feeds and aggregators are the tools of the trade.

TechRepublic has attempted to start a weblog about job searches in the I.T. consulting field. I’ve looked for an RSS feed, but no luck.

I’ve mentioned ”joy in work” a couple of times lately. This afternoon I came across Frank Patrick’s entry about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s new book called Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning.

Frank quotes Barbara Mackoff’s editorial review from Amazon. This statement stands out:

Leaders must make it possible for employees to work with joy, to their heart’s content, while responding to the needs of society.

The tide is going to turn soon. Whether it turns on a genuine desire by boards of directors to make businesses good places to work remains to be seen. In some cases it will turn from ”cheap-labor-youth-worker” to ”experienced-worker-age-doesn’t matter.” Other places will see CEO’s who are either good leaders or under-the-gun. Either of these types may catch a glimpse of what it means – not to prevent a ”hostile work environment” – but, rather, to build a place where people truly find joy in their work.

Look for those opportunities and contribute to them!