Business

Nine ways to identify natural leaders

The need to empower natural leaders isn’t an HR pipedream, it’s a competitive imperative. But before you can empower them, you have to find them.

In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record—it’s easy to discover who’s in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don’t appear on any organization chart. To hunt them down, you need to know . . . » Read more

1 CommentPosted 19 Aug 2011 by Gary Hamel

Open For Business: The practice effect

Open for Business

"Release early, release often. And listen to your customers."

Eric S. Raymond (esr) wrote those words in his 1997 essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar," and, for a lot of people, they have become the mantra of the open source software movement. While this advice might seem obvious to many, that doesn’t make it any less important. In fact, I’ve often benefited from esr’s maxim myself, and I’ve even come up with a shorthand for why it works. I call it the "practice effect." » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 18 Aug 2011 by Tarus Balog

In a tough job market, your open source experience may be an asset in more ways than one

open source work experience

Does this describe you?

You've been using open source software or contributing to open source projects for a long time. Perhaps you are in a job where you utilize open source tools regularly, or maybe you are just fooling around with them for fun or to learn new skills.

You've been known to tell (possibly true) stories that highlight how long you've been a part of the open source world (from "I remember downloading the first version of Fedora" to "I was in the room when the term open source was coined"). But, most importantly, you consider yourself an active member of one or more open source communities. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 16 Aug 2011 by Chris Grams

OSCON round-up: Open source isn't declining. It's maturing.

Reading some stories recently, it would be easy to conclude that there was some sort of a decline in open source. I'll not pretend to have new and objective data on the subject, but having just returned from OSCON in the USA I have to say rumours of the death of open source are premature. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 15 Aug 2011 by Simon Phipps

The future of management: Is it deja vu all over again?

If you are a regular reader of the MIX, you probably already have a point of view on the future of management. Indeed, the MIX was created to help accelerate the evolution of management, so chances are you have already bought into the argument that we are going through a period of upheaval that will transform the way we work in organizations in the years ahead. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 12 Aug 2011 by Julian Birkinshaw

Opinion from the other side of the coin

Software tools for collaboration and project management are the best solutions when you aim to unite the team, tune up the work flow, exchange experiences, etc. With all the available collaboration software, either desktop- or web-based, proprietary or open source, one might consider that such tools are the pandemic panacea for teams of all kinds. But collaboration software has several other advantages.

What I noticed about collaboration systems » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 8 Aug 2011 by TatyanaD

Four steps for rescuing a stalled brainstorm

We’ve long followed a design thinking methodology for collaborating and solving business problems here at Red Hat. This process facilitates cross-functional collaboration and a meritocratic method of pursuing the best ideas, which has proven, over and over again, to be the best path to success. In short, it’s how we at Red Hat apply the open source way beyond software development. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 2 Aug 2011 by John Adams (Red Hat)

Bob Young on Lulu and collaborative innovation, part 2

In part 1 of this post, Bob Young talked about his history as a typewriter salesman, Red Hat's beginnings, and how we are all collaborative by nature. In the second part, below, he talks about his current company, Lulu, publishing, and more about collaborative innovation. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 1 Aug 2011 by Ruth Suehle (Red Hat)

Are you more human than the competition?

So much of the leadership conversation centers around the question “how do I get more out of my people?”  I don’t think I’ve been at a conference or sat in on a conversation with business leaders where the subject—and that exact phrase—hasn’t come up.

Now, without a doubt, bringing forth the full ingenuity, initiative, energy, and passion of every person in the organization is one of the most urgent agenda items for leaders in every realm of endeavor. But when it comes to unleashing the best gifts of people, that mechanistic metaphor of extraction (“how do I get more out?”) and, more importantly, the approaches it engenders, quickly break down. » Read more

3 CommentsPosted 29 Jul 2011 by Polly LaBarre

It's time to take back your attention

When I sat down to write this blog, it was the most important thing on my agenda. Even so, I did just about everything I could think of to avoid the task. Facing a blank page, I figured I would just check my email first, or update my Facebook or Twitter, or check the morning headlines in The New York Times, or read the comments readers left overnight on earlier posts I'd done. » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 28 Jul 2011 by Tony Schwartz