The eleventh and twelfth commandment

In most countries with a Jewish and/or Christian tradition, the ten commandments are a known entity. These rules were supposedly given by God himself to Moses who subsequently managed to break the stone tablets on which he carved them so he…

Management Consultants should refrain from making statements about Physics

Although it has been more than 20 years since I got my MSc-degree in Applied Physics, I think I can claim a basic understanding of the laws of Physics and I most certainly can confirm that these laws do not apply to the context of Management…

Chocolate factory: a filter for consultancy talk

The added value of management consultants lies for a significant part in the fact that they bring real industry knowledge and personal experience to the table addressing your specific challenges. Obviously this is a good thing. But at the end…
, ,

Challenger: lessons learned from a disaster

Recently a TV Movie 'The Challenger Disaster' was released about the investigation into the explosion in 1986 of the space shuttle Challenger. The story focuses on the contribution Richard Feynman made to the Rogers Commission that investigated…
,

Time = money?

When someone walks up to you and asks for money what would you do? I'm not talking small change for a street musician. Think about a colleague showing up at your desk asking for an amount of money in the order of your commercial hourly rate.…

My relationship concerning peanut-butter illustrate alternative models to a partnership

In many outsourcing engagements there is an ongoing discussion on the need to establish a mutual partnership. And in almost as many situations this leads to disillusion and disappointment with at least one of the parties involved. I think partnership…
, ,

It is all about incentives

Co-workers need to know and understand each other's drivers or motives. When they don't the likelihood of successful cooperation is average at best. Nevertheless this is the default cooperation model in many outsourcing engagements: mutual insight…
, ,

First comes curiosity

Any corporation today has a rich portfolio of course material, a focused curriculum for each area of expertise and Training & Development support to guide their employees in becoming highly successful professionals. All prerequisites for…
,

Innovation for Dummies: Systematic Inventive Thinking

For some Innovation is a form of creativity. A divine spark initiates some higher brain function kicking of inspirational images of new products and services. For those SIT may come as a shock. SIT stands for Systematic Inventive Thinking and…

Moonwalking with Einstein

Joshua Foer wrote a great book about memory. Moonwalking with Einstein talks about the (almost forgotten) art and science of remembering. Part of the story is about the way to improve your memory and easily remember vast amounts of data. The…
, ,

What can a paper towel dispenser teach us about testing?

Testing is an important activity in the area of IT. The number of available methodologies, frameworks and models underline the fact that testing makes an impact in today's IT world. That is, if done correctly. In some cases we don't meet the…