Malcolm Gladwell @ PopTech en 2006

Conférence de Malcolm Gladwell dans le cadre de PopTech 2006 qui résume son livre Blink. Exemples traités, tous liés à l'intuition : l'histoire de la commercialisation de la chaise Aeron d'Herman Miller, l'introduction du nouveau Coke pour contrer Pepsi et l'expérience faite auprès du groupe de personnes qui doivent choisir un poster et justifier leur choix.

Conversations intéressantes

Pourquoi autant de gens aiment les TED Talks et autres conférences du genre (PopTech, GEL, BIF, BIL, BigThink, ideaCity, Fora.tv, Cusp, Sandbox Network, Palomar 5) ?

Parce que, peu importe le sujet, les orateurs discutent de leur passion actuelle. Comment ils en sont arrivés là, comment ils voient le futur et qu'est-ce qu'on peut faire pour les aider si ça nous intéresse.

C'est aussi en abordant ces thèmes qu'il est possible d'avoir une conversation intéressante avec quelqu'un qu'on rencontre pour la première fois. En allant au-delà des commentaires sur la météo.

Trois questions possibles :

1. What’s your current passion project – the thing you’re pursuing that you’re most excited about? It could be a result you’re working on, a big problem you want to solve, a breakthrough in your field. Note: this is not the same as your job title.

2. Talk about the specific help that would make the biggest difference for you right now? What are the skills, connections, or expertise that others might be able to help you with?

3. What kind of help do you love to give? What skills or connections do you most love using to help others with their passion projects?

(via ce blog)

Relation d'affaires

Possiblement la meilleure lettre venant d'un client, Mick Jagger à Andy Warhol.

Rail en Afghanistan

Un nouveau projet de construction d'une ligne ferroviaire de 75km entre Mazar-e-Sharif en Afghanistan et la frontière de l'Ouzbékistan.

La bureaucratie chez GM

If you want to understand how the old General Motors stumbled for 30 years until it collapsed into bankruptcy, consider the story of GoFast.

GoFast was a program started in 2000 by Rick Wagoner, then the company's president (and later CEO), to untangle bureaucracy. The idea was simple: When negotiations over an issue reached an impasse, all the interested parties would be put together in one room until they agreed on a decision.

Human resources was assigned to spread GoFast through the company. It trained GoFast coaches, arranged thousands of GoFast workshops, staged GoFast feedback sessions, and distributed GoFast coffee mugs. At one point, GM claimed savings of more than $500 million from GoFast.

But the program took on a life of its own. GoFast workshops were held to eliminate other meetings; eventually the number of workshops reached more than 7,000. In other words, GM held more than 7,000 meetings to discuss how it could hold fewer meetings. Managers might see their performance evaluations downgraded because they weren't holding enough GoFast meetings. "The whole premise of GoFast became going slow," complained one executive.

(via Fortune)