Future Tense

Living the Google Life (Jim Ware)

2005-12-05T10:50:00-05:00

Hylton Joliffe alerted me to a great piece in the latest issue of Newsweek on the "secret sauce" in Google's management practices ("Google: Ten Golden Rules"). It's a great recipe for leveraging the talent in your knowledge workers. I wrote about the same issue briefly just last week at the Future of Work blog, stimulated mostly by Intel CEO Paul Otellini's new insights into Google as a recently appointed Google director ("Intel's Inside Scoop on Google"). Getting the most out of your knowledge workers is clearly the key to success in the future. And Google's a terrific role model. And for a more comprehensive Google story, be sure to check out the December 5 issue of Business Week ("Googling for Gold ").

U.S. Engineers Concerned About Competitiveness (Jim Ware)

2005-11-14T11:43:13-05:00

Today's San Francisco Chronicle carries an important story by technology writer Tom Abate ("Tech engineers fear U.S. is falling behind"). It reports on a recent survey by EE Times magazine showing that only 10% of American engineers are confident the U.S. will maintain its technological edge over time. The survey results are available online, at http://www.mcbru.com/news/insight2005.php. This isn't just about offshoring, however. It's also about the U.S. education system, which is falling way behind the rest of the developed world. And even if you live outside the U.S. and don't care that much about U.S. competitiveness, you have to be concerned about the state of technology innovation in the global economy.

McKinsey on Org Structure (Regina Miller)

2005-10-14T16:28:45-05:00

This McKinsey article relates to my previous post in that McKinsey recommends, relatively radically I think, how orgs should structure in order to make the best use of knowledge workers and talent pools. Reading between the lines of their structural recommendations, implies collaborative technologies will be required to operate in this new org configuration. This is one of my more favorite McKinsey articles. Usually, I am taking quite the opposite tact.

Hot Jobs and Careers on Old Fashioned Radio (Regina Miller)

2005-10-04T19:43:07-05:00

Some advice about hot jobs and careers of the future by Michael Prospero of Fast Company who will appear on an old fashioned radio show on October 6th at 10:10 AM EST. He will appear on Joan Hamburg's show on WOR 710 AM on your dial. (PS - She's the best!) Uncertain that it will make it to podcast but you can listen live from your pc.

(Elizabeth Albrycht)

2005-09-29T03:44:11-05:00

Here's another article that chronicles how professions are changing, particularly as it relates to the variety of cross-disciplinary skills that are required. As more and more people start working at the intersection of technology - social sciences, for example, I suspect entirely new insights and industries will emerge.

More on Experience Design (Jim Ware)

2005-09-20T00:15:55-05:00

For those of you who are deeply interested in experience design, I recommend taking a look at Corante's newest blog, called - strangely enough - Total Experience. It's being produced by my good friend and certified Internet guru Bob Jacobson and his colleague Paula Thornton. Check it out. --jim ware [Tag: design]

VOIP Takes Off (Jim Ware)

2005-08-20T11:20:52-05:00

The Business 2.0 blog alerted me to an important August 18 Associated Press story ("Number of U.S. Internet phone users soars").

From the AP article: "An analysis by the TeleGeography research group found 2.7 million subscribers nationwide [emphasis added] in the second quarter, compared with just 440,000 a year earlier."

That's about 5X growth in one year - and that's all with commercial providers, so it's not even counting the millions of Skype users. Bottom line: VOIP has passed the tipping point. It's another important milestone on the road to tomorrow. -- jim ware

Mobile Work - An Update (Jim Ware)

2005-08-17T20:02:50-05:00

Optimize Magazine has just published a thoughtful set of ideas from guru Tom Davenport about the challenges of managing mobile workers. Well worth reading. But I also invite you to read my own synopsis and critique of the article ("Some More (Not Necessarily New) Perspectives on Mobile Work"), just posted on our Future of Work blog. -- jim ware

Mangement Diva (Regina Miller)

2005-08-16T04:17:43-05:00

In this season of "open enrollment" (the time in companies - usually in the fall when people have a chance to change and/or enroll in benefit health care plans,) I am reminded about the scary nature of the healthcare situation in this country especially for those of us who are self-employed. When I first launched my consulting practice, The Seventh Suite, I knew I would have to address the issue. Here is a post I wrote called Management Diva Joins a Union a while back that explains about a very necessary and progressive organization here in NY called Working Today that enables freelancers to join a union for group coverage. It is open enrollment time for the members of Working Today. I am reminded how lucky I am to have joined this group and have a good healthplan. I hope there are other organizations like this out there serving the needs of contractors and freelancers now and moving into the future.

Virtuality Reigns (Jim Ware)

2005-08-11T10:59:00-05:00

Nasdaq - a stock exchange that exists only virtually, with no physical trading floor - was opened yesterday by Cisco CEO John Chambers at a ceremony in San Jose, California - the first time that the exchange was opened from anywhere outside New York City (and it's not as simple as it might seem to do that). It was an intentional demonstration of Cisco's ability to move large volumes of data instantaneously across large distances. Another victory for distributed "work." Full story in today's San Jose Mercury News. -- jim ware

An Impending Implosion? (Jim Ware)

2005-08-08T10:58:02-05:00

Just picked this off IFTF's Future Now, the blog of the Institute for the Future: 'Provocatively, from Knowledge@Wharton : ... "Something fundamentally big is happening that will profoundly affect the life of every person and every business over the next five to 15 years -- the collapsing of everything into one single, global, ubiquitous, collaborative virtual IT world.' ... Are we ready?" Follow the link to the Wharton report - it's well worth reading. --jim ware

Learning from your mistakes (Jim McGee)

2005-08-02T19:27:51-05:00

Some good advice about the important role of mistakes and what to do with them. My goal has always been to make "interesting mistakes."

New essay: how to learn from your mistakes. If you're doing something interesting, mistakes are inevitable. How you learn from your mistakes defines what kinds of mistakes you'll make the next time: the same ones? new ones? mistakes that get you closer to success or move you away from it?

How to learn from your mistakes.

[Berkun blog] - Jim McGee

Fewer Working Flex Time? (Elizabeth Albrycht)

2005-07-26T10:20:25-05:00

Fewer working flex time? That is the question addressed by this USA Today article. "The number of full-time wage and salary workers age 16 and older on flexible schedules dropped from 29 million in May 2001 to 27.4 million in 2004, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Labor." Two reasons why: Some companies are dropping formal flexible-working programs and workers are skittish about asking for flexibility.

different name different decade (Regina Miller)

2005-07-20T20:49:14-05:00

On a lighter note, well maybe not...I wonder why he stopped with the 40s? This is a good one. Could it be simply a variation on an interesting career meme? (I've been dying to use that in a sentence, meme I mean. Hope I used it correctly?)

Work at Home Moms (Jim Ware)

2005-07-20T09:23:38-05:00

USA Today has a compelling story in today's paper about working from home ("Job Opening: Work-at-home moms fill bill.") --jim ware