A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Jared Spool, industry legend and CEO of User Interface Engineering, about innovation, management and doughnuts. It’s a fun conversation, as both of us are fond of wisecracks and sarcasm. and I’ll be speaking at UIE 13 this October in Cambridge.

You can listen to the podcast (MP3), subscribe to UIE’s podcasts or read the text transcript.

Here’s an excerpt:

Jared: So, one of the questions that we got on our blog recently had to do with measuring risk, or measuring innovation. I think, they asked something like, “How do I track how innovative we are?” I hear that on a quarter to quarter basis.

Scott: [laughs] Which is terrifying to me! I was terrified of this person. Just imagine, right? Think of all the great innovators. Think of DaVinci, Edison, Picasso, Van Gough. Could you imagine someone sitting over their shoulder saying “So Vincent, how innovative have you been in the last hour? Five? OK, great. I will come back in an hour and I will ask you how innovative you have been.” It just doesn’t make any sense.

Jared: Exactly. Just like the idea of Leonardo Da Vinci filing quarterly innovation assessment reports.

Scott: Exactly. Yes. Da Vinci, you know, your innovation ratio is down this month. With your performance evaluation, sorry, you are not going to get that bonus. Give us another Mona Lisa. Can you give us another Mona Lisa please?

Posted in Innovation, Management | Leave a comment »

I was recently asked by a high school teacher about ideas for teaching leadership to teenagers (She heard about Making things happen, and is considering applying some of its content). They start in middle-school and the students are hand picked to continue throughout highschool:

The Middle School Leadership students are in seventh and eighth grade (12-14 years old). Every year they are hand picked or re-picked. If they demonstrate “leadership skills” they may apply to the High School Leadership class. These are the students who will primarily benefit from your perspectives on project management and leadership.

In an effort to stave off senioritis I would also like to incorporate some of the project management and leadership lessons in my twelfth grade honors and regular curriculum this year. Any suggestions?

I have my own ideas, but I’m hoping some of you will offer thoughts or experience. Anyone know of other programs like this? Or have experience running leadership programs for high school age students? Please leave a comment. Cheers.

Posted in Teaching/Training | 17 Comments »

Some recent e-mail about my essay on how to learn from mistakes. Brian wrote:

I enjoyed reading your article “#44 - How to learn from your mistakes”. One other category of mistake I would add to your list, really a continuation of the “Stupid” mistake, would be “Habitual”, or “Automatic”, whichever phrasing you like better. This is the case where you repeatedly make the same mistake(s) out of habit, it’s automatic. Take the person who wakes up every Saturday around 2pm and says “Gee, I wish I didn’t drink so much, why do I always do that?!”.

These are mistakes that we regret and always ask “Why do I keep on making the same mistake over and over again?”. From my personal study, I feel at the moment that the answer lies in making a new habit of pausing before we make a decision, and imagining the possible outcomes of the action and making a CONSCIOUS (rather than automatic) decision this time.

Absolutely - In fact Leo Buscaglia, in one of his books (I think it’s Living, Loving and Learning) talked about how being healthy depends on making more of our behavior choices. To grow as a person, in his estimation, hinges on seeing more and more of our own behavior, and even emotions, as choices and taking responsibility for them, instead of blaming others, or perhaps, the entire universe.

I’m at least at the point that when I wake up at 2pm on Saturday, I know full well why I made the choice :)

Posted in Essays, mailbag | 1 Comment »

I confess I’m a reluctant technologist. I have a latent love for the stuff, but 90% of what gets bandied about as “the wave of the future” is about productivity, which I find funny, since I think our problem is quality, not quantity (we have 50+ million blogs, and how many excellent ones?). I often miss what whizzes by as the latest and greatest because I want the timeless stuff. Things so good they last more than a year, or crazy as it might sound, a lifetime.

And one day, instead of ranting to a friend and being all negative by just complaining about what isn’t, I made a list of inventions I wanted to see. Sure, they’re impossible, or betray various laws of physics, but so what. I’m turning all the filters off to see what happens.

Here they are:

1. Annoyance teleporter: A device that teleports annoying people into a small, dark, damp room with someone they find as annoying as I find them.
2. Garbage Destination: A picture on every garbage container of where the garbage placed inside actually goes.
3. Food ScanOmatic: A wand you wave over any food item that shows you where it originally came from, how it got to you, and which, if any, major food conglomerates were involved in its production.
4. TempColor: Pots, pans, plates and cups that change colors to show how hot or cold they are (spectrum of red for hot to blue for cold). Also for water faucets, coffee mugs, bathtubs, etc.
5. Travelrama light: A world travel stipend for every USA high school graduate. Sure, not an invention, but so what. Only 20% of Americans have passports. Is it any wonder we are often lost and clueless about how the rest of the world works? Most of us have seen almost none of it. We’d be collectively less stupid as a species if we all traveled more. And I’d start with the young: I’d make exchange programs near mandatory if I could.
6. UltraTravelrama: Instantly teleports everyone in the world to the place they most need to go, and teleport them back in a day. (Yes, includes auto-safety feature that wont teleport people in the middle of doing dangerous things, etc.)
7. Blabbermouth: Cell phone application that tells you what percentage of time you have been talking vs. listening per call, with lifetime and per contact stats.
8. Shop Idiot Remover: The requirement, by law, of a trapdoor at the front of the line of any busy Starbucks, Bagel or Sandwhich shop, that autodetects when the person at the front of the line is clueless, and moves them to the back of the line. (NYC does not need to install these - the staff thankfully do it themselves).
9. Worldo: A bracelet that tells you three things, updated in real time. 1) How much wealth you have 2) How much of the earth’s resources you consume 3) How happy you are. All are indexed against national and world averages (See GNH).
10. DreamPic: takes pictures of the things people see in their dreams. (I thought this was my own idea, until I realized I’d seen the movie Brainstorm, with Christopher Walken. So I’d want a dumb version of that device, that only takes pictures and only once per dream, ensuring people still have to interpret whatever they see in the picture).
11. ChildMinder: Gun you can fire at people that makes them instantly remember the happiest moment of their childhood. Also comes in hand grenade form.
12. Treetalking: A language for talking to trees and stones so they can tell us everything they’ve seen.
13. Comprehendo: An e-mail program that prevents people from replying to a message until they’ve actually read the whole thing.

Have some fun - forget constraints for a minute. What inventions are on your list?

Best invention gets a signed copy of Making Things Happen.

Posted in creative thinking, humor | 21 Comments »

What journalists do, which many bloggers have yet to learn, is to consult multiple sources and do fact checking before blurting out a story. But what bloggers do, which journalists have yet to learn, is to wear their biases on their sleeve, rather than pretending they don’t exist.

- Tim O’Reilly, (From Lessons on blogging from John Stewart)

Posted in On writing | 4 Comments »

Over on Harvard Business, I had a chance to interview master anthropologist and frequent blogger Grant McCraken.

Check out the interview here. We talk about culture as a key factor in organizations, the abuse of innovation and other words, and what insights ethnography can provide struggling managers.

Posted in Management, harvard business | Leave a comment »

I get a lot of email, and sometimes lots of blog comments. Some of it is very nice, has feedback and useful criticism, or suggestions for things to write about, and I’m grateful for it. Some are requests for speaking engagements which I make a living on, also awesome. A good chunk are requests to read, review, or watch things other people have done, which is fine if it’s not a generic piece of PR spam. And then there’s a pile that’s is harder to classify: I’m being asked for something, but it’s not entirely clear what it is.

Here’s a recent favorite that appeared in the comments of my post on how to write a book:

I PUT MY ENTIRE COMMENT IN CAPS LOCK SO IT WILL GET YOUR ATTENTION. (please read this!!! and help!!!) OK. I’M A MINOR (14) AND I WROTE A BOOK. I STARTED WITH JUST A PEN AND PAPER AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN WITH A PUBLISHER. CAN PUBLISHERS STEAL IDEAS OF BOOKS? DO I NEED MY BOOK COPYRIGHTED? (please don’t think I’m stupid!) WHILE I WAS DOING RESEARCH, I READ THAT MINORS CAN’T GET BOOKS PUBLISHED AND I WANT A KNOWN PUBLISHER TO READ MY BOOK. MY BROTHER, WHO IS ALSO A MINOR, IS WRITING THE SEQUEL TO MY STORY. HOW DO I GET A PUBLISHER TO NOTICE ME? YOUR ARTICLE WAS DISCOURAGING, BUT IT WAS AN EGO DEFLATION THAT I REALLY NEEDED. PUBLISHING MY BOOK IS GOING TO BE HARD, AND I NEED ADVICE FROM SOMEONE LIKE YOU, SOMEONE WHO’S BEEN THERE, DONE THAT IN THE WRITING BUSINESS. (Sam)

Dear Sam:

First off, Caps lock BAD. Very BAD. Don’t do it. Yes, you want attention, but there is good attention and bad attention. Good attention, in this case, is to seem smart and like you’ve done your homework so I’ll want to give you advice. Bad attention is to seem crazy, annoying, helpless, confused and random (which writing in ALL CAPS make you seem). Luckily your comment was so funny and genuine, it outweighed the bad stuff.

And on to your questions:

You mentioned “I WROTE A BOOK”: Really? How long is it exactly? Most books are 50,000 words or more (roughly 200 pages). Of course there are many published books that are shorter, but if all you have are a few pages, as far as a publisher is concerned, you have a short story on your hands, not a novel or a book. But then again, if you can find your local kinkos, you can make a book of any size you’d like. If I were 14 I’d be my own publisher - it’s faster, easier, and probably more fun.

Can publishers steal ideas? This is so unlikely it’s not worth worrying about. Can’t think of a single instance of this actually happening. It’s more likely another writer will “steal” ideas, but that’s unlikely too. Provided you can prove when you wrote what you wrote, it’d be pretty hard for a publisher to get away with it anyway. I bet you a zillion dollars you should be worrying more about finishing your book, and writing well, than about your ideas being taken from you.

Minors and books: There is no law that says a minor can’t write or publish books. There have been plenty of young writers who have had books published (Paolini was a teenager when his first novel was published).

Sequels: I was quite impressed you’ve got your brother working on the sequel before the original is finished. Perhaps you can get your sister or cousin to work on the prequel?

How to get a publisher to notice you: Start by rereading my post. They don’t find you, you have to go and find them. Find publishers that makes the kinds of books you want to write, go to their website, and find their information on submissions. But dont worry about publishers until your book is almost done.

Posted in On writing, mailbag | 4 Comments »

Another post at Harvard business is up - here’s an excerpt:

There is a difference between talk and action, and memos are 90% talk. We all know this. If a CEO at a 20,000+ person company wants to take action, he will, and most of those actions will surface through the executive chain. The corporate-wide memo is the most diffuse and overrated tool in an executive’s playbook, but since it’s the only play that most of the world sees, we naturally over-represent its significance. In every paragraph ask “Is this talk or action?” and you’ll see more clearly what the memo actually means, if anything at all.

Full post here.

Posted in Management, harvard business | 1 Comment »

I’m a travel whore, I admit. If I can go somewhere i haven’t been, and on someone else’s dime, I’m a happy man. So when I had a chance to speak in Milwaukee and the dates lined up, I said yes. I’ve been to 41 of the 50 U.S. states and this trip will make it 42.

I’ll be doing my famous full day seminar, Making things happen, based on the bestselling book. It’s a bargain rate: $125 for the full day, ridiculously inexpensive for any kind of full day professional seminar. Here are the details:

When: Friday Sept 19th, 2008
Where: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Description: Despite all the jargon, methodologies, and magic bullets, most software projects do not end well–certainly not as well as everyone hopes they will when they start. This interactive, practical, and fun workshop, based on the best selling O’Reilly book, explores the true reasons projects work. There are no trendy terms or magic bullets in this workshop. Instead, we talk about the tough situations that arise on every project, explore different ways great project managers have handled them, and nail down how to avoid the big mistakes even experienced leaders make. Bring your toughest situations, challenges, and experiences, and they’ll be worked into the workshop or discussed during breaks.

Registration and seminar outline here.

btw: I’m working out the details for a public talk on innovation in Chicago on Mon Sept 22nd. Stay tuned.

Posted in On Tour | Leave a comment »

I spoke last year at User interface 12, and I must have done something right. They’ve invited me back to do my full day seminar: How to lead breakthrough projects. It’s the only conference I know of that pays speakers based on performance, and it shows in the quality of speakers and workshops at the event.

When: October 13-16, 2008
Where: Cambridge, MA, USA

Other speakers include: Luke Wroblewski, Industry legend Bill Verplank, Peter Merholz, and more (full agenda).

Registration: For all four days is $2190, or pay by the day for $675. After August 14th, prices go up about 15%. Details here.

Discount: If you use my promotion code, berkun, you get $30 off each single day registration; if you sign up for all 4 days, you get a free limited-edition UI13 Flip Ultra video camcorder.

Posted in On Tour | Leave a comment »

• The 10 worst keyboards of all time. A great list that rivals the keyboard i claimed was the worst keyboard in the world a few months ago.
• IRA Glass’s Radio Manifesto. If you listen to This American Life (which you should), here is Ira Glass’ outline for how to produce good radio. Instructive for anyone who makes anything.
• The Beast - “I am the most annoying person to watch the Olympics with. I’m a condescending former elite athlete who loathes the armchair fan. I love sports. I love athletes. I hate fans.” A great essay from a competitive gymnast about what it’s like to deal with the average Olympic viewer.

Posted in Uncategorized, linkfest | Leave a comment »

I’ve received quite a few applications for this role, but there’s still time to apply. I’ll be closing the door this friday. Details on the role here:

Job opening for PM-Clinic

Posted in PM-Clinic | Leave a comment »