A quick comment on slideware

Listening to a recent back to work here and Merlin Mann’s comments on slides, I started thinking:“If we don’t use slideware to tell stories to children, why do we insist on beating to death adults with PowerPoint presentations when in essence we are doing the same thing: telling stories?”

Clearing and cleaning organizational processes

Process waste managementRecently I came across an article on David Allen’s GTD Connect site. In essence, what David was talking about was the need to perform regular waste management tasks on personal processes. Quite often a process that served a specific purpose in a specific context no longer serves that purpose or no longer represents … Continue reading Clearing and cleaning organizational processes

The 80-year bubble – the end of management consulting as you know it

The origins of management consultingAfter a slow start in the 19th century, management consulting came into its own during the Great Recession, in the early 1930’s. If you want to read more about the dynamics behind the growth of the profession, there are worse papers to read than Christopher D. McKenna’s paper on The Origins … Continue reading The 80-year bubble – the end of management consulting as you know it

Extending the “Gruber-Mann” theorem

What is the Gruber-Mann Theorem?I’m again returning to the excellent talk Merlin Mann and John Gruber gave in 2009 at the famous South by SouthWest conference (SxSW). In their talk, they defined by means of a simple formula the key requirements for consistent delivery of quality work. It requires obsession feeding voice and voice working … Continue reading Extending the “Gruber-Mann” theorem

Risks associated with measuring impact and likelihood

Subjectivity is all around usAny evaluation, however objective you want it to be, is necessarily subjective. Just read some of Nassim Nicolas Taleb’s books which provide ample illustration of how easily we start to act based on subjective assessments. Now, contrast this to new risk management methodologies and applications which frequently tout new and improved … Continue reading Risks associated with measuring impact and likelihood

The three categories in a Risk Identification Model

Why use categories?A way of structuring a risk identification model is by using categories. A category is a risk cluster which clusters risks according to area of (possible) occurrence. I use the following three categories, and do further clustering within a category according to types (a post on this to follow later): Environment (risks related … Continue reading The three categories in a Risk Identification Model

5 reasons for using a risk (identification) model

A frequently asked question“Why do you insist on using a risk (identification) model as the basis for risk management? We can easily do this without a model” It’s a question that comes up on occasion when I am teaching risk management or executing a risk assessment. It’s a relevant question. I’ve put together 5 good … Continue reading 5 reasons for using a risk (identification) model

Working with inherent and residual risk

The internal audit perspectiveTo an internal auditor, a risk analysis is relevant because it provides information on the priorities within an audit universe. The auditor will look at all he has right to audit (the audit universe) and ask himself where his task, providing assurance, is best executed. You need to think this through: it’s … Continue reading Working with inherent and residual risk

Obsession without voice, or voice without obsession

What’s this about voice and obsession?I’m referring to the 2009 SXSW talk by John Gruber of Daring Fireball and Merlin Mann of (amongst others) 43Folders fame, which I recently discovered via Yuvi Zalkow’s excellent visualisation on his blog. The post below, for your information, is a curated version of a post I did a couple … Continue reading Obsession without voice, or voice without obsession

Public sector performance enhancement

Let’s not get run over againThere are quite a few performance enhancing methodologies for administrations available on the market today. Most have not proven to be that successful all the time. However, under pressure to enhance performance, the public servants hope if or rather when someone turns government around, they don’t get run over again.Potential … Continue reading Public sector performance enhancement