leadership

"When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!’" —Lao-Tsu

This could be the same response from people working for a worst leader also.

communities

I was thinking about what creates a community and holds them together. Specifically communities which are formed naturally by people who are interested rather than a formal organization – like an open source community which works on a problem. Some thoughts

• Shared cause – which can excite / inspire / motivate people, something that can make people automatically follow. Irony usually is, such cause cannot be manufactured – it should be naturally (passionately) felt by the leaders, enough to articulate honestly why we should do something.
• Clear, concise articulation of problem and solution – common cause should be explained in a simple, understandable way, something that can stay in people’s minds.
• Discussion / contribution – if it is information coming from leaders with little contribution from the group, it cannot grow. People should feel it is their baby too who needs to nurtured and grown. There should be opportunities for anyone in the group to take a lead and suggest a change in direction.
• Need strong early contributors – while there is opportunities for all, some early contributors should be encouraged to become regular until the roots take hold and contributions become regular and habitual. For anything to become a habit, discipline in initial period is critical.
• Continuous updates – lack of information can scatter the initial interest, but the story of continuous progress will keep the group engaged.

blow up the constraint

a good quote – for whenever we are stuck in perfect problems. so hard to do.

The only problems you have left are the perfect ones. The imperfect ones, the ones with a clearly evident solution, well, if they were important, you’ve solved them already.
It’s the perfect problems that keep us stuck.
Perfect because they have constraints, unbendable constraints, constraints that keep us trapped. I hate my job, I need this job, there’s no way to quit, to get a promotion or to get a new boss, no way to move, my family is in town, etc.
We’re human, that’s what we do–we erect boundaries, constraints we can’t ease, and we get trapped.
Or perhaps it’s your product or service or brand. Our factory is only organized to make X, but the market doesn’t want X as much, or there is regulation, or a new competitor is now offering X at half the price and the board won’t do anything, etc.
There’s no way to solve the perfect problem because every solution involves breaking an unbreakable constraint.
And there’s your solution.
The way to solve the perfect problem is to make it imperfect. Don’t just bend one of the constraints, eliminate it. Shut down the factory. Walk away from the job. Change your product completely. Ignore the board.
If the only alternative is slow and painful failure, the way to get unstuck is to blow up a constraint, deal with the pain and then run forward. Fast.
– Seth Godin