Just finished reading "The Invisible Hook" by Peter Leeson, about pirates, economics and workplace democracy.  The main takeaway is to let the needs and structure of your market drive your organization, not the other way around.  Pirates did so and very successful at it.

Last night's Churchill Club's event turned out to be great on many dimensions.  Even the chicken dinner was remarkably good.  Most striking to me was the contrast in culture between Hastings and Eisner.  I hope the video is made available soon because it really illustrates the chasm between traditional and modern business culture.

In any industry, organizations that innovate constantly and relentlessly have a big competitive advantage over those that do not.  So how can you make innovation part of your company's DNA, an integral element of its culture?

Here's an actual, practical example of how a company can come up with better solutions by applying Agile principles throughout their business.

This month we are happy to feature Innovation Games by Enthiosys, serious games that help companies understand their customers better.  These games are a fun way to give customers a voice into the product development process.  But don't let all the "fun" fool you: these are powerful tools with bottom line impact.

I am not sure if this is good news or bad but recent rulings show that courts are increasingly more willing to uphold Open Source licenses.  People who have taken them seriously have suffered the consequences.

We first published this reading list on June 9, 2009 of books for people interested in creating great workplaces.  This is the first update to the list to include my review of The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli (hint: not recommended)

I cannot recommend The Starbucks Experience, by Joseph Michelli.  This book is little more than a long infomercial for a company that does not need one.  What Starbucks has done, and continues to do is extraordinary, but this book does not do it justice.

There are a bunch of myths out there about software development, but one that's more insidious and pervasive than the others.  According to this myth, to solve most problems, just "write a good spec."  As a good friend of mine says, "it is IMPOSSIBLE to write an accurate enough spec."

I thought I knew what a strategy is (versus, say, tactics or execution); you probably think the same.  Well, I was wrong (and so are you).  The authors of Tribal Leadership managed to surprise me with their definition of "strategy" and all I can say is "wow" (and write a post about it).