Part 3 of the Eye of the Storm Series brings us to analyzing influences on a system. A system can be influenced by many external and internal components and these influences can be both positive and negative. Negative influences create chaos and hinder the ability to simplify a system. Removing a negative influence from a
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In the last post on Reaching the Eye of the Storm, I (@MouyyadA) addressed assessing the simplicity of a system. In Part 2, I’ll focus on needs. Many times in business the line separating wants and needs blurs. We often add parts to a system without verifying they are actually needed. Ask yourself: Do I
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Last week, I addressed the issue of how simplifying is like reaching the eye of the storm…finding the calm amid the chaos. In my next few posts, I’ll provide suggestions on how to simplify a system. This week, we focus on the first step: assess the system. Take for example this scene from Office Space:
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Jason Fried’s, CEO of 37Signals, message is easy to comprehend, “Everything is simple until you make it complicated.” When thinking about our businesses or projects we tend to think ahead of ourselves. We try to spend as much money as we can, accumulate many resources, get many people involved and all that does is create
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In The Art of Possibilty by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, the Zanders’ advise the reader to “…rename yourself as the board on which the whole game is played…move the problematic aspect of any circumstance from the outside world inside the boundaries of yourself. With this act you can transform the world.” The authors
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This post was inspired by a tweet by my good friend Cali Harris, @caligater. She mentioned she landed in quicksand. I offered her a rope. She smiled and took the rope. It’s amazing what a simple gesture does to boost someones morale, gives them support to continue moving forward. Needless to say the emotions felt
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This is a guest post written by Andrew Swenson. Andrew is a marketing strategist, communication specialist, believer of youth in biz, lover of indie rock, writer, listener and news junkie (not to mention a wickedly talented and award winning writer). He blogs at wordpost.org and tweets @wordpost. I asked him to write a post that would combine his unparalleled ability to think critically with Tt(h)B’s focus on providing content that readers can use to
The following is a guest post by Michael Myers (@MichaelMyers) the founder of the Cruces blog. Michael is a Business Model Architect who helps businesses utilize Social Media, the Mobile Internet and the iPhone as business tools. He is also a mentor and great friend. I asked him to write a post that would combine his unique perspective and deep understanding of all things mobile with the outside the box thinking and entrepreneurial focus embraced by Tt(h)B and I think he did so to perfection. Enjoy.
