VIDEO – The Danger of Trusting Experts

Interesting talk from Noreena Hertz on the dangers of trusting experts, and the implications for how our brains work and decision making. When I watch the video I think of the estimation processes for projects and how they are likely subject to the same errors and biases.

VIDEO – 8 Factors That Lead To Success

3 minute video based on interviewing 500 successful people on what made them successful.

Now, to be truly scientific, Richard St John would have needed to pick a control group of less successful people to make sure they don’t have the same attributes.

Nonetheless, this is worth 3 minutes of your time. And if you don’t have 3 minutes the list is: service, passion, work ethic, passion, focus. persistence, drive and perfectionism. But the video adds more color and comedy.

VIDEO – Inspiring Leadership

Simon Sinek on the importance of starting with “why?” to inspire people and achieve great results based on belief. People too often focus on the details but not the underlying motivation and this is less effective. The rationale for this comes partly from psychological insights on how the brain works.

VIDEO – Scrum Explained in 4 minutes

In keeping with Scrum’s philosophy anchored in efficiency, it’s good to see the whole methodology described in just 4 minutes:

VIDEO – Hamel on Reverse Accountability

The management guru Gary Hamel gives a great 15 minute presentation on the past and future of management. The most interesting concept is reverse accountability (front line employees getting more information and power), and examples of how it can operate in practise. In addition the presentation itself is first class in terms of the animation he uses to reinforce his points.

The Critical Path In Practise

This video shows the Canadian Army Engineers disassembling and reassembling a jeep in under 4 minutes.  It can be hard to describe what the result of efficient project scheduling looks like, this video does it nicely.

from Product by Process via kottke.org

Rapid Hotel Construction

Impressive video of a hotel being built in China in about 2 days. Shown using time lapse photography.

What Is Strategy?

Useful and  under 2 minute video clip from Michael Porter on what strategy is and isn’t. Many businesses do not use the term strategy in the way that Porter defines it, but as he argues there are costs to the approach of confusing strategy with tactics. Arguably this is the central insight upon which Porter has built his career.

Johnson on How Innovation Happens

Interesting video from Steven Johnson on innovation (one of the TED talks)

Specifically, within the video it’s worth looking at the example of the baby incubator and the Sputnik to GPS innovations within the video (the links should take you to the right places within the video). Or if you want to watch the full video it’s below:

Change Management and (gasp) Fun

In case you haven’t seen these viral videos from Volkswagen, they make an interesting point about change. This experiment attempts to show that people are more likely to change their behavior if it’s fun to do so. Hardly, scientific, but they are clever and inspiring. This video shows how people are more likely to take the stairs vs. an escalator if you make the stairs respond like walking on piano keys. Also a good reminder on balancing sticks and carrots, often the using a stick (punishment) as a form of motivation seems easiest, but offering carrots (incentives) can get better results.

Next, people are more likely to slow down if they can receive cash from those who speed via a lottery. Frankly, I think this one has less to do with fun and more to do with the power of financial incentives.

Finally, there are more ideas for improving recycling and bin/trash usage at http://www.thefuntheory.com/