Jamie Notter Blog
Culture Is Constantly Negotiated
As I mentioned in last week's post, Maddie and I spoke last week to some very different audiences--one made up of technology folks from some very large, global companies, and the other made up of mostly association executives from very small organizations. One thing...
Developing a Culture of Innovation
Guest post, by Amanda Kaiser Kodak, once a $10 billion dollar company, failed. Just when they needed to innovate the most, they focused on optimization instead. Innovation and optimization are at either ends of the spectrum. It’s hard to do both. The most innovative...
Culture Slides
Thanks to the Kansas City Society of Association Executives and the Kansas Society of Association Executives for bringing Maddie and me out to both Missouri and Kansas (my first ever trip to Kansas) to speak to their members. My part of the presentation was about...
If Only We Were Bigger (I mean, Smaller)
Just a quick post to remind everyone of a universal lesson: the grass is always greener on the other side. This week I've made presentations to some very different audiences. One group was made up of managers at really huge companies, some of whom have 100,000...
Focus on Management Processes
When I speak about culture change, inevitably the audience (or more specifically, the organizer) is looking for something practical, that they can take home and apply right away. This can be a challenge when it comes to culture change, which is by its nature a complex...
What Happens Every Fourth Generation?
A generation lasts roughly twenty years. This corresponds to a rough measurement of "life stages" as well (0-19 is youth, 20 to 39 is early adult, 40 to 59 is midlife adult, and 60 to 79 is elder). Not all authors and researchers on generations hold true to this rule...
Making the Case for Transparency: The U.S. Military
Take six minutes to watch this TED talk given by General Stanley McChrystal, in which he makes the case for sharing information, rather than keeping it secret. He worked for years leading the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq, and he said that THE biggest factor in the...
Take Away the Fear and Watch What Happens
Last week, Maddie and I visited Menlo Innovations, a software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. You may remember my book review a couple of months ago of Joy, Inc., written by Rich Sheridan, the founder and CEO of Menlo. Menlo has been covered fairly extensively in the...
Don’t Screw Up the Culture
That title is actually the polite version of some advice that Brian Chesky, the CEO of AirBnB, got from someone who had just given him $150 million in startup funding. What the VC actually said, was "Don't fuck up the culture." Chesky suggests that the culture will...