"Getting Real" The smarter, faster, easier way to build Organizations 2.0

blog.cabreramc.comJosé Cabrera1

“Getting Real”

August 7, 2008

The smarter, faster, easier way to build Organizations 2.0


Leadership = Conversations

What is key is not access to the information, but access to the

conversations, taking active part in them.

These are the conversations that will allow us to develop new

capabilities as leaders, to anticipate the future needs of our customers and

to atract the new digital talent required by our organizations.


“Getting Real”Test your ideas in a real

environment, with real customers and real markets.

Don't lose your time. Skip all the stuff that represent real and build the

real thing. Experiment, listen and improve.

Get something real up and running quickly. It's the best way to build

momentum.www.37signals.com/


Less is moreLess people, less structure, less

instructions, less paperwork, less hierarchy, less predictions

and less meetings and abstractions.

Stick to what's truly essential, to the core of your

business. Less cost of change, less margin of error, less support needs, less

useless explanations.


Time is the key

In the current environment of high competition and accelerated

changes time is the key variable.Launch on time and on

budget; adjust the scope of your idea.

Long term projects are nothing but fantasy, something that keeps you

away from real.


Find the “core” of your ideaTake whatever you think your project

should be and cut it in half. Pare goals down until you're left with the important ones. Cut it in half again:

you got the essential now. That's the “core” of you idea

Stick to what's truly essential. Most good ideas are also simple, not-

so-good ideas are difficult to formulate.

.


Work in iterationsAccept that decisions are temporary. Make

the call and move on. You'll go back and change that decision later if it doesn't work.

Accept that mistakes will happen and go on. Don't expect to get it right the first time.

Avoid pressure. Let the project grow and speak to you. Let it take form and evolve.

You will take better informed decisions as you go along. The result is real feedback

from your customers, and real guidance on what requires your attention.


Create agile organizationsBuild transparent organizations.

It's about staying small and being fast and flexible, open to change

and innovation.More flexible, more changes

and, definitely, more freedom and more fun.

Less paperwork and formalities, less mass, less fear.


Foster an innovation culture

Find new ways to deal with future challenges, exploring new avenues

and avoiding the easy answers to problems.

Build a culture that questions the "Status quo" and face challenges

in unusual ways.Create people centric and flexible

organizations, where leadership and innovation is everyone's job.


Keep the team small Metcalfe's law explains why you have to keep teams as small as possible: the efficiency of the

team is approximately the inverse of the square of the

number of members in the team.In other words: the probability that communication problems happen

in the team grows exponentially as the number of members grow.


Cultivate simplicity as a value

Maybe it's better to simplify a process instead of training the people to face

complexity. Not everyone feels able to have

creative ideas; but everybody can point out something that could be done in a more simple way.As time goes by, the organizations

get used to complexity. They just don't notice it, and tend to increase it.


Resist the temptation of growth

Not all companies need to have thousands of employees, or to reach billions euros in market

capitalization.

Your ideal size could be only ten people, five people or even just

yourself.


Avoid “passion killers”

Hire happy, enthusiastic people. People who are

passionate about their job.Look for people who are

curious and willing to learn. Don't think you need a tech-

celebrity. A happy yet average employee is better than a

disliked and negative guru.


Value creation in the Collaboration Era

requires imagination, creativity and passion.

It's about creating new people centric

organizations, where leadership and innovation

is everyone's job.

Jump into the lifeboat!


We make it real“Less is more” is our guiding

principle.We build easy-to-use low-cost web

products for SMEs and freelance professionals.

We create unique applications that do less things instead of more,

but they do the important ones.We use agile technologies such as

Ruby on Rails to achieve agile and flexible development.

www.aspgems.com


The book

https://gettingreal.37signals.com/


“Getting Real”

August 7, 2008

The smarter, faster, easier way to build Organizations 2.0

Business

"Getting Real" The smarter, faster, easier way to build Organizations 2.0