David Lowe's Weblog » Information Technology

Amplify Our Effectiveness

david — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:48:26 +0000

“Effectiveness is a discipline. And, like every discipline, effectiveness can be learned and must be learned.”

–Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive

With that quote from Peter Drucker, we celebrate the revival of my blog with this post. Moving forward, the mission of the blog is to share and to discuss everything that we can use to make us more effective in what we do. Being effective is a personal choice and a journey. Achieving effectiveness is also something that can be learned and get better at. Effectiveness and efficiency often go together, and they complement each other. By over-emphasize one or the other is not always optimal, either.

The information shared in this blog is not going to be anything revolutionary or shockingly new. After all, many business and management scholars have studied the subjects of effectiveness and efficiency for decades. The intent of this blog is to share, educate, and encourage idea exchange. In the end, I sincerely hope the information presented here will be more than a helpful reading but also something that is actionable.

Now back to Drucker’s book for a bit…

The book rests on two premises where 1) the executive’s job is to be effective; and 2) effectiveness can be learned. Dr. Drucker also defined “executive” as a knowledge worker who “is responsible for a contribution that materially affects the capacity of the organization to perform and to obtain results.” I believe that definition includes most, if not all, of us. Moreover, I will not going into the books in great details since many others have already done the in-depth reviews. You can check out the following URLs and see what others had already said:

http://www.manager-tools.com/book-review/effective-executive
http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459

Podcast Awards

david — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:56:58 +0000

The 2008 podcast awards were announced, and several of my favorite shows were showcased on the list. My favorite one, Manager Tools, won both the individual category and the overall awards. Congratulations to Mark, Mike, and the folks at Manager Tools. Just as importantly, the Todd and the folks at Podcast Connect rock for bringing and building awareness for a number of worth-a-while podcasts out there.

Podcast Awards Link

Internet Safety Tips from Laura Chappell

admin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:30:29 +0000

While going through the materials in Laura Chappell’s Lab Kit v9, I stumbled across the Internet Safety for Kids project, sponsored by The Protocol Analysis Institute (PAI), a privately-owned company founded by Laura Chappell. Although the materials were last updated in early 2006, I have found them to be still very much relevant and educational. As a parent of two young teenagers, I appreciate Laura for taking the time and effort to pull the valuable materials together.

Laura’s Internet Safety for Kids web page (contains a number of documents for download)

Stirring IT Up by Don Tennant

admin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 05:40:39 +0000

Don Tennant, the Editor in Chief for Computerworld, is a favorite technology journalist of mine. Don frequently writes about topics in technology profession, IT careers, and IT management ethics and trends. You may not always agree with him, but I have found most of his articles to be interesting and enlightening, especially on the topic of globalization.

You can find Don’s blog over here.

XAMPP

admin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:24:16 +0000

While investigating the mechanical details behind the WordPress theme, I came across XAMPP, a simple and straight-forward way of getting a WAMP stack working on your PC. Although an .EXE installer is available, I prefer the .ZIP package. Just unzip the content, run a setup batch file, and off you go. It could not be easier. Now there is no excuse not to get your own WAMP stack running and start the learning!

Many thanks to the Apache Friends Project
Other WAMP stacks listed on Wiki

The world is still flat!

admin — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 18:21:22 +0000

As an IT person, this book is a must-read and I refreshed my memory over the holiday weekend on what it means to be “The New Middlers” and what it takes to be one of the untouchables.

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman