The NOSE

Leading Teams

I went to a great talk by Richard Hackman, Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard.  Speaking at the Human Networks Colloquium at MIT's Media Lab, Hackman shared his research around team performance and designing self-managing groups.

Most of what I have heard on this topic tends to be fluff. Hackman is a notable exception and he is definitely on to something. I plan to get his book (Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performance) and read more of his research papers.

Forrester Magazine

It's not very often that I receive a surprise in my (snail) mail. Last week the inaugural copy of Forrester Magazine appeared in my mail box. Normally I would have chucked it as junk mail, but I took a quick look and was pleasantly surprised.

Published by Forrester Research, the new magazine's "ambition is to be a permanent part of your business library, arriving in your office several times a year, stuffed with ideas and advice that will last." The first issue lives up to its ambition.

The Brain Behind the Brains at Big Blue

Nick Donofrio, who heads up IBM's eight research laboratories around the globe, defines innovation as "our ability to create new value at the intersection of business and technology."

What is his formula for success? "You support your people---every minute of every day if necessary---and you tell them how important it is. And, at the end, you reward them handsomely. Everytime, I've used this formula in IBM, we've come out winners." Donofrio also allocates 25 to 30 per cent of the research budget towards untargeted research: "The best researchers want to work with their peers, they want to work with Nobel laureates.....you cannot provide that if you don't run a balanced research organisation that allows for pure science and technology to develop alongside applied research." What is he working on now? IBM is setting up an online site where researchers can propose ideas and have them evaluated. What drives his researchers? "The money is nice --- nobody ever turns it down --- but it is the love of the work and peer recognition that engineers and scientists live for."

Source: Financial Times. 21 Jan. 2005.