“It’s easy to tell when someone is working, but how can you tell when they’re making progress? Simple work, like mowing a lawn or washing a car has transparent progress: as each small unit of work is completed it’s visible to everyone. But with complex work, building software, running a business, writing a novel, it is harder to identify true progress.”

“When we’re younger we always want to be something when we grow up. Was anyone here spot on? Anyone grow up to be exactly what they wanted to be?”

“…generally we are contracted on a ‘work-for-hire’ basis. That’s nice and frequently lucrative. But, over time, we’ve developed some problems with it. You see, once we hand over our creative work we lose all connection to it and immediately stop profiting from it.”

“My friend Richard Black, Technology Strategist at BP, answers that question eloquently in his email, below, which I share with his permission. I am sharing it for two reasons…”

“The most important idea of all is this one: You will succeed in the face of change when you make the difficult decisions first. It’s easy to justify running for your plane when it’s leaving in two minutes and you’re only five gates away. It’s much harder to justify waking up 10 minutes early to avoid the problem altogether.”

“There are folders on your computer that Microsoft has tried hard to keep secret. Within these folders you will find two major things: Microsoft Internet Explorer has not been clearing your browsing history after you have instructed it to do so, and Microsoft’s Outlook Express has not been deleting your e-mail correspondence after you’ve erased them from your Deleted Items bin. (This also includes all incoming and outgoing file attachments.) And believe me, that’s not even the half of it.”

“I’ve got about twenty projects on the go at any one time. Some are long term, some are on hold pending outside responses, some are at the proposal stage, and some are at the wrap up stage. I’ve tried every method under the sun to stay on top of my work. But they have all failed in one important way: they never stopped my mind from wondering ‘What should I be working on now?’ For me, that awful feeling of being out of control is a total work killer…”

New weblog by XPLANE CEO and Founder Dave Gray: “Communication is one of the most important skills anyone can have, in business and in life. As individuals and as a species, I believe we will be both happier and more productive if we can improve our ability to communicate. This blog is dedicated to that effort.”

“GreenBiz is the leading information resource on how to align environmental responsibility with business success. We provide valuable news and resources to large and small businesses through a combination of Web sites, workshops, daily news feeds, electronic newsletters, and briefing papers. Our resources are free to all users.”

“An imaginative, memorable business name often proves valuable in all sorts of ways. The day a company called Bundy Very Used Cars changed its name to Rent-a-Wreck, CBS arrived to feature it. The tag line, a saying which accompanies the business name on cards, stationery, ads and even invoices, can have equal impact… Creative think tanks and branding consultants charge thousands of dollars to invent identities for businesses. Those on a budget can concoct candidates for stardom by following these 19 steps.”

“Owners of small businesses often seem to believe in myths surrounding the subject of strategic planning and implementation, myths that can prove dangerous to the health of the organization and their personal goals. (The ‘myths’ in quotation marks are actual statements from CEOs. The rest were unstated but implied by their actions.)”

“It’s essential for leaders to spark conflict in their organizations, as long as it is constructive. A Q&A with Professor Michael Roberto, author of the new book ‘Why Great Leaders Don’t Take Yes for an Answer’.”

“A significant percentage of the clients we’ve worked with in the past 6 years have healthy engineering teams in-house, but they lack a single designer. Flush with programmers, devoid of designers. That’s not a healthy ratio… Design needs daily tweaking just like programming needs daily tweaking to squash bugs and optimize the code.”

“Good domain names are out there, but they can be hard to find. Here are some tools to help you in your search.”

“It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You define tasks that you need your subordinate(s) to do, provide them the resources they need, and send them on their way to get it done. You wait. You notice it’s not getting done. You wait some more. It still isn’t getting done…”