“Your brilliant idea may indeed be brilliant–or it may need some work. Here’s how to find out whether you’re ready for startup.”

“Do you see problems in your workplace? Do you feel like you know how to fix these problems, but nobody’s interested in hearing about it? Do you feel that you’re not listened to, that you have no impact, that you are powerless to effect any meaningful change?”

“Stay away from the predictable (Good morning…, Today, I’m here to talk about…). Instead…”

“Selling is Dead is a strategic book [and weblog] that examines why salespeople and selling teams must re-define their roles and adopt new selling frameworks — or risk obsolescence… For Senior Executives, Sales & Marketing Managers, Salespeople, Account Managers and Students who want to learn at THE BLOGGING EDGE OF SALES.”

“Prevent interruptions from walk-in visitors by isolating yourself. Close your door. Put up a sign. Work in a conference room. If you work in an office, take a day to work on important projects at home if necessary… When someone asks for a few minutes of your time, respond with ‘Sure, how about if I come by your office at 2 o’clock this afternoon?’ This gives you more control.”

“Since new folks visit 43F each day, I thought it might be valuable to return to one of our most popular evergreen topics to review some ‘best practices’ for keeping a good to-do list. While a lot of this might be old hat to some of you, it’s a good chance to review the habits and patterns behind one of the most powerful tools in the shed.”

“Yes, all the talk today about Google and blogs is about the launch of Blog Search, but equally newsworthy to me is the recent post about Dr. Lee on Google’s official blog. Straight from the handbook of ‘what not to blog about’ on a company site comes a single post that discusses (1) a currently-pending lawsuit, (2) a judge’s decision in a case that hasn’t yet gone to trial, (3) a personnel issue regarding a current employee, and (4) their relationship with Microsoft, their biggest competitor. I guess the moral of the story is that it’s good to be a lawyer, but don’t try this one at home, kids. Congrats to Google for being way more open with their personal business than they are about their products.”

“Clearly annoyed by all the attention on small teams, Mena Trott goes on the record to defend big (relatively speaking). Her comments are important because she’s in a unique situation — she’s seen Six Apart go from 2 in a bedroom to 80+ spread all over the world. Her perspective is valuable and respectable. And her passion is clear.”

“Where I work, we do not fall for a fad before having read the related literature. Then we fall for it like a well-clubbed dinosaur. Within the fields of IT and management methodologies, the literature often contains ‘The 10 Myths‚Ķ’ of whatever is explained — including new fads. This is very paradoxical as, with something new, there has hardly been time to create myths. There does, however, seem to be 10 myths that are used when selling a fad. Called ‘The 10 Myths Used To Sell Anything New In IT And Management,’ here they are, along with explanations why they are often just myths.”

“Let me introduce you to the six dumbest ideas in computer security. What are they? They’re the anti-good ideas. They’re the braindamage that makes your $100,000 ASIC-based turbo-stateful packet-mulching firewall transparent to hackers. Where do anti-good ideas come from? They come from misguided attempts to do the impossible — which is another way of saying ‘trying to ignore reality.’ Frequently those misguided attempts are sincere efforts by well-meaning people or companies who just don’t fully understand the situation, but other times it’s just a bunch of savvy entrepreneurs with a well-marketed piece of junk they’re selling to make a fast buck.”

“Men are tired of their portrayal in advertising, according to a new book by Michael Buerk. But images of men behaving stupidly is not the only cliche which irritates writer John Camm.”

XPLANE is a communications design firm that specializes in making complex business issues easier to understand. Our information design is recognized around the world and we are looking for smart, creative and passionate people to join our team.

We are currently looking to fill two positions.

Production Manager
You’ll help to manage and grow the production side of our creative department. Ideal candidate will have at least five years experience in print design and digital imagery. We want someone who is highly skilled in the following programs: Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel, and Word. CSS, HTML and Flash ability would be a plus. We want people who can handle anything.

Concept Developer
You’ll work with high-level business executives to help shape the look and feel of their visual communications. We’re looking for highly creative designers who take just as much satisfaction in problem-solving and storytelling as they do in the final aesthetic. Our creatives take an active part in client contact and you will have many opportunities for travel both in the U.S. and Europe.

We offer full benefits along with a salary that is commensurate with AIGA guidelines. Must be willing to relocate.

Please submit resume AND a few of your best samples to the email linked above. No phone calls please.

“Many times in the corporate world, you will find yourself facing the ‘dead elephant in the middle of the room.’ This is the issue that everyone is aware of, but somehow nobody mentions. It could be emotionally charged; it could feel to big to confront; it could be that nobody is comfortable bringing it up. If you are a manager, it might very well be that you are the only one who doesn’t see it.”

“The ultimate test of leadership is if you can have people follow you on the journey. I remember reading this quote somewhere and unfortunately don’t remember who said it, but it resonated with me quite well and here it goes — ‘A leader without followers is a person out for a walk alone.’”

“Malcolm Gladwell recently gave the keynote at the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Account Planning conference in Chicago. It’s excerpted on Advertising Age. If you’ve worked in design or product development (or read ‘Blink’) you know the drawbacks of focus groups. But what Gladwell does here is describe the solutions as ones of management.”