Tag Archives: theory

Sunday Review: Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative by Ken Robinson

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Derek Neighbors

I have decided to do a dead simple book review every Sunday. Some of this is to just share what I’m reading. Rather than go with some complex rating system a book will either be a thumbs up [...]

Posted in Sunday Book Review | Tagged creatives, Creativity, Education, excellence, innovation, motivation, music, policy, reading, theory | Comments Off

Sunday Review: Good To Great by Jim Collins

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Derek Neighbors

I have decided to do a dead simple book review every Sunday. Some of this is to just share what I’m reading. Rather than go with some complex rating system a book will either be a thumbs up [...]

Posted in Sunday Book Review | Tagged excellence, incentives, innovation, motivation, Productivity, theory | 1 Comment

1% Improvement Over Time Is Significant

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Derek Neighbors

Who wants to be 1% better? Not very many people.
Who wants to be 50% better? Significantly more people.
Who wishes they could be perfect? Most people.
I had heard the quotes “Perfection not a destination, it is a journey that never ends” [...]

Posted in Agile, Personal, Productivity | Tagged Agile, discipline, excellence, motivation, Productivity, theory | Comments Off

Sunday Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

Posted on January 24, 2010 by Derek Neighbors

Thumbs up means I highly recommend reading the book. A thumbs down means read something else unless you have free time on your hands.

Take Away: Building Teams and Leading them is very simple, but very difficult. Reminds me [...]

Posted in Agile, Personal, Productivity, Sunday Book Review | Tagged discipline, dysFUNctional, excellence, incentives, leadership, motivation, politics, Productivity, reading, teams, teamwork, theory | Comments Off

Dysfunctions of (Agile) Teams

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Derek Neighbors

Over the holiday break I read Patrick Lencioni‘s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable“. The premise is that each dysfunction builds upon the dysfunction before it. Much like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Below is an illustration of [...]

Posted in Agile, Integrum, Productivity | Tagged accountability, Agile, commitment, conflict, excellence, focus, innovation, Integrum, motivation, pair programming, planning, politics, results, team, teams, teamwork, theory, trust | 3 Comments

Sunday Review: Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn

Posted on January 3, 2010 by Derek Neighbors

Thumbs up means I highly recommend reading the book. A thumbs down means read something else unless you have free time on your hands.

Take Away: Estimating and Planning involves a lot of proven science, if you want to understand [...]

Posted in Agile, Integrum, Sunday Book Review | Tagged Agile, estimating, planning, process, reading, theory | Comments Off

Importing Manufacturing.. Boon or Bust?

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Derek Neighbors

The largest Chinese manufacturer of solar panels, Suntech Power, has announced that it is opening a manufacturing plant here in Metro Phoenix. This is fabulous news. I think. It is hard to tell what it really means. What we know [...]

Posted in Startups | Tagged arizona, asu, economic development, google, gpec, incentives, phoenix, policy, politics, solar, suntech, theory | 1 Comment

Clean Up Your Own Yard, Before Cleaning Up The Neighborhood

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Derek Neighbors

I stumbled up on “Can Phoenix Make a ‘Creative Class’ appeal” and found it reassuring that others in the area are talking about the current state of the economy in Metro Phoenix in ways other than “doom and gloom”. I [...]

Posted in Community, Creativity, Gangplank | Tagged arizona, Community, creative class, Creativity, economic development, motivation, phoenix, theory | 9 Comments

How Do We Fix Phoenix? Solutions Are Out There!

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Derek Neighbors

A blog I started reading recently and suggested by Chuck Reynolds called Rogue Columnist, is pretty interesting. It highlights a lot of the problems in Phoenix from someone that was raised here pre 1970 and has since moved to [...]

Posted in Community, Gangplank, Personal | Tagged arizona, downtown, economic development, Gangplank, motivation, phoenix, theory | 6 Comments