So, I've been following this company based in Chicago ever since I created my own company, realsmart.co.uk in 2004. They're called basecamp.com and they make two products I use every day... basecamp which I use for all my projects (I currently have six...), and their new take on email, hey.com - which now allows you to blog, from an email, which I'm doing now...
What I find fascinating and useful and inspiring about them, is that they're sort of a 'meta-company' - in terms of, they create tools for companies to use to create companies. Their books (of which I have every one) are about making companies too. But it's not just about companies or software or books, it's about the design of life.
Almost everything they say, I feel an absolute affinity with. Their design shapes mine. I recognise the patterns they talk about. I see it in my own work. I give myself to the design process and my work gets better and better.
I am told a lot of stuff I do is not the conventional way to go about things. But what I do makes complete sense to me, and I don't understand why others keep doing the same things that don't make sense to me.
I have said for years that the biggest weakness in my leadership is that I assume others will react the way I would, even though I know most people don't react the way I do... so this year, I have been working on meeting people where they are, and trying to understand their point of view, looking through their eyes.
This has reaped the biggest benefits for me. I am able to scaffold, model and frame from an individual or a group's perspective to understand how to work closer, in a much more impactful way.
My mission is to write the handbook on this, and at XP, we are doing this as a collective. Alongside this, I am modelling how we learn through technology and how we learn it faster and simpler.
We will launch 'The Culture Burger' this summer, and 'realsmart learning maps', ready for the new academic year.
Then things will go crazy...
🤪
What I find fascinating and useful and inspiring about them, is that they're sort of a 'meta-company' - in terms of, they create tools for companies to use to create companies. Their books (of which I have every one) are about making companies too. But it's not just about companies or software or books, it's about the design of life.
Almost everything they say, I feel an absolute affinity with. Their design shapes mine. I recognise the patterns they talk about. I see it in my own work. I give myself to the design process and my work gets better and better.
I am told a lot of stuff I do is not the conventional way to go about things. But what I do makes complete sense to me, and I don't understand why others keep doing the same things that don't make sense to me.
I have said for years that the biggest weakness in my leadership is that I assume others will react the way I would, even though I know most people don't react the way I do... so this year, I have been working on meeting people where they are, and trying to understand their point of view, looking through their eyes.
This has reaped the biggest benefits for me. I am able to scaffold, model and frame from an individual or a group's perspective to understand how to work closer, in a much more impactful way.
My mission is to write the handbook on this, and at XP, we are doing this as a collective. Alongside this, I am modelling how we learn through technology and how we learn it faster and simpler.
We will launch 'The Culture Burger' this summer, and 'realsmart learning maps', ready for the new academic year.
Then things will go crazy...
🤪