Read this inspiring Fast Company blog post by Marcia Conner. She nails what I have been calling learnscaping. Growing a culture of service is more like planting a garden than building a shed. garden requires tending, whereas a shed is built once. social learning culture requires design, training, guidance, leadership, monitoring and celebrating successes, large and small. People need to know where the organization is headed and why it matters. Some will think it impossible for a whole culture to shift from fear-based fixes to joy-based learning, from coercion to inspiration. MORE >>

Through a friend, I discovered the In Good Company blog and this excellent post on 5 tough questions entrepreneurs should be asking themselves. Reading through the questions, I thought they could easily be adapted to anyone, whether they work for themselves or for someone else, so here they are. Just replace "business" with "job" if you're working for someone else.  . 2: What three things would you stop doing for the business if you didn’t have to? Why don’t you? What would make doing them better? 3: What are you doing only because you feel like you “should”? MORE >>

company with a very good product (the leader in its category) asked its leading users to participate in a Beta program right around the time they were acquired. The acquired company established a listserve mailing list and put all of their top users on the list.Here a few of the emails (there are about 80 in total), but you'll get the idea: Dec 8, 2005 Once the beta is ready I am sure they'll let us know first. Dec 8, 2005 - From official at company that was acquired You will receive an email once we start the beta. No point asking every day. Am I missing something? Thanks. MORE >>

When I started my blog in December 2009 I was curious what it would be like to blog and I wanted to improve my English (I’m still working on that). My blog now has an average of almost a 100 views per day. The fact that you have an audience makes a big difference, it turns your blog from a diary into a publication and most important: you get feedback. use my blog to try out ideas. The first time I used my blog for this purpose was when I became CEO of easygenerator. In 2011 I was asked to contribute to the ASTD’s blog Learning Circuit. MORE >>

Most companies start simple, with a few people gathering together around an idea. For small companies, decision-making, task assignments and direct interaction with clients are rather straightforward.  As every entrepreneur knows, the initial growth of a company is often synonymous with efficiency drops and decreases in profits, since administrative tasks, indirect structural costs and middle-term forecasts add financial and human pressure on early growth. Most of today’s larger companies have a complicated structure. Simplicity and the Enterprise. Complication. MORE >>