Five for Friday – November 3

Here are five things that caught my attention this week.

• I created a mind-map for an article I have coming out next week. It reminded me how valuable mind-maps are for communicating information. I’ve had a lot of luck using them as test strategy docs, as the visual nature gets much more engagement and feedback than a more traditional word-only based plan.
• I read Susan Caine’s book, Quiet years ago, and still put this quote in presentations from time to time.
  “But the idea…is right. To innovate, we need environments that support imaginative thinking…heated discussion, even arguing”

  It’s so important to not avoid conflict in order to create and innovate – but do it in a way where respect and trust are always part of the environment.

• This article from HBR reminded me how important it is to balance purpose and strategy in an organization. I saw (and fought against) a lot of this at Microsoft, and do my best achieve this balance in my work organization as well as my family.
• This week, I learned about the Motte and Bailey fallacy. I see this one pop up in the twitter-verse and in some aggregated blot sites a lot – it’s where someone treats a smaller part of the whole as the whole, and uses defense of the subset as a defense of the entirety. Look for it in writing and in your own decision making.
• I fell away from inbox zero for a while. I was lazy and didn’t spend a lot of time mucking around with email. I adapted most of what I read in this article, and now I’m easily back to my Inbox-zero lifestyle.