Marc’s MSLD Reflection Blog

In 1985, shortly after leaving Apple, Steve Jobs began a new company called NeXT, Inc.  Their first product, the NeXT Computer, was unveiled in 1988 and combined powerful hardware and software in ways that previously had not been done (Garfinkel, n.d.). A documentary video entitled “Steve Jobs Brainstorms with NeXT Team,” gives insight into the culture that existed at NeXT, and the relationships between Jobs and his team during the first few months they were working together at NeXT.  From the video I was able to see that Jobs had a clear vision, and he worked hard to ensure that his team was able to see and be aligned with the same vision. It appears that he was fairly demanding, requiring that his team members be accountable for their actions.  I also found it refreshing to see how transparent Jobs was with his team. It seems that he did not couch his language, and he was willing to admit when he was part of the problem. The video indicated that Jobs was “ass...

In a TED Talk entitled “Build a Tower, Build a Team” Tom Wujec describes a team building exercise that he uses at design workshops. The challenge involves building a tower in eighteen minutes using twenty pieces of dry spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow.  The goal is to have the tallest tower with the marshmallow on top. “Though it seems really simple it is actually pretty hard because it forces people to collaborate very quickly” (Wujec, 2010).  Wujec (2010) explained that the results were surprising; groups composed of kindergarteners generally were able to build structures taller than groups composed of business school students and executives.  Wujec’s reasoning for the kindergartener’s success was that “they build successive prototypes, always keeping the marshmallow on top, so they have multiple times to fix and build the prototypes along the way” (2010).  He explained that this is the “essence of the iterative process” (Wuj...

In today’s turbulent business climate it seems as though there is really only one constant: change.  Change is all around us. Over the last one-hundred and fifty years there have been more changes in the way we live our lives than there were in the previous five thousand.  We have changed the way and the speed at which we communicate. Communication used to be at the speed of a horse. The invention of the telephone in 1876 made it possible to communicate with far away people at the speed of light (Borth, n.d.)!  We can now communicate with people nearly anywhere in the world with the cell phones we carry in our pockets. First the fax machine, and now email and the internet have made it possible to send documents, pictures, video, or nearly any other information instantly.  The availability, speed, and safety of air travel seems to have made the globe smaller, making far away lands accessible within a few hours. When Christopher Columbus first crossed the Atl...

How Companies Can Make Better Decisions Greenfield (2004) indicated that “moving some decision making closer to employees could easily become the most financially valuable initiative most companies could undertake.”  In addition, “most studies found a statistically significant positive relationship between strong corporate culture and financial performance.” Blenko (as cited in Harvard Business Review, 2010) stated that “Companies that are better at making and executing decisions really do seem to operate at a much faster metabolism and have better financial results.”  Organizations that empower their employees to make decisions demonstrate improved performance for a couple of reasons. First, recruiting and training expenses are reduced. Employees that are engaged and empowered are more loyal to their employers, and are less likely to seek alternative employment options. Companies that generate loyalty and engagement in their employees have lower turnover, and therefo...