What's New

This column is released in conjunction with the State of the Art issue of Compass.

Compass Becomes an eBook PDF Publication

With this issue, Compass becomes an electronic-only publication. Compass was originally a paper-only newsletter. Improving technology offered the opportunity to produce both paper and electronic versions. Now economics and technology tell us that it’s time to leave the paper trail behind.
If you’ve been receiving the paper publication and you’d like to continue receiving Compass, please send your email address to Compassmail@yahoo.com, and we’ll add you to the distribution list. We will send an email announcing each new edition, and you can download it from our website as a bright, shiny new.pdf. If you’ve been receiving the paper version and you’d like to stop receiving Compass, you don’t need to do anything. If we do not have your email address, the paper notice you received announcing this issue will be the last one you receive from us.
We intend to retain the same high editorial standards and the same exceptional layout and graphics. We can do a bit more in an eBook document, such as provide hot links to related subjects. We hope you will choose to continue receiving Compass in this new format.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

The book’s been out a year and sales have been encouraging. We have done several book presentations, published many feature articles, and widened this remarkable community. My gracious appreciation to all who have read and commented on the book.

Get your own copy by clicking on the compass rose in the upper left corner of this page.

BugBox

Last summer, I received a note from someone who had read The Blind Men and the Elephant. Steven Ashurst’s company sells a piece of software, BugBox, which can be used to track bugs in software and also track issues. I’ve never been particularly interested in software solutions, but my correspondent engaged with me until I understood where he was coming from. He sees his system as a means for building and maintaining community. Understanding this intention, I was hooked.

Here’s what Steven says about BugBox:
"Enhance your project community with BugBox, a simple PC software tool for project issue description and resolution workflow.

"A free download, BugBox incorporates the PRINCE2 methodology. The PRINCE2 workflow for issues is not strict, and BugBox merely prompts for the 4 stages of an issue: Raise, Investigate, Authorise and Resolve.

"But the real draw of BugBox is the ability to use it for project commentary by all users. What you can't see from the screenshots is BugBox's rolling User ID-stamped "whiteboard", where all and sundry can remark upon an issue. This is where the project community (business and developers) gathers and can record its interest, arguments or old-fashioned graffiti on specific project issues. It's a human thing at heart, and we keep the technology deliberately simple and robust."

I encourage you who feel moved to try this tool to report your experiences. If it can help the blind men describe their elephant, it can’t help but help.

Appreciations

Sonja Radatz- for enticing us to Vienna.
Amy Schwab- for baiting again and again and again.
Mark G. Gray- for KROC and for endless encouragement
III and Ainsley- For considering the future with us
Diana Kohanski- For taking me (well, my book) on vacation to Maui with her
Lisa Villerreal- For sponsoring some musical chairs
Rebecca Barfknecht- For wearing the straight jacket
Brian Lassiter- For sponsoring my Minnesota Council for Quality presentation
Patricia and Craig Neal- For convening the circle
Manuel Diaz and Barbara Anger-Diaz- For considering the possibilities
Patty Danos- For teaching me more than either of us anticipated about book promotion
Praveen Khilnani- For introducing me to the Independent Way
Ron Fick- For accepting a contract from an angel
Bastiaan Harmsen- For the dinner with clowns in Vienna
Hal Macumber- For blogging me and introducing me to your community
Gregory Howell- For the three-soon to be four- universal laws of the universe
Mary and Tom Poppendieck- For gracious hospitality and for the introductions
Elissa Rabelllino- for copyediting The State Of The Art
Ted Leeman- For starting the conversation in DC. Where did you disappear to?
D. Wilder Schmaltz- For the state of the art graphics

Notable Books for your Library

Building Trust

in Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life
by Robert C. Solomon and Fernando Flores
Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0-19-516111-4
In The Blind Men, I consider trust as something freely given and not earned. This book offers a deeper exposition on this theme. It could reframe your relationship with trust. Since trust is the essential currency of all cooperative work, this book should be prominent on your bookshelf.

The Aesthetics of Change

by Bradford P. Keeney
The Guilford Press
ISBN: 1-57230-830-3
What’s really behind change? Certainly not that simplified step-wise model they offered me in business school! Change takes surprising, though not unpatterned forms. This book helped me improve my understanding of the patterns of change and those simple actions that I can take to encourage it. This book, like all great books about change, challenged my personal relationship with change. Drawing from the Brief Therapy school, it is the most accessible description I’ve yet found of the techniques and insights supporting effective, real-world change.

Second Innocence

Rediscovering joy and wonder
a guide to renewal in work, relationships, and daily life
by John Izzo, Ph.D.
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1-57675-263-1

This recent Berrett-Koehler (my publisher) book considers life as comprised of two stages. A first innocence, which must dissolve as we mature, and a second innocence which we freely construct to preserve the joy and vitality of our adult life. Constructed of short, parable-like stories, this book is neither guide or instruction book. It succeeds at accomplishing what few business books do. It induces the ability to discover your own second innocence, not one based upon naiveté or ignorance, but one fully acknowledging the complications of any well-lived life.

My very best wishes,

David A. Schmaltz
March, 14, 2004

To view previous "Whats New" Columns, please follow the links below:

Issue I Issue II Issue III Issue IV Issue V Issue VI Issue VII