Dennis Deery

Change is constant – we all deal with it, we all complain about it. We all do it. In a 2008 study titled “The Enterprise of the Future”, IBM surveyed over 1,000 CEOs around the world. 83% of those surveyed said they expect their organization to undergo substantial change. But only 61% of those executives believe they have managed change successfully in the past.  Why the disconnect? If change is so constant, why are we so bad at it?

Do you ever have trouble getting your living room temperature just right? It gets cold outside, so you bump the heat up. Whoops, too much, now you’re too hot. Down with the thermostat. Wait, now it’s freezing, turn up the heat! Cycle after cycle, until finally you get it dialed in just right. Now you can fire up the TV and binge-watch your favorite show. Congratulations, you understand systems thinking – that’s it in a nutshell.

The 3rd edition of the great Age of Conversation book is soon to be released. This series collects a number of essays dealing with social media issues. I’m very pleased to announce that an essay of mine will be included in the latest edition of the book. A lot of the writers collected in this edition are great current thinkers on social media, so I’m happy to be in such great company!

This year Irish Rose Consulting is celebrating 20 years in business. Since the exact start date has been lost to the mists of time, I decided what better day to call our birthday than St. Patrick’s Day. In 1989 I was a student at UW-Platteville. One of my part-time jobs was working on an excellent research-and-development project for Niall Enterprises, run by Jack O’Neill, a professor at Platteville. My friend Rick Eagen was also working on the project.

Our good friend Connie Loden recently published an article titled “Localism - What’s the Attraction?” on the NewGeography web site. “So, what is the “local” appeal? It is the character and quality of life that provides a sense of place – a reminiscence feeling of authenticity and knowing the source of where things come from, who made it and how it was grown. There is a desire to make the personal connection and create an experience in the purchase of a product.

Marie Boran of SiliconRepublic.com has posted a nice article about the OpenCoffee movement in Ireland. Yours truly is quoted in the article. OpenCoffee is an informal networking event attended mainly by people in the tech industry. It’s been a great event to help me meet people in Dublin (and other communities in Ireland), and is a great chance to get freelancers out of their bubble to meet people in the same situation as themselves.

****Bernard Goldbach has a good post up on his blog about one of the dangers in traveling with a laptop. As someone who regularly travels internationally with my laptop, this has been a big, and growing, concern to me. The United States’ Transportation Security Administration can be truly draconian in their approach to travelers. Those who run afoul of a screener, for whatever reason, can be subject to pretty unbelievable treatment.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a dinner put together by Paul Walsh to discuss the need for a new non-profit organization representing the digital or interactive media industries in Ireland. The dinner, sponsored by Microsoft and Blacknight, was held at a restaurant co-owned by Walsh, Jaipur. The evening was off to a wonderful start with a sampling of dishes from Jaipur’s menu - this was the best Indian food I’ve found in Dublin.

CNet has a good interview with Don Norman, designer extraordinaire and author. I’d highly recommend his books, they’ll get you thinking about design in new ways. Best passage from the interview: “It was only the development of the factory, the industrialized revolution, then later the white collar revolution that everybody had to be in their offices at the same time. But guess what? We’re now in a world society. Making sure we’re all in the office at the same time assumes we’re all in the same time zone…I think we’ll find interesting mixes of scheduled activities where everyone must be encountered in more flex time, more flexibility.

I made my way to Limerick yesterday for the biweekly geek gathering that is OpenCoffee Limerick. OpenCoffee is a worldwide movement that encourages entrepreneurs, tech people and investors to gather in an informal manner for networking. There are a couple of vibrant groups here in Ireland, in Limerick and Cork. I’ve been following some of the online discussions resulting from these gatherings, but hadn’t made the effort to attend in person.

I wrote a few days ago about a blog post by Conor O’Neill suggesting a method of encouraging startups. Conor touched off quite an online discussion among various bloggers here in Ireland. Check the links below to catch up on the discussion, then I’ve got a few more thoughts to share.* Conor’s original post * My original response * Further responses from: * Joe Drumgoole * Bernie Goldbach * Damien Mulley * Alan O’Rourke * David Copithorne *

Conor O’Neill of Argolon has a great post on his blog discussing a method of jump-starting tech startup companies in Ireland. I think his ideas are right on the money, and relatively easy to put into action anywhere. The idea centers around creating a summer “hothouse” to help college students get rolling with ideas for new products. To his list of ideas, I would add just a couple of suggestions:

Social media is big in the tech business these days. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, del.icio.us, Flickr, and Twitter are just some of the companies at the forefront of using the web to connect us. Blogs count too. Just what is it? According to Wikipedia, “Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives.” Got that? Don’t worry, nobody else does either. Assemble 10 tech consultants in a room and ask for their definition and you’ll be presented with 15 different explanations.

The Wisconsin Arts Board has come out with a new study showing the impact the arts have on local economies. According to the report, “in 2005, Wisconsin’s non-profit arts industry generated over 15,000 full-time jobs and $61,840,000 in state and local government revenue. Cumulatively, the arts contributed $418,055,786 in total economic activity.” The Wisconsin Arts Board hopes to use the report’s findings to improve public funding for the arts in Wisconsin.

Shortly after we got to Ireland, we of course began haunting the local library. On my first trip there, I found a great book called Working Towards Balance that explored the changes in Irish society due to the booming economy. Reading the book, I learned that it was actually a collection of the papers presented at an annual conference in Ennis, Ireland. The conference is put on by an organization called The Ceifin Centre.

Yesterday I presented a 1-hour session at the Wisconsin Community Leadership Summit on “Tech Tools for Leaders”. You can find the complete materials for the session here.