Interactivity, Innovation, Mac & C4, Cutting Employees, & Goals

Interactivity - when do we need it? - eel-learning

Interactivity is activity aimed at processing the information presented in order to

• help chunk it for memory management
• allow self-assessment - have I grasped this?
• keep interest and motivation, for example, by asking questions in the context of a game.

What Makes a Company the 'World's Most Innovative?' - Harvard Business Review

The current issue of Fast Company was sure to get my attention. "The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies!" the cover blared. I start flipping through. The first eye roll came when the #1 ranking went to "Team Obama," which last time I checked was not a company. Then Google. Seemingly fair enough. Then Hulu, the online video joint venture between News Corp and NBC Universal. Huh?

Captivate CS4 on a Mac! - matthewbibby.com

I had the foresight to order a copy of VMware Fusion when I bought my Macbook, so on day three of my Mac ownership I installed a trial of Windows Vista through Fusion and tried to use that virtual machine to run Captivate. It failed miserably. I was really dissapointed at how slowly programs loaded, files were saved and previews generated. It also caused issues with the performance of OSX, especially when using Spaces.

I then installed XP SP2. One of the great features of Fusion is that it installs all of the necessary drivers so when Windows is up and running you don't need to spend hours getting the internet working, the sound card configured etc.

XP ran like a dream, like I expected it should given the technology in this laptop. I installed Adobe Captivate CS4 and started on a major recording project for work.

Why Cutting 10 Percent of Lowest Ranked Employees Doesn't Work

Richard Nantel writes:

Years ago, I heard Marc Andreessen speak at a conference. He had recently sold Netscape and started a new company, Loudcloud. During question period, someone asked what he believed was his toughest challenge running a business. His reply was that the level of competence within a company decreased over time as staff was added. Consequently he suggested that cutting the bottom 10 percent of staff each year might be a good way to keep a company innovative and productive.

He then refers you to Bob Sutton's counter argument, The Case Against Cutting the Bottom 10%.

Are Goals Always Good? No....Watch Out for Side Effects - Will at Work Learning

A nice new review of research on goal-setting provides some balance in how goals can be used to guide workplace performance. Also, read this working paper.