Kallokain

My son, Tim, is four years old. The daycare center where he spends his days are only a couple of minutes walk from where we live. (Tim, he wrote his own name here, says Hello! He is sitting beside me as I write this.) Walking home is different, it often takes more than an hour. We go for walks, stop to play, investigate things... One day a couple of weeks ago we went past the sculptures you can see here, and Tim wanted to take a closer look: As we got closer, I began asking Tim questions about the sculptures: "What does this one look like?" "It's a bear holding a fish," Tim said. We often play little games together, rhyming games, we weave stories, play scenes from favorite movies, sing songs. Since Tim was interested in the sculptures I decided to take the opportunity: "OK, what is this then?" "Fish." "And where are they?" "The sea." "OK, the sea, or maybe a river." I think I made a misstep there. Shouldn...

Here it is, the fourth and (probably) final episode of the Primus Vicus videocast series. The Primus Vicus videocasts show a brainstorming and planning session I led at a medieval society a couple of years ago. This is the first videocast I have made in a year. However, I plan to do several more this year. If you look at the end of the Primus Vicus videocast, I am sure you can see why. I hope you enjoy the videocast. If you haven't seen any of my management videocasts, you might want to check out the Kallokain channel at YouTube.

Yesterday I heard Marco Grob talk about photography at a photography trade show. Marco is a great photographer. He works for fashion magazines and photographs film stars and other celebrities. Some of his photographs were exhibited at the show. Among them were photos of Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Jeff Bridges. I saw the photos he exhibited before I heard his talk. The photographic style reminded me of Garr Reynold's  (the Presentation Zen author) presentation style. Marco's talk reinforced the impression: He goes for simplicity. In his photography he uses few light sources, often a single reflector. Marco's preference is for silver reflectors over white. His presentation style was similar: Simple, clean, focus on what is important. I found it very interesting that he goes for simple tools where he can, and holds nothing back where a tool can make a real difference. For example, lights and reflectors are usually hand held by assistants, because fancy equipment get...

My family and I took some time off to visit relatives during Easter. This included visiting my sister, Anna-Carin Mårtensson . Anna-Carin is a painter. She is about as obsessed with painting as I am with business strategy and organization. It is always fun to visit her and her family, but this time there was an extra treat: During ten days, 2-11 April, 156 artists in southern Sweden exhibit their work. (Here is a  map showing where all 156 artists are . Anna-Carin's exhibit is number 97 on the map.) Anna-Carin had set up a large tent on the lawn of her house where she exhibited her paintings. She had also converted the living room in her house to an art gallery. The exhibition has gone well so far. Anna-Carin's exhibition has had plenty of visitors. Free is one of my favorites. I like the color composition. (Click the picture to see a larger version. Anna-Carin sometimes gets inspiration from her dreams. I haven't asked her if that is the case here. Thi...

I have been anxiously waiting for comments from Tempo! readers. A book is like a baby: A great investment of time, effort and emotion. Torbjörn Gyllebring bought one of the first copies. He posted the following on Twitter : @ Kallokain  I'm quite inclined to call Tempo! the "Slack" of Business Management that's a good thing :) Joy!!! In case you haven't read it, Slack by Tom DeMarco is one of the best management books ever written. It is so good that it is actually useful. Slack was the book that got me interested in management. Once I publish something I just want people to like it and find it useful. I do not care greatly if  Tempo!  becomes a great seller. (Though it would be nice, of course.) I do care a great deal about whether readers enjoy the book and find it useful. I care a great deal about who reads  Tempo! . There are ideas in the book that I believe are very important, and worth spreading. If the ideas take root in the right minds, well, w...