Business Lessons from sucessful entrepreneurs and business leaders: LunchLearning.com

Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes

Video Time: 49 minutes 48 seconds

Have you ever watched those old Star Trek episodes, you know, the ones with William Shatner in them? Don’t be embarrassed, you can admit it. For those of you who’ve never watched the show the main character, Captain Kirk, would sometimes send away teams to foreign planets to gather information and create alliances with alien species. Occasionally some of those aliens weren’t so friendly and a skirmish between the away team and the aliens would inevitably ensue. It was clear to the audience that the peaceful mission had turned into a dangerous problem when the dramatic music played and the communications officer said, “We’ve lost all communications with the away team.”

This week we’re focusing on the importance of communication for a businesses to succeed. You don’t have to fly around the galaxy in a starship to know that good communications is crucial if you want to survive in businesses. In today’s video Stefan Posthuma Technical Director of EA Games, talks about his approach to fixing some of the glitches he found in EA’s internal communications.You will see how poor communication can affect a business’s productivity and potentially its profits. Posthuma uses various strategies to fix these communication problems and while some of his ideas fail, he solves most of them with one little word…clarity.

In the video Posthuma discovers that his employees lack knowledge regarding team goals, career advancement, and management’s duties because the company has not clearly defined these areas. By communicating specific and concrete goals to his employees, Posthuma creates a stronger and more productive community of employees. As you watch the video, take note of all Posthuma’s techniques even the ones that didn’t catch on and see how the idea of clarity permeates all of his strategies.

Happy Learning…and Game On!

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

Video Time: 1 hour 7 minutes 45 seconds****Q&A begins at 41:53****

I absolutely love what John Chambers and his team at Cisco are doing with regard to involving the whole of Cisco in its communications and collaboration strategy. And what I really like is that they’re a “big” company doing things that are often perceived as possible only for SMBs. Cisco has tossed that bias out the window and is reaping the massive rewards of a highly collaborative environment. They’re even early adopters of Twitter and blogging in-house! AND, if you haven’t seen Cisco’s Digital Cribs. . .then, wow. .you should check it out.

This talk might seem long at the outset, but he spends a considerable amount of time addressing questions (this was a talk at MIT. . .the beauty of any talk like this. . .so, enjoy. John hits on our economy (before it hit the fan), education, collaboration and communications at Cisco. He’s an engaging speaker, and it’s no wonder he, along with the team at Cisco has taken the company from 70 million to 40 billion in just over a decade. Not bad…perhaps he’s worth a listen?!