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I see the ol’ file cabinet is getting overstuffed again. Alas, there’s just not time enough to write about all the great stuff I’ve collected over the last few weeks. In fact, there’s so much here I think I’ll break it up into two days’ posts. So here’s Part 1 of what I considered “blogworthy”, but never quite made it into print –

On Business Cards…Elaine Fogel at Daily Fix has a little quiz that will help you rate your business card’s ability to say what it should about you. “Your business card, along with your company logo, letterhead and materials need to reflect credibility, professionalism and trustworthiness. They’re part of your brand identity.”

Have You Found Your Voice Yet?

Tom Ehrenfeld, also at Daily Fix, came up with a truly good thought (surely he’s had a few more since!) about what he calls “finding your own voice”. Stated another way: instead of getting good at something just to make money (or whatever it is you’re pursuing), you find out what you’re good at and do that. Doing what you like to do, and what you do best, produces its own reward and then some. “Regardless of whether you are writing a book, starting a business, cobbling together a career, or simply living a life, it all makes far more sense when you’ve found your voice, and then travel down a path that serves as a place for you to sing.”

“Found” in Translation

Ever find yourself wondering if consulting is a relatively new sport, or what a gig would be like in ancient Greece? I know I do, at least once a day (insert roll of eyes here). Well if your curiosity hasn’t quite killed the cat yet, then you gotta check this one out. Dave Snowden over at Cognitive Edge (let’s see if I can get this right) wrote an article about structured approaches to management, that was picked up and modified a bit by Christopher Bellavita, then published on Dave’s blog here. Great stuff!

What Size Hammer Did You Need?

A friend of mine once told me when he was a jeep mechanic in the Army (back in the ol’ WWII, that is) he was issued an “Army Toolbox”: when you opened it, all it had in it were 11 sizes of hammers. (I’m almost sure he was joking.)

Does it seem like email has become the new hammer – I mean, it’s become the solution for everything, even when it doesn’t really suit the task. Check out this blog entry from Jack Vinson, “Email is the default for everything”.

“With this adoption as the universal application for business and personal life, there is massive resistance to changing away from it, even when email isn’t the best suited to the type of interaction. Even where there is a better solution, such as an informational repository in a wiki or a document management system, these frequently have a email notification of changes. For most people, email - or their email tool - is their default operating system.”

What’s Your Purpose?

Think everyone in your organization is on board with your stated business purpose? (Do you even have one?) If so, you might want to check out this post by Jeffrey Phillips. “I suspect if you could conduct a survey within most companies and ask people what they think the key “purpose” of their business is, they’d answer “to make money”. More enlightened or aware employees might answer that the purpose of the business is to enrich shareholders and employees. What I think many people miss is that these are OUTCOMES not purposes.”

The Sound of Silence

And in case you’ve been under a rock lately, here’s a post from John Koetsier at Bizhack that summarizes some of the issues and best lessons learned from the Wal-Mart – Edelman blog fiasco. (Sorry, John – I finally took a good look at your name and realized I may have misspelled it on a previous blog!)

Pick Any Two

Carmine Coyote’s post (still can’t figure out if that’s a real name) on Slow Leadership suggests that of the four possible desirable qualities you want in a project (quick, innovative, cheap and good), selecting any two automatically de-selects the other two.

An interesting proposition, but I’m still not sure I buy it completely… I’d be interested to hear some feedback on this one.

Well, friends, that’s all for now! Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the File Cabinet for this month.

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