December 8, 2006 Speedlinking

• Why do smart people defend bad ideas? Scott Berkun gives us his thoughts on it, and some ways to help people avoid it.
• The Apollo Syndrome is a phenomenon discovered by Dr Meredith Belbin where teams of highly capable individuals can, collectively, perform badly.
• What do you do when asking “Why” results in a dead-end - “We just want it this way”? Michael Schaffner gives us a variation on Six Sigmas 5 whys and a way to get past these dead-ends.
• More words to avoid, or how to avoid an argument. A great method to avoid the “I Understand, But…” trap.
• Building trust by Returning Calls Unbelievably Fast. “There’s not much you can do to get people to return calls. But you have all the power in the world to return calls yourself.”