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11/19/2006

Feeling sticky? It could be the peanut butter

Posts about the Peanut Butter Manifesto (an internal memo from Yahoo senior VP Brad Garlinghouse ) have been all over the internet today. But in reading it, I couldn't help but think that some of the ideas brought out in this letter sound surprising similar to some of the issues I've seen posted in biblioblogosphere that libraries also struggle with...

"We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be everything -- to everyone. We've known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We are separated into silos that far too frequently don't talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn't to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics.

We lack decisiveness. Combine a lack of focus with unclear ownership, and the result is that decisions are either not made or are made when it is already too late. Without a clear and focused vision, and without complete clarity of ownership, we lack a macro perspective to guide our decisions and visibility into who should make those decisions. We are repeatedly stymied by challenging and hairy decisions. We are held hostage by our analysis paralysis."


Wait, there's more ...read the full text: Wall Street Journal: The ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto’

Does it feel sticky where you are?

1 comment:

www.yestoknow.com said...

You're not kidding about the similiarities! I read the full memo and feel like we could just take out the word "Yahoo" and implant "Library" throughout! I wonder how "strategized" this memo was--or does it matter? It makes me want start cleaning up the figurative peanut butter!