They Stole My Line

My wife and I will often turn to each other when we're watching a movie or TV show. "They stole my line." We say that when we hear a character say something that we've said to each other: some witticism or goofy malapropism. Not that we're extremely creative or anything, we just talk enough to occasionally come up with something wise or apropos for the situation that makes us smile, laugh or cry.

I had this experience the other day when I was walking through the business section of a bookstore. In the past, I ran across the book Long Tail which described the business strategy for the company that had employed me at the time. That didn't bother me as much as when I recently saw Denning's book The Leaders Guide to Radical Management. "Okay, he's using 'radical management'. How radical is it?" So I opened it up and found a summary description between traditional management and radical management. What he described as radical management is a lot of things I've practiced and described for 20-30 years. Great, he confirmed that I'm a radical. Unfortunately, he got to write the book first. Oh, well, I at least can keep the sobriquet of Radical Business. It's been verified by Stephen Denning. Yay! But he stole my line.

I can't fully recommend the book, but it does look helpful. It does seem espouse some management tips and techniques that I would tell people are common sense if they really think about it. These days, common sense can seem radical.