me.andering – Willem van den Ende

I’m not the only one noticing google’s search results are becoming less.. I’ve discussed this with several people in the past months, they noticed too that they need to dig further down the list of results to get relevant information. I’m also noticing that my blog increasingly attracts weird traffic from search engines (possibly not only google, but I can’t drill down in the stats yet).

Jason Kolb highlights some of the reasons (“Is Google dying?”) . I usually think as well that the largest Corporate Mammoths will be attacked first (e.g. by virus writers and spammers). I hadn’t applied this dynamic to google yet, as Jason does. Maybe this particular Mammoth has become too greedy…

On a related note, Nynke hopes to save Woolly Multinational Mammoths from extinctinction.

I say Adapt or Dye – long live the purple haired mammoths…

Since I’ve migrated, I’ve dispensed with a blogroll. My current modus operandi is that blogs I read frequently will make it into blog posts somehow, and I welcome new bloggers.

Last Saturday, Phil Stubbington has flown into the blogosphere. He’s blogging about merged Mammoth companies X,Y and Z – bringing his wry ironic style to the web.

Many Happy Blog entries, Phil!

(Woolly Mammoth by Rob Pongsajapan )

I’m in Singapore to do assessments . Going out there and seeing for our selves (me and a representative from the customer) makes a big difference in how the assessment works. We could have sent the teams here our ‘standard’ questionnaire, and possibly follow up with conference calls. Seeing the work environment, and meeting face to face allows us to hear the things that are not being said.

Being face to face, sharing meals helps us to establish a working relationship, and get a better understanding of what they are trying to achieve.
If we wouldn’t have gone out to see for ourselves, we would have missed important information, as well as be more susceptible to rumours. “Going out”, the questionnaire still is a useful tool, and the visit delivers richer information. Visiting also disambiguates the questions.

* – the title of this post refers to one of the Toyota Way principles, aka Genchi Genbutsu

** – I went out to see Singapore for myself. Apparently, my self alone, as I left my camera at home.