gokubi.com

Salmon Bay school in Seattle.

All I can say is Bravo to Jon Plax and his team over at Salesforce.com. On first look the new IDE released this morning is absolutely excellent.

My main issue with the v.13 IDE had to do with the organization of source files. This has been fixed in v.14 with a new reorganization based on type (class, trigger, static resrouce, etc.) Things are much, much easier to find now. Thank you!

On project setup you are now greeted with a wizard that allows you to select different types of objects. This is brilliant, because there are now 25 different types available! Pulling all of them for every project would have gotten tiresome.

Two massive time-savers come from the addition of reports and dashboards as metadata types. Here’s an example use case: Each of our consulting staff has a dashboard of key performance indicators specific to them. The dashboards are identical in look, but the reports are different. Now, we can set up one set of dashboards with underlying reports and then use the IDE to essentially clone them for each staff member, changing them slightly.

I can’t wait to use it more deeply–as I’ll have the chance to do over the next couple days. It already feels like this is a tool I’ll be much happier to be using every day. Excellent work Salesforce.com!

The folks over at NPower Seattle have created a Salesforce User Group for nonprofits. Go to the first meeting on November 19th. I’ll be there, and you should be, too. Come to share, learn, and network!

Wednesday, November 19, 8:00am - 9:00am

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If you had told me even ten years ago that I’d be walking around with a wireless-broadband-connected, GPS-enabled, hardware-accelerated 3D unix workstation in my pocket that could render maps, traffic, and high-resolution satellite photographs in perspective along with constantly-updated points of interest—and that that was just one application among thousands—I’d have smacked you and called you Neal Stephenson.

Well said Charlie.

h/t shemuses!

Have you ever put yourself outside your comfort zone only to have that zone of comfort expand underneath you?

Have you ever paid someone to make you do things that are very difficult, that you would never make yourself do, and come back the next day for another 10 hours of it?

Have you ever learned more about real leadership in 4 days than you thought possible?

Have you ever seen your image of yourself crystallize, and finally understand the real purpose of the work you’ve been doing for years?

If so, you may have just completed Rockwood’s Art of Leadership program, like I just did.

I’m still churning over the 30 some hours of intense training I just went through with amazing peers and truly masterful teachers. But what I’ve been able to process makes me think I’ll never really look at my role in the world the same way I did.

Thanks to Gideon who paid my way, Rockwood who made it all possible, 20 some fellow travelers who went along for the ride, and Roberto Vargas and Suzanne Hawkes–two amazing leaders and role models who pushed ad pulled us all for those 4 days!

Love it!
Update: Apparently you can only see this here. Thanks Luke!

I came to Art of Leadership by way of ONE/Northwest, and I was thinking of it as a work activity. I was looking forward to taking some time to think about my leadership role within and without my org.

But during a session last night I was struck that when we talked about what was our purpose on this earth–what did we want to be remembered for–my kids leapt to mind. I see them as my reason and my legacy.

I was a bit surprised–not that my kids are important to me, but that the work that I do didn’t jump to the fore.

I awoke this morning and it came to me. My purpose is to help people find their power.

I think a big part of raising kids is about acheiving this goal:

When my kids reach adulthood, I want them to be strong, free-thinking, caring people.

I want to help them find their power. I want them to grow into what they can be.

And this resonates with my work as well. So much of what I do is about trying to share my knowledge so that others may use that in finding their own power. A nonprofit staffer can have massive impact on the world, and that impact can be multiplied if I can show them what I know about strategies, databases and the web.

It’s more about teaching than about technology. See the power you have? Now what are you going to do with it?

This week I’m at Rockwood’s 4 day leadership training, the Art of Leadership. So far it’s excellent. When do you get a chance to think about the purpose of your time on Earth? When do you really get to think about what specific gifts you bring to the social change movement?

It’s nice to take some time out to think about leadership and how I can help people have a say in decisions that affect their lives.