My current work lives here: Oddball Empire - Rock on.
Me and MacGuyver are the two original inhabitants of Shrinkonia. Or la Principauté de Shrinkonie, as the French would say. You can find it on a map, but you really have to look hard. As it is tiny and moves around a lot.
The last time anyone looked, it was located between the United Agilist and PMBoktoe. But that map is already a few months old.
If I would have to write a Wikipedia page about it, the first sentences would read:
Shrinkonia: a place where project teams find connection and flow, so they can create amazing things together. It’s located all over the world. And mobile. So it moves around. And people come and go. They move to Shrinkonia fluently and leave as they have done their thing. Also home of The Project Shrink. And MacGuyver. Although they do not live together.
Do you remember when we talked about containers: “The function of containers is to hold the energy, life, identity, or “presence” of the group.” To use a “tent” analogy: a tent is what we need to hold our culture. Or, if you like, we fill the tent with our culture like a hot air balloon.
The mobile state of Shrinkonia is a container. A tent. Fantastic. Metaphors to describe a metaphor.
Anyway. As ruler of my own imaginary state, I have the power to make up any title I can think of. I can declare you Coolest Shrinkonian Researcher. Or. Shrinkonian Duke Of Blogging.
And I have decided to do just that.
To declare some Shrinkonian royalty.
But positions are only valid for a year. So it’s more like The Oscars than old French royalty. Or English. Or Dutch.
Yes. yes. I am talking about the 2011 Shrinkies!
The only time we ever used this award was back in 2008. Remember? Kimberly Wiefling went home with the Shrinkie For Best PM Blog.
The winners of the awards will be announced mid December. The current inhabitants of Shrinkonia are allowed to vote. Mac and Me.
But first we need nominees!
Please leave your suggestions in the comments.
The possible categories:
- Best Blogger.
- Best Podcaster.
- Best Author.
- Most Coolest Researcher.
- Most Innovative Company/Organization.
Or any other category you can think of. The winners will get amazing titles. And their name in the Shrinkonian Hall Of Fame.
Some would say, it’s the “honor” they get. I would say, it is much more.
And for those of you who are wondering, what the deal is with MacGuyver and me… A short piece from the legendary Welcome To Shrinkonia post:
Mac explained: “Shrinkonia is my kingdom. I have full authority over it. It is so small that this sign hardly fits in it. I am the only inhabitant at this moment. But the cool thing is that every one who sees the sign, my Swiss army knife and thinks “wow. cool!” will join in. Shrinkonia is a very dynamic state. In size.”
Please nominate your favorite Shrinkonians!
Very awesome Bas! Can I get a work Visa or something to come visit Shrinkonia?
I have some nominees for the first annual Shrinkies!
Best Blogger — Pawel Brodzinski — I love Pawel’s perspective and his willingness to share lessons learned from his own teams in software development, specifically related to Kanban and Agile practices.
http://blog.brodzinski.com/
Best Podcaster — Cornelius Fichtner — Cornelius continues to put out great interviews and has been going for years. His PMP and PDU podcasts are excellent and he just does a great job hosting shows and adding value to the project management community.
http://www.project-management-podcast.com/
http://www.project-management-prepcast.com/
http://www.pducast.com/
Best Author — Guy Kawasaki — I’ve always liked Guy’s ideas and when his newest book Enchantment came out I grabbed it right away. In this book I found a kindred spirit in terms of how to best relate to people by adding value to their lives, and I learned a lot too.
Most Coolest Researcher(s) — Marko Ikonen, Fabian Fagerholm, Petri Kettunen, Pekka Abrahamsson, Elena Pirinen, University of Helsinki, Finland Aalto University, Finland
For their excellent case study I purchased titled ‘On the Impact of Kanban on Software Project Work: An Empirical Case Study Investigation‘ which is helping me to think more broadly about how to improve the implementation of Kanban with my own teams.
Most Innovative Company/Organization — GitHub
https://github.com
For an awesome opensource/hosted source repository that is actually usable and doesn’t look like crap. Love their Changelog Podcast and how the site has evolved over time.
Best Blogger- ScrumShortcuts
Ilan tackles how to put Scrum into practice with wit and experience that leaves you smiling and nodding in understanding.
http://www.scrumshortcuts.com/blog
Best Podcaster: Manager Tools
Because the best project managers are good people managers. Manager Tools gives you practical tools to do your job and those tools work whether you have directs or just a project team.
Manager-Tools.com
Most Innovative Company/Organization: Agile Learning Labs
ALL is based on the San Francisco Bay Area but they have a reach that matches the energy of their lead coach/trainer. ALL teaches and consults in a highly interactive style that has you using principles through hands-on activity.
ALL is also very active in promoting Agile excellence and sponsors an Agile Meetup as well as supports other Agile groups in and out of the SF Bay Area.
http://www.agilelearninglabs.com/
[...] http://www.projectshrink.com/the-2011-shrinkies-awards-for-awesome-people-request-for-nominees-5782…. [...]
Thanks guys for the awesome nominations! Good stuff.
Ok. Some entries I would like to share with you:
Lots of great researchers listed at the Project Management Research Institute:
https://pmri.athabascau.ca/aboutus
Blogs:
Lori’s Collective Self of course: http://www.collectiveself.com/
Havi Brooks!! http://www.fluentself.com/
Spark Now. http://stories-and-organizations.sparknow.net/
Penelope Trunk. http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/
I nominate Scott Berkun for best author. He writes well about project management and other business topics like public speaking and innovation, which is perfect for Shrinkonia. And his colophons are always really funny.
Yes! Thanks for the reminder.
Best PM blogger: Elizabeth Harrin
Best Agile blogger: Peter Saddington
Best career counselor: Josh Nankivel
Best curated blog focused on entry-level PM: PM Hut
Best curated blog focused on advanced topics: Projects at Work
Best large-format PM resource: Gantthead
Best interview podcaster: Samad Aidane
Best author: Peter Taylor, Pam Stanton
Most innovative company: Workday
Best gorilla: Hogarth
Best writing team: Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt, and Jeff Hodgkinson
Honorable mentions: Derek Huether, Geoff Crane, Glen Alleman, Jordan Bortz, Cornelius Fichtner, Brad Egeland, Bruce Benson, Ty Kiisel, Kerry Wills, Craig Brown, John Reiling, Chuck Morton, Johanna Rothman, Jorge Valdés Garciatorres, Lynda Bourne, Conrado Morlan, Cyndee Miller, Hajer Hamid, Jennifer Whitt, Ben Snyder, Bert Heymans, Lindsay Scott, Shim Marom, Khalid Fakhouri, Todd Williams, and Mike Griffiths.
Awesome list! “Best gorilla: Hogarth” You just defined a new category!!!
[...] Bas de Baar, the Project Shrink and principal resident (aside from MacGuyver) of Shrinkonia, is soliciting nominations for the 2001 Shrinkies – “Awards for Awesome People.” I nominated a whole list of them – add your voice! [...]
Bas,
Very difficult questions to answer. One criteria for me is how much time I spend on a website and how engaged I am, particularly in commenting. For this reason I nominate this blog
Lori’s Collective Self of course: http://www.collectiveself.com/
Hey everyone,
I am also looking for nominations in the software category.
Cheers
Bas
Through twitter: @SamKidd: “@projectshrink can I throw our app Teamworkpm.net into the ring there.”
Of course! You just did
Cheers for that Bas.
Best blogger – http://www.projectshrink.com/ (you may not of come across this guy, but he’s well worth checking out
)
Best Pod caster – http://mixergy.com/ (I know Andrews site is not really a PM blog, but all the business advice and tips he gets from his interviews leads to better management)
Best PM Software – http://www.teamworkpm.net (I know a little biased here, but for an easy to use PM software we are right up there)
Best business software: http://www.dropbox.com (This software has saved me so many times and makes the process of running a company so much easier now. No hassle or time needed for setting up internal networks now)
For the Most Coolest Researcher, I’d give it to Bent Flyvbjerg. He’s now at Oxford and the data-backed work he does on the project management space is super insightful: http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/research/people/Pages/BentFlyvbjerg.aspx
In terms of bloggers: Derek Huether, Geoff Crane, Elizabeth Harrin and Glen Alleman.
I agree with Scott Berkun as suggested above for the author, his most recent book Mindfire is solid.