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I read John Hunter's Curious Cat Management Improvement blog because it increases my bandwidth by connecting me with select articles about many subjects I know something about, but where I have no deep knowledge. For my guest hosting stint, I want to share some blogs that do the same thing, but in different areas. Hopefully, you'll find at least one blog that will help increase your bandwidth.

Evidence Soup by Tracy Allison Altman

This is a blog about assessing evidence. If statistics are not your thing, you'll pick up some tips and tricks that will help you analyze evidence to guide your decision making. If you're a statistical whiz, you'll find a lot here that's just fun.

Representative Recent Post: Big Ideas may not have supporting evidence, but they sell books by the boatload.
"Haven't we had enough of authors pitching an oversimplified analysis of something important? It's great to boil things down into plain language, but when an entire book is based on A Big Idea, complicated things are glossed over, evidence is cherry-picked, we get bamboozled. (And books are sold. Maybe I'm just jealous.)"

Compensation Force by Ann Bares

We all want to get paid fairly for what we do. That's why compensation touches all our lives. Ann Bares, the author of this blog, is my go-to source for compensation issues because she does a superb job of connecting compensation issues to business and social issues.

Representative Recent Post:  Fuel Costs Bringing Attention - But Little Change - to Vehicle Benefits
"Vehicle-related benefits - company cars, car allowances, mileage reimbursement and the like - have drawn much attention of late in connection with fuel costs.  The question being asked in many organizations, however, is whether and to what degree these benefit practices are being impacted by the price of fuel. The answer appears to be - not really."

Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy

As Ann Bares is to compensation, so is Dan McCarthy to leadership development. He's got a career's worth of valuable experience that he shares in way that you can put to work. He's also one of the best bloggers I know at selecting guest posters who deliver relevant quality.

Representative Recent Post: Which Change Model Should You Pick?
"OD practitioners often find themselves in similar situations where their organizations are asking them to adopt one single change model. There’s a lot of merit to the “one model” approach. It’s a must for financial systems and marketing strategy, as well as softer things like values and leadership competencies. Using a common change model could help facilitate learning, consistency, and efficiency.

On the other hand, I’ve seen the quest for a single model taken to the extreme. In a previous large, global organization, it actually turned into silly turf wars. A LOT of energy was expended debating over whose model should be “the one”, as well as the “policing” of stamping out rouge models. I don’t think that kind of nonsense was helping the managers we were supposed to be supporting."

Life in Perpetual Beta by Harold Jarche

Harold Jarche's blog is the point in my universe where a host of sources on personal knowledge management and the changing workplace come together. In addition to his own lucid analysis, Harold supplies pointers to many great sources that are new to me. As a bonus, this blog could serve as a primer on using illustrations to explain concepts. The representative post describes Harold's view of what the blog is about.

 Representative Recent Post: Adapting to Life in Perpetual Beta
"On my consulting page, I have summarized my perspectives on 21st century work. It’s called: Adapting to Life in Perpetual Beta.

    There is no such thing as a social media strategy.
    There are only business strategies that understand networks.
    Collaborative and distributed work is becoming the norm.
    Social learning is how work gets done in networks.
    Sharing, enabling conversations and transparency are some of the values of networked business.
    This is done through knowledge-sharing, self-directed learning and user-generated content.
    Learning is part of work, not separate from it.

This too, is in perpetual Beta."

Management Information Exchange

Management Information Exchange (MIX) is about re-inventing management. I'll pause for a moment while you giggle. True, there's enough consulting speak on this site to gag a goat, but there are also amazingly insightful posts, especially among the stories and the hacks. This is a site you'll want to poke around on to find what's best for you.

Representative Recent Post: 100 Years of Frederick Winslow Taylor by Ross Smith
"2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor was a mechanical engineer who, according to Peter Drucker, “was the first man in recorded history who deemed work deserving of systematic observation and study.” Taylor holds forty-two patents, including several for golf and tennis related inventions. Taylor wrote at a time when the average worker was viewed as inefficient and sluggish. There was a fear among workers that if they were more productive, there would be less work to go around. His Principles of Scientific Management was directed at improving worker efficiency. He felt that the “the remedy for this inefficiency lies in systematic management, rather than in searching for some unusual or extraordinary man.”"

Execupundit

This is a great bandwidth expander and also a smile-generator. There is no "representative" post because blogger Michael Wade covers a lot of territory. You can expect his savvy observations on life in the business world, pointers to great posts by others, music breaks, pungent quotes, and more. It boils down to wisdom on the fly, with a smile.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.