Andersen interviewed the key developer from Guardian of London to understand how they got 20,000 plus Brit’s to help uncover the biggest political scandal to hit British shores in decades.

Andersen interviewed the developer, Simon Willison, for tips about deadline-driven software and crowdsourcing. Here are the 4 major tips to successfully engage a crowd for crowdsourcing.

1. Remember your workers are unpaid, so make it fun. They used a four-panel interface to categorize information. (See the image above)
2. Because public (your workers’) attention is fickle, launch immediately.
3. Speed is mandatory, so use a framework for development. Wilson’s team relied on Django, a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
4. Participation will come in one big burst, so have servers ready. Along with Django, they used EC2, the Amazon contract-hosting service for the first time.

Judith Ross notes on HBR Blog that leaders need to ask questions that inspire folks to think in new ways, expand range of vision, and enable greater contribution to the organization. Both Judith and Michael suggest that empowering knowledge workers involve encouragement to be better thinkers and problem solvers.

Judith suggests that empowering questions create following values:

1. They create clarity: “Can you explain more about this situation?”
2. They construct better working relations: Instead of “Did you make your sales goal?” ask, “How have sales been going?”
3. They help people think analytically and critically: “What are the consequences of going this route?”
4. They inspire people to reflect and see things in fresh, unpredictable ways: “Why did this work?”
5. They encourage breakthrough thinking: “Can that be done in any other way?”
6. They challenge assumptions: “What do you think you will lose if you start sharing responsibility for the implementation process?”
7. They create ownership of solutions: “Based on your experience, what do you suggest we do here?”

To read a more complete post on what questions leaders need to ask and how to create a culture that embraces questions, read Judith’s HBR blog entry here.

After a project is delivered do a formal lessons-learned session (with or without your team)- the objective: to find at least 3 things you can improve on the project.

Here is Jonah talking at Google.

• Bumkin, a Scottsdale diaper maker, reports that it spends about 1000 USD for testing each batch of garment it buys and testing costs now contribute 25% of the product cost!

• Boon Inc, A Chandler toy maker that has spent $400,000 on compliance efforts with no end in sight since the act was passed two year years ago.