At last. The new book is done. That’s the good news. I can now get issue 23 of What’s Next out (next week, maybe the week after that) and catch-up with some issues of brainmail. I think I’m about 4 months behind with brainmail. Crikey.The bad news is that I’ve done something really bad to my back. Probably caused by me sitting too close to computer screen for 12-months, banging my head on my desk, shouting #FϷ´®¥â„¢£¢5w6***** (it was the book!).

So, today, I have mostly been… lying on my back, on the floor, trying to read various newspaper and magazines articles held above my head. I now have arm muscles like Godzilla. Pick of the day?  An article in the Harvard Business Review called Why Teams Don’t Work (by Diane Coutu). Basically, teams under perform due to problems surrounding motivation and co-ordination. Teams usually have the wrong people in them, they get changed too often and they are far too large. The ideal size is less then 10 people. In my experience it’s actually 8 because that’s the maximum you can comfortably get around a dinner table.

Second, some research by Queensland University of Technology about risks of open-plan offices, published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management (hint: open-plan offices are bad for productivity, bad for privacy, increase workplace conflict and raise blood pressure. Otherwise they’re a really good idea!!!).

Third, an article in The Futurist magazine (US) about ten forces driving business futures. US centric but a good read nevertheless. Fourth, something from Wired magazine about the plot to kill Google and finally, an article from Time magazine about twitter. Totally under whelming — both the article and Twitter.

PS — Don’t eat lunch upside down. It doesn’t work.

Busy week. Trying to finish off the new book, which has been painful.

Got an email from a large Swiss pharmaceuticals company a few days ago asking whether I’d like to go to Prague to talk to them about Macro-trends. I said yes, but then they moved the cheese. I’ll probably end up in Melbourne now instead. Then I got asked about Arizona. Ummm..?

Meanwhile, the best brief I’ve ever received landed on my desk by way of a letter (remember those?). Would I like to go away somewhere really remote to think about the future of water and not come back until I’ve got an answer? I said I’d think about it.

As you may know, when it comes to the economy, especially in Asia, I’m on the side of the economic optimists. I’m at the “they think it’s all over —it is now” end of the spectrum on the recession, especially in places like Australia. But not everyone that I speak with agrees with me and what some people are saying is quite compelling.

Autumn – or fall — in the northern hemisphere is traditionally the time when stock markets fall – like lead weights. Since 1929, September has always been the worst month for US stocks and let’s not forget what happened in September 2007. October isn’t much better historically either. Why the seasonal gloom? One reason is probably that it’s the month that companies start to admit that their full year profit forecasts aren’t looking too good.

Another reason is probably that as the days get shorter and the nights get bleaker investor sentiments turn to doomsday scenarios. Chatting with a few bankers it appears that recent improvements in earnings have largely been a result of cost cutting and de-leveraging rather than any genuine improvement in sales. This is one reason to be cautious.

Another reason is that large companies are still finding it difficult to get funding and without secure funding there is the possibility that they will fall over. And, of course, consumers and governments around the world are still debt laden, interest rates look like they will rise and unemployment isn’t looking too pretty in some regions either.

On balance I’m still optimistic that Asia is out of the recession and that the rest of the world will follow suit in due course. But then again: