I’m rewriting/reorganizing the Lead an Innovative Organization book. I realized I have 7 innovation principles: Clarify the organization’s purpose. Manage for effectiveness. Seek outcomes, not outputs. Flow efficiency at all levels. Encourage small-world networks of relationships. Organizational integrity. Encourage change and experiments. Anytime I’ve seen a successful innovation culture, I’ve seen these principles. (I’m trying […]
I wrote a number of posts and newsletters over the past few weeks to help you see alternatives in this age of uncertainty. I hope you use these ideas to generate other ideas or ask more questions and create more experiments. The posts on this blog: 7 Tool Tips for Your Newly Distributed or Remote
Three Tips for Coping When You’re Supposed to Lead We’re several weeks into the COVID-19 crisis, and we still don’t know much about the future. We have some data about the present. But the future? Nope. You might have a title with “lead” or “manager.” And, you might not be sure about what to do
Many people talk about “going back to normal.” We aren’t going to return to normal. That old normal is gone, at least for a year, if not longer. (I suspect we will cycle between remote work and office work for the foreseeable future.) What we can do is discover a new normal. Discovery requires different
Everyone’s distributed/remote/dispersed in these days of COVID-19. Mark Kilby and I have had the pleasure of being guest on a couple of podcasts that released this week: We spoke with Shane Hastie at Agile 2019. Here is the podcast: Johanna Rothman & Mark Kilby on Their Book From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams. We
Are you a manager accustomed to Management by Walking Around and Listening (MBWAL)? You can use MBWAL with collocated teams. MBWAL doesn’t work for distributed or dispersed teams. Remember, working remote is Not Business as Usual. (And won’t be for a while.) And, you might still have this question: “If no one’s in the office,
You probably went from the office to remote so fast, you’re still recovering from the whiplash of working from home. I found the biggest change when I started to work remotely was how meetings changed. I’ve learned these tips over the years. You might find them helpful. Tip 1: Start With Cameras On When we
Three Tips for Coping when Change Might Make You Nuts (Support Others) We’re still living in substantial uncertainty and chaos. We don’t know when we might be able to return to work. The kids are home from school for the foreseeable future. Where I live, in Massachusetts, all “non-essential” businesses are closed. (I did not
Many organizations heeded the COVID-19 warnings and sent people home to work as remote teams. The managers want to proceed as if the people can work from home and have “business as usual.” They’ve made these requests to their staff: Work at home, as if you were at the office. (Keep the same hours and
Vasco Duarte of Scrum Master Toolbox fame has invited Mark Kilby and me to a Q&A about thriving with remote work. See Remote Work Live. Vasco is recording the sessions. My session with Mark is on Monday, March 23, 2020, 10 am Eastern. (Yes, the page has time “translation.”) Please do join us. We’ll answer