A cargo cult occurs when people adopt rituals expecting some good behavior to occur. They really don’t know why they are doing these rituals and don’t understand the reasons behind them, yet they keep doing the rituals expecting great results. In this article, I’ll give two contrasting examples that I’m familiar with: Project A talks […]
We encounter problems all the time. Some we can resolve on our own in a couple of minutes. Some take more time, and/or we can’t resolve them alone. What do you do then? I’ve had a policy for about twenty years for when I become stuck. If I’m stuck for more than twenty minutes, it’s
Several years ago, I had a senior VP as a client. He wanted his managers to work as more of a team. He thought they were not working together for the good of the company. I asked him why he thought that. “When they estimate, they don’t work together on an estimate. They each estimate
I spoke with a new manager, Drew, the other day. His days are full. He’s got tons of meetings. He tries to provide feedback and coaching to his team members, but he has crises up the wazoo. Drew asked for coaching: “I have way too much to do. I need to learn how to manage
A client asked me to do an assessment. He wasn’t sure agile was working for their teams. The standup meetings felt like micromanagement. People were on several projects, so they didn’t meet their commitments. The project manager had to translate the project’s progress and status to Gantt charts. Worst of all, people went through the
I’m working on my leadership keynotes and workshops. My primary thesis is that leaders work to change things, first with themselves and then at work. That requires knowing what drives your behavior at work. I don’t mean your personality. Of course your personality affects your work behavior. I need to talk in order to know
I was thinking about the best projects and teams I know. They work in different industries and have different customers. Some are engineering teams. Some are IT. Some are agile; some aren’t. Some are in transition. One thing they have in common is that they are happy teams. If you asked them to show you
I had dinner with a colleague. While we were settling into our coffee, he asked me, “What does post-agile mean to you?” I was no longer calm and relaxed. “That’s a nonsense word. Post-agile!” Here’s why I reacted the way I did. We have known about miniature milestones, or inch-pebbles, since the 1940s. That’s how
I run into clients who believe they are applying agile project management. Yet they are seeing little benefit. Why? Typically these folks try to apply agile while still using a fixed mindset. In this article, I’ll give you core practices and tips for reaping the benefits of agile. Fixed vs. Growth Mindset In agile, we
The Northeast is in the midst of the Blizzard of 2015. Right now, I’m sitting snug in my home office, waiting for the blizzard to be over. I still have power and heat, which is great! I was wondering—what do you do on a snow day? If you’re agile and you are accustomed to having