I see many teams and team members who say, “Agile stinks. It’s a way to force me to work too fast and not finish anything.” When I ask people what’s happening, they say: We’re doing an agile death march because someone else already told us what we have to do and the date it’s due. […]
I’m continuing the experiment into 2024 for several reasons: If you want to write more, you don’t need to write a lot at one time. I discovered that even if I get to Thursday afternoon, I can always write 100 words. That helps me make progress on some item/work in progress. I started this experiment
I had a chance to speak with Tobias Schlottke on his Alphalist podcast: Episode 92: Johanna Rothman The Pragmatic Manager. We had a wide-ranging conversation, mostly about management. We included topics from my programming experience, why multitasking is a disaster, and how to use flow metrics to understand reality. We also touched on many of
Regardless of whether you work inside an organization or you work for yourself, the start of the new year allows all of us to reset and restart. That means too many of us think we need to “plan” for an entire year. Before you consider an entire year, reflect on last year: How much of
My last 60 seconds of WIP for 2023: The transcript: I’m Johanna Rothman, and this is 60 Seconds of Johanna’s WIP for December 28, 2023, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress. This excerpt is from a book about presentation skills for consultants, managers, and writers. Speakers hear
Want to write better and faster and with more ease? Register for the Q1 2024 Free Your Inner Nonfiction Writer workshop. That page has all the details. Free yourself from all the old rules that prevent you from writing fast and well. Never have the blank page problem. Instead, create ease with your writing. You
My 60 seconds of WIP this week. I also post these on my YouTube channel. If you want a laugh, take a look at my supposedly incognito clip. As soon as I turned on the camera, I realized I could not be incognito. Yes, that moment will make it into some writing in the future.
Ever since I was on the Troubleshooting Agile podcast, I’ve followed Squirrel and Jeffrey. (I highly recommend their podcast.) Recently, Squirrel posted something fascinating on LinkedIn: Aim for a “single source of lies” about your business. That’s quite a provocative idea, especially when many of us persist in looking for a “single source of truth.”
If you read this blog or my newsletter, you know I enjoy both nonfiction and fiction writing. I have another short story as part of the 2023 Holiday Spectacular: Underdog Party. The week is over. Please see the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2023 project for all the other stories and to buy the books when they
My 60 seconds of WIP. Yes, I fully expect to cycle on this opening. Or, it will be in a different part of the story. I often realize where this chunk goes after I start to write. (Fiction or nonfiction.) The transcript: I’m Johanna Rothman, and this is 60 Seconds of Johanna’s WIP for December