Very few writers—nonfiction or fiction—sell a lot of books. That means they don’t make money from their books alone. What’s a writer to do? Take a look at the 2023 Write Stuff bundle. The bundle will help you see where you might improve your craft and your business. Most of the books apply to all […]
Is your organization in search of business agility? If so, here’s one pragmatic tip: Reduce WIP (Work in Progress) everywhere. Start with the portfolio of everything you have to do. Ask the Zeroth Question, “Should we do this work at all?” Then, consider these questions, from One Quick Way to Start to Manage Your Project
Up until now, when thinking about risks, I defaulted to the risks in the project pyramid. That’s because each project offers different value over the product’s lifetime. (See Product Roles, Part 4: Product Orientation and the Role of Projects for images of why we want ever-increasing product value, but why we might space the projects
Many nonfiction writers start books with outlines. I’m not big on outlines because they shortcut the writer’s thinking. (Nonfiction writers think and learn as they write.) However, some writers go off on tangents without outlines. Or, some writers (raises hand) are prone to put everything she ever learned about this topic into one book. Either
I am thrilled to announce a book birthday: Successful Independent Consulting: Relationships That Focus on Mutual Benefit. People often ask me how long it takes me to write a book. Every book takes the time it takes. But this one took much longer than I expected. Here’s the story of the consulting book. In the
Brandon, a senior leader, asked, “What is all this hype about agile frameworks and models and practices? Do I really need all that stuff?” I shook my head and grinned. “Nope. Instead, practice this: make change easy, so you can learn from it. That allows you to change again and faster. Especially for management.” “That’s
When I published Writing Secret 9: Keep Your Writing Clean As You Write, the feedback surprised me. Many of my fellow nonfiction writers write a lot before they get internal feedback. That might be right for them. It’s not right for me. I finally understood why I write differently. I think of each iteration as
Sherry, a middle manager in a relatively small organization, said, “We can’t plan for an entire quarter at a time. Our managers need to change what they want more often than that. But I’d like to plan for a quarter at a time and I really don’t want to ask people to multitask. What do
Some writers suggest you write sloppy, “vomiting” the words onto the page. They think all writers need to start with “shitty first drafts.” But sloppy writing means you need several drafts to clean up the sloppiness. To me, that’s like waiting until the end of coding to write and run any tests at all. (Been
In preparation for a recent consulting engagement, the client, Tim, said, “I want you to track meeting attendance. If people don’t come to your meetings, I want to know why.” Tim was worried about the cultural changes we needed to discuss for the client’s ability to be more effective. Tim had good reasons to worry