I’ve been hearing people talk about “hybrid” remote teams. So far, every person I’ve talked to means something different. When Mark Kilby and I wrote From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams, we differentiated between these types of teams: Collocated, as all the people are within 8-16 m of each other. (See the Allen Curve […]
You’re a leader in the organization. And you’re supposed to be at another meeting, that started 15 minutes ago. Your previous meeting ran long, so now you’re late. But the conversation you just had? That conversation prevented a bad product decision. (Or, it prevented a customer meltdown. Or something equally important.) At least, the decisions
Do you ever encounter perfection rules when you write (or create in any way)? Maybe you’ve heard these statements—or you’ve said them to yourself: We must spend a lot of time “polishing” to create perfect writing. We must not publish until the work is perfect. We can create a perfect piece and it’s worth our
More of my clients say they want business agility. (That’s a good thing.) Yet, we don’t share a common definition of business agility. My clients mostly discuss their mindset. Mindset might help people, but it’s not sufficient. Instead, let’s consider how to see management’s adaptable and resilient actions. Those actions show that managers change their
Most of us writers start with bad advice, to write “formally.” We’re not supposed to talk to the reader. Or, we’re supposed to avoid stories. Worse, we’re supposed to use passive voice. That leads us to write like this: <A person> will be missed. Your work is appreciated. This work needs to be undertaken. Here’s
I spoke with Andy Kaufman on his People and Projects Podcast 377. Full disclosure: I met Andy back in 1999 at the Software Development conference. So we’ve known each other for a long time. I subscribe to his podcast because I like the way he interviews guests. He looks beyond the obvious to deeper insights.
When I sent my newsletter last month, Modern Management: Want Valuable Outcomes? Create Overarching Goals, several readers asked me questions. Why did I differentiate between outputs, outcomes, and benefits? I decided that was worth a blog post. Here’s how I define and use the terms. Outputs By themselves, a customer can’t use an output. We
Thinking about bringing your writing skills to the next level? Want to write and finish? Enroll in my Writing Workshop 1: Free Your Inner Writer & Sell Your Nonfiction Ideas. You’ll learn to build your writing system and habit. Please join me. (Workshop details and testimonials on the writing workshop page.) I hope you join
Please check out this wide-ranging conversation with Miljan Bajic. The writing workshop we mentioned now has its own page: Free Your Inner Writer & Sell Your Nonfiction Ideas. Enjoy!
Are you frustrated with your board? Maybe three columns don’t offer you enough information. Or maybe you agree with me that teams need to create their own boards. (See the Agile Approaches Offer Strategic Advantage; Agile Tools are Tactics series.) While you’re intrigued by how to create your own board, you have zero money to