Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
Modern Management: Build a Safe Environment In the agile community, we talk a lot about psychological safety. That’s the safety we need to discuss problems, challenges, or concerns. Here are two examples I’ve seen recently, one at the team level and one in management. A Team Example Cindy, a tester, was convinced the product had …
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Modern Management: Build Empathy with the People Who Do the Work Here’s a scenario I see too often in organizations. The product teams are supposed to work on several products “at once.” They have several goals for their work, not one specific goal. Why? Because the managers feel too much pressure to reduce the organizational …
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Modern Management: What Value Do You Offer? Sherry, a VP, was worried. Cliff, a new director, insisted on keeping his “hands in” the code. Now, she realized Cliff focused more on the code than his director role. And he irritated the team because he no longer understood enough of the technical details. Sherry had offered …
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Three Tips to Move from Certainty to Openness Dan, a senior manager, sees the end of the organization’s traditional business lines. He thinks they have a few good years with their current customers and products. However, he’s sure the company needs to find another way to meet their customers’ needs. And probably, acquire more and …
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Three Practical Tips to Create Your New Normal I’m thrilled that the vaccine rollout has started. (I received my first shot already.) That means we can start to think about our “new normal.” Instead of considering a return to working exactly the way you were before the pandemic, consider these three ideas to create an …
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Make Better Decisions When You Have Too Much Ambiguity As a leader in the organization, you have a Big Decision to make. You need more data. However, getting the data is impossible in the timeframe you need to decide. The data you want might not even exist. What do you do? You could pray. I’m …
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How to Say, “I Don’t Know” and Keep Your Job (If you don’t realize why you’re receiving this email, I discovered a problem with my newsletter settings. Feel free to unsubscribe. The link is at the bottom of the email.) How easy is it for you to say, “I don’t know,” or “I need help?” …
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Create Your Peer Management Team for Fun and Profit (and to Solve Problems) Do you wonder how to get more done in your organization? Your teams are working pretty well, delivering at a reasonable pace. Yet, you have the nagging feeling you could get more done. You can. The secret is management teams, not just …
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Secrets to Catch Yourself Mind-Reading The more remote we are, the easier it is for us to assume we know what other people think. I call that mind-reading. I am not clairvoyant—not even with my husband. (We both would like a little clairvoyance, at times!) The more mind-reading we do, the more likely we will …
Three Predictions About the Future of Remote Work We’re now several months into our dispersed work “routines.” (I suspect that anyone with a child at home would love to have a real routine.) And, as I work with my clients, I’ve learned several fascinating details: Many teams are much more effective now. Teams that can’t …
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