Behind Closed Doors

MPD

Aha Moments

I’m still catching up on posting links where either I or other people had aha moments: TMI’s One-on-Ones discusses a bunch of things about one-on-ones, something Esther and I have been talking about forever (as well as in Behind Closed Doors.) David Carlton explains how he adapted one-on-ones. (For the record, I love it when […]

Interview, MPD

Video Interview Posted at InfoQ

Deb Hartmann interviewed me (video and audio!) at Agile 2007. We mostly talked about schedule games from Manage It. (We briefly discussed Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management and Hiring the Best Knowedge Workers, Techies & Nerds.) For those of you who’ve met me and are wondering, “Where are Johanna’s glasses?” They’re in my

Books, MPD

A Funny Story About Manage It!

Dave Liebreich sent me this email: I’m working with the new hire in our group, bringing him up to speed on our stuff. He noticed that I brought in my copy of “Manage It!”, and asked if it was to help me manage him. [pause for laughter] Never work for someone who refers to you

MPD

Feedback is NOT Coaching

At SD earlier this week, I led a tutorial about coaching. Imagine my surprise when I asked people why they were there, and some of them said, “I have a person who’s not doing so well. I need to coach them.” Uh, no. You need to give that person feedback. Feedback is information about the

MPD

Sightings of BCD, Manage It!, and Hiring the Best…

Tech Republic has the estimation chapter from Manage It!. There’s a great Manage It! review at Book Review: Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Michael Fransen enjoyed Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management. He posted a review. The session he took at Agile 2007 was “Hiring for an Agile Team,” based

MPD

Whose Standup Is It?

  Esther and I were teaching a Behind Closed Doors tutorial at Better Software yesterday. One of the participants was a program manager. He couldn’t see the value of the standup meetings the Scrum teams used every day. “They talk to each other all the time–why do they need the standup? I can’t see the

Books, MPD

Another Review of Behind Closed Doors

  In addition to writing this blog, I also write Hiring Technical People. And, I’ve met a bunch of great recruiting-type people through that blog. One of them, Jim Durbin, has written a great review of Behind Closed Doors. He calls it “a reference manual for technical managers.”

MPD, workshop

Announcement: Managing One-on-One Workshop

  A couple of weeks ago in Positive Results With One-on-Ones, I let you know Esther and I would be running public workshops soon. We are finally ready to announce the workshop. July 10-12, 2006, in Minneapolis, we will hold the first Behind Closed Doors: Managing One-on-One workshop. Interested? Here’s the flyer (PDF). I’ll be

Books, MPD

A Great Review for Behind Closed Doors

  Adam Goucher published his Review of Behind Closed Doors. Adam likes it! Here are the things he particularly likes: the scenario structure of seeing what a great manager does each week; and the techniques that managers (and anyone else) can use to make life easier. Thanks, Adam.

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