You’re a middle or senior manager in an organization trying to hold on in these crazy times. And you just discovered you’re shipping the wrong version of the product. (Or your product doesn’t work or it has some kind of horrible defect.) Your customers are angry. Your employees are running around, trying to fix the
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?”
I had a great time with Jeff and Squirrel on their podcast, Troubleshooting Agile. They focus on what our conversations can tell us about ourselves. We spoke about the Modern Management Made Easy books in Johanna Rothman on Modern Management Part 1. Here’s a highlight idea from the podcast: a transition to management is a
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
Several of my clients have intertwined problems. Everyone agrees they want innovation: Which products and services the organization offers. (The project portfolio) What features the product offers, or the problems the product solves. (The product roadmap) In the team, to solve the problems in a way that will attract users/buyers/customers. (The team’s backlog and how
Steve, a software development manager, thought John was a “10x” developer. He explained that John could: Coded faster than anyone else. Write and release full applications over a weekend. “Mind-meld” with the users. No one else in Steve’s group could do this. Was I willing to support and coach the other people in Steve’s group
One of my reviewers for the Modern Management Made Easy books asked a fascinating question: I’ve never seen this many women in management or in senior leadership positions. Do these stories reflect your experience? Yes, the stories reflect my experience. Let me offer a little history. My History, Not Anyone Else’s History I started to
Everyone feels the pressure right now. Many managers feel pressure to deliver more and better products and services. That pressure rolls downhill to the people doing the work. And, the people doing the work, especially if they’re parents? Well, they clearly made the wrong choice to bring children into the world in the last eight
We hear about agile teams, in the form of product or feature teams. However, too many managers still work independently. That’s a problem when the teams have organizational problems a single manager can’t solve. Instead of managers working alone, what if we had teams of managers? A client, Bob, had that very problem. He said,
Do you have any idea how long it takes you to make decisions? Or, to clear impediments? Or to report to your team or your boss about your action items? Each of those items is a deliverable. That means we might be able to measure the cycle time for each of these deliverables. Normally, we