Stan, a prospective client, had trouble making time for our discovery call. (That’s the call where the client and I discuss the boundaries of a consulting engagement.) After he canceled three scheduled calls, I suspected we would not work together. But then he asked me for an evening conversation, after his day’s “craziness.” (His words,
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
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
Sid, a senior leader, wants the benefits of an agile transformation. While he doesn’t care about agility per se, he wants the organization to be more effective. His goals: Open new markets for their products. Gain new customers in those markets. Retain more current customers. He suspects that if the teams release faster, the organization can achieve those
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
Barney, a senior manager, said, “I need everyone to return to the office. I’m okay with what they’re doing, although I miss the buzz of people doing the work. But I don’t know how to build the human connection with them when they’re not here.” I nodded. “You’re always telling me to have empathy with
Too many managers don’t know how to manage remote people. Worse, those managers, or their organizations, don’t trust people to do a good job. The organization installs spyware to see if people are working. That’s classic Theory X behavior. However, people are smarter than the spyware. Many of these spied-upon people have installed mouse (and
Back when I wrote Writing Secret 5: Decide on One Ideal Reader, I suggested there was one primary reader and other secondary readers. That’s not wrong, but it’s incomplete. Nonfiction writing causes people to decide, rethink, or change their actions, all a change of some sort. That means the ideal reader for a given piece
At a recent client, a senior leader, Tim, said, “We realize we can’t do everything, but we don’t know how to get a handle on what we need to do.” We talked about what they measured and how long it took them to make decisions. (See Why Minimize Management Decision Time.) Tim explained that they
Do you ever want to bounce ideas off someone else? Or learn the way they approach a particular problem? I’m not talking about anyone’s specific capabilities. Instead, we can enhance our abilities by working with someone else. That brings its problem: How do you choose that learning partner? I’ve worked with several partners as a