Is Your Agile Journey Based on Problems or Process? You can start your agile journey in any number of ways. Some people like to start with Scrum, because it’s a project management framework. Some people like to start with Kanban, because it reflects your current project approach and allows you to visualize your workflow. You […]
One of the familiar tensions in management is how you encourage or discourage people from bringing you problems. One of my clients had a favorite saying, “Don’t bring me problems. Bring me solutions.” I could see the problems that saying caused in the organization. He prevented people from bringing him problems until the problems were
Back when I was a manager inside organizations, I had many days that looked like this: Meetings at 9am, 10am, 11am. Working meeting through lunch (noon-1pm) Meetings at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm. I finally got a chance to check my email at 4pm. That’s when I discovered the world had blown up earlier in the day!
Many years ago, I was part of a task force to “standardize” project management at an organization. I suggested we gather some data to see what kinds of projects the client had. They had short projects, where it was clear what they had to do: 1-3 week projects where 2-4 people could run with the
Bill popped his head into Jan’s office as he was leaving for the evening. “Jan, do you have a minute? I have to do performance reviews tonight. I was going to drink Scotch and work my way through all of them.” Jan laughed and said, “Sure. Scotch might make you feel good, but it will
Sharon poked her head into Heath’s cubicle. “Hey, Heath, are you done yet with that fix?” Heath turned around. “Sharon, you asked me that less than an hour ago. I’m not done yet.” “Well, I need to know when you will be done. Oh, and I need to know if you’re using the design we
Three Tips for Becoming a Servant Leader You and I both know that we’re not supposed to boss people around anymore, that we’re supposed to be servant leaders. Well, a client asked me, “What the heck is servant leadership?” When you’re a traditional manager, you might have thought of accumulating people and power. If you
Take Advantage of Opportunities for Speed Coaching Do people ever come to you for advice? I bet they do. Are you ever puzzled about whether to answer them or coach them? Maybe you’re not sure how to coach them quickly. Sometimes you might think, “I can provide an answer faster than I can prompt an
Lead Your Agile Transition Through Influence I bet you’re transitioning to agile or something like it. How’s it going for you? If you are anything like many of my clients, the answer is, “meh.” Kelly, a colleague had trouble with her stories. “Everything takes us forever. We can’t get anything done in two weeks. Everything
Bad management is easy. Well, let me rephrase that. It’s easy to perform management badly. But, it’s not so easy to perform management well. From the outside, it can seem as if management is effortless. But that doesn’t mean that good management is easy. Early in my management career, I returned home one day, plopped