I hear a lot of managers worry about how to motivate people. I don’t think you can motivate people… people create their own motivation. But you can de-motivate people and unfortunately, too many managers do. Here are some of the de-motivators I see:...
A while I go I pointed out the reasons *not* to have a retrospective. There are plenty of reasons *in favor* of having retrospectives (after every iteration): A well run retrospective enables the team to:step back and take a “whole system” view of their methods and...
I attended a short presentation on listening the other day. It was an interesting experience. In the first segment, the presenter demonstrated a listening technique. He listened to a guy talk for about 3 minutes, and then mirrored back what he’d said. He didn’t use...
A friend of mine is being wooed by a potential employer. She told the hiring manager she couldn’t start a new job for 3 months. He asked for reasons. For each reason she gave, he had an excellent and logical reason for the opposite position. The more reasons she gave,...
I had a conversation recently with a guy who was concerned about the level of “commitment” in his group. “It’s always the same people staying late,” he said. “The others just aren’t committed. We can’t accomplish everything we need to unless these other people step up...
In BCD, Johanna and I wrote a section “Setup for Successful Delegation.” We wanted to help managers think through the boundaries of a task they’re delegating and be clear—with themselves and the other person—about requirements, unacceptable solutions, progress...
On Friday I gave my talk, The Value-added Manager: 5 Pragmatic Practices at the SQUAD Conference in Denver. I had a great time. One of the practices I cover in my talk is making a to-do list and a not-to-do list and getting clear on priorities. A woman in the audience...
Retrospectives are a great way for teams to inspect and adapt their methods and teamwork after each iteration and release. And they’re a great way for teams to build on success, learn from hard times, or bring closure when a project ends. But they’re not for good for...
Jerry Weinberg finds wisdom in Japanese proverbs in this post on the AYE blog. If I were to give advice to a young professional starting out in the world, I could do no better than quote three Japanese proverbs: We learn little from victory, much from defeat. So, do...
One of my readers asked me to explain how I use Next Action — which is a little different than described in David Allen’s book. So maybe I should call it something else like “Smallest Lever.” I use Smallest Lever for tasks or projects that a) I...
A while back I listened to David Allen’s Getting Things Done on audio book. (I remember noticing passive voice—which struck me as odd in a book about taking action.) I haven’t implemented the system–or purchased the gear. But I am practicing Next Action. For me,...
Every so often, someone declares “We don’t need managers, we need leaders.” Statements like this imply that people are either one or the other, and that management is somehow less valuable than leadership. I don’t buy the idea that management and leadership are...
Two bits that I came across in my reading this week are sticking together in my head. In his post, Imitation is the Saddest Form of Flattery, Pragmatic Dave talks about other publishers imitating what they do at the Pragmatic Bookshelf. Andy and I have tried to think...
I see (and hear about) more and more companies that are jumping on the Agile bandwagon. All too often, a top managers direct the organization to implement Scrum or another Agile method.Sometimes implementing Agile top down succeeds in establishing the a few...
When I work with new managers (and some managers who have been around for a while), some of the first questions I ask are: How does your unit/department/team contribute to generating revenue for the company?How does the work of your unit contribute to gaining new...
I’ve been thinking about auditions since I had a conversation with a friend who hired a bunch of analysts who all reported they’d worked with use cases, but when it came to actually working with use cases didn’t have a clue. I asked my friend if he’d used auditions as...
Last week I did a feedback workshop at the AYE conference. I do this workshop from time to time, and while each workshop is unique, and there are consistent patterns. As I walk around the room and listen to people practice giving feedback, there’s always at least one...
