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...
