Trust may seem mysterious—something that just happens or grows through some unknowable process. The good news is there are concrete actions that tend to build trust (and concrete actions that are almost guaranteed to break down trust). First, let’s agree on a...
I recently sat down for an interview with Marcus Blankenship of Programming Leadership. We talked about my book, 7 Rules for Positive Productive Change, and how change plays out for people and organizations. You can listen to the full interview on Marcus...
At the end of one of my Team Coaching workshops, a participant–an agile coach with years of experience– remarked, “I had no idea there was more to coaching than asking questions.” Another coach commented, “I see now why me teaching how to write stories...
Well, it’s that time again — time for the yearly performance review. The ritual starts with gathering feedback, proceeds to assigning rating/ranking, and drags on through doling out a raise. Do you enjoy annual review ritual? Thought not. This year I think...
John was out of patience. “It shouldn’t take this long!” John, the VP of Development, snapped. “This is a simple change. It is just not that hard!” The “it” John referred to was a set of measures and metrics. He believed that if all the teams reported these, everyone...
In an online forum, someone declared that feedback between peers must be anonymous. He asserted people won’t be honest without anonymity. However, I have found it is possible to be honest and not anonymous. Further, anonymous feedback backfires in number of...
Some people seem to think that empathy has no place at work…that work requires a hard-nose, logic, and checking your emotions at the door. But, in periods of change, emotions—which are always present, whether we choose to acknowledge them or not—surge to the surface....
Most job descriptions break work down into discrete chunks. They define activities a person must do, list required behaviors and desired qualities. Job descriptions aim for standardization. I understand HR departments desire consistency. Yet, it seems to me, job...
In previous Super Power posts, I wrote about the importance of curiosity and observation in change. Both of those play into the Super Power I’ll discuss in this post: experimentation. Tiny changes, done as experiments, may feel like you’re dancing around...
Why does observation matter? Let me tell you a story.When I was a kid, we played a birthday party game called Pin the Tail on the Donkey. The game involved a large wall poster of a sad-looking, tailless donkey. The parent-in-charge handed out replacement tails and...
