I have a lot of energy for effective feedback. Unfortunately, I haven’t reached all the managers (and just plain folks) in the world yet, so there are still folks out there giving feedback that is veiled, garbled, unactionable, and downright hurtful.Take for...
I’m at Agile2005 this week. I always expect to meet interesting people at this conference, and I haven’t been disappointed.One of the people I’ve met was a reviewer for Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Greate Management (which I co-authored with...
Last week I was in a meeting to decide how to move forward on a project.The conversation was going in circles. I was having trouble following which options were on the table and which were off. Based on what I was hearing, it seemed like others didn’t have a...
A while back, Slacker Manager bemoaned micromanaging colleagues who over use “call colleague X” as thier next action (a la David Allen). And that got me thinking about saying No. Most of us are inclined to accept any task that comes our way at work–...
A colleague applied for a management job at a large national organization — 2 months ago. Aside from a form email acknowledging receipt of his application, he hasn’t heard a word.There’s information about the organization here. Were I in this...
Last week I wrote about peer-to-peer feedback. In response, Liz Keogh offers her story here.It almost always works better when peers resolve their own issues, even when the issues are socially awkward. Had Liz taken this issue to the MD, I suspect the outcome...
Zhiyi Zhang wrote in a comment posted on 6/10:”I realized that I can’t do a good job if I keep wearing multiple hats…It’s quite possible that management pushes to that extreme in the name of agile, knowingly and unknowingly.”This is a...
On Agile teams, traditional job boundaries start to blur. Testers are more involved during development. Developers write tests. Testers and developers help with documentation. Team members pitch in to do what needs to be done. And in this process, they broaden there...
A friend of mine reminded me of a little article I wrote a few years back.And it seems timely to bring it up again: “Accountability” is one of those words I hear a lot in organizations where things aren’t going very well. Everyone wants some one else...
I talk to a manager who had attended one of my feedback workshops.One of his staff members had come to him complaining about another team member who had a habit of eating cookies when they worked together, and was getting crumbs all over his desk and keyboard.Prior to...
When companies adopt Agile methods, management roles shift. Team manages their own work and managers focus on system problems. The manager’s stance toward the team moves to facilitative leadership and away from hierarchical leadership. For managers who have been...
Johanna wrote about the interesting rumor I heard at the STAR conference. (It’s not true.)When people lack information, they fill in the blanks–sometimes with something titillating, and sometimes with what they wish were true.In situations of stress or...
When I talk to groups who have been using Agile methods for a while, most of them report that the development groups started with Agile.Now that Agile is becoming better known, senior managers are latching onto Agile as a solution to slow delivery, missed deadlines,...
Becoming consciously competentI’ve noticed that my blog posts have been errr… infrequent lately. You may have noticed, too.I’ve been pretty busy: writing one book, editing another, creating a new workshop… So I’ve been telling myself...
A while back, I wrote about the Interaction Model and how communication can become tangled.I’ve been working with a colleague preparing for a workshop. This morning we lived out a great example of how communication goes awry:After synching up and making a plan...
There was a big discussion last week about how open space, open source and agile methods are related. The conclusion was that comparing those three methods has limited value. Then Harrison Owen (originator of Open Space Technology) offered this perspective: …I...
I want to follow up Joshua’s comment that it’s high time we focus on the people side. What does that mean?I ran into someone who described how he had handled a “people” issue. I’ll call him Joe. Joe believes he’s adept at handling...
Joshua Kerievsky posted this update from SD West on the IXP mailing list: At an SD West agile panel this week, I was jolted by legendary guru Jerry Weinberg. He said he’d recently looked over the past 500 issues of a certain computer journal in order to count...
Alicia Yanik has a great article on her experiences implementing Scrum over on stickyminds.We had the Scrum logistics in place, but I struggled with harnessing the team’s power… Then I took a closer look and noticed the team problem solving, self-organizing, and...
Words are important. I’ve fallen into the habit of talking about “soft skills” — meaning intra/interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills. Pretty common usage, so I’ll cut myself some slack.But I’m going to change the...
