I thought I’d share something interesting about trust among teams based on research I recently did. Team trust level is something that gets pooh-poohed by those who scorn “touchy feely” stuff, but it’s critical to any real success. Just about every two years, I’ve done research about enterprise project management, and I’ve just gotten back […]
College or Workplace Evaluations: One Size Does Not Fit All
My #2 son procrastinated his college application essays until just two days ago–the very last minute. Why? He’s a math and music guy, not a writer. That’s right: a key evaluation mechanism relies on his Achilles heel. There’s a reason that this sounds like your experience in the workplace; the sad part is that it’s […]
Is Lean Startup The Future of The Workplace?
It’s kind of like an orange juice commercial from the 70s: “Lean Startup: It’s Not Just For Startups Anymore.” Or that’s how it seemed to me on the first day of the Lean Startup Conference. Though many observers, including myself, have urged the adoption of Lean Startup (and startup principles in general) into the workplaces […]
Startup Weekend: A Special Kind of Crazy
Asheville Startup Weekend inspired me to talk about a special kind of crazy — the kind of crazy that inspires you to work, to create, to spend time outside of goofy entertainment during your free time. I hope to eventually update this post with just that part of my remarks, but for now, it starts […]
Why Agility Is So Dang Hard
Agility is so hard because people are afraid. The rest is commentary. One great personal example that’s relevant to how we act in our teams and organizations was my fear about relaunching my personal website / blog. Fear was the the hardest thing for me in going from talking about blogging to blogging; it had […]
Of Overlords and Organizations
Here’s a post-mortem about my column, “Stop Being A Hated IT Overlord,” in InformationWeek on June 14. My thought process as I was writing this: Most of the bad things that happen in the world of work are the result of disengaged employees. Most people feel like they’re slaves or prisoners working in a mineshaft, […]