How to Communicate Your Needs At Work

How to Communicate Your Needs At Work When people come to understand the disadvantages of ordering others about, some can over-compensate by avoiding all forms of telling. This can lead to frustration, inaction and disconnection. One of the things these awakening folks can struggle with is communicating their needs to others. Because they shy away from …Read More

The Concept Of Value

Many folks talk about value. I have a distinct suspicion that few have any clear idea of what they themselves mean by the term. And of those few, I suspect each might have a different meaning in mind. I myself attempted to define the term some years ago.

The Antimatter Model

The Antimatter Model For me, the power of any model lies in its predictive ability – that’s to say, in its ability to help us predict what might happen when we intervene in the domains, or systems, to which it applies. “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.” ~ George Box For example, …Read More

Nine Aspects Of Top Developers

Ask a hundred people what’s their definition of a “top software developer” and you’ll likely get a hundred different answers. Many definitions may cluster around “someone who can make the computer jump through hoops”, i.e. a technical virtuoso of some sort.

The Shift

The Shift When it comes to transforming our organisations, good intentions will only get us to the starting line. The idea of “managing” change has largely failed us, yet we must find some means for effecting change if we are to realise our hopes for more effective organisations. For enhanced performance, sustained success and altogether better …Read More

Meeting Folks’ Needs At Scale

Scaling Agile is one of those oxymorons that has, nevertheless, consumed endless column-inches and hours of debate. I have no time for it. Agile was meant for development-in-the-small. For teams of five to seven people, give or take. Even at that “scale”, I have serious reservations about its efficacy and effectiveness.

What If #5 – Continuous Improvement Is Useless

What if our faith in continuous improvement is misplaced? What if one of the central tenets of Lean and Agile ways of working is just a delusion? Cargo culting? What if knowledge work is sufficiently unlike manufacturing that the whole idea of continuously and incrementally improving the way the work works has no payback? No point? What if, indeed, it’s useless – or even actually harmful?

Antimatter And Deming’s 95/5

I note a distinct schism in business, with one camp which utterly rejects Deming’s 95/5, and another camp which wholly embraces the idea. Few sit on the fence, and pretty much never the twain shall meet.

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