Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots retired this week. He’s 29 years old. He chose this time to transition to something new. Some transitions are easy for me. I only had one time where I stayed at a job too long. I bought the health insurance for our family, so I stayed for the […]
When Is It Time to Transition? Read More »
The college admissions scandal is in the news these days. Wealthy parents bought their childrens’ admission into the university of the parents’ choice. It doesn’t appear that the children were complicit. The parents wanted the “best” for their children. These parents thought the ends justified the means of cheating and lying. My $02: these parents
When do the Ends Justify the Means? Read More »
We have problems in our lives. Sometimes, we can fix those problems. Sometimes, we cope with those problems. Sometimes, we manage those problems. And, some problems might appear to have no solution—now or ever. We need to reframe these problems so we can determine how to proceed. Some problems are easy to fix when we
When Do You Need to Reframe the Problem? Read More »
I‘m writing this on International Women’s Day. I’ve received recognition and thanks from lovely people. I have thanked them. And yet, I have very mixed feelings about recognition based solely on gender. I’ve had a career full of ups and downs, and yes, I’ve felt gender-based discrimination and harassment. I’ve fought for pay parity. I’ve
How Do You Feel About Gender-Based Recognition? Read More »
A comment on When Do You Make Time to Think? got me thinking about books. I am a big, big reader. On vacation, I can easily read two, sometimes three books a day. Not on vacation, I only read a couple of books a week. I skim much of the non-fiction, so maybe I actually
Do You Have Rules for Reading? Read More »
Everyone is crazy-busy. Too many of us multitask, listening to a book or podcast when we walk or drive, focusing and pushing through on specific work, making the “most” of our time. When do we make time to think? Do we ever? I asked myself this very question last week. I had—for me—a long drive
When Do You Make Time to Think? Read More »
My family traveled to Minneapolis last weekend for a family function. We drove on several highways where they have metered on-ramps. There’s a sign that says, “One car per green.” Often, there are two lanes at the lights. The lights alternate one car from each lane. It’s a nice way to make sure the highway doesn’t become
How Can You Make Way for Others? Read More »
I’ve been talking with people in various mediums about how their agile approach is working. All these people have similar problems: they are trying to use a specific agile approach. That approach isn’t working for them. They persist because otherwise, they’re not “agile.” They’re stuck on this one possible solution. They boxed themselves in. We
How Do We Recognize When We Box Ourselves In? Read More »
In Massachusetts, we get our cars inspected every year, on the anniversary of the month of the car’s first inspection. I’m lucky enough to have to inspect my car in January. In the cold, muck, wet, snow. You can tell how much I enjoy this. For inspection, timing is everything. Go too early in the
When is the Right Time? Read More »
I was thinking of how I make tradeoffs. In many projects, people often think we need to optimize for time and against quality. It’s a fake tradeoff, because the cleaner the project environment, the faster the team can proceed. If you’re a software person, you know that the time you invest in build automation and
Can You Trade Off for Ease? Read More »