I attended an Agile New England event this past week. One of the roundtable facilitators mentioned there was a difference between collaboration and cooperation. When you collaborate, you work with other people. When you cooperate, you do your work and make sure the work fits with other people’s work. I thought that discrimination was quite insightful. […]
Are You Collaborating or Cooperating? Read More »
There’s a discussion on LinkedIn about an agile team with a deaf developer. The respondents–many of whom are fully hearing–are debating what they could do. There are plenty of opportunities: Make sure everyone faces the deaf developer when speaking. Have a hearing/sign language interpreter. Use dictation software so the software writes down everything you say.
Create an Adaptable Life: Vol 4, #3: How Do You Flex? Read More »
Last month, I took a short vacation in Eilat while Mark went on a bike ride. I ordered some lunch in the lobby “bar.” (No, I don’t drink my lunch!) The bar manager took my order and we continued our discussion from the other day. How was my husband’s bike ride? I said he had
Do You Look for Mistakes or Happy People? Read More »
We often say we have two seasons, here in Massachusetts: Road repair and winter. I’ll add another season to that: falling leaves and acorns. We have a bumper crop of leaves and acorns in my neighborhood. The leaves are not the problem. You can see those little acorns in the picture I took, to the
What’s Hidden from Your View? Read More »
The past few weeks have been quite stressful for me. I had some international travel with terrible wifi so I could not finish some planned work, a close relative died, a ton more client work, and more international travel. When my relative died, it was clear to me that I was not going to finish
What Do You Do When You Are Overwhelmed? Read More »
I’ve been traveling a lot lately. My rollator and I are seeing the world. One question I hear a lot is “May I help you?” That question is often followed by someone grabbing the top bar of my rollator to “help” me up a ramp, or yanking the rollator open instead of using the easy-to-flip
What Do You Assume? Read More »
I was writing a series of draft blog posts about resource efficiency (optimizing for people) and flow efficiency (optimizing for projects). I wrote them fast, flowing the ideas from my brain to my fingers. I edit later. For me, this is the best kind of writing I do. It’s not about writing fast. It’s about
What Do You Practice? Read More »
I like getting “credit” for my work. Not just the work I did, but the work I didn’t do. When I write articles or books or whatever, I start by writing it “all” down. Some of these words are not useful. I look back at them and say, “What were you trying to say??” Sometimes
Do You Give Yourself Credit? Read More »
I was in an airport recently. I was in the ladies room, headed for a handicapped stall. This airport had the handicapped stalls at either end of a long row of stalls. The stall nearest my entrance was occupied. I headed down the line to the last stall. I was four stalls away when a
When Do You Change Your Mind? Read More »
I went to the bank to get something out of our safe deposit box. The bank is “friendly,” meaning there are no queues so you can stand in line for the right person. (#Fail #1) I first stood in line for a teller because both of the manager-type people were busy. The teller told me