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 »
I like to be great at everything I do: my client work, my writing, my relationships. You name it, I want to be great at it. When I have the autonomy to learn and master the work, I can be as good or better than I hope. When I don’t have the ability to learn and
How Can You Become Better than You Fear, as Good as You Hope? 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 »
It’s the resolution time of year again. Too many people will make resolutions and not accomplish those resolutions. I also see the same thing in my consulting and teaching practice. Managers don’t finish their work. Team’s don’t finish their work. Writers don’t finish their projects. Here are several common reasons: the work is undefined; the
How Often Do You Finish? Read More »
I’m part of another group writing effort that’s just starting. We were using regular email, not a listserve to communicate. I got confused with all the emails because we didn’t use good email etiquette such as separating new topics into new threads. Because we didn’t have a list, I couldn’t apply rules/filters to make it
Do You Have Permission? Read More »
I was walking briskly with a client between buildings on the campus. He told me he’d lost five pounds will all the running around he did all day. He said, “I never feel as if I accomplish anything. I want to be successful!” (He might have said I need to be successful. I no longer remember.)
What Does Success Mean to You? Read More »
I’ve been busy writing books for almost a year. (One is the Agile Practice Guide, and the other is Create Your Successful Agile Project.) I wanted to finish my book. But, I got stuck a few weeks ago. I was not sure how to address certain areas and I was tired. Worse, I was so
How Do You Refresh Yourself? Read More »
I am a reviewer for the experience reports track for Agile 2017. I finished evaluating all the proposals in the track last week. Here’s what struck me: too many proposals didn’t have enough information for me to accept them. The conference has guidelines for a good proposal. Too many proposals didn’t follow the guidelines. The
Why Not Ask for Help? Read More »
I’ve been taking online and in-person workshops for several years now. I took a week-long in-person writing workshop last year and learned a ton. We had writing and technique assignments. Our instructor told us to complete the writing first and then write the techniques. I did the writing and didn’t complete one of the technique
What Does Success in Learning Look Like to You? Read More »
I changed my newsletter for this site, from not-reliable-quarterly to (with any luck) reliable monthly. Why? Because the lack of frequency made it more difficult for me to keep up with the newsletter. That’s not what I want as a writer. I am sure it’s not what you want as a reader. I’ll post the newsletters
Who is the Change For? Read More »