I bet many of you have resolutions you will make and attempt to stick to in the new year. Great. I hope you do keep those resolutions. The chances of that are not so good. I don’t do resolutions. Especially for big things, such as losing 30 pounds. Oh my, that is a huge goal […]
Forget Resolutions: What’s Your Plan? Read More »
This time of year, I see signs, “Please do not touch the tree.” There are plenty of signs that say, “Please do not….” I often wonder this: Why not ask for the behavior you want? I understand that the owners/people in charge want us to not do something. I’m a little contrary, especially when it comes
Are You Asking for a Not? Read More »
I’m working with a number of clients on changing how they work. Some of it is project portfolio work. Some of it is how they manage programs or how the product owners manage the backlogs and roadmaps. Even in my writing workshops, people have to change something to accomplish their goals. I’ve been asking this
What’s the Simplest Thing You Can Do? Read More »
I’ve been working on several things these weeks, slowly moving them to done. I have workshops for Agile 2016, books in progress, monthly columns, and my non-fiction writing. As I reviewed previous workshop designs, I realized I’m a lot better at designing workshops than I was, say, ten years ago. Since I’m in a huge
How Are You Better or Worse? Read More »
The gas company has been replacing gas mains in my neighborhood for the last few weeks. They’re not done. At 7am this morning, the gas main replacement guys dumped a big pile of dirt in front of our house, right outside my office window. The walk you see on the left is the walk from
Richard Feynman, a physicist, wrote a terrific book, What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character. If you have not read it, I recommend it. Let me pull apart the title a little. There are several questions here: What do other people think, especially about you? What implications do their
What Do You Care What Other People Think? Read More »
In Jerry Weinberg’s Secrets of Consulting, he talks about becoming “pickled.” When you’re a consultant, the value you bring is that you are outside the environment. You have an external perspective. If you stay with just one client long enough, it’s as if you are a cucumber in a barrel of pickles. You can’t help but
I write a quarterly newsletter for this site. Subscribers received this newsletter August 22, 2014. If you like the newsletter, you can sign up in the right navigation bar. Where Did the Pencils Go? At the gym this week, I searched for a pencil. I use a pencil to track my workouts. Am I
Where Did the Pencils Go? Read More »
I often hear people asking for something, such as “How do I measure productivity?” In knowledge work, you can’t measure productivity. You can measure the throughput of a team, but you can’t measure the productivity of a person. But that doesn’t stop people from asking the question. What you can ask is, “What would that
What Would That Do For You? Read More »
Some people fear failure. Some people, like me, fear mediocrity. Other people, fear success. Don’t worry. You can be human and fear all of them in different circumstances! But if you fear success, you are not alone. Maybe you’ve been trying to accomplish something for a long time. You may have convinced yourself that what
What If I Succeed? Read More »