What is the "missing glue"?
Years ago the CEO had an ambitious vision, and stakeholders, analysts and developers had been building that vision for nearly two years. There was a new agile process in place and they were seeing more...
View ArticleResetting the emotional dial
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Max PlanckI find this idea of reframing to be a powerful catalyst for resetting the emotional dial, both in oneself and in...
View ArticleHow Crucial Conversations ties into Emotional Intelligence
I thoroughly enjoyed the Coursera course "Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence", and I would also recommend reading "Crucial Conversations", which addresses high risk, high stakes...
View ArticleWhat don't you know about those who you know?
For months my boss tried to cajole a lead iOS contractor into converting to full-time, and he enlisted my help when I came on board. It didn't take long before I learned why this contractor could never...
View ArticleAnyone interested in a couple URLs?
I noticed ebrandgelist.com and ebrandgelista.com are available. I'm reserving additional ones for other people for now.I also wondered this morning why Liam Nissan isn't a spokesperson for, well, you...
View ArticleHow an insignificant Asian munchkin found courage
I’ve been a serial entrepreneur since 1993 when I attended a database performance tuning course that was a complete disaster. We couldn't get any lab exercises working on the recently revamped...
View ArticleHow micromanaging hurts companies
I've seen impassioned discussions about micromanaging. If the issue is that micromanaged employees are not happy but there are tremendous benefits to micromanaging, then we should acquiesce for the...
View ArticleHow effective is your technical interviewing process?
When we were interviewing iOS developers, one candidate was disappointed to hear he was too junior. He pleaded for a chance, and I decided to bring him in and have him work on a random trouble ticket....
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Transforming childrens' lives one Kanban board at a time
When you left school, how long did it take you to realize you were the driver in control of your own life? Were you lucky enough to know early on, or did it take years? Are you still waiting for...
View ArticleIf you had a Maserati, why would you keep the emergency brake on?
When I came in as a new manager and didn't know anything about the teams I would be managing, I spent time initially just watching them and getting a feel for how things ran.After a couple releases, I...
View ArticleFocus on the Goose, not the Golden Egg
For those of us who have been consultants, we've seen situations where:we are asked to build something, we do so and move ona client has a pain point, we take responsibility for fixing it, and move...
View ArticleTortoise or the Hare? Why You Need Both
When you're hiring, do you focus solely on finding your team of experts? Has that gotten you to where you want to be? Do you have an app people use and return to regularly, or do you have a lot of...
View ArticleSo you're not a walking dictionary? That's OK
When you encounter walking dictionaries who can easily recall facts, details, and statistics seemingly on demand, and you are not one of those walking dictionaries, it's easy to think you are somehow...
View ArticleYou want to be in the driver's seat? Then steer
A new consultant I mentored showed a surprising lack of self-confidence, given his technical talent. He wanted constant assurance that his contract would be renewed, and I responded if this bothered...
View ArticleScalloped Iterations
I lived in the south for 15 years before moving back up 2 1/2 years ago, so I've had a few different experiences.About 10 years ago we cooked up an idea for scalloped iterations. Say you do product...
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Antifragility Meetup Notes
I attended this NYC meetup on Wednesday, 4/15 and it really resonated. I've ordered the book that started this movement but haven't read it yet. Instead, I'm going to do something a bit unusual. I'll...
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Super-antifragilistic-expialidocious
This post is a follow up to the previous Antifragility post. After the NYC Agile meetup on Antifragility, I found a number of things resonated, and/or I had a perspective I wanted to air before I dive...
View ArticleNinja Decision Making: A Case Study
It all started with a key team member tendering his resignation on one of two engineering teams. This was a single point of potential failure, the only person on both teams who truly understood what...
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