It’s Star Wars Day! Here’s what I found interesting this week. Quote I’m pondering (or quote within a quote, as it’s the authors of The Coaching Habit who are quoting Bernard Shaw): “Bernard Shaw put it succinctly when he said, “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Book…
This is a brainstorm rather than a well thought out (or thought out at-all) blog post. I briefly considered a tweet stream, but wanted to give my few followers a break. I’ve been thinking a bit recently about what it means to be productive on a software team – or how that productivity is viewed,…
Here are five of the things I found interesting this week. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Patrick Lencioni – this quote from him still makes me chuckle…and also wonder a bit about what happens when I’m not around. “As a leader, you’re probably not doing a good job unless your employees…
Quote I’m pondering: “Anyone operating with a theory of leadership that assumes that experts know what is best, and that then the leadership problem is basically a sales problem in persuasion, is in our experience doomed at best to selling partial solutions at high cost” – Heifetz, et al in The Practice of Adaptive Leadership. I’ve…
Quote I’m pondering – “When there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer.” I’ve been re-reading (in pieces), The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. I love all of his writing, but this (his only non-fiction book) has so much great information on organizational health that…
Some of these links are worth full on blog posts, but I’ll try to keep this short. This quote re-popped on my radar this week while thinking about leading change. “What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.” It’s from the Heath brothers book, Switch. While many of us may complain about why…
I skipped last week while I was at Testbash, but back again to share a few things of interest to me this week. What I’m reading: Practical Monitoring. I’ve been thinking a lot lately how I take teams who are not used to using monitoring extensively, and get them ramped up, and this book has…
Two quotes I’m pondering from Peter Drucker (both appear in Stephen Denning’s The Age of Agile) “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” “It is the customer who determines what a business is.“ I thought yesterday’s post from Unity on International Woman’s Day was really well done. While I realized…
Quote I’m Pondering is an old one from Elisabeth Hendrickson, but I seem to find a need to pull it out in a conversation almost every week when discussing how “agile” a team is. “A team is agile if it delivers business value frequently, at a sustainable pace.“ Book I’m Reading – The Age of…
I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Squamish, BC while my car charges. But still inspired as much (or more so) than ever. I spent the week skiing in Whistler. I come here every year (sometimes more than once), and I fall in love with the place a bit more each time I visit. It’s vacation,…
Quote of the week: “All good work is done in defiance of management.”—Bob Woodward Every time I read that, I ponder and reflect on the wonderful truth in the statement. Take some time to do so yourself. No big surprises here, but always good to see when research lines up with my anecdotal experiences. Big Companies…
While recording the upcoming (episode 75) AB Testing podcast, Brent reminded me of The Starfish and the Spider – and pointed out that my personal mission right now involves me transitioning my org from a spider to a starfish. I try to read one book at a time. I also try to not buy books I don’t…
My one-year-anniversary-of-leaving-Microsoft post (link) blew up quite a bit more than I expected. It was a reflection – and while it called out some all-too-true stories of bad management and shitty leadership, a few things I called out in the post just didn’t shout out enough over the stories. I received a lot of comments…
Early edition this week, as I’m about to board a flight from Heathrow back to Seattle after a few days of discussion on quality leadership. I’m cheating slightly on counting to five this week, because the first three are really one extended trinity that captures a lot of my views on leadership. Quote I’m Pondering…
Quote I’m pondering “Asking “Why?” can lead to understanding. Asking “Why not?” can lead to breakthroughs.” – Daniel Pink I’m a big Dan Pink fan (my favorite is still “A Whole New Mind“), but I’m currently reading “When“ As much as I rant about the pitfalls of UI / Web automation, I don’t discount it…
My last post (from what I’m told) ruffled some feathers in my old team. I actually find that odd given how well known the types of actions I mentioned are among that team. I live my life as if everything is a learning experience. I mean that – everything. I don’t regret my time on Teams for…
It’s been exactly a year now since I left Microsoft (and a week away from my one-year anniversary at Unity). I (abstractly) dumped my feelings on the move a year ago in The Breakup, and posted a few thoughts and reflections in my first few months at Unity (Forty Days In, Why Unity, Musings on…
Quote I’ve been pondering: “An expert is not someone that gives you the answer, it is someone that asks you the right question.” —Eli Goldratt I’ve been thinking about the new-employee experience recently, and recalled this article about starting new employees on Friday. It’s something I want to try. I’m traveling this week, and wanted to give…
I’m finally reading Pat Lencioni’s latest book on Ideal Teams. I’m a huge fan of Pat Lencioni’s business novels, and enjoying this one just as much as the others. You’ve probably already seen this article on testing microservices. I shared it with my team this week, and think it’s a good read. All About Lean…
I’ve missed doing these, but glad to get started again. “The world doesn’t reward perfection. It rewards productivity.” – 18 Minutes by Peter Bregman I’ve been working my way through Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris and finding a lot of ideas and a lot of inspiration. While on the subject of Tim, I also…