Articles for category: Delivery

January 28, 2019

Greg Thomas

Why Remote Collaboration is Still Broken

Everyone wants to work remotely. Everyone thinks it’s a great idea to have people work remotely. But at the first sign of trouble or discord – first item on the list to get blamed – is working remotely. The big problem with remote work today is it sounds really, really cool – working from the local java shop, watching my kids do sports while hammering out some emails, coding in a restaurant or in a plane terminal – that is some very, very cool remote work locations. But is work getting done? If you’re the Team Lead looking to setup

January 25, 2019

Greg Thomas

Your First Project Meeting

New Team? New Project? New Idea? If you want to get things started on the right foot and moving in the direction you need them to here is what you need for that initial Kick-Off Meeting. What’s the project about? What’s your current plan? What’s the current state of everything?  Technology, Requirements, Customers? What are the big risks you see to date? Where do you want the team to focus on now? What’s next? If you don’t have that information at hand, don’t hold the meeting, you’re not ready, the project isn’t ready, it’s not worth it. In walking through

January 24, 2019

Greg Thomas

Hand Holding is a Good Thing

We joke and lament when we have to hold someone’s hand to help them accomplish a task. But it’s not a bad thing when you really need it, when you are stumped, when you are stuck, when you need a kick. The only time Hand Holding is bad, when the person asking for their hand to be held – to learn, to grow, to develop – is really only interested in getting the answer and moving on. That’s not Hand Holding, that’s a Hand Out.

January 23, 2019

Greg Thomas

Switching to Winter Tires

I used to work with someone who would say – “there is no season, called “All Season”, it’s winter or summer” – those are the types oftires we use in Canada. It costs money to buy, store and put on Winter tires. It costs even more to fix and/or replace your car when you don’t use them. Compare that to your current project?  When you were starting out were summers tires fine but now that you’re ramping up you need something stronger? And now that the project’s completed does it make sense to keep the winter tires on and not

January 22, 2019

Greg Thomas

The Lowest Common Denominator

It’s easy to Manage, Lead, Coach to the Lowest Common Denominator in your team – the Weak Link. Bringing everyone down a level is easy and takes not effort. But bringing someone up, raising their game while raising the game of the Highest Denominator on your team? That takes patience, skill, trust, consistency, effort, failure, emotion and commitment. It takes everything you have to offer that person to raise their game. The secret is once you show them how much you are willing to invest in raising their game, their game will level up, it’s a given, there is no

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