We all have them. We also don’t like to talk about them because admitting that we aren’t the best in our meetings would be tantamount to admitting that we are part of the problem when it comes to every meeting that we attend. And that’s the point. Every meeting you attend that goes sideways, you are part of the problem. You are also part of the solution if you’re willing to admit what has gone…
I used to work with someone who had an email signature that read – “Your failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part”. When I would be up late fixing bugs, I would come back to this line and think about this line – “whose emergency is this?”. You can’t plan for everything, but you can plan for your need. I recently finished a month-long planning and strategy session with a client. …
When people were absolutely fed up with a meeting, they would physically get and leave the room. That was a sign, a sign that the meeting was so far gone that there was no point in continuing. It was a physical action and reaction that made people pause and wonder what just happened. We don’t have that in remote meetings. People are always disconnecting – because connections everywhere are strained. People are always turning their…
A simple exercise you can do by yourself when you’re not sure where to lead, all you need is a piece of paper and a list. Write down everything, EVERYTHING, you and your team are doing. Now right beside each item who is leading it. If you are spending more than a few seconds trying to identify who is leading it, chances are no one is, and you have your answer.
As Developers, we put in a ton of effort into naming things. We focus on the case of how we name it, we debate between prefixes and suffixes of how we name them and whether they should be short or long. Great effort gets put into making the arguments of our methods and functions as clear and concise as possible. The same should be done with our team and stakeholders as well – providing clear…