Articles for category: Initiative

September 27, 2021

Greg Thomas

How to Get Better at Something

Keep doing it. Over and over again until you get better. Don’t stop, don’t worry about what was goes wrong. Just keep doing it. Improve, learn from your mistakes, find gaps and make them better. But don’t stop. The fastest way to not getter is to stop.

September 23, 2021

Greg Thomas

Jumping In

Do you know people who jump into a problem get so many accolades, thanks, handshakes (elbows), congratulations, and everything else? It’s not because they knew how to solve the problem. It’s not because they actually solved the problem. It’s not because they were the best leader or coder or anything. It’s because they jumped in. They took that step that no one else was willing to take and did it. That leapt and lead.

September 19, 2021

Greg Thomas

The Remote Engine

The Remote Engine is you, your team, and everything else that helps power it. It only works when all cylinders are running and right now we are all running low. Throughout this great experiment, we have probably not invested as much in maintenance as we should have. Look it happens – beating yourself up about it isn’t going to make it any better. But not doing anything about it, for you or your team, now that you know the engine is overheated (or flooded) is going to hurt you. Don’t do the kneejerk and say “no meetings this Friday” –

September 17, 2021

Greg Thomas

Planning Day

I love doing Planning Days. Why? Because everyone is focused on one task. Because the time limit is open and designed to hear people talk – there is no rush to finish. Because it’s an opportunity to hear people’s thoughts away from everything else going on in the day-to-day. Now having a successful planning day is altogether a different story and requires preparation, ensuring everyone knows what they are there for and what they need to have prepared in advance. Because the goal of a good planning day – is to come out with a plan.

September 15, 2021

Greg Thomas

Useful Metrics

If you don’t know what you are measuring, you will never know how you are doing. Once you know what you want to measure, you have to accept that in the first X collection periods the data is going to be horrible, downright horrific. Because you have never collected it before. Because you have never analyzed it before. If you give up looking at it, you will be no better off from where you started – still trying to figure out the problem that is staring you in the face. The horrific part of gathering these metrics isn’t that they