Articles for category: Initiative

May 22, 2018

Greg Thomas

Run To

If you don’t know what the answer is, go find someone that does. If you don’t know what coding language you should be using, choose one. If you don’t know what the customer wants, schedule a call. If you don’t know what features are in the task you are working on, identify some and get to work. If you don’t know what to do on the field, run to the ball. In any endeavor, the first step can sometimes be the most daunting.  Perhaps we are part of a very complicated project, the customer is hard to talk to, no one

May 18, 2018

Greg Thomas

When to Break the Rules

When you need to figure out another way to accomplish what you want outside of the current rules. If the rules don’t line up to what you are trying to accomplish then throw them and everything to the wind and do it your way. Because you know better right? You were around when the original rules were crafted right? You know all the hoops and loops that you need to go through to make it work for you right? Here’s the thing with the breaking the rules – it’s only temporary until someone figures out it need to be a

May 17, 2018

Greg Thomas

Your Favourite Meal

If you had your favourite meal each day, every day, how long would it take until it stopped being your favourite? Two days? A week? A month? Longer? Maybe you started off in a job you really liked.  It was the perfect job, the bestest job in the world. But you’ve been doing it for 5 years and the last year you know you’ve been going through the motions so the “favourite” part is kind of dead to you. So what’s next, where do you go from here?  Is it no longer your favourite?  Is it time to do the 360

May 15, 2018

Greg Thomas

Digging Out of a Mountain

Start at the bottom. Work your way up. Or get a bigger shovel. Or maybe a smaller one. Wait, sorry I got it wrong, yes start at the top, it’s easy pickings. Actually, that’s a good idea too, go for the easy pickings and the big wins and then focus on the harder stuff. My bad, focus on the riskier items first, that way you are able to test them longer and get the hard stuff out of the way. Has someone done this before?  Maybe you can ask for advice. Or maybe there’s an online course you can take

May 9, 2018

Greg Thomas

Your Morning Scrum is killing your Team’s Dynamic

I’ve had this conversation with many a person before, but it bears repeating one more time. Someone popularized the concept of a morning SCRUM to get everyone off to the races, ready to go on the day’s work and had some good success with it. And it does work. When everyone is in the office at the same time. When everyone is starting at the same time. When everyone has not yet started the day. When you have a team that is comprised of late owls, early risers (that’s me), remote workers in different time zones with some people in