Articles for category: Initiative

May 3, 2018

Greg Thomas

It’s not the Designing We NEED Help With

Everyone can do a Design with little to no experience. Sure there are some of us that have more experience than others in this area and can help iron out some initial issues. What we really need help with is the delivering, the building, the creating, the implementing, the deploying, the actualizing and the experimenting. If you’re an Architect focused solely on design all I can say is you’re missing out. Not only are you missing out but so is your team, because where they really need you is on everything else that comes after the Design.  

April 27, 2018

Greg Thomas

What everyone has forgotten about Facebook

It’s not Facebook’s fault for whatever happened to your data. They have security tools in place (albeit convoluted) that you could use to configure your privacy.  Even now, a few months later, they are somewhat improved, but still cumbersome. (hint: they are not a security company) Facebook didn’t decide to post as much as you did or like every page that highlighted a different cat dancing or where you liked to go on vacation or how much fun your friends were having at that place, in college after finals. Instead of focussing on what Facebook needs to do to protect

April 26, 2018

Greg Thomas

On Holding Back

The only person you are hurting when you hold back is yourself. So why hold back? Why not give it your all every day? Why not treat every day like the day before vacation? Why not take a stand and try something new that no one else is doing? Instead of bringing your “okay” work to the table and letting someone else decide if it is “good enough” bring your best quality work so when you leave it doesn’t matter what anyone else decides? The goal, as always, isn’t for you to compare yourself with everyone else, but to compare

April 24, 2018

Greg Thomas

The Sprint Kick-Off

Sprints are meant to roll-over from one to another, backlogs become unpacked, priorities reset, work assigned, new tasks created and the engine revs up for another lap around the track. But what if you don’t know where you are going? How often do you jump into a car having no idea what’s happening or where you are going? Not very often. How do you get your team on board with what is being delivered in the next sprint? Sit them down at your next stand-up for 15 minutes and walk them through the goals and contingencies if things go well

April 10, 2018

Greg Thomas

Commitment vs Focus

Focus enables us to zero in on a task and force ourselves to work until we complete that singular task. Commitment is the dedication that fuels our focus. We might be focusing on a few tasks at any point in time, but if we are not committed to them, they will never get done. We’ll look at them, stare at them, turn them around, and figure out which is the best way to attack them and then dive in. In most cases, the problem isn’t in our commitment but what we have focused on, we picked the wrong thing and now we