July 15, 2024
I haven’t workshopped in a few years. Haven’t had the opportunity to get together with people in a room, ad-hoc, and workshop a problem. It’s something that gets scheduled now, gets pushed out, and gets delayed. And yet, when there is a problem at hand, it’s the most powerful tool that we have to use. “Let’s get in a room now and discuss” – I miss hearing that.
July 5, 2024
One chainsaw – consistently starts, is kind of powerful, doesn’t give up, keeps chugging, and needs some maintenance. Another chainsaw – new, strong, has the potential to do a lot, gets temperamental when you don’t position it properly or get the timing of the start wrong. Both do the same thing – cut wood, when you don’t want to be cutting wood because you need to cut wood. Which one are you going with?
July 4, 2024
Communication goes through many people. Along the way, it can become distorted, messages missed, and chaos and confusion ensue, the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing, and no one is sure what the other is doing. This happens, even with the best of teams, it happens. There is a trap that comes with these blips in communication – more meetings, more checkpoints, more communication – more, more, more – we need to scale the quantity of what we are doing because that will make it better. This is false. The harder discussion is to discuss the quality
June 29, 2024
You don’t always need to be the leader, sometimes you need to be the glue. Sometimes all your team needs is someone holding them together as they work through a tough release or deliverable. They don’t need future inspiration that will come down the road. They need someone focused on the now to get them through it.
June 28, 2024
When something in your house breaks, you generally need to go find a part to fix it. You go to the store, you find the part, and then you figure out how to take the old, broken part off and put the new shiny one on. Sometimes they fit perfectly like a glove, like they were designed for it. But most times they don’t, either what you have is too old and you are now trying to mesh it with something new or vice-versa. Regardless, you push to make it work, because if you don’t, well, whatever that thing that
