Articles for category: Team

January 22, 2023

Greg Thomas

What’s the Worst that could happen?

And let’s not start with – it could all blow up in your face and the world could end. If the worst is that the next release might be later but your current release is already on track to be late, then the worst case is that you could have a late release (give or take). We use the “What’s the worst that could happen?” – excuse as a push-off to not doing anything because it sounds ominous and scary when it fact it’s not that bad. The only answer to – “What’s the worst that could happen?” is always

January 21, 2023

Greg Thomas

The Team Shakeup

Over time, teams stagnate, they become comfortable in what they are, who they are, who is the GOTO, and how things get done.  Little things have become embedded processes because “that’s just how we do and there is no point in trying something else”. It’s at this time that the team needs a shakeup, a jolt, a kick to try something new. Perhaps it’s switching people around (Jeff takes on customer tickets this month, Julie moves to back-end dev) or maybe it’s shaking up the overall delivery (let’s focus on shipping weekly vs monthly), whatever it is, the team is

January 12, 2023

Greg Thomas

Welcome to the New Team

New Teams are always fun – and when I say fun I mean that cues up two immediate emotions. “Yes, let’s do this.” – ready to jump on a call and meet. “Yes, let’s do this.” – teeth chattering, worried about what that first call will be. Both are excited, one a little more nervous than the other which is key to identifying as a leader as this helps to develop your approach to the team meetings that you will have. Every leader is different, and every reason for the team is different so in those initial moments of newness,

January 6, 2023

Greg Thomas

The Cold Open

My favourite part of Remotely Prepared was the Cold Opens.  I saw them almost as these little microblogs that got the idea out to everyone as to what we were to discuss and had them interested to stay for the rest of the show. It’s why they are used so heavily in TV, if you can grab the audience in 30 seconds, they’ll stay for the remaining hour to see what happens.  If we apply this to our sales pitches, our conversations, our code, our meetings, and everything we do – then we spend more time on the message we

December 22, 2022

Greg Thomas

The Team Grump

They come and go, but at some point, they will rear their head, whether it’s a good day, a great day, or for no other reason that you know, they will emerge – the Team Grump. The Team Grump doesn’t know care for what you are doing, when you are doing it, how much it will help them, or why they are there – all they want to do is get out of there as fast as possible and continue grumping because that is where they are at. Everyone is a grump at some point during their work, it’s impossible

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