Blog

October 28, 2020

Greg Thomas

But Who Owns It?

That’s the problem with problems. No one wants to own them. After all, who wants something that has something inherently wrong with. Sure there are good problems – too much money, too many customers, too much too learn – finding owners for those problems are easy. I’m talking about the problems that keep you up at night. The problems you lose sleep over even when you’re awake. The problems that permeate your every thought. The problems that can make or break a release. We all know the problems exist. But what we don’t know, at many points in time, is

October 27, 2020

Greg Thomas

The Conference I wanted to Attend

I signed up for a conference that was a few weeks ago. It was a one day event, only a few hours. I really to wanted to go to it to see what I could get out of it. It’s the third one I’ve missed since being remote was supposed to make going to virtual conferences that much easier. When I was “at” a conference, I could leave the laptop at the hotel, come back to it at the end of the day and work on whatever issue might have been there. That separation existed. Now the conferences I want

October 26, 2020

Greg Thomas

Real Life Meetings

This popped up in my YouTube view today. Apart from Kelly kissing Darryl, this seems very much like life these days as we are all remote. Not wanting to do another Powerpoint presentation. Working multiple gigs to get by. Updates are always required. And yes, sometimes you have to wing it. And sometimes its good to have a laugh to get your meetings going.

October 25, 2020

Greg Thomas

Meetings are Safe

They are. Being in a ZOOM or a TEAMS call with a bunch of other people, talking about something. You’re safe. You’re not putting anything new out there. You’re not challenging anything. You’re not taking any action. You’re not changing direction. You’re talking about what may or may not happen. You’re thinking about what someone just said. In these cases, meetings feel safe because we can talk about things but we do after them is up to us, and everyone else. The ones that make meetings dangerous? Come with a plan. Know the objective. Have the hard conversations and work

October 24, 2020

Greg Thomas

Understanding vs Knowing

We all know about problems. There are too many that exist right now to not know about problems that governments, companies and people are trying to solve. But do we understand the problem? Do we understand and appreciate all the intricacies and minutia that go into the problem? Do we grasp the context that is forming the problem and the data that is outlining what it is and what must be done to resolve it? Too often we accept Knowing the problem as acceptance for Understanding the problem, when they are so very different. It’s that chasm between Knowing and