Blog

September 29, 2020

Greg Thomas

To vs CC

I get emails that I’m “cc:ed” on. We all do. I send emails where I “cc” people on. We all do. Did we ever do this before with our conversations? No. Do we cc people on our instant messages? No. The problem with ccing someone is that it is never clear what they are supposed to do with it? Do you want them to read everything therein? Do you want them to take an action based on what is in the email? Do you want them to read but just respond? CC is a super-convenient way to someone was included

September 28, 2020

Greg Thomas

Setting Expectations

With the absence of video in a call, you’d think it’d be an easy task to dole out some work. Truth be told though, if you wait a week to see what happens you’ll come to realize that what you asked for is not what you are getting. Even worst, most likely not when you were expecting to get it. Setting expectations in person is a simple endeavour, when tasks are assigned we observe the person’s response, their body language, behaviour, eye movements, how they leave the room or write it down. Even in a video call you won’t capture

September 27, 2020

Greg Thomas

Had a Meeting No one Talked

Could this have been an email? Should this have been an email? No we should have been discussing these topics Were too many people in the room? There were a lot of people in the room, but only a quarter of them need to be there, the rest would not have said anything regardless. Were people missing? Yes. What’s the difference between the people that were missing and the ones that were there? The people that were missing are the ones that care. They care about every detail about what you are doing. They care about what happened, what went

September 26, 2020

Greg Thomas

Find Your Cave

The cave, your cave, is where your best work gets done. It can be anything, anywhere, any time. So find it and don’t share it. It is where your best work happens. When you need to go there, shut off every distraction you can. And get it all done.

September 25, 2020

Greg Thomas

Who is doing the Most?

There has always been a problem when it comes to high-pressure projects. Who is doing the most? Whether it’s how many hours you are putting in, how green your presence icon is, how green your github check-ins look, how many meetings you have, or who is pumping out the most bugs – the question never goes away. It’s a dumb question because when you think about it – if one person is doing most of the work – what is the point of the rest of the team. Sometimes it happens without you realizing, people keep giving you more and