Blog

November 2, 2016

Greg Thomas

Inspired Leadership

When I was in university, I remember one of my teachers asking the class… “Does a leader need to know the business they are in to lead?” No middle-ground, no sitting on fences – YES or NO. The answer is/was No.  Sure it helps to have some background knowledge in the business and industry, but it’s not required, it’s not a necessity. So what do they need if not knowledge of the business? They need to be inspired as to what they are doing, whether it’s taking that inspiration from their team, projects or work, they need to feel inspired.

November 1, 2016

Greg Thomas

What every Training Session Needs

The goal in training isn’t to solely learn the material – it’s to learn the material, gain knowledge around potential experiences and scenarios and leave the building with your mind running through countless scenarios on how you can apply your newfound knowledge. I can take an online course for a fraction of the cost of going in person. I can download the materials or get them from friends. What experiences do they (the trainer) bring to the material, what examples, scenarios, and problems have them run into that elevate the material? What is their real-world experience? How can they help

October 31, 2016

Greg Thomas

Give them the Demo they Need, not the One that they Want

Ask anyone what their problem is and they will tell you exactly how they want to solve it and make it go away. I could easily come up with a few of my own problems and solutions to them, but their wrong. It’s not that I don’t trust myself, It’s not that I don’t trust myself, it’s that they are framed by own view as to how I perceive the problem. In that frame, whether I want to accept it or not, I have already inferred a number of assumptions important to me, but perhaps not relevant to the problem

October 29, 2016

Greg Thomas

Refactor your Workspace

Of all the peeves that drive developers crazy, it’s messy code, cluttered code, code that works, but is not as good as it could be. When we’ve finally had enough – we Refactor it and clean it up. When we check in that refactored code, most likely it breaks a slew of sloppy code somewhere else, so we go fix that. And we keep doing that – build, fail, clean, build, fail, clean – practice because at the end of the day; clean, organized code is gorgeous to look at and aligns perfectly to the vision in our heads. But

October 28, 2016

Greg Thomas

The Critic and the Cobbler

The Cobbler works at his craft, taking on all the activities required to build a really great shoe. When complete they know it inside and out and can talk enthusiastically about what they’ve created for hours and days on end. They are not simply satisfied with the act of having been completed in creating a shoe, but in creating a unique shoe for someone to use. The imperfections in the craft are what make it attractive, functional and distinct from everything else in the marketplace. The investment of time is not of concern because the Cobbler isn’t a factory, they