I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me (but it always does) when people inherently believe in the value of what they are doing, without being able to connect it to how it benefits anyone else. The reason is abundantly clear. Each of us has invested in learning, in some skill, some competencies. Those skills become our…
The Nature of Work and Performance
In physics, a force is said to do work if, when acting, there is a displacement of the point of application in the direction of the force. There are there components here: force, acting and displacement (movement). In an employment context, there is effort that is like force, there is activity, the application of effort…
Working, Good, Easy!
Make it work, Make it good, Make it easy! While I have had this framework in my head for a long time, I recently shared it with my product team so that they also could have it and use it to make decisions about priorities. Make it work! Make it good! Make it easy! The…
Epidemiology rather than psychopharmacology
Business Architecture has been likened to psychopharmacology. We are using capability models and process design so that we can see the organization in a new and enlightened light. But I think Business Architecture is much more like epidemiology. We are studying the health of populations. The capabilities are the populations we are studying and the…
Post reality. It’s a thing.
As marketing guru Seth Godin calls it, post reality is a thing. It’s funny to me that a marketing guy would get upset with this. What he is talking about has another word: persuasion. Marketers do that all the time. Persuasion itself is a science. We need to get over ourselves, acting like we care…
User Stories: Are Acceptance Criteria Factorable?
Tighter acceptance criteria == lower cost, faster delivery, and higher quality. Do you agree? Here is one way to think about this as a practice.
Learning with Statistics
I have been blogging now in one form or another for a little less than nine years. I have always blogged for myself, as a learning tool, as much as for an audience. I needed a collaboration partner, to help me figure things out, and I decided that “the internet” was going to be my…
Theory of Constraints applied to Agile Delivery
We have all heard of how agile is supposed to help us improve software delivery, making it faster, cheaper, better, blah blah blah. But does it always? What do we need to know to actually get the benefits we seek?
Avoid the meeting takeover -part 4
I hope you have enjoyed this little vignette about meeting preparation. I have spent lots of time in meetings. I work in an organization that has a highly collaborative culture, and that leads to lots of in-person face-to-face meetings. Over the years I’ve learned that in order to have effective meetings, there needs to be…
Avoid The Meeting Takeover – Part 3
“That was a really great meeting!”, I told Carolyn as we walked toward the lunch room. “I already see the benefits of your mentor relationship with Jack. In fact, I’m kinda jealous.” “Yeah. Preparation really pays off. Now that I know how, it is so easy.”, Carolyn was smiling. “So it is really easy?”, I…