Dates covered: December 10-16, 2018 (week 50 of 52)
Note: This is the first post edited with the new Gutenberg editor in WordPress. It has taken away the ability to easily indent paragraphs without reverting to the “classic” editor. If you have comments about the formatting, please let me know. Thanks!
Business
Stopping Data Breaches Will Require Help from Governments (via Harvard Business Review)
It’s unreasonable to assume every company has adequate resources to defend itself against all cyber actors and mitigate significant security risks. Blame isn’t the most effective tool either — we don’t blame banks when they are robbed even then they have reasonable security controls in place. Governments are typically better equipped (in breadth and depth) to have information that could protect businesses.
Career
How to Find the Person Who Can Help You Get Ahead at Work (via TED)
This was a powerful message for anyone trying to advance in their career. Meritocracies can’t exist when there are humans involved because any decisions about you will be qualitative and biased. There are several helpers in your career — mentors, champions, advocates — but what you need is a sponsor; this person has your best interests at heart and has the power to get things done for you behind closed doors. There are two types of currency — performance and relationship. Performance currency is generated then you deliver what’s asked of you plus a bit more; it gets you noticed, promoted, and attracts sponsors because everybody loves a star. Relationship currency is the investment you make in the people in your environment; it lets people know who you are, so get to know people and give them the opportunity to know you. The characteristics of a sponsor: 1) has a seat at the decision-making table, 2) has exposure to your work, and 3) they have real power in the org.
How to Follow Up with People After a Conference (via Harvard Business Review)
- Set aside time to process info about who you connected with, or speakers you want to follow up with
- Identify your goal for the relationships
- Find a specific reason to follow up (and do so fairly soon after the even itself)
How to Talk to Your Boss When You’re Underperforming (via Harvard Business Review)
- Reflect on whether this is a one-off issue or a trend
- Prepare for how your boss will respond to your conversation
- Don’t talk around the problem; get to the point and talk about solutions instead of blame
- Ask for advice from your boss
- Schedule a longer-term conversation if you think your underperformance is part of a larger problem (could even be a job fit issue)
Communication
The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen (via The Software Mentor)
- Name the change that’s happening in the world
- Point out that there will be winners and losers
- Tease the promised land (it’s not about your tech, it’s about what life is like with your tech existing)
- Introduce features as a means to get to the promised land
- Present evidence that you can make the story come true
When a Leader Is Causing Conflict, Start by Asking Why (via Harvard Business Review)
“Tolerating destructive behavior will send the signal that it’s ok to mistreat others as long as you get results.” 1) manage your assumptions and judgments — is this person really a jerk, or is there some other issue? 2) look for exceptions in patterns — is he this way with everyone? 3) have a broad repertoire of solutions — not every situation requires a hammer.
Research: When Overconfidence Is an Asset, and When It’s a Liability (via Harvard Business Review)
There are two common ways for someone to express confidence: verbal (stating probabilities, making predictions) and non-verbal (body language, tone of voice). This article describes several studies where the researchers tried to determine which type cost the overconfident person some credibility. Non-verbal overconfidence is less likely to cost you because it’s harder to hold people accountable when they express confidence in non-verbal ways.
How to 10x Your Own Productivity as a Manager through Writing (via Software Lead Weekly)
“Managing a team is all about communication.” I agree 100%. This post makes some sound arguments about how improving your writing skills can help you communicate your mission, hold people accountable (meeting notes help here), and help you think about different levels of audiences. It would be nice if the author cited more support examples other than Jeff Bezos, though.
The most obvious question (via Software Lead Weekly)
The paradox of expertise means the people that have been in the longest will be blind to some problems, and the new folks will be too afraid to speak up (or feel that someone else will). Everyone should speak what’s on their mind so that things can be discussed instead of overlooked (or at least assumptions can be confirmed).
Culture
I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You. (via The Software Mentor)
“Programming is messy. Programming is a mix of creativity and determination. Being a developer is about more than syntax, and certain skills can only be taught to the very young.” You can’t teach people to solve problems no one has seen before unless you teach them how to think and reason — it’s not just about technology. What was partially addressed was why we want kids to code — to make sure they can deal with the world and have an employable skill. It would be nice if we didn’t have to steer kids into a certain profession to make a good living; ideally they’d choose a profession they want.
Open Source Is Not about You (via The Software Mentor)
There are different expectations in open-source, and this post brings those to the front. I liked the concept that open source is a “no-strings-attached gift.”
Research: Hiring Managers Are Biased Against People with Longer Commutes (via Harvard Business Review)
This article explains a study that showed hiring managers are less likely to call people in for interviews if they live farther away. One reason posed is that when people have long commutes, they’re less likely to stay (because the commutes wear people down). What’s more troubling is that lower-income applicants tend to live farther from the city, so this hiring behavior could be inadvertently discriminatory.
Why You Should Treat the Tech You Use at Work Like a Colleague (via TED)
“The critical skill in the 21st century workplace is going to be to collaborate with the technologies that are becoming such a big and costly part of our daily working lives. … We are struggling to cope with that.” The presenter argues that we should put our key tech systems on the org chart and treat them like members of our team. Hold regular reviews. Are things working well with your tech colleague? Are any human roles overloaded with certain types of tech? Are there any tech colleagues with no home/manager?
How to Be “Team Human” in the Digital Future (via TED)
The most wealthy tech executives are wondering where to put their doomsday bunkers in response to some human or human-initiated catastrophe. Instead, why not take those resources to make humanity something that you don’t have to escape from. This was a fantastic talk that I’ve bookmarked for watching again.
Management
How many reports should a manager have? (via Software Lead Weekly)
This author suggests about seven. Any more and the overhead of communication gets to be too much. There’s a balance between wanting to minimize bureaucracy (the “iceberg of ignorance” where top management is too far from the line workers) and having things too flat where one person has dozens of direct reports.
Process
Why so quick to scrap scrappy? (via The Software Mentor)
Every company wants to “grow up” so they can be taken seriously. The downside is that some things are easier when you’re small (and scrappy). Once you get big enough, your skills of how to do things on a small scale atrophy.
The Growing Business of Helping Customers Slow Down (via Harvard Business Review)
Technological advancement and social change accelerates life and the pace of business, leaving most of us feeling there isn’t enough time. Practices of slowing down and disconnecting from tech are become more popular — embodied deceleration (deliberately doing something slower such as walking instead of driving), technological deceleration (using technology deliberately instead of by default), and episodic deceleration (only engaging in a few activities per day to reduce the amount of consumption choices). Businesses can use these too — giving people more places to sit while shopping, and having areas that are specifically “Wi-Fi free.”
How to Overcome Your Fear of Failure (via Harvard Business Review)
- Redefine failure — instead of “failure = I don’t get the job I’m interviewing for”, how about “not being able to answer a single question in the interview”
- Set approach goals instead of avoidance goals — avoidance goals are what you don’t want to happen (negative mindset), approach goals are what you want to happen
- Create a “fear list” — from Tim Ferris, define a worst-case scenario, what you can do to prevent it, and how you would handle it should it occur.
- Focus on learning — even if you don’t succeed, you’ll likely learn something
The Case for the 6-Hour Workday (via Harvard Business Review)
Modern work is fraught with things that take us out of the flow state. Think about what you can do (for yourself or your team)… prioritize with goals, cut tasks that don’t add value, automate if possible, delegate, test what’s working and experiment with new things, just start.
How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive (via Harvard Business Review)
To-do lists have several issues… too many choices, we prefer simpler tasks, we rarely work on important-but-not-urgent tasks, no context of time available, no commitment devices to keep us honest. Timeboxing has some advtanges… 1) you know when you’ll work on it because it’s on your calendar, 2) you typically share your calendar with your team, 3) your calendar is a record of what you’ve done, 4) you pick when you’re going to work on it, 5) it helps fight Parkinson’s Law by making the amount of time known/finite.
Software development
Reluctant Gatekeeping: The Problem with Full Stack (via The Software Mentor)
If you put one person in charge of the whole stack, they’re more likely to be weak in some areas. There’s also some gender bias in CSS, almost treating it as “not really coding.”
Scrum Sprint Planning Checklist (via Steve Stamm)
I like that this article starts with, “But Agile isn’t about process, so why do you need a checklist?!” The list has quite a selection of useful things for you and your team to consider if you’re using sprints.