Dates covered: June 17-23, 2019 (week 25 of 52)
Business
Software Below the Poverty Line (via The Software Mentor)
(This post spans categories — business, software development, culture.) Open source software is an interesting area, as it seems to straddle the line between profit and altruism. The author looked at several projects and determined whether they were sustainable with a donation model. I’m not well-versed enough on the economic and business models to say how this should play out; I’ll watch with curiosity, as I lean progressive in some regards, but do enjoy being compensated well in my career.
How to Design an Ethical Organization (via Harvard Business Review)
Abusing ethics leads to a lack of trust, both inside and outside the organization. This article covers making values explicit, thinking about ethics at the point of decision, aligning incentives, and building cultural norms. “Real people are not purely good or purely evil but are capable of doing both good and evil. Organizations should aim to design a system that makes being good as easy as possible.”
Career
When Your Job Is Your Identity, Professional Failure Hurts More (via Harvard Business Review)
“It can be very rewarding to throw all our education, training, talent, and passion into our work roles, but we forget that others in our organizations are reacting to the role we represent in their work lives, not necessarily the interesting and thoughtful people we think we are.”
Communication
The Case for More Silence in Meetings (via Harvard Business Review)
Silence is a powerful tool in meetings where ideation is the objective. Most of our in-person protocol is about individuals speaking in turn, and there are often power dynamics at play (e.g., a junior member may feel foolish expressing an idea or opinion). This article describes some techniques where people can communicate ideas non-verbally and then discuss later.
Culture
Why Authentic Workplaces Are More Ethical (via Harvard Business Review)
I’m a strong proponent of not being two separate selves — our “real” self, and then the persona we wear at work. This article states that if the workplace values align with our own, we’re less likely to have ethical lapses (e.g., falsifying expense reports). Values are more than what you post on the break room wall — you need to live it, partner with other companies to match it, and recognize when people behave accordingly.
Leadership
Want to Be a Better Manager? Get a Protégé (via Harvard Business Review)
“Sponsor and protégé…are both actively and publicly working for each other’s success. It’s that active investment from both sides that makes the relationship so mutually beneficial.”
Why is my team not doing what I expect from them? (via Software Lead Weekly)
This article aligns with my favorite concept: manage expectations. As a leader, you need to explain the context of the work, give people the tools to do it, and define the outcomes. I would add one other requirement — this can’t be just from the leader down to the line-level workers; you need this from those above you as well.
Process
Don’t Be Blinded by Your Own Expertise (via Harvard Business Review)
- Challenge your own expertise — check your ego, methodically revisit your assumptions
- Seek out fresh ideas — look to teammates as teachers, tap new sources of talent, add a role model or a learning buddy
- Embrace experimentalism — post creative challenges to yourself, learn from mistakes
How to Move from Self-Awareness to Self-Improvement (via Harvard Business Review)
There’s an important transition between being aware of when you’re behaving in ways you like to change and managing your behavior. Pay attention to what’s happening now, consider what you’re doing, identify several paths forward, and choose behaviors that are believed to be most productive. (The example in the article is about someone who talks too much.) “The most productive behaviors are often not aligned with our habits and our preferences. (If they were, we would not need to manage ourselves.)” To start… 1) decide what you want to change, 2) reflect on what’s keeping you from self-managing, 3) consider your choices and reactions to those choices, 4) make a plan, 5) practice, 6) repeat.
Investing in slack (via Software Lead Weekly)
If you don’t have a buffer for when unexpected things happen (or for being open to better things), corners get cut and delays propagate. “Systems with slack are more resilient.”
You Accomplished Something Great. So Now What? (via Software Lead Weekly)
The arrival fallacy is what convinces us that when we finally achieve a goal, we’ll be happy. There have been several studies that achieving such goals don’t make us any happier than striving for them. This article states that happiness is about quality time spent with people we care about and who are about us (i.e., relationships)…and having enough money to get out of Maslow’s basement.
Rethinking the Triple Constraint: Five Project Dimensions (via Software Lead Weekly)
It’s not just time, resources, and scope — it’s features, quality, cost, schedule, and staff. Some of those with be the constraints (i.e., drivers) of how flexible you can be. My favorite quotation: “If the project is over-constrained, with no degrees of freedom, then you will almost certainly fail.”
Software development
30 best practices for software development and testing (via The Software Mentor)
Whether you’re new to software development or you’d like a refresher, this list has some current (tech-agnostic) best practices. You’ll find the tried-and-true tips like YAGNI and DRY, and some other ones like the stateful object generator and “not invented here.” I enjoyed sharing this with my colleagues at work.
Training
You Learn Best When You Learn Less (via Harvard Business Review)
The title is misleading: “Less” refers to preferring quality over quantity. The recommendations seem sound.
- Break lessons into small segments so you can practice
- Make feedback a habit
- Provide regular reminders about training
- Only invest in what works