Professional Development – 2021 – Week 19

Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54585499@N04/

Agile

Half Agile Ain’t Agile (via Leading Agile)

Most companies “implement” Agile on the execution side (i.e., far-right) where the software is developed. Agile applies on the strategy side as well: “The ability to produce better business outcomes by connecting strategy to execution in ways that enable faster and more accurate KNOWLEDGEDECISIONS, and ACTIONS
across the enterprise.”

Business

Why Start-ups Fail (via Harvard Business Review)

  • The article is an summarized excerpt of two parts of his recent book, wherein he describes a direct-to-consumer business fashion startup and a dating site.
  • The first venture failed (on reason, at least) because they didn’t have enough experience in fashion supply chains.
  • The second venture adopted the minimum viable product (MVP) concept from The Lean Startup, but its MVP was not based on consumer research.
  • It seems to me that successful founders need several things to go right: a novel idea, marketing skills to acquire cash/partners/customers, and the ability to find the right people to help them implement the idea.

Communication

How to Nail a Hybrid Presentation (via Harvard Business Review)

  1. Focus on the positive
  2. Require cameras to be on
  3. Make direct eye contact
  4. Move around to include everyone
  5. Emotionally engage remote participants
  6. Foster hybrid collaboration
  7. Keep it short

Danish

Group Fitness

Anatomy of a Research Paper: How to Read Beyond the Abstract (via Athletics and Fitness Association of America)

This group fitness continuing education course describes the terminology used in scientific research (e.g., statistical power, literature review, types of studies) and ways that abstracts can paint an incomplete picture of the implied results of the work. Interpreting studies is important, as the “state of the art” of fitness evolves; there’s pressure to be the next big thing, which may only be supported by flawed experiments or unrepresentative samples.

Leadership

4 Actions Transformational Leaders Take (via Harvard Business Review)

  1. Practice new mental models
  2. Work the edges of the organization
  3. Share leadership more systematically
  4. Make empowerment live up to its promise

Process

Break Down Change Management into Small Steps (via Harvard Business Review)

“New research from leaders at Infosys indicates that across a variety of industries, lasting, long-term change is most effective when it occurs over a series of smaller microchanges. The authors identify three strategies for successful microchange management: Deconstruct big change into small steps, change behavior through small modifications to habits and routines, and continuously measure, learn, and evolve.”

35 Principles for 35 Years (via Software Lead Weekly)

This is a decent collection of principles that can be examples to help you prioritize or be more consistent. I don’t agree with everything, but there’s more power in seeing how you’d do this for yourself.