This week we talked about the last thief of time (neglected work) and exposing time theft using a kanban board. Thief of Time: Neglected Work Zombie projects (not dead, but not getting attention either) are like old servers. The person…
Professional Development – 2019 – Week 47
Business Why So Many CEOs Don’t Realize They’ve Got a Bad Jobs Problem (via Harvard Business Review) They’re benchmarking against other poor performers (instead of looking at leaders) They aren’t looking at the right data They’re out of touch with…
Conference Talk Abstract Submission: A Reviewer’s Perspective
I had my first opportunity to review session abstracts for a regional tech conference (CodeStock), and I learned some things I’d like to share. Hopefully my suggestions will help people improve the likelihood of having their sessions accepted. Given the…
Making Work Visible – Part 2
This week we talked about three other thieves of time: unknown dependencies, unplanned work, and conflicting priorities. Thief of Time: Unknown Dependencies Dependencies can be architecture, expertise, or sequential activities. If you’re the only skillset expert, you are a bottleneck….
Professional Development – 2019 – Week 46
Business Is China Actually Stealing American Jobs and Wealth? (via Harvard Business Review) No. This article reviewed the data for purchasing power, unemployment, bribery, piracy rates, and patent claims. Why Is Every Streaming Service Using the Same Pricing Model? (via…
Making Work Visible – Part 1
Our book club (Houston Miller and Jameson McGhee) started on our third book Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow by Dominica DeGrandis and Tonianne DeMaria. Although Jameson has already read the book, we all agreed…
Professional Development – 2019 – Week 45
Business Your Employees Have All the Creativity You Need. Let Them Prove It. (via Harvard Business Review) This post could be filed under the growth vs. fixed mindset. “Creativity is inherent because each of us has a perspective only one…
Remote – Part 7
Here are my notes for the seventh section, “Life as a Remote Worker”. Having a routine for your day is helpful. Houston’s is catch-up work from 9-10am, daily standup, group call or pairing sessions, and then free-form time. Houston has…
Professional Development – 2019 – Week 44
Culture In Praise of Being Unproductive (via Harvard Business Review) Technology has created two expectations: 1) that we’re available at all times, and 2) if you could be working, you should be working. On top of that, capitalism’s tendency is…
Remote – Part 6
Here are my notes for the sixth section, “Managing Remote Workers”. Start small and think of having a remote team as a low-risk experiment; try things out and keep what works. Unless you have good collaboration tools, working remotely will…