tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45141671341405643762024-03-13T20:12:28.351+00:00Plamen's BlogWhite Wizard @ Leavewizard.com | Continuous improvement catalyst | Agile, LeanStartUp, Kanban, SystemsThinking & Stewardship Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-72532174083059810752014-12-30T14:38:00.000+00:002014-12-30T14:38:21.334+00:00This is itI have decided to close this blog.<br />
<br />
Looking at the visitor stats I know there's some information people find useful.<br />
<br />
I do however think that the topics of the content on here varies too much and a lot of it is not up to a good standard.<br />
<br />
I also don't think bloodspot has moved with the times and a number of things are difficult to customise.<br />
<br />
For these reasons I am not going to be posting on here anymore.<br />
<br />
I am instead starting a new blog focused on <a href="http://plamen.balkanski.net/">Lean Startup and building new organisations</a>.<br />
<br />
If these topics are of interest to you please visit and let me know what you think.<br />
<br />
Goodbye Blogspot, thanks for hosting my blog for over 7 years.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading.<br />
<br />
Plamen<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-86994655939993653792014-09-30T19:14:00.000+01:002014-09-30T19:14:43.398+01:00What is the role of the Project Manager (PM) in Agile? - (part 1 of 3)<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
It all started because of a frustrating day which included numerous demonstrations of wasted tima and effort for reasons I have not been able to understand. So I posted a message on twitter (140 characters ideally suit me as an introvert) and the respondents challenged me to write more about it. Here it is but it is split in 3 posts. First of all because it is taking me a long time to finish the 3rd answer (I somehow manage to always get quite busy) and also because I just don't like long blog posts (see above).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So here it goes... I decided to answer this question because I have seen it being asked so many times and
because I was beginning to feel frustrated not only with the answers I was
reading about but also with what I was able to witness in several of
organisations and departments. So I decided to share my answers and perhaps next time someone
asks the same question I can point people to my opinion (which I hopefully
would have validated by then).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My intention is to provide 3 slightly different answers. This blog post has only the first answer which I called </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i>The short answer<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you don’t have the time or strength to read through the
rest of the blog posts I offer you my short answer now so you can go elsewhere and do
something you would appreciate more than reading my blog.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The role of the
Project manager in Agile is “None”; not required; doesn't exist. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And if it exists in a context then a big part of Agile is
probably not implemented , ignored, tweaked and so on. I am all about the context and local changes, etc.. however some changes or rather practices implemented without others most probably would make insignificant ot no differerence at all. That's it. if you agree or disagree - feel free to <a href="http://twitter.com/plamenb" target="_blank">find me on twitter</a>.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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If you however think this short answer is not good enough then
read on…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Part #2 is coming soon...</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-31495601189801835662014-09-30T08:32:00.001+01:002014-09-30T08:38:33.985+01:00I am collecting scrum teams' sprint numbers for a study - can you help?<h2>
Scrum Teams' Sprint data </h2>
<div>
I am collecting data from scrum teams for a study.</div>
<div>
While the data could vary (I don't expect you to process it for me), I'd need the following to be available: </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>points committed per sprint </li>
<li>points achieved per sprint</li>
<li>iteration length</li>
<li>total points in the backlog at the end of the sprint</li>
</ul>
<div>
If you can help do get in touch with me. Either DM me on twitter (<a href="http://twitter.com/plamenb" target="_blank">@plamenb</a>) or send me a message: plamen [at] leavewizard.com</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I shall endeavour to notify you when I publish the results of my study.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-51992777406588567392014-07-04T10:50:00.001+01:002014-07-04T10:50:09.740+01:00Do you do jobs or do you add value?<p>A few months ago I was approached by a large US consultancy with a view of helping them with very short assignments across Europe. Somebody I know had recommended me to the recruiter and I felt excited because I like the idea of doing high impact short assignments with a clear idea how I add value. The initial conversation by email sounded very promising to me so I agreed to a call with the hiring manager. </p> <p>On a rather cold day I decided to take the call while walking along the canal in Reading and that certainly added to a sense of urgency – I can only appreciate this now, a few months later. The call begun with a general chat and I tried to emphasise on every step that I am only interested if the role fits with what I am after. It was soon clear that the person I talk to is: </p> <ul> <li>very busy</li> <li>talks to hundreds of people like me every day </li> <li>mostly interested in filling the role</li> <li>doesn’t understand Agile values the same way that I do</li></ul> <p>So 15-20 minutes into it, it didn’t look like our opinions converge and I had decided to interrupt the conversation and call it a day. Why was I surprised? I was approached by a <strong>large</strong> (alarm bell #1) <strong>US</strong> (alarm bell #2) <strong>consultancy</strong> (alarm bell #3). That should have been enough, right? Unless I was not listening to the bells… I believe the answer is relatively simple – the company were recommended to me and I was recommended to them by someone I knew therefore this activated my social brain who then obviously took over… But this is not the main point that I wanted to describe in this post</p> <p>Over the next few weeks it so happened that I got several calls from other agencies and consultancies and as if on purpose the conversation always was around “doing this job” with a focus on fulfilling a role requirement and executing something written in a role description as opposed to making a positive difference or adding value to a business. At that point I knew that it is all broken. All I have seen and experienced in all these years of <strong>working for </strong>other companies has been mostly broken. Something like “do this activity for me” and I will pay you vs “help me do better”… Sounds to me very similar to my friend <a href="http://mhsutton.me/want-work/" target="_blank">Mike Sutton’s post</a> on working with someone vs working for someone.</p> <p>So I think I developed this new understanding that I really have no interest in just doing a job. That I really am after an opportunity allowing me to add value to a team or an organisation with a clear vision that I can subscribe to – like “delighting customers” or “improving people’s lives” or “helping reduce waste” and while there may not be many of these organisations in existence then I can at least try to get as close to this as possible. </p> <p>And this is how my not so conscious decision to end the call on that cold winter day now makes sense to my conscious mind. I do want to work with you to add value but I am not that interested in the purely transactional doing a job or working for you.</p> <p><strong>That’s how it is for me. How about you?</strong></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-15845237777222880142014-03-17T14:05:00.000+00:002014-03-17T14:05:04.676+00:00Yes in 10 minutes<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My current listen - The Willpower instinct (by Kelly McGonial) prompted me to read a little more about addiction and the role of dopamine. I did read and I found that the information on the web is quite scattered and it was difficult for me to summarize it without writing it down which is how this piece came to live.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I then also learned that writing down is useful for many other reasons. I will blog about them in a future post.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now back to dopamine. Almost certainly every human being can recall that strong feeling of unbearable expectation to eat/drink/smoke/do something they "like" (or can't live without). We have even coined a word - "crave" and the way we see it - it is almost impossible to make any other choice than to go for it. Does this sound familiar? If it seems about right then you might be interested in what follows</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we chase something attractive <b><i>dopamine</i></b> is released in our brain. Dopamine is a neuro chemical which is absorbed by the brain areas responsible for attention, action, desire and (as recent research shows) reward. Various scientists (including Marc Lewis, PhD) have arrived at the conclusion that we can become addicted to the dopamine release. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.390625px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.390625px;">If we become addicted to something (e.g. drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc) soon the release of dopamine is controlled by the <b><i>anticipation</i></b> of getting more. This is the strong feeling I mentioned at the start. And the more times we go through this process the stronger the feeling gets.</span></span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.390625px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; line-height: 20.390625px;">An article published in the </span></span><i style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.390625px;">Journal of Neuroscience </i><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.390625px;">suggests </span><span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.390625px;">that increased levels of dopamine make us <u>more likely </u>to opt for <b><i>instant gratification</i>, </b>rather than waiting for a <i>longer term reward - </i>e.g. eat a chocolate bar vs reduce your weight. The strong feeling of anticipation that releases dopamine <b><i>makes us </i></b>choose short term rewards.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.390625px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.390625px;">Another important details is that the decision to choose short term rewards is processed by one part of our brain (some call it the reptile brain, others the chimp brain) and considering the long term reward by another (the human brain). This is why we can get a feeling that we're having an internal battle or at least hesitating when having to make a decision what to choose.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fdfdfd; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.390625px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here's an useful tip: Decide to go for it but in <b><i>10 minutes</i></b>. What happens is in a few minutes your human brain takes over and you are much more likely to make the correct decision according to your long-term goals. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apart from learning a little bit more about how our brain works I've found the "Yes, In 10 minutes" suggestion to be quite useful - so why not <b><u><i>try it yourself </i></u></b>and let me know how it goes?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-85965477904439623312014-03-04T19:45:00.000+00:002014-03-04T19:45:22.443+00:00End of year book report<br />
2012 looks like the year in which I managed to read more books then the past 5 previous years combined!<br />
<br />
This is an amazing achievement for me. I learned so much from the books I read and I am grateful to all the people who inspired me and/or recommended reading -and I do apologize if I have missed someone -but here's those that spring to mind at the time of typing - Bob Marshall (<a href="https://twitter.com/flowchainsense" target="_blank">@flowchainsense</a>), Mike Sutton (<a href="https://twitter.com/mhsutton" target="_blank">@mhsutton</a>), Rob Brown, Jurgen Appelo (<a class="account-group js-user-profile-link" href="https://twitter.com/jurgenappelo" style="line-height: 18px; text-decoration: initial;">@jurgenappelo</a>), many of the chaps at work including Julian Browne, Thomas Moore, Joe Karthauser and Alistair Thomas and of course my family for letting me read whenever I can.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To add to the 12 books I read in the first half of 2012 here's the rest:</div>
=======================<br />
(audio books)<br />
<br />
How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age (Unabridged)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Dale Carnegie & Associates<br />
<br />
Change Anything (Unabridged)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>6 hrs and 32 mins<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
Great by Choice (Unabridged)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jim Collins, Morten T Hansen<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>8 hrs and 33 mins<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
Spark (Unabridged) <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>John J. Ratey<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
Primal Leadership (Unabridged)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
Crucial Conversations<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
The Lean Startup (Unabridged)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Eric Ries<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
Just Listen (Unabridged)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Mark Goulston<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
The Fifth Discipline Peter M. Senge<br />
<br />
Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge: Second Edition By Geoffrey M. Bellman<br />
<br />
How the Mind Works By Steven Pinker<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(Kindle)</div>
<div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Buylogy by Martin Lindstrom</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Running Lean by Ash Maurya</div>
</div>
<div>
=====================</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A total of 25 books which is what I wanted to achieve so pretty lucky. I shall now just carry on reading throughout 2013 ;)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-64130713937538846672014-02-14T12:52:00.000+00:002014-02-14T12:55:01.104+00:00Extracting the high level domain (or sub domain) from URL in T-SQL (SQL Server)I've not posted anything technical for years now so when I had to solve this problem yesterday I thought it might be a good idea to publish it. And yes I did look for a solution online but all I found were approaches that did not work for me (e.g. did not work with sub domains) or involved converting to xml which I thought is pretty heavy for what I want to do.<br />
<br />
So here's what worked for me:<br />
<br />
<pre style="background-image: URL(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z5ltvMQPaa8/SjJXr_U2YBI/AAAAAAAAAAM/46OqEP32CJ8/s320/codebg.gif); background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px dashed #CCCCCC; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: left; width: 99%;"><code style="color: black; word-wrap: normal;"> SELECT Url = SUBSTRING(SourceUrl,0,CHARINDEX('.',SourceUrl,0))
FROM
(
SELECT SourceUrl = REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(SourceUrl, 'http://www.',''), 'https://www.',''),'https://',''),'http://','')
FROM myUrlTable
) urlData
</code></pre>
Comments and improvements are welcome and I hope someone finds this useful! Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-65108717081904218412014-02-13T21:49:00.001+00:002014-02-13T21:49:42.242+00:00What have I read in 2013 (and why you should be reading some of these titles too)This year I decided to include a short (1-2) sentences review for each of the books I have read. I also implemented a simple "star" rating: 1-3 stars where 3 is the most positive rating.<br />
A shorter journey to work for more than half of the year and more time off on holiday meant a slight drop in my total number of books however overall I was very happy with most of the titles.<br />
<br />
So here goes:<br />
<br />
<h3>
Audiobooks</h3>
<br />
<i>** All Marketers Are Liars - Seth Godin<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i><br />
<i>** Purple Cow - Seth Godin<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i><br />
I started the year under the influence of Seth Godin, also thanks to Joe Karthauser's recommendation. I found these books to have some great advice and good examples but overall I thought the core message was the same. So for some time I do not intend to get another book from the same author.<br />
<br />
<i><b>*** Living Without Stress or Fear - Thich Nhat Hanh<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </b></i><br />
I thought this is an amazing lecture. I recommend this wholeheartedly to anyone looking for insights into mindfulness and relaxation. Thanks to Rob Brown for recommending it!<br />
<br />
** <i>Mindful Leadership - Maria Gonzalez<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i><br />
This book has confirmed my thinking around mindfulness and application in business environment. I am afraid not much more than that in it although if this is your first book on the subject it could be useful.<br />
<br />
*** <i><b>Positioning - Al Ries and Jack Trout<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </b></i><br />
This has been a real eye opener for me and has dramatically changed the way I sell stuff. Highly recommended.<br />
<br />
<i>** Pitch Anything -Oren Klaff<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i><br />
I have mixed feelings about this book. Oren's stories are interesting, his approach is quite aggressive. I believe some things could be useful but be mindful of the environment and the culture as these techniques can easily upset people.<br />
<br />
<i>* Good Business - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i><br />
Having previously heard only good things about the author I was a little disappointed with this book. In principal I am in agreement with a lot of it however the "flow" he describes can easily be mindless and I see no good things coming out of it!<br />
<br />
* <i>David and Goliath -Malcolm Gladwell<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i><br />
This is the first ever book I pre-ordered. However while there's a lot of value in the advice and the examples after listening to the book I felt disappointed and I would not recommend it.<br />
<br />
<b><i>*** The Lean Entrepreneur: How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Brant Cooper, Patrick Vlaskovits<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i></b><br />
I think this is a good book. It can be really valuable for entrepreneurs looking for more effective ways to build a business. I personally have found some useful insights that I have used myself.<br />
<br />
<i>** Real Influence -Mark Goulston, M.D., Dr. John Ullmen<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i><br />
<br />
*** <i><b>The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative, Revised and Updated<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Steve Denning</b></i><br />
I very much enjoyed listening to Steve Denning read his excellent book. Highly recommended<br />
<br />
<b><i>*** The Ultimate Introduction to NLP: How to Build a Successful Life (Unabridged)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Richard Bandler, Alessio Roberti, Owen Fitzpatrick<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i></b><br />
This must be the 3rd or 4th NLP book that I read and for the first time I found the concepts presented here easy to remember and apply. If you're looking for single book on NLP I recommend this one<br />
<br />
<i>** Rewire Your Brain - John Arden</i><br />
I think this is a good book although for me it confirmed my thinking which I have already formed by reading other similar books (like David Rock's "Your brain at work"). Nonetheless I think this book is a good read.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Kindle</h3>
12 Brain Rules - John Medina<br />
<br />
<b><i>*** Non Violent Communication - Marshal Rosenberg</i></b><br />
To me this is not just a must read but such a powerful idea which has the potential to change the world. Having read the book twice I am definitely re-reading it again this year.<br />
<br />
** The Start-up owner's manual - Steve Blank<br />
Good manual overall, much easier for me to read compared with his first book. I do however prefer the practicality and style of Ash Maurya<br />
<br />
<b><i>*** Running Lean - Ash Maurya</i></b><br />
I am a big fan of this book. Very practical, actionable advice with good examples and backed by lots more content online. If you are interested in building a web product I recommend reading this book.<br />
<h3>
Paper</h3>
** The 4 steps to E.piphany - Steve Blank<br />
I am sure the content is valuable because I have read Steve's other book (See above). However I found this one to be extremely difficult to read after the first chapter.I'd suggest going for the startup owner's manual. Oh yes and there's some ideas I do not agree with (will blog about these soon).<br />
<br />
** Personal Kanban - Jim Benson<br />
Personal kanban is great, I use it every day. Does it need a book? I don't think so. It can be explained in a blog post. The book repeats over and over the same ideas. For beginners it might be great. If you already know a bit about this stuff find some info on the web.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Winner</h3>
For 2013 I can't decide between <i>Living Without Stress or Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> </i>and <i>Running Lean - Ash Maurya </i>so I'll go with two winners ;)<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-58487052198517024692013-11-21T10:56:00.001+00:002013-11-21T10:57:32.088+00:00What’s common about my tennis skills, developing software and building organisations<p>A friend of mine sent me a message last week. It was a polite message asking if we can play tennis some time, but what I found interesting was that he added an explanation of his skill level which he probably found to be a reasonable thing to do since we’ve never played before. That short description of his skills got me thinking about how would I describe my skill level in tennis. How about how I achieved it? Or how would I go about improving it?</p> <p>I started playing tennis when I was in high school because I liked it. I never took any lessons from an experienced player or coach. I read a little bit about how it’s played in a book and then I just played and learned by my mistakes. This got me to a skill level that I think is good enough to play with my friends of a similar skill level and enjoy the game. At the same time however when I look at the 10 or 11 year olds play at the tennis training ground where I take my daughter every Saturday I am convinced that most of them will get bored playing with me within just a few minutes.</p> <p>If I want to improve my tennis skills I am faced with a significant constraint - I only have 1-2 hours per week available to play and I fear that if I continue learning by mistakes it will eventually take me many years and I might just lose interest. There’s an easy and affordable solution to my tennis problem – coaching is available and is proven to get results. But the point of this post of course is not so much about my tennis skills.</p> <p>I think that some organisations I’ve worked with have taken my approach to learning tennis and applied it to building software and the entire organisation. From my day to day experience with these companies they appeared to have read a book and then they learned by their mistakes. This is not to say that we should not be learning by mistakes but rather to recognise when a major shift in our approach might be required. So it does not surprise me that as a result such organisations managed to develop fairly average (and in some cases awful) software that in most cases costs a lot to develop and run. I judge by the number of defects I’ve seen reported by customers and the time these companies required to take a product to market. When you build software of similar quality then the costs of supporting and enhancing it grow exponentially and it is soon being declared too expensive to maintain or make money. And while as a tennis player I get more than one chance to fail and learn, it also appeared to me that these organisations had been set-up to limit the learning opportunities, punish failure severely and therefore not surprisingly to me many of these companies no longer exist . Using my tennis learning approach is not something I would recommend in all cases however it seems to me that it is widely and explicitly used coupled with complete disapproval of failure and limited ability to learn. </p> <p>Ok, How do I know all this? </p> <p>Check the the saddest statistic in the world (in <a href="http://www.stevedenning.com/Radical-Management/creating-high-performance-teams.aspx" target="_blank">an article by Steve Denning</a>). </p> <p>What’s the percentage of people who truly love what they are currently doing at work? It's a 6% meaning that 94% of the people are miserable at work. </p> <p>This is how I know.</p> <p>Organisations can and should be built better. </p> <p>And when they are stuck they need to get appropriate coaching <font size="2">(which is what I am doing to improve my tennis skills <img class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-winkingsmile" style="border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none" alt="Winking smile" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-4q6R7Om-ydE/Uo3mx9ufR9I/AAAAAAAAAko/K_IJVp34GgQ/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800"> )</font></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-42460574502824509662013-05-02T18:39:00.001+01:002013-05-02T21:23:40.774+01:00Intention to change: "I will make something happen"I have not spent much time designing this, at least not on purpose. It sort of emerged during a busy week when I was asked to facilitate a team's retrospective and I had little or no time to prepare.<br />
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What I wanted to get through to people was that it might be more beneficial if they rephrased their findings and statements to show intention to change and ownership of that intention. To begin with I asked the team to generate ideas and thoughts while always beginning their sentences with one of the following:<br />
1. I will make some change because ...<br />
2. something makes me frustrated<br />
3. something makes me confused<br />
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And I suggested that everyone takes 5-10 minutes to make some notes in those lines. Once people looked like they've almost finished I asked them to tell everyone about the ideas falling under number 3 and I asked for explanation and suggested that we all attempt to turn these sentences into 'intention to change' statements. If the team felt that an idea must be auctioned we kept the card on the board.<br />
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Once we exhausted the number 3 type of items we moved to number 2 and tried the same approach: talking about each idea and trying to turn it into an intention to change statement. They looked like this:<br />
"I will make the CI build take less time". <br />
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If the team agreed that an item must be resolved then we kept the item on the board and whoever suggested the idea (or another volunteer ) signed up to action it.<br />
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And finally we reviewed the type 1 items most of which already followed the 'intention to change' format. Those that weren't we also rephrased accordingly.<br />
Finally some items which most people didn't agree with or nobody cared enough to action were removed from the board.<br />
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The result of about an hour long meet up was over 10 actionable ideas with their owners and all I the intentional change format. It is only 2 days after the retrospective and almost half of the items have already been auctioned. And yes the feedback from the team was positive.<br />
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I hope someone makes use if this :)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-55621191877158610702013-04-10T08:03:00.001+01:002013-04-10T08:04:48.553+01:00The skill of using our brainThere are two groups of skills that we learn. There's the skills that we pick up from our environment - eg to use knife and fork or to speak a language and then there's the skills that we may have to additionally train to do - eg speaking a second language or sailing a boat.<br />
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And the skills in these groups change over time and can be different between cultures. For example most of us nowadays train to drive a car but before there were cars no one even knew the skill existed or most of us use computers nowadays but there are societies in the world that have no access to computers and for them this is not a required or interesting skill to have .<br />
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Nothing you don't know so far. What our world does not seem to have grasped yet is that one of the most important skills we need to learn and everyone must learn is how to use out brain. As we grow up we kind of figure it out but 9 out of 10 cases or even less what we figure out is wrong. Science knows a lot more about the brain than the common knowledge is. Information and skills that can help each one of us to make better decisions, avoid catastrophic consequences and generally be a better person and help make this world a better place.<br />
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Are we not ready yet ? Will we ever be ready?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-52837133013128639462013-04-04T07:46:00.001+01:002014-03-04T19:44:55.403+00:00Take a deep breath, Count to 10Or simply calm down. The advice and techniques aimed to help someone calm down are usually a good idea, well intentioned and only partially useful. Not because they are wrong or improper but simply because most of us don't know how to do it - we don't know how to make the breathing or the counting work.<br />
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The goal if achieved is to get to a state which many authors and even religions talk about. Some ways that describe it are : clear mind, getting in touch with your inner self, being at peace, activating your thinking brain and so on. I think all of them describe the same condition which is generally useful not only when you need to calm down.<br />
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What is it and why is it so useful? I prefer to use a brain analogy to answer these questions. So a little background first. A part of your brain known as the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) is responsible for your executive functions - eg without it you would not be able to plan how to go to the shop or what to do next Saturday. Now the key about it is that it has very limited temporary storage - 4 or 5 bits of information and it takes a lot of energy to keep these bits there for long. <br />
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Overworking the PFC is a bad idea. Your brain becomes slow an you're likely to make bad decisions. In key or emotional moments the PFC will struggle to function properly. By quieting your mind you help the PFC mainly by making space for useful ideas to be brought to its attention. These ideas will usually be good enough to get you out of almost any situation. <br />
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All of the suggestions I mentioned at the start when executed properly are ways to make space in your PFC. For example with breathing what you need to do is focus exclusively on the breathing trying to get rid of any other thoughts. Breath in slowly then breath out trying to relax those parts of your body where you feel tension and all of the time focusing on your breathing and trying to avoid any other thoughts. ( see mindful breathing for more information)<br />
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So next time you need to calm down why not try taking a deep breath but using the technique described here and see if it makes a difference? Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-91105503231400761932013-04-03T08:23:00.001+01:002013-04-03T08:23:53.165+01:00Do you often compromise? Stop and read this.There's this little boy and a little girl you are looking after and as they are playing with their toys they suddenly begin an argument that threatens to become a fight. You recognise the danger and decide it is the right time to get involved (before it's too late).<br />
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As you get closer you see that the kids have discovered the box of chocolates you bought for later and are presently arguing who should have it. You get the picture straight away and decide to split the box and the chocolates into equal parts and give each half. It does not get more fair than that, does it?<br />
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You've told yourself a story that looked realistic and you were pretty fast at it. So fast you didn't have time to ask why. Well, consider this: how about if you asked why and the boy told you he wanted to eat the chocolates (well most of them if possible) and the girl told you she wanted the box so she can store her collection of stones in it. Now your solution doesn't sound very good, does it?<br />
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So if you're telling yourself stories fast and if you're making compromises then stop and ask and think. And that might make quite a lot of difference in your life and work.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-27043687732056282832013-03-30T14:33:00.001+00:002013-03-30T14:33:07.114+00:00Are you stressed? Do you want to be?If you think you're stressed then why not ask yourself the question "Do I want to be stressed". You see, a little stress is considered useful and if you're ok with your stress level then perhaps you shouldn't worry too much. <br />
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If you answer is "No" then the good news is that everything is in your control. You don't have to be stressed if you don't want to be. You have a choice and before responding to events you can choose a response or behaviour that make everything less stressful.<br />
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I am not looking to tell you how. My experience is that there's many sources of information that will tell you what to do and how to do it as long as you wish to find out. For me the most difficult bit was to realise that it is possible and it is up to me, not to the others, not to circumstances, not to uncontrollable events, not to genes, not to education or background but just up to me. <br />
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Just a simple question requiring a positive answer - Do I want to be stressed?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-90607691140650292002013-03-27T07:53:00.001+00:002013-03-27T07:56:28.583+00:00RushingWe wake up and we're rushing to get ready and get out of the door. We are then rushing to get to work (or to school and then to work) where we are rushing to get through our emails and morning tasks. We may even rush through breakfast, have it at our desks and perhaps not even notice it. Then we rush for coffee ( or tea if you're special), have a couple of quick chats but don't really have time for deeper conversations and we are back at our desks rushing through more emails, meetings and reports.<br />
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We are then rushing to get a sandwich and have it at our desk while reading the news or more emails. Our afternoon is very similar with mor emails, meetings and reports an perhaps another coffee (or tea if you're special). Before we know it it is time to rush back home.<br />
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And there we are rushing to prepare diner and clean and wash and rush through bath time and the however many good nights we have to say. It finally feels like we can stop rushing so we sit and rush through a glass of wine (or perhaps water) while having a rather chaotic exchange of thoughts and quick plans with the wife or husband and then it is all over. We feel it's been a busy day and we did a lot. We may also feel that time flies and we find it difficult to understand why.<br />
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If this resonates with you then stop. Stop eating your sandwich or whatever else you might be doing right now. Stop and take a deep breath. Do it slowly and repeatedly. Focus on the quiet. Focus on the nothing. Focus on your breath. Try not to think about anything but your breathing in and breathing out. <br />
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How did that feel?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-87922056616788293292013-03-23T15:04:00.001+00:002013-03-24T15:44:46.045+00:00The skill of mindfulnessI will not be explaining what mindfulness is in these lines as it has been already superbly explained by many. I would just note that the word has sometimes been misused but it is easy to find the true meaning. <br />
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What I am going to talk about is why the skill if mindfulness is not more common? Why are we not educating everyone to practice mindfulness? Why our world has not yet realised the potential of mindfulness and made use of it?<br />
Just imagine a world with a lot less violence, a world with a lot less crime, a world with a lot less cheating, a world with a lot less fraud, a world with much more love and compassion. Can you? <br />
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If you can or if you can't but think it would be good then that's great. Then you can help make it happen by discovering and practicing mindfulness and by helping others discover it. Why aren't more people helping?<br />
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If you can't or think this is how the world is and you love it then you have some way to go. You need to look at yourself and consider your life. You need to look around you and recognise the violence in the world. Understand that it must stop.<br />
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Perhaps only then, only after a critical mass of people are capable of making the step towards compassion we could start building the better world. The one with less crime, less violence, less fraud, less cheating and much more love.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-31169558411416473092013-03-22T21:32:00.001+00:002013-03-23T15:00:57.582+00:00The path to successWhatever you do do it responsibly. And make it count. Just good is not good enough. People will no longer spend money or even time on your "thing" unless it is exceptional or you're way too lucky. ( If you're too lucky you don't need to read this for now). And most things that are exceptional and last do so because they are made in the most responsible way possible.<br />
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Some tell us it is all about the value things provide. However in today's world you get very little time to attract attention. More often than not this time is not enough for people to discover the value of your product therefore your chance of capturing attention is by being remarkable.<br />
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Once you get people's attention then it is about value. And your "thing" must be good. Very few can get it right with just good effort. Which is why the second ingredient is to do things in the most responsible way known. And yes it is your responsibility to discover what that means in your present time.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-49939717655025209362013-03-22T20:30:00.001+00:002013-03-22T20:30:51.738+00:00If you care enough - make change happenThings are what they are. Accept this as a fact. I don't suggest you should give up. But making others aware of how unhappy you are about things as they are is unlikely to make any difference. And more often than not you are welcome to make that difference. <br />
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The only thing is - you would need to learn how to approach it so that it works. And that I am not suggesting is easy yet it is possible. If you just complain this is unlikely to have positive impact. There are tried and successful strategies for making change work - find one and use it. And as part of it find support - it is a step in most of the change strategies anyway.<br />
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So stop moaning and make things happen Things are what they are. Accept this as a fact. If you care enough then be the one who makes the difference or else shut up and don't moan (it gets annoying).<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-48600054199481036692013-01-16T22:54:00.001+00:002013-01-16T22:54:49.396+00:00Why Agile Management Is the Best Way for a Company to Grow (Guest Post)
Agile management is a management style that has slowly evolved to replace traditional management in many of the most successful companies. Rather than simply focusing on the end result of a particular project, this style of management encompasses programs that are designed to be implemented for all projects. These include the following:<br />
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<strong>Leaders at Every Level</strong><br />
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Decisions affecting the company are going to be made at every level. It follows that all levels of management, from senior executives and project managers to supervisors and line managers, need to have access to the tools they need for decision making, the framework for leadership and the business knowledge they need. This is true even if these different levels of management do not necessarily get the same information.<br />
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<strong>Small Teams = High Performance</strong><br />
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By keeping the size of a team small, decisions are able to be made quickly, and accountability is almost instantaneous. With such a small team, hands on learning is facilitated, the team members learn to communicate with each other effectively and they also learn to work together. The large teams that are popular in traditional management systems tend to bog down the entire decision making process.<br />
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<strong>Cultivate a Learning Culture</strong><br />
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Agile management encourages mistakes, as well as learning from those mistakes. By taking the time to learn, the results are examined, discussed and reviewed. Cultivating this open exchange of ideas that worked or did not work enables a team to formulate solutions as an ongoing process.<br />
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<strong>Focus on Feedback and Accountability</strong><br />
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By allowing team members to control a problem and giving them the ability to take action, they are more likely to come up with solutions. With this type of feedback, innovative thinking and decision making are encouraged and expanded on. Accountability allows all team members that work on the project together to become invested in the project. They also know they have coaching and feedback from their peers and management team, if they need it.<br />
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<strong>Celebrate Diversity</strong><br />
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In today's business world, diversity encompasses a range of different attributes such as age, nationality, gender, nature, background and race. Within this rich group of differences, ideas, thoughts and processes can only benefit. These different experiences allow team members to bring their differences to the table. This allows them to learn and exposes them to different ideas and cultures. Innovations are often the results of such mergers.<br />
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<strong>Allow Transparent Access to Information</strong><br />
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Enabling management to access all information such as customer feedback, internal talents and financial results allows them to determine what areas are strong and which ones need work. Managers can find the talent they need from within the company to complete a project when they are able to see the strengths of other employees.<br />
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Nimble, innovative and diverse, agility management is a proven way of handling the inner workings of a company. All companies, no matter their size, can benefit from the framework in which agility management operates.<br />
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Author<br />
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Katie Goddard has 15 years experience writing about business and educational technology, with a special interest in the inner workings of the business world, as well as a passion for management. When she's not contributing to college resource site <a href="http://www.degreejungle.com/rankings/best-online-colleges">DegreeJungle.com</a>, Katie is spending time with her husband Mark, and her two lovely daughters.<br />
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Reference<br />
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/05/26/agile-management-7-keys-to-successUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-9045268123246281992012-11-21T10:28:00.001+00:002013-03-23T07:33:27.463+00:00Change is NOT hardChange is not hard. I really mean it. Smart people have already invented strategies for making change happen. These strategies are out there in books and articles and videos and you only have to find one and learn how to use it. <br />
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Change is not hard. Not as hard as figuring out what to change. Now this is hard. Sometimes you would think it is obvious what needs changing yet once you make the change the results may not be what you expected. <br />
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Figuring out what to change is what you need to spend enough time doing. It is tricky to ensure you spend enough but not too much and not too little. Most people around you will have many solutions before even hearing out what the problem is and they'll insist you hear them out.<br />
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Your change effort whatever strategy you choose begins at this point. To get it right you're very likely to need help in finding out the one or more root causes of the problem. So make friends, choose a strategy and figure out how to identify the root cause for your problems. This I believe is your best chance of making change happen.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-50715243331830272802012-07-03T06:47:00.001+01:002012-07-03T06:47:44.970+01:00Agile and the “Semantic stretch”<p>I have recently come across the term “semantic stretch” while reading a book called “Made to stick” by the Heath brothers. In short the idea is that at some point a term becomes so over used that it no longer has the strong meaning it used to have before. I have noticed this with phrases like “very cool” which has become too common and was then replaced by “super cool”. The example in the book is a little more credible – the authors have researched the use of the words “unusual” and “unique” in American newspapers over 20 years and the established that “unique” has gained a huge popularity while “unusual” was in decline. The Heath brothers also point out that since unique things are also unusual things (subset) the trend is unlikely to be because of increased number of unique things because that will also increase the number of unusual things.</p> <p>I have recently been thinking and communicating with friends about how the use of words like Agile and Scrum has become less credible, in one instance I even suggested that these terms have been vandalised and therefore we may need new ones. Thanks to “Made to stick” I think I found a better suited explanation. The term Agile and some more in that area have been semantically stretched. They have been overused, used in inappropriate ways and to describe things and contexts that are so very remote from what the original meaning meant. Therefore I suggest that we need new term( s ). Could this be the ones suggested by the <a href="http://flowchainsensei.wordpress.com/rightshifting/" target="_blank">Rightshifting</a> movement?</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-27378520839498761742012-06-08T11:43:00.000+01:002012-06-08T11:43:55.280+01:00How to destroy a (successful) company - a step by step guide<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">The ultimate guide to destroying (successful) companies - suitable for both your own unwanted company or acquired companies.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">Before you continue take the following test. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">Question 1: Do you care about your company? (the one you might be looking to destroy)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">Question 2: Do you care what happens to the people who work for the company?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">Question 3: Do you care for the product/service you offer?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">If you have answered Yes to any of the questions above then I recommend that you do not read this article OR if you still wish to proceed then find somebody capable of answering No to all 3 questions to undertake this task for you (luckily such people can be found easily).</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">After the unprecedented success of my previous article on <a href="http://blog.balkanski.net/2011/04/how-to-destroy-successful-product-step.html" target="_blank">destroying successful products</a> I have received multiple requests to expand the guide to destroying successful or not so successful companies as well. Of course with me being busy with creating success at places where success is valued it took me several months to find time to write the new guide. But it is all done now so I can publish it and all of the candidate company destroyers can start benefiting from my wisdom immediately.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">(the same) Famous IT magazine</span></b> (requested to remain anonymous): <i>"Another must read manual for your senior executive team that shows you in ten very easy steps how to get rid of unwanted companies. The author has once again excelled and his proven recommendations are spot on."</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">You can use this guide at your own risk. While the practices described below have been proven to work you should consider your own context carefully before proceeding. </span>The author assumes no responsibility if your company is still functioning after you have followed the suggested procedure. Some successful companies where talented people create great products will take longer to destroy.<br />
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When destroying a company you have two major concerns - the product/service and the people. The rest is a lot easier so I will not expand too much on it.<br />
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Let's begin..<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 1</span></b> Ensure that all the senior managers, directors, etc in the company are capable of answering No to all 3 questions above. You don't want somebody who suddenly decides to start caring about people to damage your plans. If you sense that some senior managers or directors do not fit the bill then fire them immediately and get new ones who meet the conditions. You can in fact use the 3 questions above in your interview process.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 2</span></b> If you don't have an HR department then hire one. If you have another department with more sensible name - e.g. Talent or People managers then rename them to HR - it sounds a little more scarier and works best for our purpose. Also you need your HR people to understand that your intentions are to fire lots of people so they need to be prepared with relevant laws and regulations - it is better to be on the safe side. You may also test them on the three questions above - it definitely helps.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 3</span></b> Now that you have your key actors in place you are ready to start acting. Firstly I would suggest establishing strong command and control culture. Make sure all managers are instructed to avoid trusting employees. Your HR should start writing procedures and restrictions - the more the better. Your IT department should start cutting off employees access to sources of information including methods of communication except some 10+ years old technology that nobody will use anyway.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 4</span></b> Restrict the ability of the network to communicate. The people in your company create a social network whether you want it or not. This network is capable of self organising and being creative. You don't want that. so expand on step 3 and implement all sorts of restrictions to open communication - stop access to services like FaceBook or Twitter, internally in teams use the command and control tools to inflict fear. There's several ways to do that - e.g. create policies and publish them on your intranet (hopefully nobody reads that) Then publicly punish employees who do not comply with the policies. Job done. Other ways are to pick up on small issues with employees - e.g. always 5 minutes late, taking too long lunch breaks, taking too many breaks.. the possibilities are limitless but don't forget Step 2 - you need skilled HR professionals who know how to handle all these cases.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 5</span></b> - If you have a product company for help with destroying the products follow the steps in my other guide </span>on <a href="http://blog.balkanski.net/2011/04/how-to-destroy-successful-product-step.html" target="_blank">destroying successful products</a>. If you are a service based company you can learn from the same guide and also take necessary steps to decrease the quality of the services you are offering. You can achieve that by actively encouraging an inefficient quality assurance process, measuring things that make no sense, providing no training at all, etc.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 6</span></b> - Decrease quality of customer service - to help your customers transition gradually to other suppliers you should consider decreasing the quality of your customer service. You can do that by ensuring the people in your customer service department are paid very little so they don't care about their jobs. You can also hire a manager for that department - someone skilled at creating a destructive culture where people blame each other and work in silos without sharing any information. Finally you can also find ways to get rid of some key people in the customer service team which is a great way of reducing quality.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 7</span></b> - Do the things that feel like the wrong things. Whether you develop a product or offer a service you can always choose to do the wrong things. For example if you offer a cleaning service you can decide to use cheaper materials which will produce worse results and that means unhappy customers. Or if you have a taxi driving service you can buy old cars and do not provide sat navs so drivers take longer to get to places.The idea is to focus on doing things that have either negative value or at least no value. This will help reduce product/service quality and customer satisfaction.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 8</span></b> - Ensure your directors and senior people are actively working to reduce staff morale. To do that they can show off with things only they can afford or they can ensure any successes are attributed to them rather than the people who really did the work. Another option is for managers to increase pressure on people across all teams without any apparent reason. What also works really well is to create a complicated bonus scheme. One that allows directors to justify whatever bonuses they want to pay or not pay. Bonuses are really good de-motivator when not paid. This is because people get used to them and are disappointed when they don't get them.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 9</span></b> - Eliminate lines of business. When you frustrate people and decrease quality of service then lines of business will inevitably get into trouble. At this point you have to close them which involves making people redundant and closing off offices. This shall send the right message to those still working for your company to start looking elsewhere. Again to make this work you'd need experienced HRs skilled in this sort of thing and "3 Nos" line managers (see the 3 questions above). Equipped with the right people a task like this will get you closer to your goal.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Step 10</span></b> - As you close more and more lines of business and the company gets in trouble you may start getting offers to sell the business. Now that may not be your goal but it may be a good idea to escape the mess with some cash in your pocket. Depending on how much you have messed things up another business might come to the rescue. If you're happy with selling then get the cash and run (And don't start another business ever again!) If you don't need the cash then reject all offers and see the process of closing all lines of business through.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Congratulations!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">You have managed to fully destroy your company. Your hard work has paid off and your goal is achieved. Now you can move elsewhere and see if you can be as successful. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Of course there's always a chance that something might not happen as the guide predicts so if you have tried this step by step procedure get in touch and we can exchange ideas to make it better so it serves more people like you.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">I hope it works for you ( or rather it doesn't)</span></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-34327871612007178592012-05-04T13:03:00.001+01:002012-05-04T13:07:10.693+01:006 months - update on my books reading targetAt the end of last year I set my self a target to read as many book as possible and hopefully at least 25 in 2012.<br />
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What I really want to achieve is 40 but I think realistically 25 is a more achievable target.<br />
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Here’s what I managed so far:<br />
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<strong>Audio Books (7)</strong><br />
Your Brain at Work by <strong>David Rock </strong> <br />
Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge: Second Edition by <strong>Geoffrey M. Bellman </strong><br />
Speak to Win by <strong>Brian Tracy </strong><br />
Drive by <strong>Daniel H. Pink </strong><br />
Influencer by <strong>Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield </strong><br />
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by <strong>Stephen Covey</strong><br />
Effective NLP Skills by <strong>Christina Youell, Richard Youell</strong><br />
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<strong>Kindle Books (4)</strong><br />
Management 3.0 by <strong>Jurgen Appelo</strong><br />
Training from the back of the room by <b>Sharon L. Bowman</b><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management by</span> <b>Johanna Rothman & <b>Esther Derby</b></b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by</span> <b>Chip Heath & <b>Dan Heath</b></b></span><br />
<b>Paper books</b> (1 in progress)<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Exceptional Presenter: A Proven Formula to Open Up and Own the Room</span> by <b>Timothy J. Koegel</b></span><br />
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So almost 12 done and if I want to get to 25 I might have to speed up a little which I hopefully will be able to do now that I might travel by train for a few weeks.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-34485548250975453532012-04-24T13:48:00.001+01:002012-04-24T13:51:00.187+01:00Benefits of Agile and Scrum? (a guest post by Faisal Mahmood)<ol> <p>I am publishing a guest post for the first time and I am happy that this post is by Faisal Mahmood – fellow Agile trainer and coach. I hope you enjoy reading it.</p> <p>Curious about benefits of Agile and Scrum? </p> <p>Agile and Scrum enable you to </p> <ol></ol> <li> <p>Respond to market changes while controlling risk </p> <li> <p>Increase ROI (return on investment) </p> <li> <p>Continuously improve your process </p> <li> <p>Increase quality of your products </p> <li> <p>Work at a sustainable pace</p></li> <ol></ol> <p>Respond to market changes while controlling risk</p> <p>Ignoring Agility is not an option any more in the fast moving markets of today. </p> <p>Change is one of the biggest project killers. With Scrum and Agile Scrum, you do not need to be afraid of the change. Agile equips you to respond to rapid changes in the marketplace while controlling risk. It is of no use to respond to changes and become bankrupt. Scrum and Agile focus on emergent planning which empowers rapid response to changes while helping you control risks. </p> <p>Increase ROI (return on investment)</p> <p>60% of the features in the products never or rarely get used, but still, we keep building and maintaining products and features. This, of course, lowers our ROI. Scrum and Agile help you focus on the highest value features in your products and features. With focus on value, increase in productivity and quality, Scrum and Agile set you on a journey to higher returns. </p> <p>Continuously improve your process</p> <p>Scrum and Agile emphasize continuous improvement. Scrum has built in mechanism to help you see the issues that are holding you and your organization back and enable you to leverage collective intelligence of your team to devise solutions to these issues. </p> <p>Increase quality of your products</p> <p>Did you know that more than 50% of IT budgets are spent on maintenance? This is caused by low quality products which become painful to maintain. Scrum and Agile help you build quality right in your development process. Quality becomes part of the whole process. </p> <p>Work at a sustainable pace</p> <p>Agile and Scrum Teams are empowered yet accountable for delivery. They self-organize to deliver valuable increments of products at a sustainable pace. </p> <p><a href="http://www.accelright.com/faisal-mahmood">Faisal Mahmood</a> is the author of the book <a href="http://www.accelright.com/agile-adoption-mistakes">Agile Adoption Mistakes You Must Avoid</a>. Faisal is a Certified Professional Scrum Trainer based in London, UK. </p></ol> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514167134140564376.post-10711344298555308382012-03-26T15:23:00.002+01:002012-03-26T20:14:16.693+01:00Agile note taking – Introducing “The Note Card”<p>You know index cards? I started using them for Agile note taking.</p> <p>There’s several reasons why I dislike notepads:</p> <ul> <li>they’re too big to carry</li> <li>they have many pages </li> <li>I always forget them</li> <li>I spend ages trying to find out my notes</li> <li>they have brands and some are shinier than other</li></ul> <p>I have been experimenting using index cards for taking notes for a while and I have recently “formalised” my method by combining short notes with priority highlighting and action indication. </p> <p>There’s several reasons why I like Agile note taking</p> <ul> <li>index cards are light & small</li> <li>the size forces me to be concise with my notes</li> <li>the size forces me to select what to record</li> <li>I can carry the card with me and throw it away once all actions are done</li> <li>usually nobody else is using the method</li></ul> <p>It really is very simple – have a look at the picture (notes are blurred to hide client related information) :</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-C2Tp4Y101i0/T3C__hGkrmI/AAAAAAAAALE/k0vEg5IzLto/s1600-h/NoteCard%25255B2%25255D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="NoteCard" border="0" alt="NoteCard" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-lOhrZ9nfkK8/T3DABYOvm-I/AAAAAAAAALM/I6-kTEfzcaE/NoteCard_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="174"></a></p> <p>You can build whatever shapes you like (I prefer square like shapes) and write your notes the way you prefer. I enjoy building a uneven brick-like wall by avoiding straight lines and using curves here and there. I then indicate actions by using the (A) sign, highlight the urgent & important things using orange and non urgent but important using green, whatever blocks are left uncoloured are just for information and that’s it. The colours could be different of course as long as you know what is what which is why I sometimes add a little legend at the end.</p> <p>As you can see Agile note taking is cool – and you can try it anytime you feel like it, after all you only need an index card and a pen.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0