What should a manager goal be? Become redundant. What should a manager do all day? Jack Shit What is a great way to test the quality of a manager? Send them on a multi-week vacation and see what happens. Does everything keep running, or does things grind to a halt? Does the team still deliver, or things are completely blocked? Is there any visibility during this time of what this team is doing, or does it seem the team fell off the face of the earth?...
The State of Engineering Productivity in 2024 📊 1) Hybrid is hard Teams who work in hybrid mode have the hardest time. It is tough to create an environment where the playing field is level for everybody: there is less incentive to build a truly remote-friendly environment than in full-remote teams, while at the same time you don’t get the full benefits of co-location. Committing decisively to one of the two extremes might bring better results in terms of productivity — but of course it can be more challenging in other departments....
Simple tips for managing any project | by swardley | Jan, 2024 | Medium These questions are my simple tips for managing any project. “Who are the users?” “What are the users’ needs?” “What capabilities do we need to meet those needs?” “What components do those capabilities need?” “How evolved are these components?” “How are we managing these components?”
Dropbox’s CEO on return to office (RTO): Workers aren’t ‘resources to control’ | Fortune All meetings must narrow in on the “three D’s” of discussion, debate, or decision-making …
Power Bends Light | honkathon Here are some things I wish I’d known at the time: Power bends taste. … [because] Power defines what’s normal … Power bends accountability. … I started to notice that the thing most strongly correlated to their treatment was their power on the team … Power bends meaning. … it can change the meaning of everything you do and say. … Once I started watching for how newly-acquired power distorts the meanings of everything, I started seeing examples everywhere … To help organize my thoughts, I started abbreviating this phenomenon with a phrase: power bends light....
Management 3.0 Practices Finder | finders Management 3.0 moves beyond theory by providing an actionable set of tools and practices that grow leadership skills, encourage innovation, and increase happiness, to name just a few of the potential benefits. The M30 Finder groups the practices into seven categories: Tools for Engagement Tools for Effective Feedback Tools for Managing the System Tools to Support Innovation and Change Tools for Exploring Organizational Culture Tools for Team Exploration Tools for Measurement See also Liberating structures....
Models: The Lippitt-Knoster Model for Managing Complex Change | Sergio Caredda The Model for Managing Complex Change is widely used in Change Management presentations and articles around the web, as it outlines required elements fo change, and possible negative outcomes. … According to the model, there are five or six elements required for effective change: vision, consensus, skills, incentives, resources and an action plan. If anyone of these elements is missing, the change effort will fail, with varying Negative Change outcome....
Shields Down – Rands in Repose Your shields drop the moment you let a glimpse of a potential different future into your mind. It seems like a unconsidered off-the-cuff thought sans consequence, but the thought opens you to possibilities that did not exist the moment before the thought existed. Every moment as a leader is an opportunity to either strengthen or weaken shields. Every single moment. Update 2024-03-27: There are also t-shirts and logos about it....
Project hubs can help tame the chaos of the design process by providing a home base for all key design and development materials. Keep the design artifacts in the browser and give clients and colleagues quick insight into your project’s progress. (via Project Hubs: A Home Base for Design Projects ◆ 24 ways )
How Medium Is Building a New Kind of Company with No Managers For two years, Stirman managed a team at Twitter and never felt quite right about it. There was always the tension between being their boss and being their peer. (…) He started taking his reports out to lunch, to drinks, to coffee to see what was up. How was their wife settling into her new job? Did escrow close on their new house?...
Pulling a few weeds every time is good for maintenance, but it doesn’t make sense to spread fertilizer one square foot each day. Cricket (via The Repeat Test and Personal Kanban ) Little-and-often and do-till-one are two different tools. (…) most projects need a mix of tools.
Three useful one-liner anchors to use on e-mail | Ricardo Clerigo I also find that starting text with a “> [Keyword]” combination works great, as in: Agreed: text Follow-up: text Action: text
90% of the decisions you make don’t matter; real success comes in being able to identify the 10% that do and focus on those. via Charlie Kindel | cek.log
The 5 Ps: Achieving Focus in Any Endeavor | cek.log The 5 Ps : PURPOSE, PRINCIPLES, PRIORITIES, PLAN, AND PEOPLE (…) a tool that helps projects be focused: the “5Ps”: Purpose : Why do we exist? Why are we in business? Where do we want to be in the future? What will we deliver? Principles : What are the non-negotiable rules and key strategies? How will we act? Priorities : What’s the framework for tradeoffs?...
(via A VC: The Management Team – Guest Post From Joel Spolsky )
The Affinity Diagram (KJ Analysis) Affinity diagram – Wikipedia : The tool is commonly used within project management and allows large numbers of ideas stemming from brainstorming to be sorted into groups, based on their natural relationships, for review and analysis.
Manager Tools Manager Tools is focused on helping you become a more effective manager and leader. (…) If you’re tired of a lot of management “theory” and would rather learn specific actions you can take TODAY, we think you’ll enjoy the Manager Tools podcast. Also, it has some very interesting tips regarding Meetings, namely: The 45 Minute Meeting Effective Meetings Starter Model — Part 1 and Part 2
Time, tide and formation wait for no man. US Navy
Engineering Management: Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3? – Quora “Wow, there are a million little twists and turns on this coast. A 40 mile day will barely get us past Half Moon Bay. This trip is at least 500, not 400 miles…”
MBWA — Management By Walking Around (via Ricardo Liberato ) How Steve Jobs earned his MBWA degree (Management By Walking Around) | SmartPlanet Jobs had mastered the art of MBWA, or Management By Walking Around. It’s a relatively simple — but way underused — best practice that keeps managers in touch with the people paying the bills or making things happen around the company.