Leadership Teams may be a smell

Some time in mid-January, I was thinking about various organizational patterns and how companies run. I was thinking, in particular, about the idea of a “leadership team”. I dropped a thought into Hootsuite and a couple of weeks later, on February 6, that thought was…

Contextual Leadership

What’s the “best” leadership style?

From Scientific Management to Servant Leadership and beyond, there are a number of theories and philosophies out there about management and leadership styles. Some think Taylor was completely off the mark…

Coaching Anti-Patterns: Prescriptive Agile

I saw a tweet this morning that got me thinking about a coaching anti-pattern I frequently see:

Without knowing you, your Agile coach knows you use should start using stand ups, TDD and pair programming, etc.
Taylor would be proud.

Coaching Anti-Patterns : Shock and Awe

I often find myself talking to people who are in the midst of a switch to agile and who find the change very difficult to get used to. They may be strong advocates, but their team just “doesn’t get it”. Through discussion, I find that many of them are attempting…

Estimating our Work

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about estimations and our general obsession with getting them “right”. After all, we need to know when the project will be done. And we need accuracy. Knowing the entire project will be done before the end of the third quarter isn’t good enough. We need to know…

One on One Meetings

About 15 years ago, I started a simple practice with my fellow co-workers and employees. Every so often, we’d meet to discuss stuff and things. Nothing too formal, just a touch-point to make sure we were staying connected. I called the sessions “touch-point meetings”. Over time, I made…

Create a Culture of Integrity

A friend once asked me if I knew the key distinction between Accountability and Integrity. I said I did, but then found myself struggling for an answer.

Today, I think I get it. Perhaps I should check with my friend.

Coaching Anti-Patterns : Drive-By Coaching

As an “agile coach” over the past several years, I’ve seen a lot of different techniques and approaches. I’ve been impressed with the ability of some coaches to slowly and gently affect change; sustainable, genuine change. And I’ve been dismayed at the…

Cynefin’s Obvious Context

Early on in my career, I landed a job working in a mail room for a major law firm. Nothing glamorous, to be sure. But for a college drop-out of 20-something with a new wife and a baby, steady pay and covering our bills were high on my list of priorities. Glamour, on the other hand…