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"Poor management can increase software costs more rapidly than any other factor." (Barry Boehm)  Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers) 
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Thursday, March 30, 2006
What's in a name?
If you us an aggregator, you probably found my blog in a different spot today. I wasn’t satisfied with the original name. I copied that name from an article I wrote that talked about improving management (not just improving process). But this blog is about more than that. So I changed the name to insights you can use. I hope you find some insights you can use here. | Monday, March 27, 2006
keeping retrospectives from going stale
So if you're doing retrospectives after every iteration -- that is every few weeks, how do you keep retrospectives from going stale? Some ideas here. | Friday, March 24, 2006
...and why to do retrospectives regularly
Seven Reasons to Have a Retrospective A while I go I pointed out the reasons *not* to have a retrospective. There are plenty of reasons *in favor* of having retrospectives (after every iteration): A well run retrospective enables the team to: If you look at successful organizations, they are the ones that know how to evolve to meet current reality, rather than holding onto what used to work. Becoming comfortable with change, learning how to try something new and measure how well it worked are critical business skills. And retrospectives are a great way to learn those skills on a team level. Diana Larsen and I are working on a book that will help you help your team make the most of retrospectives. Look for it later this year. | Saturday, March 18, 2006
Listen up!
I attended a short presentation on listening the other day. It was an interesting experience. In the first segment, the presenter demonstrated a listening technique. He listened to a guy talk for about 3 minutes, and then mirrored back what he’d said. He didn’t use the exact words, but he pretty much covered every idea the other person said. Then he thanked the other guy for the privilege of listening to him. It seemed sort of artificial, but when he told us to pair up and practice the technique, I was willing to give it a try. After the practice, he asked how it was for people. I commented that concentrating on remembering all the main points made it harder for me to listen. “You need to practice listening,” he said. (This is called the Evaluative Listening technique, I believe, where the listener makes a generalized evaluation of the speakers capabilities based on one comment.). Other people commented on their experiences, and several people echoed what I’d said. So I asked, “When you demonstrated, you listened for quite a while before you mirrored what he said. Do you have a guide...” He cut me off. “The timing is listed on your sheet. If you’ll just look at it, you’ll see that it said to take 4 minutes for the listening step, and then spend two minutes discussing the exercise in your pair.” At this point, I did not feel listened to. “That wasn’t my question,” I said. “Let me try again. It feels more natural to me to ask questions to draw out the story and paraphrase in briefer segments. Do you have a guideline on how often to mirror?” “Does it really matter if it feels genuine to you, if the other person believes it was genuine?” he asked. Hmmm. Genuine imitation genuineness. I didn’t learn anything really new about listening at this session, but I was reminded of some important things: It’s easier for me to listen when I engage with the other person, and ask questions to draw out his/her story and learn more. When I’m concentrating on remembering so I can “mirror” I’m not connecting with the person. Listening with curiosity leads me to be more open to new perspectives. I can impose my perspective (Wow, you got laid off? You must feel terrible about that! Are you worried about finding a new job?). Or not (Oh, you got laid off? How do you feel about that?) When I (genuinely) listen to someone, I contribute to a positive relationship. (And when I don’t I can erode the relationship.) It’s a small effort that has a big return. People who feel listened to are more likely to have a positive experience of a situation. And they’re more likely to contribute in a positive way. Most schools spend a lot of time teaching us about written and verbal expression, but don’t teach us about listening. It’s a skill worth cultivating. | Thursday, March 09, 2006
Talked out of No: Why there are no excuses with Satir’s Soft Spurn
A friend of mine is being wooed by a potential employer. She told the hiring manager she couldn’t start a new job for 3 months. He asked for reasons. For each reason she gave, he had an excellent and logical reason for the opposite position. The more reasons she gave, he more he countered. By the end of the conversation my friend felt like she was being manipulated and backed into a corner. I had a similar experience as I was negotiated for meeting space with the sales manager of a hotel. The sales manager wanted me to one thing “A," I wanted to do another, “B.” When I proposed “B,” she had a number of persuasive arguments to do “A.” I stood firm. Finally, she said “We can do “B,” but can you explain why you wouldn’t want to do “A” when you know “X”? I knew that for every reason I gave, she’d have an equally good counter argument. I declined to explain. I simply stated I want to do “B.” Apparently she wanted some of my business, even if she couldn’t achieve “A.” And she agreed to write the contract for “B.” If I’d started down the path of giving reasons, I could still stand for what I wanted, but it have been would harder. And I know that I would have left with a bad taste in my mouth. And if she had talked me out of my No, I’d be pissed – at her and at myself. And that’s why we don’t give excuses in Satir’s Soft Spurn. (If you can't see using Satir's Soft Spurn with your boss -- and sometimes it's not the most effective approach -- tune in later for more about saying No and making it stick.) | Wednesday, March 08, 2006
In the Top 10
Okay, I admit it. I check the Amazon ranking for Behind Closed Doors from time to time. And this morning, we’re in the Top 10 for Computer Books on Amazon!!!! Amit Asaravala reviewed BCD in SD’s People & Projects e-newsletter yesterday. Amit says: Rothman and Derby show Sam handling each of these issues--and many more--through a series of one-on-ones and team meetings that Sam holds in his first several weeks on the job. Each encounter is shown mostly through dialogue that allows the reader to see how Sam elicits information and actions from his direct reports and brings them together to work as a team. The result is a manual of conversations that managers can use as a general model for communicating with staff, or even adopt verbatim if necessary. Best of all, the book addresses the more subtle issues that arise when managing people--for instance, what to do when one of your team members has a problem with another employee outside your group and expects you to resolve the matter by talking to the other employee's boss. -snip- I breezed through its 172 pages in roughly two hours one night and found myself jotting down all sorts of ideas for my team that I was looking forward to acting on as soon as I arrived at work the next morning. Any management book that elicits that reaction from me certainly gets my endorsement_and deserves to be kept anything but a secret. That’s what we aimed for –- not theory, not a weighty tome, but a slim book of practical, pragmatic ideas and advice that managers can apply the very next day. | Monday, March 06, 2006
What does commitment look like?
I had a conversation recently with a guy who was concerned about the level of “commitment” in his group. “It’s always the same people staying late,” he said. “The others just aren’t committed. We can’t accomplish everything we need to unless these other people step up and commit.” Oh, dear. There are (at least) two problematic assumptions here. Assumption #1: Time at the office is an accurate measure of commitment I can think of several reasons to stay late that have nothing to do with commitment. Here are a few I’ve run into: One guy didn’t have any interests and friends outside work and stayed late to avoid going home to any empty apartment. One woman’s marriage was disintegrating and she stayed late to avoid tension at home. One guy stayed late because he wasn’t able to focus during the day due to constant interruptions. His boss insisted people be present for core hours. So this guy was at the office for 16 hours a day, but worked on his tasks after everyone else went home. Another woman was using company assets to run a side business… and it was easier to hide it when people weren’t around. Two people who were having an affair stayed late at work to be together. There are lots of reasons to stay late at work, and commitment *may* be one of them. The truth is we can’t divine someone else’s commitment from external behavior. Assumption #2: Having people work late is the answer to getting work done Oh, dear, oh, dear. Extended periods of overtime are more likely to SLOW DOWN work than speed up work. Rather than demand overtime, (Typical time-robbing culprits are: Multi-tasking, fragmentation, frequent interruptions, meaningless meetings, non-value adding corporate activities.) (Johanna and I wrote about how to do this in Behind Closed Doors if you'd like to learn more.) Once you’ve done the prioritized and identified time-robbers, ask the group to figure out how to get the strategic and important work done –without resorting to overtime. Chances are they’ll come up with some creative ideas. | |