"Poor management can increase software costs more rapidly than any other factor." (Barry Boehm)

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great is on amazon.com Editor's Picks for Top 10 Tech Books of 2006!

posted by Esther Derby at 4:46:00 PM

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I've been struck lately by how we humans get in our own way. Obviously, if we realized what we were doing to ourselves, we'd stop. But we don't, so we continue patterns and habits that sabotage our effectiveness. Lately I've been asking a simple question when people tell me about some situation where they are getting in their own way.

A participant in a feedback workshop said "Isn't it better to give hints rather than speak directly about the problem? That's what I do. It's more polite, and I feel uncomfortable coming right out and saying what's bothering me."

I asked, "How's that working for you?"

"Not very well. No one gets the hints. Then I get mad."

A team member committed to tasks for a team goal, then didn't complete them. She found that she was always "busy" when it was time for the team check-in call. "Once I missed that committement, I felt so embarrassed. I didn't want to let the team down again, so I stopped coming to meetings."

I asked, "How's that working for you?"

"Not very well. Now the team is upset with me for disappearing."

A co-worker asked questions agressively in a business meeting. When the other people in the meeting told him it was not a good time for that question, he loudly demanded an answer. When several people gave feedback that they perceived his questioning as hostile, he replied, "It's just my style."

I asked, "How's that working for you?"

"Not very well. My questions aren't answered, and everyone seems upset."

Now if I could only ask myself that question at the right moment. ;-)

posted by Esther Derby at 5:04:00 PM

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My new article on Incorporating Part-Time Team Members is on Stickyminds.com.

In one of my workshops I run a simulation on distibuted and part-time teams. The dynamics for the part-timers are almost always the same. People who work part time may want to fit into the team, but they seldom do. And when they find they don't fit in, they drift off to more satisfying work.

Mangers and teamleads can make it more likely that the part-time work assignmeent works for all concerned by looking at the work and the working relationship --rather than leaving it all to chance. Otherwise, part-timers find that they work full time on no team (to paraphrase J.B. Rainsberger).

posted by Esther Derby at 9:25:00 AM

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Back in 2004, I wrote a little article on bully managers for stickyminds.com.

People are still leaving comments on the article, describing their nightmare bosses. And every month or so, I receive email from someone on the receiving end of verbal abuse, public humiliation, micromanagement, demeaning behavior, or physical threats in the workplace.

So I was glad to hear that Bob Sutton was writing a book on abusive people in the workplace. Bob sent me a copy his new book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't.

Bob spells out the cost of tolerating assholes in the workplace, and dispells the myth that high-performing assholes are worth putting up with. There's data that shows that when the asshole leaves, everyone does better, and overall results improve.

I think life is too short and I don't work with assholes anymore. And sometimes people can't leave a job for a variety of reasons. Bob offers some strategies for surviving assholes at work.

If you are working with an asshole, read my article, read The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn'tand check out The Workplace Bullying Institute.

If you are in management and are tolerating a bully or asshole on your staff, do a little calculation on the costs generated by the bully--coaching, turnover, lost productivity for others, loss of collaboration, etc. I suspect you'll find that your abrasive star is costing the company much much more than his or her salary.

posted by Esther Derby at 8:51:00 AM

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Diana and I did an interview about Secrets of Agile Teamwork with Dina Henry-Scott over at controllingchaos.com.

Warning: The first 4 minutes contain advertising from Dina's podcast sponsors.

posted by Esther Derby at 9:14:00 AM

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I came across this survey when I was poking around CIO.com.

The Most Important Trait for Any IT Worker is...

Up-to-date technical skills : 14% (9 votes)

The ability to juggle multiple, constantly reprioritized tasks: 38% (25 votes)

Skin thick enough to take constant end-user abuse: 8% (5 votes)

The ability to say "no" without making people angry: 15% (10 votes)

A sense of humor: 26% (17 votes)

Total votes: 66


Assuming that the readers of CIO.com are managers (and by implication senior managers), we're in big trouble.

The respondants to this survey apparently want employees who have out-of-date technical skills and are thin-skinned yes-men and yes-women. And they'll take those employees and subject them to multitasking on constanly shifting priorities.

I'm thinking they won't be producing much working software.

(But maybe they'll joke about it since a sense of humor is the second most desired characteristic.)

posted by Esther Derby at 8:36:00 AM

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A nice write up at CIO.com on my Distributed Teams simulation and a management session based on Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (Pragmatic Programmers) that Johanna Rothman and I offered at the AYE conference.

posted by Esther Derby at 9:37:00 PM

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