Stop Coping, Start Growing and Thriving
“Management told us ‘Your estimates are wrong. Estimate better so it’s done by Christmas.’” That was at the heart of a recent conversation with a colleague. Now, they have a team that’s angry, demotivated, and unlikely to do anything beyond bare compliance. If that. Why? Context and Anxiety It’s clear that management had context that … Read more
You experience everything filtered through interpretation. Your brain compares inputs like words, tone, body language, and context to past experience. You also filter through your beliefs, assumptions, and values. That all leaves you with a firm conclusion that’s not based on reality. Walk through a few examples – Choose your path Every one of these … Read more
Starting work is taking on a debt. It’s a promise of completion. In many industries, including software development, incomplete work has no practical value. In practices like Scrum or Kanban, teams are encouraged to limit their work to what they expect they can reliably complete in the time chosen. This is done partly to create … Read more
You get stuck trying to solve the past problem in the present, not the present problem in the now.
In the Agile community, many people have heard of the Prime Directive promulgated by Norm Kerth in his book Project Retrospectives: “Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the … Read more
You already hold knowledge, skill, and power. Grab an opportunity to take that to a new level.
The part of you that didn’t like that feeling learned a lesson. You now look for anything that might be about to get you like that again, and unconsciously work to escape.
The truth is that hook you swallowed back then is harming you again and again now.
And there’s no truth behind the hook in the first place.
Do you resist committing to change? Instead of making specific goals, do you promise yourself you’ll “get better about going to the gym”? Or “speak up more in planning meetings”? Vague intentions are safe. They leave up to question what actually meets the standard, and that standard is negotiable. You can “meet” the standard when … Read more
The voice you hear in your head saying “You should” isn’t yours.
It doesn’t come from you, it’s a replay of someone else’s message.
Which is why you’re such a jerk to yourself sometimes. Because that replay doesn’t care about you.
