The Mindset

Every once in a while I am involved in a discussion about optimization vs. creativity in the software development process. Most of these discussions are very passionate.  They always start with a concrete idea for optimizing the development process in one way or another, and they usually end up with the all-time favorite “it will stand […]

Gemba is Japanese term meaning the place where the truth can be found. It is only at the gemba that you learn “unknown unknowns”.
In quality management, gemba means the manufacturing floor and the idea is that if a problem occurs, the engineers must go there to understand the full impact of the problem using all […]

In Organizational Under Currents and More On Underwater Currents I wrote about how the people who are actually doing most of the work express the real organizational culture – the subtext of organizational culture. The written procedures, the metrics, and the things which are being said publicly are only the tip of the iceberg. In many, […]

J. Timothy King has done it again! He took the words out of my mouth (well… keyboard).
I meant to tell you about some personal experience I had this week, but J. Timothy King has done a much better job in capturing the essence of a similar one. And he doesn’t even know me! ;)
So, without further […]

As a service to my readers, a high-resolution version of the manager’s pledge (aka step 5) is available here.
Don’t forget to put it where you can see it every day!

Warning: delicate issue ahead…
Kathy Sierra wrote a great article about Top Management Lies. Why is it great? First because it’s funny. Second, because most of us know deep inside that it is not fiction. Most of you know exactly what she talks about. The rest of you are extremely lucky (and this post is probably not […]

In yet another great article J. Timothy King describes the importance of passion at work, how it motivates people and make them do great things. The last section in this article is titled Don’t take it for granted:

“When we take passion for granted, we discourage the best motivator we have.”
No one should stay indifferent when […]

Is there one? Well, that depends of course on where you work and who you work for.
Sometimes, what you and I might define as professionalism is far from being appreciated. If the organizational subtext does not promote professionalism, you might find yourself being tagged as a trouble maker just for trying to do things […]

Do you know the game “Rush Hour”? It is a great thinking game. Your goal is to navigate your car through the traffic jam and gridlock in order to successfully leave the game board. Of course this is not as simple as it might sound as you can see in this picture.
Looking at this picture, I […]

Another insight about organizational underwater currents:
The variation in how different people within the same organization perceive a certain issue is by itself an interesting finding.
You can learn a lot about the organizational culture by comparing the way different people live a certain aspect of the organization and react to it. Sometimes this variance is derived from […]