I was reading an article the other day about the dangers of making one-sided judgements about risk (tl;dr: always consider risk and reward together) and in the comments underneath someone … Continue reading Goals that show success, but don’t define it
I was talking to some people once about enabling change, and one of them asked a very important question: How do you manage the sceptics? Whenever we embark on some … Continue reading Embracing sceptical people
I’m due to have a conversation with someone about an ambitious startup-type idea they’re seeking to run within an established company. They have an idea—it might be a great one–and … Continue reading The bell curve of project versus business
I’ve often worked with teams that advocate “self-organisation”. If it can be done then it is wonderful thing—it brings together autonomy and motivation, and great results are very often achieved. … Continue reading Self-organising teams need the skills and the context
Over the last 12 months I’ve been speaking to people about leadership. Sometimes this is with technical people who are progressing up a career ladder into managment roles; sometimes it … Continue reading Erring on the side of direction
Having spoken and written many times about situations never being black and white, and often having multiple dimensions, I found myself some time ago talking about this in the context … Continue reading Multiple dimensions of quality assurance
One of my minor frustrations with political discussion is that it’s almost entirely word-based. Radio works well for political discussion; television is the same as radio, but you get to … Continue reading Making your point… but not too much
One of the frustrations I sometimes hear from people in tech teams is that they’re not included sufficiently in significant decisions, or that they know how to solve several of … Continue reading Earning a seat at the table
I’ve never been able to appreciate cricket as much as I’d like (I do feel affinity with the writer who described it as “sunbathing with rules”) but I do like … Continue reading Learning by doing… a cricket match
Last week I recalled a disussion I had about understanding the quality of a software architecture. As part of that conversation the head of the company was interested in flexibility: … Continue reading Considering a flexible architecture
