The other week someone introduced me to the idea of “input goals” and “output goals”, by Oz Chen. Oz writes about “personal development and content strategy”, so his purpose in … Continue reading Input goals and output goals
Category: General management
Pulling the good out from the bad
I’ve managed many teams over the years, and it’s hard to think of a worse feeling when one of the stars of your team tells you they’re going to leave … Continue reading Pulling the good out from the bad
A structure for effective teams
Like any manager who is responsible for multiple teams, one of the jobs I often find myself doing is shaping how the teams work within each other and between each … Continue reading A structure for effective teams
Find agreement by examining strategies
When I listen to three-way interviews on news programmes I’m often struck by how unconstructive they are. This is particularly apparent when the item is about a split within a … Continue reading Find agreement by examining strategies
The vastness of risk management
Many people think of risk management as focusing on operational issues (supply chain, competitors, etc). Too often we picture it as a “risk listing” exercise—think what might go wrong, write … Continue reading The vastness of risk management
Leadership and continuity
I’ve been by turns amused and horrified by discussions recently of the proposed WeWork floatation, and the apparent hubris running through it. WeWork runs co-working spaces with the kind of … Continue reading Leadership and continuity
Seemingly impossible goals can change reality
It’s a constant bugbear of software teams that deadlines are often just wishes. “You need to deliver it by this date” can be largely the same as a manager donning … Continue reading Seemingly impossible goals can change reality
Context has different perspectives
A short time ago I attended a talk by Paweł Nowak on the subject of context. I was a bit perplexed before he started, after all context is an idea … Continue reading Context has different perspectives
Leadership is a balancing act
I was speaking to a company CTO one time, when he commented that he had introduced OKRs (a way of focuing an organisation’s activity), but it hadn’t been easy. In … Continue reading Leadership is a balancing act
Don’t be a slave to the model
I was recently involved in a conversation with some colleagues, in which one of them was seeking to introduce to their own organisation “the Spotify model” [pdf] of organising teams. … Continue reading Don’t be a slave to the model
