One Metric To Start

There are a lot of things to think about when choosing metrics, and most groups tend to get paralyzed debating measures and ultimately measure nothing. You Improve What You Measure So the risk of not measuring anything also means you risk not improvi...

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Jan 29, 2026
We Are All Balloons In Boxes

Today, Esther Derby wrote on Twitter: Mystery of the week: why do #mgrs hire ppl for thinking ability, then get upset when same ppl question mgmt dictates? I have my suspicions, but first I want to describe how I've come to think about this problem...

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Jan 29, 2026
Problem Observation Solution

I am working with someone who has a different working style than myself. I find it interesting to watch them work. They often ask how they they can be more effective in their communication. I gave some advice that I was also given about how I communi...

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Jan 29, 2026
Importance Of Taking Breaks

So a lot of us are at home and adjusting while there is also much uncertainty in what the future holds. There’s a small idea that I want to offer as we get through these changes right now and in your career. Working From Home For everyone working fro...

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Jan 29, 2026
Tales Of Efficiency

The alarm goes off in the morning, and as usual, I begin my day by putting on my clothes. Now, I’ve been putting on my clothes for a long time, and I like to do things efficiently, so I put my clothes on in the following order: Shoes Socks Underwear...

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Jan 29, 2026
Short List Of Unhealthy Beliefs

I try to focus my writing on presenting a situation or problem and a way to move forward from it. In this article, I'm going to only focus on the problematic beliefs I encounter in organizations and individuals. The entire point of this little articl...

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Jan 29, 2026
Normalization Of Deviance

Fancy title, but it is a simple idea. Here’s a publication from NASA on the topic as it relates to the Challenger disaster. In a nutshell, the concept might be explained by a pothole. Imagine a pothole in your parking lot. It has been there for years...

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Jan 29, 2026
Developers Working Late

In my previous life as a developer, I would get asked to stay late and work. This happened for only two reasons: There is a production issue. Deadlines Now, I want the projects I work on to succeed. I want the products I build to live up to the hyp...

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Jan 29, 2026
The Addictiveness Of Failure

If great teams deliver great products, what do poor teams deliver? At some point, a team will identify a need to refactor, fix, clean up, re-write, or otherwise undergo a highly-technical bit of rework. Without fail, this will be converted into a wor...

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Jan 29, 2026
People And Systems Thinking

I am a big believer in system thinking. This can be pretty simply defined as believing that people are doing the best that they can, and that the system they are required to operate in is what dictates the results. Another way of looking at it is rea...

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Jan 29, 2026