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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

There exists a trait common to most developers and development groups that causes lots of delays and costly mistakes. That trait is when you believe you can figure it out if you have more time. Junior developers get stuck on problems that a more seni...

On Friday, I led two back-to-back workshops about building resumes that lead to getting interviews, nearly 100% of the time. One of the things I was most worried about teaching people was how to write their experience in a way that shows value. Somet...

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...

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...

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...