The essence of productivity
To maximize your productivity, you need to essential get more clarity on your vision and goals, and strengthen your relationships. If work doesn’t feel like play, you’re probably not being productive.
Continue ReadingTo maximize your productivity, you need to essential get more clarity on your vision and goals, and strengthen your relationships. If work doesn’t feel like play, you’re probably not being productive.
Continue ReadingPost the COVID pandemic of 2020 dismissals and lay-offs became a frequent occurrence. Twitter, newly under the reign of Elon Musk, laid off as much as 70% of the workforce over just a couple of months. While Twitter was in the spotlight, most people, however, were affected by someone close to them being laid off. Reducing costs by reducing the headcount has been a common management strategy for years. It is also a very orange approach. But how do organizations operating from a teal paradigm handle dismissals? This post explores dismissals and how teal organizations handle them.
Continue ReadingOne of the key differences between organizations primarily operating from an orange and a teal paradigm is their organizational structure, as discussed in more detail in a previous post. The circular structure of a typical teal organization lacks a hierarchy, and with that, the need for promotions. This post looks at how appointments and promoting people are handled in an organization operating primarily from a teal paradigm. It also provides a rough roadmap to take you from orange to teal.
Continue ReadingCompensation in the context of the modern workplace essentially relates to the exchange of value between an individual and an organization. Typically, the company pays employees in return for services rendered. More specialized or scarce services are typically more expensive. More abundant services typically result in lower rates. This post, as part of the Teal Series, looks at what compensation might look like in an organization operating mainly from a teal paradigm.
Continue ReadingPerformance management is a key success factor, together with structure, that determines the culture of an organization. What gets measured gets done. How people are rewarded determines how people behave. This post looks at Teal performance management and gives some ideas about what performance management in a Teal organization might look like.
Continue ReadingThis post outlines the importance of a time commitment related to productivity from a teal paradigm perspective. It also proposes an alternative approach to productivity without full-time time commitments from employees.
Continue ReadingPurpose is at the heart of an organization operating from a teal paradigm. In a traditional ‘orange’ organization individual purpose falls out of the scope of the work agreement between an individual and an employer. What makes an organization more ‘teal’ is actively helping people discover and be true to their individual purpose. This post will look at the characteristics of how individual purpose forms part of a ‘teal’ organization and how to support individuals in finding their personal destinies.
Continue ReadingHandling job titles is possibly the hardest part of a teal transformation. Who will you be in an organization where there are no bosses? This post looks at how job titles are handled in teal organizations.
Continue ReadingInvesting in people is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner. As part of the teal series, this post focuses on the difference in approaching training between a predominantly ‘orange’ and ‘teal’ organization. I’ll also address what teal training will look like.
Continue ReadingAccording to [research](https://b2b-assets.glassdoor.com/the-true-cost-of-a-bad-hire.pdf) “*…strong onboarding processes increase new hire retention by 82% and improve productivity by 70%.*” In practice, however, 88% of new hires don’t deem their onboarding process sufficient or a good experience. As part of the teal series, this post focuses on what teal onboarding might look like.
Continue ReadingHiring is risky. If you’re lucky enough to find the right person they drastically contribute to the success of your company. Making an unlucky mistake and hiring a bad apple, on the other hand, can negatively influence your entire organization. This is another post in the teal series to map out possible futures of what teal practices might practically look like based on the book Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux. This post focuses on what teal hiring might look like.
Continue ReadingTransitioning to teal project management doesn’t have to result in chaos, and it doesn’t have to disrupt the status quo. The question is whether the pain of staying where you are is bigger than the pain of trying something new. It’s been done, and every case study reports positive results. Are you brave enough to give it a try?
Continue ReadingThe organizational structures we know were invented more than 100 years ago and are due for a rework. This post looks how an organizational structure in the future of work practically looks like.
Continue ReadingScrum is good. It might even be the golden bullet you’ve been looking for. But just like no one medicine is the anti-dote to all illness, so too no one methodology or framework is the solution to every organization’s problems.
Continue ReadingAgile documentation is not that easy. There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to what to document and how. It depends on more variables than what is possible to mention. The team, the project, the client, the organization and the relationships, to name a few.
Continue ReadingScrum changed the world. But it is a process framework for developers and most problems I see are not building the thing right, but building the right thing. Efficiency is important, but even more important is to know your destination. This post aims to clarify how to include design into the development lifecycle for optimum productivity.
Continue ReadingSome of my best memories involves live music. When a group of talented musicians get together magic happens. But I'm not a musician. My art is the art of software development, which is strikingly similar to the art of making music. But it takes more than talent to create a great team.
Continue ReadingHybrid work is here to stay. But how do you engage part virtual and part on-site participants in the same meeting? This post introduces an inlusive warmer for your next meeting.
Continue ReadingSoftware development is often planned as a linear project with a start and an end. Yet, products expand and grow as the users evolve. Seeing it as a spiral rather than a line can be the difference between waterfall and agile. Here's an in-depth explanation of the essence of agility.
Continue ReadingA blueprint to transform enterprise organizations into more agile, self-organizing teams, this book is a practical guide book filled with success stories, alternatives on how to implement such a change, and a bunch of tools.
Continue ReadingIf your system under test is too complex or complicated to adequately cover with test cases, or if there are simply too many variables to test within limited timeframes, consider adding playful test to your test strategy. This post looks at a structured approach to playtest complex systems.
Continue ReadingIt's easy to get lost in the details when building or designing complex software. The Game Thinking framework combines the progression levels of game design with the lean startup model, agile user stories and the general marketing cycle.
Continue ReadingAgile is an adjective, not a noun. It requires a different way of doing things rather than doing things differently. So many agile advocates get stuck in following the Scrum guide, missing the essence of agility and why it came to be. Read more to find out about a post-agile workplace what's next.
Continue ReadingThrough discipline comes freedom. Continuously practicing something - whether it is a task or a mindset - turns it into a subconscious habit. Read more about Improvement Kata as a scientific method to cultive a habit of continuous improvement.
Continue ReadingPhoto by SHVETS production: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-with-letters-on-his-palms-8410857/
Continue Reading“Can Quality be built into software?” Ultimately, the level of quality in the software is a reflection of the level of responsibility within the organization. Own it. Don’t wait for someone else. Quality is everyone's responsibility.
Continue ReadingCoffee is coffee. Right? Not quite. You only master a concept when you can apply it in different ways. This post demonstrate 5 ways to play Lean Coffee.
Continue ReadingAn ending is that akward space before a new beginning. But how do you end a project without leaving with regrets of what should have been? The best projects have a strong beginning and a strong ending. Here's a few ways to end a project.
Continue ReadingThe easiest way to improve productivity at work is by breaking down big goals into more achievable parts and then delivering more value more frequently. This is the foundation of all agile methods and remains the fundamental pre-requisite before anything else will work.
Continue ReadingMost people measure the efficiency of parts of a system in the hope of improvement a system's overall productivity. But what if you're measuring the wrong thing? Here are the three main reasons why productivity improvements don't work.
Continue ReadingChoosing the right tool at the right time can be the difference between success and failure. But which one should I choose? This post explains the difference between the lean startup, lean, and agile methodologies.
Continue ReadingThe source of most issues at work and in your personal life comes down to a breakdown in communication. This post aims to highlight how this happens and give some guidelines as to how to get your message acrosss.
Continue ReadingWant to be more creative and fun at work? Use story cubes to prompt a new idea or solve a problem in a novel way. Here's 5 different ways to use it.
Continue ReadingFor Kaizen to be successful, it has to become a culture. It’s a continuous focus on getting a little better at what you are doing already, everyday. Kaizen is a step-by-step approach to optimizing the total system where small changes are made continuously, rather than big changes done once a year.
Continue ReadingScrum changed how most organizations do software development. But what's next? Teal introduces a softer, slower, more whole ecosystem as an evolutionary next step in organizations as we know it.
Continue ReadingHell yes! The answer, or rather my answer, to Nuno Rafael Gomes question in his post “Shall we dance?”, an essay using dancing the tango as metaphor to explain how he views organizational agility compared to being agile.
Continue ReadingAutomation is an insurance policy. First, you have to make sure that you have a product worth insuring before you start investing in the premiums. Here's a leanapproach to automation testing.
Continue ReadingTesting is an art. It's the art of uncovering weaknesses in software. Here's a bullet proof strategy to make sure you're finding meaningful errors while testing software.
Continue ReadingAgile has been around for a few decades now and most companies have adopted it to at least some level. Naturally, it’s time to think of what comes after agile. Here's a curious look at the possibilities.
Continue ReadingLearning is in the pause between the in-breath and the out-breath. The retrospective is when things fall into the right compartments inside your brain that allows you to act differently going forward. Taking the time to contemplate learning and writing this post shed another powerful and obvious insight we all missed during the call.
Continue ReadingAn or point of view is a limited viewpoint. Whereas an and point of view allows for more possibilities. That is the essence of an agile mindset — it’s an open mind looking for similarities and how two parts can complement each other, rather than the differences.
Continue ReadingMore than anything else, for a team to be agile, they need to work together as a coherent team. Each person has to speak as if from the same voice. Jira doesn’t mean that you’re agile. Using Trello doesn’t mean you have a smooth workflow process. Using Slack doesn’t mean that your team is collaborating.
Continue ReadingThe biggest waste in agile is the loss of valuable information as a result of bad communication within teams. Communication is not the same as talking. You don’t communicate with anyone by speaking. You communicate when there is equal speaking and listening.
Continue ReadingThe Definition of Done (or DoD for short) is one of the most important aspects that differentiates a successful agile implementation from a less successful one. It can also one of the biggest pitfalls keeping teams from delivering.
Continue ReadingAn agile team is one that is in balance, with a steady rhythm. They are an optimized team working at a sustainable pace, investing time in action as well as reflection.
Continue ReadingSelf-organizing teams need great technical skills, but even more than that, they need strong shared values. They need trust, respect, and great communication. They also need to be humble, leaving their ego at the door, always focusing on what is best for the team and the customers, rather than what’s best for me.
Continue ReadingThe purpose of having a cross-functional team is to increase efficiency, which in turn reduces your cycle time. It is not the only way to increase your efficiency, but it has the potential to radically reduce waiting time, while increasing trust and communication within the team itself.
Continue ReadingThe law of small teams is useful because it is the most efficient way of creating a function or a product, without any waste.An agile team combine different and unique perspectives to form a complete picture, with the least amount of waste.
Continue ReadingWhen you weigh up options as alternatives, you limit your possible solutions. An and mindset, on the other hand, includes rather than excludes. This post looks at the relationship between mindset and tools and then go into a few techniques to practice an inclusive mindset.
Continue ReadingMany people think that when they use Scrum, they are an agile organization. Not wanting to be the bearer of doom, but it couldn’t be further away from the truth. Scrum is only the beginning of becoming more agile. Here's why.
Continue ReadingTraining your mind to become agile, is training it to be more flexible. Similarly, an agile organization is a flexible organization. An organization that has rules, but allows for these rules to change dynamically. An organization that values learning and growth more than playing it safe. An organization that courageously acts and responds even when faced with fear.
Continue ReadingTo cultivate a flexible mind,you need to get out of your comfort zone. Do something new, learn something new. Push yourself. If it wasn’t for being pushed out of his comfort zone, Richard Branson could still be the shy little boy he used to be. Thanks to embracing the discomfort of new experiences, he is now one of the world’s most successful and most loved business men.
Continue ReadingScrum works. If it’s not working for you, evaluate whether your implementation is meeting the rules of the game, as outlined in this post. The framework itself is a perfect model for agility. Understanding why Scrum works, makes it possible to fill in the blanks tailor made and suitable to your unique organization.
Continue ReadingKnowing what you want and knowing what you need are not always that obvious or easy to spot. The best question to ask next time you consider adding more, is “Will more speed me up or slow me down?” and “Will this cost me less than the value it will bring me?”.
Continue ReadingObtaining a degree or certification marks the start of learning. In order to speed up, you first however need to slow down. Effective learning is not about how fast or how much training you complete, but how flexible you are in applying your knowledge to different problems.
Continue ReadingCan one person make a difference? Is it posible to enable change if you're outnumbered? This post looks at five strategies to cope if you're the only agile mind in the team.
Continue ReadingBeing agile is about responding to customer needs promptly, and the best way to do this, is to know what those customer needs are. Even though the Product Owner’s primary role is knowing their customer, it’s not possible to view the same thing from two different sides. If you want to be really agile, invest in more manual testing.
Continue ReadingEffective learning is not about how fast or how much training you complete, but how flexible you are in applying your knowledge to different problems.
Continue ReadingSuccessful gamification design requires thought, a lot of planning, and many iterations to get it right. And once you finally get it right, it’s time to change it to keep it interesting.
Continue ReadingBeing agile is about the ability of an organization to respond to the constant changes around them, not about being the fastest individual runner. Being agile is a collaborative team sport, not a solo competition. It is about viewing a user requirement from different perspectives, but delivering a whole.
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