Epiphanies for Everybody

The Humane Approach To Layoffs

The Humane Approach To Layoffs

No matter how much you want to avoid them, sometimes layoffs are inevitable. Companies struggle with cashflow for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's self-inflicted. Other times a sudden client cance... ...more

Blog

July 12, 202411 min read

Interview with Esther Derby

Interview with Esther Derby

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Esther Derby, author of Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management; Agile Retrospectives (1st & second edition); and 7 Rules For Positive Productive C... ...more

Blog

June 14, 20241 min read

Strategy

Strategy

Strategy is about saying no. “No” is hard. Most people tend to take on more than they can possibly achieve. Attribute whatever rationale to it you want, but the result is the same. Position in a hier... ...more

Blog

May 27, 20243 min read

OKRs Are Management Malpractice

OKRs Are Management Malpractice

Lots of my contemporaries use OKRs. But once we understand systems, we can see that OKRs, both as originally defined, and as commonly used, create conflict in the system. They hurt, rather than help. ... ...more

Blog

May 22, 202410 min read

How to do performance reviews

How to do performance reviews

Feedback is incredibly important. It’s frequently necessary to receive feedback in order to improve. So, how do we get it? Contrary to popular practice, feedback isn't something that should be given b... ...more

Blog

May 20, 20242 min read

Today’s assumption: the whole is equal to the sum of its parts.

Today’s assumption: the whole is equal to the sum of its parts.

Today’s assumption: the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. We're taught to think that we can understand something by breaking it into its constituent parts and understanding them. It turns out t... ...more

Blog

May 06, 20246 min read

Conquering Impostor Syndrome

Conquering Impostor Syndrome

A new way of seeing Impostor Syndrome Impostor Syndrome is one of the most common and misunderstood challenges faced by tech leaders at all levels. Whether it's a developer mentoring other developer... ...more

Blog

April 05, 20249 min read

Why Effective agile Increases Perception of Uncertainty

Why Effective agile Increases Perception of Uncertainty

Agile ways of working often result in a feeling of uncreased uncertainty. But how close is this feeling to reality? <br><br> The most common complaint I hear from frustrated senior leaders adopting ag... ...more

Blog

March 31, 20249 min read

Effective Feedback

Effective Feedback

Effective Feedback ...more

Blog

September 05, 20234 min read

The Impact Of Setting Targets

The Impact Of Setting Targets

The Impact Of Setting Targets ...more

Blog

September 02, 20237 min read

How To Change (part 1)

How To Change (part 1)

Most management is based on the idea that if something goes wrong, someone is always to blame (we use 'accountability now, but it hasn't changed much). If you want to shift your viewpoints away from... ...more

Blog

August 31, 20235 min read

Knowing You Have to Change Isn’t Enough

Knowing You Have to Change Isn’t Enough

Knowing You Have to Change Isn’t Enough ...more

Blog

August 30, 20233 min read

Transformation Starts With You

Transformation Starts With You

Transformation Starts With You ...more

Blog

August 29, 20232 min read

Change Starts Within

Change Starts Within

Change Starts Within ...more

Blog

August 04, 20232 min read

High Tech Consultancy

High Tech Consultancy

High Tech Consultancy ...more

Blog

August 03, 20235 min read

Making Money

Making Money

Making Money ...more

Blog

June 26, 20232 min read

Job Description Silos

Job Description Silos

Job Description Silos ...more

Blog

June 25, 20231 min read

Why I Coach

Why I Coach

Before becoming a coach, a friend asked me, ‘Why do you want to coach?’ It turns out the answer is simpler than I expected. ...more

Blog

June 19, 20233 min read

Whole-company Big Room Planning is probably making things worse

Whole-company Big Room Planning is probably making things worse

Years of hearing about how much better things would be if you adopted agile have finally convinced you to try. After significant consideration, you choose to start Big Room Planning (BRP). It’s a deci... ...more

Blog

May 05, 20237 min read

Why Transformations Fail

Why Transformations Fail

Why Transformations Fail ...more

Blog

March 14, 20239 min read

Agile Story Sizing

Agile Story Sizing

When trying to work with stories, it’s important to keep them small. What do I mean by small? Small. Smaller than that. Even smaller. Why should stories be small? Human beings are terrible at estima... ...more

Blog

January 31, 20237 min read

Organisations, Cynefin, and the Theory of Constraints

Organisations, Cynefin, and the Theory of Constraints

Organisations, Cynefin, and the Theory of Constraints ...more

Blog

January 12, 20232 min read

Pull Requests and Software Development

Pull Requests and Software Development

Pull Requests and Software Development ...more

Blog

December 08, 20222 min read

When technical problems aren’t technical problems

When technical problems aren’t technical problems

When technical problems aren’t technical problems ...more

Blog

December 07, 20223 min read

Your workload is not an indicator of your value

Your workload is not an indicator of your value

Your workload is not an indicator of your value ...more

Blog

November 11, 20223 min read

Technical debt is a myth

Technical debt is a myth

Technical debt is a myth ...more

Blog

November 07, 20225 min read

Hiring: It’s not a funnel

Hiring: It’s not a funnel

There’s a recurring conversation around hiring that goes something like: “We need to hire X number of people in the next quarter, to stay on target.” “What do we need to do to get more people into the... ...more

Blog

October 29, 20225 min read

Tech tests are a red flag

Tech tests are a red flag

You’re hiring a new developer. You have a team of people that are under the kosh, and you want to get them some help to make things better. How to ensure that the people you interview are at least com... ...more

Blog

March 30, 20223 min read

Big Room Planning is an Organisational Smell

Big Room Planning is an Organisational Smell

Just like code has smells that tell you something is wrong, so do organisations. Big Room Planning (BRP) is one of the most obvious. ...more

Blog

March 19, 20224 min read

Keeping Up With the Business

Keeping Up With the Business

Today’s assumption: putting a date on something increases the likelihood that it will be done by then. ...more

Blog

March 15, 20221 min read

Adopting Kanban

Adopting Kanban

When working with a team to adopt Kanban, one of the questions that usually comes up is, “What should we put on the board?” Put everything one the board. But why? ...more

Blog

March 13, 20221 min read

The Expertise of Simplicity

The Expertise of Simplicity

Years ago, we hired a database expert. Things were great, but eventually the expert couldn’t keep up with the demand. I suggested we hire another and look at doing fancy things with the database. The ... ...more

Blog

March 11, 20221 min read

Adopting Agile in Large Organisations

Adopting Agile in Large Organisations

Enterprises that I’ve interacted and read about often tackle Agile Transformations in the same way — they build small teams, assign them responsibilities over a part of the technical system, and then ... ...more

Blog

March 09, 20222 min read

Enterprise Architects

Enterprise Architects

Enterprise Architects seem to fall broadly into 2 camps. Those who write code. They know how the system works and how the pieces fit together Those who do not write code. They spend much of their ti... ...more

Blog

March 08, 20222 min read

Dependencies

Dependencies

Dependencies are an organisational smell. They’re the result of business debt, or incorrect organisational design. It is entirely possible, with what we know about software development, to build massi... ...more

Blog

March 07, 20221 min read

Hidden Assumptions

Hidden Assumptions

One of the single most helpful things anybody can do for a group of people (ie a system), is help expose the underlying assumptions that drive the system. Just recently, I was advising a friend who w... ...more

Blog

March 06, 20221 min read

Assumption: When the Work is Done

Assumption: When the Work is Done

Today’s assumption: Work is done when my team is finished with it. Work isn’t done when it leaves your hands; work is only ever done when a customer can use it. ...more

Blog

March 04, 20221 min read

Organisational Politics

Organisational Politics

Today’s assumption: Politics are inevitable in your organisation. The bigger the organisation, the more politics. Knowledge is power. Those with knowledge are more powerful than those without. Every ... ...more

Blog

March 02, 20221 min read

Broken Systems

Broken Systems

If you see a system that consistently creates the same broken results, don’t conclude that the system is broken. The system is working exactly as designed. Unfortunately, the designers prioritised som... ...more

Blog

March 01, 20221 min read

Queue Length

Queue Length

Above 80% utilisation, work backlogs grow faster than they shrink. What does this mean for how we should think about planning work? ...more

Blog

February 19, 20220 min read

The Value of Estimation

The Value of Estimation

“Estimates are filled with more uncertainty than confidence.” -Dominica DeGrandis Not every observed practice is a good one. ...more

Blog

February 17, 20220 min read

Busyness vs Productivity

Busyness vs Productivity

Today’s assumption: Busyness = productivity “Avoid the mistake of having a goal to keep people busy all the time when the goal should be to generate value for the business.” -Dominica DeGrandis If y... ...more

Blog

February 15, 20222 min read

Assumption: Deadlines Help Delivery

Assumption: Deadlines Help Delivery

Today’s assumption: putting a date on something increases the likelihood that it will be done by then. With very few exceptions, deadlines are arbitrary. People know this. The date is chosen before t... ...more

Blog

February 15, 20221 min read

Assumption: Tools and Ways of Working Are Enough

Assumption: Tools and Ways of Working Are Enough

Today’s assumption: You can change your organisation by introducing new ways of doing things or new tools. Everything about your organisation is derived from the beliefs held by those with power. You... ...more

Blog

February 13, 20222 min read

Leadership, Agile, and Uncertainty

Leadership, Agile, and Uncertainty

Software development contains uncertainty. Asking your team for certainty on any sizeable project is putting them in a bad spot — it makes clear that you don’t understand the inherent variability in k... ...more

Blog

February 11, 20222 min read

Digital Transformation: Where Does Change Start?

Digital Transformation: Where Does Change Start?

People who hire me know things aren’t working well. They see the failure of the systems to deliver the outcomes they want. Unfortunately, most of the time, they don’t recognise their role in it. ...more

Blog

February 09, 20221 min read

Hiring experts

Hiring experts

When you hire somebody to solve a problem, if they are any good at their job, the first thing they’re going to do is seek to fully understand the problem. And unless you are already capable of doing t... ...more

Blog

February 03, 20222 min read

Which problems to fix

Which problems to fix

How do you know where to start? When figuring out which of the many problems you could tackle, how do you know which are the right ones? Low-hanging fruit? Biggest challenge? What should you do? ...more

Blog

February 01, 20221 min read

Hidden Conflict

Hidden Conflict

If you’ve ever wondered why the problem you’re tackling hasn’t shifted, there’s almost certainly a hidden conflict. Nobody is trying to perpetuate the problem, but it’s likely that the problem exists... ...more

Blog

January 28, 20221 min read

Conflict resolution

Conflict resolution

There are 3 ways to resolve conflict: 1. Win-win. 2. Win-lose. 3. Compromise More often than not, it's possible to find a win-win, even when we think we have little in common. ...more

Blog

January 26, 20221 min read

Transforming Make-A-Wish UK

Transforming Make-A-Wish UK

All organisations need to adapt to the ways the world is changing. Both technology and the ways we think about organisations are undergoing rapid change, and it’s speeding up. Digital Transformation i... ...more

Blog

May 09, 20188 min read

Building a Case for Organisational Change

Building a Case for Organisational Change

Customers want to give you huge amounts of money to do something that you want to do. However, you can’t retain the people who can do it. So you have to both hire and train people to do it. In additio... ...more

Blog

September 12, 201715 min read

When to coach, when to agitate?

When to coach, when to agitate?

Good coaching is an almost ideal solution. It works by simple questioning, listening, and helping the coachee figure out a solution for themselves that works for them, in their given circumstances. Th... ...more

Blog

February 17, 20175 min read

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