Let’s start this by saying that if you are truly complicated, or at least if you think you are, it means that you might generate a lot of problems but war is something that you don’t do. So, it’s not that bad! Have you ever heard someone that […]
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias (See Controlling Your Personal Bias) where you are essentially blinded by your own perception of your abilities. In summary, the Dunning-Kruger effect simply means that you don’t know what you don’t know, so you may believe that you know more than you […]
The short, simple answer to this question is “no, not really.” The only real way to get rid of task switching is to actively work to reduce task switching. The longer answer is a little more complicated than just saying, “No.” Agile frameworks and methodologies, including Scrum […]
I started Agile-Mercurial to help me improve my writing. I make simple mistakes. I rush through to get it done and use “Their” instead of “They’re” more often than I care to admit. I get a bit wordy and go off in random directions sometimes; you should read […]
We can get away with having lazy communication practices in a co-located team or single building environment. In a co-located team we have accidents and chance encounters that help fill in the gap that exists without a proactive communication plan. In a single work building, we can expect to […]
Most people don’t usually enjoy team building activities. You might get them to play along in team building games, and for some teams that may work, but they would rather be elsewhere. These are usually management driven team building activities. Management decides what they are going to do, […]
What is needed for an adaptive organization? a truly agile (nimble, flexible) organization? It needs a model that considers the complexity of organizations without utilizing things like one size fits all tools. A focus on these tools stifles creativity and innovation and it won’t make an organization agile. […]
Recently an article popped up on LinkedIn from Ryan Hoover (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/problems-remote-working-ryan-hoover/), that discussed many of the issues telecommuters or remote workers face. The problems he listed: Loneliness Disconnecting Distractions Watercooler Serendipity Communication Respect Some of them I can agree with and I wrote about my own issues with […]
These are things I have witnessed managers saying or doing either to me or to others during my career. I feel that these things certainly had a negative impact on the motivation of the employee on the receiving end. This is follow up or a Part 2. The […]
“Have you ever heard the adage that communication is only 7 percent verbal and 93 percent non-verbal, i.e. body language and vocal variety? You probably have, and if you have any sense at all, you have ignored it.” – Phillip Yaffe; THE 7% RULE FACT, FICTION, OR MISUNDERSTANDING […]
An information radiator displays information in a place where passersby can see it. With information radiators, the passersby don’t need to ask questions; the information simply hits them as they pass. – Alistair Cockburn Information radiators are used to help provide transparency by conveying information visually. The general […]
You have the official rules and processes, then you have what people actually do. Does that sound like your job or your organization? The Legitimate System Vs. The Shadow System Organizations need rules, They need the structure. It won’t survive long if it doesn’t have those. There […]
What Are the Big Five Personality Traits? The simple answer: they are a model intended to help understand the complexity of human personality, human relationships, and human reactions to situations. Understanding them is critical when it comes to a management approach that places humans at the center; […]
*The following is written by guest blogger Tammy Ziemba Extreme Programming (XP) is an agile software development framework that aims to deliver higher quality software and higher personal satisfaction for the development team. XP is the most explicit of the frameworks in regards to suitable design practices for […]
Projects fail for several reasons and those reasons often vary depending on who you ask. My own opinion, you can track back just about every single failure reason to issues with planning or issues with communication; sometimes both. That is, of course, assuming you have adequate support from […]
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