Blog
Why Metaphors Shift Team Behavior Better Than Rules
Rules seem efficient. They’re direct. They make us feel like we’re in control. But here’s the problem: rules rarely stick. Project leaders often lean on rules to shape behavior:“Work together.”“Hurry up.”“Be ready for changes.” Teams may comply in the moment, but the...
So what can be done to make meetings more productive and enjoyable?
What’s the first word that pops into your head when you hear the word “meetings”? My guess is that most people’s response would not be “fulfilling”, “useful” or “progress”. In fact, my guess is that a majority of the responses would be categorized as negative like “ugh”, “waste”, or “too-many”. I know that’s two words, […]
There’s an art to designing a meeting and/or workshop.
It's a balancing act to have the right discussions that result in the desired outcomes. Trying to fit 5 lbs. of stuff into a 3 lb. bag will only end up with a mess and a lot of stuff on the floor. Here are 5 ways to prevent adding too much into a meeting or workshop....
Agile Retrospectives
I've been reading the book Agile Retrospectives and have been posting on the topic of Retrospectives in LI lately. I love the idea of pausing for reflection in both our work lives and personal lives. Until we pause, we are often too busy to really think about what we...
Did you know, the hashtag (#) is technically called an octothorpe?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the "octo" prefix refers to the eight points on the symbol. The "thorpe" suffix remains more of a mystery. One theory is that "thorpe" comes from the old English word for "village" based on the idea that the symbol could be...
Are design thinking, workshopping, and agility related?
How do design thinking (and human-centered design) relate to workshopping, and agility? These are all compliments to each other to promote innovation. They can be used together to help develop new ideas, test new ideas, integrate ideas from multiple people, and then...
What’s the big deal about retrospectives?
Retrospectives provide an opportunity to inspect and adapt. They allow a team to hit the pause button to really reflect about the work at hand and how the team is working together. The best retrospectives are the ones that result in a couple solid action items that...
Tips for creating an important presentation!
For anyone that needs to prepare for a presentation, check out the link to a post from Lukas Liebich below. I especially love the concept of a really bad draft on day 1 and practicing the presentation while cutting onions on day 6. Great share Lukas. Thanks! Original...
What do people care about hearing in weekly status updates?
As a follow-up to my post about sending email updates as an alternative (or improvement) to status meetings, here's list of what people want to see in their status meeting update emails. What to include in the email update. Project Milestones. List the project...