Tag: management

  • Could your team be managing itself?

    Could your team be managing itself?

    “Self-organization” and “management” aren’t mutually exclusive. But we’ll need to rethink the role of the manager if we’re planning to build adaptable teams.

  • Back to School

    For a lot of people, September means that we are back to school! Or maybe that we are not in school anymore, and so we need to take care of our learning path. I learned a lot from your feedback on Changing Your Team From The Inside. Keep that coming! It is very useful! I…

  • Care Personally

    Care Personally

    Care personally and challenge directly. That is how Kim Scott defines Radical Candor. At the end of November, I decided that I will offer her book to some of my colleagues. A book is an opportunity for learning through discussions with others. I already discussed the advantage of a book discussion club, and by offering…

  • Trust Factor

    Trust Factor

    Trust, as a foundation for efficient and sustainable teams, is a recurring topic on that blog. In Beyond Measure, I covered the simple exercise proposed by Margaret Heffernan to initiate a relationship between team members. I tried to nudge you to try The Evolution of Trust from Nicky Case. And, of course, I regularly referenced…

  • How well managed is your company?

    The median answer to that question is 7 in the World Management Survey. The results on that particular item demonstrate how false perceptions come into play when we are evaluating our own company and our abilities. As discussed in the article, Why do we undervalue competent management,  false perceptions undermines our ability to evaluate how…

  • How Agile and Open Source work together in (nearly) perfect harmony

    How Agile and Open Source work together in (nearly) perfect harmony

    This article is based on the talk I gave for the Red Hat Agile Day in Raleigh on October 11, 2016. The conversation about agile and Open Source usually starts with an interruption in this form: Agile will not work in an Open Source context because… That’s usually how a conversation will start, and that’s…

  • Beyond Measure

    Beyond Measure

    Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes is a book by Margaret Heffernan published by TED. And it starts with: Trust The author suggests an exercise for team members. Form pairs in which one will ask a real question and listen for 5 minutes: “Who you really are?”, “What do you want in life?”.…

  • Let us code!

    Let us code!

    I started this article a long time ago. And that’s a comment from a person I work with that triggered the sense of urgency to contribute to solving this problem. He said: Stop interrupting us! Let us code! I became sensitive to interruptions when I discovered the Pomodoro method, subject that I covered in this…

  • The Five Dysfunctions of A Team

    The Five Dysfunctions of A Team

    “If you can get all the people of an organization  rowing in the same direction you can dominate any industry on any market against any competition at any time.” When the author use this quote from a friend in front of executives, they are all nodding, not only to express their approbation, but to express…

  • Work Rules – Insights from Google that will transform how you live and lead

    Work Rules – Insights from Google that will transform how you live and lead

    Work Rules is a book from Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations at Google. You will find that the “People Operations” that could be called “Human resources” in other organizations is really different in its way to operate. Main difference is the focus on data, not on opinion, and to be careful with natural human…

  • The Search for Happiness

    The Search for Happiness

    During the past days, I had the opportunity to give two conferences. One in Raleigh, North Carolina, on October 20, 2015, for the Red Hat Agile Day. The other, in Bordeaux, France, for the closing keynote of AgileTour Bordeaux, on October 30, 2015. I adapted the content according to the feedback received after my opening…

  • Manage it!

    Manage it!

    Manage it! is a book by Johanna Rothman published by Pragmatic Programmers. You probably know already Pragmatic Programmers, they published Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen, and also Agile Coaching by Rachel Davies and Liz Sedley that my friend Fabrice Aimetti translated into French. If don’t know Pragmatic Programmers yet, I recommend a…