Ashley’s legs churned. Her feet flew across the asphalt. Ahead of her, Becky started into a slow jog, gradually picking up her pace, arm extended backwards. “Becky was so tan last fall,” Ashley mused, noticing how pale Becky’s arm was against the track, while another part of her brain noted what a strange thought that […] …read more…

If you’ve been in the business world for any length of time, you’ve probably heard someone talking about “putting on my __ hat”. It’s helpful phrasing to signal that you’re taking a certain perspective on a discussion. Someone might say, “putting on my manager hat, we need to get this done in two weeks, but […] …read more…

After onboarding new employees across companies and disciplines, having been onboarded, and working to improve onboarding practices at nearly every company I’ve worked at, I’ve stumbled to the belief that there is a nearly-algorithmic process can lead to an ideal—or at least much more acceptable—onboarding experience.  Following this algorithm will take work, but it leads […] …read more…

The team has just finished presenting their recommendations to their leadership. Leadership is happy about their plan for building the next part of the product. After a small adjustment, leadership is on-board with the sequencing, too. Before the meeting wraps up, the team points out the work would go more quickly, with less risk, more […] …read more…

I wrote before about two of my onboarding experiences and how they shaped my view of the company I was starting at. Those were remote, senior-level software development roles. In this post, I’m going to write about improving onboarding for roles that were not remote, senior, or for software development. Once upon a time, I […] …read more…

Week Four is the final week in the Warfighting Book Club, relating the Marine Corps doctrinal publication Warfighting to business agility. This is probably my favorite chapter in the book. Several of the sections (Philosophy of Command, Commander’s Intent, Surfaces and Gaps) would be worth an entire week’s discussion on their own. For facilitators, adding […] …read more…

This is Week Three in the Warfighting Book Club, relating the Marine Corps doctrinal publication Warfighting to business agility. This section is not my favorite, but raises a lot of good questions to consider organizationally. Warfighting Week Three Leader’s Notes and Questions [Page numbers and quotes are taken from Warfighting, MCDP 1, 2019 Edition] Sections:  […] …read more…

This is Week Two in the Warfighting Book Club, relating the Marine Corps doctrinal publication Warfighting to business agility. This was a great, meaty section. I left a lot of possible topics and questions off the list because we only had so much time to discuss. Warfighting Week Two Leader’s Notes and Questions [Page numbers […] …read more…

One of the best books on agile development or business agility is Warfighting, Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication #1. It takes a little bit of work to translate from the military domain to the business domain, but it’s worth it, in much the same way that The Art of War is. I recently led a book […] …read more…

My family has owned a Vizio TV (model V555-H11) for a while, keeping it disconnected from the internet and using as a dumb display for other devices. The picture has been fine. The audio has had some issues. We have experienced sound cutting out during quiet parts of movies, often accompanied by a quiet-but-perceptible-and-pretty-annoying-once-you-notice-it popping […] …read more…