Just this morning I listened to someone suggest that the more you document the more control you have. And the less you document, the less control you have. Of course the trade-off in this person’s mind was in overhead versus control. More overhead (from writing things down) results in more control, but sometimes the overhead isn’t worth it. And thus…
Category: Meaningful Management
People change
Are you the same person you were a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago? Let’s keep in mind that the balance of features any individual exhibits today, is not the same set of features they’ll exhibit a year from now, nor is it the same necessarily tomorrow.
Saying no gets easier
The more you say no, when you know it’s a no, the easier it will be to say no in the future. The more you say yes, when you know it’s a no, the easier it will be to say yes–when it’s really a no–in the future.
DevOps is a fad
DevOps is nothing new, the term may be new, but the ideas aren’t. Cross functional teams, limiting WIP, these aren’t new. I have books collecting dust from the mid to late 20th century describing similar organizational and management philosophies. If you think you’ve struck gold, then it’s time to check your premises. Likely you’re just riding a wave of vapid…
Degrees don’t matter
I’ve worked with many talented people that don’t have degrees and that do have degrees. When I work with someone, the first thing that comes to mind is what can we accomplish together.
Labels are self-fulfilling
Labels become self-fulfilling, self-effacing prophecies. Alice is an introvert, never let her talk to customers. So, Alice never talks to customers and thus never becomes comfortable talking to customers, and therefore reinforces the “introvert” label. John is callous, he doesn’t think much before speaking. Don’t trust him with any important decisions…
For data to matter it has to influence how you feel
Every decision is made intuitively, we don’t act based on data, we act based on how we feel. So even if you have a drawn out process to gather data, a human will have the final say based on how they feel.
Happiness is perception
You can be stubborn about how you look at the world and wait for other people to change, or you can change how you look at the world. I’ll be adding this to the list of Mindsets as “Happiness is a Choice”
You’re not rational, get over it
The one thing that holds back most humans, is that they aren’t even aware that they act based on intuition, based on how they feel. They think they are rational creatures that make calculated, thoughtful decisions. Consequently, they never develop skills to know when their intuition is out of whack. If you can hone your intuition you’ll make many more…