It’s no secret, small self-managing teams are becoming the foundational operating unit within organizations. The shift toward increasingly autonomous, team-based work is nothing new. Developers and tech pioneers Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, and 15 of their peers gave the movement definition with their breakthrough publication of the Agile Manifesto in 2001. The new thinking guided […]
Better Outcomes Begin with Shared Understanding
When I came across this quote from developer John Cutler, I found it insightful both for its simplicity and the deeper questions it evokes. “Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes, then figure out how to remove that mile altogether.” So, what exactly does he mean by “remove the mile”? One interpretation might be the […]
Rule of Thumb: When Providing Creative Feedback – Be Specific
Recently we delivered a Powerpoint design to a client. The initial feedback was: “Can you make the pictures more beautiful”. The designer’s response… “Certainly, do you have something specific in mind”? For creators, nothing is more frustrating than ambiguous feedback that lacks clarity and specificity. In most cases, it’s not the client’s fault. They’re just […]
Overcoming Project Paralysis
In business and in life, we tend to overcomplicate what it takes to complete our next project. In reality, there’s only one requirement…to start. Few understand this principle better than Dan Sullivan at Strategic Coach. Dan’s 80% Approach is the simplest, clearest recipe we’ve seen for overcoming the two mental habits that stall far too […]
Untangling Your Organization’s Decision Making
How is your organization arriving at its mission-critical decisions? According to recent research by McKinsey & Co, 72% of executives say the bad strategic decisions are on par or higher than the good ones. Although technology has empowered ultra efficient communication, the result is more cooks in the kitchen without enough decision-making authority. The report […]
Why You Hate Work
According to a Gallup 2018 report, just 34% of employees are engaged, involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work. 53% are not engaged and 13% are actively dis-engaged with miserable work experiences. So what’s going on? Why are American’s so unhappy with their work environments? The Energy Project says it doesn’t have to […]
Embracing Agile
Born in 2001 from an existential crisis in software development, Agile approaches to innovation have spread to just about every industry. From technology, finance, media, and manufacturing, companies are pulling people out of their silos and forming small, customer-centric teams charged with adapting and delivering faster. But true adoption is uneven at best. HBR took […]
How Great Leaders Inspire Action
“Start with Why” is the leadership approach Simon Sinek so effectively crystalized in his now infamous TedTalk. It’s power lies in its simplicity. Although easy to understand, few companies apply it. Perhaps executives fear they’ll be perceived as ‘soft’, or seen outside capitalism’s caricature of what defines a leader. Sinek is right. Too often, companies […]
