I went to the nextNY happy hour last week, which got me thinking about the different ways in which people network. There’s the “agenda” networker, who wants something, whether it be funding for his startup, a new job, or an introduction to a VC, and he’s at the event to find it. He’ll talk to […]
Category: management
Feedback sessions
Feedback sessions are a powerful tool for generating forward progress in any aspect of life. Even though I determined that iteration and feedback don’t work as a management tactic, I still think feedback sessions are important. One simple benefit is that regular feedback sessions force you to take action. It almost doesn’t matter what form […]
Iteration and feedback in management
My recent post on fixing the real problem reminded me of an earlier post on the rapid prototyping of life, where I said “The qualities which point towards rapid prototyping are where the final goal is poorly defined, where only experimentation, not theory, will help define that final goal, and where there are no irreversible […]
Fixing the real problem
When I worked at Signature BioScience, there were ten other software developers, all of whom wrote better and more sophisticated code than I did. Yet I survived through multiple layoffs as Signature spiralled into bankruptcy, and I was the only developer re-hired by MDS Sciex when they picked up the pieces from Signature’s carnage. Seem […]
Team player
This has been a week of reflection for me for several reasons. I’ve been thinking about what constraints are necessary for me to be successful. After reviewing situations in which I achieved great things in the past, I realized that a common element of those situations was being part of a team I cared about. […]
Embracing constraint
A friend recently told me about his vacation where he felt surprisingly productive despite not having access to his normal resources (he only had a carry-on bag of clothes, a laptop and a couple books). Because he had fewer choices about what to do, he just picked a task available to him and started working […]
Artful Making, by Rob Austin and Lee Devin
Amazon link Subtitled “What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work”, this book addresses the question of managing knowledge workers who are more independent than ever before. The authors study how a dramatic troupe puts together a performance for ideas on how to assemble talented and creative free agents into a coherent effort. In […]
Laying the foundation
Twyla Tharp, in her book The Creative Habit, tells the story of working on the musical Moving Out, set to Billy Joel’s work. She listened to all of his music, watched all of his music videos, read or watched every interview with him, watched iconic movies of the Vietnam war like Full Metal Jacket, read […]
“The Guy” theory
[Apologies in advance for the sexism inherent in calling it “The Guy” theory – the people with whom I was having these conversations were all male, so it made sense in those instances, and I can’t think of an appropriate gender-neutral term right now] So I’ve been referring to “The Guy” theory in several recent […]
The Role of Context
Today’s topic on Scott Berkun’s mailing list for project managers was surprisingly divisive. The story: the project manager has a star programmer who is utterly pessimistic. The programmer does his job well but infects the rest of the team with his cynicism, leaving the project manager having to improve morale. The first several responses all […]
