Post from Awesome Folks #8

Author

Emily Webber
April 29, 2022

Happy Friday folks,

There are so many great posts this week; here is what I have been reading this week.

There continues to be a lot of posts about looking after people amidst uncertainty. The ongoing mental stresses of the last couple of years are impacting everyone, a reminder to look after yourself and check-in with each other.

Have a great weekend

Emily

People and culture

To Have Joy in the Workplace, There Must Be Justice for All

Joy and justice are two intertwined priorities we should all advance, but leaders sow distrust and unease when they don’t speak up and take a stand on urgent issues. We all want to create spaces full of joy, fulfillment, and happiness.

Forget Resilience, Improve Your Uncertainty Tolerance

Your brain is a prediction machine, meaning that when things don't go as planned, there can be significant consequences. You’ll have experienced this many times. That tight feeling in your chest when receiving adverse news.

Stop Telling Employees to Be Resilient

Building teams that can weather uncertainty and change requires creating systems for support and dialogue. Lately, it feels like “resilience” has popped up as the answer to just about everything. Having a hard time because of a toxic environment? Just be resilient.

Organisations and systems

10 Progressive Organizational Structures Developed By Real Companies

So, I recently came across an old tweet of Jurgen Appelo, in which he asks: "Apart from Holacracy, the "Spotify model" and Liquid Organization, what other frameworks/models do you know for adaptable org structures?" It made me reflect on all the different "adaptable organizational structures" we've

SUNDAY REWIND: Your team is smarter than you are: why autonomous product teams work better

Today’s Sunday Rewind takes us back a few years to a post written by MTP Co-founder Martin Eriksson that delves into the causes of friction between teams in a business. Friction between teams kills momentum and speed.

How we make ethical decisions about the work we do

Questions that act as a guide when assessing a potential piece of work. We have different questions for public sector and for private sector clients. Ethics Review meetings to discuss and decide on more contentious cases.

Setting and measuring goals

3 Stumbling Blocks that Get in the Way of Strategic Planning

Managers struggle with strategic planning — to the extent that some experts claim that there’s no such thing. Actually, strategic planning is a very useful part of the toolkit, provided you can avoid the stumbling blocks. The key is to recognize that a strategic plan is not a to-do list but rather a set of ideas that you will certainly change. Given that, it’s important to build change into the process. Finally, don’t tie your strategic plan too closely to your budget.

Beyond human-centered design by Saielle DaSilva

While we build products around personas, there are plenty of reasons why product managers should be looking at the bigger picture. In this ProductTank Wellington talk, Saielle DaSilva, Head of User Experience at car buying site Cazoo, talks about moving beyond human-centered design.

OKR Leadership: A safe culture of learning

So far we’ve talked about trust for your teams and support for product discovery as two key behavior changes required in leaders hoping for a successful transition to objectives and key results. The next leadership behavior change required to make OKRs successful is building a culture of learning.

TBM 19/52: A Portfolio of Bets

I encourage teams to think about their roadmap as a portfolio of bets. Different initiatives have different risk/reward profiles. When the strategy and goals change, the mix changes. You can hedge and over-hedge. People often describe startups as risky.

Effective Leaders Decide About Deciding

Every leader should design and communicate how they want to make decisions. Making it clear what you care about, what you need to know about, and what you’re tasking others to move on will help minimize confusion about who should be making which decisions.

Tools and approaches for teams

Biggest F*** Ups Game – a way to build psychological safety

The following was translated and adapted from the original post in Swedish by Jenny Persson. We work together at Dandy to create and adapt trainings for our customers’ needs. We often sit together to generate ideas. These sessions, like the one we just had, are unbelievably fun.

Critical Thinking Is About Asking Better Questions

Are you tackling a new and difficult problem at work? Recently promoted and trying to both understand your new role and bring a fresh perspective? Or are you new to the workforce and seeking ways to meaningfully contribute alongside your more experienced colleagues? If so, critical thinking — the

Another newsletter to check out

Guest curated by the wonderful Rosie Sherry

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