Posts from Awesome Folks #20

Author

Emily Webber
July 22, 2022

Hello folks,

It feels like we all could do with a medal for making it to the end of this week. So well done, and here is yours🏅

As schools break for the summer, I expect blogging to be a little quieter for the next month or so; for those of you not on holiday, here are some awesome posts. This week there are lots of posts on organisations and systems, including complexity, autonomy, decision making and the emotional journey of transformation.

Let me know if you are enjoying these newsletters by subscribing, hitting the thumbs up at the end of the post, or sending me a quick note.

Happy Friday

Emily

People and culture

Five management anti-patterns and why they happen

By Mugdha Myers

"Most bad managers aren’t intentionally evil or malicious. Rather, poor management techniques are often a result of insecurity, stress, and lack of insight. These are fixable problems, but the manager must first recognize their flaws. This article caricatures five such counterproductive managers."

Organisations and systems

The Structure and Process Fallacy

By Nick Tune

"What’s your feeling when reading that quote? Are you strongly in agreement, generally in agreement, or perhaps you’re shaking your head in disagreement? The quote reflects a sentiment I notice from leaders in top-down, hierarchical organizations."

Guiding principle: autonomy is enabled by clear intent and technical excellence

By Jason Yip

"Guiding principle in effective product development culture. Marquet, L. David. Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders"

Interview with Bjarte Bogsnes about leading complexity

By Tomas Björkholm

"Hello Bjarte. We are so happy to have you in our Leading Complexity program. For those who have not met you, can you tell us about who you are and your background? I’m a finance guy by education but have also worked in human resources."

Organizational Transformation Is an Emotional Journey

By Andrew White, Michael Smets, and Adam Canwell

"The road is littered with failed transformation programs that were set up in the traditional way: Leaders define objectives, design a project plan, agree on KPIs, and recruit the right people."

Explainer Video: How To Make Better Decisions

By Pim de Morree

"Limited or Unlimited Vacation Time? Here at Corporate Rebels, we value freedom at work. A lot. It's up to everyone to decide for themselves when and where they work. We don't track hours, working days, vacation days, or any of that sort. And we love it.

Setting and measuring goals

How to Reconcile SMART Goals and OKRs

By Jeff Gothelf

"Here’s the answer I gave them. That’s a fairly close alignment between these two concepts. There’s only one thing missing: the time-related attribute. Much of the conversation around OKRs focuses on quarterly KR targets as shown here."

Tools and approaches for teams

How to Tactfully Interject in a Virtual Meeting

By Melody Wilding

"Picture it — you’re on a call with a few colleagues and your boss, discussing a project you’re heavily involved with. Although you have thoughts to share, you can’t seem to get a word in edgewise. Dialogue ping-pongs between your manager and coworkers until the meeting ends."

How to conduct productive sprint planning meetings for product managers

By Richard Conn

"Keeping your sprint planning meetings productive isn’t just about the meetings themselves. Preparation beforehand and acting on the results of the meeting afterwards are also crucial. Let’s look at the three crucial elements of impactful sprint planning meetings."

How to inspire your team away from funnel vision when doing design concepts

By Gizem Kurangil

"Do you ever get that moment in a project where you realise some participants go on and on about the same solution in an ideation session?"

Other things

These 12 Tips Transformed My Public Speaking Skills

By Katrine Tjoelsen

"Do you wish your audience paid close attention to each second of your riveting presentation? And perceived you as calm, yet confident and competent?"

July 2022’s issue – The Agilist

A monthly printed Agile newspaper, featuring writing from people around the web, this month has me in it!

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