Posts from Awesome Folks #133

A weekly round up of blog posts I've been reading

Emily Webber
December 06, 2024

Hello folks,

This week, a lot of people are talking about efficiency vs effectiveness. It reminds me of a (pre-covid) conversation I had once where someone said that putting coffee stations on every floor, so people didn’t have to spend time away from their desks, was better as it was more efficient; I completely disagreed as it takes away the kitchen conversations, which can lead to serendipitous moments that link people and work up and actually make things better.

In my work, I encourage those “non-efficient” moments that make better organisations through collaboration and joining up across silos. I’m sure this is just the start of this topic dissected in blogs and articles, so let’s see where it goes.

Enjoy this week’s posts, and happy Friday.

Emily

People and Culture

Hybrid Work: Four Key Times to Meet In Person

Brian Elliott

Get advice on crafting successful onsite team time, in this brief video with Brian Elliott.

sloanreview.mit.edu/video/hybrid-work-four-key-times-to-meet-in-person

How to Cultivate Joy on Your Team

Menlo Innovations CEO Richard Sheridan explains why joy is so important for innovation.

hbr.org/podcast/2024/12/how-to-cultivate-joy-on-your-team

Leadership Tip 22: The One Secret to Team Efficiency and Productivity

Johanna Rothman

Have you seen the Forbes article that has zero idea how efficient engineering teams work? They have a whole long list of “inefficiencies”. This is a quote from that article: Marking oneself as “in a meeting” on Slack Scheduling communications (Slack messages, emails, and code commits) for off-hours to appear active Blocking out private calendar […]

www.jrothman.com/mpd/2024/12/leadership-tip-22-the-one-secret-to-team-efficiency-and-productivity

Organisations and Systems

Governments Should Be Effective, Not Efficient

Karthik Ramanna

President-elect Donald Trump’s recently announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by business leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is creating ripples in Washington. While the idea that the sprawling federal government bureaucracy is in need of a shake-up may be appealing to many Americans, efficiency — the essence of capitalism — might not be the right approach for the public sector.

hbr.org/2024/12/governments-should-be-effective-not-efficient

Management By Driving Around

Robert I. Sutton, Huggy Rao, and Michael Rothkopf

In 2019, California Governor Newsom hired veteran technology executive Steve Gordon to transform the troubled DMV: to increase online services, improve service at field offices, and bolster employee morale. By 2024, Gordon’s team had sped up service at the DMV, built a more innovative and customer-focused culture, and cranked up customer satisfaction. How did Gordon and his team do it, especially when Gordon lacked the luxury of taking 100 days “just to learn what’s going on” as he had in past leadership roles? He slowed way down in one crucial way: During his first months on the job, Gordon visited all 180 DMV field offices, putting some 50,000 miles on his car in the process.

hbr.org/2024/11/management-by-driving-around

Fair Pay Through Self-Management: Mindera's Salary Comparison Model -…

Joost Minnaar

Mindera is a 1,000+ employee software company that has reimagined its salary model to fit its self-managing working style.

www.corporate-rebels.com/blog/mindera-people-comparison-model

Outcomes and Objectives

Decoupling OKRs: It’s Time to Let Go

Christina Wodtke

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are supposed to make everything faster, clearer, and more focused. And when you’re in a small company or early-stage start-up, they often do. When you’re that smal…

eleganthack.com/decoupling-okrs-its-time-to-let-go

Approaches for Teams

The Engineering Team Performance Report 2024

LeadDev

Our survey of 900+ engineering leaders exploring how software engineering team performance is measured, the tools used, and the results achieved.

leaddev.com/the-engineering-team-performance-report-2024

Other Things

FOMO is not a strategy

Rachel Coldicutt

End of year reflections on how people are using genAI at work

buttondown.com/justenoughinternet/archive/fomo-is-not-a-strategy

And non-work related, I’m very much enjoying these mends from The Seam, amazing skills

@the.seam.uk
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