Posts from Awesome Folks #55

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

Author

Emily Webber
March 31, 2023

Hello and happy Friday,

This week I bought a new printer. Now almost universally, people hate printers; they don’t connect when you want them to; there is always something wrong and “I’ll just print something quickly” are like magic words that invoke special non-printing features in your printer.

Obligatory Office Space printer gif

But I have high hopes this printer will be the one. It’s smaller and lighter than my previous one and uses less energy and ink. Come on little Epson, don’t let me down.

(I’m going to choose to forget that the setup was a bit of a pain, and the instructions were in a clunky chatbot format).

There are many posts about many things this week, including a free ebook on Optimising for Fast Flow that I wrote something for.

Happy reading, and let me know if you enjoy this week’s reads.

Emily

People and Culture

5 Ways to Boost Creativity on Your Team

Creativity is vital for innovation, but many organizational leaders don’t know how to tap it among their employees. Instead, they shower them with meetings and whiteboard sessions that go nowhere. Instead, the authors recommend finding new ways to give your employees the time and space they need to generate new ideas.

By Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn

hbr.org/2023/03/5-ways-to-boost-creativity-on-your-team

Research-backed strategies to attract and retain diverse teams

Diversity initiatives start with thoughtful hiring practices. After hiring, capitalize on your success and retain those hires by promoting a climate of inclusion and belonging.

By Seterra Burleson

leaddev.com/team/research-backed-strategies-attract-and-retain-diverse-teams

Becoming More Collaborative — When You Like to Be in Control

When leaders who are used to calling all the shots start working with peers and stakeholders who are as successful, hungry, and confident as they are, they sometimes find themselves at odds. Their previously successful decisive, command-and-control-leadership style is no longer a viable option.

By Jenny Fernandez and Luis Velasquez

hbr.org/2023/03/becoming-more-collaborative-when-you-like-to-be-in-control

Author Interview with Jim Benson

In this author interview with Jim Benson, we talked about his book 'The Collaboration Equation' and how it helps foster human collaboration.

By Katie Anderson

kbjanderson.com/author-interview-with-jim-benson

Organisations and Systems

4 simple rules for team design

I’ve been wondering about simple rules for team design inspired by Kent Beck’s rules for simple design. This is partly triggered by…

By Jason Yip

jchyip.medium.com/4-simple-rules-for-team-design-6fe4d1a235ed

Software organization structure for fast flow

How to optimise your team and organization for fast flow – expert articles

landing.confluxhq.com/optimising-fast-flow

Managing a return to (hybrid) work

Being asked to get your team back into the office can put managers in a tricky position. Here are three ways to help you navigate the return to (hybrid) work.

By Camille Fournier

leaddev.com/team/managing-return-hybrid-work

Outcomes and Objectives

Product Vision is Science Fiction – Help your organization focus on successful outcomes

This article is an update of an article that’s been in my product leadership course handouts for years. It describes my beliefs on what product vision is and isn’t. And, I expect many to disagree. Because I know if I ask half a dozen experts what product vision is, I’ll get half a dozen different answers. This is my answer.

jpastage.wpengine.com/product-vision-is-science-fiction

Key results should be verbs, not nouns

Key results should be outcomes, measures of human behavior. Behavior is action oriented meaning your KR's should be verbs.

By Jeff Gothelf

jeffgothelf.com/blog/key-results-should-be-verbs-not-nouns

“Discovery Discipline” (Book Review)

The so-called “Double Diamond” is a method that guides a lot of product discovery. The idea behind the Double Diamond is to go through phases of divergence (generating lots of ideas) an…

By Marc Abraham

marcabraham.com/2023/03/24/discovery-discipline-book-review

Team Approaches

How team agreements promote high performance

Cohesive teams share unspoken and spoken agreements which inform the way members interact and collaborate. If handled well, they help boost productivity.

By Sarah Milstein

leaddev.com/team/how-team-agreements-promote-high-performance

Proven Tactics for Improving Teams’ Psychological Safety

A study points to evidence-based practices that can make employees feel safer speaking up about ethics concerns at work.

By Chris Rider, Antoine Ferrère, Zsófia Belovai, Maria Guadalupe, and Florian Englmaier

sloanreview.mit.edu/article/proven-tactics-for-improving-teams-psychological-safety

Deploys Are The ✨WRONG✨ Way To Change User Experience

This piece was first published on the honeycomb.io blog on 2023-03-08. …. I’m no stranger to ranting about deploys. But there’s one thing I haven’t sufficiently ranted about…

By Charity Majors

charity.wtf/2023/03/08/deploys-are-the-%e2%9c%a8wrong%e2%9c%a8-way-to-change-user-experience