While I’m supposed to be blogging about my “ahas” from a HyperIsland Master Class I just had the lucky chance to take, I’m at the moment inspired by a side comment made to me by a very senior executive.
No One Wants To Know What You Think
He wasn’t saying it “to” me, or “at” me, it was just sort of a comment, an aside, about the way things are in general, especially on the web.
I was inspired enough to google “No One Wants to Know What You Think” and found a few interesting points. (more…)
In case you’ve seen the Martin Luther King, Jr., quote circulating on Twitter and the web, and found out it was slightly edited, here’s the real version.
The full title of this book, published in 1967, is “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”
The correct quote: (more…)
Just when I was supposed to be finishing up these slides for Execs, and instead talking with someone about trust in the context of working relationships, I saw tweets about Lyssa Adkins‘ nice blog post on the same topic: “Is trust earned or granted?”
In the article she notices how she gradually granted trust to her toddler and relates this to discoveries working with Tobias Mayer and a client. One of her discoveries was this line (which does sound like its out of something written by Lao Tzu):
Trust — lead from a place of faith, not suspicion; follow likewise
The conversation piqued my awareness of trust and somehow I started watching how this plays out in my daily interactions. Within the context of two circumstances I made some discoveries.
First, in an hours-long conversation between colleagues on a train, I observed us granting, revoking, and regranting trust over and over, very subtly, as we spoke. All of this in the quest of understanding what it was that we were trying to say to each other. (more…)
Whenever we start talking about “collectives” and not being completely in the realm of the individual, we inevitably see comparisons to Communism.
So I found this very interesting article written in 2007 called “Does XP/Scrum Violate the ‘Agile Manifesto?’” written by an anonymous blogger who refers to themselves as the “Software Maestro.” (I have not delved more deeply into this blog to figure out if they de-cloaked at any point). I also found this article, on agileadvice.com, also from 2007, which argues back in a very cogent, unemotional, way.
Ramses II photo by Iamimesis
Software Maestro’s article aligning Agile with Communism should be considered as its very interesting viewpoint starts to pierce some of this puzzling over leadership and the role of the individual within the Agile world. It’s back to the Big Idea, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and the need for leadership and vision for the team. Who gets to have a vision? Just the Product Owner? Just the Master? Just Steve Jobs? Just George Lois? And so on. (more…)
Work Different 