Six Steps Towards Self Learning Teams and Organizations

One of the 12 principles behind the Manifesto for Agile Software Develop is: At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. This adjustment of behavior can take many forms: from stopping a practice that is not fruitful to simply doing more or less …

Helping Team Members Stretch Their Communication Muscles: Kantor Four Player Model

It takes many different mindsets and behaviors to make a team hum. I am appreciating a view of collaborative behaviors developed by David Kantor (as part of his work on Structural Dynamics), and am finding it useful as a way to hold up a mirror to a team that is interested in understanding and improving their communication. 

Bikeshedding, aka Parkinson’s Law of Triviality

What exactly is bikeshedding? A recent conversation brought a renewed vigor to my use of the term “bikeshedding.” The term was coined c. 1957 by C. Northcote Parkinson to illuminate a discovery he made – that groups of people tended to make a futile investment of time and energy on disputes over …

A Clear “No” Can Be More Graceful Than a Vague or Noncommittal “Yes”

Sometimes the right (or at least initial) response to a request for action “now” is “No.” – It’s far easier to say “yes” later on…
On the other hand, maybe you don’t even have to choose between “Yes” and “No” particularly if you’re trying to initiate a conversation.

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