 | # | Title | Further Reading | LTYM # | Moral | Year | Created | Modified | Place | DocType | Ready? | Gender | Category | Questions | | |
|---|
| 60 | Love the Manual Solutions | 1) Also compare the legend of the Russian Space Program solution to the pen that writes under weightless conditions: use a pencil. See Letter #161 | 161 | Manual is sometimes best | 2003 | 02/27/2006 | 06/15/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Process Mgmt | 1) Can you point to IT programs that were written for special, on | 1 | |
| 46 | Draw Another Picture | 1) Also see "Draw Picture", Letter #3 | 3 | A drawing is worth a thousand words | 2000 | 02/27/2006 | 06/15/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Strategy | 1) Can you draw your IT strategy on a single page? Does this forc | 2 | |
| 68 | Chunk It Down | 1) Cathleen Benko and Warren McFarlan, Connecting the Dots:" Aligning Projects with Objectives in Unpredictable Times, HBR Press, March 2003, Seeing the discussion of phases and chunks on pp. 180ff. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1645866.Connecting_the_Dots | | Small is beautiful; chunk it down; phase it out (love the chunks!) | 2003 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Project Mgmt | 1) What project or problem have you seen that suffered from the l | 3 | |
| 51 | That Was a Good Meeting | 1) For an interesting parable, see Patrick Lencioni's, Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business, March 4, 2004
2) Compare Agile Programming's 5-15 minute daily stand-up meetings, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-up_meeting
3) For an entertaining poke-in-the-eye, watch the conference call spoof, here: https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ | | Without specific action items, the meeting was a waste of time. | 2001 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Process Mgmt | 1) What was the worst meeting you ever attended? Why? 2) What was | 4 | |
| 65 | The Work Has Meaning | 1) See Clay Christensen's "How Will you Measure Your Life?", where he writes, "The answer to [how can I be happy in my career] ...comes from Frederick Herzberg’s assertion that the most powerful motivator isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute, and be recognized."
http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/pr
2) See "The Returns Desk", Letter #394 | 394 | The work has meaning | 2004 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Strategy | 1) How does what your team is working on have impact on the peopl | 5 | |
| 62 | Giving Back is Strategic | 1) See my article "The changing face of corporate social responsibility," MA High Tech, Sep 4, 2008,
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2008/09/the-changing-face-of-corporate-social.html
2) See the Pepperidge Farm Letter #241 | 241 | Philanthropy is more than citizenship or retention; it's strategic development | 2004 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Strategy | 1) How are you helping to create meaning for your team? 2) What d | 6 | |
| 609 | The Triage Exercise | 1) See the START method of triage, which "was developed in 1983 by the staff members of Hoag Hospital and Newport Beach Fire Department located in California, and is currently widely used in the United States” --https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_triage_and_rapid_treatment . | | Work demand can be triaged to focus on the most urgent first | 2020 | 01/10/2024 | 01/25/2024 | UMSI | Story | Yes | Female | Crisis Mgmt,Time Mgmt | 1) How do you say the "no" or the "wait" without creating Shadow | 7 | |
| 53 | Creating an Internal Capital Budget | 1) See "Five ways to create budget," Letter #185 | 185 | Investment funds created out of operations are the easiest to get approved | 2002 | 02/27/2006 | 06/15/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Male | Budget Mgmt,Finance | 1) Do you have a capital budget? If so, what percent of your tota | 8 | |
| 368 | Retiring | 1) See "Michelangelo II", Story #297 2) James K. Harter, The Gallup Organization; Frank L. Schmidt, University of Iowa; Theodore L. Hayes, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, "Business-Unit-Level Relationship Between Employee Satisfaction, Employee Engagement, and Business Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis," Of the 12 engagement questions (p. 269), four indicate the level of meaning in your work: "At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day"; "At work, my opinions seem to count"; "The mission/purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important"; and "This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow." | 297 | It's never over till it's over | 2016 | 07/23/2016 | 02/08/2024 | IFRC | Story | Yes | Male | Goals,Values | 1) How do you view your work? Is it just a job, or is there more? | 9 | |
| 52 | Collaborating is Doing it Together | 1) See "Share and Do", Letter #451
2) See the NetHope Foundations chapter in "We are Better Together" | 451 | It's better doing it together and it's more compelling for your sponsors | 2001 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Male | Strategy | 1) What are the advantages of collaborating? What are the disadva | 10 | |
| 472 | What do I need to do to get a job? | 1) See "The Weighted Matrix," Letter #141
2) For an enlightening exercise, see the StrengthFinders 2.0 book: https://www.amazon.com/StrengthsFinder-2-0-Tom-Rath/dp/159562015X/
plus the StrengthFinders test web site: https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/
Note the "Redeem Access Code" button; you can get the code from the book. The strengths-finders test is useful to find your top strengths versus their database of 20M people. (It costs $20 or you can buy the book on Amazon and get the code free) : https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/home/en-us/strengthsfinder
3) The Keirsey profile test that clarifies your problem-solving/learning styles (it's free): https://profile.keirsey.com/#/b2c/assessment/start
4) For another comparison, see Tony Robbin's DISC assessment: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/disc/ | 141 | Build your story a credential at a time | 2017 | 08/01/2017 | 06/15/2023 | UMSI | Story | Yes | Female | Careers | 1. Were the exercises useful or not? Why or why not? 2. What expe | 11 | |
| 35 | C-Level Work | 1) Susan Jeffers, "Feel the Fear . . . and Do It Anyway," December 26, 2006. 2) Also see Scott Stabile, "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway," Huffington Post, June 26, 2014, "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-stabile/feel-the-fear-and-do-it-a_1_b_5531854.html | | One man's c-level work is another's a-level | 1995 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | HPMD | Story | Yes | Male | People Mgmt | 1) What assignments have you shied away from? Why? 2) Have you ev | 12 | |
| 56 | Firing and Values | 1) "Public hanging is worth more than 1,000 CEO speeches on values," Jack Welch, remarks at an HBR class, May 22, 2012, Special Session with Jack Welch, http://convincedvince.blogspot.pt/2012/05/special-session-with-jack-welch.html
2) Contrast this critique by Steve Denning, "Jack Welch, GE, and the Corporate Practice of Public Hangings", Forbes, April 26, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/04/26/jack-welch-ge-the-corporate-practice-of-public-hangings/
3) See "Downsizing," Letter #578 | 578 | IT has the keys, but can't look | 2003 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | People Mgmt | 1) What are some other breaches, where termination is the right r | 13 | |
| 428 | Orbiting the Hairball | Also see "Dancing outside the Box," Story #186 | 186 | Orbit, don't fly off or get sucked in | 2016 | 11/03/2016 | 01/18/2024 | Lisbon | Story | Yes | Male | Bureaucracy,Innovation | 1) How can you get distance in your organization?
2) What's your | 14 | |
| 133 | It's not a problem; it's a learning experience | Buck Rodgers, The IBM Way, Harper & Row, 1986. Amazon Kindle edition is here: | | Don't waste a mistake; learn from it | 1992 | 05/05/2006 | 02/13/2023 | Shark | Story | Yes | Male | Operations Mgmt,Training | 1. What problems gave you experienced that resulted in finding th | 15 | |
| 8 | Time, Process and People | Frederick Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition), Addison Wesley, 1995. Note especially the Chief Surgical Team. See the discussion of Perpetual Beta on Wikipedia, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_beta | | The tighter the time frame the less concern for process and people | 1981 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | IDC | Story | Yes | Female | Leadership | 1) Can you point to examples where tight deadlines lost the team? | 16 | |
| 583 | Building Trust | From the appendix of my ongoing discussions with Richard Cho: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jPXlxJLC732vNIY-ajxKqw8IqSzOp0tDvdzBYri-uzs/edit#heading=h.6bxg3sikdlhp Appendix E - Building Trust First, some umbrella thoughts: Trust is a two-way street. As a leader, you want people to trust you more. But it’s also about you trusting them more. And saying build trust, is the right verb. Trust is built a piece at a time. It has to be earned, and that takes time. It’s not built in a day. Unfortunately, trust can be knocked down in a blink of an eye. Failing to tell the truth (lying) is probably the fastest way to destroy trust. Criticizing in public is another way to lose the trust of your team. There are more, but let’s keep the focus on the positive. I tried to find a good article or book on trust.[1] But I felt that each one I read missed some important things. So I wrote my own list, below. There was a video by a retired UM Ross Business School Professor that Shirley sent me that I really like. So watch this one and tell me what your takeaways and questions are: https://robertequinn.com/online-learning/ To start a discussion, here is my list of a dozen things that build trust in a team. What resonates? Have a vision that people understand, buy into and are excited about
Give people the benefit of the doubt; mistakes don’t necessarily mean bad intentions; they may be learning opportunities
Accept failure; if you don’t have it you’re not experimenting enough
When you know better, let people do it; coaching them and give them feedback, but they own it
Have peoples back; defend them and keep the wolves at bay
Show integrity transparently; say what you’re thinking, what you’re going to do, and then do it
Show up; be an audience for your team
Play to strengths, not weaknesses; building on strengths bears more fruit than (trying to) correcting people
Listen and learn about your people’s dreams, family’s and context (you know this about your best customers, yes?)
Service in, service out (see #9)
Praise in public; critique In private; find ways for a person who screwed up to save face. Be vulnerable and be willing to change Footnotes: [1] 1) The closest I found in the book category is by Stephen Covey’s son, Stephen M.R. Covey, “The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything,” Kindle Edition, 2006, https://www.amazon.com/SPEED-Trust-Thing-Changes-Everything-ebook/dp/B000MGATWG
2) For an inspiring video about team trust, see “Achieving More with Trust: George Dom at TEDxSonomaCounty,” 2013, https://youtu.be/xuRRlld8VDI
3) For a good story about trust, see “Do what you say you will and Own your mistakes“, in Wendy Dailey, “Two Stories About Building Trust,” Workology, Feb 14, 2018, https://workology.com/two-stories-about-building-trust/
4) For an alternate list and trust-building on virtual teams, see the respected recruiting firm, Spencer Stuart’s, blog post on “No Trust, No Team: Six Best Practices for Building Trust on Virtual Teams,” by James M. Citrin, Darleen Derosa, March 25, 2021, https://www.spencerstuart.com/leadership-matters/2021/march/no-trust-no-team | | Trust is earned over time, and destroyed in an instant | 2023 | 03/31/2023 | 11/28/2023 | Advisor | Story | No | Male | Teams | | 17 | |
| 588 | We Are Better Together | Go back and read the Introduction. | | Listening to the conversation brings the solution. | 2016 | 06/28/2023 | 11/20/2023 | NetHope | Story | Yes | Female | Collaboration,Stories | 1) What stories do you tell about yourself? 2) What stories do yo | 18 | |
| 141 | The Weighted Matrix | Here's a link to the article on the values clarification exercise for selecting a job/role: http://hpmd.com/hpmd/WBULLETS.NSF/links/006 . The template is also attached. Keep me posted on your journey. Best, Ed | | Looking at options by rating and importance weighting adds up to clarify the decision | 1995 | 05/06/2006 | 07/04/2023 | HPMD | Story | Yes | Male | Strategy,Decision-making | 1) What type of decisions do you think this approach would most l | 19 | |
| 446 | Shadow IT | http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/shadow-IT-shadow-information-technology
[2] Wikipedia entry on “Shadow IT”, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_IT . Also compare the Economist article, “IT’s Arab spring”, Oct. 8, 2011, here: http://www.economist.com/node/21531112 See "Think Paper 18: Local Innovation, Shadow IT and World Disasters," Edward G. Happ, IFRC, Global CIO, September, 2013 – Revision 2 [On FedNet?] See "Shadow IT II," LTYM #594 | 594 | As in many aspects of IT, there's a bright side and a dark side | 2016 | 12/03/2016 | 10/25/2023 | IFRC | Story | No | Male | Strategy,Security,Innovation | | 20 | |
| 29 | The Good Days Score | James R. Johnson, "Magnifying the Problem," CIO, November 15, 1992, pp. 34-38,
https://books.google.com/books?id=DgoAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34#v=onepage&q&f=false | | People focus and work hard to beat the best | 1993 | 03/03/2021 | 03/01/2023 | Reuters | Story | Yes | Male | Measurement | 1) How do you keep score in your organization? 2) What are the no | 21 | |
| 81 | A Red-Button Party | Jeffrey Liker, "The Toyota Way" McGraw-Hill, 2003. | | When you find a problem, celebrate: it's an opportunity to ratchet up the quality | 1985 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | IDC | Story | Yes | Male | Change Mgmt,People Mgmt,Quality | 1) When a problem is discovered in your company or department, wh | 22 | |
| 603 | The Metaphor of the Bus | Jim Collins, “Good to Great,” 2001, See chapter 3, “First Who… Then What”, https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others-ebook/dp/B0058DRUV6/ | | Get the right people on your bus, and in the right seat | 2023 | 11/22/2023 | 01/25/2024 | Advisor | Story | No | Female | Leadership | | 23 | |
| 61 | Sorting Stories | Kent Beck, Extreme Programming Explained, Addison-Wesley Professional; US edition (October 5, 1999); and Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, 2nd Edition (The XP Series), Addison-Wesley; (November 26, 2004) Mike Cohn, User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development, Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (March 11, 2004)
Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product, O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (September 25, 2014) | | Sorting stories about features keeps priorities visible | 2004 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Project Mgmt | 1) Would you automate the story card method? Why or why not? 2) W | 24 | |
| 64 | The Knowledge is in the Doing | Kent Beck, Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, Addison-Wesley, 2000, especially chapter 3, "Economics of Software Development", where Beck argues for the value in increasing the options for business decisions; and by implication that the delay in specs is cheap | | 50% of what you need to know is in the doing | 2004 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Project Mgmt | 1) Why can some people visualize a solution and some can't? Is th | 25 | |
| 527 | What if I pull out these cables? | MetroTech Center: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroTech_Center | | It's not back-up if it's not rechecked | 1983 | 09/08/2022 | 06/15/2023 | IDC | Story | No | Male | Security,Testing | | 26 | |
| 59 | Change the Box | Michael Hammer & James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation, HarperBusiness; First edition (1993) | | Change the box; don't take "black box" processes as a given | 2003 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Male | Process Mgmt | 1) What process steps will you change in your current or next pro | 27 | |
| 54 | Customizing to meet the need | Michael Hammer, James A. Champy, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, May, 1993 | | Don't modify core code | 2002 | 02/27/2006 | 02/13/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Project Mgmt | 1) Can you think of some exceptions when a system should be custo | 28 | |
| 77 | It's Hard to Argue with Facts | Michael Porter, "What Is Strategy?" Harvard Business Review, 74, no. 6 (November–December 1996), pp. 61–78. See "Model Your Budget," Letter #70 | 70 | Win with data: It's hard to argue with the facts | 2005 | 08/02/2019 | 06/15/2023 | STC | Story | Yes | Female | Finance | 1) What data are you collecting on IT efficiency? 2) Why are effi | 29 | |
| 13 | Build the Throwaway | Michael Schrage, Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate, HBR Press, December 10, 1999 | | Build a prototype to meet a basic need; embellish later | 1984 | 02/27/2006 | 11/20/2023 | IDC | Story | Yes | Female | Project Mgmt,Innovation | 1) Michael Schrage , MIT Professor, says that "Effective prototyp | 30 | |