Skip to main content
Tag

Dan Pink

Dan Pink – The Genius Hour

By UncategorizedNo Comments

It would be fair to say Nigel and I are pretty big Dan Pink fans (ok fanboys) – His articulation of what motivates people is a constant reference and reminder, both personally and one we often recommend to others.  It’s HERE  from TED and HERE as a clever cartoon in case you have been under a rock and missed it.

We are also massive fans of Hack-A-Thons, Fed-Ex days, 20% time etc – but it is always a challenge to introduce to organisations.  Today he reports on a great little innovation by Jen Shefner, the Genius Hour – 60mins each week where she (the boss) does her employees job to give them 60min to be autonomous and awesome.

Maybe you can’t get a whole day out with your team, but surely you can find everyone an hour.  When you empower your team they will surprise and delight.

Great agile workspaces – balancing space, communication and distraction.

By UncategorizedNo Comments

This is a sneak peek at some of the ideas I’m going to talk about at Agile Australia 2011 in June (I’m open to ideas and feedback of course)

The core of Agile is all about communication.  Its routines and rituals encourage teams to communicate and plan as well as tackling their issues and problems as they share lessons from their achievements and failures. Our physical environment, communication culture and our attitude to multitasking and distractions are less obvious levers which can have a profound impact on our teams and how effective they can be.

In my mind the whole Agile movement is really just one part of answering our key question, how do we build great software that delivers real value ? I think the answer boils down to creating the right team, process and environment; this requires four things.

“Be obsessive about only hiring the best talent” – Me
Motivate them through “Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose” – Dan Pink
Recognise that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Peter Drucker

Now we come to core of my topic, something two of my heroes have been talking about since they wrote Peopleware in 1987:

Have the “Correct environment, method, and structure” – Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister

Agile is all about communication; routines and rituals which encourage teams to communicate, tackling issues and problems as well as sharing and learning from success. Our communication culture, physical environment and attitude to multitasking and distractions are less obvious levers which can have a profound impact on our teams and how effective they can be.  I often have this quote from Deming rattling around in my head as I look at problems at work.

“95% of the performance of any organisation is attributable to the system and only 5% the individual”

So over the next few posts I’m going to look at three key parts of our ‘system’.

The Physical Environment.

Jan Banning has captured these wonderful photographs of Government Officials in their office around the world.  Take a look at them and then stop for a minute. Imagine your ideal office … what would it look like ?

How we Communicate.

There is more to software productivity than just removing distractions. Communication is equally as important. A developer may be in the zone and writing perfect code, but if they are writing the wrong code because they are isolated then we haven’t done anything to help productivity have we ?

How we Multitask and Manage Distractions.

Our instinctive behaviours remind us that our brain rejects distraction. For instance, to really zero in on a faint sound in the distance we instinctively stop moving, shut our eyes, and focus entirely on listening carefully. Your brain does not multitask when it’s time to really pay attention.

Stay tuned for some ideas and answers.

Subscribe to the Luna Newsletter

Close Menu

Quote of the week

The new competitive advantage is the ability to anticipate, respond and adapt to change.

Recent Luna Posts

Become Remarkable.