You have heard repeatedly that an agenda is a vital ingredient to a successful meeting. But little is ever heard about safety in meetings—the environmental variable that determines whether people participate or merely observe. How do you measure safety? What actions are available to leaders for creating a safe meeting environment? First published … [Read more...]
Clarify the Story
Jake tossed and turned. He looked at the bedside clock. 3 AM. "I need sleep," he thought to himself. But sleep would not come. Only worry about tomorrow's meeting. Edmund, Jake's manager's manager, enjoyed probing managers in his organization to discover how well they were doing. He expected his managers to lead people so they wanted to follow. … [Read more...]
Don’t Tell Doreen
Jarrett, Doreen and I were on the verge of a closing a big sale. We had crafted the Statement of Work (SOW) for two weeks and had finally reached the point where it satisfied both the customer's desires and the needs of our company. But at the last second, before the document was sent to the customer, Jarrett, the salesman, decided to reduce the … [Read more...]
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Have you every compared your skills to another person? How about upping the comparison by comparing yourself to an earlier version of yourself? In this article, I compare my skills today with my skills 20 years earlier. First published by Software Testing and Quality Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 March/April 2000. <> I'm forty-five, with a … [Read more...]
The Satir Change Model
Improvement is always possible. This conviction is the heart of the transformation system developed by family therapist Virginia Satir. Her system helps people improve their lives by transforming the way they see and express themselves. An element of the Satir System is a five-stage change model (see Figure 1) that describes the effects each stage … [Read more...]