Are you overwhelmed by a mountain of email? I suggest you take a page out of the playbook of my colleague Eric Sperley who knows how to ask for what he wants. Eric sent the following message to the people who reported to him: Guys, Look, I am getting well over 250 emails a day. I can get 10-20 a day from each of you where I am just … [Read more...]
Selling Your Ideas to Management
Workshop Do you wish you could break through and communicate better with management? You aren't alone. Employees do their best to share their ideas with busy managers. But they rarely receive feedback about the interaction. In this workshop, we will simulate interactions with management and provide feedback about the interaction. Behind … [Read more...]
The Revenue Neutrality Paradox
My friend Dan is a staffer for a software company. I asked him recently what he was working on. He told me he invests the majority of his time on a project to change the way his company licenses its software. As soon as I heard the words, "software," "licensing," and "change," I was hooked. I had grappled with a similar change for one of my … [Read more...]
Unintentional Lesson
Ever had one of your buttons pushed? During a terrific session at the AYE Conference entitled Software by the Numbers, I discovered a new button of mine. Let's call it the "Planning" button. The objective of the session was to explore the pitfalls of objectively trying to measure creative work. After giving general instructions to everyone, … [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...]