What does it say about the participants of a weekly meeting when the meeting consistently starts 5-10 minutes behind schedule? Answer, the participants are cooperating with each other to start late. Starting late is the status quo. Let's explore: Are you cooperating with the participants of your meetings to start late? How do you … [Read more...]
Rethinking Stand-Up Meetings, Part 1
Stand-up meetings are popular in software development organizations now. What makes a stand-up meeting more effective than a traditional meeting to socialize status information? Nothing. The effectiveness of a stand-up meeting, like the traditional status meeting, depends on the participants. If you have the right people at the meeting, … [Read more...]
Safety Check
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...]
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...]
Your Team’s Answer is Wrong, Part 2
In response to my post entitled Your Team's Answer is Wrong, my colleague Bob Lee writes -- (You wrote) "The trainers passed out a copy of the correct answer for the case study to all of us." (emphasis added) The definite article the as opposed to the indefinite article a is a killer here. Had they framed their solution as a … [Read more...]