[This post is part of a series about Menlo Innovations, the company described in “Joy, Inc.“] It’s quite common for my colleagues and me to pair. Not just developers, but also UX & dev, PO & UX, Customer Support & PO, … There are many combinations and I usually feel quite smug about our level …
Category Archives: Food for Thought
High Tech Anthropologists – Menlo #2
[This post is part of a series about Menlo Innovations, the company described in “Joy, Inc.“] Menlo Innovations is an agency, which means that they do software projects for other companies whose domain they know nothing about. Still they manage to deliver what end users need, to delight them even. How do Menlonians do that, …
Favorite Quotes from Joy, Inc. – Menlo #1
What a blast! We (sipgate) just hosted Richard Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations and author of “Joy, Inc.”. Both, the real life Rich and his book are very entertaining and inspiring. So much so, that I’ll write a small series. I want to help spread the word about: Planning Origami (Became a 1-pager, not a …
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You’re qualified to talk! – Public Speaking #2
Okay, say you’re positive that your topic is interesting. Still, you can’t possibly give a talk because you think “I’m not an expert! I’m not qualified to speak about it.” I don’t know you, so maybe. But that “maybe” has slim odds. In my experience it’s true for about 5% of topic ideas per person. …
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Your topic is interesting! – Public Speaking #1
Recently I’ve hosted an Open Space session on finding topics and writing abstracts for conferences. One of the participants remarked: “I’m not sure that anything I know would be interesting to other people. None of it is really new.” I know that feeling. I’ve shared it. Sometimes still do. Not often anymore, though. On most …
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“What was your favourite session?”
In 2013 I wrote this piece on “Ready-made Conversation Starters – for Conferences“. It’s a suggested solution for my reluctance to initiate first contact at a conference lunch table. I mean, I’m there to get to know people and yet I don’t manage to casually start a conversation. In August I’ve been to the US …
What have you learned from what you tried?
[This post is one of many sparked by Agile 2015.] When somebody asks you for advice, you do ask for what they have already tried, right? Before blurting out all of your brilliant ideas, right? What if I told you, we can do even better? “What have you learned from what you tried?” Can you …
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Coach Demand, not Supply
[This post is one of many inspired by Agile 2015.] Another nugget of wisdom from Esther Derby and Mike Lowery‘s “Coaching Flow” (the other one being “Reframing“) was “Don’t coach Supply, coach Demand“. So, what does that mean? Let’s say, there’s someone frying bacon and you want them to fry eggs instead. If there’s someone shouting …
Reframing – Conflict Games 3/3
[This post is one of many sparked by Agile 2015.] Whereas the first two games (click here for series start) are for teams to get to know each other, before conflict situations arise, “Reframing” is for the conflict situation itself. Esther Derby and Mike Lowery introduced “Reframing” in their session on “Coaching Flow“. It aims to …
What is Coaching anyway?
[This post is one of many inspired by Agile 2015] [Update: After reading Johanna Rothman’s comment, a better title for this post would have been “What is Reflective Coaching anyway”.] The other day I found out that my husband’s definition of what it means “to coach someone” was very different from mine. His was a …