I was going to write a blog post on a classical project management concept, namely, the idea of up-front costs versus total cost of ownership (TCO). This is the idea that paying more for quality and the foundationals up front actually saves you more in the long run, because cutting those costs in the beginning […]
“Transparency” is a term that is tossed around a lot as a positive thing. I’ve heard many leaders talk about how they believe in transparency and it is core to their values. At a high level, this makes sense. Transparency can provide valuable information to drive better decision making, and also can contribute to a […]
I spend a lot of my time in design reviews or business reviews. Either highly technical and engineering-focused, or strategic and business-focused. The goal of these review meetings is for me (as one of a group) to look at the document, artifact, plan, or whatever, and decide whether the quality is sufficient for it to […]
Have you heard of the Hawthorne Effect? It’s based on a study done at the Hawthorne Works factory in the 1920s and 1930s, where researchers tried making changes to workers’ environments to try and increase productivity. Things like making lights brighter or dimmer, making it hotter or colder, etc. What they found was there was […]
So I like measurements and KPIs as much as the next business manager but I am always concerned about being too overly-reliant on metrics, especially along the lines of whether the right things are being measured and optimized. It’s not even whether or not you are measuring the right things, it’s also understanding that when […]
I’m going to do something I think I’ve never done before…I’m going to make a video game analogy. So unless you’ve played Starcraft or Warcraft or some other strategy game, you might want to go watch a YouTube video on the game. Alternatively, I think you can use chess or checkers as an example, we […]
So I was looking back at the blog post I did after my extended hiatus, and I realized that it is almost identical to the blog post I did the previous time I took an extended hiatus. This in itself is (to me at least) highly amusing, because I’ve literally written blog posts on writing […]
I have yet another new term I’ve started using lately. It’s called, Tightening the Vise. So what does it mean? If you know me by now, you know what I’m going to do. I’m going to tell a story! So once upon a time, there was a recurring business process in a medium-sized organization. Let’s […]
As a leader in an organization, a concept you need to become familiar with is that of, “High quality, high velocity decisions.” Many, many decisions pass in front of me every day. As I read my emails, watch my text messages, and attend my meetings, there are either specific decisions asked of me, or opportunities […]
Lately, I find myself saying a specific phrase more and more often. If we are deciding whether to take on a new project or start a complex effort, it always seems to come back to this: “Yes, if we can find the right person to do it.” I’m starting to believe more and more that […]
Knuggets of Knowledge 