The other week we put up a thick rope to use as a liana, al á Trazan, for our kids. Extremely simple; just a rope, and I made a big tangled knot at the end. You can see my kids use it on the picture to the left. They loved it.
Then one day one of our neighbors, that often help us and stops by - nice people, came by. He looked that the rope, saw my kids struggling to climb it and said:
you know... it should really have a plank or something at the end so it's easier for them to stand on.
I said: Nah… this is good enough for them. They are enjoying themselves plenty.
Two days later …
This is a post on coaching, asking before helping and not improving things that works fine.
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The Lars-principle
Today I had a session with the management group of one of our hospitals. We ended up talking about how to choose what we’re going to do next. Questions like; “but how can we know what is best”, “there’s so many things to do” or “everyone have a different opinion” were discussed during and after the meeting.
I was reminded of a tip from a colleague and (to me) mentor from way back, Lars Littorin. I was complaining about so many things to do, not knowing where to start etc. His answer:
Great! Then you know exactly what to do; make a list of the things you need to do, and then start doing one of them.
There’s much truth in there. I think Lars is a great guy, but I doubt he knew how much use I have had from this single quote. Maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t...
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Review: Nature by Ron Jeffries
Got a recommendation to read Nature by Ron Jeffries and I did. What a read! I loved it from the get go.
My short review is quite simply;
“This book made me think. It left me with more questions than I had going in. But better more concrete questions. Seeking simple(r) answers. Also it’s sprinkled with challenges and gentle provocations of the current state of mind and process.
The underlying principle ‘Simplify it’ is something that resonate very deeply with me. I recommend anyone doing, struggling to do or thinking about doing this thing we call ‘agile’ to read this book.
And then give a copy to every important person in your organization.
Thank you for a great read!”
I’ve been following Ron Jeffries (not only on twitter, but that’s a good start) for a long time, not only on twitter. The first thing I read...
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Indicators; leading, trailing - short or long
This is a just a short post, mainly an idea that I can get out of my head.
I’ve been helping the management team at one of our hospitals to come up with something to track our progress against. The main question was actually quite simple:
How would we know if this hospital is awesome?
We came up with a couple of balancing scores that we will take for a spin in our first experiment round. The idea is the these values will guide our actions - if we can make things that improve the values (one or more) it’s a good thing. In the spirit of balancing scores we are keeping track on more than one to make sure that we’re not tilting our efforts toward, say only financial values.
Hmmm… need to write some of those ideas down, maybe. Ok - now to the topic of...
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What can you do for us then?
A couple of days ago I offered my services to one of the hospital directors here. In their current situation they could need some structuring and focus on start executing. I know that I can help them with this (using my normal “tricks” of visualization, transparency and short iterations etc) and hence asked if I could be of assistance.
Now, this particular director is a really smart one and the response was quick, to the point and a real head twister for me:
Thanks for that offer! What is you can help us with, then?
I was a stumped! What do I do? Why would anyone want that? Who am I to think that I can help them? I’m an IT guy, no formal training, no formal authority here. Why should they want me?
I ended up referring to my past work and try to describe that to the director...
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Experiment - don't change
I re-read a post I wrote about 6 months ago, after a consultancy gig at Nintex. And one thing in there resounded with me and some of the conversations I’ve been having lately.
I wrote (and said):
Stop changing and start experimenting
This would probably be my #1 tip for change management; don’t do changes - do experiments instead.
In this post I thought I’d examine that recommendation in a little more detail.
Well actually my #0 tip is read Switch - How to make change when change is hard, but you knew that one already, right? It’s packed with tips and tricks that anyone wanting to understand change should read. At least instead of this post.
In the Switch book the authors says something like this (my wording):
People don't dislike change - they dislike being changed
This is a vital, fundamental observation for...
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