Francie Van Wirkus's Blog, page 16
June 4, 2018
Monday Got You?
Monday got you by the tail?
I didn’t think so!
Because you read Reveille, book 1 of The Dominant Gene series.
You Can
“Once you say you can’t, you are half-licked.”
Truth from Lee, former US Marine, and all-around determined man.
When things get difficult, and you know they will, there is always a choice.
May 31, 2018
It's About Time: Ironman 70.3 Hawaii
It’s About Time: Ironman 70.3 Hawaii
“You need an entirely new race experience. Just do it.”
“But–”
“Don’t text or call until you can show me a receipt that you bought the race entry.”
“Huhhh.”
A good friend, who happens to be a Breakthrough Master Coach like me, served it up to me well last year. I had just missed my fourth Ironman triathlon (yes, the full one) due to injury. Now my Ironman completion recordslid to a miserable 6…
May 29, 2018
Growth Mindset
Growth mindset is a great phrase. But in the reality of our work and our challenges, what does it really mean to practice a growth mindset?
In the face of adversity, remaining flexible, never brittle. Flexibility keeps you from melting down, breaking down, and losing all that you worked so hard to create. It’s upholding your vision and caring, but with an open mind to new possibilities.
Care…
May 14, 2018
Your Team has Capacity Issues? Great Questions for Leaders
Your Team has Capacity Issues? Great Questions for Leaders
What are your personal reflections on how this is happening on your teams?
What behaviors might I be doing, or words I am saying that might contribute to this?
How am I showing my team and modeling limitations to my capacity, and prioritizing work.
May 9, 2018
We Want Your Feedback
Are you sure of what you want? Asking for employee feedback does not require much of a commitment. But doing something with the feedback you ask for, does.
Taking in employee feedback, surveyors and leaders must make a commitment to…
equality of all respondents
confidentiality of who said what
full, clear disclosure of what survey vendors will do with employee response data
sincerity for…
May 7, 2018
Effective Stories
Effective stories help everyone work toward product success. You don’t get there by perfect documentation, and hours in a workshop on how to format your documentation.
You get there by telling the real story, well enough that it can be a promise of another conversation for the right people at the right time. Nothing more.
May 2, 2018
We Need a Workshop
We need a workshop, so we can learn to write better stories.
In the current state, the product people just aren’t nailing it.
We can’t understand the information on the stories.
Maybe you need a workshop. Or, maybe you need to change the way you work, so you are actually telling a story, rather than expertly writing down information.
April 30, 2018
How Long to Love an Idea?
So you are limiting the ideas you develop, and you are doing discovery work, learning fast. How fast is fast enough? Deciding that is undulating discovery work, with your team and your customers.
What is for certain? In software development, not much. Give your team a foundation by making fast learning part of your work agreement.
Have the discussion as a team: How long will we love an idea?
W…
April 25, 2018
Ideas Gone Wild
You have lots of big ideas. In fact, you have so many ideas, that there is no way you can ever get ahead of them. So you work on all of them, and start cutting corners, sacrificing quality and value. This is not the way you want your ideas to enter and live in this world. There is a better way. Limit how many ideas you work on at once, so you can minimize your work and maximize the impact. Use…
