Francie Van Wirkus's Blog, page 9

Too many negative thoughts? Weeds in the garden of your heart and mind. Practice reflection to...

Too many negative thoughts? Weeds in the garden of your heart and mind. Practice reflection to remove those thoughts.

Feeling a little unsure of the messages you’re hearing at work this new year?Bring it back to intent...

Feeling a little unsure of the messages you’re hearing at work this new year?

Bring it back to intent and value. Two can’t-fail filters for the noise.

New Year Encouragement

No one else thinks like you. 

Speak up. Find a way to step past the fear.

…what are you waiting for?

Create Your Advantage

You know your constraints. Your limitations. In fact, your brain wants to revisit these impediments often, if not multiple times a day.

Try flipping your thoughts, asking yourself: “What can I do to create my own advantages?”

Innovate on Your Own Behalf

You know your constraints. Your limitations. In fact, your brain wants to revisit these impediments often, if not multiple times a day. There are so many of them!

Try flipping your thoughts, asking yourself: “What can I do to create my own advantages?”

Asking yourself this question often, if not multiple times a day, will spur a positive agility that will yield welcomed creativity.

Create Healthy Controversy

Teams and organizations looking to innovate, and quickly adjust and adapt need space for regular, healthy controversy. 

They need safety and space to speak up about process improvements and bottlenecks and about new ideas. They need a feedback loop for how they work as a team. 

While the place for this work is in a team meeting or retrospective, it’s up to the team and leaders to encourage healthy controversy. Many teams can’t naturally do this without continual encouragement. Make time to create this kind of space, and watch your team’s ability to adapt change exponentially.

“I’m not going to be there.”

Continued from last week’s thoughts on canceling meetings. 

Often, I see leaders eager to cancel team meetings because they are out of the office, for whatever reason. And, because the leader has done this in the past, any future situations inherit the same pattern. This type of pattern holds back your team’s business agility; its ability to quickly adapt and adjust. 

First, let’s assume the leader is missing the meeting for a valid circumstance. 

Although there are times when a leader’s presence is required to meet the intent of the meeting, it’s not as often as assumed. By the leader or the team. A true self-organizing team knows the intent of their meetings and likely knows if they need their leader there to fulfill the intent. 

Changing this pattern likely requires a discussion or two with the team and the leader. If you practice team retrospectives, this is a good place for that discussion. Look at your meetings together, review the intent, and determine if any of them can’t get value without the leader there. You might find it a worthy exercise to at least do annually. 

“Let’s Cancel it.”December is the season for many things, including canceled meetings. There’s...

“Let’s Cancel it.”

December is the season for many things, including canceled meetings. 

There’s usually a good reason for the cancellation, but is it the right reason? Take a look at the intent of the meeting. What changed today that truly challenges the intent? 

If nothing challenges the intent, try keeping the meeting. What if only two of you attend? Don’t worry about the logistics of only two of you. Focus on the intent.

Even when even just two team members gather, and uphold the intent of a meeting, value is created. 

“Let’s Cancel it.”

December is the season for many things, including canceled meetings. 

There’s usually a good reason for the cancellation, but is it the right reason? Take a look at the intent of the meeting. What changed today that truly challenges the intent? 

If nothing challenges the intent, try keeping the meeting. What if only two of you attend? Don’t worry about the logistics of only two of you. Focus on the intent.

Even when even just two team members gather, and uphold the intent of a meeting, value is created. 

On Reading Slides

Please don’t read your slides to us. If it’s that mission critical, it’s not on a presentation slide.

View On WordPress