I’m no plumber. My wife reminds me of that fact every time I go near a plumbing fixture with wrench in hand. I’ve had my share of plumbing repair successes. Replacing a washer or swapping out a faucet - those are relatively easy DIY jobs I’ve done well. On the other hand, installing a new … Continue reading DIY Lessons for Change
”The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”- Lao Tzu After more than 15 months of global and personal uncertainty, I recently reflected on a blog post called Micro Agile I wrote over 2 years ago. As I reviewed the post, 3 ideas stood out for me in the midst of our … Continue reading Micro Agile Revisited
“We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”(The Borg from Star Trek) The Dollarama button batteries didn’t fit. I didn’t even try. One look and I could tell. The diameter and voltage matched but wrong thickness. I was hoping for a cheap replacement battery for my dual powered calculator but alas, I’ll … Continue reading Let’s Fit a Round Peg Into a Square Hole
As I contemplated this question, I was transported back in time to a high school Algebra class and a different question. My Algebra teacher was projecting a graph of the exponential function y = ex. At a time well before the advent of personal computers and laptops, he hand-drew the graph on an 8.5” x … Continue reading What’s Your Lingua Franca?
My step-mother passed away on New Year’s Day. She had been in the hospital for almost a month. At the worst possible time during rising COVID infection numbers in the community and social lockdowns in effect. Initially admitted into ICU suffering from pneumonia, she recovered to a point where she was moved out of ICU … Continue reading When Is a J Not a J?
There’s an old English proverb that I had always taken for granted. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” In my experience, this had always been a universal truth because people I've met the world over aren’t much different from each other when it comes to resisting change. The older I got, the more … Continue reading A Good Time to Teach Old Dogs New Tricks
Start with why? Absolutely yes. But don’t stop there. “Why” isn't enough. “Why” is only part of the story. A good story has a beginning and an end. A coherent “Why” bridges the gap between start and finish. [...]
In my last post, I touched on ORSC's Third Entity as a tool to uncover and address the relationship gaps that can exist in an organization undergoing change. Gaps that include fuzzy reasons for change, lack of vision partnership and a status differential that perpetuates the hierarchical divisions between management, staff and the layers in between. Gaps that can impede, halt and even regress the progress and effectiveness of a system-wide change like moving to agile ways of working. But why do those gaps exist in the first place?
Change is hard enough without fear in the air. What do we fear? What fuels fear? How will we know when fear has been driven out of the system? [...]
In this day and age of questionable employee engagement, can there be such a thing as "too much engagement”? Are employees and staff suffering from engagement fatigue? Or is it akin to communications where you could never over-communicate?
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