Constructive Criticism for Constructive Criticism — In The Collaboration Equation we discuss what people think is feedback, versus actual feedback. People mistake comments or constructive criticism as feedback. Comments are when you complete something, become emotionally invested in its structure and composition, and then give it to someone looking for praise. When they don’t give you…

Working Together to be Free of Overcontrol — We struggle with dogma at the office, mostly because we don’t recognize we are under its influence. We think that dogma requires a church, which requires hundreds of years of history. Not the case. Dogma is an opinion you have mistaken for a fact and then used that option to…

Your Team Might Not Be Enough. The costs of not being in control are obvious. Psychologically, fiscally, operationally…the costs are debilitating. Yet, almost all our companies are simply out of control. We might tell ourselves it isn’t a problem or that we are in control, but we’re lying. Being in…

It is a beautiful Friday, birds chirping, sun out, window open at 6:30 am. Putting the final touches on The Collaboration Equation with Tonianne and my editor. Should get the book cover in a few days and beginning layout by late next week. This paragraph from the book is why…

Every day, your team goes to work and creates defects. You can call them mistakes, bugs, technical debt, rework, or any other glossy phrase, but they are all defects. They are created by your team, doing your work without enough information. In construction, if people go to work uninformed, they…

We hurt ourselves, every day. We divide into teams, the teams become silos, the silos become overloaded, the overload makes us double-down on our silos. Sigh. This is extremely common, it is natural in a system built from the ground up to be divided. We divide into specialties, into…

This is part 5 of a series of 5 posts, see the mother post here. We want to grow as professionals. We want our products to be better, our know-how to be deeper, our impact to be known and recognized. This is impossible without continuous improvement. I have met many…

Getting work to work — This is part 4 of a series of 5 posts, see the mother post here. In Lean there is Mura, the waste of unevenness. It’s probably the most important, but also most overlooked, in the waste theatre. For knowledge work, unnevenness primarily interrupts flow. It’s when you have work that…

Understanding each other as professionals — This is part 3 of a series of 5 posts, see the mother post here. Professionalism as an end allows quality product as an end. Respect is an abused word. Weak minds use it as a placeholder for fear. Weak egos will demand it up front. …