Month: June 2016
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Too old for agile?
A memory A few years back I watched a documentary about an entry exam for the sports university in Cologne. A middle-aged gymnastics professor commented on an exercise performed by a young man: “It is a pity! That boy has not learned this movement pattern in his youth. We know from research that he will…
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Not invented here
In the world of software a copy comes at almost no cost (yes, I know this is an oversimplification). Still engineers (and managers) go to great lengths to reinvent/recreate things that already exist instead of copying them. In fact this behaviour is so common that there is a name for it: “not invented here!” And…
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3 loyalty spheres
With the ‘lean’ and ‘agile’ movements middle management positions have become increasingly difficult. As a middle manager you are in the sandwich in every way. Most stressful is that you have to navigate 3 loyalty spheres or else you will loose your company, your team or yourself. 3 loyalty spheres explained Loyalty to your company…
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Management FAQ
You send questions from time to time that I would like to answer. That’s why I decided to publish this Management FAQ. I will extend this with more questions coming in. 1. As a manager, should I manipulate somebody into doing something? My answer: yes, definitely! I’ll explain: Most of us managers do little work…
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List hell: 3 reasons list are evil
Most blog posts today have the form of lists. Like “3 things you never wanted to know!”, “3 ways to escape list hell”. You know why? Because it is scientifically proven that such posts are opened much more often. List hell! Here is why lists are evil: 1. They are a form of surrender Here’s…
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Dead horses: 5 reasons to ride
“When you discover that you are riding dead horses, the best strategy is to dismount.” Most of you know this saying of the Native Indians (if not, read this hilarious blog post to catch up). Still, many dead horses are ridden in companies daily. There must be reasons. Here are my favorite ones: It is…
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Assignments: Beating the principal agent
Principal agent problems: how to make work assignments work Clean handover of work packages is key to make a business work – and yet I regularly see work assignments fail. How is that possible? The process of handing over a task seems simple enough. The principal agent theory describes the underlying dilemma: It states that…
