Process

Tim Lister said: "Process is like swimming, you need a process when stuff you do is not natural." Your real process is what you need when there is a pressure (drowning), the rest is window dressing. If you see a human new to water paddling so hard isn’t because he is asking for a sign off, he is trying to save his life. Under pressure he wants a floater or rope to hang on – the process of having a floater or rope around makes sense then. Waiting for somebody to sign off would be deadly.

Simple test

To see if you have created a great product - simply ask this question:

Would you offer this product to a friend?

A simple question

Is your boss gets mad at you?

If you're not doing something that someone hates, it is possible that you are not doing a good job.

Whether you're a leaf or a branch (employee or manager), pick your battles carefully, one poke at a time. Better to live another day to keep fighting the good fight then, say, being fired for trying to do it all at once. Build support for the leaf nodes, and find some brave branches who manage them.

How to get yourself out of a rut

Things I learned from many years of being stuck in a rough situations (Chess, meetings, stuck at a piece of code, etc), I have adopted a general formula for what to do when I’m faced with a problem that’s got me stuck. You need to take a creative pause in that situation. The “attacker” could be a person like your boss or a problem on hand.

The first step is to change your focus – this could last seconds to couple of minutes, you just pause and say “hamburger….” or drink your tea. I am drinking lots of tea for this very reason. Otherwise the first thing out of your mouth may make the matter worse. Once you feel you are in control and thinking is coming from the right place of your brain then you can return to the stage you were in the first place.

Everybody gets stuck from time to time, so have a handy bottle of water (it is good for you) or learn to say “…Ok …hamburger”. If you have a technical challenge just walk away and talk about other things. Many times you can turn and change toward a better direction by just following this simple practice.

1) Create a pause before you react. 2) It keeps you from taking things too personally
3) It helps you ask more questions instead of jump to conclusions.

Formula for success

Quoted from Tom Peters:

A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, “Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly sell you for $25,000.” “Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the envelope, however if you show me, and I like it, I give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.” The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope. JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper back to the gent. And paid him the agreed-upon $25,000.

The Paper:

1. Every morning, write a list of the things that need to be done that day.
2. Do them.

Get into the zone - working from home.

AG is one of the most productive players in our current project who is working from home in the Bay area. I am not going to generalize this to a rule and say “To be productive you should work from home…” As much as I love team’s interactions on site, I also appreciate giving people a degree of freedom so that they can be creative at other places. This is a standard benefit that good teams provide and is a great way to send your employees the message that you care about them and spark creativity in them.

I can tell you, the food at home is much better than the corporate cafeteria standards. Writers, programmers, scientists, analysts and even sportsmen will tell you about being in the zone. To get in the zone you might need to do something different. People get into the zone by working from home.

People get energy when they daily routine is decorated with a pleasant event like eating with their colleagues, taking a break and working from home, which increases learning and communication. They get back to work fresh, being more productive. They also feel you care about them, making them more loyal.

If you are legislating for people to come to office all days, then you should be prepared to make their environment better than their homes.

Over 50% of any piece of software is communication with its end-user.

The first law of Bad Management is:

“If something isn’t working, do more of it.” – Managers who think they can decide instead of users are following this law.