Many people wish for more transparency. They want to know what others have been doing or what they are up to. Transparency, however, is not something you can demand. Increasing pressure will only lead to obfuscated facts. So for transparency, you must build a relationship in which people feel safe and open up. Here are …
Continue reading “Psychological Safety tips: 5 ideas to help people open up”
Google ‘feedback method’ and google will come up with countless ‘systems’ for giving feedback. Any of these systems quickly becomes awkward and forced when you try it. There is no bullet-proof algorithm for giving feedback. In this article, I’m sharing the essential part of great feedback: a robust foundation for self-confidence. Take, for instance, the …
Continue reading “Teamwork tip 4: Build a robust foundation to handle raw and honest feedback”
Ever wondered how to apply Scrum outside of software development? Ever doubted the applicability of Scrum in the real world? This article is a Scrum Guide in Star Wars style. I’ll show how the real-world heroes from Star Wars organized their struggles against the Empire with Scrum. They already knew how to Scrum a long …
Continue reading “What if Star Wars Rebels were organized with Scrum? – a Rebel Scrum Guide”
Holacracy claims to improve Agile and time management. It’s supposed to make any team run better by continuously evolving the roles in the team to fit the work better. Is it really better than Agile approaches like Kanban or Scrum? Here’s my opinion. Holacracy means that the whole of the team is in charge, not …
After my initial few days of Fairphone 3, here’s an update with more hands-on experience. I decided to keep it, despite its shortcomings. Read on to find out why. NFC payments. Hurray! I was able to set up my bank (ASN) with the wireless payment on the Fairphone 3. This is something I was not …
Continue reading “Switching from iPhone to Fairphone: day 4 to 10”
Last Friday my Fairphone 3 arrived. Yay! In this article I’ve collected my thoughts after using it for three days. I expected a world of hurt when transitioning from my iPhone. In reality the transition went pretty smooth. But it wasn’t all perfect. Read on to find out why. I believe our power as consumers …
Continue reading “Switching from iPhone to Fairphone: day 1-3”
How do you make a high performing team from 8 individuals? You start by getting to know each other. But what works well in practice? This is the first in a series of articles. In this series, I’m sharing my experience of building a brand new team of eight unruly 7th graders. The team goal …
Continue reading “What I learned by coaching FLL kids part 1: how to build a fresh team in 6 steps”
This is the third article in a series of teamwork tips & tricks. The first tip was about aligning the things you do with the things you want. In the second article I discussed work-life balance. This article is about looking beyond other people’s actions and working with their intent. I once worked in a …
Continue reading “Teamwork tip 3: Escape the road to hell by looking at intentions”
This is the second article in my series about great teamwork. It is about work/life balance. Ever wondered how you can be part of a high performing team without burning out? Read on! Long term and short term team performance There are a lot of things in life that I’d love to do, but don’t. …
Continue reading “Teamwork tip 2: balance needs and shoulds”
‘Effect’ is a book about effective teamwork. The title refers to the strange fact that your conscious actions don’t always have the effect you desire on other people. The book is written by ice skater J.O. Koss and psychologist B.M. Ihlen. They wrote down their team coaching insights after winning several olympic gold medals. Their …
Continue reading “8 teamwork insights from an ice skating champion – summary of the book ‘Effect’”
