Let’s talk a little about mastery today, in the sense of the RAMPS conversation from yesterday. What is mastery-as-motivator, and what can we do about increasing its motivational force? As I said before, the motivational force called mastery is about how humans value their own growth. All of us carry around an idea, implicit or […]
Mastery As Motivator: The M of RAMPS Read More »
A very common question: managers turn to me and say, "My team lacks a sense of urgency, how can I give them one?" After I get over the snarky replies — I come from a long line of "the managed" — I do have what I think is an answer: "Study the idea of RAMPS,
A Sense Of Urgency: RAMPS As A Motivation Model Read More »
So, a friend asked me to say more about "not pairing". As so often, it triggered me to muse. Sometimes I need to not pair. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love pairing. I love it for three reasons. It makes me a better geek. That is, I learn from pairing. Pairing makes two geeks
When I Need to Not Pair Read More »
I am done with "technical debt" as a useful concept. As so often happens, an appealing idea happened, one with useful connections to the concrete, and we took it and ran with it. Unfortunately, that idea has more appeal than it does decision-making value. Folks justify the most ridiculous nonsense and put it under the
Done With “Technical Debt” Read More »
I find 4 major failings in both how & what we teach in geekery. We mostly don’t. That is, actual teaching of actual geekery-for-a-living is almost non-existent. We suffer in attitude & content & structure from the trivially flawed “information transfer” view of what teaching & learning is. We purport to more knowledge than we
On Pedagogy In The Geek Trades Read More »
Still feeling it, so, a sidebar on choosing which coaching stories to work… I was raised in XP, and as such, I imbibed the concept of "most important story" heavily. When I’d show up at these shops, I’d be replete with the wonder of myself, and I’d look out on the horizon of broken things,
Choosing A Coaching Story To Work Read More »
These wrangles over system seem mis-focused. Moreover, they seem part of the surface of the elephant i’ve been trying to describe. A system is inherently an abstraction. It compresses, filters, selects, features from an experienced reality. We formulate systems for at least 3 reasons. First, so we can establish commonality. That is, we can use
How I Don’t Apply XP, or Scrum, or Anything Read More »
I’ve been mulling over what I do as a coach, for lo these many years, actually, and I feel like sharing some of it. I coach: I create or exploit openings through which individuals, including sometimes myself, can step closer to who they wish they were. I came to coaching early on in the movement.
Defining Agile Sooooo, I saw a couple folks arguing earlier about what is or isn’t Agile. That’s okay. People do that. Analytical people thrive on doing that. Anyone who’s gotten to the level of journeyfolk in any arena will seek to define that arena. All very healthy stuff. Nowadays I tend to avoid these arguments.
Defining Agile: A Musing Read More »
User Stories If you are concerned about how you write a user story, you have missed the entire point. A user story is a little card that reminds us of all the actual conversations we’re currently actually having. If the words "bathtub farting" are enough for the team to actually converse about what they signify,
User Stories Are Playing Pieces: The “Right Writing” Is Wrong Read More »
