Work

In a recent podcast Marc Andreessen makes a an observation that

Knowing the type of conversation you are having can change the way you interact with others and the outcome of the conversation.

It is easy to fill your day with stuff and feel guilty when you take a step back just to pause and think.

We often use the terms “to-do list” and “checklist” interchangeably, but they actually serve very different purposes.

I recently joined another call through CTO Craft about leading engineering with a vision. The previous one is here.

What tools are missing from your toolbox?

In an interview for the High Performance Podcast the comedian Sara Pascoe is asked how she copes with the pressure of making lots of people laugh every night.

I recently joined a call through CTO Craft (thoroughly recommended) about the path a CTO cal follow to becoming a founder.

We’ve all been there: debating a single word in an email or spending ages coming up with the name of a project or even a variable. We treat these choices like permanent, life-altering commitments when …

A decision as simple as which tool to use can shape the culture of a department or an organisation.

Are you too close to something to see how to make it better?

In my first “real” job I was definitely thrown in at the deep end on my first day and it changed my career.

Seth Godin asks

If someone with more skill and dedication took over your work, how many ways could they make it …

I have tried lots of different ways to track tasks, or have a to do list, and they have all failed at some point.

Just before I recently went on holiday our CEO set me some “homework”.

I used to capture all my thoughts and things I was working on in a text file at work but this approach slowly died. I use a WhatsApp chat with only me in it to capture random personal stuff at the …

I was doing a 1:1 meeting recently and we talked about their code reviews of a recent joiner.

Despite the best efforts of the infamous demo gods, sometimes you can come out on top.

When you work in technology it is tempting to bring in the new exciting technologies that claim to make your life easier, run faster and bring you rainbow unicorns every day.

You are deep in a piece of work and making great progress when a phone call or message breaks you train of thought and derails you. Context switching can have a huge impact on productivity.

A single, creative decision transformed our interactions with some junior engineers, boosting their morale and integrating them seamlessly into our team.

Often people are afraid to reach out to those above them in the hierarchy or in a different team, even if it is the best solution to their situation.

There is a well known story about an old man fixing an engine.

We needed to plan the work for the next quarter for the infrastructure team and in doing so came up with a simple way to breakdown the work.

At a recent off-site we ran a simple group exercise that will hopefully make a big difference to the success of the company

It is that time of year where performance and salaries are reviewed. In my new role it is the first time I have been part of this. I came across a very timely

My role has changed recently to include another team. This has also included more interaction with other areas of the business and also the management team.

An oh no second is that moment in time when you realise that you have done something potentially catastrophic and your stomach turns to mush with the dread and realisation.

Every Monday morning as part of our stand up meeting we ask a “question of the day”. A designated victim person chooses a question that each team member gets to answer. This week the …

When interviewing a potential candidate recently I asked them the difference, in their opinion, between the way a consultant/contractor engages with a company and a full time employee.

In 2018, Andrew Barnes’ company, Perpetual Guardians, permanently introduced a four day week (FDW). The staff would get 100% pay but work 80% of the time as long as they hit 100% of their …

Estimation is a very difficult task - depending on what is being estimated.

Could you be bold enough to delete all the meetings in your calendar?

The simple use of the phrase “how might we” can open up design discussions and improve company mission statements.

I have been visiting my parents in Devon recently and working from there. It makes a nice change of scenery - I can work during the day and visit places out of hours as well as obviously spending time …

I read a lot but this post is about being encouraged to stop reading.

Ego and the fear of how we appear to others can get in the way sometimes. We don’t want to appear stupid so we avoid finding out things we don’t know.

It is amazing how one small thing can set the tone or the culture going forward.

The butterfly effect famously states that the flapping of the wings of a butterfly somewhere in the world can impact the weather on the other side of the world - a small change can have a huge impact …

When we recruit people we are obviously looking at their ability to perform the role on offer but we are also looking at how well they will work with the team.

It is very easy to do something negative to try and show how intelligent we are.

We often hear the phrase “it’s a no blame” culture - but do we really live that?

Every couple of weeks we have a meeting called “FriYay”. Based on a rota, each department has the opportunity to own one of these and present what they are celebrating.

I am a lark.

In the book Time Wise by Amantha Imber she discusses the three main types of people and their alertness through various times …

Adding an alert or alarm for a situation you need to monitor should be a good thing but sometimes, depending on how it is done, it can actually make things worse or at a minimum not work as expected.

Sometimes people need a second chance.

In the Simon Sinek interview with Leland Melvin they talk about giving a second chance to an employee and how they can sometimes turn out to be the best …

When I am working I like to have music in the background to help me focus. I find, like a lot of people, that it needs to be music without lyrics most of the time.

I have had lots of jobs during my life and I think I can identify at least one thing I have learnt at each of them. I usually know it is time to move to a new role if I no longer enjoy it or I am no …

There are two camps of people where I work; those who want to return to the office and those who want to remain working remotely. The former group tend to be those whose work involves spending most of …

Many years ago when I ran an engineering team for a consultancy we would get calls almost every day from recruitment agencies trying to pitch their services to us.

Scott Hanselman posted a tweet with the following tip:

Here’s a tip that my remote team does - When …

I work very closely with two colleagues - and have done so for a number of years. Together we have experienced some serious ups and downs in the company we work for and also personally. We have each …

At the startup I work for we used to have a full time HR person. These were in the days when the expectation was that we would have explosive growth and the company would “at least double in …

Andrew Cherrie is the pastor of Home Church. In a recent sermon entitled “7 lessons from 7 years at Home Church” he gave the following quote:

Due to the ongoing COVID situation the team had been struggling to stay focussed and motivated. The inability to go out, the lack of change of scenery and the sameness every day has been taking its …

I recently had a day where I had about 10 different meetings - all on different subjects. I knew that I would struggle to be productive in each of them if I turned up for them unprepared and had to …

As part of our processes we regularly hold retrospectives. We used to do this all in a room with post-it notes - a fairly traditional approach. We would set up 4 areas: Liked, Longed, Learned and …

It is very easy for your work week to become a random collection of meetings - all with different attendees and different agendas. For developers in particular this can cause a huge hit on …

We have a lot of remote meetings as most of our team work a significant amount of time from home. Face to face meetings are much better for some types of meetings - especially workshops and …

On most projects there is a tendency for someone involved to become the “expert” in one or more areas. As they become comfortable and more knowledgeable in an area they will naturally …

When someone leaves a company there are two sides to it.

We have just completed a two week exercise with the whole development team to identify, design and estimate the next phase of work. It started as an organic process as we found the best way to do this …

We had a meeting recently with 16 people on the video conference call. Due to poor planning and technical issues it took nearly half an hour to decide to postpone the meeting. That is eight man hours …

I have never been a fan of performance reviews. It may have been down to the way they were implemented at the places I worked however they never seemed to achieve what they were set out to do. The …

I am fortunate with my current role that I am able to work 2-3 days per week from home. This saves me about 2.5 hours of commuting time per day as well as about £2000 per year.

I have been very fortunate in my career to have some exceptional bosses that have had a massive impact on my career.

A project was struggling to deliver in time and the project manager resolved it by reducing the team size where the typical approach is to increase the team size. This decision was based on the …

Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors basketball team, took an usual step recently by allowing his players to coach instead of him. He felt that things had become a little staid and …