Suddenly in November, Buffett announced that his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has taken a 5.4% stake in IBM with an investment of around $11 billion. This was despite largely ‘flat revenues’ over a ten year period and earnings per share growth that one commentator called ‘financial sleight of hand’.
This interactive WHY Map provides a quick and clear insight into WHAT he did, HOW he did it, and most importantly WHY.
http://www.whyorg.com/Warren-Buffett-Invests-IBM.aspx
George Soros made his fortune as an investor and currency speculator. He has been dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England" for short selling $10 billion in UK pounds, triggering the UK's exit from the European Exchange Rate mechanism.
He warns that Eurozone Leaders must fundamentally change strategy else we face "a meltdown of the global financial system because we are so interconnected.” Whilst others dither, Soros calls on his experience to prescribe the exact actions to be taken:
1 - Eurozone leaders need to address the Eurozone’s fundamental economic flaw – it has a single currency but no lender of last resort – it must create a common treasury.
2 – Meantime, Eurozone leaders need to create a powerful weapon to resolve the immediate crisis – a “bazooka”!
I remember my first encounter with UML, it was during the first term of an Electronics Systems Design degree. I distinctly remember being handed a Use-Case diagram of a programmable washing machine. It was intended as an 'easy example' of the Use-Case model, and in fairness it was quite simple. Yet, the first thing to go through my mind was... "WHY!? Just WHY?"
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not sitting here questioning the need for such models, or the need for UML in design and analysis. But, in this first exposure I was looking at the diagram just like a non-technical stakeholder would. I was questioning why this diagram was the best way to communicate this knowledge and understanding to me! WHY was it that I had to learn a new language BEFORE I EVEN HAD ACCESS to the Knowledge that I required?
When communicating with stakeholders, remember that many of them are super busy. Assume you are on borrowed time and the information you pass to them MUST be in a language that they already understand.
If you use the WHY Code, you can convey WHAT you need to tell them - HOW you plan to do it and WHY you're doing it in the first place! I'd also recommend attaching images and interface designs to your WHY Maps to offer them a visual guide to each part of the task. You can also have dialogs with them, in the cloud, by using the discussion tab.
Visit The WHY Code website and try it now- for FREE!
Oh and please... can we stop referring to UML as 'Easy-to-Understand'. If you must use something, go for 'Easy-to-learn' (although I'm not convinced of that either!).
By Oliver McPhee
A man in a hot air balloon is lost. He sees a man on the ground and reduces height to speak to him...
“Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?”
“You’re in a hot air balloon hovering thirty feet above this field,” comes the reply.
“You must work in IT” says the balloonist.
“I do” says the man, “How did you know?”
“Well,” says the balloonist, “Everything you told me is technically correct, but it’s of no use to anyone.”
“You must be in business,” says the man.
“I am,” says the balloonist, “How did you know?”
“Well,” says the man, “You don’t know where you are, you haven't told me where you’re going, but you expect me to be able to help. You’re in the same position you were before we met, but now it’s my fault.”
I'm sure that most of us can relate to this comical story (on either side of the divide). This is what happens when you communicate or trade specifications without understanding. In my experience this is a huge contributor to project failure.
If we ensure that our communications and specifications are written in the context of WHAT we want, WHY we need it and HOW it should be done then we deliver a much fuller understanding. Consider the same story when you add understanding to the equation.
A man in a hot air balloon is lost. He sees a man on the ground and reduces height to speak to him...
“Excuse me, I am trying to get to London. Can you tell me where I am so I can assure the best route?”
“You’re in a hot air balloon hovering thirty feet above this field in Essex, London is 40 miles due west.” comes the reply.
“Thank you” says the balloonist.
Use the WHY Code to understand, communicate and control your Enterprise. Visit Knowledge Genes to start using it for free.
By Oliver McPhee
For a long time now it has been common knowledge that if we talked more, communicated more, collaborated more! then we'd be able to produce better products, better results and less mistakes. It seems that now, at last, the industry is listening...
We are entering an era where almost every product in every industry is aiming to help maximize communication and collaboration - from social media for the business (eg Jive, salesforce chatter) to the now popular "Social BPM". This is, in some large way, due to the popularity of social software outside the business. The success of websites such as Facebook & Twitter has really helped to push this trend forward.
BUT, I can't help but wonder whether we're pushing this forward too quickly. Like any trends, companies are anxious to be at the forefront and are jumping in without a thought for WHY we need to communicate more.
It's as if we're now starting to communicate for the sake of communicating. It won't be long before 98% of the day is spent communicating and 2% of it is spent actually executing the work. Hardly the increased results and productivity we're looking for!
I'd just like to caution that before you jump on this bandwagon (and jump on it you should), have a think about what makes great communication.
Is it about increasing the amount? or is it the focus and direction?
Are the best meetings the ones where everyone can talk at once, about multiple goals, to anyone who cares to listen?
Or are they the ones with a clear goal or focus, and the relevant people are actively engaged in understanding one another?
You can use Knowledge Genes to map out any subject, project or knowledge in terms of the key questions - WHAT, HOW and WHY. These Knowledge Genes then provide you with a communications platform that directs and focuses communication around WHAT is important, HOW to do it and WHY.
Follow that old adage... "Quality over Quantity!"
Knowledge Genes - Organizational Communication
By Oliver McPhee
Gap analysis consists of defining the present state, the desired state and therefore the gap between them.
In competitive intelligence, we study gaps because we want to know and explain what our competitors are doing to create a significant advantage for themselves.
It's important to note however that Gap analysis alone is not adequate for all problem situations because goals may evolve and some problems have many alternative solutions.
Check this out clear map of How to Perform a Gap Analysis
'Show up. Let your critics see you for the leader who you are. Adopting a "hide in the bunker" attitude only plays to them...' - that's what John Baldoni says in his blog over at HBR - read his blog here.
6 other good things to do in facing your critics
Be open. Invite others, perhaps even the media; you can shoot video of your meeting and broadcast it over a controlled-access website. In doing so, you demonstrate transparency and show your willingness to engage those who disagree with you. Videotaping also challenges people to be on their best behavior because they are being recorded.
Be cool. When people criticize you to your face, breathe deeply. As an opponent's voice rises, lower yours. Speak deliberately and with a sense of calm. The more control you have of your emotions, the stronger you will appear.
Acknowledge your shortcomings. Standing up to criticism is an opportunity to admit your own failings. Do it with a sense of earnestness, that is, demonstrate through words and passion that you have done what you think is best. At the same time, do not be defensive. Act with honest confidence, even when you admit mistakes.
Criticize gently. The spotlight may be on you, but the heat is also on your critics. Give as good as you get, but do it with a sense of diplomacy. A good-natured jibe here or there is good for you as well as others. It reveals your humanity.
Smile frequently. Lighten things up by relaxing your facial muscles. This demonstrates that you are in control. Smile when appropriate, but never smirk. Don't let them see you sweat, either. Smiling keeps you on a more even keel.
Leave them wanting more. Know when to close the engagement. You can ruin a good thing by hanging around on stage. It may be appropriate to meet and mingle off stage, in fact that's a great idea, but know when to get off the stage and let others talk.
When the heat is on, showing your face to your sharpest critics is a great way to demonstrate that you are in control of yourself as well as your message. Standing up to those who oppose you is a strong measure of demonstrating that you have what it takes to lead.
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Stewart Friedman, over at the hbr blog, looks at the effective leadership of change. He has extracted 5 steps to focus on, using Barrack Obama quotes to emphasize his points...
1. Focus on small wins:
"Above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way its been done in America for 221 years: block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."
The simple idea here is that, as a leader of change, you don't conquer a big mountain in a single leap but, rather, in small steps, with that momentous goal always clearly in mind.
2. Depict a realistic yet hopeful view of what lies before us:
"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep...There will be setbacks and false starts."
"We will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."
Obama's words give everyone a realistic appraisal of the difficulties of today and tomorrow while, at the same time, renouncing the prophets of gloom and bringing our collective attention to what's possible when we all commit to a common goal.
3. Recognize that sustainable change comes from the bottom up:
"I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to--it belongs to you...This is your victory!"
The successful leader of change must give full voice and credit to those whose lives are affected.
4. Issue a call to action:
"This victory is the chance to change. It cannot happen without you. Each of us must resolve to work harder...We rise and fall as one nation, as one people."
No vision statement is complete unless it has embedded in it a direct implication for action among all those who are part of it.
5. Remind us who we are and what we stand for:
"The true genius of America is that we can change."
Our President-Elect reminds Americans, and the world, that our nation remains a beacon of hope because our system self-corrects without violence -- a lesson underlined by the very fact of his election.
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Can you think of any other steps? Feel free to comment & start a discussion.
By Oliver McPhee
Seth Godin has a real thing about Powerpoint - mostly focused at how badly it gets used.
He's written a couple of useful blogs on the subject that you can read here Really Bad Powerpoint, Nine steps to Powerpoint magic. For a unique format on this, also see the Knolwedge Gene.
The purpose of your Powerpoint presentation is to 'make the sale', to sell your big idea to your audience. And if by the end of the presentation you haven't achieved this, your presentation has failed - plain and simple.
Here's a round-up of the key points to creating better presentations:
Mark Ridgwell
Stever Robbins recently wrote a useful blog over at HBR - 7 Communication Mistakes Managers Make
There's a Knowledge Gene on this too if you prefer - click here to see it
In summary, the mistakes are:
1. Announcing controversial things without first doing the groundwork
Prep people one on one, learn who will object and why.
2. Lying
Certain things must remain confidential while they're under discussion, but be careful how you keep secrets. If people know you've lied, you will lose their trust forever. Rather than lie, train yourself to respond, "I'm not free to comment" or "I can't answer that fully right now," when asked about confidential or sensitive topics.
3. Ignoring the realities of power
The more power you have, the less you'll hear about problems. Problems are filtered and softened as they ascend the corporate hierarchy. If you want an honest assessment of a problem, seek out bad news. Welcome it. And when it comes, show your appreciation.
4. Underestimating your audience's intelligence
Many managers like to gloss over problems when motivating their teams. But if things aren't going well, those teams are probably well aware of the problems. In fact, they've probably known about them longer than you have. Rather than avoiding the situation, enlist their skills in finding solutions
5. Using inappropriate form of communication
E-mail is great for conveying information, but don't use it for emotional issues and phone calls and face-to-face meetings are inefficient ways to disseminate information, but great for discussing nuanced issues.
Furthermore, some people are listeners, while others are readers. Listeners won't focus on written memos but are great in conversation. Readers write great memos and are also glad to read them, but conversation sometimes fails to fully engage them.
6. Ignoring acts of omission
What you don't say may be sending as loud a message as what you do say. If you don't give praise, people get the message they're unappreciated. If you don't explain the rationale behind decisions, the message is that you don't trust them. And if you don't tell people where the company wants to go, they don't know how to help it get there.
Mark Ridgwell
People are busier and more stressed in their work than ever.
Borrowing ideas from Stephen Covey, the Dalai Lama and from my own experiences as a manager over the last ten years, allow me to suggest some simple things you can start doing today to be Happier at Work:
1. Smile More
Smiling kills negativity. Try smiling and try to think of something negative at the same time.
2. Stop worrying so much
Why worry about stuff that's completely out of your control. It won't do your body or mind any favors and it won't influence the stuff you're worrying about. There are plenty of other things for you to 'worry' about that are in your control - focus your energy on those things instead.
3. Focus on the important stuff
Know that not everything is critically important and not doing everything that comes your way is OK. Recount your job purpose and the necessary actions to get you there, by answering three fundamental questions:
WHAT is your job objective? WHY is this important? HOW will you achieve this?
Try creating a simple mind map in Knowledge Genes to help you think this through.
4. Motivate and stimulate your employees
Give your people more responsibility and autonomy in their jobs. Tell them what's really going on in the business and how their jobs contribute to the business goals.
5. Be brave - delegate
Some people are afraid to delegate for the fear that doing so will make them obsolete. People that this way are already obsolete!
6. Use more breaks
All work and no 'play' will make you dull and less effective. Whipping yourself or your team to higher performance doesn't work. In fact it's counter-productive.
7. Avoid boredom
Boredom is a real happiness killer. You're bored doing the same things over and over again because you're not challenging yourself. Go out of your way to take on new responsibilities. Try stuff that stretches you and you'll be bored no longer and become more valuable to the business.
~ Mark Ridgwell
Do you agree with Seth Godin's lessons on this subject? If you do, or indeed if you don't, we'd love to hear your opinions. Just drop a comment at the bottom of the page.
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By Oliver McPhee
No matter how fabulously good your idea is, it won't sell itself.
I often follow Rosabeth Moss Kanter's blog at HBR. She's widely quoted as one of the world's most influential business thinkers and she writes in a very pragmatic, can-use-today kind of way which appeals to me. The seven points below is what she suggests about how to effectively sell ideas. See her original blog here:
"1. Seek many inputs - Listen actively to many points of view. Then incorporate aspects of each of them into the project plan, so that you can show people exactly where their perspectives or suggestions appear.
2. Do your homework - Be thoroughly prepared for meetings and individual discussions. Gather as much hard data as possibly to have command of the full facts, and speak knowledgeably from a broad information base. Know the interests of those to whom you're speaking, and customize the message for them.
3. Make the rounds - Meet with people one-on-one to make the first introduction of your idea. It's always a good idea to touch base with people individually before any key meetings, and to give them advance warning of what you and others are planning to say at the meeting. Then they can be prepared (and coached) in your point of view. And you know theirs, so you can modify your proposal accordingly.
4. See critics in private and hear them out - One-on-one meetings are especially important when you expect opposition or criticism. Groups can easily turn into mobs. Avoid situations in which critics can gang up on you, or when a group of people leaning positive turn negative because the listen to a few loud voices. Never gather all of your potential critics in one room hoping to hold one meeting to brief everyone all at once. This kind of event mainly helps them discover each other and their common concerns, so they coalesce as a group united in opposition to the idea.
5. Make the benefits clear - Arm supporters with arguments. You might rehearse them for meetings in which questions about your project will come up. Stress the value that the idea will produce for them and other groups. Remember that selling ideas is at least a two-step process. You sell one set of people so they can sell others. You convince them to back you because you reduce the risk to them by giving them the tools for selling their own boards or constituencies.
6. Be specific - Make your requests concrete, even while connecting your idea to unassailable larger principles. Wait to approach high-level people until your have tested the idea elsewhere and refined your vague notions. The higher the official, the more valuable and scarce his or her time, and thus the more focused your meeting must be. Use peers for initial broad discussions, then ask top executives for one simple action.
7. Show that you can deliver - People want to back winners. Early in the process, provide evidence, even guarantees, that the project will work. Later, prove that you can deliver by meeting deadlines and doing what you promised."
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Mark Ridgwell
There has been a lot of high profile 'finger pointing' recently (whether it be the oil spill disaster or mistakes made during the world cup) so I decided to go on the hunt for a good article about trying to prevent this blame culture.
I have come across this fantastic article by Marshall Goldsmith that i've found from over at the hbr blog. It has 7 steps to follow to help people stay objective & constructive in these times of crisis.
1. Encourage everyone on your team to remember four words that can help all of you get though your crisis in the best way possible: help more, judge less. Reflect upon these four words. Aside from work, how many of us have friends and family members at home who might be happy if we 'helped' a little more - and 'judged' a little less?
2. Try to get team members to focus on a future that they can impact, not a past that they cannot change anyway. Have you ever made a fool of yourself in front of important people before? It was bad enough when it happened. Having others make you relive this 'fool making' experience is usually not that helpful.
3. Try to get people to take responsibility for their own behavior. Sometimes it is easier to see our own mistakes in other people than in the mirror. We may not be able to change what other people have done, but we can certainly change ourselves.
4. Ask each person to reflect on the question, "What can I learn from this crisis?" Anyone can provide leadership when times are easy. Great leaders - and great teams - step up when times are tough. Rather than get lost in whining, have each team member focus on how he or she can grow from this experience.
5. Ask everyone on your team to reflect on the question, "What can we learn from this crisis?" After each person's individual reflection, encourage your team to engage in collection reflection. Find ways to improve cross-team communication and build teamwork.
6. Encourage each team member to avoid speaking when angry or out of control. We all get angry. That is natural and completely appropriate. We just don't have to talk until we settle down and can collect our thoughts. Plenty of research has shown how our 'angry mind' can lead to irrational behavior that we later regret.
7. Before speaking don't just ask, "Am I correct?" - ask "Will this help?"Just because we believe that something is true, we don't have to say it. If our comment may be hurtful to individuals or destructive to teamwork, it can sometimes just be left unsaid.
How do you feel about finger-pointing? Do you think it has a place once the situation has been handled?
Please feel free to leave us any comments below...
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By Oliver McPhee
Pure gold - the 12 things below are what Robert Sutton (MIT professor and author) in a recent HBR blog believes are the key beliefs that are held by the best bosses:
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> Communication Mistakes that Managers Make
> Eight Things your Employees Want from You
Any more you'd like to see added to this list?
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I have recently come across some best practices for stakeholder engagement from Edinburgh University by Mark Ritchie / Naresh Chappidi (located here).
There are many challenges to successfully engaging with project stakeholders, but they are small in comparison to the risks of failing to engage in a timely and strategic manner. The following summary principles for stakeholder engagement are based on industry best practice:
Stakeholder Engagement helps manage the politics that can often come with projects. It helps you win support for your projects and eliminates a major source of project and work stress.
Do you agree with these best practices, or can you add anymore of value? Please feel free to comment below.
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Create and Share Enterprise Best Practices
By Oliver McPhee
If your business is like most others, the best knowledge in your organization is probably locked away inside one person's head - ring any bells?
This is clearly a very risky and inefficient strategy - what happens if that person suddenly leaves the organization? And imagine the performance improvement if that knowledge was instantly available for anyone to use...
Easy to say, difficult to fix. Not really.
Get your best performers involved, focus first on the business areas that add the highest business value, think in terms of actionable what, how & why steps and you can create an executable knowledge map that anyone can use, in an hour or two.
>> Click here to see how:
How to effectively capture & share your best knowledge across the organization
We've discovered there is a fundamental Code of Knowledge - we call it Knowledge Genes
It will help you achieve perfect understand, communicate with perfect clarity and get more done.
It's a big idea because it can really help people, anyone, to understand and control what really needs to be done and to eliminate the unimportant things.
This seems all important in our world today of attention scarcity, communication overload, verbosity and ambiguity.
The Code of KnowledgeTM is made up of two dimensions
1. The horizontal dimension is used to map behavior
It is made up of the answers to the fundamental questions WHY and HOW - these questions are opposites of each other.
2. The vertical dimension is used to classify actions of the same type into a hierarchy
It is made up of the answers to the question WHAT and its opposite WHAT IS. Behavior is inherited down this hierarchy.
At the center is a Knowde- a human action or an action of nature
The basic building block is an action - anything we do in our lives or at work OR any action in a naturally occurring process.
Everything in life is made up of process - the tangible things we see around us are simply the result of process actions and mapping our world this way improves understanding.
It is to these actions that WHY, HOW, WHAT and WHAT IS are connected.
For more information on the Code of Knowledge, check out this page - The Code of Knowledge
Successful Agile Adoption in an organization essentially boils down to whether senior management buy-in to it. One of the most important factors influencing this buy-in are the lessons learned from applying Agile to a pilot project. Careful selection of the right pilot project is therefore a critical success factor in the successful adoption of Agile in the enterprise.
Mike Cohn asserts 4 critical factors which affect the selection of a pilot project
Mike Cohn suggested the four attributes of the ideal pilot project are:
I. Duration – A short project would help skeptics to say that Agile works for small projects. If the project is too large then people would have to wait too long to gauge the status of adoption. Mike suggested that the ideal project length would be somewhere near the middle of what is the average for the organization.
II. Size – The pilot project should be small enough to be done by one team. This abstracts the multi team and cross communication challenges, thus allowing the team to concentrate on the agile process.
III. Importance – Start with a project which is critical to the organization. This would give incentive to the team to work well with the process to ensure the success of the project. A low-importance, low risk project usually becomes just a learning project.
IV. Business sponsor engagement - An engaged business sponsor can help the team if it needs to push against entrenched business processes, departments, or individuals. The time and energy of a business sponsor are critical to the success of the project.
Mike added that all these factors become meaningful with a strong team. Hence, choosing the right team is a precursor to all the above factors.
You might also be interested in these related articles:
How to Implement Agile (including Scrum example)
4 Steps to Agile Transformation
How to Successfully Engage Project Stakeholders
How to Deal with Agile Project Constraints
5 Scrum Transition Anti-Patterns
How to Successfully Combine Agility with Project Governance Oversight
Successful closeout is such an important project step, yet for one reason or another, it's the step that's most commonly missed. This blog will step you through the right way to closeout a project.
To see the Knowledge Gene on this topic and for more information, click here - How to Closeout a Project
The benefits of good closeout include better success for future projects, better employee motivation, better customer relations, improved attractiveness to repeat and new business. Compelling reasons for doing it right?
The process goes like this:
1. Verify Scope:
- Review all test data against the approved specification
- Identify & resolve any discrepancies
- Validate all supporting documents
- Verify all deliverables are available
- Assess customer satisfaction
2. Closeout Contracts
- Ensure that all open issues are resolved with the customer
- Return or destroy all customer's proprietary documents at the customers' direction
- Help the customer conduct an audit of completed scope
- When the customer is happy, receive final payments
3. Closeout Administration
- Return all personnel loaned to project
- Complete personnel performance evaluations
4. Conduct a Lessons Learned Review
- Conduct a survey
- Hold the lessons learned meeting
5. Build a Project History File
- Document planned & actual schedule duration and include data on past similar completed projects
- Document planned & actual labor costs and include past data
- Document all approved changes to PM plan
- Document all meetings minutes
- Document all problems
- Document subcontractor performance records
- Document customer satisfaction records
- Document project reviews
6. Create the Final Project report
- Describe the overall success of the project
- Describe organization on the project
- Describe recommended changes for other similar projects
- Describe techniques used to get results
- Describe project strengths & weaknesses
- Describe project team recommendations
7. Celebrate Success
- Involve everyone on the project
- Gather outside the working environment
- Recognize outstanding performers
- Express appreciation to all project participants
For more information and a quick-to-absorb roadmap on this, please click below:
The importance of getting a glowing reference from your former boss cannot be understated. It can be the difference between landing that job and not landing that job. But getting a great reference letter is often harder than it sounds and can be a source of considerable anxiety for some.
The good news is that it's totally within your control and by following a simple process; it doesn't have to be a painful or anxious experience. I found a great article on this "How to Ask for a Reference Letter" over at HBR which I want share:
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"1. Highlight their Qualifications
When reaching out to ask for a letter of reference, explain up front and center why it is that you value that person's opinion and respect their professional expertise enough so that you chose them (of all people) to vouch for you in your next professional endeavor.
Beyond mere flattery, show why you think that person is uniquely qualified to accurately assess and communicate your personal contribution to your future organization. Why did you enjoy working for them, and why do you value their opinion? Why do you look up to them? How do the qualities match your own, or speak to the authority you want your recommendation to convey?
2. Provide a Template
It's almost impossible to get a good reference letter from someone if you don't provide the tools necessary for them to actually write a good letter. It's also terribly inconsiderate not to give ample guidance. The last thing anyone wants to do is spend hours or days thinking about and drafting a letter which you yourself could have composed far better and more readily in about half the time.
Providing a template, therefore — an outline, bullet points, or even a fully-baked draft — of what you'd like the reference letter to say is the most effective (not to mention generous and thoughtful) approach to asking for a letter of reference. The goal isn't to put words into your former colleague's mouth or to co-opt her into vouching for you in an untrue or disingenuous manner; it's simply to do some of the work for her and provide all of the pertinent data points that you'd like included in the letter. Moreover, as boastful, bragging or full of yourself you may feel writing your own referral, often people will be even more generous than you will when talking about your skills and contribution to an organization. So go ahead and toot your own horn.
3. "No Questions Asked"
Finally, once you provide your reviewer with a useful template and make it clear that your intention is to make this process as painless as possible for her, then it's time to hand over the reins and offer a "no questions asked" policy. First, give your colleague an easy "out" to decline your request for any or no reason. Then, assuming she agrees, give her ample leeway to change, modify or edit your letter as she sees fit. You want to convey a sense of trust in her and give her an opportunity to write a letter she is entirely comfortable with.
Let's take a look at what this request might actually look like:
Highlight their Qualifications
Dear John,
Hello, I hope you are well. I am writing to ask a huge favor — I'm applying for a senior marketing position with Merck and I was hoping you'd consider writing a letter of recommendation on my behalf. I always appreciated your perspective and judgment while working together. You have so much credibility within the product development space that I thought you'd be a perfect person to act as a reference.
Provide a Template
I have included a list of bullet points along with a draft letter you might consider using as a template. I'd like to make the process as easy as possible on you and I know it's hard to recall details about the many different projects we worked on together in 2007 and 2008.
"No Questions Asked"
If for any reason you don't feel comfortable writing a letter on my behalf, I completely understand. If you are willing to do so, however, please feel free to take the attached sample letter and use it as a template however you see fit. I have tried to address my core strengths as a strategic thinker and team player and I have highlighted several marketing campaigns I'm particularly proud of. To the extent that you'd like to make any changes or modifications to the letter, please go ahead and do so. I trust that you'll include only those topics you feel comfortable commenting upon.
Further, I would welcome the opportunity to see a copy of the letter, but I of course understand your position if you'd like to keep it confidential.
Finally, finish your request with all the grace and charm you can muster — thank the other person profusely for their time and help and offer to make yourself available for any further questions he may have." - How to Ask for a Reference Letter
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We've all done it, but if you're in the market for a new job and you commit any of these mistakes, your hard-grafted resume could be heading fast for the round file on the floor (the bin):
See related articles:
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The Best Way to Close a Job Interview
1. Don’t write a book
Keep your resume to one page or two at most if you must. This isn't your autobiography. Trust me, if a hiring manager doesn’t like your first page, they won't be going on to read the other pages.
2. Follow instructions
If a job description tells you to submit a brief cover letter and to submit your resume in PDF format, do exactly that. And, make sure you submit your application before the listed closing date. Imagine the message that you are sending if you can't follow simple instructions at this stage.
3. Your dodgy email address
I'm sure you cherish your comical email address, but don't use sexykitten@gmail.com and such like on your resume or any other application material.
4. 'References available on request'
Don't write 'references available upon request' - it's a waste of space (see point 1) and is implied anyway. And, never list specific references. After meeting a prospect employer, you might not want to work there. Keep your references private and safe, ready to give (when asked) to an employer who you're really keen on working for.
5. Don't be a designer
Are you a professional designer? If not, stick to simple, clear layout and white space. Else, your 'snazzy' design with its mix of colors, font styles, sizes and background image will look a mess and distract from the core messages your resume needs to convey.
6. Don't use resume templates
Templates, like Microsoft Word ones, are as common as muck and easily spotted by hiring managers. Fine, use them as a starting point, but make some tweaks here and there to give your layout some originality.
7. Don't get personal
Leave off your marital status, age, race and gender. Apart from the fact that most people are not in the slightest bit interested, listing personal details like these can encourage discrimination.
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Most executives talk about the importance of customer service, but far fewer are able to succinctly describe what they mean. It can easily become an empty cliché rather than a strategy for growth.
Stuart Cross at BNet has written 10 dimensions of great customer service (see original article). He asserts that you should focus on these dimensions to drive loyalty, profitability and growth for your business.
Please feel free to leave your views as a comment below.
>> See related articles:
How to Reach out to Top Bloggers
By Oliver McPhee
I recently read an excellent post by Melissa Raffoni over at Harvard Business Review - Eight Things Your Employees want from you. In my view, anyone with a responsibility for managing people should be practicing these things:
>> See also:
How to be a Better Facilitator
Become an Active Listener - simple, effective things you can do today
1. Tell me my role, tell me what to do, and give me the rules.
Micromanaging? No, it's called clear direction. Give them parameters so they can work within broad outlines.
2. Discipline my coworker who is out of line.
Time and time again, I hear, "I wish my boss would tell Nancy that this is just unacceptable." Hold people accountable in a way that is fair but makes everyone cognizant of what is and isn't acceptable.
3. Get me excited.
About the company, about the product, about the job, about a project. Just get them excited.
4. Don't forget to praise me.
Motivate employees by leveraging their strengths, not harping on their weaknesses.
5. Don't scare me.
They really don't need to know about everything that worries you. They respect that you trust them, but you are the boss. And don't lose your temper at meetings because they didn't meet your expectations. It's often not productive. Fairness and consistency are important mainstays.
6. Impress me.
Strong leaders impress their staffs in a variety of ways. Yes, some are great examples of management, but others are bold and courageous, and still others are creative and smart. Strong leaders bring strength to an organization by providing a characteristic that others don't have and the company sorely needs.
7. Give me some autonomy.
Give them something interesting to work on. Trust them with opportunity.
8. Set me up to win.
Nobody wants to fail. Indecisive leaders who keep people in the wrong roles, set unrealistic goals, keep unproductive team members, or change direction unfairly just frustrate everybody and make people feel defeated.
>> Related articles
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Become an Active Listener - simple, effective things you can do today
Master the Art of Body Language
~ Mark Ridgwell
Developing a Strategy is the process of specifying the organizations mission, vision and objectives.
Stuart Cross has written these 8 golden rules (see original article) for strategy development, agreed by a director's forum for some of the UK's leading companies.
Do you agree to Stuarts golden rules? Or could you add any of your own? Please leave your thoughts in a comment below.
>> See these related articles:
How to Cost Effectively Communicate Company Strategy
The Art of a Great Executive Summary
TOGAF Phase A ~ The Architecture Vision Phase OutputsBy Oliver McPhee
Business Process Management (BPM) is a management discipline that treats processes as assets that directly contribute to organisational performance.
Gartner has made 5 predictions on the advancement of BPM for 2010 and beyond (see original article).
“As organisations continue to embrace BPM to improve business performance during challenging times, this quest is pushing BPM beyond its traditional focus on routine, predictable, sequential processes towards broader, cross-boundary processes that include more unstructured work. Knowledge work is especially complex and unstructured,” said Janelle Hill, research vice president at Gartner. “New BPM technologies will enable the management of unstructured and dynamic processes to deliver greater knowledge worker productivity and competitive advantage.”
How accurate do you think these predictions are? Care to make any of your own? Please leave your thoughts in a comment below.
>> Read related articles:
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7 Steps to Delivering Process Mastery
How to Select the Right Tools for your BPM Initiative
By Oliver McPhee
Let's face it, there's plenty that can go wrong in your interview so don't make it harder for yourself than it needs to be. Ask any hiring manager about their top pet-hates and they'll list the seven points below. These 'sins' are pretty guaranteed to get you rejected:
1. Showing up late
You don't want to be late, not even by 1 minute, else you'll project an image of someone who's unorganized and doesn't really care too much. Make sure you leave early to get there on time. If the interview is a considerable distance to travel, travel down the night before and get a room nearby. If you do get delay, call your interviewer as soon as possible before the scheduled interview time and explain why you will be late.
>> Also see: How to Make a Great 1st Impression
2. Dressing inappropriately
The proper dress for a job interview is a suit for men and a suit (or slacks or a skirt) for women. If you're uncertain about the dress code of a company your default should be a suit. This is true even for jobs that don't require one daily.
>> Also see: Master the Art of Body Language
3. Lying
Tell the truth about your experience in person and on your résumé. Else, you might get found out and you'll certainly create an awkward environment for yourself, having to keep covering over on your lies.
4. Bringing a friend or parent with you
You might snigger, but I've seen this on more than one occasion and it's not a good look. Do not allow parents or friends to contact the company or join you on your interview. Otherwise, you'll look like a child who can't make decisions.
5. Not knowing your own history
One of the main things an interviewer will look for is how well you skills and experience will contribute towards the company objectives. Get well prepared in advance on this, and be ready to talk enthusiastically about your past experience and successes and how those will benefit the company.
6. Cell phones beeping / buzzing
Shut them or better still, leave them at home. It never ceases to amaze me how often this happens.
7. Not asking any questions
When asked - "Do you have any questions?" Don't say "No, I think you've covered everything". You'll probably spend most of your waking life in this job, ask some meaningful questions.
>> Also see: The Best Way to Close an Interview
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The key to any successful elicitation is asking the right questions. Based on an incredibly useful article I found by Mark Monteleone, this list of questions will help you successfully start any elicitation, regardless of scope.
Related articles:
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How to Become More Confident in Requirements Elicitation
Key stakeholder questions
Capture business requirements that trace back to the stated business needs in the project vision and scope.
User questions
Capture user requirements for later analysis
Condition questions
Capture the environmental conditions that are needed along with the capabilities of the system.
Legacy questions
Capture system transition requirements needed for a smooth system implementation.
Sponsor questions
Capture feedback on how change needs to be managed.
Other related articles
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How to Become More Confident in Requirements Elicitation
Best Practices for Stakeholder Engagement
- Mark Ridgwell
Last year Microsoft warned organizations to expect an increase in "insider" security attacks by disgruntled, laid-off workers. This seems to be a sensible warning, considering the current struggling economy. Most organizations would agree that some of their most valuable assets reside within applications and databases. Most would probably also agree that these are areas that have the weakest levels of security.
Based on an article by Brian Contos, Chief Security Strategist, Imperva, this is a list of the top ten ways of protecting sensitive data from the very people who need access to it:
1 To secure it you have to know about It
Organizations may not know where sensitive information is in order to protect it. Once the databases and related data stores have been identified, it’s vital to classify the sensitive data and identify the objects contained.
2 Don’t trust native database tools
If a malicious insider has access to the database and can possibly manipulate the native database audit logs, then these logs are useless. Capturing database audit logs should be done independently of the database tools, thus enforcing separation of duties.
3 Monitoring the good and the privileged
Insider threat is more about detection than prevention. That means monitoring how ALL users are interacting with your sensitive data.
4 Profiling isn’t just for the FBI any more
It is important to profile application and database interactions. This enables better protection against simple attacks like SQL injections and helps identify more subtle attacks such as those that target business logic flaws.
5 You can’t arrest an IP address
The reconciliation of Web application and database activity should be done outside of the Web application and database and be independent of vendor, version, etc. Tracking user sessions in this way allows for greater control of session tracking without putting additional resource strain on the Web and database applications themselves.
6 Augmenting machine-based analytics with human intuition
Because IT security may not have the ‘big picture’ for every person in every organization, it’s important for the reports to be reviewed by various stakeholders such as non-technical managers, HR, and legal. This combination of real world analysis supported by detailed application and database evidence can yield more accurate results.
7 Forensic crime scene investigations through audit logs
In most insider threat investigations, once signs of malicious activity are identified, three questions are asked: what else has the insider done, how long has this been going on, and who else might be involved in similar activities. Leveraging visual analytics to investigate attacks can result in flagging malicious activity in minutes.
8 Sensitive data resides in databases
Two solutions that work well for the needs of DBAs and IT security are Database Firewalls (DBFW) and Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) solutions. Together these provide a combined solution for database protection, monitoring, and auditing that is completely independent from users.
9 Users get to databases through web applications
While sensitive data resides within the database, most users access that database through a Web application. Many organisations use a Web Application Firewall (WAF), modern WAFs are able to protect against technical attacks, business logic attacks, and provide a number of correlation, profiling, and adaptive capabilities needed to address today’s complex attacks. See also - How to Create a Secure Public Website
10 Needles hiding in stacks of needles
Insider threat analysis benefits from multiple sources of data-centric information because a single source might not provide the complete story. Discovery and classification should be used to identify critical assets and the information they contain. WAFs should be leveraged to protect applications, DBFWs to protect databases, and DAMs to provide database auditing.
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Larry O'Brien at Knowing.net has put together a list of the 10 most influential software development books of the decade (Published between 2000 ~ 2010). (See Larrys list here)
We all have our own opinions on this very subjective topic, so I thought I'd ask our readers what books (if any) they would add to their list?
See other related articles:
The Principles of Object-Oriented Class DesignThe executive summary is often your initial face to a potential investor or project sponsor, so it is critically important that you create the right first impression. It is wise to remember that first impressions are far easier to make than they are to break ~ so if you fail to impress the first time round, the likelihood of an investor hearing your proposition again is very unlikely.
Due to the obvious importance of a great Executive Summary, I have recently been scouring the internet and reading many blogs on the subject when I came across a real gem by Bill Reichert at Garage. He gives a solid 9 point guide that I have listed below. (See Bills original article here)
1. The Grab
You should lead with the most compelling statement of why you have a really big idea. This sentence (or two) sets the tone for the rest of the executive summary. Usually, this is a concise statement of the unique solution you have developed to a big problem. It should be direct and specific, not abstract and conceptual. If you can drop some impressive names in the first paragraph you should—world-class advisors, companies you are already working with, a brand name founding investor. Don’t expect an investor to discover that you have two Nobel laureates on your advisory board six paragraphs later. He or she may never get that far.
See related article:
How to Pitch to Prospective Investors
7 Steps to a Great First Impression
2. The Problem
You need to make it clear that there is a big, important problem (current or emerging) that you are going to solve, or opportunity you are going to exploit. In this context you are establishing your Value Proposition—there is enormous pain and opportunity out there, and you are going to increase revenues, reduce costs, increase speed, expand reach, eliminate inefficiency, increase effectiveness, whatever. Don’t confuse your statement of the problem with the size of the opportunity (see below).
3. The Solution
What specifically are you offering to whom? Software, hardware, service, combination? Use commonly used terms to state concretely what you have, or what you do, that solves the problem you’ve identified. Avoid acronyms and don’t try to use these precious few words to create and trademark a bunch of terms that won’t mean anything to most people. You might need to clarify where you fit in the value chain or distribution channels—who do you work with in the ecosystem of your sector, and why will they be eager to work with you. If you have customers and revenues, make it clear. If not, tell the investor when you will.
4. The Opportunity
Spend a few more sentences providing the basic market segmentation, size, growth and dynamics—how many people or companies, how many dollars, how fast the growth, and what is driving the segment. You will be better off targeting a meaningful percentage of a smaller, well-defined, growing market than claiming a microscopic percentage of a huge, heterogeneous, mature market. Don’t claim you are addressing the $24 billion widget market, when you are really addressing the $85 million market for specialized arc-widgets used in the emerging wocket sector.
5. Your Competitive Advantage
No matter what you might think, you have competition. At a minimum, you compete with the current way of doing business. Most likely, there is a near competitor, or a direct competitor that is about to emerge (are you sufficiently paranoid yet??). So, understand what your real, sustainable competitive advantage is, and state it clearly. Do not try to convince investors that your key competitive asset is your “first mover advantage.” Here is where you can articulate your unique benefits and advantages. Believe it or not, in most cases, you should be able to make this point in one or two sentences.
See related article:
6. The Model
How specifically are you going to generate revenues, and from whom? Why is your model leverageable and scaleable? Why will it be capital efficient? What are the critical metrics on which you will be evaluated—customers, licenses, units, revenues, margin? Whatever it is, what impressive levels will you reach within three to five years?
7. The Team
Why is your team uniquely qualified to win? Don’t tell us you have 48 combined years of expertise in widget development; tell us your CTO was the lead widget developer for Intel, and she was on the original IEEE standards committee for arc-widgets. Don’t just regurgitate a shortened form of each founder’s resume; explain why the background of each team member fits. If you can, state the names of brand name companies your team has worked for. Don’t drop a name if it’s an unknown name, and don’t drop a name if you aren’t happy to give the contact as a reference at a later date.
8. The Promise
When you are pitching to investors, your fundamental promise is that you are going to make them a boatload of money. The only way you can do that is if you can achieve a level of success that far exceeds the capital required to do that. Your Summary Financial Projections should clearly show that. But if they are not believable, then all of your work is for naught. You should show five years of revenues, expenses, losses/profits, cash and headcount. You should also show a key driver or two, such as number of customers and units shipped each year.
See related article:
6 Steps to Creating a Unique Selling Proposition
9. The Ask
This is the amount of funding you are asking for now. This should generally be the minimum amount of equity you need to reach the next major milestone. You can always take more if investors are willing to make more available, but it is hard to take less. If you expect to be raising another round of financing later, make that clear, and state the expected amount.
If you've any more advice on the Subject, i'd love to hear it... Just pile in with comments below.
See related articles:
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7 Steps to a Great First Impression
How to Pitch to Prospective Investors
By Oliver McPhee
Back in July 2000, a team of analysts and researchers from Gartner and MIT's School of Architecture and Planning launched a one-year project to study the "agile workplace industry".
In the excerpt below they stated 12 emerging practices that were likely to enter the mainstream of infrastructure management within 5 years. (See original excerpt here).
10 years later, I thought it would be interesting to reflect back on these trends to see how accurate Gartner's crystal ball actually was:
1. Say goodbye to the corner office.
Traditional notions of the workplace as a fixed workstation in a fixed office, at a fixed address, will be transcended. Work will move to wherever it can best be accomplished, regardless of who "owns" the space or its supporting infrastructure. The ability to work in cyber- and physical space will be critical to successful work.
2. Workplace infrastructure must be agile.
Workplace agility will be the highest priority of infrastructure design. Design will aim for workplaces that are capable of responding quickly to mission changes, external and internal events, and organizational learning. >> see the Agile Manifesto Model
3. People centric workplaces.
Workplace-making will move beyond an alignment with business strategy and become intertwined with the continuous improvement of work. Work and the workplace will be co-invented with the goal of accommodating the diverse needs of individuals and teams.
4. The network is the workplace.
The workplace portfolio will transform itself from a collection of properties to a network of places and electronic connections. Organizations will draw on an increasing range of funding and servicing options as they acquire, manage and service their real estate.
5. Total cost of ownership.
Corporations will take a holistic view of the total cost of occupancy (or ownership). They will rely on total cost calculations to reveal the true cost of provisioning workers — irrespective of funding source — and to make space, technology and outsourcing decisions.
6. Collaborative infrastructure design.
Infrastructure design and management will become the responsibility of multidisciplinary groups. Separate areas of expertise will continue to exist, but they will be drawn out of their silos and harnessed to collaborative efforts.
7. Outsourcing.
A growing number of transactional and tactical functions will be outsourced, freeing infrastructure managers to direct their energies toward workplace strategies. Partnerships and alliances based on transparent service levels will become the norm as partners work together to innovate and add value based features.
8. Best-in-class workplace suppliers.
Enterprises will work with a handful of preferred workplace suppliers, each representing best-in-class service in particular categories. Corporate clients will expect these chosen vendors to collaborate and share information. Facilities management, asset management and IT services will be packaged by corporate clients or service providers.
9. Risk management and the workplace.
Decisions regarding workplace portfolio structure and outsourcing service arrangements will be based on an analysis of financial, property and business risks. Sophisticated tools and processes will be used to determine which risks should be transferred and which can best be managed by the organization itself.
10. The Web meets ERP.
Web-based tools that integrate HR, IT, facilities management and asset management will mesh with enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and supply chain management systems. These tools will be used by enterprises to manage information flow between groups, and will underpin service provider and corporate activities.
11. Service providers will drive change.
Service providers will help drive improvements in corporate infrastructure capabilities and strategy. New workplace products will help enterprises merge cyber- and physical spaces in ways that enable work to move seamlessly between different domains. Many of these products will become as commonplace as the Web and cell phones.
12. Leaders will harness the power of the workplace.
Corporate leaders will recognize the power of an infrastructure strategy to enable continuous work improvement. They will work with infrastructure managers to review and re-balance their portfolios to meet changing business needs and to address issues of capital allocation and risk management.
Did these trends occur in your workplace? Any thoughts or musings on the subject are most welcome; just add to the comments below.
You may also be interested in these articles:
How to Implement Agile (including Scrum example)
4 Steps to Agile Transformation
How to Successfully Engage Project Stakeholders
How to Deal with Agile Project Constraints
5 Scrum Transition Anti-Patterns
How to Successfully Combine Agility with Project Governance Oversight
By Oliver McPhee
Scrum, like most things, has its short-comings (although the pros far outweigh the cons in our view). These 8 theses, according to Robert Martin, are some serious problems with Scrum out of the box:
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According to a David Szary article (which I totally agree with), these attributes make a world-class Recruiter:
How do you stack up?
Any others attributes you think should be on this list?
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The people at VersionOne have collated a list of agile hallmarks that are shared across the different methodologies Click for the full original article.
Summarized below are several of the key characteristics that successful Agile projects seem to share. For some methodologies these correspond exactly with individual practices, whereas for other methodologies there is a looser correspondence.
1. Releases and Fixed-Length Iterations
Agile methods have two main units of delivery: releases and iterations. A release consists of several iterations, each of which is like a micro-project of its own. Features, defects, enhancement requests and other work items are organized, estimated and prioritized, then assigned to a release. Within a release, these work items are then assigned by priority to iterations.
The result of each iteration is working, tested, accepted software and associated work items.
2. Running, Tested Software
Running, tested features are an Agile team's primary measure of progress. Working features serve as the basis for enabling and improving team collaboration, customer feedback, and overall project visibility. They provide the evidence that both the system and the project are on track.
Consistently measuring success with actual software gives a project a very different feeling than traditional projects. Programmers, customers, managers, and other stakeholders are focused, engaged, and confident.
See Related article:
How to Effectively Deploy Agile Testing
3. Value-Driven Development
Agile methods focus rigorously on delivering business value early and continously, as measured by running, tested software. This requires that the team focuses on product features as the main unit of planning, tracking, and delivery. From week to week and from iteration to iteration, the team tracks how many running, tested features they are delivering. They may also require documents and other artifacts, but working features are paramount. This in turn requires that each "feature" is small enough to be delivered in a single iteration. Focusing on business value also requires that features be prioritized, and delivered in priority order.
Different methodologies use different terminology an techniques to describe features, but ultimately they concern the same thing: discrete units of product functionality.
| Methodology | Feature Terminology |
| Extreme Programming | User Stories |
| Scrum | Product Backlog |
| DSDM | Requirements |
| Unified Process | Use Cases & Scenarios |
| FDD | Features |
See Related articles:
How to Implement Scrum in 10 Simple Steps
How to Utilize eXtreme Programming
4. Continuous (Adaptive) Planning
It is a myth that Agile methods forbid up-front planning. It is true that Agile methods insist that up-front planning be held accountable for the resources it consumes. Agile planning is also based as much as possible on solid, historical data, not speculation. But most importantly, Agile methods insist that planning continues throughout the project. The plan must continuously demonstrate its accuracy: nobody on an Agile project will take it for granted that the plan is workable.
It turns out that Agile projects typically involve more planning, and much better planning, than waterfall projects. One of the criticisms of "successful" waterfall projects is that they tend to deliver what was originally requested in the requirements document, not what the stakeholders discover they actually need as the project and system unfolds. Waterfall projects, because they can only "work the plan" in its original static state, get married in a shotgun wedding to every flaw in that plan. Agile projects are not bound by these initial flaws. Continuous planning, being based on solid, accurate, recent data, enables Agile projects to allow priorities and exact scope to evolve, within reason, to accommodate the inescapable ways in which business needs continuously evolve. Continuous planning keeps the team and the system honed in on maximum business value by the deadline.
See Related article:
Exploit "Just-Good-Enough" Artifacts
5. Multi-Level Planning
Continuous planning is much more accurate if it occurs on at least two levels:
As features are prioritized and scheduled for an iteration, they are broken down into their discrete technical tasks.
This just-in-time approach to planning is easier and more accurate than large-scale up-front planning, because it aligns the level of information available with the level of detail necessary at the time. We do not make wild guesses about features far in the future. We don't waste time trying to plan at a level of detail that the data currently available to us does not support. We plan in little bites, instead of trying to swallow the entire cow at once.
6. Relative Estimation
Many Agile development teams use the practice of relative estimation for features to accelerate planning and remove unnecessary complexity. Instead of estimating features across a spectrum of unit lengths, they select a few (3-5) relative estimation categories, or buckets, and estimate all features in terms of these categories. Examples include:
With relative estimation, estimating categories are approximate multiples of one another. For example, a 3-day feature should take 3 times as long as a 1-day feature, just as a 40-hour feature is approximately 5 times as time-consuming as an 8-hour feature. The concepts of relative estimation and/or predefined estimation buckets prevent the team from wasting time debating whether a particular feature is really 17.5 units or 19 units. While each individual estimate may not be as precise, the benefit of additional precision diminishes tremendously when aggregated across a large group of features. The significant time and effort saved by planning with this type of process often outweighs any costs of imprecise estimates. Just as with everything else in an Agile project, we get better at it as we go along. We refine our estimation successively.
See Related article:
How to play Planning Poker for Agile Estimating
7. Emergent Feature Discovery
As opposed to spending weeks or months detailing requirements before initiating development, Agile development projects quickly prioritize and estimate features, and then refine details when necessary. As features for an iteration are described in more detail by the customers, testers, and developers working together. Additional features can be identified, but no feature is described in detail untilit is prioritized for an iteration.
8. Continuous Testing
With continuous testing we deterministically measure progress and prevent defects. We crank out the running, tested features. We also reduce the risk of failure late in the project. What could be riskier than postponing all testing till the end of the project? Many waterfall projects have failed when they have discovered, in an endless late-project "test-and-fix" phase, that the architecture is fatally flawed, or the components of the system cannot be integrated, or the features are entirely unusable, or the defects cannot possibly be corrected in time. With continuous testing we more easily avoid both the risk that this will occur, and the constant dread of it.
9. Continuous Improvement
We continuously refine both the system and the project by reflecting on what we have done (using both hard metrics like running, tested features and more subjective measures), and then adjusting our estimates and plans accordingly. But we also use the same mechanism to successively refine and continuously improve the process itself.
See Related article:
How to Revive your Sprint Retrospectives
10. Small, Cross-functional Teams
Smaller teams have been proven to be much more productive than larger teams, with the ideal ranging from five to ten people. If you have to scale a project up to more people, make every effort to keep individual teams as small as possible and coordinate efforts across the teams. Scrum-based organizations of up to 800 have successfully employed a "Scrum of Scrums" approach to project planning and coordination.
See Related articles:
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A Best Practice Roadmap for Paired Programming
By Oliver McPhee
Did you know there are six different types of Twitter users, each with a different agenda? You needed to know that didn't you? Well, if you're serious about making Twitter work for you, getting to grips with the Twitter user types might help inform your best approach to each of them. Guy Kawasaki inspired this post, having just read one of his posts over at OPEN Forum - The Six Twitter Types.
See related article:
5 Steps to Making your Twitter Viral
Below are Guy's 6 Twitter types and a recommended approach to each of them:
•The Newbie. “What am I doing?” The Newbie signed up for Twitter less than three months ago and thinks it’s all about lifestreaming: “Watching my cat roll over.” These people quickly progress to a different type of use or abandon Twitter when no one pays attention to them. Motivation: curiosity about Twitter. Recommended approach: understand.
•The Brand. “What can I get away with?” The Brand balances the tension between using Twitter as a marketing tool and socially engaging people so as not to appear to be using Twitter as a marketing tool. Motivation: greater brand awareness. Recommended approach: observe.
•The Smore. “What’s in it for me?” The Smore (social media whore) sees Twitter primarily as a self-promotion tool to get something from people although a transparent Smore (“Bubbles”) is often a delightful person. The delusional ones are the pains. Motivations: making a buck off and gaining followers. Recommended approach: tolerate.
•The Bitch. “What can I complain about?” Despite deriving this name from female dogs, this is usually an angry man who envies people who generate content. They can be briefly amusing in a “shock jock” kind of way, but their bark is greater than their bite, and their bite is greater than their insight. Motivation: generating angry reactions. Recommended approach: block.
•The Maven. “What’s interesting in my niche?” The Maven is an expert in a field such as recruiting, marketing, or web design. If you’re interested in their field, following them is a rich, rewarding, and time-saving experience. Motivation: getting retweeted and recognized as an expert. Recommended approach: follow.
•The Mensch. “How can I help?” Mensches are few and far between. They lurk in the background until people need help and then they either know, or know how to find, the answer. They are seldom well-known or highly followed, but they save you tons of time and effort when you want to know something like the ideal dimensions of a profile background. Motivation: helping others. Recommended approach: adore.
What kind of Twitter user are you? According to Guy, to be successful with Twitter, you need to be a Brand, Maven, or Mensch. And to master Twitter, you need to be able to adopt the roles of Brand, Maven, Mensch, and a touch of the Smore.
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You'll probably recount a time when you were asked to describe your weaknesses in an interview. Difficult isn't it? This is one of the most common interview questions, that you should count on being asked. Fortunately, with some pre-planning, you can easily avoid that uncomfortable, red-in-the face feeling:
1. Get prepared
First, understand that you do have weaknesses, just like everyone else in the world. And, recognizing these strengths is actually a significant strength, not a weakness.
Make a log of your strengths and your weaknesses. The best way of doing this is to list all the jobs you've had and against each job, list something you did very well and list something you didn't do so well. You'll soon see a pattern from which your weaknesses will emerge. Once you have identified three weaknesses, develop a list of personal corrective actions for each.
>> See also:
How to Build your Resume like a Professional Resume Writer
How to Build a Personal Skills Inventory (strengths & weaknesses)
2. Be clear and concise
3. Immediately follow-on with corrective actions
4. Stop and wait
After you answer the question, stop talking. Wait for the interviewer to speak next. You’ve given them what they asked for so wait for a response. Be prepared for them to ask you if there are any more weaknesses.
5. "Any other weaknesses?"
6. Follow-up with a strength
7. Analyze regularly
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How to Build your Resume like a Professional Resume Writer
The Best Way to Close an Interview
Writing a resume is a challenge enough - How to Write a Great Resume. What about your cover letter though? This is every bit as important (probably) as your resume. It needs to short, simple and relevant - to get you noticed, fast. This can all be rather daunting I know, but don't fear, help is at hand.
I've found a wonderful article by Kerry Taylor, which describes two killer cover letter formats:
See these related articles:
> 7 Questions you need to ask in a Job Interview
> 5 Words that make your resume suck
1. The Classic Cover Letter Format
This is the most common format and the type most employers expect to see. It resembles a simple business letter. Use this format if you're applying to 'traditional' types or organizations with conservative business practices. Make sure you stick to one page maximum for this.
This is basic format:
Your Contact Information
- Name, Address, Phone Number, Email
Employer’s Contact Information
- Name and Title of hiring manager
- Organization Name and Address
First Paragraph
- Identify the position
- State why you’re right for the job
Second Paragraph
- State why you want to work for the company
- Show how you’re a good fit
- Use examples that highlight your experience
Final Paragraph
- Request an interview
- Thank the hiring manager
Closing
- Sincerely,
- Your name
Example of a Classic Cover Letter
Job Seeker Bio: Cindy Smyth, Administrative Assistant
In this sample cover letter, job seeker Cindy Smyth is applying for a job as an administrative assistant in the financial industry. She has opted to use the Classic cover letter format since her application is brief and the company she is applying to is fairly traditional.
2. The Contemporary Cover Letter Format
The Contemporary cover letter format is a little bit different — it tends to get noticed. And getting noticed amongst a bunch of applicants is how you land a job interview. This format starts with the basics, but instead of singing your praises in paragraphs you just list your skills using simple bullets.
Use his format when you’ve got stellar skills to highlight, your skills match employer requirements and when you want your cover letter to get noticed.
This is the basic format:
Your Contact Information
- Name, Address, Phone Number, Email
Employer’s Contact Information
- Name and Title of hiring manager
- Organization Name and Address
First Paragraph
- Identify the position
- State why you’re right for the job
Second Paragraph
Use THREE bullet points to highlight:
- Quantifiable skills that match employer requirements
- Your experience
- Your accomplishments
Final Paragraph
- Request an interview
- Thank the hiring manager
Closing
- Sincerely,
- Your name
Example of a Contemporary Cover Letter
Job Seeker Bio: Jane Smith, Software Developer
In this sample cover letter, job seeker Jane Smith is the perfect candidate for the Contemporary cover letter format.
She has skills that are easily highlighted in bulleted points and her industry is not traditional. Due to the number of applicants in the technical field, I bet her hiring manager would appreciate a scannable cover letter. There you have it! Two cover letter formats to help you write a winning job application, get noticed, and land a job interview. Next I’ll share some sample cover letters and perhaps a cover letter template (or two).
People who viewed this, also viewed:
> How to write a killer resume
> 7 Questions you need to ask in a Job Interview
Many people find this question one of the most challenging to answer in an interview. Everyone has a solid reason for leaving, right? Some want a shorter commute, others are relocating, and many have lost their jobs due to the downturn, some might think their boss is a complete 'nightmare' and can't stand working there any more. Whatever your reason, please remember the golden rule: Never badmouth your employer or boss.
>> Also see these related articles:
The Best Way to Close a Job Interview
Laid-off? 7 Rules for a Graceful Exit
7 Cleverer ways to use LinkedIn to find a new Job
Sample answers to the "Why are you leaving your job" question (tailor these to your specific need):
Consider these answers if you got fired:
>> People who viewed this also read:
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Laid-off? 7 Rules for a Graceful Exit
7 Cleverer ways to use LinkedIn to find a new Job
How to Build your Resume like a Professional Resume Writer
By Mark Ridgwell
In an article which appeared in information-management.com - Five Fail-Proof Guidelines for Governance, Risk & Compliance, Johnnie Konstantas describes GRC as still being a concept that elicits some skepticism and confusion. Simply put, there's too much inconsistent information on how to achieve GRC imperatives, what tools and products to use and which standards and frameworks to apply.
5 basic guidelines will to help with long-term GRC success:
1. Inventory all data assets. The natural place to get started with GRC is to identify all of the places where data or digital assets are stored. This includes in-line and offline storage, databases and endpoint devices. In the case where organizations are particularly large and distributed, locating the largest data aggregation points is key, as is generating an audit of how much and what types of data are stored there, who has access, and what the entitlements and privileges of data users are. Doing this allows GRC strategists to define the scope of the challenge and work. It also takes care of a very time-consuming first step toward establishing the business materiality of the data.
While it is important to create as comprehensive an inventory as possible, those organizations just getting started with GRC will want to consider that according to more than 80 percent of enterprise data takes an unstructured form (i.e. documents, spreadsheets, web pages, image and media files) and 25 to 35 percent of it is security and compliance intensive. Thus, an inventory of network-attached storage and storage area network storage as well as file system contents is a logical starting point.
2. Identify data business owners. Business owners have the most context for the data they create, its value and its sensitivity. Giving administrators the means to collaborate with data owners on projects increases their accuracy and expediency. This can save hundreds of hours from storage clean-up projects, data migrations, access control revocations and even domain consolidations. And doing this as part of first steps for GRC planning will also ensure future communication for the purposes of defining data protection and preservation policies. Technologies that maintain detailed statistics on data creation, access and use is essential in terms of providing administrators with the insight necessary to carry out GRC tasks.
I recently read a very interesting article - 'The Art of Compromise: Scrum and Project Governance' by Mike Cohn. In this article, he asserts that agility (Scrum) and project governance, with a few compromises on either side, combined with the set of actions below, can lead to a successful combination of agility and oversight:
Negotiate and set expectations up front. Undoubtedly, the first Scrum project to go through the governance process in your company will have challenges. There will almost certainly be some things they cannot do; for example, a Scrum team cannot provide a thorough design before getting permission to start coding, because design and coding will be done concurrently. The only solution to this is for the team to negotiate with the necessary governance groups in advance. The more support a team has for this and the higher up in the organization that this support reaches, the better. The team does not need to solicit a permanent change in governance policies. The change can be pitched as a one-time experiment.
Fit your reporting to current expectations. The project review boards or oversight committees that provide project governance have existing expectations for what information each project is to provide at each checkpoint. Don't fight these expectations. If they expect a Gantt chart, provide a Gantt chart. When you can, however, try to slowly shift expectations by providing additional, more agile-friendly information. If burndown charts are suitable to show, do so. Or perhaps you want to include a report showing the number of times the build server kicked off continuously integrated builds and the thousands (or perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands) of test runs that were executed.
Invite them into your process. Scrum teams can supplement less-detailed formal governance checkpoints by inviting governance committee members to participate in the regular meetings they will hold. I like to extend the well-known technique of management by walking around into management by standing around. Encourage managers and executives involved in the governance of a project to attend the daily scrums, where they can stand and listen to what is occurring on the project. The same shift from documents to discussions that is created by working with user stories needs to occur with project reporting. Encourage people to visit the team or join its meetings to see for themselves what is being built.
Reference a success. Nothing convinces like success. Do whatever you can to get a first project or two through lightened or reduced governance checkpoints. Then point to the success of those projects as evidence that future projects should also be allowed through.
It's one thing to look at agile software development in a test tube; it's another to experience it in the real world. In the test tube, agile methodologies like Scrum are easily adopted by all members, and the nasty realities of corporate politics, economics, and such cannot intrude. In the real world, though, all of these unpleasant issues do exist. It is rarely as simple as deciding to use Scrum and then being able to do so with no other constraints.
You might also be interested in reading:
How to Implement Scrum in 10 Easy Steps
Scrum Principles & Best Practices
5 Scrum Transition Anti-Patterns
Best Practices in Agile Development Governance
Your interviewer will ask you, probably towards the end of the interview - "Are there any questions you'd like to ask?" At this stage, I've heard many people say "No, I think you've covered everything" or similar - doh!
Good questions will impress your interviewer, showing forward-thinking and enthusiasm, as well as being a great lead into meaningful dialog that will inform you a great deal about the job and environment.
See also - The Best Way to Close an Interview
Commit these 7 questions to memory:
1. What are the major responsibilities of the job?
You may be applying for a job as receptionist. However, it may not be all about answering phones and scheduling appointments. Find out what you specific responsibilities will be. You don't want any surprises when you hopefully begin your new job! When it comes time to accept an offer, knowing your responsibilities will allow you to make sure you will be paid accordingly.
2. Would you describe a typical day and the things I would be doing?
This goes along with #1, however having the interviewer take you through the day-in-the-life of X-position will give you a glimpse into the position. How much time will you spend on certain tasks, on the phone, in meetings, on the road, etc?
3. How will I be trained or introduced to the job?
This one is important. If you happen to have experience in the field, this will show that you are open to learning this company's particular way of doing things.
4. Who are the people I would be working with and what do they do?
Asking this question in a job interview allows you to see how much interaction you will have with coworkers or other departments. If you are a social person and you get the answer, "Well, you really work mostly independently," you may want to rethink the job. But, if you are the type of person who likes going solo, that's a good answer. This question also shows that you are willing to work with a team and are interested in working with others.
5. What will my weekly schedule look like?
This goes along with #1 and #2, but is a little different, as it will lie out the whole week. You can ask this question in place of the earlier questions, or as a complement to them. Many companies have weekly meetings, etc. so this question can reveal an meetings, weekly gatherings, when reports may be due, if the office is open later or earlier on certain days, etc.
6. Will I receive a periodic performance review?
This question is very important to as in a job interview as it shows that you are open to feedback. Really, succeeding in any job means getting feedback so you can improve. If the company does not offer any formal review process, you may run into a situation where you'd get reprimanded for something, not knowing you were even performing at a low level.
7. Would you give me a brief tour?
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I was recently compelled to click on a very bold blog title - The Best Writing Advice. Ever by Larry Brooks, creator of storyfix.com and author. Such a bold title had better be backed-up by some great content, and I wasn't disappointed. This is a real 'meat and potatoes' serving of advice that we can all use today. Related article - The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing & Thinking
And it goes like this:
1. Design your writing like an engineer.
The most pervasive and destructive illusion floating around the writing universe is that you can write something good without order and structure.
Even if you just wing it, if you like to make it up as you go, you’ll end up rewriting and revising until an ordered structure emerges and becomes the skeleton of a finished piece.
Some writers – often the most experienced and successful, so pay attention – give significant creative mindshare to the structure of a story before they write it. They build on a structure, rather than digging one out from the chaos of a convoluted draft.
The worst thing that can happen is that you don’t even realize that it’s convoluted. But you see, a story engineer would.
And it’s not just any ol’ skeleton, either. Structure isn’t something you make up in the moment, in mid-stride as you write. Story structure in any genre and in any deliverable format is based on accepted principles and models.
You violate them, or write in ignorance of them, at your own storytelling peril.
Without a narrative structure in place, even the most elegant and powerful prose plops to the ground in a heap of moist, quivering helplessness.
Order and structure is always – whether planned or retrofitted – a function of design. And design, by definition, is a practice based on certain physics, principles and those proven laws and models.
Learn them, then build your writing upon their proven strengths, and your story will be set free to elevate itself to art.
Writing is very much like singing, playing an instrument or excelling at athletics. The more you do it, the more evolved and polished your sensibilities become, until finally you can instinctively add subtlety and nuance to your performance.
Which, by the way, is what separates the published from the non-published.
Such deft touches usually look easier that they really are when observed from the cheap seats. Success in all of these pursuits is the product of craft, and craft is the product of evolved instincts colliding with proven principles.
The inherent risk in polishing your work is to overwrite, to imbue your narrative voice with a certain hue of purple. Polishing is as much the rendering of complex words into simpler terms as it is de-cluttering the space between your periods, while leaving just a little stylistic juice to spice things up.
Sooner or later your writing will settle into a voice that is uniquely yours. Once there, polishing your work becomes the literary equivalent of clearing your throat.
Sometimes the best writers are simply the best throat clearers.
Editing is easily confused with polishing. It can mean two things – copy editing (which is, in fact, the cleaning up and correction of your prose, whereas polishing is more a style and voice issue), and story editing, which is the trimming of expositional fat and the empowerment of narrative moments.
You need both. And you need some combination of two things to do it right: time, and the eyes of a stranger.
What you don’t need is someone trying to turn your work into the vanilla sensibilities of your old high school English teacher. Deliberate, effective voice trumps English 101 any day, provided your readers agree. (Example: earlier I used the word “executional.” Look it up, there is no such word. Each time I type it I see that pesky red underlining. But it’s the right word, the intended word, I’m confident you get it, and my old English teacher can bite me.)
One of the best strategies to bring out the best in your work is to set it aside for a while before turning a fierce editor’s eye back on it. And if you can’t be that set of eyes with objective clarity, consider outsourcing the task to someone who is as hip within your target niche as you are.
In my case, my wife. If it’s purple or if it’s bullshit, I’ll hear about it.
Turning in well-edited – in this case synonymous with appropriately edited – work is the great secret of published authors.
Know that the manuscript next to yours on an editor’s desk, or the blog competing for the attention of your reader, is likely every bit as good as your stuff.
Maybe not – making sure that doesn’t happen is the goal here – but sooner or later that will certainly be the case.
Which means, you’ll win some and you’ll lose some.
Persistence is every bit as important to a writing career as talent and craft. This isn’t a business for the thin-skinned, and it isn’t a marketplace for the uninitiated.
Agents and editors and even readers are actually looking for a reason to reject our work as much as they are hoping they’ll fall in love. Nobody said this was fair, and it isn’t.
Your job is to be as passionate about how and to whom you are pitching your stories as you are about writing them. Which means you need to master skills such as manuscript preparation, niche market research, the competition, market trending, live pitching and written querying, not to mention picking yourself up after a good cry and doing it all over again.
The world is full of perfectly worthy manuscripts that didn’t get published because their writers didn’t have the chops to sell it. Don’t be that writer.
Whatever happens to you in this business is what you make happen.
Your mother loves you unconditionally. And yet, she calls you to a higher level of performance, of being. She helps you get there, even if she doesn’t model it herself. She expects you to get there, and if she believes you really want it, she’ll accept nothing less.
And if you don’t, she’ll love you anyway, and just as much.
Her expectation of your excellence, your success, and ultimately your happiness, is the expression of her unconditional love for you. And chances are she takes no shit in the process.
She picks you up when you fall. She tends to your wounds when you fail. She hugs you when you need it, she kicks your ass when you need that.
Then she sends you back into the real world to try again. All in the name of simply loving you.
Your story needs more than a genius writer, a crack idea, a ruthless editor, a maniacal advocate and a few lucky breaks. It needs someone to love it.
Someone to will it into a state of excellence, who understands and accepts that good isn’t good enough in today’s market. Good is just the ticket to someone’s submissions inbox. The ultimate winners bring more.
What they bring is the love of their story, forged and coached and loved into existence at a motherly level of commitment.
And as the author you are, after all, its mother.
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We in the agile community swear by the principles of the agile manifesto and are the first to mount a stalwart defense against any skepticism that appears online. So why is it so difficult to try and sell your agile adoption plans to management?
Many of us still feel like guilty school children as we try to convince the upper-echelons that we don't need to plan everything first, or that it is actually counter-productive to document every detail (also see Agile Documentation Best Practices) and that a multi-disciplinary culture is far more important than raising individual heroes above the crowd.
It's tough because we're suggesting that to become more efficient, we should effectively do a lot less (see also When Just-Barely-Good-Enough is Good Enough). There is an inherent fear that they may mistake our good intentions for laziness – so if you're not careful you can end up sounding like you're on the defensive straight from the get go. It doesn't help that a lot of the management we're trying to convince happened upon their position by being highly successful at the very same waterfall system that we're insisting is outdated.
The trick is to be confident in your delivery. You aren't selling a completely new methodology; you're phasing in some cultural changes that are proven to increase efficiency and morale in the workplace.
By phasing in different aspects of the agile manifesto you can start to alter the working environment and prove the transition is working with actual results.
I'd be interested to hear your experiences on this topic - the good, bad and ugly.
See other related Articles:
Agile Enterprise Architecture
Agile Manifesto Model
By Oliver McPhee
Business process management (BPM) has been a hot topic for the last few years - cited in fact by Gartner as business priority #1 just a couple of years ago.
I regularly read BPM articles, most of which are sketchy overviews of best practices and so on. Rarely though, do I find articles about the common problems people encounter when implementing 'solutions'. So, to keep balance, here's a list of 7 common BPM pitfalls:
(Related article - Gartner's 3 BPM Worst Practices)
1. Firing too early
BPM technology tempts you with its promises of visibility, productivity, and fast results. You might be seduced into plowing ahead without methodology, architecture, and process. This is a shortcut to failure. Take the time to get the business, process, and management dimensions of BPM in place first.2. Thinking in stovepipes.
Don't think functionally. You need to be thinking end-to-end; about how a value-chain comes together; how your role, performance and productivity create value within the greater process.
3. Focusing on job cuts.
If you make BPM a veiled headcount reduction initiative, you will guarantee failure. People make processes work and if you use a process initiative to justify a reduction-in-force (RIF) initiative, the program will die.
4. Solving problems once.
Don't just train an implementation team on how to do a one-time solution. Seek out training and professional development that will "teach them to fish." Figure out how to facilitate sustaining change.
5. Not supporting users.
BPM empowers process owners and participants to implement change. Be sure you support them with the policies, authority, rewards and recognition, compensation, and other means of facilitation.
6. Ignoring end users.
Don't over-fund infrastructure at the expense of the process participants: the end users. Treat the users like customers; make them more productive and the technology more invisible.
7. Hard-wiring the framework.
You have to design for flexibility. Don't just hard-wire today's answer at the expense of building flexibility to ensure that the answer can change to be effective in tomorrow's world.
Any more to add to this list?
>> other related articles:
3 BPM Worst Practices
How to Structure your BPM Project to Avoid Disaster
5 Steps to Choosing your BPM Suite
Process Governance Best Practices: Building a BPM Centre of Excellence
Having spent a chunk of my early career in human resources, I'm well aware that hiring people is one of the toughest jobs in a manager's remit. First impressions do count and with so much riding on the first meeting, it's essential to set the right tone, to help achieve an honest outcome for both parties.
The list below is based on a great article by BNET, which I think many managers will relate to. These 10 points describe common mistakes that managers make during job interviews - which can have 'show-stopping' consequences. However, these mistakes and others like them are are very easily remedied with a little preparation prior to the meeting:
When giving company background, watch out for the tendency to prattle on about your own job, personal feelings about the company, or life story. At the end of the conversation, you'll be aflutter with self-satisfaction, and you'll see the candidate in a rosy light—but you still won't know anything about her ability to do the job.
See related article - Simple Ways to Improve your Active Listening Skills
Curb your desire to ask for dirt on the candidate's current employer or trash-talk other people in the industry. Not only does it cast a bad light on you and your company, but it's a waste of time.
Interviews are awkward for everyone, and it's easy to over-empathize with a nervous candidate. It's also common to throw softball questions at someone whom you like or who makes you feel comfortable. You're better off asking everyone the same set of challenging questions—you might be surprised what they reveal. Often a Nervous Nellie will spring to life when given the chance to solve a problem or elaborate on a past success.
If a candidate arrives dressed to kill, gives a firm handshake, and answers the first question perfectly, you might be tempted to check the imaginary "Hired!" box in your mind. But make sure you pay attention to all his answers, and don't be swayed by a first impression. Ditto for the reverse: the 'mumbler' with the tattoos might have super powers that go undetected at first glance.
Watch out for questions that telegraph to the applicant the answer you're looking for. You won't get honest responses from questions like, "You are familiar with Excel macros, aren't you?"
First of all, it's illegal to delve too deeply into personal or lifestyle details. Secondly, it doesn't help you find the best person for the job. Nix all questions about home life ("Do you have children?" "Do you think you'd quit if you got married?"), gender bias or sexual preference ("Do you get along well with other men?"), ethnic background ("That's an unusual name, what nationality are you?"), age ("What year did you graduate from high school?"), and financials ("Do you own your home?")
Some interviewers use high-pressure techniques designed to trap or fluster the applicant. While you do want to know how a candidate performs in a pinch, it's almost impossible to recreate the same type of stressors that an employee will encounter in the workplace. Moreover, if you do hire the person, they may not trust you because you launched the relationship on a rocky foundation.
A series of interviews can eat up your whole day, so it's tempting to keep them brief. But a quick meeting just doesn't give you enough time to gauge a candidate's responses and behavior. Judging candidates is nuanced work, and it relies on tracking lots of subtle inputs. An interview that runs 45 minutes to an hour increases your chances of getting a meaningful sample.
If everyone you talk to feels like a "maybe," that probably means you aren't getting enough useful information—or you're not assessing candidates honestly enough. Most "maybes" are really "no, thank you." (Face it: He or she didn't knock your socks off.) Likewise, if you think the person might be good for some role at some point in the future, then they're really a "no."
A mediocre candidate looks like a superstar when he follows a dud, but that doesn't mean he's the best person for the job. The person who comes in tomorrow may smoke both of them, but you won't be able to tell if you rated Mr. Mediocre too highly in your notes. Evaluate each applicant on your established criteria—don't grade on a curve.
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In my view, the job of an HR Manager is one of the most complex, challenging and rewarding there is. After all, there is no 'product' more complex than people and HR Managers must assess, reward, retain and develop an unfathomably wide spectrum of people, skills, needs and ambitions every day.
This seems a lot to ask for in any one person. What does it takes to be an effective HR Manager?
1: Organization
When dealing with people's lives and careers, there's really no margin for error. Files and records must be correct, in place, secure and instantly accessible, no matter what.
HR professionals are the company conscience and keepers of confidential information. Of course, you always handle appropriately, and never divulge to any unauthorized person, confidential information about anyone in the organization - while at work or outside work.
An effective HR professional will foster an open environment in which employees can safely voice their concerns. At the same time, they must enforce top management’s policies. This is a delicate balancing act that must be achieved.
See also - Simple Ways to Improve your Active Listening Skills
HR professional will communicate clearly and fairly. They will hear people's points of view equally, follow policies, procedures and laws to the letter and they will respect and maintain privacy always.
HR professionals need to help managers coach and develop their employees. The goal is continued improvement and innovation as well as remediation. They should also look to improve the HR function by utilizing new technology or other means.
You've heard the old saying - "People are the most important asset". This is quite true. HR professionals help acquire the new skills required to help the organization reach its business goals.
With today's increasingly 'agile' workforces, team and collaboration are become king. HR managers must consequently understand team dynamics and find ways to bring disparate personalities together and make the team work.
...what else?
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One of the key roles in Scrum is that of the Product Owner (PO) who manages the product backlog and helps decides on the product functionality. This is a challenging role where successful execution of responsibilities is pivotal to the project success or failure.
It's easier for people to say 'yes' than 'no' for the now because it mitigates the prospect of short term conflict. However, saying 'no' to the team, to the client or the Scrum Master, is one of the PO's most important tasks.
This list is based on a cool blog I read by Juan Banda at Agile Alliance.
Related articles:
9 Essential Responsibilities of the Product Owner
How to Implement Scrum in 10 Easy Steps
5 Scrum Transition Anti-Patterns
Situations where the PO might need to say 'NO':
1. When the team wants to force the client to use a technology, platform, architecture or design that it believes to be 'technically suitable' but has no value to the client - I know what's best for you syndrome
2. When the client wants something that is clearly unfeasible with the given schedule and resources - the dreamer syndrome
3. When the Scrum Master representing the team wants to change the scope for the project - two captains on one boat syndrome
4. When the team decided for themselves what should be excluded from the project - tech decision without involving the business syndrome
5. When developers want to work on an overkill solution for a problem - super engineer syndrome
6. When the team wants to investigate during several Sprints without guaranteeing practical results - researcher syndrome
7. When the team and Scrum Master want to skip demos - ostrich syndrome
8. When the team want to exclude the PO from all meetings because they believe they already understand the product well enough - come back when I'm ready syndrome
9. When the client wants to communicate directly with the team by-passing the PO - serve yourself syndrome
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Good interviewing is a fine art that can take many years to master. There are some rules however that must be fully understood and fully adhered to no matter what. Otherwise, interviewers expose themselves to potential prosecution on the grounds of discrimination. In my many years as a Human Resources Manager, I have shuddered on numerous occasions on hearing such questions being asked by well-meaning interviewers. I figure, people just don't know. Be careful!
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1. Age based questions
The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of age. The only time you can ask age based questions is to check if the person is old enough to work for the job being filled. Examples of illegal questions:
- How old are you?
- When is your birthday?
- In what year were you born?
- In what year did you graduate from college?
2. Marital / Family Status
Interviewers sometimes ask these questions to explore what they believe to be a common source of absenteeism. If the employer concern is regular work attendance, a better question would be - "Is there anything that might interfere with your regular work attendance?" Examples of illegal questions:
- Are you married or do you have a permanent partner?
- With whom do you live?
- How many children do you have?
- Are you pregnant?
3. Personal questions
Minimum height and weight questions are illegal unless an employer can prove a height or weight requirement is essential for job performance. Examples of illegal questions:
- How tall are you?
- How much do you weigh?
4. Disabilities
Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, any inquiry at the pre-employment stage, which would likely require an applicant to disclose a disability, is unlawful. Employers must avoid such inquiries or medical examinations before making a bona fide job offer. Examples of illegal questions:
- Do you have any disabilities?
- Have you had any recent illness or operations?
- Please complete this medical questionnaire.
5. National original / citizenship
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 require employers to verify the legal status and right to work of all new hires. Employers should not ask applicants to state their national origin, but should ask if they have a legal right to work in America, and explain that verification of that right must be submitted after the decision to hire has been made. To satisfy verification requirements, employers should ask all new hires for documents establishing both identity and work authorization. Examples of illegal questions:
- Where were your parents born?
- What is your native language?
- What is your country of citizenship?
- Are you a US citizen?
6. Arrest record
An employer may not refuse to employ or discharge a person with a conviction record unless the circumstances of the conviction substantially relate to the circumstances of the job. Examples of illegal questions:
- Have you ever been arrested?
7. Affiliations
Example illegal questions:
- What clubs / social organizations do you belong to?
| - Do you go to church? |
8. Race, color or religion
This question may discourage an applicant whose religion prohibits Saturday or Sunday work. If a question about weekend work is asked, the employer should indicate that a reasonable effort is made to accommodate religious beliefs or practices. An employer not required to make an accommodation if doing so would create an undue hardship on the business. Examples of illegal questions:
- Avoid all questions
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First impressions do count and in few situations is this more relevant than in a job interview. In my previous life as a Human Resources Manager, I interviewed probably hundreds of people as well as gleaning feedback from many other hiring managers.
Here's my list of some of things (in no particular order) that will probably annoy an interviewer:
1. Lack of homework
Aside from temp jobs, make no mistake, you are expected to have done (at least some) research prior to your interview. Anything else shouts a big fat 'I can't be bothered' or 'I'm not really interested'. Do your homework. Spend an hour on Google, make a few key notes to read through later and prepare 3 questions to ask. This is a particular beef of mine and people who haven't bothered to do any research don't get hired - period.
2. Too much cologne
Pure ans simple, lay-off the cologne. The last thing your interviewer wants is for your overpowering scent to be forced on them in a small interview room or for their hand to smell for hours after shaking yours.
3. Excessively smiley face
As well as making your face ache, this can give the impression of nervousness, a lack of confidence or phoniness.
4. Sweatyness
Sweaty palms and beads of sweat rolling down your forehead won't impress anyone. Check the weather forecast the day before and if it's going to be 30 deg C, where less layers or lighter clothes. Also, calm down, give yourself plenty of time, take a few deep breaths and have a cold glass of water - relax.
5. Lying
However tempting it might be to stretch the truth, don't. Tell the truth and if you don't know something, just say so.
6. Bad comedy
Don't 'break the ice' with a joke. Humor is subjective and the chances are that your 'hilarious' materials won't be appreciated. What's more, your interviewer might think you're not taking the situation seriously enough. Leave the jokes at home.
7. High-maintenance
Don't talk about the ideal office temperature, the right kind of chair for your type of back, how the water cooler needs to be filled and such things.
8. Trash-talking former employers
Talk about positives in your previous role, the values that you brought and skills you learned. However tempting, do not trash-talk your previous employers. This is not acceptable behavior.
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