Phyllis Turner-Brim, Peyina Lin-Roberts, Jeanne Yu, Joe Anderson, Molly Huber I wrote a chapter in my book on Cultivating Attention about Connectedness (more on that here). At a couple of recent meetups I was reminded of how complicated and multi-layered the experience of connectedness within[...]
This post is excerpted from the Connectedness chapter of Cultivating Attention: the Paradoxical Secret of Team Success. Agile software development includes a wide range of practices. The common characteristic of these practices is an incremental and iterative approach: do the work rapidly and [...]
This past Monday was the first day in many weeks that I didn't posted a snippet of content from the book I'm working on (working title: Cultivating Team Alignment). That's mostly because I'm moving into high gear to get the book out the door by the end of the year. I'll post some updates on my [...]
“I’m sorry, but I just don’t trust you,” said Pat to Chris skeptically. Within this black cloud of a sentence—sure to drop plenty of rain on any relationship—there is a very faint silver lining: the fact that Pat is willing to say it out loud to Chris. More typically, a lack of trust [...]
Seattle has grown nearly 20% since 2010. This change has all sorts of consequences, but the one that may affect me the most is a collective breakdown in the civility of driving behavior. When I moved here from San Francisco in 1989, the driving customs seemed almost quaint. Getting through a 4-way [...]
In his book Your Brain at Work, David Rock introduces the SCARF model, a useful paradigm for understanding what motivates all of us, at work and beyond: Status: how important are you to others? Certainty: how well can you predict what’s going to happen to you? Autonomy: how much control do [...]
“If you want to understand someone, walk a mile in their shoes.” I was in a certification course recently where one of the primary characteristics of the group was the varied and interesting shoes the participants wore. Phyllis wore a different (and fabulous) pair of shoes for every one of our [...]
In her book Technology and the Virtues, Shannon Vallor draws on classical Greek, ancient Chinese, and Buddhist principles to lay out a framework for ethical action in the rapidly changing 21st century technological environment. A key principle is “expanding your circle of concern”. As humans we [...]
It’s wonderful when people initiate spontaneous connections with others. There’s nothing quite like the moment when you realize, in the middle of a stressful situation, that the people you are working with are actually human beings, with all sorts of dimensions and contours you never expected. [...]
Suppose you’re just starting a new job and you’re sitting in a conference room with your boss and your new team on the first day. You’re excited about the new work and want to make a good impression. Then you notice it: someone across the table is giving you the “Critical Evaluation [...]