An exercise: ✏️ Stand in front of a group, and say something meaningful on a topic the audience cares about. No, no, that’s not all, here comes the hard part: ✏️ Now, look around the room (realistically: zoom room). Hopefully you see familiar faces. Now do this exercise in empathic listening: for each audience member (yes,Continue reading “It Doesn’t Matter What You Say”
Category Archives: General
This is on You
I am very disappointed in all of you. Just a few years ago, when Joe had a baby, the whole company would chip in. We were able to buy a great present. And now, just 17 people out of 120!? What happened to you, why don’t you care? This is the gist of an emailContinue reading “This is on You”
Tony-os, Pathos, Logos
In the Netflix documentary “I’m not your guru” motivational speaker Tony Robbins is followed during one of his annual events during which a “small audience” of just 2,500 people (he often does events for 50k people in stadiums) come to a resort in Florida for 6 days, paying about $6k for their “Date with Destiny.”Continue reading “Tony-os, Pathos, Logos”
The Human Need to Vent
All hands meeting around the globe have taken a turn for the worse since the COVID crisis hit, as people have been forced to start working from home. I thought it was just in my company, but talking to some friends working elsewhere, it seems to be a pattern. Q&A sessions get more passive-aggressive questions than usual,Continue reading “The Human Need to Vent”
Phil’s Last Dance
“I don’t often do this,” my boss said, “but I’d almost insist on you watching The Last Dance. Let’s talk about it afterwards.” My boss used to be a pretty serious basketball player. He often makes basketball references. “You cannot always be Pippen,” he’d say, “sometimes you have to be MJ.” Solid advice! If… well, you know who those peopleContinue reading “Phil’s Last Dance”
Zef’s Razor
I have a core belief. One that even when I mention it to people makes myself think: “Oh, that’s so cute Zef, I hope nobody will ever burst that cutesy little bubble of yours!” Ready? Here goes. People have good intentions. I know, right? So cute! Now I know, people do terrible things to eachContinue reading “Zef’s Razor”
The GoLD Stack: A Management Perspective
I only heard the term “GoLD stack” a few weeks ago. As far as I’ve been able to trace it back, it was coined in a tweet (of course) by Santiago Martinez Q. It stuck with me for two reasons: It’s a short, catchy name. It subtly alludes to being a silver bullet (which weContinue reading “The GoLD Stack: A Management Perspective”
Making Sense of “Time to Value”
Last year I wrote a few words about the “Time to Value” metric mentioned by Adrian Cockcroft in his “Innovation at Speed” talk at Re:Invent last year. This talk is about how to get better at software-based innovation (obviously, this involves using the cloud heavily — that’s why AWS is talking about it). Since in OLXContinue reading “Making Sense of “Time to Value””
Launching a Rebranded OLX: Why Now?
“The world is burning, let’s respond with a new logo and nicer fonts!” — nobody, ever Let me spend a quick couple of paragraphs on what happens behind the scenes when a large company deeply invests in a rebranding, and then, unexpectedly, is faced with a completely new reality. I thought it would be worthContinue reading “Launching a Rebranded OLX: Why Now?”
The Great Decision Purge
Sorry for the link bait title. It was either this or “27 ideas on how to make better decisions,” and I’ve developed a spam filter in my brain that filters out titles with numbers in them. Ok, let’s go on topic. A while ago I wrote about well-considered decisions. I argued documenting decisions in aContinue reading “The Great Decision Purge”
