In the previous One Minute Tip we covered one of the three key skills of remote work, namely to communicate well in short chunks of writing. We ended that tip with the statement that good communication is CCM: concrete, concise and meaningful. Now we will make that tip more concrete. My favorite ways to make communication more concrete are: 1) Show, don’t tell (covered in … Continue reading Make Your Communication Concrete
Category: One Minute Tips for Remote Leaders
One of the key skills of remote work is to communicate well (in short chunks (of writing)). Let me explain: Communicate well What counts as communicating well depends on the purpose: if it’s information — is it easy to understand and relevant to what the audience cares about?if the purpose is influence — does it move people to action?if it’s … Continue reading Communicate Well in Short Chunks of Writing
Live your differentiators If you want to create a successful product or service a common piece of advice I hear is to “wow” your customers. To deliver such moments of sheer delight that they will never forget it. If you’re a leader the same goes for creating a great employee experience. This advice can be … Continue reading Don’t rely on “wow” effects
Base key decision on estimated impact on quantified stakeholder values Will your project succeed? That question hangs on a simple commandment: Make things people want. Great, but how do we know what people want? This is definitely a difficult question, but there’s a powerful technique that can help cut through ambiguity. It is to quantify the top … Continue reading How to make Very Big Decisions?
Some people use Trello as a Kanban board (i.e. a task management or workflow app) and that’s a great use for it. A different way is to think about Trello as a structured whiteboard that you can use for online workshops or even distributed, asynchronous sense-making and problem solving. Unlike a dedicated task management tool like JIRA, Trello is much more … Continue reading Use Trello as a structured whiteboard for distributed brainstorming and online workshops
Check Your Story Have you ever found yourself on one side of a situation like this? Ancient philosophers knew it and modern ones developed the idea: We do NOT have direct access to reality: We perceive an extremely small part of it using our limited and unreliable senses. Then we interpret the meaning based on our cultural context, past experience, the vocabulary we wield and even our … Continue reading Heroic Adventurers vs. Brutish Invaders
3 practical strategies Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” is like a tsunami rolling over the business world. If you haven’t seen it yet or you’d like a reminder here’s Simon’s original TED talk. I used to be completely enamored with it 🤩 Over time I have become slightly more sceptical 🤔 I’ve also talked to many … Continue reading How to Start with WHY
Don't Let Worst Possible Stories Win If you can count on one thing, it’s that whenever there’s limited information people will make up the Worst Possible Story to fill in the gaps. “My boss hates me!”“That guy is a #$@%.”“How can they be so stupid?” This dynamic can be especially harmful in newly remote teams, who have … Continue reading Assume Positive Intent
The more useful stuff you have in a well-organized, densely interconnected team information system, the richer your interactions can become. A great TIM can be like a beautiful garden where things can stack up, grow and interweave in ways that would be impossible without the right environment. (photo by Cherry Laithang via Unsplash) Ok, Michał. Colorful metaphors are … Continue reading Enable Knowledge to Grow Over Time with AsyncABC
Imagine you’re holding a magic sword. The only problem is that it’s wrapped in dirty rags. When faced with a worthy challenge it would make sense to unwrap the sword and cast away the rags. Once you do, the road to victory is all but assured. Consider now that the rags contain an old stick. … Continue reading First Find the Good