The Humanizing Work Show

You may not be aware that Richard has a flock of ducks. Recently, Richard’s ducks had the most traumatic day of their lives, and it generated some unexpected lessons for humans at work. In this episode, Peter and Richard reflect on what happened and some lessons we learned to lead change more effectively. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/duck-canopy-incident/ Share a challenge or episo...

Big companies are eliminating roles like Agile Coach and ScrumMaster. In this episode, we look at why that might be happening, what to do if you’ve fallen victim to the layoffs, and why there’s still hope for the future. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/agile-jobs-are-vanishing/ ‎ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.li...

A recent Gallup study reported that only 30% of workers in the US are engaged or motivated in their work. And this has all kinds of negative consequences, at work and beyond. In this episode, we dig into the research and share some practical things you can do about it. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/employee-engagement-is-terrible/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizin...

In too many organizations, the product and engineering teams operate in an adversarial, dysfunctional way. Great products never result from this setup. In this episode, Richard and Peter share the antidote to such a situation, clarifying where to draw the line on specific responsibilities for product leaders and engineering, and where (and how) to collaborate effectively. It’s a complex boundary,...

It can be frustrating to find yourself in a situation where you see a problem but don’t have the power to fix—and the people who do have the power don’t seem to care. In this episode, we expand on the advice we often give our clients, “If you can’t fix it, make it more visible,” and we show how you can use that approach to influence a solution when you don’t have authority to just fix things. Epis...

In a case of “drinking our own champagne,” we applied the tools we teach for dealing with resistance to change to a real conflict on our team. Peter wanted to make a big change to our WordPress theme. Richard had some strong resistance to that change. Something had to give. Listen in to see how we used that resistance as a resource to come up with a breakthrough solution. Episode page: https://www...

Is strategy part of the Product Owner role? Not just in theory, but in the real world? We interviewed POs to find out how strategy shows up in their responsibilities. In this episode, we share what we learned and what we recommend to our clients when it comes to POs and product strategy. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/do-product-owners-do-strategy/ Share a challenge or episode idea:...

In this episode, we’ll share how strategy connects with mission and vision, and how to communicate the key aspects of your strategy using our Strategy Steps Canvas. We use Tesla’s 2006 strategy as a real-world example, demonstrating how the strategy steps approach connects concrete outcomes to long term impact. Tune in to see how you can use our canvas to simplify and effectively communicate your...

In this episode, Richard digs into the causes and fixes for burnout and disengagement on Agile (or ostensibly Agile) teams. Agile teams should be the most motivating teams to be on—opportunity for autonomy, mastery, and purpose are built right in. But, too often, that’s not how it plays out. Tune in to learn how to avoid or address some common patterns that create burnout and disengagement. Episod...

When, like the children’s book character Alexander, you’re having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day at work, how do you turn things around? In this episode, Peter shares four strategies he used to do just that on what started out as a really tough trail run, strategies that are just as powerful at work. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/four-trail-strategies-to-transform-a-bad...

How we manage our work has to fit the nature of the work. And, too often, it doesn’t, which leads to waste and frustration. In this episode, Richard and Peter walk through 3 styles of process that go with 4 different kinds of work. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/make-your-process-fit-your-work/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work...

A great vision statement can create alignment, increase engagement, and improve business outcomes. But too many vision statements are corporate-speak buzzword bingo. And those can be worse than no vision statement at all. In this episode, Peter and Richard explain what makes a vision statement worth writing and share a quick, collaborative process to create one for your product, team, or organizat...

In this episode, David J Bland, author of “Testing Business Ideas” joins Peter and Richard to talk about how to use Lean Startup-style experiments in any kind of business. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/tackle-risk-with-david-bland/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork https://www.f...

One of the trickiest problems leaders face is getting org structure right. This is even harder in Agile orgs because there are strong opinions out there about the perfect team structure that often don’t apply easily in real orgs. In this episode, Peter and Richard share 6 principles you can use to reason about the right team structure for your context. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/...

We all know early feedback on work can be useful, but it’s hard to do. We want to show people things when they’re all polished and when we feel proud of the product. Not to mention, most people don’t know how to give feedback well. In this episode, Richard and Peter introduce an approach to getting feedback that solves these problems and makes early feedback low-risk, productive, and encouraging....

Why is change so hard? Why do we say we want to make changes but then, so often, fail to actually make the change stick? In this episode, Richard and Peter dive into psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s work on immunity to change and how to overcome it. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/immunity-to-change/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with...

Typical status reports start out green, go yellow if issues pop up, and only turn red if things get really, really bad. In this episode, Peter and Richard explain why status reports should have to “earn green” and how you can use this mindset to find good places to start on any initiative (even if you’re not actually creating status reports). Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/incrementa...

Conflict is a natural result of trying to get things done with other people–we have different perspectives and want different things. It’s easy for that to turn into a battle of egos, but it doesn't have to. You can move through conflict gracefully, coming out of it with better outcomes, both in terms of the decision and the relationship. In this episode, Peter and Richard share the 3 tools they f...

Leaders have a huge impact on whether Agile teams in their organization are going to be successful or not. In this episode, Peter and Richard share the most important things leaders need to know if they want to help their Agile teams get the best results. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/leading-agile-teams/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Hum...

There are times when it doesn’t feel possible to break or renegotiate a commitment, but you also can’t see how to deliver on it. You feel stuck. So what do you do then? Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/overcommitted-and-feeling-stuck/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork https://www.f...

People spend a ton of time in meetings these days, and too many meetings are just a waste of time. In this episode, Peter and Richard talk through how to determine which meetings are worth having and which can go asynchronous, and they introduce the DAVID approach to ensuring the meeting you do have are worth the time. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/fix-your-meetings-with-david/ Shar...

Richard and Peter get paid to teach leaders and coaches how to coach more effectively—and it works. So, what happens when Peter spends 20 minutes trying to teach ChatGPT how to coach? Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/train-chatgpt-ai-to-coach/ Share a challenge or episode idea:  mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork htt...

Are use cases an essential partner to user stories for Agile teams? Agile Manifesto co-author Alistair Cockburn thinks so. In this episode, Richard and Peter discuss use cases and user stories with Alistair, including some practical steps to get started with lightweight use cases as a complementary tool for your Agile product development. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/alistair-cockb...

In this episode, Richard and Peter explore what cross-functional teams are, why they're crucial to Agile methods like Scrum, and how to navigate some common challenges in creating and maintaining these teams. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/cross-functional-teams-real-world-challenges/ Share a challenge or episode idea:  mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work: https:/...

Have you or your team ever felt like prioritizing your work is like a hostage negotiation with your stakeholders…and you don’t have the leverage to get a good outcome? In this episode, Richard chats with Dean Peters about what he calls “feature hostage negotiation.” They dig into where it comes from, what problems it causes, and how to respond if you’re a product manager in that situation. Episode...