The Humanizing Work Show

It’s January, and people are setting goals and New Year’s resolutions. But how do you pick the right ones? It can be overwhelming, and you can end up picking no goal at all or just picking ones that are easy to define. In this episode, Richard and Peter share a simple process using the Theory of Constraints to find just the right personal and work goals for 2024. Episode page: https://www.humanizi...

In this episode, Richard and Peter give actionable advice for how to get unstuck when your team’s retrospectives produce lots of good ideas for change but never seem to lead to actual changes getting implemented. They share an agenda for a special retrospective you can do to address that exact challenge. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/inspecting-without-adapting/ Share a challenge or...

Richard and Peter introduced the concept of culture signals in episode 71. But because of the examples in that episode, many people got the misconception that culture signals were only for CEOs. Not at all! In this episode they share 7 inspirational examples of mid-level managers, team leads, and individual contributors creating effective culture signals, and they review how you can do the same in...

Most leadership teams adopt their style by accident and end up with wasteful meetings and unnecessarily noise and conflict. In this episode, Peter and Richard share an approach for figuring out the right kind of leadership team style for you based on your context. They describe the tools that fit each style and when your team might shift from one to another, drawing lessons from great music groups...

Are you looking at your task list today and dreading it a bit? In this replay from the October 2023 Humanizing Work Meetup session, Richard and Peter share three recent situations when they were feeling a little burned out, and what they did to fix it. They walk through a process to think and communicate about Purpose and Vision at the micro level. That process took them less than five minutes in...

Coaches usually focus on skills like facilitation, team formation, and conflict resolution. In this episode, Peter and Richard argue that none of those things matter if a team doesn’t get product ownership right, so coaches need to be fluent in product skills and able to coach their clients to get better in that area. Included in our conversation: The risk of over-focus in skill development Why be...

In this episode, Richard and Peter talk about the business case for getting better at product backlog refinement. What’s the financial and human cost of bad backlogs? Way more than most people realize. Here’s why it matters and what to do about it. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/biz-case-for-better-backlogs/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with H...

In this episode, Richard and Peter answer a listener question about whether an Agile approach can work with a customer-funded project model or whether you have to change your funding approach to work in an Agile way. They address the implications of Agile for things like funding, why project funding works for some orgs, and how to change things like funding in an Agile way. Episode page: https://w...

In this special episode, Peter and Richard have a conversation with a long-time listener, client, and community member about how their thinking on Scrum has (and hasn’t) changed over the years. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/thinking-on-scrum-changed/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizin...

These days, every leader seems to want empowered individuals and teams. But how do you actually get real empowerment? Just saying, “You’re empowered!” doesn’t seem to work reliably. In this Humanizing Work Community Meetup session, we explored a step-by-step path to increasing an individual or team’s empowerment in a particular area of responsibility. We walk through how to use this approach on tw...

It’s episode 100 of the Humanizing Work Show! In this episode, Richard and Peter highlight their favorite episodes so far and why they’re worth revisiting. Then, they reflect on how their thinking has changed since the show started, what they’ve learned from producing the show, and what they hope is true 100 episodes from now. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/celebrating-100-episodes S...

In this episode, Richard and Peter discuss how to work with stakeholders who always bring solution requests, like detailed requirements or technical specifications. How can you have an effective conversation to identify the underlying problem so you can collaborate with your team to solve the problem well? Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/from-solution-to-problem/ Share a challenge or...

In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question: “What are your thoughts on all these ScrumMaster and Agile Coach layoffs? Many companies seem to be eliminating these roles altogether. What do you make of it?” Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/scrummaster-agile-coach-layoffs/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.l...

Surveys show people say less than a quarter of the meetings they attend are a valuable use of their time. In this recording of the August Humanizing Work Meetup, Peter introduces the 6 goals an effective facilitator achieves in every meeting and how to use those to ensure your meetings are reliably worth the participants’ time. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/great-facilitators-accomp...

In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question: “I just got promoted from developer to development manager, and I want to do my new role well. What should I be thinking about? What should I avoid?” Tune in to learn 3 ways new managers often mess things up and 3 things to do instead. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/mistakes-new-managers-make/ Share a challenge or episode idea:...

Another “Scrum is terrible and here’s why” post went viral on social media recently. In this episode, Richard and Peter reflect on the post, the responses to it, and what we can learn from the whole thing. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/the-latest-viral-scrum-criticism/ Share a challenge or episode idea: mailbag@humanizingwork.com Connect with Humanizing Work: https://www.linkedin.co...

You've seen them on LinkedIn: the “manager bad, leader good” infographics and listicles. But there are over a million people in the US with "manager" in their job title—surely there are lots of good ones. In this episode, Peter and Richard explore the origin of the manager vs leader meme and reflect on whether it's actually useful for improving leadership. Episode page: : https://www.humanizingwor...

Leaders walk a tightrope, creating clarity for teams with an inspiring vision while acknowledging the uncertainty of future predictions. In this episode, Peter delves into a pivotal moment for Adobe execs, one that showcases the art of communicating big shifts with clarity and integrity. From that example and dozens more, we’ll then distill the six critical tools top leaders use to paint a vivid v...

Backlog refinement is critical for any agile team—if your backlog isn’t in good shape, everything downstream falls apart. But there’s a common set of mistakes almost everyone makes when it comes to backlog refinement, mistakes that make it overwhelming for Product Owners, frustrating for teams, and ultimately ineffective for everyone involved. In this rebroadcast of the July 2023 Humanizing Work C...

Scrum’s rarely used “Abnormal Sprint Termination” rule can help a team strike a nice balance between the need to focus, the need to be responsive, and the desire to make and keep commitments. In this episode, we give a few examples of using this rule to get good results, and what to do if your team is struggling to make and keep commitments. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/commitments...

In this episode, Richard and Peter talk about quick wins, how they often emphasize the quick part but miss the win, and what to do instead at the start of a big initiative. Episode page:  https://www.humanizingwork.com/purposeful-quick-wins/ Connect with Humanizing Work: https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork https://twitter.com/rslawrence/ https://twitter.com/tptman/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/...

In this episode, Richard explains the distinction between collaborating and coordinating, when to do one or the other, and the implications for team structure, tools, and geography. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/collaborate-vs-coordinate-episode/ Connect with Humanizing Work: https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork https://twitter.com/rslawrence/ https://twitter.com/tptman/ https://www.l...

In this episode, Richard and Peter discuss an article in Business Insider, “The reality of Big Tech's 'fake work' problem.” They discuss the incentives that create over-hiring and “fake work” and the antidote to it. Is it all just lazy managers, as the article suggests? Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/fake-work/ Connect with Humanizing Work: https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork https://...

In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question: “All my stakeholders want all their stuff right now. What do I do?” Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/stakeholders-want-it-all/ Connect with Humanizing Work: https://twitter.com/HumanizingWork https://twitter.com/rslawrence/ https://twitter.com/tptman/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/humanizingwork https://www.facebook.com/Humaniz...

In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question: “My team members always grab things to work on separately in parallel. How can I get us collaborating more as a team?” By the way, watch to the end for a crazy discount on the Humanizing Work Team Launch Sequence. Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/get-my-team-to-collaborate/ Connect with Humanizing Work: https://twitter.com/Humaniz...