Humanizing Work Show

Overcoming Burnout through Daily Purpose and Vision

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 their examples, and energized them to make their work meaningful that day. Learn how you can do the same thing to tackle the day with energy, even when the tasks aren't something you're looking forward to. Read More

The Business Case for Better Product Backlog Refinement

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. Read More

Can Agile Even Work With This Business Model?

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. Read More

How Has Our Thinking On Scrum Changed?

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. Read More

Meetup Replay–A Path to Real Empowerment

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. Read More

Celebrating 100 Episodes

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. Read More

Two Questions to Shift Stakeholders from Solution to Problem

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? Read More

Great Facilitators Accomplish These 6 Goals

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. Read More