On the Humanizing Work Show, Peter and Richard explore themes related to Humanizing Work, including leadership, teams, collaboration, and motivation. Agile Software Development is a common topic, but the application of Humanizing Work goes way beyond software.
Is there a topic you’d like to hear us tackle in a future show? Let us know!
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Should you make a “USER MANUAL FOR ME”? | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
In this episode, Richard answers a question from a friend in the non-profit world: “I came across a template for creating a ‘user guide for working with me.’ Are these used in the business world, and if so, do they work out in practice?”
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/should-you-make-a-user-manual-for-me/
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Does EVERYTHING in our BACKLOG need to be a USER STORY? | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question, “How do we know whether an item on our Product Backlog should be a User Story or a Task?”
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/backlog-stories-vs-tasks/
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What’s WRONG with the 5 WHYS | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
In this episode, Richard and Peter dig into the popular “5 Whys” root cause analysis technique, including the limitations of the technique and why the question “why?’ can get you in trouble.
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/whats-wrong-with-the-5-whys/
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Overcoming RESISTANCE to CHANGE | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question, “How do you overcome resistance to change?”
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/overcoming-resistance-to-change/
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What Many Leaders Get Wrong When Trying to Build TEAM ENGAGEMENT | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question: what’s your take on “enforced team fun”? Many teams have an expectation that everyone will participate in things like birthday celebrations and morale building events, despite the strong possibility that some on the team would experience stress and anxiety, and no evidence that holding those events increases engagement on the team. There are things outside of individual task execution that should be expected on a team, but “enforced team fun” isn’t going to help and is likely hurting.
Episode Page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/what-many-leaders-get-wrong-when-trying-to-build-team-engagement/
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Why we don’t like EPICS for agile teams | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
Peter and Richard mentioned in an earlier episode that they’re not fans of epics for agile teams and product owners. In this episode, they explain why and what to do instead.
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/why-we-dont-like-epics/
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The Peter Principle: Is MANAGEMENT DOOMED to be INCOMPETENT? | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
The Peter Principle is the idea that people get promoted until they hit the level where they’re no longer competent enough to get promoted again. In this episode, Richard and Peter discuss what this means, whether it’s always true, and how management can escape the Peter Principle.
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/the-peter-principle-management/
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What’s the RIGHT SIZE for an AGILE TEAM? | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
In this episode, Richard and Peter answer the question, what’s the best size for an agile team? The Scrum Guide says 5-9, but how does the Humanizing Work team think about it?
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/whats-the-right-size-for-an-agile-team/
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Nicole Forsythe on Career Transitions, Agile Coaching & Antarctic Exploration | Humanizing Work Show
In this episode Peter and Richard talk with Nicole Forsythe. Nicole is a librarian turned leader of Agile coaches. We discuss a variety of topics including: how work is broken and what to do about it; navigating career transitions; practical advice for agile coaches; and what we can learn from the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. The conversation was interesting and practical, and we’re thrilled to share it.
Episode page: https://humanizingwork.com/nicole-forsythe-on-career-transitions-agile-coaching-and-antarctic-exploration/
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How to get people to work outside their specialty | Humanizing Work Show | Mailbag
In this episode, Richard and Peter take on the question: “My team members only want to work on their specialties. What can I do to get them to pull from the top of the backlog?”
Richard answers with a vivid story about food prep, common sense, and “grilling next week’s chicken.”
Episode page: https://humanizingwork.com/grilling-next-weeks-chicken-or-how-to-get-people-to-work-outside-their-specialty/
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Africa WTPO Conference Recap
Peter checks in from the beach in Ghana, Africa, sharing his thoughts on his time in Africa and his takeaways from the World Trade Promotion Organizations conference, where he gave a keynote.
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/hw-africa-wtpo-conference/
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Laloux Model Update 2022
It's been 8 years since Peter created an animated illustration of Laloux's book "Reinventing Organizations" (the source of the term "teal organization" that's become popular in the Agile community). Since then, that video has hundreds of thousands of views and the overview illustration from the video is used all over the internet as an illustration for the model.
Since releasing that video, we've learned quite a bit about the model, including its roots in the research of Clare Graves and the Spiral Dynamics model described by Don Beck and Chris Cowan. A better understanding of those roots helped us see some important nuance that was missing a bit from the Laloux model.
In this video, Peter gives a quick intro, then shares a version of a keynote talk he was asked to present at the World Trade Promotion Organization, where he describes how he currently thinks of and uses the model. Then, Richard and Peter have a brief discussion of their differing viewpoints on the usefulness of the model.
Episode page: https://www.humanizingwork.com/laloux-model-2022update/
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