Tag: leadership

18 December 2019 / Agile & Scrum
20 New Year’s Resolutions for Managers in a Scrum Environment

The end of the year is nearby, time for some New Year’s resolutions! It has become a tradition for us to provide some help to busy people coming up with some good (enough) new year’s resolutions. This year we want to support Managers out there struggling to survive within a Scrum oriented organization. Here are 20 new year’s resolutions to get you started as a...

26 April 2017 / Leadership & Management
Ice cream and leadership

I came across this meme on my LinkedIn timeline.  In the reactions, very classically schooled managers were tapping themselves on the back in a very manly fashion. How right this meme was! Harsh lessons to be learned here! So you want to be a leader ey? A feeling of sadness arose in me, quickly followed by a sense of determination. Determination to write this post,...

26 May 2016 / Engaging Workshops & Meetings
How to find your ikigai

Ikigai is a Japanese concept meaning "a reason for being". Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self. Such a search is regarded as being very important, since it is believed that discovery of one's ikigai brings satisfaction and meaning to life. Many (smart) organisations are trying to find a way to motivate and engage their work force in order to provide more...

4 May 2016 / Agile & Scrum
The zone of harmony: The Axen rose part 3

If you don't know yet what the axen rose is, please first take a quick look at part 1 and part 2 of this blog series. This way you already know the basics that I will elaborate on in this post. So next to the zone of conflict (hawk - capricorn) and the zone of removal (owl - turtle) we have a third zone out of which...

17 March 2016 / Agile & Scrum
12 enemies of adaptability and what to do about it

Hierarchy Top-down, control based hierarchies discourage individual initiative, lead to slower reaction times, and divert energy to “managing up” or what is called politics. These politics will optimize your organization to CYA (Cover Your Ass), loss of productivity, and an aversion of risk, resulting in a standstill culture. Fear Command-and-control systems lead to organizations filled with anxious employees who are hesitant to take the initiative or...

3 March 2016 / Agile & Scrum
Different communication styles: The Axen rose – part 2

If you don't know yet what the axen rose is, please first take a quick look at part 1 of this blog series. This way you already know the basics that I will elaborate on in this post. Given the horizontal and vertical zones that were explained in the previous post, we can start identifying the different areas in more detail. Something that was added...