Agile Management | NOOP.NL

Some More Favorite Posts

Last month my blog was exactly 5 years old. I celebrated this moment by asking readers which blog post had been the most important for them. And I sent some free goodies (games and a booklet) to everyone who replied. Here are some more comments that poured in…

(Oh and sorry, the deadline is closed now!)

“A recent one that stuck with me, and is actually causing me to stop every now and then and think about it, is Why Not Delight the Supplier? It's actually not as much the idea of delighting the supplier, but the idea that there are multiple stakeholders around every organization and every one of them ought to be looked after.”
- Flavius

“My favorite post is the T-Shirt Test. Although I doubt I would proudly wear a t-shirt with the photo of my pet on it, I got your point. It's a great source of reflection about the pride you or your team has of working in the organization, which is at the end key to have successful implication from the team in the projects.”
- Pierre

“One of the posts that I liked was 360 Degrees Dinner. We are currently doing 360 degrees evaluation by email. I liked your post because it made me think of another view of an important process I do not like.”
- Boris

“I did some browsing back the history of your blog until I found the very first post that led me to your site. "Top 15 Systems Thinking Books" was the title of it - and it was almost two years ago.”
- Oliver

“One of the most important for me was the post Top 100 Agile Books (Edition 2012). It was probably one of easiest posts for you :). Also I would like to mention the funniest part in your blog posts: Nonviolent Communication (Stop It!) and the Video from Bob Newhart (stop It). Stop It method could also help to avoid long, aimless, tough discussions. In big projects you always have such. ;)”
- Maxim

“For me it was: Is Your Work an Expression of Your Life? The funny thing is that this blog post was written at exactly the moment when I needed it :) Since that time I believe in "changing work into life" and I'm quite comfortable to work anytime I feel like. It brought me lots of great ideas and makes me very happy.”
- Tomasz

“The most important post for me was The Big List of Agile Practices and for two things: At first it helps me to go deeper into the amazing world of Agile. It helped me for my thesis about Agile practices. In second, with it, I discovered the rest of your blog and then Management 3.0.
- Geoffrey

“I would choose "Why I Won't Take Your Call", because you are talking a little bit out of my own soul since I see it the same as you. Reachability has always been the virtue of the slaves and that's why I have an answering machine acting as a firewall to protect my free time. I even do not have a mobile phone! The other thing I like in your posts is your honest way of writing. This is refreshing in this day and age and it leaves me with a smile.”
- Heiko

“To me the most important blog post was Top 100 Blogs for Developers (Q1 2009). I know it's not a masterpiece in the sense of creativity (being just a collection of data), but to me it was exactly what I needed.”
- Gabriel

And that’s it.

Thanks everyone who participated. It’s great to know some of my work matters to you. Your feedback helps me to look forward to the next 5 years. :-)

 

5 Years of Blogging, W00t! (Lustrum 5/5)

Today my blog is exactly 5 years old. Yay! And because 5 is my favorite number, I am celebrating this moment with 5 blog posts about the blog.

I have been asking readers which blog post has been most important for them. Here’s what some of them said this week:

Readers' input

My favourite post was this: I Made a Lot of Money, and It Made Me Very Happy, because it showed me that there was at least one honest man out there ;-)
-Zsolt

This one: Management 2.0 Is the Right Thing Done Wrong. Because after a couple of visits to your site, it's after reading this post that I immediately added you to my RSS feed, and every post since has changed something about the way I think about management.
- Max

My most important blog entry from your site was the one about the Kudo Box. I implemented it in our company as everyone signed already out in retrospectives how effective positive feedback is.
- Matthias

One of the most important for me was the post from June 2012 concerning egocentric leadership. This one was very important for me because it gave me the last kick to change my opinion on that matter.
- Martin

Actually I liked your videos best. They got me hooked up and eventually made me buy your books and starting my own business as software industry consultant. As I am into models, I liked your post about the Change Management 3.0 meta model.
- Clemens

In answer to your question which of your blogs was most important to me, it was the very first one that I read of yours, as it showed me that you were an original thinker with a quirky twist on management issues, and someone I knew I would really like to read more from.
- Melanie

I have to pick the Taking Care of Horses post. […] Knowing the root of the word manage and thinking about the analogy, caring for a team based on the type it is, in the same way you would care differently for a horse based on what type of horse it is, brought home the importance of someone who can cultivate a team(s) being the person responsible for managing that team's delivery.
- Andrew

I read your blog post about business guilds. I discussed it with several colleagues and 17 December we held the first business guild meeting. The result is, we have a business guild lunch meeting once a week. we have a common interest. And everybody is really enthusiastic and motivated. And the guild is already growing.... Thanks for this great idea.
- Mark

Your greatest contribution to my own development has been the introduction of complexity theory as a way of understanding how and why agile methods works. I am not sure which post to choose, but since I have to choose one it will be What (Else) Can Agile Learn from Complexity? (Presentation)
- Alf

I have taken lots of idea from your blog posts e.g. mood of the participant on exit door during a training course, or Kudo Card during my coaching/training engagement and all has been received well.
- Dinesh

I really liked your blog post on 3rd of January 2013 about the money you earned. I found it original and refreshing, because in the agile community (where I come from) this topic is generally tip-toed around.
-Collin

What about you?

Send me an email explaining which of my 663 blog posts was important to you and why. Out of the contributions I will select 5x5 people who will get a signed copy of How to Change the World (limited color edition), with a set of Delegation Poker, Moving Motivators and some Kudo Cards. The deadline is 31 January 2013.

5 Things I Will Change in 2013 (Lustrum 4/5)

On January 18, 2013 this blog will be exactly 5 years old. And because 5 is my favorite number, I am celebrating this moment with 5 blog posts about the blog.

I love my job because it enables me to try new things. I loose interest in old ideas when I know they work. It is much more interesting to learn if new ideas will work. That’s why I will be changing my job this year in the following ways.

From Slides to Stories

I know I can give presentations that are appreciated by large audiences. And I think the last one is the best slide deck I ever made. But this year I intend to move to the next level, and do some presentations without slides. The emphasis will be more on the story, and less on the visuals. It is called naked presentation. It will be new for me, and it will be scary. And it will be with all my clothes on.

From Training to Co-training

The next class I do in Ankara, Turkey, will be the 50th time I do the Management 3.0 course. In the future I will be delegating more and more of these courses to licensed trainers. And I am trying to push this change by moving to a co-training mode. Half of my classes in 2013 will be facilitated together with at least one other trainer. If you come to see me, you get a second one for free! :)

From Courses to Workshops

I noticed that people in my classes appreciate the games and discussions the most. That’s why I intend to cut down on the presentation-parts and introduce even more interactive exercises. My wish is for participants of the Management 3.0 workshops to feel that the organization of the workshop itself is a perfect example of Management 3.0 in practice. My ideal is that the attendees take over my work completely.

From Experimenting to Scaling

I experimented as an entrepreneur with my own little company, and I call the experiment a success. This year I will scale the business and do more work, with more people. But I don’t want a traditional organization, because I already know that sucks. I want to grow a business network, a community of entrepreneurs working together under one name. You will hear more about it soon.

From Writing to Producing

Of course, I will always be writing. But it’s also fun to develop other things, such as games, apps, podcasts, and videos. I can’t do this all by myself, so I will be delegating the implementation to others. But I look forward to the creative aspects of it, in particular the Steve Jobs-like rants about a few extra atoms or pixels. Ultimately, I hope we can reach more people with different media and channels.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, let me know! I love working with people with an entrepreneurial mind.

I have a special gift for 25 readers of this blog! Send me an email explaining which of my 663 blog posts was important to you and why. Out of the contributions I will select 5x5 people who will get a signed copy of How to Change the World (limited color edition), with a set of Delegation Poker, Moving Motivators and some Kudo Cards. The deadline is 31 January 2013.

5 Products That Emerged from This Blog (Lustrum 3/5)

On January 18, 2013 this blog will be exactly 5 years old. And because 5 is my favorite number, I am celebrating this moment with 5 blog posts about the blog.

I am happy to report that I now have 5 products listed on Amazon: 2 books and 3 card games. The books emerged out of the blog, and the cards emerged out of the course (which grew out of the books, which emerged out of the blog).

Management 3.0

My magnum opus, Management 3.0, has by now sold an estimated 20,000 copies. It has received plenty of favorable reviews, just a couple of bad ones, and a translation in Chinese. I wrote the book because I wanted to explore the role of the (development) manager and team leader in an Agile organization. It took me almost 1,000 hours to write, in a time span of one year.

How to Change the World

My second book, How to Change the World, emerged spontaneously. I noticed that organizational culture is one of the most important topics in Agile transformations, and I decided to look into the field of change management, which turned it into a popular presentation, which resulted in this little book, as a useful experiment in self-publishing. It has sold an estimated 3,000 copies in 9 months.

Delegation Poker

I first tried the Delegation Poker game during a workshop at a Scrum Gathering in Amsterdam, and most people agreed it was the best part of the workshop. The game teaches the seven levels of delegation while stimulating great discussions about empowerment of teams. The “official cards” are now available in shipments of 32 sets each.

Moving Motivators

My personal favorite is the Moving Motivators exercise, because it is simple, powerful and versatile. In this exercise people reflect on their motivation by sorting and moving 10 motivator cards. The exercise can help to visualize the impact of organizational change on people’s intrinsic desires. The “official deck” is available in boxes of 32 sets each.

Kudo Cards

The latest addition to the Management 3.0 workshops (in a physical sense) are the appreciation cards, or Kudo Cards. These simple cards have been used successfully in organizations and at conferences to give people a token of appreciation for a job well done. The colorful cards are available in boxes of 450 cards each.

I’m quite sure I will be releasing more products this year. Despite the fact that we live in the digital age, humans evolved with a strong preference for something physical to play with. I take great pleasure in contributing to that.

I have a special gift for 25 readers of this blog! Send me an email explaining which of my 663 blog posts was important to you and why. Out of the contributions I will select 5x5 people who will get a signed copy of How to Change the World (limited color edition), with a set of Delegation Poker, Moving Motivators and some Kudo Cards. The deadline is 31 January 2013.

5 Things I Learned While Blogging (Lustrum 2/5)

On January 18, 2013 this blog will be exactly 5 years old. And because 5 is my favorite number, I am celebrating this moment with 5 blog posts about the blog.

What did I learn from 5 years of blogging?

I already explained yesterday that blog posts give me an opportunity to get specific feedback from readers. But I can also mention a couple of things I learned in general from being the writer of a blog.

Don’t be boring!

There are many blogs out there that struggle with their readership simply because the writing style of the authors is too bland. It is important not to be boring! Blogs need a bit of spice to make people crave for more. No matter whether you achieve this with self-made illustrations, snarky observations, or beautiful prose, if your blog doesn’t have a personality your blog won’t have any readers either.

Lure them in!

Apart from spice your blog also needs a bit of sugar. My various top 100 posts, interview questions and posts about personal misery have drawn in many thousands of visitors. Granted, such popular posts have little or nothing to do with the actual goals of the blog, but people won’t hang around on a blog if they don’t get acquainted with the blog in the first place.

Specialize and focus!

I had a couple of earlier blogs that covered anything from politics to cartoons, and from music to cats. Apparently, that was a bit too much. And even when I started with NOOP.NL the coverage of my writing (about complexity and software engineering) was still too wide. Over time I learned to narrow it down to the topic of management in Agile organizations. No focus means no staying power.

Blogging is complex!

There are a lot of books and resources for bloggers telling you how to do search engine optimization, how to do marketing and promotion, how to do this and how to do that. But I noticed that cause and effect are hard to predict. I tried to optimize pages with no results whatsoever, while some big waves of readers arrived on my blog unexpectedly without me doing anything. It’s simply too complex to forecast.

Get used to interaction!

I have experienced someone crying for joy and trembling with anxiety just because I signed a book. I have also experienced people calling me some very bad names just because they had their own interpretations of what I was trying to say. When you express yourself, whether you do this well or not, people will fill in the blanks, draw their conclusions, and confront you with their judgment. It comes with the job.

And those are the 5 things I learned with my blog.

Now, is there anything that you learned?

I have a special gift for 25 readers of this blog! Send me an email explaining which of my 663 blog posts was important to you and why. Out of the contributions I will select 5x5 people who will get a signed copy of How to Change the World (limited color edition), with a set of Delegation Poker, Moving Motivators and some Kudo Cards. The deadline is 31 January 2013.

5 Reasons for Writing a Blog (Lustrum 1/5)

On January 18, 2013 this blog will be exactly 5 years old. And because 5 is my favorite number, I am celebrating this moment with 5 blog posts about the blog.

Why am I still blogging?

The original purpose of my blog was to pave the way for my first book. But 5 years later I have realized that NOOP.NL has become more than just a vehicle for my book projects.

This blog is about…

Learning

A blog helps me to run experiments. I sometimes have a half-baked idea that I can put to the test by simply writing about it. Sometimes people like the idea, sometimes they don’t. Early feedback from readers helps me not to waste time on unsuccessful ideas. And it’s through my blog that I learned that readers wanted me to write about management.

Understanding

Some people say, in order to learn a topic best you need to teach it. An alternative version of this is, in order to understand a concept you have to write about it. I wrote some of my best blog posts without any idea about my own opinion when I started writing them. The activity of writing helps me develop and order my thoughts.

Marketing

Of course, a blog is just another medium for broadcasting information. I have used NOOP.NL to announce my books, my courses, my presentations, and many other things I wanted to spam about. Unfortunately, many bloggers forget this only works when you have something interesting to say besides your marketing announcements.

Branding

Besides the marketing of stuff another thing this blog helps me with is the marketing of me. Some call it personal branding, others call it narcissism. Whatever. I compare it to putting make-up on. I accentuate my positive attributes, and I camouflage my bad ones. (With my blog, not with make-up.) The result is a slightly improved version of me.

Serendipity

Last but not least, maintaining a blog invites serendipity. I never expected publishers would be eager to sign a book contract simply because I have a popular blog. Likewise, I’ve been invited to speak at events only because I wrote a popular post or two. I can never predict these things. I only know that more good things happen because I have a blog.

And those are the 5 reasons I’m still blogging after 5 years.

So, can you guess which of these 5 reasons is behind this blog post?

I have a special gift for 25 readers of this blog! Send me an email explaining which of my 663 blog posts was important to you and why. Out of the contributions I will select 5x5 people who will get a signed copy of How to Change the World (limited color edition), with a set of Delegation Poker, Moving Motivators and some Kudo Cards. The deadline is 31 January 2013.

How to Change the World, Translated

My little self-published book How to Change the World is being translated into eleven languages. The first five are now available:

     

(Polish, Portuguese, Swedish)

Plus the French and Japanese editions.

The other languages-in-progress are:

Turkish, Hungarian, German, Chinese, Spanish, Italian

Is anyone interested in translating the booklet to another language? Russian? Burmese? Legalese?

How to Change the World - Translations

My little How to Change the World book is doing quite well. In less than five months 1250 copies were sold, which is not bad for a self-published booklet with just a little marketing. (Sales includes PDF, Kindle and paperback versions.)

I am even happier with the fact that the Japanese translation is already available, and seven more translations are in progress:

French: Yannink Grenzinger
Chinese: Kathy Wen
Portuguese: André Faria Gomes
Hungarian: István Marhefka
German: Michael Leber
Polish: Michał Parkoła
Swedish: Mikael Boman

If you’re interested in translating (and publishing) the booklet in another language, let me know!

Blog Post #600

This blog has changed my life.

I keep telling everyone that never before have I enjoyed my life and work so much as I do now. And this is all thanks to the decision I made in 2008 to start writing a blog.

Given what I described in my How to Change the World booklet it all makes perfect sense. Each blog post is a small step forward toward a goal. Each post can have some impact on the environment, which may then adapt and respond. Each post generates feedback, understanding, and small-term wins. And each post gives the opportunity to reconsider the goal and move in another direction.

That’s how change management works in a complex environment.

That’s how I changed the little pocket of the universe around me.

This is blog post #600. I wrote blog post #500 exactly a year ago. Readership has grown from 1240 to 1528 page views per day, and from 915 unique visits to 1078 per day. The RSS feed subscribers climbed from 5600 to 6600, and the number of Twitter followers climbed to 6800.

Again, thank you dear readers for sticking around.

You changed made my life.

My 2nd Book is Out: How to Change the World

From complexity thinkers I picked up that it is good to experiment, in safe-to-fail ways. Well, I’m now experimenting being a self-publisher, and I perform this experiment with a little book (or booklet) called How to Change the World.

It was already available earlier in PDF in both A4 and Letter formats. But people have been asking for Kindle and paper versions. And where there’s demand, there should be supply. So here it is…

Order How to Change the World on Kindle.

Order How to Change the World in Paperback.

The new booklet is based on my popular How to Change the World presentation, which I’ve been performing all over Europe. (And soon in the Americas and on other continents.)

Some people have already asked me for permission to make Japanese and French versions. I’m happy to oblige. Contact me if you have similar interesting suggestions. :-)