Circle of Control

Last year, during one of my coaching sessions, I wrote a short description of the well-known topic of Circle of Control / Circle of Influence.  I first came across this in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and more recently as the Zorro Circle from The Happiness Advantage.  Essentially it's a way of removing clutter and bringing back control to your life - personal and professional. I'm posting the exercise here as a reminder to myself, for future reference.

Exercise Description

People often worry about a hundred and one things, clogging up their mind-space with things that really shouldn't be there.

Try this for an exercise:

Write down all the things that are bugging you, annoying you, or causing you to stress over.

Then carefully look at each item moving each one to one of two lists:

1) Within my circle of control

2) Outside my circle of control

When you sorted your list out into these two columns - you can

1) Ignore and send all those outside your control to the trash!! And...Feel the relief!

2) Work on the things within your control, set priorities, and try to focus on one small win at a time.

Your circle of control is basically the things you have direct responsibility for, that you have the power to change, and improve.Outside your circle of control are basically stuff that is outside your hands, someone else's responsibility, nothing you can do to change it - i.e. you cannot influence, or effect change in any way, shape or form, so why bother??

Good Luck!!

The New One Minute Manager Snippets

I just completed reading The New One Minute Manager, written in the form of a short-story about how a young man goes in search for inspiration on a management philosophy, the one minute manager way. I found this little book quite insightful, and thus decided to capture the snippets in this post so I can always refer back to it when needed. The authors, Blanchard & Johnson encourage their readers to share with others.

I cannot say that I've practised this particular method, however, I have used the techniques of feedback and redirects, although not consistently, in some of the projects I manage. You don't have to be a line manager, anyone in a leadership position can implement these techniques, and I find it especially appealing in the context of project management, where I have moved more to meeting with individuals on a one-on-one basis (owners and managers that report to my project stream), than having those big round-table status-update meetings, that wastes a lot of time and limits engagement. 

If you get the chance, please read this book, otherwise, checkout these snippets that convey the core message of this One Minute Manager technique. I hope you find it as interesting as I have!

Let's start with a highly apt Dilbert strip, from my daily calendar, that so happens to be the same day as writing this post :-)

One Minute Manager In a Nutshell

Some Powerful Anecdotes

All these are extract quotes from the book, courtesy of the authors Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson:

The Amazon Way

I recently completed The Amazon Way by John Rossman, a book that extols the 14 leadership principles that drives Amazon as a company, as well as each and every employee lives and breathes each principle daily. In this book, John uses real life experiences and stories from his Amazon days, I always appreciate such war stories with concrete examples linking back to real-world experience.

These principles resonated a lot with me (I could identify and think of personal experiences/tendencies relating to all fourteen, I wouldn't have minded working in Amazon!), and so I decided to write each principle down so that I can remember them better, even though these principles exist as part of the Amazon Careers site here.

I find writing things down helps me remember things better than reading does, here's the 14 Leadership principles:

1. Obsess Over the Customer

Leaders at Amazon start with the customer and work backwards, seeking continually to earn and keep the customer's trust. Although leaders pay attention to their competitors, they obsess over their customers.

2. Take Ownership of Results

Leaders at Amazon are owners. They think long term, and they don't sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They never sat, "That's not my job." They act on behalf of the entire company, not just their own team.

3. Invent and Simplify

Leaders at Amazon expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify the processes they touch. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by "not invented here" thinking. And they ate willing to innovate fearlessly despite the fact that they may be misunderstood for a long time.

4. Leaders are Right - A lot

Leaders at Amazon are right -- not always, but a lot.  They have strong business judgement, and they spread that strong judgement to others through the utter clarity with which they define their goals and the metrics they use to measure success.

5. Hire and Develop the Best

Leaders at  Amazon raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion.  They recognise exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organisation.  Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others.

6. Insist on the Highest Standards

Leaders at Amazon set high standards -- standards that many people consider unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver an ever-increasing level of quality. Leaders also ensure that the few defects that elude the quality process do no get sent down the line, and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

7. Think Big

Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders at Amazon create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for big new ways to serve customers.

8. Have a Bias for Action

Leaders at Amazon value calculated risk taking.  Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study.  So when you are in doubt, try something -- and take advantage of the opportunities that being the first in the field can offer.

9. Practice Frugality

A leader at Amazon tries not to spend money on things that don't matter to customers.  Frugality breeds resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention.  No extra points are awarded for headcount or budget size.

10. Be Vocally Self-Critical

Leaders at Amazon do not consider themselves, or their teams, above criticism.  They benchmark themselves against the best, and they are proactive about revealing problems or mistakes, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing.

11. Earn the Trust of Others

Leaders at Amazon are sincerely open-minded, genuinely listen, and examine their own strongest convictions with humility.  Their openness enables them to trust those around them -- and to earn the trust of others in return.

12. Dive Deep

Leaders at Amazon operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, and audit them frequently.  No task is beneath them, because they know that only a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of a process can really uncover opportunities and solve problems before they become insurmountable.

13. Have a Backbone -- Disagree and Commit

Leaders at Amazon have conviction.  They are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting; they do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion.  But once a decision is made, they commit to it wholeheartedly.

14. Deliver Results

Leaders at Amazon focus on the key outputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion.  Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

What's your thinking style?

Pic Source: Daily Telegraph

I came across this exercise recently from one of my holiday reading, Socrates' Way by Ronald Gross, that I thought it useful to share with others.  

I have always had a personal bias to IQ testing, especially the ones when applying for a job, HR puts you through a battery of tests, aimed at gauging one's IQ / Intelligence. Google & Microsoft too, up until a few years back, used brainteasers & other puzzles to sift out candidates at interview stages... 

So I've always had a natural aversion and impatience to these tests because I didn't feel comfortable with one number to be associated as a measure of me, my whole self...and thus resisted & challenged the point of such tests for the workplace...

The IQ test was supposed to measure your capacity to think and learn and therefore predict your success in school (and the workplace). However, contemporary psychologists have debunked this whole idea of a single capacity called intelligence. You have no one but at least seven intelligences, according to Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner:

• Linguistic intelligence
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
• Spatial intelligence
• Musical intelligence
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
• Intrapersonal intelligence (knowing yourself)
• Interpersonal intelligence (knowing other people)

Simple Exercise to pinpoint some of your Strengths

Circle/Note the numbers of these descriptions that you fell apply to you:

1. You easily remember nice turns of phrase or memorable quotes and use them deftly in conversation.
2. You sense quickly when someone you are with is troubled about something.
3. You are fascinated by scientific and philosophical questions like "When did time begin?"
4. You can find your way around a new area or neighbourhood very quickly.
5. You are regarded as quite graceful and rarely feel awkward in your movements when learning a new sport or dance.
6. You can sing on key.
7. You regularly read the science pages of your newspaper and look at magazines on science and technology.
8. You note other people's errors in using words or grammar, even if you don't correct them.
9. You often can figure out how something works or how to fix something that's broken without asking for help.
10. You can readily imagine how other people play the roles they do in their work or families and imaginatively see yourself in their roles.
11. You can remember in detail the layout and landmarks of places you've visited on vacations.
12. You enjoy music and have favourite performers.
13. You like to draw.
14. You dance well.
15. You organise things in your kitchen, bathroom, and at your desk according to categories and in patterns.
16. You feel confident in interpreting what other people do in terms of what they are feeling.
17. You like to tell stories and are considered a good storyteller.
18. You sometimes enjoy different sounds in your environment.
19. When you meet new people, you often make connections.
20. You feel you have a keen sense of what you can and can't do.

If all three descriptions of these trios apply to you, you probably are strong in that intelligence, even if you haven't cultivated it:

• 1, 8, 17: linguistic intelligence
• 6, 12, 18: musical intelligence
• 3, 7, 15: logical-mathematical intelligence
• 4, 11, 13: spatial intelligence
• 5, 9, 14: bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
• 10, 16, 20: intrapersonal intelligence (knowing yourself)
• 2, 10, 19:  interpersonal intelligence (knowing others)

When I did the exercise, I'd circled: 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20.

Bringing it to the workplace

I have come across the Socratic Method which was used by Eli Goldratt in his Theory of Constraints books (I've got one last book of his to read), and hence started to study the method in more detail, to learn and adapt my own way of thinking, apply the methods to my work and life situations, and use it as tool in my day-to-day consulting engagements and coaching sessions. The agile coaching community also refer deeply to the Socratic Method of asking questions, not providing solutions - and it all starts with knowing one's self. If you know yourself, then you'll be aware of your own strengths & weaknesses, as well as being able to at least relate to others.

In the workplace, we often work with teams - and in the agile methods - we aspire to work in self organising, cross-functional teams. As a leader (Scrum Master, Manager, etc.) it is essential to know the dynamics of the team, right down to individual character strengths and motivational values...why not try this exercise with your whole team?? It's bound to shed new light on things?

Review: Agile! The Good, the Hype and the Ugly

In October, I spent some time in the company of Bertrand Meyer, author of "Agile!: The Good, the Hype and the Ugly". This book was written to be an independent, impartial and objective study of the various agile methods (scrum, xp, lean, crystal) viewed against the knowledge-base of software engineering methods and principles. The author, being no stranger to software engineering, is well-known in the computer world, across both academia and industry. He took it upon himself to do the research, investigate the agile landscape breadth-and-depth, probing assertions, practices, principles and values using a scientific (and empirical) approach with searching questions, thus providing an overall assessment. This wasn't purely an academic exercise, Meyer walked the path of agile himself, is even a certified as a Scrum Master, his team are using selected methods of agile in their own product development, so it's not like Meyer is throwing the baby out with the bath water! On the contrary, Meyer tries to remain objective, unbiased and fair in his reporting and analysis.

This book may just as well be the first book to read if you're a software manager, entering the agile-space, who's potentially feeling uncomfortable with perhaps some misplaced(?) "baggage" of software engineering, old-school-style projects, as touted by some agilists. Meyer has done almost all the background work for you, covering and assessing the popular agile methods in play today.

I was quite intrigued by the book's title, who wouldn't be!!?? You must admit it is quite EDGY, axe-to-grind, in-your-face-daring-the-agile-pundits - agilistas. I just HAD to get my hands on a copy, I actually waited a long time to buy this book (due to the bad Rand/Dollar exchange rate). I have voraciously read most of the popular books on agile (Schwaber, Cohn, Poppendieck, Rubin, Appelo, Pichler, Derby et. al, you name it), that extol this new thing "agile", often claiming a silent revolution is coming to overtake the industry, that "Software Engineering" should belong to the annals of history, and instead welcome "Software Craftsmanship" as in.  And when I read these signature-series books, I do get caught up in the rush-of-it-all, excited, converted and have actually been a promoter for #agile for ten+ years...I was caught hook, line and sinker!

Then when I came across "Agile! The Good, the Hype and the Ugly" written by a person very well respected in the industry, I had to ask myself, if I may have actually fallen for some hype, maybe I didn't ask probing questions, without having empirical data to substantiate claims. I wanted to find out if I was potentially backing the wrong horse, wanted to check some of my own values, personal-biases or not, of software engineering experiences held weight or not, but most important, the title being so catchy, I was rather curious to find out what the "Hype & Ugly" bits of agile this book claimed were...

Since my background in software is in embedded systems (Set-Top-Box systems) and highly-available-systems (Real-Time-Streaming/Encryption-Services) I grew up with the scientific engineering mindset (BSc. Electronics Engineering & Masters Computer Science), so I often found myself being selective with vanilla Scrum and had in the past, cautioned people against following a particular agile method with extreme dogma, i.e. I maintained a certain amount of discipline and structure was always needed. This is primarily because of the particular domain-experience I was coming from, which wasn't high-level application non-critical development (Mobile apps, WebApps, Websites), or application development that relied on a stable SDK/engines (i.e. the expectation of a stable operating system, database, etc upon which to build applications on top of).

This book, in my view, should be essential reading for any software manager, looking to understand agile methods before diving head-first into a vanilla, textbook-implementations.

For people convinced about agile to-the-letter, this book will be a little edgy for you - one needs a cool head, and openness to accept some of the challenges that Meyer puts forward, especially when it comes to backing up assertions of values/practices/principles or citations of productivity-gains, without sound scientific and empirical data to back up those claims.  Meyer highlights such challenges from some of the books that I myself have held in high esteem for many years, so take it on the chin...

Meyer's style of writing is somewhat academic, factual, but also practical with some nerdy-humour thrown in-between. Meyer has written with sincerity, remained as open-and-unbiased-as-humanly-possible, and made a conscious effort not to promote his own personal projects, products and frameworks. Meyer cuts to the core of uncomfortable-but-some-relevant truths, especially challenging assertions and statements that lack scientific validation, or backed up by empirical studies. He writes with a depth of experience and passion for practical software methods that it forces you to think hard about the course you're on, the things you just accepted and may have taken for granted (e.g. forgoing necessary engineering practices such as a little bit of design up-front to support changing requirements).

You have to be patient with Meyer as he unpacks in some surgical, analytical detail the various topics, in fact, the selling point of the book's title, is actually left right till the last chapter, so you have to read from start-to-finish, because the essence of the Hype, Ugly, Good & Brilliant is saved for the end (building upon his arguments and case-points from the earlier chapters).

I was taken on a roller coaster ride, experiencing moments of pure resonance thinking I am on the same wavelength as this guy riding high, in-phase. Yet also, there were instances when I felt a little edgy, somewhat uncomfortable, noticeably shifting my position as I lay in bed reading at night. Stopping, putting the book aside, to sleep over it. [I am two+ years into consulting as a Systems & Software Engineering Management consultant, doing the odd agile coaching gig here and there, advising on agile systems processes - and here is Meyer taking issue with consultants!]

In keeping with my deep-review style for special books - topics struck certain nerves, either resonating (fully in agreement with Meyer) or feeling of discomfort (not sure, not convinced), so I graphed the below curve, which is how I resonated with Meyer's assertions in the last chapter, specifically the edgy bits: Meyer's UGLY & HYPED assertions:

The blue area shows the feel-good, things that resonated with me, the extent of which I agreed and was comfortable with the ideas. The amber spots show the areas that made me feel uncomfortable, my level of discomfort, that either I'm not convinced, or have some personal biases that's potentially blinding me from seeing the points. On the whole though, resonance wins over discomfort.

[Aside: Here is Meyer's blog post introducing why he wrote this book, you'll find detail about the book's table of contents too]

Here's the detail of these comments, for each topic - In what follows, read as:
Title, Level of Resonance, Level of Discomfort, Comments

The Bad and the Ugly parts of Agile