Optimizing for our own effectiveness

One of the mistakes we make is assuming that people will make logical and rational decisions to optimize for the perfect overall outcome. People do make decisions that seem logical to them, however they do so within their own context. They do what’s right for them, not what’s optimal for the overall situation.

Risk Management

Yesterday I went on a guided hike to teach people how to safely hike through bear country. Specifically grizzy bear country. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any bears, but we did learn an amazing amount about them, and saw some spectacular glaciers and alpine terrain.

Gaming metrics

When I suggest that people will game whatever metrics we put in place, I’m often met with shocked indignation. We would never game the numbers! And yet we do.

OKR’s for Quality

The topic of OKR’s for quality have come up in multiple different contexts, across multiple clients, recently so perhaps it’s worth exploring.

Prioritization

There two different times that we need to prioritize work and we should be using completely different approaches to that prioritization, for each stage.

The big rewrite

I remember once having two back-to-back clients who had just rewritten significant systems in their environment. I asked why they’d chosen to rewrite the system from scratch rather than just fixing them as they were.

Scouting rule

We often talk about the scouting rule of “always leave the campsite cleaner than you found it”, or in a software context “always leave the code a little bit better than you found it”.

Quality

The theme for this week seems to be quality so let’s look at some different aspects of that.

Improving learning with neuroscience and LEGO

In a training, the goal is to have people learn. That should be obvious and yet we frequently see sessions where people walk out, having been entertained, but not having learned anything.