Async agile 1.0, is distributed agile 2.0!
This blog expands on the ideas from “The Async-First Playbook”. You can either browse through the posts using the grid below, or start at the very beginning. Alternatively, use the search bar below to find content across the site.
AI revolution at work? We're waiting!
Consumer AI is outpacing enterprise AI tools. The bigger the chasm between these experiences gets, the greater the security and engagements risks for employers.
The four most common agile fig leaves
When teams and managers forget about the values and sentiments driving the agile movement, practices become convenient fig leaves to cover up the “inanities of corporate life.” I've observed four such fig leaves most often.
Different folks, different strokes
When leading a diverse team, you can’t manage everyone the same way. Depending on their skills, experience and work styles, some people may need more managerial care for them to thrive at their jobs.
The social impact of remote work
Remote work impacts not only standard capitalist measures such as productivity and access to talent, but also social aspects.
Don't want the office? But you may need it!
Remote work is popular, but its not for everyone. Some people may do better in an office.
Why I oppose volunteerism at work
Volunteerism at work can do more harm than good. I believe that employees should steer clear of it, when possible.
The joy of being insignificant
When I look back at my life’s experiences - by accident or design - I’m glad I ended up being insignificant enough that no one misses me too much when I go away for a bit. I may not have made my dad proud, but I’m happy.
Are you organising for collaboration or chaos?
It’s easy to believe that just because people look close to each other on a Powerpoint slide, they’re setup to collaborate with each other. Real life is more complex than slideware.
Onboarding new hires to be asynchronous workers
If a new hire can join your team and start contributing asynchronously in a short time, it shows that you’re running a tight ship. This article, a repost from reworked.co, shares three patterns for effective onboarding to distributed teams.
Adopt asynchronous collaboration in your distributed team
A meeting-centric way of working on distributed teams can undermine deep work and flow, inclusion, flexible work and in the long run knowledge sharing. It also doesn’t lend itself to scale. Choosing asynchronous ways to collaborate can be an effective alternative to this meeting-centric approach. This is a repost of my article on InfoQ.
Beyond the digital exhaust
LLMs promise to make sense of a company’s unstructured information and surface meaningful information to each user. But a KM strategy that relies only on LLMs is incomplete.
The wrong kind of async
Not all asynchronous collaboration is productive. There are four ways I see teams get “async” wrong.
The remote manager's guide to one-on-one meetings
One-on-one meetings are a great way for managers to connect and manage their remote team members. Here’s a guide to run these meetings effectively.
About doing less
There’s always more to do than I’ll ever have time for. I’m sure you face similar choices in life and at work. I take a detour today, to explain why I’m doing less than I possibly can with this website and my professional presence on the web.
Starting on a new team? Write your user manual!
Personal user manuals are a way for distributed workers to broadcast information about themselves to their colleagues. While they aren’t without their pitfalls, they can be an effective way to achieve some personal and team objectives.
The survivorship bias in company stories
Survivorship, or selection bias when telling company stories, promotes an echo chamber, where the organisation becomes blind to its inadequacies.
Distributed leadership is broken. Let's fix it.
In many teams, distributed leadership is a neglected capability. People have unproductive experiences, because no one pays attention to the design of their distributed workplace.
Tools don’t matter. Tools absolutely matter.
While tools aren’t the end-all and be-all for distributed collaboration and knowledge sharing, they’re hardly trivial. Companies cannot allow their collaboration tool stack to languish. They must aim for a world-class user experience.
Showing digital empathy
When screens mediate our work relationships, we must consciously show empathy towards our coworkers. I describe opportunities for digital empathy in this article.
The dark side of remote work
All’s not well in remote work paradise. For many employees a remote work arrangement is a Faustian bargain. They have to endure the dark side of remote work.