A while back, I had the opportunity to hear Mary Poppendieck speak at the BayAPLN. I just spotted the Agile 2007 90min video+slides version of it and had to watch it again. Of particular interest to me were the case studies. I was already aware of the Toyota Production System, how it focuses managers on [...]

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Companies can sometimes be pretty indiscriminate with their policies and decisions. I’m all for the pursuit of the greater good but I feel this is sometimes confused for the pursuit of a one-size-fits-all. Decrees can be very useful last-resorts to get an organization to take needed action or to implement new legislation. However a common [...]

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Reward and incentive structures are often designed around the performance results that are relevant to the business of the enterprise. One reason for this is that everyone can see and easily measure the bottom line. While this will often be a necessary input, it is nowhere near sufficient to result in high levels of productivity. [...]

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At the recent Agile Leadership Summit in San Francisco, I had the good fortune to meet and listen to a number of like-minded people that I hope to continue to learn from. One of these was Pollyanna Pixton.
In her presentation she addressed the question of how to hire and promote The Right People. She summarized these [...]

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