Alexis Monville from the Red Hat Engineering Leadership team joins me to talk about his experiences leading, developing and changing teams. He’s also the author of a new book: Changing Your Team From The Inside. Conversation Highlights Alexis helps engineering teams at Red Hat be more efficient in systematic ways Alexis’ passion for open source software development and how it ties into his work Team members often know something needs to change, but they rarely think it’s them that needs to change Teams are often really good at “resisting” so being told to change by an outside party rarely works Using “visioning” in retrospectives Positive ways to turn retrospective discussions into real change The importance of assigning specific owners to a new team processes or responsibilities The value of checklists How to engage people in games or activities they don’t want to participate in The importance of believing in what you are doing as a leader The tension between what people want and what they think is possible How large a team can be and still effectively change The percentage of times large scale change works vs. fails Every member of the team is responsible for changing things Asking “how?” instead of “why?” leads to more progress Addressing the “dysfunctions of teams” in remote (geographically disbursed) contexts Helping people come together as a team vs. a “group of individuals” Getting personal with each other The value of empathy Success using empathy maps Helps to create a three dimensional avatar or persona A very constructive way to draw out disparity across a team’s perspectives Waterfall software development Our natural inclination to think in terms that are too black and white (polarization) Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday and how it relates to changing teams from the inside Creating better self-awareness for ourselves Not getting in the way of our own progress Self-awareness is a very key aspect to initiating change Start enacting change now with small experiments Alexis’ parting challenge Pick one thing Start and do something now to invest in yourself or your team Suggested Books The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) by Chade-Meng Tan Changing Your Team From The Inside by Alexis Monville Contact Alexis Monville Linkedin: Alexis Monville Twitter: @alexismonville Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin M
Summer 2018 was a busy time with lots of trips, continuous learning and new ways to grow. Highlights & Links The importance of systems to maintain consistency No Excuses My process for creating solo episodes Always keep the recording running and fix it later “John, how are you going to fix this process in the future so that these monthly recaps really happen?” Repeating cards in Trello What’s my “why”? What values am I honoring? Attending Conferences Bigger Game Live with Rick Tamlyn Met up with Anthony and Amy Ongaro of Break the Twitch Conversation with Nancy Jamieson about Manifesting Meditation challenge — Insight Timer App Craft and Commerce by Convertkit Shanté Cofield — The Movement Maestro Amber Dugger — Improve Your Relationship with Money Casey Neistat / Creating your own board of advisors Dave Stuart Jr — Experiential Learning Creating an unbreakable chain of daily habits Meditation Daily journaling with the Five Minute Journal Teaching PUGS Podcasting Jumpstart Course PUGS Workshop Development course is recommended Pursuing additional coaching opportunities at Red Hat Presenting to my previous team Pushing the envelope Getting positive and negative feedback Building a business and expanding your reach will likely result in doing things that some people don’t like Are you really trying hard enough if everyone likes your stuff? Fully putting yourself out there has a higher chance of connecting with people and getting negative feedback Being out the lookout for and knowing the signs of when you need to push through or take a break Response rates are slower in the summer Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod Original photo source All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 62: Summer 2018 Learnings appeared first on John Poelstra.
Enjoy this wide ranging conversation with author, singer, business owner and entrepreneur, Kathy Jorsch. Conversation Highlights John and Kathy met via Rick Tamlyn’s VIP Mastermind in January 2018 What it’s like to write a novel Different businesses Kathy has started and run Love of tennis The power of talking to yourself in the first person High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way by Brendon Burchard The value of truly listening to yourself The things on Kathy’s vision board and what they possibly mean The importance of travel and getting beyond the places you already know Kathy’s advice to start changing your life Create your own vision board Journal Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod Original photo source All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 61: Getting to Know Kathy Jorsch appeared first on John Poelstra.
It’s easy to get stuck in the past, and yet there’s not much it gives us. Here’s an encouragement to live in the present and look to the future. Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod Original photo source All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 60: Setting a Present and Future Focus appeared first on John Poelstra.
In this conversation with Dave Stuart Jr we explore teaching, experiential learning, leadership and so much more. Dave is a 9th grade teacher who writes a popular blog and authors books about being an effective teacher. His latest book is called These 6 Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most (and you should buy it today). Conversation Highlights There’s more to life than just being a teacher–investing your entire life into being a teacher is not sustainable Dave figured out ways to be in an effective teacher within a regular work schedule How Dave got into blogging and eventually became a published author Solving a problem you have yourself helps you solve it for others Investing in things that are timeless Time, practice, persistence and grit Most teachers do not make it past five years because of burn out This creates a deficit of experienced teachers Success as a teacher is not doing everything, it is providing a solid learning experience for the students enabling long term flourishing While it’s important to “own all your stuff” you also have to “lead” yourself and others somewhere too Dictating vs. facilitating vs. leading in a particular direction Experiential learning makes stuff stick in a way that “sit and git” doesn’t “Parenting is teaching someone to do life” Teaching kids how to argue well by being earnest and amicable Kids can’t Google what they believe–they have to figure it out Belief under girds motivation People who believe in our abilities are more likely to benefit from the experience of learning from us Positive ways to teach kids public speaking Find ways to encourage and help the teachers you know John’s Favorite Terms From Dave “Sit and get” “Turn and talk” “Think, pair, share” Affinity, opportunity and ability More about Dave Stuart Jr Dave Stuart Jr.com Get Dave’s new book These 6 Things: How to Focus Your Teaching on What Matters Most Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 59: Better Ways of Learning with Dave Stuart Jr appeared first on John Poelstra.
This short riff considers what it might look like to live a life of “no excuses.” This idea was inspired by a story about Navy SEAL training combined with thoughts I had while writing out a list of things I believe involving ownership. Links My manifesto How to not make excuses and take extreme ownership with Kylon and Teliah Gienger on the Successful Dropout Podcast Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod Original photo source All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 58: No Excuses appeared first on John Poelstra.
At Bigger Game Live I sat down for a conversation with Nancy Jamieson. We explore her interest in podcasting by sitting down to do just that. Over the course of our conversation we cover a variety of topics about her experiences and what she believes about how life works. Highlights Approaching people from a heartfelt space Bigger Game Live put on by Rick Tamlyn and his team Envisioning your future needs being met Manifestation–creating from a place of awareness Re-framing Being aware of what we are paying attention to Choosing how you want to show up How to read the energy of a room More about Nancy Jamieson Life Force Fulfillment Anam Cara Coaching & Consulting, LLC LinkedIn Facebook Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 57: Manifesting with Nancy Jamieson appeared first on John Poelstra.
Tina Robinson is back to delve into the often murky topic of figuring out what we want. Together we share some ways to get clearer. Discussion Notes Money is often an immediate answer and yet it doesn’t truly describe what we want Ask yourself what you believe money will give you as a way to push things deeper What does money represent to you? Freedom Security Safety The ability to play Take care of others and be of service Something else Tina’s Trader Joe’s Meltdown Moment The tension of listing out all the things you don’t want You may get more of those things you don’t want You might be doing that to avoid the harder question of getting really clear about what you DO want Do you tell yourself you are not allowed to have certain things? What or How instead of Why Writing without constraints or filters is the fastest way to get in touch with what’s going inside you The importance of making lists and building a muscle around it via James Altucher Choose Yourself (a bargain at $0.99!) Strengthening the muscle of “What I want” Practice honoring your intuition Listening the way our bodies inform us Listening to your “heart” vs. your “head” Manifesting Here are a few ways ways to figure out what you want Make a wild list of things… free write! Imagine what success looks like in a particular situation (instead of dwelling on all the things that aren’t working) Create a matrix with the left column listing skills that you are good at and across the top each, your professional experiences for the past 5-10 years) Match them up… when were you happiest? Look for roles where you were using the most of your strengths How were you feeling? what made you feel that way? leads to “What I want is to be able to use these _____ skills more.” What did you like to do when you were 12 years old? Look for ways to weave those things into your work–you probably still love them Getting clear on what you want makes it easier to weave those things into your annual goals or personal development plans at work John’s best career advancements happened when he was really really clear about what he wanted to do next He looked for ways to those things Instead of looking for what was available and deciding if I was a fit Are you struggling to identify what you want because you are afraid you might get it (fear of success)? Kids are extremely clear about what they want.. what would it look like to approach what you want from a child’s perspective? Do the 5 whats/whys exercise (wikipedia) Go for a walk with a voice recorder and just talk out about the things that pop into your mind or the things you see More on the topic of “figuring out what you want” See the previous episode: What Do You Want? (21) Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod Original photo source All songs licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
Over the past couple of months I’ve been learning by doing, living more from my heart than my head, and learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Next month I’m teaching an in-person class on how to create a podcast in Portland, Oregon, and I hope you’ll join me. Highlights and Resources Mentioned Kyle Cease — Free 2 hour movie I Hope I Screw This Up by Kyle Ceases Zoom John’s upcoming in-person podcasting course: PUGS Podcasting Jumpstart in Portland, Oregon Success is what you define it to be Commitment, not courage is the key to driving learning and new thing forward Building bigger muscles to fight the gremlins and spot their cycles so as not to take them so seriously Learning to be more comfortable with being uncomfortable CTI Coach Training Emphasizing my podcasting services more and finding out what people need–glad to talk with you too My challenge to you: be with the comfortable feelings, observe them and don’t push them away–they won’t last as long as you think. Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod Original photo source All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 55: Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable appeared first on John Poelstra.
Long time Red Hat colleague Greg DeKoenigsberg and I talk about managing our time–how we get off track and how we fight against letting it happen. Red Hat and Open Source Software In today’s world of “work” where we sit in a chair and look at a screen, it’s really easy to waste time Being on the lookout for those “tells” that give you an early-warning indicator that you’re on the path to wasting time “Fake fortification” Anxiety about our work and tasks to be completed Anxiety vs. procrastination vs. being in Flow Flow often happens when we are engaged in meaningful work Figuring out ways to get into flow states Being able to see the bigger picture of tedious work will give us Breaking things into smaller, achievable tasks Reduce the amount of time you spend comparing yourself others Accept that completing a particular task might take you six hours to complete because you break it into chunks compared to someone else that it comes naturally to Building habits around putting structures into place that protect us from doing stupid things with our time Working in time blocks (Pomodoros) was a game changer for Greg Holding back because we question whether it’s “worth it” or the best use of our time John & Greg’s geeky hacks for trying to stay focused Having your smartphone nearby is a distraction The compound affect of doing things over and over again The pros/cons of negative rewards Resources Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday LifeFlow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Tilt365 character strengths assessment (John is certified in this tool and happy to go over it with you) Pomodoro technique Sand Timers for measuring work blocks and Pomodoros Thank You For Being Late by Thomas Friedman Bullet Journaling Official Bullet Journal getting started page Lifehacker dot journaling overview Ryan McRae’s excellent resource guide to Bullet Journaling HBR: Having Your Smartphone Nearby Takes a Toll on Your Thinking Forest App Self Control website blocker for Mac Wait But Why Credits Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod Original photo source All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 54: Each Day Counts with Greg DeKoenigsberg appeared f