Content drop for the week ending 12/25

Here are a few of the things that I’ve read/watched this week that I’ve found interesting and think that others might find useful. As always, this concept is largely borrowed (purloined?) from the InfoSec blog posts that Bill Sempf does.

• The Rise and Fall of Getting things Done - Super crunchy article on personal productivity. The one thing that really sticks out to me is the concept of new items becoming “open loops” that occupy head space until resolved. Feels like another view into how we need to manage our personal WIP to be productive.

• I really like this list of 20 questions Scrum Master’s should ask teams when they join though I would probably ask the question about the three biggest challenges the team faces first and drive into the rest from there.

• Good HBR article around motivating teams by not using sticks and carrots. The last part here (checking your own motivations) is also super important.

• Here’s some more advice on motivating teams by Bob Galen. The concept of showing up is critical but is exceedingly difficult due to in the remote world we now live in.

• The Velocity Trap is a good presentation on Outcomes over Outputs by Brad Nelson who I have the pleasure of working with.