Author Archives: Ed

Trust in U.S. institutions is at all time lows in 2023. 26% of people have faith in 9 major U.S. institutions in 2023, down from about 40% in 2003 – says Gallup, who has been measuring this since 1979. Small … Continue reading →

This is a story about learning, enabling bureaurcracies, power, incentives and influence. It will unfold over several weeks. Enjoy! Angelo is an agile coach. Angelo started as a quality engineer on his team who built internal tools. He read a … Continue reading →

While running today, I was thinking about various models out there that describe leadership and change in human systems. I was reacting to an old post by Martin Fowler where he criticized bimodal models of IT as a false dichotomy … Continue reading →

In a surprising way, the pandemic has shown me what I valued underneath the technicolor zebra stripe of my google calendar. The connections I have with family and friends. I laughed a year ago when I watched the Portlandia episode “Cancel it” … Continue reading →

I’m getting involved with Zerobase. They are building a 100% private contact tracing app, to preserve our civil liberties AND flatten the curve. It’s exciting, because the speed and self organization of this organization feels different. They have built the … Continue reading →

My notes from Sam Harris’ New Future of Work podcast interviewing Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg of wordpress.org. This is a wordpress site, btw. Level 1 – Working Physically together Watching the clock, staying there, bosses to look over someone’s shoulder. … Continue reading →

As I mentioned before, I loved Chris Voss’s book “Never Split the Difference“. So much of life is a negotiation. As an agile coach, I’m trying to get adults to change ingrained behavior. As a parent, I’m trying to influence … Continue reading →

I’ll often use this sheet to prepare for negotiation. It’s from Getting More. The most useful concept from this book is the idea that each sides values things differently, and unequally. If you can uncover those, you might be willing … Continue reading →

Like the Baader Meinhoff Phenomenon, when I read a book about something, I start to see everything as related to that book. I recently read the book Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz, and this book … Continue reading →