Improve something today

Facilitation

Premortem: before starting a new project, learn why it will end in failure

A simple method for uncovering big, “undiscussable” risks to a project—in order to work around them.

Continuous improvement

Merely being the person you are

The consulting advice that made me a better person (and a more effective consultant).

Facilitation

Open space technology, principle 2: “Whatever happens is the only thing that could have”

Planning for a facilitated event involves being ready to throw the plan away.

Facilitation

The Strategy / Culture Bicycle: one picture that replaces an infinite amount of bullshit

A strategy method that gets right at the good stuff.

Continuous improvement

On speeding things up

What I've learned from the hourglass and the snake.

Facilitation

How to make any meeting better with 3 simple fenceposts

Identify a purpose, rational aim, and experiential aim. It only takes a few moments and can have a huge effect.

Continuous improvement Featured

5 ways to approach goal-setting. Only one is worth a damn

Why it’s better to have an impossible goal than a goal you meet-and-exceed every time.

Continuous improvement

Ditching ‘assume good faith’ as a way to talk about respect

Time to fix problems at the source rather than tolerate awful behavior.

Continuous improvement

Optimization & other failures

“By what method?” ... “To what end?”

Learning

Lee’s Law: a URL for every idea

“Every idea should have a URL, bonus points if one does not have to make the URL oneself.”

Continuous improvement

Want water? Get a bucket. Want improvement? Get PDSA

Back to basics with the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle.

Learning

Make your next presentation a spiral, not a line

Cycling through your main point helps your audience. Here’s how.

Continuous improvement

Winning’s the great deodorant

John Madden and Ed Catmull get me through a tough week.

Facilitation Featured

End your meetings with this short, powerful question

“What did you notice?”

Learning

2 ways to get better at guessing

Try out your guesses; write them down.

Continuous improvement

Some things—like pancakes—you pretty much have to finish once you start them

Would you rather have five half-cooked pancakes or two good ones?

Facilitation

Open space technology, principle 1: “Whoever comes is the right people”

What's the use of a crowd?

Continuous improvement

A lousy time to be a good idea

“We send our hypotheses ahead, an expendable army, and watch them fall.”

Continuous improvement

How I learned to speak about changes when 19 out of 20 people would rather I shut the hell up

Nobody wants to hear it from the consultant.

Learning Featured

3-step method for learning anything

“See one, do one, teach one” ⬅️ that’s the method.

Continuous improvement

Dust off those awful process maps. Add these 3 things to them to get people thinking

Get those process maps off the shelf and turn them into something useful.

Facilitation Featured

Credit for success belongs to my clients, and blame for failures belongs to me

What I've learned in 15 years of consulting: “Remain unmoved by praise or blame.”

Continuous improvement

Options & set-based design

A lean framework for eliciting and testing out the best, weirdest ideas.

Continuous improvement

Vampires, werewolves, & the Toyota Production System

Halloween gives an excuse to think about lean folklore—the origin stories of lean as variable, performative, collective activities.

Meditation

Splitting your pants & losing your head: an introvert’s guide to facilitation

A wardrobe malfunction and a meditative moment produce a quick activity to try before your next presentation.