In Defense of Frederick Taylor with Christine Li
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Backstory I am closing in on 30 years of work in Project Management and for most of that time, I, like many of you, have been talking smack about Frederick Taylor. My opinions were based on the things I learned from others along the way and were (obviously) deeply informed by moving from traditional PM over to Agile. As far as I was concerned, this guy was the birth of work misery. But over the past few years, I’ve started to develop this weird compulsion to stick up for the good bits that came out of his work. I mean, literally, no one working in project management or agile would have a job without this guy. You can also make an argument that without him the United States never would have made it through WWII. Even though I was willing to have Taylor’s back in an argument, there was one thing missing… I had never actually read his work. CUE ALL THE PM SHAME!
(And I really want to go back in time and get hired as SPEED BOSS) After reading it, I was at a lunch and happened to mention my newfound Taylor Fanboy-ness and Christine Li showed up like Yoda, deep with the PM history geek. She took me to school and that is where this conversation starts. My hope is that even if you think Frederick Taylor is the Sauron of Project Management, you’ll give this a listen. Maybe it will challenge your understanding of him and his work. Maybe it will (I hope) entice you to read his work. And even if you’ve read his work and can see the good in it, the things Christine shares will level up your understanding as well. I am very grateful to her for making time for this. It was a really fun conversation. drunkenpmradio · In Defense of Frederick Taylor w Christine Li For Further Reading
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In this episode, I am joined by a very special guest, Christine Li, for a conversation I have been waiting to record for quite a while now. 
So I did. I read The Principles of Scientific Management. And, to my shock, not only was it easy to read, but it was fun to read how this guy figured out the things he figured out. Yes, there are a few critical issues with his approach (and they are big issues), but there is a TON of good stuff in there that we all ignore because he’s such an easy target.
Growth Mindset: Success of Others w/ Mary Kaufmann
Categories:
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Carol Dweck,
Dave Prior,
drunken pm radio,
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growth mindset,
Mary Kaufmann,
reluctant agilist
Categories: , Carol Dweck, Dave Prior, drunken pm radio, drunkenpm, growth mindset, Mary Kaufmann, reluctant agilist
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In this conversation, we cover “Success of Others” and explore those with a Fixed mindset tend to view the success of others as a threat and those with a Growth mindset find inspiration from others' success. During the podcast, we both share examples of times when we’ve each reacted to the success of others from the different viewpoints, how we are able to catch ourselves when we end up in a Fixed mindset and what steps we take to move beyond that. drunkenpmradio · Growth Mindset - Success of Others w Mary Kaufmann Other Episodes in our Growth Mindset Series Links
Contacting Mary
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In Carol Dwek’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she explains the difference between a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset. Earlier this year, a colleague of mine, Mary Kaufman and I began recording a series of podcasts on the five stages of growth outlined in the book. Unfortunately, Mary moved on to a new gig before we got the fifth stage posted. So, we re-recorded the conversation and it’s going up live here at drunkenpm to help complete the stages. Kanban Metrics with Troy Lightfoot
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Troy also has a few ProKanban Certification classes coming up. In the back half of the interview, he explains what to expect if you sign up for a Professional Kanban 1 (PK1) Certification class or his Applying Metrics for Predictability (AMP) Certification class.
drunkenpmradio · Kanban Metrics with Troy Lightfoot Troy’s Upcoming Classes
Links from the Podcast
Contacting Troy
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This episode features Troy Lightfoot who is a Business Agility Coach and Consultant as well as a Professional Kanban Trainer. The interview starts with a discussion about the basic differences between Scrum and Kanban and then digs into four of the metrics recommended in the Kanban Guide. We cover WIP, Throughput, Work Item Age, and Cycle Time, talking through what each of these is, the value these metrics provide, why they are so much more valuable than simply looking at something like velocity, and what these metrics can do to help you develop a better level of predicting when work is likely to finish and how they can show you and your team ways to identify and address the things that are holding you back from delivering value for your client.The Agile Coaching Income Report with Jessica Katz
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Jessica Katz is an Agile Coach and Trainer who is on a mission to help the community of Agile Coaches "...empower ourselves with better rates and more appropriate rates." When she became a freelance Agile Coach Jessica became aware of how difficult it was to understand how much an Agile Coach could expect to make as a full-time employee, how much they could charge as freelance, and how much those freelance coaches were paying themselves for the work they do. The first edition of The Agile Coaching Report came out last year and she recently finished collecting data for the second version. Since then she's been hard at work sorting through the details she has collected. During the interview, she shares some of the key learnings she has had in working with the data. This includes things like which segments of the coaching demographic get paid more, how do race and gender impact your pay, who is better at negotiating salary, and factors that can influence the amount you can earn as a coach. She also shares stories about how individuals have been able to use this data to successfully negotiate being paid at a rate equal to their peers within the organization. The audience for the report is anyone working in a coaching capacity within Agile Teams, on an Agile Transformation or Change Management project and it includes a variety of related information like how much people are getting paid for public speaking, as well as common attributes of those paid the most. If you are trying to figure out whether the amount you are earning is in step with the rest of the coaching field, if you need help figuring out how to negotiate for a higher rate of pay, or if you want to know if you are paying your coaches enough, this interview with Jessica Katz on her Agile Coaching Income Report has the details you are looking for. drunkenpmradio · The Agile Coaching Income Report with Jessica Katz The Agile Coaching Income ReportYou can download a copy of the 2021 Agile Coaching Income Report here: Keep an eye out for the 2022 Agile Coaching Income Report on Jessica's website https://liberatedelephant.com Ladies Get PaidDuring the interview Jessica mentions Ladies Get Paid (https://ladiesgetpaid.com), which can be a very valuable resource for anyone (not just women) who needs to get better at negotiating salary. Contacting Jessicaif you'd like to reach out to Jessica directly
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How to Run a Lean Coffee with Derek Huether
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This interview is also available in an audio-only format. You can find that here: https://bit.ly/3Fe45Iq In April 2014, Derek Huether started leading a monthly Lean Coffee meeting for Agile Baltimore. Early in 2022, the group will hold its 100th Lean Coffee! In celebration of that, Derek joined me for an interview all about Lean Coffee - what is it, how does it work, how to get set up to run one, and what are the benefits of leading a Lean Coffee. If you aren’t familiar with Lean Coffee it is an agenda-less meeting format developed by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith that relies on the people who show up to collaborate on the agenda and then cover them together. Even if you are a seasoned Lean Coffee veteran you will probably find valuable ideas here. Both Derek and I came away from this conversation with new things to try out. Also, at the end of the podcast, there is an additional brief conversation about Jira. Derek works for Atlassian and he shares a number of resources that you and your team can use to get answers to all your Jira questions. 1:00 Who is Derek Huether Links from the podcast
Contacting Derek
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