People are not resources

I know it, you know it.

Or do we?  please read  Janusz Gorycki great post about it.

http://agilesoftwaredevelopment.com/blog/janusz-gorycki/livestock

Keep your promise

This seems obvious but why is it so important? And why tend people to make promises they can’t keep? Let’s take a look at it and I hope it will help you and me to make sure we really keep our given promises.

What happens when we make a promise?
We give a person hope and expectation and the other person starts to look forward to the promise.

Why do some people make promises they can’t keep?
The why is direct connected to what happens; it is a great feeling when someone is happy about the promise you made, they get excited and build expectations and starts looking forward to it.
This is short time rewards.

Every time you break a promise you loose trust and respect.

The long time reward is trust and respect, to build that you need to keep your promises.

Note! A lot of people likes to look forward to things so don’t stop making promises, just take it very seriously.

Please help me on this one by make sure you do your best to keep your promises and help me and others with feedback when we don’t keep them.

Thank you Stephen R. Covey for the book:
7 habits of highly effective people

Just Say Thanks

Thank you Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising for your book.

Fearless Change

Patterns for introducing new ideas

This is a great book about introducing ideas written in the pattern format.
Changes will always be hard but this book will for sure help you in your work.

The book covers 48 named patterns and as I see it, many of the patterns is to a great use in many situations in life not only in the “introducing ideas” area.

One example is the pattern “Just Say thanks “
“To show your appreciations, say Thanks in the most sincere way you can to everyone who helps you“

I could go on and on with things from the book, but I will instead recommend you to read it.

And don’t forget to:

Make it a habit to, appreciate help.
Make it a habit to, always say thanks.

Thank you for reading

Here is a link to amazons :Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas

Web page for the book:

http://www.cs.unca.edu/~manns/intropatterns.html

Linda Rising:
http://www.lindarising.org/

Mary Lynn Manns:
http://www.cs.unca.edu/~manns/

Book recommendation: Presentation Zen

Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)

I love this kind of conceptual books this have really open my eyes of the difference in a good and a bad presentations.

Site recommendation: Free stock photography site

Free stock photography site:
http://www.sxc.hu/

Great site when you don’t have any budget for your images.

Since I got this link I have found myself start looking here every time I need a photo for a presentation.

Enjoy!

Marry Christmas

Gingerbread house, castle

I had a nice and creative time with my children, doing a gingerbread house.

Thinking afterwards that this could be done as a nice and creative team activity, so next time arranging any activity with a team in December give it a thought.

I thinking of giving a team some context, 1/2 day, material, and some hot drinks:-)

Marry Christmas

Funny scrum videos

Retrospective Karaoke

Have fun

(warning  this is only fun in the “scrum” software world).

Thanx to Patrick Debois posting this at the yahoo Retrospective group.