Stuff we’ve been thinking lately
by Vasco Duarte If you ask people what their goal is, most of them have a clear picture. They want to be good at their work, climb a mountain or lose their fear of spiders. Although I once asked a friend while he tried to drink away the reality of his shitty job and he...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Do you have the feeling your boss or your clients appreciate the work you do? And I’m not only talking about the results, but as much about the effort you put into it. When I watched this TED talk by Dan Ariely about what makes us feel good about our work, I...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte The French, they sure are a funny lot. They like to do things their own way. Heck, they even use a different word for computer just to annoy the rest of the world. At the same time they know how to live the good life. If wine hadn’t already been invented, the...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte A few weeks ago I told you guys about my friend Tuomas Syrjänen and how he struggled with the system versus the people in his company Futurice. The story ended when he realized it wasn’t the people that were stupid, but the system. That had some serious consequences. Because if it weren’t the...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte How can you change – dramatically – a government organization? Well, big organizations and flexibility, that’s not always a match made in heaven. And when it comes to big organizations, few are larger than a government. My Dutch friend Berend van Duijvenvoorde told me the story of his heroic quest for agile...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte One of the questions I often get is ‘Should we try to convince ‘old fashioned’ managers to change their ways, or should we try to support those who are already on their way?’ It’s a difficult one and I’m not sure. But quite recently I’ve heard a story that, I think, provides...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte As you probably know, I’m always looking for ways to make people happier at their work. Why? Because I believe people work better, faster and more accurate when happy. Unfortunately, some old fashioned managers look at me like I’m preaching homeopathy. As long as I don’t slap them in de face with...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Last week I was on Skype with my friend Søren Cosmus because I’d heard that at his company Valtech they use some smart tools to make their work more fun. And they do. To give some examples; they use monthly town hall meetings, have an open door policy and they have a...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Although a lot of people I know get inspiration from management courses and books, there’s one thing they often ask themselves. ‘What can I start with this Monday? And then do Tuesday?’ Personally I don’t believe in books or practices that change the world overnight. Or on a Monday afternoon, no matter...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Change is a peculiar thing. It’s always around us. In nature, in the networks we live and work in. Nothing ever seems the same and without thinking we adapt to these changes. But at the same time we often find ourselves stuck in the way we do things. Because change is uncertainty...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Sometimes you read a story that just begs to be shared. The story of Woody Zuill, a software developer who tells how his first job almost spoiled him is one of those. I won’t repeat the whole story, just read it here, but I’m going to show you some of the highlights....
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Inspired by reading The Carrot Principle by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, Gary Shepherd wanted to give people the opportunity to ‘flag up colleagues they think deserve a bit of extra recognition’. But he told me he had to tread carefully, since the Brightside Group plc – the company he works at...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte I just finished reading a blog post by Lisette Sutherland where she talks about celebrating success. Important because, in her words, it ‘acknowledged an important milestone and gave us a chance to assess the work that was done’. She compares celebrating success with climbing a mountain. Looking forward it seems endless, but...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Rob van Lanen, a Dutch consultant told me he often uses a Management 3.0 exercise called Moving Motivators. It’s a ‘game’ played with a series of cards with the intrinsic motivators on it. Motivators like freedom, honor, acknowledgment etc. Moving Motivators The game works as follows: you put the cards on a...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte A while ago Jurgen told me the story of Ivo van Halen and his colleagues at VI Company in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. After they participated in the Management 3.0 course, they decided to actively measure the happiness of everyone in the team. To make it a public thing, they painted a wall...
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