Stuff we’ve been thinking lately
by Jurgen Appelo I recently participated in a MIX Hangout interview at Hack Management. One of the questions Polly LaBarre asked me was, “What’s your opinion about meetings?” Well, that question is easy. If you don’t like a meeting, don’t attend. That’s my humble opinion. When a meeting organizer wants people to attend, she should...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte The future is a great thing. We will celebrate our holidays on Mars, there will be a pill that instantly cures hangovers and we will all live to be a 120. Oh, and we will still have to work. But what will we look like as employees? (I won’t be an employee...
Read moreby Jurgen Appelo Note: At the time this article was written the company that owns Management 3.0 was called Happy Melly One. It has since evolved to the Happy Melly Group A few years ago we launched an experiment, the Happy Melly community. The business network was founded because we want to make the world...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte On this blog I often write about how to be a great boss, or I give a million tips for better management. What I almost never write about is HR. But after I read an article on Forbes by Liz Ryan called Do We Still Need Human Resources? I realized HR is...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Trusting people, leading by example, delegating important things, not falling into the micromanagement trap, it sounds as the right thing to do. And it looks surprisingly easy, too. Especially when you read an inspiring blog post about it. But it’s a lot harder in practice when the stress of deadlines and demanding...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte A while ago I wrote about the organization of the future and what role the employee would play in it. The conclusion: Companies need creative and innovative people and in order to keep them, they need to make all those workers Happy Melly’s. But how does motivating employees work? This article called...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Horrible tasks, we all have them. And nothing is more human than putting them off. (Even if you aren’t real, believe me.) ‘I’ll do them tomorrow. Or next week.’ And before you know it, your deadline is way past or, even worse; the work has accumulated to Mount Doom size proportions. So...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte There are almost as many leadership traits as there are managers out there. And obviously: about as much management styles. It means that there are a lot of bad bosses around too. (Want to be a good boss? I wrote about that right here.) It’s clear that bad bosses are bad for people....
Read moreby Vasco Duarte For a lot of people, being happy at work depends how well they do their jobs. At the same time: As many people struggle with the one thing that defines whether a working day sucks or turns out great: productivity. So, while procrastinating, I ran into an article by Hannah Whittenly and I did...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Last week my ghostwriter and I had a heated discussion about offices. On this blog we always write about remote working, and we tell people that work is ‘something you do, not a place you go to’. (Our lovely board member Lisette even wrote The Ultimate Recipe For Remote Working) And then that loser...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Getting the best out of your people isn’t always easy. And for many managers (as well as workers) tips are always welcome. So when I read Victor Lipman’s article 5 Simple Ways To Bring Out The Best In Your People on Forbes, I wanted to share it with you guys. So here...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Why are there sooooo many terrible bosses? Hmm, tough one. One reason is that in hierarchical organizations, the only way is often up. Which is rather strange. Because the better you become at something, the bigger the chance you will become a manager. And being an excellent developer doesn’t mean you have...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte It’s a romantic idea, I’ve always thought: 10.000 hours of practice and you’ll turn into a professional. Good for me, I can go on 24/7. So it’d only take me about a year and a half to become an expert, I already looked for legal ways to change my name into Happy...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte When it comes to basic needs, I’m wired different than other people. Internet, for instance, is way more important for me than breathing, food, water and all other interesting things we know from Maslow’s pyramid. Also, it’s the only place I exist, so how’s that for a basic need? On that same...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Sometimes the life of an imaginary entity is rather easy. I never have to say ‘no’ to chocolate. If things get too busy, I can work 24/7. And I never have to negotiate my salary for the simple reason that I don’t get one. Of all the peculiar things of mankind, the...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte Although starting a new challenge is always great, the first couple of days at a new company often are not. New employee orientation usually is made up on the go. As a result, people can feel quite lost. As a friend of mine once told me, “You have no clue about what...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte It’s an important topic in a lot of companies: Who gets to decide what? Democratic decision-making sounds like an interesting plan, and it is. But only as long as the company stays small, it often doesn’t work in bigger companies. If you are looking for a new approach, maybe this blog post...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte I don’t know about you guys, but in times of stress I have (not so) quietly called one or two of my most hierarchical managers a ‘baboon’. And after seeing this video starring Dr. Robert Sapolski and some political savvy baboons, I realized I was right all the time. Sapolski has been...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte We believe that good management shouldn’t be just about practices, but even more about principles. Management 3.0 for instance isn’t a ‘method’. It’s a concept. On the other hand, in order to learn how to do things, people need concrete practices. Things they can work on, starting next Monday. One of those...
Read moreby Vasco Duarte *Ping* Ah, email. And a good one at that: my friend Robie Wood with a great story. Robie works at showVALUE, a company that specializes in agile management, training and other stuff like that. With 31 years of solid experience, he’s an old hand in the business. Anyway, he recently read Jurgen...
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