Being a coach is more than listening and giving advice

Socrates is one of my heroes from the history of philosophy. The idea of asking questions instead of giving the answers or well meant advice, has always been an inspiration to me. It might be my curious nature and that I want to know more about people and their thoughts on the world. But I have found that asking questions works really well.

"To solve a problem, it would be broken down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer you seek." [Wikipedia: Socratic Method]

The importance of questions is often mentioned in popular coaching methods and it often has the purpose of understanding a challenge or problem that someone has. It often opens up the conversation and you become an active part in the conversation instead of only being passively listening. Although this is a good conversation it is often important to ask the questions in a way that it is not possible to answer them with a simple yes or no. In this way you do not close the conversation and the person you are asking will often need to think more and differently before answering. This pulls the person out of the blind alley they were in.

If I am the one being asked the questions I feel inspired by it. There is a person that is actually listening to what I say. That person challenge me to go even deeper in my thoughts on the subject by asking all these questions that I am not able to answer with a simple yes or no. I'm forced to think and someone told me once that thinking is important.

Next time you feel compelled to give advice, maybe you should ask a question instead.

Visibility is important for motivation

People always say that visibility is important, but often they fall short when asked to give examples.

I thought I'd give you an example that is fairly obvious and can easily be tested. That's if you have a newer kin of Nokia mobile phone..

http://sportstracker.nokia.com

The sportstracker gives you a few data about your training trips, but it also give you motivation trough it's functionality.

You can have your own training buddies connected and then you can actually see what your friends have done. The application is actually quite simple using your GPS on the mobile phone and registering speed and altitude in your workout (cycling/running/walking++).

More important is the web site that creates the link between your buddies and you. This creates a sense of competition between you and your friends. I find it inspiring to see that a friend of mine has done a 10km track in an hour last night. I suddenly find myself wanting to do some running.

Maybe this can inspire you to do some of the things you do at work visible to others as well. Maybe it creates a small sense of competition and fun. Maybe it motivates you and your co-workers?

It surely motivates me! Too bad you can't use the mobile phone when swimming..

Do the rights things at the right time

Yesterday I attended the oslo xp-meetup with an expectation of hearing some inspiring thoughts on software developing using xp and agile techniques. What I did get was a very good presentation of lean startups and how to do the things that matter the most at the right time (like in xp and lean).

It was Kent Beck who presented his new ideas on what he defined as "the flight of a startup". The analogy used the different phases an aeroplane is in before it's cruising at 30.000 feet.
1. taxi
2. takeoff
3. climb
4. cruise

Kent emphasized the need to be careful about spending cash (if it was limited) in the taxi and takeoff phase. The most important issue that I noticed from my perspective was during takeoff where you actually remove functionality thats not being used because you want to get better scalability. I'd call it reduce the risk of cluttering up your good ideas with the bad ones. But as Kent said, removing features are not easy and often we tend to let them stay in there. Another interesting statement from the re-inventor of TDD was that you should ALWAYS track usage in you applications.

I will start to do just that. I will start putting in functionality for tracking usage in my applications. This to be able to get actual feedback on what is being used in the application and what is just waste. Then we have an actual map of the used functionality and with this we can start doing some real work. Removing functionality thats not being used will be removing code that slow us down.

If he is doing this talk somewhere near you, take the trip and listen in on the ideas. It's good stuff.
Another very nice post on startups here

Motivation and Attitude

Most of our life we stick to some basic values. Sometimes we do things we would usually not do because someone or something motivated us to do so. Its the attitude to be open to change that is one of our most important traits.

It is time to start motivating for change. Its your life and it should be you who decide what you want to do with it.

Have a look at this movie from the HOME project. It speaks of motivation for change on a global scale.

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

Maintenance project?

In software engineering, software maintenance is the modification of a software product after delivery to correct faults, to improve performance or other attributes, or to adapt the product to a modified environment.”(ISO/IEC 14764). [Wikipedia]

I have been bugged by the term maintenance project for a long time and it is time to vent the frustration here. The project I am working with has two parts, one for development and another for maintenance. While the project is called a maintenance project we actually do produce a lot more new functionality than correcting fault and adapt the product. Many projects are in the same environment and it is unfortunate that they are called maintenance project when they actually should be rid of the term maintenance. We do maintenance as well, but not to the extent that it should be reflected in the name.

The reason I bring this up is because maintenance is not a popular word and people start to get all kind of ideas when they hear the term. People often say that maintenance projects does not use any new technology, they do not do anything exciting (from a developers perspective). Well this is in our case wrong. We do new functionality every day and we make use of some of the newest technology out there. Our code grows and adapts with new technology.

Let me mention some of this years improvements to the code and environment:
New platform: Moved from IBM Websphere to JBoss.
New JDK: Moved from IBM JDK 1.4.2 to Sun JDK 1.5
EJB2.1 to EJB3
.Net1.1 to .Net2
New EpiServer version
RAD to IntelliJ
..and a lot more!

I think one of the important tasks in a project is using new technology, not for the sake of having new toys, but to be able to move forward. The changes we made in the project have made new functionality possible in new and better ways for our customer.

So my suggestion is to stop using the term maintenance when the project delivers more than 70% new functionality instead of maintenance as defined at the top of this blog. Make room for new technology in you project not only for your own motivation, but also for the sake of your customer.

Work Engagement

In my last post I talked about fear as an obstacle to be productive in development of a software project. Knowledge can conquer this fear, but there is also something else that can make people forget their fear. Engagement!

If you are really interested and motivated in your work you might just not be afraid of the huge codebase and the possibilities of errors and bugs when you do a change to it. In my opinion a motivated person often learn faster and are quicker to pick up on positive changes in their environment.

I often feel an "energy" when doing something interesting and it keeps me motivated. I read different blogs and I buy both management and system engineering books. This keeps me interested because I am constantly learning something new. But it is not what makes me actually tick, what does it is the actual tryout of an idea. Even if you only read it in a book or a blog. Does it work? If it does work it spurs me further in to the idea and I get motivated to continue to try new ideas.

How does one motivate others in the same way? To some extent I think it happens automatically when they are close to, or are working together with a person that has this energy. But is it enough?

My advice is to bring your colleagues or friends to the spot where you get your motivation from! Be an enabler and the motivator. Do not be afraid to bring new things to the table. Enable for others to bring new ideas into the work environment.

A day that nothing new is tried out can be a wasted day.. Can work be performed better for you and your company in any way?


Some of my favourite places to get ideas and inspiration:
The Practice of Leadership
Management Skill Blog
Management Craft
Agile Leadership
XP Meetup
*Technical*
Uncle Bob
(++)

Management Style

My previous post about Team Learning put requirements on the management. How can one manage people that know the job better than you or even work in their own way.

Management style is often influenced by organisational structure and reflects in what way the workers are coordinated. On the note of managing people Drucker (1999) mentions “that one does not ’manage’ people, but the task is to lead people.” And the goal is to make the specific strengths and knowledge productive of each individual. The more skilled and proficient a worker is in his work, the harder it is to manage this activity according to traditional management methods. A direct supervision approach requires that the supervisor have more knowledge or is more skilled than the worker to be able to know what the worker is supposed to be doing to get the wanted result. Due to the mentioned change towards more knowledge work in organisations today, Drucker claim that one does not need supervisors(13), but a leader –or put in terms of today- a coach(14).

Both Drucker (1999) and Wenger (2004) describes that their view of knowledge management begins with managing oneself as a knowledge worker. Take an active role towards your own learning and increase of knowledge. Peter Senge (1992) sees managing oneself as personal mastery, and by this meaning to developing one’s own proficiency. “Personal mastery is likened to be a lifelong journey with no ultimate destination.” He tells us that such a journey consists of processes whereby “a person continually clarifies and deepens personal vision, focuses energy on it, develops patience in seeking it, and in this way apparently increasingly views reality objectively.” This ownership and involvement leads people to do positive things towards achieving personal vision. Further personal vision is described as a calling of intrinsic desires, not a purpose to pursue. Senge claims as result, “People hold a sacred view of work because work now is valued for itself, rather than posing a chore that needs to be done as a means to some other end.“

People with high personal mastery “tend to be committed and exude initiative, have a broader and deeper sense of responsibility” in their work, and as Senge claims of key importance, they learn faster. This gives strength to the belief that answers to organisational inefficiencies lies not only in technology. Technology has often been seen as solution to efficiency and automation of traditional repetitive tasks. Furthermore information technology has enabled new ways of communicating and changed many of the traditional crafts and professions.

*13: Mintzberg (1983) claim that direct supervision requires close personal contact between manager and the worker, with the result that there is some limit to the number workers any one manager can supervise.
*14: Coaching has been used in sports and has become increasingly used as a management style in business the recent years. More on coaching see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching

The seven-day weekend

I just started reading a book called The seven-day weekend (excerpt from chapter 1) by Ricardo Semler. Looking forward to see the thoughts behind the success of his company Semco. So far I've read alot about responsible adults and how people use their time differently when employed by Semco. The have really taken the idea of flexitime to another level. Semler mentions that one of the important goal is to have motivated employees. The example that is often referred to is answering emails on Sunday's and watching a movie on Monday afternoon. Freedom to think and to enjoy life, be it while working or fishing. It reminds me of what I read from Peter Senge when doing my masterthesis. Senge proposed an idea of work being meaningful to yourself and be connected to your own personal goals. Work is integrated, your life and your time not divided into spare time and work time. It also seems that Semler have ideas similar to those from Peter Drucker about workers are able to manage themselves without supervision and control.

I will come back with a full review and more thoughts when I have read the whole book. While waiting you should head over to CIOinsights and read an interesting interview with Semler here.

What about a stereo?

Today I got myself a stereo with loudspeakers and the lot. It was great and I can now enjoy music in a new way. Even found my old CD's to play!

But when doing the work of setting up the different parts as DVD player, amplifier and loudspeakers the thought struck me again as so many times before. How much had I not learned about loudspeakers and amplifiers while searching the internet for the right price and something that suited my "needs". In the process of searching for the "right" components for me I learned a lot about the technology and how it was to be used. When I now have the technology here in my flat that information that I earlier read of the web is transformed into knowledge by me actually acting upon that information. This information have enabled me to have a mental idea of what to expect and what to do with the different components. I have somehow an understanding of how the whole system works.

I've been reading the manuals with a genuine interest in how things work and what I can get out of it. Imagine if we could inspire this kind of engagement in schools and other learning institutions. Creating an interest that goes beyond that of getting a good grade or just "because i need it for my work".