Critical thinkers strengthen plans and provide alternative solutions. Learn how you can foster a team of critical thinkers to move your company forward.
These 17 Companies Expertly Handle Conflict Management
Lateral Leadership: Tips for Leading Colleagues Even If They Don’t Report to You
You can cultivate leadership skills even if you don’t have any employees under you. Here’s how to be a natural leader and motivate your co-workYou can cultivate leadership skills even if you don’t have any employees under you. Here’s how to be a natural leader and motivate your co-workers laterally.ers laterally.
8 Tips to Get Management’s Approval for (Almost) Anything
Why the Best Data Comes With a Good Story
5 Common Pitfalls in Current State Analysis
Understanding the current state is arguably the biggest step for a Business Analyst or Product Owner on a new project to take. Projects, processes, and systems have a rich history that is typically complex. The larger the organization, the more complexity that is in play. User perceptions, stakeholder expectations, the political landscape and many other factors help or hinder the ability of the Business Analyst to acquire an understanding of the current state.
Parachutes and User Experiences in Business Solutions
Experience Week started in 1996 as a way of involving people in experiencing air-related activities. Primarily we are talking about jumping out of a plane with a parachute. Most of a Business Analyst's air-related experiences revolve around breathing in stuffy conference rooms or perhaps the occasional embarrassing hiccup. In Business Analysis, we create experiences for users by facilitating a clear vision, eliciting requirements, designing and managing organizational change to deliver exceptional value to our users. When you think of a business solution experience, what comes to your mind?
Spinach and Wisdom
Spinach was never my favorite vegetable growing up. That green soggy and slimy mess on my plate just wasn’t something I was interested in eating. “You know there are starving children all over the world. You are not leaving that table until you finish eating your spinach.” Our response was “Get me their address. I will mail it to them.” That was not an argument that would win over Mom.
The Skeptical Business Analyst – 9 Tools to Build a Baloney Detection Kit
Skeptical is a highly-charged word. Are you skeptical? In business being skeptical is akin to being a nay-sayer, difficult to work with, not being a team player or a trouble maker. Skeptical does not need to be destructive or negative. You do not have to be a jerk to be skeptical. Skeptical can mean looking at things with a critical eye respectfully and politely to create thoughtful and meaningful discussions to elicit business requirements and build business solutions.
Spring Has Sprung
March 17th is St Patrick's Day - Let's Have a Retrospective
March 16th is Freedom of Information Day
Today's is National Ear Muff Day - Let's Listen Unmuffled
Captain May I? Weak Intent is Destroying Innovation
I believe there are two kinds of people in this life. Those that ask for permission to do something (Let’s call them the “Captain May I?” group) and those that bluntly state their intentions (Let’s call them “I Intend To” group). The difference between these two groups of people is rather subtle but distinct.
10 Change-Management Strategies That Are Backed By Science
Change jerks us out of this comfort zone by stimulating the prefrontal cortex, a section of the brain responsible for insight and impulse control. But the prefrontal cortex is also directly linked to the amygdala and that's the brain's fear circuitry, which in turn controls our freeze, fight or flight response. And when the prefrontal cortex is overwhelmed with complex and unfamiliar concepts, the amygdala connection gets knocked into high gear. The result is all those negative feelings of anxiety, fear, depression, sadness, fatigue or anger that change leaders observe in their teams (and often in themselves).
But if science helps explain our negative reaction to change, it also offers insights for helping people deal with change.