Staying Human with Tech

Setting Waypoints for your Career Trails

April 3, 2025

Ever look up from your screen during the work day and wonder “What am I doing here?” You’re busy, but not focused. Grinding through your day. You’re not even...

Find Career Trails Through Connections and Skip Networking

March 19, 2025

Does attending networking events give you the “ick” feeling? Me too. That’s why I decided not to network early in my career. Instead, I blazed my own career...

Skip the Path - Find Your Career Trail

March 3, 2025

For years, we've been sold the idea of a "career path" - a straight, predictable line from entry-level to the corner office. We've been told that with the...

Pushing Through Fear

February 12, 2025

Many of us are wrestling with fear these days. For instance, one of my career coaching clients asked a question recently. I thought you might enjoy hearing...

Finding Safe Harbors in Storms

February 5, 2025

I’ve attempted to write something useful for the last six weeks. Each time, it’s turned somewhat dark and stormy. 2025 has not started gently with national...

A different kind of gift guide

December 12, 2024

This will be the last newsletter of 2024. We are all too busy this time of year to take on "new." In the USA (and other parts of western culture), we are...

Reflecting with Gratitude on the Year (The Personal Annual Review)

November 27, 2024

As I approach the end of each year, I like to look back at what happened and what I can learn from it. Whether it’s been a busy year, a fantastic year, or a...

The Write Through It Approach to Become Unstuck

November 11, 2024

Last time I shared how walking away from a problem and scheduling a time to come back to it helps me unlock some difficult problems. It works most of the...

Walk Away and Back - Ways of getting unstuck (2)

November 11, 2024

Previously, I've discussed the dangers of "powering through" your work. I also shared the pitfalls of powering through when you are stuck. Now, I'll share...

Ways of Getting Unstuck (part 1)

November 3, 2024

I’m stuck right now. I’ve been stuck in several ways. I thought you might be stuck too and you might find it useful to learn how I get unstuck. How I’m Stuck...

How “Powering Through” May Be Harmful at Work

October 22, 2024

Many people like to “power through” difficult situations. No matter the difficulty, they do their best to reach their goal. It’s all about “pushing through"...

A Resilient Career is Like What?

August 6, 2024

How to find a smoother ride with your career. In my career, I’ve ridden through multiple tech bubbles and financial bubbles, rising startups, collapsing...

Retooling

July 16, 2024

When change happens, you should consider your own change. Apologies for being so quiet these last few weeks. I've been retooling in a number of ways. I'm...

Making connections in a hybrid work environment

May 14, 2024

The folks at LinkedIn recently asked me to respond to their post on entry-level professionals making connections in hybrid work. I had more to share than the...

Is It Loss or Letting Go?

April 3, 2024

I hear a lot about loss lately. I lost my job. (Yeah, I’ve been there too.) I lost my country. Let’s make it great again. I lost my community. Someone bought...

What's your simpler path?

March 19, 2024

An analytical mind can be dangerous. Those gifted with such a mind see many possibilities in our work. We also see many problems in those possibilities. We...

Job Fishing with AI

March 6, 2024

Following simple steps with a generative AI LLM can speed up your job fishing. In a previous post, I mentioned that job fishing might be a better phrase than...

Can I ask a quick favor, please?

February 20, 2024

As I mentioned in my first January post ( Swimming Away from Toxicity? ), I moved this newsletter from Substack. It's a long story; just read that article if...

Are You Job Hunting or Job Fishing?

February 13, 2024

I recently came across an interesting essay that described the Too Many Needles problem of information overload. It immediately made me think of the...

Move Fast and Break People

February 6, 2024

It’s difficult not to think about the continued layoffs, especially with so many friends and colleagues in the tech industry. Also, seeing the layoffs in...

Swimming Away From Toxicity

January 23, 2024

This was not the New Year message I wanted to write, but here we are. I wanted to share a few short stories and a solution that works well for me in...

Wishing you peace in 2024

December 22, 2023

I’ll keep this short as we are all busy this time of year. I just wanted to thank you all for continuing to be on this journey with me. I’ve always liked...

Will AI help or harm our agility?

November 29, 2023

kg-card-begin: html Everything we see online floods us with the promise and fears of artificial intelligence (AI). But I have a way to describe what I see...

A Thankful Quick Update

November 21, 2023

Hi folks, and welcome to the latest edition of the newsletter. I thought I would try something a little different and give a video message along with the...

Tell Stories to Generate Action

October 10, 2023

One of my readers, Sherry, asked me recently, “How do I tell stories to influence people?’ As a highly skilled internal agile coach, Sherry’s influence in...

How to Handle a Challenging Audience (A Lesson in Story Telling)

October 6, 2023

kg-card-begin: html One of the readers of my newsletter recently asked how to become a better storyteller. So let me provide part of an answer here with a...

Building better communications for remote and hybrid-remote teams

July 25, 2023

kg-card-begin: html Recently, I’ve had the good fortune to have two of my favorite things happen: I’m collaborating with people I respect, and I’ve had my...

Why experiment when challenged?

June 21, 2023

First, thanks to everyone who shared kind words in response to my last post on “From Wanting to Needing Remote Work". It’s a story I needed to share to...

From Wanting to Needing Remote Work

May 16, 2023

I’ve held this story back for a number of reasons and for many years. I was concerned about how this story might impact some of my colleagues in the remote...

A new way to navigate the world of work: Differability

April 13, 2023

I’ve been wanting to write on topics beyond remote and agile work for some time, but I’ve been struggling to describe the patterns I’m seeing — until now. I...

What is your quest?

December 8, 2022

In our work, we can sometimes find ourselves lost in the work. We struggle to complete huge lists of tasks and we forget why we are doing some of these...

How stopping can help you move forward

November 30, 2022

Early in 2022, I did something radical for me. I stopped almost everything: blogging, public speaking, social media, and writing for other publications. I...

A Thankful Thursday

November 24, 2022

If you couldn’t tell yet from the many emails in your inbox, today is Thanksgiving here in the USA. But rather than choosing one time a year to be thankful,...

A new home for Distributed Agile Field Notes

November 17, 2022

Since we released our book, From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams , in late 2018, we have learned even more that we would like to share. While...

When Hybrid-Remote, Help Community Care For Community

July 18, 2022

kg-card-begin: html Many experts recommend that hybrid remote events succeed when we separately handle the needs of colocated individuals and the needs of...

Remote Facilitation: Being More Inclusive

May 19, 2022

kg-card-begin: html What do you do when you facilitate online with high-quality visual whiteboards like Mural and Miro and then are asked to facilitate a...

Remote Facilitation - Dancing with AI at Scale

May 11, 2022

kg-card-begin: html I just finished an engaging and energizing conversation with hundreds of employees online. This would have been unheard of in the past as...

Remote Facilitation - The News Team Pattern in Large Hybrid Meetings

May 5, 2022

kg-card-begin: html A colleague (let’s call her Rose) recently reached out with this question: “I’m going nuts trying to figure out decent ways to make big-...

Remotely Facilitating for Connection: A Manifesto

March 24, 2022

kg-card-begin: html The last two years of being remote gave us isolation, distraction, rushed meetings, repeat meetings (because we didn’t finish the work)...

Capture That Concept In 3 to 4 Words

February 1, 2022

kg-card-begin: html I’ve spent time reflecting these last few months, but it’s not for a new business idea. I’m thinking about what I want to leave behind....

How Self Reflection on a Challenging Year Sets Better Goals

December 23, 2021

kg-card-begin: html When it’s a challenging year, you do not feel motivated to reflect on it. But because you have had a challenging time, reflection can...

Playing the Long Game of Remote Mentoring

November 18, 2021

kg-card-begin: html In my last post, I shared how remote work requires shifting many ways of working and thinking about work. Remote workers often find new...

Pivot Into Your Strengths in Challenging Times

November 10, 2021

What does your normal workday look like now? What will it look like in a year? That second question stumps everyone, but we all know it will be different....

Why You Want a Remote Mentor for Better Remote Work

November 3, 2021

kg-card-begin: html Remote work requires shifting many ways of working and thinking about work. Many people have struggled with this during the pandemic and...

When in the ick, principles should stick

August 16, 2021

kg-card-begin: html I was asked to do a 5 minute Spark Tale for the first Qiqocon user conference on August 5, 2021. I decided to do something a little bit...

The most difficult question to ask right now.

August 3, 2021

Hey there! One question that I’m having a difficult time with right now usually pops up in the first few minutes of any conversation. A couple of years ago,...

How to Handle Hybrid-Remote

July 1, 2021

The news around “returning to work” reminds me of the kids’ game of striking the piñata. The lucky player attempts to strike the paper mache figure filled...

Who Takes Care of the Caretaker?

June 8, 2021

kg-card-begin: html Many organizations continue to move forward with plans to bring people back into the office. Sometimes, this “move forward” feels more...

Does culture change when going remote?

May 24, 2021

I’ve heard this question many different ways in the last few weeks as people think about returning to the office. Some wonder if their culture shifted during...

Return Gently to the Office - Not Everyone Can or Will Return

May 12, 2021

kg-card-begin: html In my last two posts, I shared that returning gently included taking small steps and returning with reflection. Someone shared with me...