lessons-learned
A few years ago, we did a team building exercise at work which involved the group collaborating on a vague project with no defined roles for any of us. I think exercise was intended to show how different personality types could better collaborate, though I learned a very different lesson.
lessons-learned
This may be obvious to people, and it's probably near useless now that everyone has a GPS in their car or on their smartphone; but if you want to turn around and go the opposite direction on the highway, you should take the second exit. The first exit
leadership
I've been working some long days recently, trying to balance some big projects at work. I love the excitement and intensity that comes from leading big change, whether it's setting up a new system or process, or chasing a big opportunity. But I often need to
lessons-learned
Apparently Robert Havighurt wrote a book in 1952 that popularized the concept of teachable moments. I've never heard of Mr. Havighurt, nor his book, but fortunately my father taught me all about teachable moments. When I was learning to drive, my father insisted on logging many, many hours
lessons-learned
I was at a Subway recently, where I (very) often grab a sandwich during the work week, and a guy in line started a conversation with me, complimenting me on talking to each of the sandwich artists. We talked about how people so rarely take the time or energy to
CIO
As a small business CIO, video conferencing has traditionally been split into 2 extremes: 1. Expensive solutions of enterprise vendors like Polycom and Cisco 2. Consumer experience of using the webcam in your laptop with something like Skype or Google Hangouts I'm excited to see that some technologies
miscellaneous
Government Contracting is a tough industry to keep up with -- here are some good sources of Government Contracting (GovCon) updates: * Free Services * Nextgov email newsletters * Federal News Radio email updates * Government Matters, a 30-minute, weekly TV show on WJLA * Government Technology * Federal Computing Weekly (FCW) * Paid Services * Washington Technology
miscellaneous
Kathleen and I are excited to ride in our 3rd and 11th MS Bike Rides (respectively) this year. We'll be riding the 100km (62 mile) route on June 7 out of National Harbor, with some long- time cycling/wine friends. The ride benefits the MS Society and their
miscellaneous
In my recent focus on internal IT infrastructure and process (more CIO and less CTO), I've been searching for relevant CIO resources -- here are a few I've found useful. * CIO Today * CIO.com Newsletters (e.g. CIO Government, CIO Leader) * CIO.gov * SearchCIO * Blogs.hbr.
miscellaneous
I've been interested in getting back into sailing, after my days teaching sailing down at Camp Pianktank; so I've been checking out DC-area sailing options. I thought I'd share what I've found for those interested: * DC Sail * Classes: Yes, members can take
CMMI
The CMMI process improvement model is focused on improving the overall processes involved with designing, creating, and supporting technology products and services. While the overall framework can be confusing, I enjoyed Watts Humphrey's explanation of the focus for each of the maturity levels in Looking Ahead: * Maturity Level
agile
Ken Schwaber's book on Scrum, which falls under the Agile umbrella of methodologies, is a great introduction to Scrum, and I love the mini case studies (1-2 pages) he puts in the book to make the concepts more accessible. Here's how I'd summarize Ken&