Curious Cat Management Carnival #96

The Curious Cat Management blog carnival selects recent management blog posts 3 times each month. Also visit the Curious Cat Management Library for online management improvement articles.

• Kanban Systems in Software Development – “In the field, I’ve seen Kanban work best in chaotic environments where upcoming features don’t have much in common.”
• Renegade Recruiting by Chris Ferdinandi – “I think world-class recruiting is really about three things: Building a pipeline of qualified talent before you need to hire someone. Accurate, valid selection criteria. A fantastic candidate experience.”
• How to Deal with Complainers – 2 Approaches by Harwell Thrasher – “People who complain fall into two categories: those who complain because they want help in resolving a problem, and those who complain because they want sympathy. Often the complainers themselves don’t understand why they’re complaining, so it’s up to you to figure it out for yourself.”
• Building Coaching Capabilities
  by Lee Fried – “Let’s be clear the purpose of coaching is to build capability into the leadership line.”
• How to Deal with Low Performers by Tim McMahon – “A production lead should use this simple 5 step checklist… 3) Has the person been trained?… 5) Has there been regular feedback on performance? An answer of “no” to any of these questions will indicate an area for which focused improvement is needed.”
• Top Three Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money!) by Dave Rodenbaugh – “Every developer on the planet wants to get better at what they do. We crave new knowledge like some people quaff coffee after a hangover… Nothing is more tedious, horrific, or uninspiring to developers to work on projects that lack any real meaning in the world.” (this is another in a long line of posts about Danial Pink’s Ted Talk – John).
• We can’t Handle the Truth by Mike Wroblewski – “People who speak the truth are often labeled as a non-team player, a disrupter, a trouble maker or the current tag of being ‘not a good fit’. End result the person either quits or is fired.”
• Get A Life (Not A Job) by Mark Stelzner – “Great career acts: They all share five key elements – 1) Self-awareness; 2) Continuous self-development; 3) Unique and critical roles; 4) Well-managed time, money and human resources; and 5) Harmony among your work, family and personal life” – buy the book
• The Power of 1 by Jamie Flinchbaugh – “He made it happen. Without being asked. Without incentive. Even without permission. He knew it had to be done and so he did it… one man’s actions can help move the world.”
• For Good, Against Evil by Wally Bock – “Way too many leadership books, blogs, and articles do the same thing. They tell you to do the right thing. The only problem is, like my church convention, they usually aren’t very specific. “
• Your Call is Important to Us. Yeah, Sure. by Gary Hamel – “Instead of telling us: ‘Your approximate wait time is 15 minutes . . .’ They should say: ‘When our employees sit around doing nothing it costs us money. When you sit around cooling your heels it costs us nothing. You do the math.'”
• The Two Pillars of the Toyota Way by John Hunter – “Yet even with all the study of lean manufacturing even basic ideas are overlooked. For example, the two main pillars of the Toyota way are ‘continuous improvement’ and ‘respect for people.’ For all of us, it is valuable to refocusing on core principles. We are too often looking for the next new idea.”