Changing Words to Change Reality

Words interest me. They don’t exist in the real world. They’re the names, and descriptions we give to the items and events we notice in our environment. A classic on how well this works is Blind Men and the Elephant. It’s a short read, I’ll...
Communication Disconnects

Communication Disconnects

© Don Gray 2007-2017 “Why doesn’t my manager listen when I explain the details?” “Why doesn’t the developer just give me what I ask for?” If you’ve ever heard these complaints or made them – you’re not alone....

Views: Yours, Mine, and Ours

What’s Wrong with this Picture? Have you ever read something that bothered you, but couldn’t put your finger on exactly why? I found myself in that position after I read George Dinwiddie’s recent blog entry about Blocking. Scott Ambler’s...

A rose by any other name

is probably something else. I’ve been reading some interesting emails concerning names in an Scrum environment. Backlog in particular seems to generate energy. Several valid points for change have been made. Backlog felt negative to one team, and they wanted to...

Problems vs Opportunities

Problems or Opportunities? Where should you focus your effort? Kurt Simmons asked this question in ProblemsVersusOpportunites. He shared some (what I think) are valid thoughts. I agree with them on at a cursory level. But in keeping with this blog’s theme, An...