Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. He is the author of twelve books and hundreds of articles. Kohn has been described by Time Magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades and test scores.” He has appeared twice on “Oprah,” as well as on … Read more
“Our fuel is low. Are we going to make it?” Lt. Mitchell, the pilot of Boeing B-17E, kept pulling hard on the stick, taking his Flying Fortress with its 8-men crew, into a climb, at the angle that was much steeper than what was recommended, even for a bomber with “empty belly”. The aircraft lost … Read more
Authors: Gene Gendel and Erin Perry High performing organizations, high performing teams, and high performing people do not often happen organically. They are a return on investment. We’ve spent time in the trenches, both giving and receiving coaching, at organizations of all sizes: from small startups to large enterprises. In this article, we will use … Read more
Author: Gene Gendel This paper, originally written in February 2013, brings to light some of the least-discussed topics and consequences of “broadband agilization” that currently take place in the industry. The materials of this paper are subdivided into two general sections: The first section describes certain impacts that Agile has on individuals and their personal … Read more
In his book Drive, Daniel Pink says that when it comes to motivation, there’s a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators — which don’t work and often do more harm than good. We need a system upgrade. And the science shows … Read more
Author: Gene Gendel I wanted to start this discussion with Wikipedia definition of Performance Appraisal: “A performance appraisal (PA), also referred to as a performance review, performance evaluation,[1] (career) development discussion,[2] or employee appraisal[3] is a method by which the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated. Performance appraisals are a part of … Read more
In many organizations, tools like Jira, Rally, Version1, VSTS, Azure DevOps and similar, are still treated as administrative systems—places where work is logged after the fact while “real” planning and reporting happen elsewhere, in spreadsheets, heavy .ppt slide decks, and carefully curated status updates. This separation creates friction, delays, and often a quiet erosion of … Read more
