One of the simplest and most effective interaction tools you can learn is to just stop. And take a breath. God knows how many better decisions, stronger relationships and successful teams would exist if we all knew this from day one. A good reminder - take a look.

A long read, but a good one.

“Most of us see vulnerability as a condition to be hidden. But when it comes to creating cooperation, vulnerability is not a risk but a psychological requirement”

Great post from Rands about a) why feedback is important, and b) how to get into the difficult business of getting it and giving it. This is a terrific quote:

“You are missing critical data when all you consult is yourself. It’s not that your inner dialog has a devious plan to prevent you from learning, it’s that it’s operating with an incomplete and biased set of data. The humans around, watching you act, have both the context and the experience to tell you important observations about both your successes and failures”

First of two useful posts from Kelly Sutton, outlining much of what we cover in Radical Candor workshops, clearly and

A similarly helpful post on getting feedback.

A clearly described, and fascinating, look at why AI can easily codify and re-enforce our existing biases (both good and bad):

“Fairness is, by nature, aspirational: it’s forward-looking. We want to be fair; we rarely look at the past and take pride in how fair we were. Data is always retrospective; you can’t collect data from the future”

The issue of trust comes up very frequently in coaching. This piece breaks down why it feels so dangerous to bring up (hint: it is), and a model and methodology I use with my clients to make the conversation more skillful, nuanced and workable.

A good look at how feedback varies based on the closeness of the relationship involved, and an introduction to the Situation/Behavior/Feedback model - a simple, but very effective way of organizing feedback.

In Radical Candor workshops, we often get asked about the “feedback sandwich” - the idea of mixing positive and negative feedback. This is a quick reminder why it’s generally not a great idea.

This is great: what to ask yourself when you find yourself in a struggling team. Exactly right.

Cool. I’m liking the emergence of the idea of “personal user manuals” as a way of communicating more about who we are, and how we work. It’s a simple, clear process. Take a look.

Some careful thinking here, and clear writing, describing mental models for different stages problems in product management. The piece has wider application, though, to decisions in general. Worth the time.

It’s temping, as organizations get larger, and the problems get more complex, to feel we can skim over the surface, “trust our gut”, “just go with it”. A useful admonition that this is not the case!

I think I’ve posted this in the past, but it’s good, so here it is again. Amusing terms for unproductive behaviors.

A longer description of “Bikeshedding”: “The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum [of money] involved.”

Including it here because it’s a reminder that we all tend to solve the problems we can solve, and try and ignore, diminish and otherwise try and hide from the ones we think we can’t.

Marcus participating in a webinar discussing various approaches to identifying, leveraging, and tackling technical debt. Likely to be detailed and helpful. Check it.

Have been re-reading this recently and finding it useful in thinking through the skillsets necessary for different levels of management, and some of the more radical transitions we find in the tech industry - like, individual contributor (founder) to CEO!

Liked this: a story of trying to amp up intensity in a startup by transmitting anxiety, stress and fear, and the lessons learned when it didn’t work.

A good, clear set of guidelines for building trust in your leadership. Nice, comprehensive read.

Ed’s great explanation of a simple trust model (there are more complicated ones). The issue of trust comes up a lot in coaching as organizations grow, as founders and early managers can no longer hold on to every detail. If you’re wrestling with it, this will help.