A blog for people in organisations.
With useful tips from experts.
Organisations develop by themselves
It is normal when tried and tested methods suddenly no longer work. What levers help to develop a sustainable organisation?
Cybersecurity: more than just a protective shield
Cyberattacks are a real threat to all kinds of organisations. Why is cybersecurity important beyond the use of technology and employee training?
Three questions about digital transformation
Enthusiasm, relevant skills and personal health are important aspects of digital transformation. Sandra Brauer provides interesting perspectives.
Experience Level Agreements (XLA) – Part 1
What is an Experience Level Agreement (XLA), what is the difference between SLA and XLA and what does XM address? A clarification of terms.
The variety of shared leadership
There are a number of terms associated with shared leadership that are not used consistently. Time for a definition and a few practical questions.
Design thinking, domain storytelling and API design
Design thinking and domain storytelling are considered to be useful methods, but do they help programmers in the design of application interfaces?
Design meets Easter Bunny
Yayoi Kusama is an important artist of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her fascination with design principles and the Easter Bunny is legendary.
How important is enthusiasm in change management?
What role does employee enthusiasm play in change? Should it be a goal in change management or is it unnecessary, unrealistic and even a hindrance?
Impulses for organisations – Part 8
Soft skills or human skills, effective discussions with traffic light cards, leading and following and mountain biking – 4 impulses from 4 experts.
What parameters does self-organisation need?
There are many opinions on the subject of self-organisation. Time for a look at design principles and the comments of a Nobel Prize winner in economics.
A different kind of effort estimation
Effort estimation in software development is difficult. How useful is it to do without them and which approach helps in practice?
Three questions about change management
What narratives are there in change management? How does collective understanding develop and how does change succeed? Stephanie Borgert provides answers.
Women want to lead and women can be leaders
If you can’t find women who want to take on management positions at your company, what can you do to make management roles more attractive and worthwhile?
Mindfulness as an opportunity for innovation
Why do companies often struggle with innovations that affect their own business model, and how can mindfulness help here?
Distributed autonomous microservices with event-driven architecture
What advantages do event-driven architectures offer for the development of distributed, autonomous microservices and what are the main challenges?
The hidden story of agility
What is the origin of agility, what reasons led to a new type of product development and what does this mean for agile applications today?
The 6 ½ phases of a communication concept
How does a company ideally create a communication concept? What is important in practice and how do the individual phases interplay?
Polywork: The new versatility in the world of work
What is polywork, what are the advantages in a changing world of work, what does the approach mean for labour law and voluntary work?
Obeya: The visualisation of relevant information
What is Obeya, what is it suitable for, why is the visualisation of information important and how does it work well in practice?
Fits into every diary: self-care
Self-care means different things to different people. Why is it still important, and not too egocentric, and how does it relate to leadership?
Three questions about software development
Why is software development so expensive and what is the significance of expertise, capacity and quality? Thomas Klingenberg provides answers.
Mindfulness as a recipe for success for innovative teams
Can mindfulness at team level really ensure that teams are more successful and innovative? And how does this work in practice?
The interplay between cyber security and business analysis
A lack of cyber security is a risk for companies and is changing the role of business analysis. Which practices ensure greater data security?
Impulses for organisations – Part 7
Useful mistakes, smart hypotheses on leadership, change of perspective and the important mandate for the Scrum Master – 4 new impulses from 4 experts.
How healthy are your projects?
Systemic work in projects is a holistic approach that enables projects to be viewed as part of a larger whole. What are core concepts of systemic work?
How do you promote employee loyalty?
Loyalty is one of the most valuable characteristics in cooperation and one of the guarantors of a company’s success. What can you do to promote it?
Three questions about the Scrum Master
Is the Scrum Master an entry-level role? Do they need technical expertise? And what is their career path? Michael Kuesters provides answers.
Gaming as a catalyst for empathy and team resilience
What influence does gamification have on empathy and resilience in a team? And what role do intrinsic motivation and reflection play in this?
The systematic organisation of software development
An efficient organisation is important for companies that develop software. How can such an organisation be set up systematically?
Artificial intelligence (AI) for everyone?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is considered the miracle cure of the present day, but are we creating more than just a solution to problems we have created ourselves?
Managers and the development of self-efficacy and collective efficacy
How can managers influence the development of employees’ self-efficacy expectations and collective efficacy?
Are you already a project ambassador?
What do project ambassadors do, what activities do they take on in the project environment and why do projects and organisations benefit from them?
How Pecha Kucha brings distributed teams together
Pecha Kucha is a presentation technique that works very well for onboarding team members. Which questions help and what are the benefits?
5 reasons why you should prioritise user experience
Great software needs a focus on good user experience. What are the benefits and reasons for consciously prioritising UX when developing software?
Elevator pitch for techies
A good pitch needs to be learnt. What forms are there in addition to the elevator pitch, how do they build on each other and what tips are useful?
The ideal annual appraisal
The image of annual appraisals is negative. This is due to many mistakes that organisations make when conducting them. What tips help?
Lean product development: the holistic extension of lean production
Lean product development is more than just the application of lean methods and tools to product development. What is behind the approach?
Effective practices for a successful software transition
It happens time and again that a software system is handed over to a new team. What effective practices help with the software transition?
Two years later: what the 4-day week really achieved
The start-up openpack has been working a 4-day week for two years. Time for a look at the idea, expectations, the introduction and insights.
Buy software or have it developed
Should software be purchased or developed individually? Which arguments speak for a standard software, which for an individual development? A pros and cons.
Design Thinking is life!
How has Design Thinking evolved in recent years? And how can it bring the greatest benefit to companies today?
How does professional onboarding succeed in IT?
21% of employees leave companies again if there is no professional onboarding. How does good onboarding work in practice?
How do you create feel-good moments?
Feel-good moments are all situations that put you in a good mood. How can you consciously create these moments in your everyday project life?
Team learning: A revolution in personnel development
What is team learning, why is the approach so revolutionary and which formats are particularly helpful when people want to learn together?
Impulses for organisations – Part 6
Learnfluencers as the key to a learning culture, low performance vs. low performers and freedom for intelligent working – 3 impulses from 3 experts.
Do you talk about needs in the team?
In every team there are individual and collective needs. What influence do they have on the culture of trust and cooperation?
Mission customer focus
Companies are increasingly demanding greater customer focus. Why does this make sense and how can it be achieved? And who determines its success?
Brand Purpose: The golden thread of successful companies
What is the significance of a meaningful brand purpose for companies, employees and customers? And how can it be developed in practice?
Feedback in action: More than just words
Feedback is an opportunity for companies. Unfortunately, they often forget one little thing, but it is elementary for the interaction with customers.
Forming hypotheses: The forgotten tool
Many companies dealt with possible solutions after a short description of the problem. Forming hypotheses beforehand would certainly make more sense.
Small Data: The great potential of tiny information
Small Data is an alternative to Big Data. What is behind it, what is special about it and how can companies use it internally and externally?
Prompting for project managers: How to increase productivity
As a project manager, do you want to increase your productivity through targeted prompting? Here you will find practical tips with concrete examples.
The thing with responsibility
Employees want to take responsibility, managers want to hand over responsibility. Why does this interaction work so rarely in practice?
Karl Meier and sustainability in companies
The topic of sustainability offers opportunities and possibilities for companies. But how do you get started with the topic and where do you find support?
GOOD WORK – Principles of good cooperation
How can a sustainable working culture be created? How can good cooperation and results be realised? With GOOD WORK.
Impulses for organisations – Part 5
Children’s interest in software development, internal experts, the value of Scrum and search engine optimisation – 4 impulses from 4 experts.
Empirical requirements engineering
What is the aim of empirical requirements engineering, what are the difficulties and what is the current state of the art?
The use of ChatGPT in software development
Artificial intelligence with tools like ChatGPT is also on the rise in software development. How useful is that? A pro and con.
Product teams in the age of New Work
New Work offers opportunities and benefits for product teams, but also some challenges. How can real difficulties be overcome?
Benefits of cloud reporting: Power BI and Snowflake
Cloud reporting is a very useful approach to evaluating large amounts of data. How does this work with the tools Power BI and Snowflake?
Motives for storytelling in change processes
Storytelling in change processes can help to actively turn participants into supporters. Prerequisite: basic human motives are addressed.
Nine podcast heroines
Looking for podcasts by women on work culture, learning, leadership, coaching, management or politics? You’ll find great recommendations here.
Corporate freedom and responsibility
What would be the corporate impact if autonomy, creativity and personal responsibility of employees were to be seriously focused on?
Learning to code in schools
The question of whether children should learn to code already at school is hotly debated. One point is often overlooked: We need a revolution!
Conclusive ways to personnel development
Digitalisation is also forcing companies to rethink personnel development. Which areas of competence are becoming key factors?
How sustainable are software companies?
Software is changing the world. Are software companies ready to assume their responsibility for a sustainable transformation of the global economy?
Creating transparency for the steering board
The relationship between project management and steering board is not always easy. What tips help to create transparency?
Impulses for organisations – Part 4
Different characteristics of innovations, the longing for leadership and the effect of individual bonuses – 3 impulses from 3 experts.
The idea of chaos engineering
Chaos engineering has something that many a framework wishes for: practical relevance. What logic and principles does the approach follow?
From executive to leadership personality
What is the difference between an executive and a leadership personality? And how do more and more women succeed in leading with personality?
Radical acceptance
Radical acceptance is a powerful tool to strengthen the resilience of a team. How can it be implemented and where are the stumbling blocks?
IT portfolio management in classic organisational structures
IT portfolio management in classic organisational structures is a challenge. How does the agile application work? A practical report.
Poor marketing practices by companies
In the company, there are procedures, patterns or marketing practices that have not been thought through to the end and are not suitable for imitation. A selection!
Self-efficacy and collective efficacy in the team
Self-efficacy and collective efficacy are important for the success of teams. What influence does the work environment have on both factors?
Old white man
Who doesn’t know him, the old white man who resists change? Does he also exist in companies and what are the possible consequences?
Greenwashing – pros and cons
Greenwashing is considered bad and image-damaging, but many companies do it. What are the reasons and motives for and against it?
Understanding employees in their 30s
What phase of life are many employees in their mid-30s in and why is it important for companies to address this?
Impulses for organisations – Part 3
The superficial support of a community, cooperation instead of opposition and the prescribed return to offices – 3 impulses from 3 experts.
The desire of managers to create
What is your motivation to be a manager?Many people answer this question with the will to create. But what does this mean in practice?
Lencioni’s dysfunctions are toxic – what nonsense!
Patrick Lencioni defines five dysfunctions in teams. What are the correlations and what insights can be derived? A review.
Resilience and agility with the right focus
Many organisations want to become more resilient and agile. However, they often turn the wrong screws in the process. A thesis.
Creativity in companies
Creativity is an important ingredient for the success of companies. How creative are organisations and what tips promise improvement?
Finally, meaningful meetings!
It seems that nobody likes meetings. What is missing is a concept that optimises the path to decision-making to get more out of meetings.
Strong together: leadership and followership
Leadership and followership are two factors for good cooperation in organisations. How do you strike a balance between these factors?
Impulses for organisations – Part 2
Different working hours, communication about agility and a role in employee retention – three impulses from three experts on three topics.
Who is to blame?
Time and again, companies look for someone to blame. Why is this so, why do employees participate in it and what is the alternative?
The customer is king
Do you treat your customers like kings or do you not want this at all? And who is your king: the employees or the customers? An individual opinion.
10 factors for more customer satisfaction
Why should companies pay more attention to the success of their customers? And which factors work directly towards customer satisfaction?
Strategic networking
It’s nice to have people in your network who can help with questions. And how do you find such people? Through strategic networking.
Proxy Product Owner – a Scrum Antipattern?
What does a proxy product owner do? In which scenarios is he used and what are the challenges?
Decision-making ability – the success factor of teams
The decision-making ability in a team is a collective quality that is decisive for success in complex situations. How can it be shaped?
Opportunities and limits of self-organisation
Many organisations are showing interest in self-organisation. Where does it fit and where does it not and how can an introduction succeed?
8 reasons for professional requirements management tools
Many companies manage requirements in office tools. Why should companies use professional requirements management tools?
Stumbling blocks in the introduction of Kanban
Stumbling blocks lurk in the introduction of Kanban. A practical look at interpretations, terms, visualisations, workload, flow and metrics.
Hunting for key figures
Key figures are omnipresent in organisations. What are their purposes, what effects do they have and what blind spots loom?
Hard to beat: participative corporate communication
Participation is the magic word when employees are to become ambassadors. How does this change corporate communication?
Intrapreneurship needs empowerment and ownership
Interest in intrapreneurship is growing in organisations. With the help of empowerment and ownership, employees act like owners.
The art of omitting things
Driving innovation is indispensable for many companies. But sometimes less is more. How does the art of omitting things work?
Promote psychological safety
How can psychological safety contribute to meetings being more effective and better decisions being made together?
Corporate sustainability
Many companies are concerned with sustainability. How can a strategy be developed and which measures promise success?
Impulses for organisations – Part 1
Value pricing, effort estimation in software development and developer skills of Agile Coaches – 3 impulses from 3 experts on 3 topics.
Art meets Easter Bunny
Many artists have approached the motif of the Easter Bunny in their paintings. A surreal excursion into an art history and a homage to Easter.
The works council in the course of agile transformation
The works council can become a partner or opponent of the management in an agile transformation. How can they be positively involved?
Between stimulus and response
Stimuli trigger impulsivity in some people. But impulsivity is not a fixed trait. How can you react more calmly? You can find tips here!
ChatGPT, I need your help for my team!
How can we benefit from Artificial Intelligence? A conversation with ChatGPT about working in teams and team roles according to Belbin.
The 4-day week brings 3-day free time
The 4-day week is much discussed. While some companies are still arguing, others are already using the working model. What are the advantages?
From glorified backlog to customer success
The backlog as the ultimate to-do list becomes a burden, especially when it is unclear what constitutes product success. Which approach helps?
Internal agile coaching evolved
Organisations that rely on internal Agile Coaching have challenges to overcome. A fresh look at experiences helps here.
As a WOW! company shaping the future
Reinventing oneself again and again is becoming a constant challenge for companies. The time has come for the WOW! company!
User stories – when the harm is greater than the benefit
Formulating user stories with “As a [role], I want [function] so that [benefit]” can cause big problems. How can this be avoided?
4 big ideas to improve your sprint reviews
Many organisations could get more out of the sprint review in the course of product development. Which 4 ideas help to maximise the benefit of it?
Loyalty in companies – Part 3
What measures can be used to promote loyalty, how can strengths and weaknesses be dealt with successfully and what helps in the face of uncertainty in companies?
I am (not) a personal brand!
What is the importance of personal brands for companies? A conversation with Heiko Roessel, Tanja Bernsau and Alex Rammlmair about personal branding.
How social enterprises measure and communicate their impact
Measuring and communicating their impact is a challenge for social enterprises. How do ethos, pathos and logos help in practice?
All feedback is toxic – what nonsense!
“All feedback is toxic” is heard more and more often. Why is this nonsense, what is Feedback 101 and why is feedback a process?
Content marketing today and tomorrow
A conversation with ChatGPT about the importance of clicks and impressions, and a possible end to content marketing as we know it today.
Requirements workshops in distributed software projects
Which fields of action are important in distributed software projects and how can successful requirements elicitation in workshops be achieved?
Loyalty in companies – Part 2
Even if there is no universal leadership concept, corporate culture is the foundation for loyalty. How can it be shaped?
Is New Work just business theatre?
Many organisations have difficulties with New Work. What conditions must be created so that New Work is more than just business theatre?
Beware: turnover of staff
In many industries, workers are as highly contested as customers. Unwanted turnover of staff can thus become a danger for companies. What to do?