Tag: culture
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Driven by art, the diffusion of innovation, or just being weird
What is a Life Dedicated to Art? What does it mean to live a life dedicated to art, focused on art? I know what it means and feel like for a software developer to dedicate your life to programming, to technology innovation. It is somewhat indescribable: you just do it because you think it’s important…
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Everything is big in America & the men don’t wear designer purses
I’m a Texan living in Amsterdam, so when I come back to the States (Dallas and Austin this time), I noticed things about American that I never did: People are eager to be helpful, especially when you have a bunch of kids. Everyone offers to help with luggage. A cashier will race back to the…
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“A picture in the style of van Gough, two office workers sit in cubicles, one of them is so large he pushes the other against his desk”
Epigraph for this edition: “Most things I worry about, never happen anyway.” Or, equally well said. Art as Therapy, or, The Buddha Had No Kids Part 2. Sometimes you forget that, like, good things are out there, are possible. That you can do more than the same grind. de Botton’s whole deal is, sort of,…
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How to do fun and interesting executive dinners, round tables, etc. – online and in-person
Here’s what I’ve learned in doing 30 (maybe more like 40?) executive events in person and online over the past four or so years. Over my career, I’ve done these on and off, but it’s become a core part of my job since moving to EMEA to support Pivotal and now VMware Tanzu with executives.…
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Napkins, Ice, Toilets, and Passports
Allow me to indulge in some trans-Atlantic compare/contrast’ing. I was back in Texas and Chicago for a few weeks recently, so of course noticed some difference between Europe and America. It’s the tiny differences that stack up. Talking about them can be an annoying tic of expat people. But, whatever. It’s been over two years…
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What is DevSecOps? Coté’s Commonplace Book – Issue #65
OMGWTFBBQDEVSECOPS; how to give a DevOpsDays vendor pitch; The Difference Between DevOps & DevSecOps In this longer blog post, I go over how I’ve finally come to think about what DevSecOps is. A summary of what the post covers: A secure software supply chain – This is a fancy way of saying “we know all…
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Coté’s Commonplace Book – Issue #55
Original content DevOps Metrics for Technical, Business and Culture Transformation This is the talk I gave at VMworld this year. It goes over three types of metrics to use in all your digital transformation, get better with software stuff. While I don’t list very actionable (yeah! check out that work use!) metrics for culture, I…
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Americans smile a lot
Just as it is easy to misinterpret the reason for an icebreaker activity, it’s easy to mistake certain social customs of Americans that might suggest strong personal connections where none are intended. For example, Americans are more likely than those from many cultures to smile at strangers and to engage in personal discussions with people…
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🗂 “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.”
> my company is based in Oakland. This is like being based in San Francisco, but with fewer microclimates. Rolling up to work in a company hoodie, jeans, a t-shirt from your last company, and a pair of Tevas is A-OK. But the further east you go, the more formal everyone’s business wear gets. Jeans…
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Link: When Culture Doesn’t Translate
Unfortunately, the Thai manager told me, his U.S. colleagues usually didn’t send the agenda until an hour before the call, so his team was unable to prepare. And it struggled to understand what was said during the call, because the U.S. participants spoke too quickly. He also said that the Americans rarely invited comments from…
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Link: Digital Transformation: Why Culture Is So Key
Culture is the most important factor, way more important than technology, for example. By culture, we mean a set of shared values and beliefs that drive a change in behaviors. This has to be both a top-down and a bottom-up approach. The CEO and the C-level executives must embody the culture and the DNA of…
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Link: The new tech effecting culture outline
The trajectory of books about new technologies follows a similar pattern: first, hype; then, backlash; then, finally, a more considered view of what it might actually be good for. Yup. Checks out. Original source: The new tech effecting culture outline
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Link: How to have a good conversation
What is conversation for anyway? I don’t even recommend being charming, or trying to be charming, unless a work situation is forcing you to do so. Let yourself be sullen when the mood beckons. Feel free to let eye contact lapse. Don’t repeat back what you’ve heard. Say something surprising. Be willing to go meta. …
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Link: Unknown Unknowns: The Problem of Hypocognition
“Consider this: how well can you discern different shades of blue? If you speak Russian, Greek, Turkish, Korean or Japanese, your chances are much better than if you speak English. The former groups have two distinctive linguistic representations of blue. In Russian, for example, dark blue (sinii) and light blue (goluboi) are as distinct as…
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Link: Bulls**t Jobs (Part 1 of ∞)
“It’s too soon to have a good sample size. But it seems to usually work. I think it works because there is nobody at Mr. Smith’s workplace – maybe nobody in the entire world – who cares whether Mr. Smith brings a chair into work. Somebody wrote up a procedure for employees using special chairs,…
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Link: The Book Is a Time Machine
Books as information tool and lifestyle are complex. “Displayed books gesture forward and backward to acts of reading and rereading; of purchasing, posing, moving, and unpacking; of passing time and dropping into its folds.” Original source: The Book Is a Time Machine
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Link: The End of Enterprise IT, ING org. structure
“They chose to adopt an organizational structure in which small teams – ING calls them squads – accept end-to-end responsibility for a consumer-focused mission. Squads are expected to make their own decisions based on a shared purpose, the insight of their members, and rapid feedback from their work. Squads are grouped into tribes of perhaps…
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