Tag: a1

It was parent’s night tonight. Glen Rock is an excellent school district. There is a lot of attention being made to make sure we have good teachers and that kids perform well in school. 

I am happy that my son attends the school.

Being a bilungual, I feel he might be at a disadvantage, but that should go away pretty soon. It’s not a joke anymore.

I like how I’m getting the urge to learn back. I used to be a very agressive learner. I woke up at 5am and studied till 7. I lost that a little. I wake up at 5:15 and hardly get 25 minutes of study. I am trying to change that. I need to be doing 2 pomos in the morning. 

I am also trying to get a pomo at night. That seems to be going well. I try to get it before I go to sleep. As long as I’m not tired, I think I’m good.

We had a very productive retrospective today. I had a few “we need to do this better” pointers for my team members. But we’re open like that. We encourage each other. And that’s what makes our team special. That’s what makes our team different. I never want to let go of that culture. Culture of getting things done, improving, making mistakes, feeling good about ourselves, learning from each other. And most of all: feeling challenged! We all want that

Do we have a good team? A1 I mean.

To answer that, I’m going to ask another question. Are we getting things done? And the overwhelming answer is YES. I am not quick to say that A1 is the best, but I’ve heard it a few times.

So how do we keep going strong? How do I challenge them? How do they feel challenged? I think we’re making changes as we go. We’re adjusting.

It’s good to have guys that want to learn. It’s good to have hungry guys. We have that on our team. We have that fire burning! Let it burn, baby!

It’s not going to be all rosy. I know that. It never is. Things happen. Shit happens. But when we’re open like that, when we’re able to tackle problems head on, we’re better able to handle the storm. I’m sure about that.

I need to be more decisive and don’t second guess myself as much. I’ve been through this before, where I can’t make up a decision in fear that somebody might not like it. But when that happens, we’re in the state of indecision. I think it’s much better that a decision is made soon, even if that means that somebody will not like it. Can’t please everybody. When you try to please everybody, you please nobody.

Learning in the A1 team is going really well. I’m enjoying it. 

At the end of our learning session, I should summarize what I like and don’t like about the presentations. I should use a sandwich approach. I think I’m going to try that next time.

I learning a lot yesterday.

A1 team is off to a good start. We’ve received a lot of praise yesterday. People have been very happy with what we delivered. I loved our performance as well. Now the hard part is continuing it. I believe we can do a good job easily. We can kick ass again. But this time, it’s more out of our control, as we’re dependent on ‘outside’ things.

I also learned that it feels good to praise people in front of others. I want to be doing more of it. I know it feels great to be praised by others. I know that feeling. But there is one key: it has to legitimate, sincere, and concrete. Missing one of these makes it much less effective.

I want my leadership style to be simple. I want people to know that I expect the best. I want people to know that I give them autonomy. I want people to know that I appreciate good effort. Try until you fail, then try again.

A1 is out team name. It means first class, expressing excellence.

That’s what we want to stand for and I’m glad that my teammates liked that name.

We’re in for the ride. I have to remind myself to take it easy on them. But I do want to tell them my expectations. I do want to push them. 

What do we want to stand for as A1-ers?

Q

L

G

Quality – TDD, Code Reviews, Clean Code

Learning – innovating, side projects, team learning, sharing

GTD – getting things done