Mandatory manager training - Sabotage an organization

It's been almost 10 years since I found this gem from the OSS (CIA predecessor). Recently when talking to some colleagues I realized that the sabotage field manual would make for an excellent manager training.

Military LINQ, Time and pointers for kids.

Wow, I was apparently very busy blogging in October 2008. While there are some things that I will not cover below that might be worth reading I wanted to highlight a few things. Both good and embarrassing stuff...

Assigning vs picking tasks

If you have followed this blog for a while you know how important I think the choice of words are. But the difference between assigning and picking tasks within a team might be bigger than than you think.

How to not run an organization - the CIA version

I stumbled over this document dating back to World War 2 where the predecessor to CIA, the Office for Strategic Services issued a field manual on how to sabotage. Especially interesting are the sections on general interference with organizations and production.

What fire and forget really means

From time to time people implement something that they want to use in a fire-and-forget fashion. Typically it is some non-critical service you want to notify. Sadly most people get this wrong since they don't understand what fire-and-forget means and instead fire blindly.

Who writes acceptance criteria?

In the past I've seen two different approaches to user story acceptance criteria writing. My current team introduced a new variant I like. And it is related to how the military works.

The last fire watch

Last week I promised another leadership story so this time it will be from the military.