InfoQ Homepage Social Skills Content on InfoQ
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Spotting and Calling Out Micro-Inequities
Micro inequities, small events based on subtle unintentional biases, are pervasive and can lead to discriminatory behaviour, both negative and positive, argued Coral Movasseli in her session at Women in Tech Dublin 2019. The good news is that behaviour containing micro-inequities is malleable through counter-stereotypic training, intergroup contact, and by taking the perspective of others.
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The Tech Coach Strikes Back: The Value of Mentoring and Mob Programming
Technical coaching is all about helping developers grow by finding ways to increase their technical excellence and to work with softer skills, like the ability to be able to communicate and listen to other developers, argued Tobias Modig at GrowIT 2018. The softer part is closely connected to traditional coaching, but it also comes with a tech twist.
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The Importance of Feedback for Skill Development and Careers
Feedback and continuous learning are crucial for personal and professional development. Non-technical skills like creative problem solving, critical thinking, and an entrepreneurial mindset are important to make progress in your career. You have to own your career direction and know what you ultimately want to be in order to decide on the next steps.
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Lean Organisations for the Digital Age
Lean IT should help to simplify and improve the way we create value for customers and develop better solutions for tomorrow. Organisations of the future will focus on horizontal product or service streams- and everything else, including experts and managers, is there to enable the front-line to do their work right-first-time-on-time, with no hassles.
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Courage to Become Agile
Being brave is about doing what is necessary, even when you are afraid. The single most important thing in agile is to inspect and dare to change things which aren't working. You can start with small experiments to find solutions, and if it turns they do not work, then you can stop them.
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Testing Challenges and Essential Skills for Testers
Complex AI systems with non-deterministic outcomes pose challenges for testers and programmers. Such systems will increasingly become normal in high-impact, high-risk applications, argues Fiona Charles; testers should increase their capacity for thinking and learning and develop a number of personal strengths such as courage and good judgement.
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Trust and Leadership - New Study Reiterates Connection
Being trustworthy is highly associated with leadership success. A recent study by the Ken Blanchard Companies re-iterates this connection, showing how trust of one's leader affects an individual's intentions toward the organization, including performing well, endorsing the company, and staying at the company.
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Cultivating Attention and Awareness in Teams
Technology makes it easier to collaborate, but also distracts us and can have negative consequences on the quality and content of our personal interactions. The mere presence of a cell phone can pull you away from a task and reduce your focus. An interview with Jeffery Hackert on cultivating attention, awareness and empathy when working in teams, and giving and receiving uninterrupted attention.
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Leadership Fit for the 21st Century: Intent-based Leadership
This third post and last in the series on leadership fit for the 21st century covers the keynote given by David Marquet at the evening seminar on leadership fit for the 21st century about intent-based leadership and the leader-leader model.
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Investigation of Project Management Skills
An investigation was done to find out which skills are desired by employers for project management positions and what it takes to be successful as a project manager. An interview about skills for managing projects, likability of bosses and leadership skills, why people feel miserable at work and what can be done to prevent it and the need for project managers when organizations migrate to agile.
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Developments in IT Project Management
The demand for IT project managers is increasing. Agile methodologies support collaboration with distributed teams for creative problem solving. The Internet of Things, cloud, big data, and cyber security will continue to dominate the IT landscape. Project managers have to pioneer IOT initiatives, be prepared for the influx of data and ensure that deliverables from their projects are secure.
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How Testers Can Make Organizations More Successful
Tester should go beyond their testing discipline and go into the organization. By asking questions they can start a movement that increases product quality and helps organizations to become more successful as Mike Sutton explained in his closing keynote at the Agile Testing Day Netherlands 2015 about test beyond quality – beyond software.
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Potential of Social Capital in Organizations
“After 100 years of building organizations and 50 years of HRM, the future of work now lies in mastering the art of engaging and developing social capital of our organizations” says Bart Cambré, Director of Research at Antwerp Management School. At the No Pants Festival 2015 he talked about unleashing the full potential of social capital in organizations.
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Q&A with Dave Gray about Liminal Thinking for Organizational Change
The majority of change initiatives fail because people feel that they do not have any influence in the proposed changes and don’t understand how they affect them or would make things better for them says Dave Gray. Liminal thinking is a change approach that focuses on understanding how people construct and change their beliefs. It provides a skill set to create and use thresholds to effect change.
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Putting People First to Increase Motivation and Performance
Focusing on the motivation of individuals can positively impact performance. An interview with Peter van Oevelen about motivating individuals, influencing the mood of teams, applying radical management, economies of motivation and building effective teams with individuals that have their own ideas, preferences and motivations.