The IT Blog

Category: Work Culture

  • What Mountaineering and Teams have in Common

    In business, it’s trust. Aki Kärkkäinen’s piece “From Rope Teams to Remote Teams” asks the real question: would you trust your team enough to share a rope?

    I really liked this paragraph: “I’m reminded of the pandemic when social distancing was introduced—an unfortunate term, because what was meant was actually physical distancing. Most companies obsess over physical proximity when the real challenge is connection distance.”

    And further on, Aki also draws the line to AI tooling. Give it a read!

    (Well okay, and I liked the parallels of teamwork and hiking ;-))

    Oh and I just noticed that Aki is on Mastodon as well: @akikoo@mastodon.social!

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  • Rebel Talent – A Book About Smart Nonconformity

    We often think of rebels as rule-breakers. But Rebel Talent by Francesca Gino makes a different argument: the most effective rebels don’t break rules — they challenge conventions. They don’t seek chaos, but creativity. They don’t follow blindly — they question, explore, and rethink. That’s the kind of rebellion this book is about.

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  • Buchempfehlung: Die Logik des Mißlingens

    Eine Kollegin hat mir neulich ein Buch empfohlen: “Die Logik des Mißlingens, Strategisches Denken in komplexen Situationen” von Dietrich Dörner. Klang ja wie eine Anleitung für Projektleitung. Kurz darauf lag also eine leicht vergilbte second-hand Ausgabe davon auf meinem Tisch.

    “Die Logik des Mißlingens” ist kein neues Buch – es ist von 1989, aber ein Thema, das zeitlos bleibt. Weil menschliches Verhalten zeitlos fehlbar ist und – wie ich glaube – sich die generelle Denkweise in nur 30 Jahren vermutlich kaum geändert hat.

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  • Podcast: Warum Arbeit häufig Zeitverschwendung ist

    Gerade von Kollegen empfohlen bekommen: eine Podcast Folge über Arbeit und Meetings. – Wird irgendwie nie alt.

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  • “Ask for forgiveness, not permission” – The Real Cost of Moving Too Fast

    In Germany, there’s a saying: “Besser um Vergebung bitten als um Erlaubnis fragen” (“Better to ask for forgiveness than permission”) or “Gleich mal Fakten schaffen” (“Make decisions fast and set facts”). These phrases often glorify quick action, suggesting that speed leads to progress and success.

    Well, I can tell you right now — I really hate that mindset. It may look like a shortcut to success, but in reality, it often creates a mess that no one talks about. The consequences are rarely considered in the rush for fast decisions, and I’ve seen more harm than good come from it. What starts as quick success ends up piling up technical debt, inefficiencies, and unseen costs that will have to be dealt with – sooner or later. And like financial debt, technical debt piles up quietly, and the longer you delay paying it back, the more difficult it can get.

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  • Commander, Leader, Manager – What’s your Style?

    To be honest, I have never really given much thought to defining leadership styles. Over the years, I’ve seen a number of styles that I liked, disliked, admired, and some that I loathed.

    Recently, I worked on a project with a person whose approach felt very different from what I was used to. It really stood out and got me thinking about the different leadership styles I’ve seen over the years.

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  • The NPS Is Dead – How we killed it with Incentives

    I suppose most people in IT have encountered the Net Promoter Score (NPS) in some form. If you’re unfamiliar with it, just check out the Wikipedia article.

    In brief, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction. It’s calculated by asking customers how likely they are to recommend a product or service on a scale from 0 to 10. The score is then derived by subtracting the percentage of detractors (those who score 0-6) from the percentage of promoters (those who score 9-10).

    It sounds good, and for a time, it served its original purpose well!

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  • Toxic Positivity and Whitewashing in Tech

    What I’ve been noticing and disliking more and more lately:

    All the whitewashing and toxic positivity!

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  • Love it, Change it or Leave it

    The picture shows a CleanUpBag from LOWA GmbH that I once won in a promo from LOWA including the litter that I found (and collected) on a mountain hike. The reactions on social media were either “thank you” or anger at the people who leave the litter on the trails.

    And I can understand those who feel anger! I used to feel the same way!

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  • Audio and Video Quality in Online Meetings DOES matter

    We’ve all been there – endless online meetings, squinting at grainy screens, wondering if our colleagues are even awake. Seriously, how many online meeting does it take to realize that audio and video quality matter more than we want to admit?

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