Heuristics for Working Today

Whatever our workplace constraints, we have agency over our own actions and the choices we make impact us, those around us, and the work we do together. We'd prefer to make good choices, naturally, but good for who, when, why?

In a short talk that I gave to one of my teams this week, I pulled out nine heuristics for working that have served me well over the years. Heuristics are rules of thumb: things that generally give the right kinds of result but are fallible, a good default but not a guarantee.

The talk covered three core areas:

being clear to yourself and others
navigating relationships
doing the work effectively

and here's the slides:

You'll notice that there are no credits in the slides themselves. Instead I linked to blog posts where I've pointed to the sources and commented on the interpretation I've taken, or the use I've made, or the value I've extracted.

That's important, because these are my heuristics that work for me. That's not to say I don't think they could work for others because I absolutely do. I want to share the problems I see and the solutions I find for them and I want others to interpret them and use them and extract some value from their version of them.

This is one of the joys of pairing for me. I am happy and keen to share how I work because I believe it can help others but I also want to see how others work. These are my heuristics today but who knows how much better they could be tomorrow because of what I learn from you?

So, what are your heuristics for working?
Image: https://flic.kr/p/EEjxv

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