Spherical Cow Consulting Uncategorized Category
A World of Only Carrots
Posted on May 14, 2020 Leave a Comment
There are a wealth of books, blogs, webinars, and even inspirational tweets about motivating a team. Most of the ones I’ve read, however, assume a rather traditional model of a manager motivating their employees. This motivation takes on an entirely different character, though, when you are working with volunteers. I’ve been coordinating technical projects entirely […]
Open-source Projects: Potentially the Best Potluck Experience Ever
Posted on May 12, 2020 Leave a Comment
Have you ever been to a neighborhood potluck that overwhelmed you with some of the best food you’d ever had? Where you tried to track down the recipe for the most amazing fried chicken – a food which had defeated all previous attempts in your household to create? Or when you’re planning it, and you […]
When Words Do Not Mean What You Think They Mean
Posted on May 7, 2020 Leave a Comment
I love getting to wear a variety of ‘hats,’ even if it means relearning the English language over and over and over. As someone who occasionally reads a dictionary for fun (yes, I might be a bit strange), I love drilling into the history of words. Connotations! Denotations! Let’s throw in some annotations just for […]
Bias, Meritocracy, and Human Nature
Posted on April 28, 2020 Leave a Comment
The reliance on meritocracy as a guiding principle for the tech industry makes for organizations that will ultimately drive away the diversity and skills that they need to succeed.
WFH – everything I hoped it would be (almost)
Posted on April 14, 2020 1 Comment
Someone asked on a call last week, “Is everyone busier than ever with all this working from home? My response was, “well, yes and no.” This was apparently a surprise because every other tech worker he’d asked had answered with an “absolutely! So many Zoom calls…” Do I have more calls than before? Yes, no […]
Publishing – it’s a character-building experience!
Posted on April 9, 2020 Leave a Comment
As a contractor, I help my clients — often standards development or digital identity groups — with whatever process they need to get to their end goal. Sometimes that means I’m a team facilitator. Other times, I’m a copy editor. Almost always, I’m a project manager. This week, I’m the publisher of a new resource […]
Get Inside Their Heads
Posted on March 30, 2020 Leave a Comment
Last week I put together a presentation on various tools people new to working from home might find useful, and where to find more detail on how to use those tools well. The audience I had in mind for that post were the wonderful women I went to college with, particularly the ones who were […]
Remote Project Management 101
Posted on March 23, 2020 Leave a Comment
The world has entered a new and unusual time. People are experiencing ways of working that are, sometimes, entirely outside their experience. I’ve been fortunate in that my work for the last ten years has been predicated on being remote and coordinating with a variety of people who may or may not themselves be remote […]
Surviving Business Travel
Posted on August 21, 2019 2 Comments
“With age, comes wisdom. With travel, comes understanding.” Sandra Lake With travel comes the understanding of so many things: The world is small (but time zones are many). The human body was never intended to sit in a metal canister with dozens of close strangers for hours on end. It’s ok to latch on to […]
Making a Difference (and Building a Network)
“If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.” Kofi Annan When I try to explain to friends and relatives who ask, given my travel schedule and the strange interactions I have with technology and people, what […]