Richard Lawrence

15 years of experimenting, writing, and teaching on user story splitting, consolidated and updated in one comprehensive guide: humanizingwork.com/the-humanizing…

@simonsarris That's a lot of what seems to have stuck from homeschooling our 3 sons, plus: - Love of learning & a sense of how to learn anything - Awareness how various subjects relate to each other vs knowledge in silos - Comfort & fluency talking with a wide range of people, not just peers

the things I'm most interested in teaching my children via home schooling are things that are mostly absent from school anyway - persuasion, business, art (beyond surface level), composition, pursuit of virtue, proper judgement

My favorite Humanizing Work Show episode we've done in a long time came out today: humanizingwork.com/deepening-your…

In a special rebroadcast of 1 of our most popular & insightful episodes, Mark Ethier, founder & former CEO of audio tech leader iZotope, shares how he turned love for music & tech into a company known for creativity, empowerment, & purpose. buff.ly/M4xtMfl?utm_so…

Most #ProductOwner advice is for market-facing roles—guiding visionary products, delivering to paying customers. But what if your work is internal? This week, we unpack the unique role of internal POs + 3 three categories of practices they need to master. buff.ly/eMzxMTE

The @HumanizingWork team is doing research to learn more about how empowerment & delegation play out in the real world. If you have a manager and/or direct reports, please share your experience: tally.so/r/wQvp7A

Next week, I'm offering two sessions on lessons for coaches that I've learned from years of helping other people get good at story splitting. We tried to choose times that work for many time zones outside the US.

Really enjoyed this conversation, and I'm excited to share it.

How do leadership & regenerative farming intersect? Whether you're into wine, regenerative farming, or leadership, check out our inspiring conversation w/Steven Thompson of Analemma Wines for insights into sustainability, values-driven work, & org growth. buff.ly/4iOnxR5

We got great feedback from participants in my "Story Splitting for Coaches" workshop, but our friends outside the Americas struggled with the timing. So, we're offering early and late options next month to reach other time zones.

Year-end retrospectives often suffer from recency and peak-end biases, turning into shallow reviews or Q4 gripe sessions. In this episode, we share a structured approach to help teams and orgs conduct sessions that drive real improvement. buff.ly/4g7864E

This week, we dissect a real 50-person marketing team retrospective, from initial planning to execution and lessons learned. Check it out if you're looking to level up your meeting #facilitation skills or manage large-scale remote #collaboration. buff.ly/4eXN1cv

@simonsarris My son noticed he & his friends never brought wine to parties & dinners but they'd enjoy drinking it if it was there, so he asked me to write a simple guide to make it less intimidating to find a good, fairly affordable bottle. brennanlawrence.info/2023/08/how-to…

We started enjoying wine more when we stopped looking for "cheap" wine. Set the absolute floor at $20 and just try stuff. When Simi is not pregnant we open 1-2 bottles a month of something that we think might be really special.

Tune in this week for the surprising lessons a professional jazz quintet can teach us about business cultures & teams. This edited rebroadcast focuses on discussions around the music, but Jazz fans can click the link in show notes for the original episode! buff.ly/405g8WP

Ever find yourself in situations where you need to give useful answers to unexpected questions on the spot? It's a key skill for coaches, leaders, or anyone who wants to maximize their impact. Join me tomorrow to learn more: humanizingwork.com/events/articul…

@thesamparr I've had similar experiences with feedback, on both sides. On my team, we've adopted a feedback process that has totally changed the experience. I actually look forward to giving and receiving feedback on creative work-in-progress now. humanizingwork.com/getting-feedba…

Something I've noticed: You get done doing something creative at work. Writing copy, designing something, whatever. Then you show it to coworkers for feedback. 80% of the feedback is nitpicky, unimportant stuff that just takes too much time to fix or kills the creative, unique stuff that make the thing cool. I try my hardest to do a few things: 1. If I'm the creator, I purposely leave in a mistake or obvious part of the work. This way they have an easy thing to critique and I can do it and they feel heard. 2. Often I ignore most the feedback tbh. I listen to some people, but only if they have a history of being right, are highly skilled, or smarter than me on the topic. I used to listen to everyone then the output was this group think bullshit. 3. When I'm the giving feedback: if something major needs to be changed, I say it. If its minor, I say "i would do this, but up to you" or I don't even say anything. I want people to have room to explore. 4. I make it clear who the decision maker is and let the creator know who's in charge. If them, I try to say "my opinion is X, but you're the boss". 5. If I'm giving feedback and its major, I try to be blunt on the work, but kind to the person. Feel me!?

Are you confident your team is spending their time on the most important, high-impact work? Learn how to focus your team on maximizing the flow of value every sprint. Join our CSPO on Aug 6-8. Early bird reg ends tomorrow. Register now! buff.ly/3W0mEKC

And if you already have some of our online courses, email us at info@humanizingwork.com to get a special price to upgrade to the full bundle.

Summer is a great time for self-guided learning projects, so @HumanizingWork is running a special through Wed: a heavily-discounted bundle of all our online courses or $200 towards online courses when you register for a live course. humanizingwork.com/summer-school-…

By moving away from the "estimate + demand" pattern and towards collaborative problem-solving, you'll create better outcomes for your team, your projects, and your organization. Want to dive deeper? Join me for a workshop in Aug: humanizingwork.com/events/cspo-au… 10/10

Remember: The goal isn't to cram more work into less time. It's about finding the most valuable work that fits the constraints. This approach leads to: ✅ Realistic expectations ✅ Better team morale ✅ Higher quality work ✅ Sustainable pace 9/10

The "estimate + demand" pattern is a class action movie trope. In the movies, it saves the day. In project management, it's a recipe for disaster. Here's why it's a problem and what to do instead: 🧵 1/10