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Posts by Marcus Blankenship

”Nah” – Rosa Parks

I shuffle when I walk, which means I kinda drag my feet on the ground. This results in ’scuffing’ along, as my father put it. You can think of this shuffling as a system that’s balanced when my action (shuffling feet) is met with a particular reaction (dirt or gravel which give way) in a…

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You can borrow my teaching style

If the thought of leading in-house training sounds like as much fun as a root canal, this email’s for you. Especially training with a name like “Engineering Leadership Training,” right? Let me offer a super-simple idea for a zero-level training you could start today. Here’s how it might work: Setup (30m) Choose a book on…

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Let’s play “name that bias”

My sister has twin 4-year old kids, a boy, and a girl. Both have autism and are on different points of the ASD spectrum. I was having lunch with them on Sunday, for Fathers Day, and I noticed something interesting. Our waitress happened to mention that her two-year-old son doesn’t like loud noise. My sister…

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Push training vs. Pull training

In the 1980s there were some studies about what motivates programmers, based on Job Characteristics Theory. You probably aren’t surprised to learn that a key motivating factor is “growth.” This is more than just career growth – it’s improving tech skills, communication skills, leadership and management skills, and even understanding ourselves better. You might even…

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Mental Model Machinations

Over the past two weeks, two ideas have been bouncing around in my brain. They have now smashed into each other, producing a couple of emails. Today’s email is about the first idea, which is from fourth-wave systems thinking. It’s the idea of “mental models,” which we all use, all the time. Here’s the idea:…

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Some beliefs about your training programs

I’m working on this engineering management training program, which I’m tentatively calling Origin Point. After all, everything needs a name, amiright? The origin point is the center of the cartesian plane.  It also sounds like the beginning of the journey. I kinda like both those ideas. Last night I wrote a draft of the “beliefs”…

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It works, but you’re gonna look silly doing it

Friday I sent you a fun puzzle to consider. It was an encoded message that began: Toothy purse in respond civil force ending theme honey:   Some of you replied with the correct answer: To the person responsible for sending the money:   Not sure how to solve it? Iain wrote to me about his…

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Can you help me decipher this riddle?

A bit of #FridayFun for you, taking a break from the seriousness of life. My friend Nathanial sent me this today and challenged me to translate this text into comprehensible English. Would you give me a hand? Toothy purse in respond civil force ending theme honey: Eye wand Ed two purr son a leery late…

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Flipping training on its head

We’re continuing our discussion about how you can develop new engineering managers: the elements of your training program. (Part one: Everyone talks about it, but no one does it.) (Part two: Becoming a true believer.) There’s one topic which always comes up first when thinking of management training programs. “What should they learn?” This makes…

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The true religion of developing leaders

(Part 1: Everyone’s talking about it,  but no one’s doing it.) Most executives with feel in-house training for new Tech Leads and Engineering Managers is a great idea. But most aren’t doing it. Why? Today I’ll address six common reasons I hear, and the underlying beliefs which deserve refactoring. Six belief hurdles to training programs…

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Everyone’s talking about it, but no one’s doing it.

For the past five years, I’ve been helping engineering managers become better leaders, one at a time. Thus far, I’ve adopted mostly a B2C approach: I sell leadership development products and services to managers who want to improve their own work. But lately, I’ve been asking Directors, VP’s of Engineering, and CTO’s how their company…

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A tool for adjusting your mental models

One of the core ideas from the field of systems thinking is mind-bending in an Inception kind of way. It asserts that we see reality indirectly through our mental models. We don’t see reality – we perceive reality through our mental models. For example, take what I’m doing right now. I’m sitting in a chair…

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“Dad, telephones dial with sound!”

Growing up in the 1970s, I developed a mental model of how push-button telephones worked. My mental model went like this: When you lifted the receiver, you heard a dial tone. That told you that you could dial. When you pressed a number on the keypad, you heard a tone. That told you a number…

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