J.D. Meier's Blog
Agile Results, Digital Business Transformation, and Program Management
Use the System to Educate
Hitting a wall? Sometimes pushing an idea from the inside-out, doesn't work. Sometimes...
Author: JD Meier Date: 02/02/2008
The Zen of Results
Are you ahead of the game, or falling behind? Are you getting the results you want? As a follow on...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/30/2008
Don't Tell ... Ask
If you coach others or you need to encourage change or if you need to change yourself, the key is to...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/28/2008
Monthly Results
It’s mid-year at Microsoft. In the past it would take me a bit of work to figure out what I had...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/21/2008
Success Strategies
As part of my improvement sprint focused on leadership, I'm making my way through The First 90 Days,...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/17/2008
Performance Techniques, Building Codes, and Approach
When you improve the performance of a system, I find it's helpful to think in terms of the...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/14/2008
Security Techniques, Building Codes, and Approach
When you're improving the security of a system, I find it's helpful to think in terms of the...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/14/2008
The Zen of Zero Mail
You too can have a zero mail inbox, if you choose to. I chose to go zero mail in my inbox when...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/14/2008
Focus and Energy
A colleague drew a chart on my board today. I'll summarize like this: Procrastinators - Low energy...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/09/2008
Using Guidance Explorer from Outlook
It looks like Alik Levin has some helpful posts on using Guidance Explorer from Outlook: Customize...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/08/2008
The Placebo Effect Revisited
Just how much does your mind determine your body? In the NPR article, Hotel Maids Challenge the...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/07/2008
Improving Your Feed Reading
I like to sweep my practices at the start of the year. My feed reading practices needed a revamp to...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/07/2008
7 Types of Blog Posts
What types of posts get traction? In a nutshell, posts that either hit the heart, lead you to...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/06/2008
Leadership Styles and Development Levels
One leadership style doesn't fit all. According to the Situational Leadership II model, the...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/03/2008
Guidance Share Sweep
One of the most important things I did while I was on vacation was sweeping Guidance Share. Guidance...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/02/2008
Solution-Focused Questions
How can you use questions to improve individual performance? You can ask solution-focused questions....
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/02/2008
Pruning or Preserving a Synapse
How can you keep your brown from throwing out a perfectly good behavior? Positive feedback. David...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/02/2008
Two Reasons Why People Resist Change
Why do people resist change, even when it's for their own good? Your own body can work against you....
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/02/2008
Moments of Insight
Note: This article is updated at How Generating Insight Changes Your World. Where does the world's...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/02/2008
Expectation Shapes Reality
How much do your expectations shape what you get? A lot. David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz write about...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/02/2008
Focus Changes Your Brain
You might have heard the expression, "you get what you focus on." But, have you heard that what you...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/02/2008
Leading and Influencing Mindful Change
Why do many leadership efforts and organizational change initiatives fail? Are there any new...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/02/2008
Working Memory vs. Routine Activity
Have you ever wondered why some things you can do on "auto-pilot" or without thinking, while other...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/01/2008
Reward Yourself in the Moment
Happy New Year! It's a new year and many of you will be setting new goals for yourself as part of...
Author: JD Meier Date: 01/01/2008
Kano, Satisfiers, and Dissatisfiers
If you're looking for yet another way to help you prioritize your backlog or to help you shape your...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/31/2007
Rituals for Results
Routines help build efficiency and effectiveness. Consistent action over time is the key to real...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/26/2007
Forcing Functions
Do you have a favorite set of forcing functions? In patterns & practices, one of our forcing...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/26/2007
Kaizen
Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement. A little Kaizen goes a long way over time....
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/24/2007
Building Books in patterns and practices
Book building is art and science. I've built a few books over the years at patterns & practices....
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/24/2007
CodePlex, GE, and MSDN
One of the questions I get is how we build and publish our guides and what's the relationship of...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/20/2007
SDL for Apps and Verticals
What's one path the SDL (Security Development Life Cycle) can take to amplify impact? From my...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/20/2007
Getting Started with Threat Modeling
Threat Modeling is a way to identify potential security issues to help you shape your application's...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/19/2007
Video: Proven Practices for Security Engineering
This is an oldie but a goodie. Alex (from our original team) walks through our patterns &...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/19/2007
Three keys of a business case
If you have to compete for resources or budget or sell an idea, one of the keys is a business case....
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/19/2007
The Five P's
How do you design an org? While there's lots of approaches, one of my mentors shared the 5 Ps...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/19/2007
Framing Results
It's one thing to get results. It's another to articulate them. Having a way to frame results can...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/19/2007
Iterate More, Plan Less
I'm always on the prowl for useful insights. Alik sent me a link to Dustin Andrew's post, Learn to...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/17/2007
How To Use Guidance Explorer to do a Security Code Inspection
One of the key experiences you get with Guidance Explorer (GE) is support for manual security...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/13/2007
New Release: Guidance Explorer is Now on MSDN
This is a significant release for Guidance Explorer (GE). Our online "guidance store" is now hosted...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/12/2007
Outlook Reminder for Leadership Practices
I created a recurring appointment in Outlook for Fridays. It's a checklist of key leadership...
Author: JD Meier Date: 12/04/2007
Now on Amazon: Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications
Our patterns & practices Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications book is now available...
Author: JD Meier Date: 11/30/2007
Now on Amazon: Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
Our patterns & practices Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server book is now...
Author: JD Meier Date: 11/30/2007
Videos: Security, Performance Testing, and Visual Studio Team System
We posted our ASP.NET 2.0 security videos, performance testing videos, and Visual Studio Team System...
Author: JD Meier Date: 11/22/2007
TFS Guide: A Top Download on CodePlex
It was a nice surprise to see that yesterday our patterns & practices Visual Studio Team...
Author: JD Meier Date: 11/21/2007
Pattern-based Leadership vs. Fact-Based Management
I found an interesting article about contextual decision making. "A Leader's Framework for Decision...
Author: JD Meier Date: 11/18/2007
Harvard Business Review and The Economist
I'm always on the prowl for sources of profound insight. At my leadership workshop last week, I...
Author: JD Meier Date: 11/18/2007
Patterns vs. Tooling
I'm a fan of patterns. I think of patterns simply as problem and solution pairs. I wandered by The...
Author: JD Meier Date: 11/12/2007