people - Clayton Lengel-Zigich

The FAIL Monster Loves Excuses

Do you remember watching the FAIL Monster on Sesame Street? Never heard of the FAIL Monster? Weird, I’m pretty sure he was Cookie Monster’s cousin or something. He would pop-up and sing a little song about your failures and then at the end he would go crazy and NOM NOM NOM all of your excuses. The really strange thing is that when I grew up, I still saw the FAIL Monster, except he was all over, eating up everyone’s excuses, not just mine. When was the last time the FAIL Monster paid you a visit?

The FAIL Monster Is Your Worst Best Friend

When you first meet him you’re trying to figure out what this asshole is doing hanging out right after you really screwed up. You realize that he’s no good, but as time goes on, you start enjoying his company. He loves showing up because he knows there will be excuses aplenty.

Here are some situations when you might see him:

You’ve messed up and can’t take responsibility
The project is off track and it’s not at all your fault
If only < outside agent > would have completed < task > on time
You start using Fat Bastard’s circular logic to explain away your problems
“I don’t have < resource > to do < what is right >
You don’t write tests

Put the FAIL Monster on a Diet

Here is a quick guide to help you trim down your personal FAIL Monster:

Quit making so many goddamned excuses!

Stop making excuses for your lack of understanding, your irresponsibility, your lack of prospects and your shit attitude. Take the time to push yourself, learn a new skill, read a book, meet people, take a leadership role, achieve greatness and succeed.

You can make excuses for everything, the only thing they’re good for is feeding your own FAILURE.

It’s Really All About the People

Last week at Integrum, as part of our ongoing effort to be the best, we had a retrospective/company-wide expectation meeting. We discussed our current processes, and outlined some new things we wanted to do going forward that would help improve everything we do. Even though we talked a lot about project boards and velocities, when it comes down to it, it’s really all about the people.

How to Earn a Gold Card

When I was in elementary school they had an ongoing school-wide program where students could earn “Gold Cards” and be recognized in the monthly assemblies. To earn a Gold Card, one had to be doing something benefiting others, without being asked. It could be something as simple as going out of your way to pickup some trash.

To be sure, a lot of students went around doing very insignificant, but still beneficial, activities all day in hopes of being seen by a teacher. The real takeaway however was the idea that the best type of deed is done where no one is watching. This is a difficult concept for a 4th grader, but the life lesson is outstanding.

Focus on the People

We talk a lot at Integrum about our process, our engineering principles, our goals, plans and expectations. But for every project board, velocity graph, client stand-up and piece of acceptance criteria, there is an underlying foundation of high quality people working together to achieve a common goal. Finding trustworthy, forgiving, understanding, motivating, helpful, challenging and comforting people to work with removes so many of the problems that these project management tools aim to solve.

When people live their lives being accountable to themselves and those around them, when they strive to do what’s right, even when it’s hard, and when they go above and beyond without the expectation of being praised, they can achieve great things.